of no value whatever which had been ordered to be destroyed; but he must say that the persons, to whose care the examination was entrusted, were either guilty of great negligence, or they were incompetent to the task. He had learned that there was a great mass of papers in the hands of the auctioneers of London for the purpose of being sold. It was only the day before yesterday that he was at the British Museum, when he learnt that a portion of papers had been offered for sale there, which had fallen into the hands of a bookseller. He had no doubt that the Museum would purchase the whole of what had been offered; but he must say, he thought it a little hard that the public should have to purchase their own records in this fashion. One of the first papers which he examined was a letter addressed by the Secretary of State of Leo the Tenth to Cardinal Wolsey, which accompanied the cap and sword which it was customary for the Popes to transmit, from time to time, to the favoured princes of Christendom. The next subject, which was on several sheets of paper, contained a list and description of jewels bought for Queen Elizabeth. He also heard of another paper, which he did not see, which was an account of the expenses of Charles the First during his imprisonment.* He thought that such documents were valu able materials for history, and he was of opinion that they ought not to be sold or destroyed."

We shall here append a notice of several documents which have come, through these means, into the hands of an anti. quarian friend of our own:

The Charges of Sir John Puckeringe, Knt. Serjeant at Law, for his journeying and painstaking in the arraignment, indictment, and execution of Mary Queen of Scots signed by Lord Burghley.

The Expenses of Sir Benj. Gonson, one of the Captains employed against the Spanish Armada in 1588. (Not "mutilated," but complete.)

A return of the number of persons touched for the Evil during a certain period by Charles the First; attested by the Bishops of London and Oxford.-This is evidently a portion of the series of the documents stated by Mr. Bulley to have been carefully reserved.

The Household Expenses (defrayed by the Treasury) of Nell Gwyn.

A Letter of Bishop Juxon; and Receipts signed by John Duke of Marlborough, his Duchess Sarah, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, Flamstead, Dryden, Bishop Burnet, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Grinlin Gibbons, Sir James Thornhill, &c. &c. for money lent to the Government at 8 per cent.

We may also mention that the same friend has some specimens of fines and other legal records which escaped a few years since in a similar or still more disreputable manner from the public archives. Mr. Waller purchased a whole attic-chamber full of them from the house of a sizemaker. Among them occurred an original grant of lands from Henry VIII. to Winchester College. Part of these documents were seized from Mr. Waller (with some apparent injustice) by authority of the late Record Commission. About thirty others were purchased from another dealer at 18. a piece. Surely all these matters call aloud for due investigation; and we are happy to find that during a recent debate in the House of Commons (on the 24th March), both Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell concurred in this view of the matter. The former observed, "that with respect to what had been stated of the destruction of the records, he thought it would be desirable that some inquiry should be instituted on the subject. There was an impression abroad that a destruction of valuable records had taken place, and he was of opinion that it would be advisable to refer the question to a Select Committee, to ascertain under what authority the destruction had taken place, and what was the nature of the records that had been destroyed. He thought it ought to be known why records of value should have been destroyed, and why they had not been placed in the safe keeping of the British Museum, or of some other public institution."

Lord J. Russell said, "it might be inferred, from what had been stated, that the Record Commission, not now in existence, were answerable for the records which it was supposed had been destroyed. When that Commission to which he had alluded had expired, at the demise of the Crown, he (Lord J. Russell) did not think necessary to re-appoint the Commission, and since that period there had been no Commission existing. The House had, however, agreed that there should be a

The

Keeper and a Deputy Keeper. present Keeper of the Records was the Master of the Rolls, and he had appointed as Deputy Keeper, with the consent of the Secretary of State, Sir Francis Palgrave; and no one would deny that those persons were perfectly competent to the performance of the duties assigned to them. As to what had been said about the destruction of the records, he did not believe that those records were in the keeping of the Master of the Rolls, or of Sir Francis Palgrave; but he agreed with Sir R. Peel that there should be an inquiry. It ought to be ascertained why any records had been destroyed, and, if

historical records, why they should not have been placed in the British Museum, or in some other public establishment, where there would have been no risk."

Knowing so much as we do of the administration of former Record Commissions, we can scarcely with a calm conscience ask Lord John Russell for another but this we ask, that the authority and the means of the British Museum should be increased, in order that labourers for the public instruction may have their inquiries facilitated, who, as Lord Aberdeen justly remarked, "sit down to such a task with as much appetite and delight as others do to a feast."

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

Feb. 27. Henry Hallam, esq. Vice-President in the chair. Theodore Hook, esq. was elected a Fellow of the Society.

Dr. Mantell, F.R.S. exhibited two armillæ of bronze, a small gold ring in the form of a torques, and a flint celt, found at Hollington castle, near Brighton; also a very small bronze statue of a Cupid, with a quiver slung behind him, but no wings, two other flint celts, and various other antiquities found at several places in the neighbourhood of Brighton and Lewes.

J. O. Halliwell, esq. F.R.S. and F.S.A. communicated some remarks on the history of the reign of King Edward the Fourth; accompanied by several documents hitherto unpublished; the first of these is a brief Sermon on King Edward's accession; next, some propbetical rhymes regarding the same; the remainder were deferred to another meeting.

The names of Mr. Barnwell, Mr. Decimus Burton, Earl de Grey, and Sir R. Westmacott were announced as Auditors of the Society's accounts for the present

year.

March 5. Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P. The Rev. W. H. Neale, M.A. of Gosport, author of the Mohammedan System of Theology, &c. was elected a Fellow.

The reading of the documents appended to Mr. Halliwell's communication was concluded. They consisted of the follow. ing articles: Two letters of Richard Duke of York and Richard Earl of Warwick to Elizabeth Wydvile (afterwards Queen) recommending to her favour, as a suitor, Sir Hugh John, Knight Marshal of England; these remarkable documents are undated, but they were of course written in the reign of Henry the Sixth, before the lady's first marriage with Sir John Grey,

and when she was, probably, unknown to the Duke of York's son, her future lord and master. Mr. Halliwell also added the Proclamation of Edward the Fourth to the people of Yorkshire in 1469: the acts of attainder of Richard Welles, Robert Welles, and Thomas de la Laund; and of John Earl of Oxford, George Vere, and Thomas Vere; and some contemporary historical notes from an Arundel MS.

John Bruce, esq. F.S.A. communicated two Letters illustrative of the Gunpowder Plot, from the Cottonian collection, where they have hitherto laid concealed between some letters thirty years earlier in date. They are both addressed to the chief conspirator Catesby, and bear marks of having been kept some time in dirty pockets. The first is from Thomas Winter, and dated the 12th of October (no doubt 1605). It is written from the country, in a dark mysterious manner, but tells little except the movements of some of the conspirators. The other letter is more important: it came from Lord Mounteagle, and adds very materially to the presumptive evidence before acquired that that personage possessed a guilty knowledge of the plot. It is written from Bath, and addressed to Catesby in the most flattering terms, inviting him to join the company then "at the Bath," with the writer, "who accompte thy person the only sone that must ripene owre harvest :" and it is signed "Fast tyed to your frendshipp, W. MOWNTEAGLE." It is ascertained that Catesby went to Bath-in consequence of this invitation about Michaelmas 1605; and that Percy met him there. Percy and Catesby were both killed at Holbeach; Lord Mounteagle was thus saved from their recrimination; but there remain in evidence against him the

evident erasure and suppression of his name in several records regarding the conspiracy, and also the amount of the pen. sions (5007. and 2007. fee-farm rent) for the nominal service of merely surrendering the well-known letter to which its discovery was attributed.

March 12. H. Gurney, esq. V.P. James Whatman, jun. esq. F.R.S. of Orchard-st. Portman square, and Richard Hussey, esq. of Birmingham, architect, were elected Fellows of the Society.

The Rev. Henry Christmas, F.S.A. exhibited two miniatures of Oliver Crom

well and Hampden, which formerly belonged to Marmaduke Trattle, esq.

Mr. Godwin's remarks on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Normandy were concluded. The present portion related to the churches at Caen and Haute Allemagne.

A description by Mr. Herbert Smith of the paintings remaining in the Galilee of Durham Cathedral was then read, in illustration of some beautifully accurate drawings made by him for the Society. They are apparently coeval with those lately discovered at Barfreston in Kent, and recently exhibited in the Society's room; and are supposed to be nearly coeval with the architecture of the Galilee. The most remarkable portions are whole - length figures of a king and a bishop, supposed to represent Henry II. and Hugh Pudsey. The altars at which these paintings remain are known to have been dedicated to Our Lady of Pity and to St. Bede, and in the account which is preserved of the state of the church of Durham previous to the Reformation, particular mention is made of the painting over the former, representing the Virgin in that particular character (weeping over the body of Christ), of which some relics are found.

March 19. Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P. The Rt. Hon. Lord Crewe and Thomas Stephen Davies, esq. Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, Profesor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and author of the History of Magnetical Discovery, were elected Fellows of the Society.

W. H. Rosser, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a rubbing of the sepulchral stone (engraved in the manner usual with brasses) of John Curwen, Esq. (the name spelled cherowin) Constable of Porchester castle, who died Oct. 31, 1441. He is in the armour of the time, within a canopy, which is richly ornamented with figures of saints. Above each shoulder is a shield of his arms : 1 and 4. Fretty, and a chief; 2 and 3. Barry, three cocks. On an inescocheon, On a fess three (martlets?) The arms of Curwen of Workington are Argent, fretty gules and a chief azure. The whole GENT. MAG. VOL. XIII.

stone is eight feet long, by three and a half broad.

J. O. Halliwell, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a MS. English calendar in vellum, in the form of a pocket-book, containing a specimen of the instrument called the volvelle, formed of perforated pieces, revolving on a thread, and showing the phases of the moon, &c. It is mentioned by Chaucer in his treatise on the astrolabe.

A dissertation on the provinces and towns of Ancient Normandy, by Thomas Stapleton, esq. was then read; being a portion of his Observations on the Rolls of the Norman Exchequer in the reign of Henry II. which he is now editing for the Society.

March 26. H. Hallam, esq. V.P.

Lea Wilson, esq. and Lord Albert Conyngham were elected Fellows of the Society.

John Britton, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a plaster model and various prints of Barfreston church, Kent.

A mask was exhibited, supposed to be Egyptian. It is composed of turquoise stones in mosaic work, the eyes of motherof-pearl, and the teeth of ivory. It is probably from India, and not ancient.

Mr. Halliwell communicated a paper on the contents of the Speculum Christiani, which he characterised as one of the most sensible and least violent of the Lollard writings. After briefly describing its principal parts, he remarked that there was no sufficient ground to ascribe its authorship, as Tanner and Wharton have done, to John Whatton; but that Casley has with greater probability assigned it to John Morys, a Welchman. Mr. Halliwell concluded with a descriptive enumeration of the various MSS. of this work which he has found in several public libraries.

FRENCH ANTIQUARIAN INTELLIGENCE.

PARIS. The municipal council of Paris has at length authorized M. Albert Lenoir to form a museum of Christian and Mediæval antiquities in the Palais des Thermes, the only part now standing of what was once the palace of the Emperor Julian. This eminent architect and antiquary has already procured several interesting remains for it: such as the series of capitals of St. Germain-des-Prés, from which the capitals now existing in that church were copied as fac-similes, when it was restored under Charles X.; a similar series from St. Germain-l'Auxerrois; and a third from the abbatial church of St. Geneviève, destroyed at the revolution. Several precious fragments of various ecclesiastical buildings, specially from the abbey of St. Germain-des3 H

Prés, which had long been lying in a garden attached to the abbey of St. Denis, have also been received here.-It is not yet known at what period of the present year M. Albert Lenoir and M. Didron, the two Professors of Christian Archæology, will resume their course of lectures; but the antiquarian public are anxiously expect. ing them.-The Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments has decided on pub. lishing a monthly bulletin of its transactions, with an analysis of the principal communications received by it: the first number appears this month. M. Brière, a young and zealous archaeologist, has been authorized by the Minister of Public Instruction to open a third course of public and gratuitous lectures upon the various religions of the ancient world, and upon Egyptian hieroglyphics.-The ancient church of St. Julien-le-pauvre, of the early part of the 13th century, and one of the most interesting ecclesiastical remains of Paris, has been ordered to be demolished by the Council General of Hospitals, because its place is wanted in some alterations now in progress at the great hospital of the Hotel Dieu, of which establishment it has long been the chapel. This act of Vandalism is likely to be frustrated through the energetic interference of the Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments, who have applied to the Ministers of Public Instruction and the Interior on the subject, and have also made a strong remonstrance to the Prefect of the Seine.

NIEVRE.-The Bishop of Nevers has just formed a museum of Christian and Medieval antiquities in the ecclesiastical seminary of that town, and has founded a Professorship of Christian archæology, to the lectures upon which the public, as well as the students of the seminary, will be admitted gratuitously. Similar lectureships have been established at Troyes and Beauvais by the enlightened prelates of those dioceses.

SEINE INFERIEURE.-The Tour Bigot at Rouen, one of the most venerable remains of that city, and in which, according to tradition, Joan of Arc was confined, is in danger of demolition by the cupidity of a proprietor, who wishes to apply the stones to building purposes! The ancient church of St. Nicolas-le-peintre in the same city, which was consecrated in 1533, forms part of the buildings round the yard of the Poste aux chevaux; and is every day receiving fresh damage. An offer was made some time since to the owner of the property to buy the materials of the edifice, in order to transport them stone for stone and re-erect the church elsewhere; but the man refused. Rouen

with so many wonderful monuments of the middle ages which it contains,—just like Toulouse in the south of France,-is the most Vandalic city in the country.

MOSELLE.-M. Beaulieu has just published vol. I. of the Archæology of Lorraine it is well spoken of.

ISERE. An interesting discovery has been recently made in the plain which lies immediately south of Vienne, on the Rhone. M. Contamin, the owner of a small property termed Les Gargaltes, has had a vineyard broken up, and in so doing found the traces of an immense number of Roman houses, at a few feet below the surface. It appears that the Roman city extended in this direction, as indeed may be inferred from the Roman monuments still standing by the road to Avignon. A considerable quantity of articles in pottery of all kinds has been collected by this gentleman. From what has been observed on the spot there is every reason to believe that this quarter of the Roman city was destroyed by fire.

At AUTUN Some extensive Roman baths have been lately discovered, near the Roman road that led from Cedelucum to Augustodunum; and a thermal source, used, as it is supposed, to supply those baths, has also been found in their immediate vicinity. Large quantities of coins, well preserved, of Nero, Vespasian, Constantine, &c. have been dug up on the same spot.

IMPERIAL STATUES FOUND AT

CERVETRI.

At a meeting of the Academy of Archæology at Rome, held on the 30th Jan., the Cav. P. E. Visconti, Perpetual Secretary, read an account of the discovery of several statues, exhumed in the grounds of Sig. Paolo Calabresi, at Cervetri, about 25 miles distant from Rome, towards Civita Vecchia. They were found lying at length, some placed crossways on others, and are altogether nine in number. The heads perfectly agree with the known portraits of the Imperial family during the first century of the Empire. One is assigned to Tiberius; he is seated, the upper part of his person naked, and crowned with oak and laurel, in the character of terrestrial Jupiter: it is said to be the first statue of this emperor that has been found deified; it is about ten feet and a half high. There is another of similar form and attributes of Claudius. The two Drusi are represented, the elder in the toga, and the younger in the cuirass. Among the female statues is one of Agrippina. The others are as yet headless, but it is hoped that the heads may yet be found. Two are

supposed to be Augustus and Livia, and they are of the best sculpture in the collection. Sig. Visconti gave as his opinion that these fine statues were thus concealed during some great public calamity, to save them from destruction. In carrying on the excavation to the depth of 60 palms, the sight appears to have been that of an ancient Etruscan cemetery, and many fragments of vases have been found.

ANCIENT ARTICLES OF AMBER.

is the

In cutting a ditch across a meadow at Laesten, near Viborg in Jutland, in 1837, a labourer found in a very watery bog a very large collection of amber articles, which had been inclosed in a wooden vessel, whereof only a few fragments remained. The collection consists of 25 pieces not perforated, but having an indenture round the middle, so as that they could be bound fast; 500 larger and smaller pieces without any other workmanship than simply their being perforated; further, 1 hammer-shaped and 59 prismshaped pieces, 460 cylindrical-shaped beads, and 2800 small round beads; also 50 oblong pieces perforated with 4 or 5 holes, which have served as middle pieces in a necklace of several rows of beads, and 5 end pieces to the same. The whole quantity, therefore, consists of 3,900 pieces, weighing 191b., and largest discovery of amber articles known to have been made. They were deposited in the Museum of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen; and about the same time there was received from the Island of Möen several amber articles of precisely the same sort, which were found in a subterraneous chamber, constructed of large granite stones in the lower part of a barrow, where were also deposited articles of flint and bone, and several unburned bodies, but nothing whatever of metal. In the highest part of the same barrow, quite separated from the lower chamber, was a small stone coffin, wherein was found an urn full of burned bones, above which lay several cutting instruments of bronze, such as knives, pincers, &c. This upper chamber, accordingly, belonged to the bronze period, but the lower one, in which the amber articles lay, belongs to the most remote period, or the stone age as it is called by the antiquaries of Denmark, who came to the conclusion that the former large discovery of amber articles belonged to the same period, an inference which is corroborated by the rough workmanship of the articles, executed without the help of turner's lathe or borer.

ANCIENT IRISH SEALS.

Mr. Petrie has read before the Royal Irish Academy a paper "On Ancient Seals of Irish Chiefs, and persons of inferior rank," preserved in the collections of Irish antiquities formed by the Dean of St. Patrick's, and by himself. He observed that this class of antiquities had been but little attended to by Irish antiquaries,-a circumstance which he attributed to the want of general collections of our national antiquities till a recent period; and hence, if the question had been asked a short time since, whethe Irlsh had the use of signets generally amongst them or not, it would have been impossible to give a decisive answer. This question, however, can now be answered in the affirmative; but the period at which the use of seals commenced in Ireland is still uncertain, as no Irish seals anterior to the Anglo-Norman invasion have been found; or, if found, their discovery has not been recorded. As, however, it is now certain that seals were used by the Anglo-Saxons, it is not improbable that their use may have been introduced into Ireland also-more especially as a remarkable similarity prevailed between the two countries in customs and in knowledge of the arts. The Irish seals hitherto discovered are similar in style and device to the contemporary seals of the Anglo-Normans of similar ranks; and, like the secular seals of the latter, are usually of a circular form, whilst the ecclesiastical seals are usually oval.

MOUNT ATHOS.

Messrs. Didron and Durand during their recent journey in the East passed a month at Mount Athos, visiting that holy land, as it is called by the Greeks. At the foot,

upon the sides, and on the heights of this mountain are twenty large monasteries, surrounded by crenellated walls, defended by donjons, which are there called arsenals; besides these there are ten villages called skites; 240 cells or farms ; and 160 hermitages: the whole inhabited exclusively by 6000 monks, no female being allowed to enter the peninsula. The chief of all these establishments is the town of Kores, which is also peopled by monks, and is the seat of the monachal government, and the ecclesiastical court to which all differences

are subjected. Mount Athos possesses 860 churches or chapels, viz. 200 in the monasteries, 300 in the skites, 200 in the cells, and about 160 in the hermitages. The monks gave the kindest reception to the French Antiquaries, to whom they im.