but by crawling in; but the chambers themselves are very spacious: the passages leading from one to another are very narrow. One was found rudely walled. The remains exhibited were found in the clay which to the extent of two feet in depth covered the floors. It appears probable that these caves were resorted to by the Romans and Britons as a temporary place of refuge from the northern barbarians, after the departure of the Romans.

George Ormerod, esq. LL.D., F.S.A. communicated an account of two leaden Fonts existing in the parish church of Tidenham in Gloucestershire, and in the ancient chapel of Lancaut in the same parish. They were evidently cast from the same mould, and in each the design is three times repeated; the whole forming a range of twelve alto-relievo figures within arches. Their style is Saxon, and resembles that of the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, of which the presumed date is the latter part of the ninth century. Mr. Ormerod's paper was illustrated by some remarks on the lines of Offa's Dyke and the Akeman Street near the junction of the rivers Wye and Severn in Tidenham parish, and in that district of country which may be termed the forest peninsula of Gloucestershire, lying immediately under view from the heights of Piercefield. The manor of "Dyddenhame" was given to the abbey of Bath by a charter of King Edwy dated in the year 956, which is printed in the Monasticon Anglicanum.

May 7. Mr. Hamilton in the chair.

J. A. Cahusac, esq. of Tibberton-square, Islington, and Mr. Augustus William Gadsden, of Hull, were elected Fellows of the Society.

Mr. Combe exhibited a rubbing of the monumental brass of Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, K.G. at Hever, Kent (engraved in Thorpe's Mon. Inscriptions, appended to the Custumale Roffense).

Sydney Smirke, esq. F.S.A. presented various architectural views of the tower of S. Gottardo, attached to the Palace at Milan, with some remarks on its structure. It is of great height and elegance, built chiefly of brick, and ornamented with small columns of marble, stone being very sparingly used, in combination with the iron ties, &c. It contains a large bell, six feet in diameter, which was cast in the year 1400 by an English Benedictine.

J. O. Halliwell, esq. F.R.S. and F.S.A. communicated a Second Series of Observations on the history of certain events in English History during the reign of Edward the Fourth; deduced from various documents which he has discovered chiefly by means of actual inspection into the

volumes preserved in public repositories of MSS. undeterred by the unpromising statements of the Catalogues. This remark applies particularly to a royal Proclamation made at Dunstable, 8th May 1459, found in the Cotton MS. Tib. A. x. and to two contemporary diaries or narratives found in the Lambeth library, Nos. 306 and 448.

May 14. Henry Hallam, esq. V. P.

John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a beautiful drawing of the sepulchral effigies of Richard II. and his Queen, Anne of Bohemia, in Westminster Abbey, made by Mr. Thomas Hollis, in nearly half the scale of the originals, in order to shew the singularly curious and elegant manner in which it has been discovered that the royal robes are adorned with various cognisances and other devices, as the White Hart, the Broom-plant, the Ostrich of Bohemia, &c. &c. These ornaments have been utterly unknown, from the accumulated dust of centuries. Mr. J. G. Nichols promised some further remarks upon them on a future occasion.

The reading was continued of Mr. Halliwell's "Observations on the History of certain Events in the Reign of Edward the Fourth," illustrated by various original documents.

The Duke of Argyle was present at the meeting, and exhibited three bracelets of solid gold, found in Scotland. Two of them terminate in the two cup-like ends, like the larger sort of those articles found in Ireland, which Sir William Betham has classed as ring-money.

May 21. The Earl of Aberdeen, Pres. His Royal Highness Prince Albert attended this meeting, and inscribed his name in the Admission Book of the Society. The following gentlemen were elected Fellows: William Burge, esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Q. C.; Richard Gardiner Alston, esq. of Harley Street (grandson of the late Jeremiah Milles, D.D. Dean of Exeter, President of the Society); Scrope Ayrton, esq. Barrister-at-law; and Charles James Richardson, esq. architect.

John Gage Rokewode, esq. Director, exhibited, with some brief remarks, the results of an investigation of the only remaining barrow of the Bartlow group, that had not previously been explored. It was opened by Lord Maynard, the landlord, in the presence of a numerous party of scientific friends, on the 21st of April last. The antiquities found were, as with the former barrows, all of the Roman æra. They consist of sixteen articles: 1. a square glass urn, containing bones whitened by cremation; 2. a dark urn, containing other portions of bones; 3. a bronze præfericulum, with an ele

gantly shaped mouth, of the pattern called by Wedgwood the club pattern; 4. a bronze patera; 5. and 6. spherical earthenware vessels, with necks, of yellow ware; 7, 8, and 9, three vessels of red earthenware, two cups (one of them has the mark POTTACVS) and one saucer; 10, 11, 12, and 13, four small dark earthenware urns; 14. an iron lamp, much corroded, resembling those found in the other barrows; 15. a long-necked glass vessel, of the kind formerly called lacrymatories; and 16. a vessel, of particularly fine and clear glass, resembling in shape the graduated measure of apothecaries. Many of these articles were examined by Prince Albert with much apparent interest.

CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

May 7. The first meeting of this Society for the season was held at the lodge of St. John's College, the Rev. Ralph Tatham, D.D. Master of St. John's, and Vice-chancellor of the University, President, in the chair. M. Guizot, Professor Von Huber, of Marburg, and John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A. were elected honorary members of the Society. The following communications were read: 1. 'A List of MSS. in his Collection relating to Cambridge,' by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. M.A. F.R.S.; 2. A Measurement of Part of Ely Cathedral in the 13th Century, from a MS. in the Cottonian Collection,' by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart.; 3. A Catalogue of the Books given to Catharine Hall by the Founder,' by the Rev. G. E. Corrie, Norrisian Professor of Divinity. 4. The Statutes of King's College in Latin, with an English Translation,' by James Heywood, esq. F.R.S. 5. A Copy of an Abbreviated Chronicle, from A. D. 1377 to A. D. 1469, containing Curious Notices of University Proceedings,' by the Rev. J. J. Smith, Fellow and Tutor of Caius College, and Treasurer of the Society. 6. A Legendary Account of the Foundation of the Town of Cambridge, from a MS. in Lambeth Palace,' by James Orchard Halliwell, esq. F.R.S. of Jesus College, Secretary of the Society. 7. 'A Poem, entitled, 'Ebrietatis Compendium,' by Henry Rogers, Fellow of King's College in the early part of the Seventeenth Century, from MS. No. 83, in the Library of the Royal Society,' by Mr. Halliwell. Mr. Deck exhibited to the Society several relics of Roman antiquities found in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. Sherman's "History of Jesus College," which has recently been published under the auspices of the Society, edited by Mr. Halliwell, the Secretary, was announced as ready for delivery.

CAMBRIDGE CAMDEN SOCIETY.

May 8. The anniversary meeting of this Society was held at the rooms of the Philosophical Society. After the election of several new members, among whom were the names of the Chancellor of the University and the Marquess of Northampton, the report was read. It exhibited a brief view of the proceedings of the Society during the past year, and was ordered to be printed, together with the President's address. A paper was then read by Mr. Charles, of Trinity, on Bells. It pointed out the various steps by which they came to be held in such veneration, and contained some curious inscriptions from various parts of the country. A discussion arose on this paper, in which some interesting statements were made by Prof. Corrie on the "Shriving" bell.

Mr. Webb, of Trinity, read the first of a series of papers on the Crypts of London. The subject of the present was that in Basinghall-lane. This gave rise to a long conversation on the original design and nature of Crypts.

On the 14th a party of the Society joined the President in an architectural visit to the churches of Swaffham Prior, Burwell, and Fordham, in this county; and on the 18th a party visited the chapel of Jesus College.

We are glad to learn that Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. of Middlehill, Worcestershire, proposes to print the Heraldic Visitation of Cambridgeshire in 1619, as soon as a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained. This visitation contains 150 pedigrees; and was made by Sir Henry Saint George, whilst Richmond Herald, as deputy to Camden.

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES AT STOUR-PAINE,

DORSET.

MR. URBAN, Much speculation having been excited among the curious in antiquarian researches in these parts with regard to some circular perforated stones with flat sides which were dug up in the course of last summer between the front of a Roman camp and the outer agger of some British works on Hod Hill in this parish, and participating myself in the curiosity so generally felt as to their age and use, permit me to draw the attention of your contributors on such subjects to the stones in question, and to solicit their elucidation of the purpose for which they were employed, and which at present remains but problematical with all who have examined them, and many of whom are not devoid of sagacity and learning.

The material of which these stones con

PARIS.-M. de Montalembert has started the discussion in the Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments, whether it be possible and suitable to fit up Churches at the present day in the style of the middle ages. An answer in the affirmative has been given by the Committee; and a Commission, appointed to recommend some general plan for carrying the idea into execution, comprises the Count de Montalembert, Baron Taylor, M. Vitet, M. Delecluze, M. Schmidt, and M. Albert Lenoir, the eminent architect and Professor of Christian Archæology. This Commission will draw up a set of recommendations to the clergy on the subject.

Nine statues in stone, of the natural size, richly painted and gilt, have been found underground, in the cellar of a house at the corner of the Rue St. Denis, and the Rue Mauconseil. They are supposed to have belonged to the Church of the Pelerins de St. Jacques, and to be of the 15th century. M. Didron, Secretary of the Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments, has published a letter calling on the state to purchase these statues for the Museum of Christian Antiquities in the Palais des Thermes, and to remon strate against the rude and ignorant manner in which they have been extracted from the ground, whereby they have been much damaged.

Books.-M. Laplane's History of Sis. teron, one of the most curious towns of a part of France rarely visited by foreigners, is well spoken of. There is an immense deal of new matter for the antiquarian traveller throughout the whole country, included between the Pennine Alps and the Rhone, down to its mouth. The district may be said to be perfectly unknown to British Archeologists.-The Annuaire des Basses Alpes is a very useful book for many topics of local information.-The second number of the bulletin of the Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments has not yet appeared. There is a hitch somewhere in the complicated machinery of the Bureau of the Minister of Public Instruction.

The Revue de l'Architecture et Travaux Publiques is now at its Fourth Number. The Fifth is also on the point of appearing. The engraving department of this work continues to be on a scale of great beauty, joined to professional precision and minuteness of detail and measurement. It is a work suited for the architect and engineer, as an authoritative book of reference. There is a very interesting article in Nos. 3 and 4 on the Monuments (extant, or of which representation remain), erected to the memory of architects of the middle ages, and two admirably executed wood-cuts are given with it of brasses; one to the memory of Maistre Hugues Libergier, architect of the Church of St. Nicaise at Rheims; the other to Alexandre de Berneval and one of his pupils, the architect of St. Ouen at Rouen. There is a curious passage in this article stating how, in 1287, on the Saturday before the Festival of St. Giles and St. Leu, Estienne de Bonœil, "Tailleur en pierres, maistre de faire l'Eglise de Upsal en Suèce," (Sweden) declared, in presence of the Provost of Paris, that he had borrowed forty livres of two Swedish students for the expenses of the journey which he was about to make thither, accompanied by ten companions and ten Bachelers, in order to carry on the work for which he had been commissioned.-There is also a good article in No. 4, on Domestic Architecture, in which the Editor, Mr. Daly, points out the disadvantages arising to the formation of a national school of architecture in England from the circumstance of each family occupying almost always a single house to itself. He shows that on this account a large majority of the houses in London have ever been small in size, and nearly devoid of all external architectural ornamentation, to say nothing of architectural grandeur; whereas, in Paris, where each house is occupied by a great number of families, and the buildings are very extensive, a much greater degree of architectural dignity and ornamentation has long prevailed.

RHONE. The waters of the Rhone being, in consequence of the extraordinary drought, lower this year than has ever been known in the memory of man, several interesting discoveries have been made in the bed of the river at Lyons. At the foot of one of the piers of a bridge, a stone has been laid dry, upon which was found an inscription in French to the fo lowing purport:

"He who hath seen me hath wept He who seeth me shall weep." Some extensive repairs and alterat

have been undertaken at the Quay Fulchiron; the workmen in removing some ancient piles from the bed of the river, found under them the bronze leg of a horse, evidently of the best period of Roman art. This relic has been since ascertained to belong to the torso of a bronze horse, long since placed in the Museum at Lyons. Other discoveries are expected to be made on the same spot.

OISE.-The Bishop of Beauvais has just instituted an Archæological Commission at Beauvais, to superintend the Christian antiquities of his diocese. Among the instructions issued to all curates and ecclesiastics under the Bishop's jurisdiction, it is especially enjoined them not to allow of any reparations or alterations being made in any ecclesiastical building, except in the primitive style of that building; and also not to allow of the sale or transfer of any object of antiquity belonging to such buildings without the previous consent of the diocesan. It is also enjoined them to make returns of the state and style of the churches.

SEINE ET OISE. At Montfort-l'Amaury, part of the ancient chateau of the Amaurys threatening to fall down, the municipal council, instead of propping up the wall, about forty feet high, which might have been done at small expense, ordered it to be pulled down; and, to effect this, the local architect employed a great number of men, and an immense system of levers formed by beams of the largest dimensions, to root up the part of the wall in question. The act of Vandalism was completed on the 24th of April 1840, at a cost three or four times as great as it would have taken to preserve the wall entire. It is a pity that the Municipal Council and the architect were not under the wall at the time it fell!

CORSICA.-M. Merimée, in his work on this island, just published, entitled, Notes of a Tour in Corsica, observes that there are no churches remaining there of a date anterior to the eleventh century; and that the greater part of the mediæval churches are all anterior to the fourteenth century, most of them resembling the sacred edifices of Pisa in the style of their architecture. The most remarkable is the Canonica, the ancient cathedral of Mariana, an edifice standing by itself in the midst of a plain, where the shepherds come in summer to pasture their flocks. All the other early churches, such as San Perteo, that of Carbini, the church of Paomia, and the ancient cathedral of Nebbio, all reproduce the Byzantine characteristics of the Canonica. The church of St. Michel of Murato is one of remarkable purity and elegance of architecture; that of St. Nicholas, near Murato, is not less worthy of notice, on ac

The only

count of its ornamentation. traces of the pointed style are to be found at Bonifacio, and there the specimens are not good ones. There are numerous Celtic or Gaelic remains, dolmens, cromlechs, &c. in the inner parts of the island. The Roman remains are peculiarly scanty.

DORDOGNE.-On the application of the Bishop of Périgueux, the minister of justice and public worship has made an annual grant of 1500 francs towards the repairs of the cathedral of Périgueux, besides a sum of 4500 francs for present necessities. The complete restoration of this fine building is expected to be shortly taken in hand.

GIRONDE. The medals and coins lately discovered at Cestus, near Bordeaux, are all of the second century, except two of Domitian of the first century, and two of Alexander Severus of the third. Among them are one of Sabina; two of Antoninus Pius; one of Marcus Aurelius, large brass; on the reverse of this medal are funeral piles and a car. There are also among them a Faustina Junior, bearing on its reverse Cybele seated between two lions; one of Julian I. (Didius Julianus) middle brass, on the reverse a female standing between two standards. This medal is extremely rare. All the medals are well preserved.

HAUT RHIN.-The Minister of the Interior has granted 1000 francs to each of the three buildings,-the church of Rosheim, of the eleventh century, one of the most interesting of France; the abbey church of Marmoutier; and the crypt of the abbey of Andlau.

SAONE ET LOIRE. In the Bois de St. Jean, near Autun, the tomb of a Roman female has been uncovered by some woodcutters. The covering is a rough stone 1.15 metres long, by 35 metre wide. The upper end is deeply chiselled, and bears a female head in relief, below which is the word MINVCIA. Underneath the stone was found a small vase of yellow earth filled with ashes, by the side of which was a bronze ring.

BELGIUM. The tower of the Hotel d'Egmont, at Mechlin, to which so many historical and national recollections were attached, has just been demolished. The magnificent gateways of the city of the 15th century, had been previously taken down by order of the barbarous municipality.

WURTEMBERG.-A considerable number of Roman antiquities have been discovered a few weeks back, near the hill of Alkenburg, on the left bank of the Neckar. Among them are several coins of Maximinus and Severus, and some of Philippus, A.D. 248.