sivellaunus. In doing so, he alluded to some remarks by Sir Christopher Wren on beds of sand and shells discovered by the latter in laying his foundations.

ALFRED WHITE, Esq., F.S.A., considered that Sir Christopher Wren was in error in supposing that the beds of sand and shells, which he reached below the foundations of St. Paul's Cathedral, had any reference to the physical condition of the country within · the historical period, these beds being the ordinary strata of the London Basin.

He did not agree with Mr. Black with respect to Cheapside; and called attention to Maitland's statement, that, in digging in Wood Street, they came to the bed of a river and the remains of a bridge, with stone steps leading down to a ford, which he connected with the name of Wood or Wade Street. He therefore considered that there was a watercourse in the direction of that street from St. Martin's down to Walbrook.

This opinion rendered him unwilling to believe that Mr. Black's site of Roman London was correct, as a sluggish brook would, in that case, traverse the Roman city, with a marsh and mudbanks on each side of it.

In connection with this, Mr. White mentioned that the foundations of the houses on the north side of Cheapside, near Honey Lane Market, showed indications of a river or spring having existed there, and that Roman remains had been found in that locality.

He was inclined to agree with Mr. Lewin and Mr. Taylor as to the position of Roman London to the east of Walbrook; that is to say, as far as the principal seat of government; but that the manufacture and trade of the Roman city extended westward, and that Walbrook divided the Roman town into two parts, in the same manner as Chester is divided by a street called Wall Street.

Mr. BLACK replied shortly to the various comments which had been made by the several speakers, and persisted that there could be no doubt that the part of the present city which he had fixed upon as Roman London was laid out by Roman engineers, as he was prepared to show by numerous measurements. He likewise denied the probability of any watercourse having flowed in the line of Cheapside.

Mr. Black's communication on the same subject will be printed in the Archæologia.

Thanks were returned for these Communications.

Thursday, February 18th, 1864.

The EARL STANHOPE, President, in the Chair.

The following Presents were announced, and Thanks ordered to be returned to the Donors:

From the Royal Institute of British Architects.—Sessional Papers, 1863-64. Part 2, No. 3. 4to. London, 1864.

From the Author.-New materials for the History of Man, derived from a Comparison of the Calendars and Festivals of Nations. By R. G. Haliburton, F.S.A. No. 1, The Festival of the Dead. 8vo. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1863. Printed privately.

From the Author. Transcripts from the Municipal Archives of Winchester, and other Documents, elucidating the Government, Manners, and Customs of the same City, from the Thirteenth Century to the Present Period. By Charles Bailey, Town Clerk. 8vo. Winchester, 1856.

The following letter was read from General Knollys to the Earl Stanhope, President, in answer to the address from the Society to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, on the birth of a Prince :

MY LORD,

St. Leonard's, February 17, 1864.

I have had the honor to lay before the Prince and Princess of Wales the Address of the President, Vice-Presidents, Council and Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on the occasion of the safe delivery of Her Royal Highness of a Prince, and I am desired to convey their Royal Highnesses' very cordial thanks for their congratulations. I have the honor to be, my Lord, Your obedient servant, W. KNOLLYS.

The Earl Stanhope,

3, Grosvenor Place Houses.

Major WILLIAM COOPER COOPER, F.S.A., exhibited photographs from eight carvings in oak, representing heads of a fanciful and semi-oriental character. They appeared to be of the early part of the sixteenth century, and of German workmanship. One of them bore the letters S.P.Q.A., "Senatus populusque A.," intended for Strasburg, Augsburg, or some other city of which the Latin name commences with A.

EDMUND WATERTON, Esq., F.S.A., exhibited a pair of devotional tablets, of the early part of the fourteenth century, carved with scenes of the Passion. Though not of very finished execution, these specimens were of considerable interest, as being probably of English workmanship. They had been obtained from an old family in Yorkshire.

The Earl STANHOPE, President, exhibited a portrait of Sir Michael Stanhope, beheaded in 1552, and cominunicated the following observations on an inscription placed as a motto below his arms:

the

"Sir Michael Stanhope, knighted by King Henry VIII., was common ancestor of the Earls of Chesterfield, Stanhope, and Harrington. His sister having become the second wife of the Protector, Duke of Somerset, he was involved in the fall of that powerful noble. He was brought to trial and sentenced to die, with three other knights. On February 25, 1552, accordingly, he was beheaded on Tower Hill.

"An original, or at least a contemporary, portrait of Sir Michael, was for a long time preserved at Bretby, Lord Chesterfield's seat in Derbyshire. Towards the end of the last century, however, it passed into the hands of another relative, Mr. Arthur Stanhope, and from him descended to his son-in-law, the late Mr. Evelyn J. Shirley. In 1845 I saw it at Mr. Shirley's house in Belgrave Square, and, by his kind permission, employed an artist, the late Mr. Goodeson, to take an exact copy, which is now exhibited.

"This portrait is painted upon panel, and, as usual in portraits of that period, the coat of arms appears on one side. In this the quarterings are as follows:

1. Stanhope, Quarterly ermine and gules.

2. Maulovel, Vert, three wolves passant or, langued gules.

3. Longvillers, Sable, a bend between six cross-crosslets argent. 4. Lexington, Argent, three saltires engrailed sable, a crescent for difference.

"Above the arms appears the Stanhope crest of a demi-lion issuing from a castle, holding in his paws an object like a quatrefoil, and charged with a crescent for difference. Beneath the whole is this inscription :

Wholly unable to decipher the meaning of this cabalistic inscription, I applied to my friend Sir Henry Ellis, and next, through him, to Sir Frederic Madden. It will be acknowledged at once, I think, by every gentleman present that no two persons in England at that time were more highly qualified to solve that or any other antiquarian riddle. I found, however, that neither the Secretary, as he was then, of the Society of Antiquaries, nor yet the Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, experienced and able as they were, could devise any decisive interpretation in this perplexing query.

* In the present crest this is made into a hand-grenade. ·

"Not yet discouraged, I next addressed myself to our learned colleague in this Society, J. Gough Nichols, Esq. It was the more natural that I should apply to him on this occasion, since he had recently given to the world a short but comprehensive and accurate biography of Sir Michael's only sister, Anne, Duchess of Somerset.

"In his reply, dated 25, Parliament Street, May 18, 1847, Mr. Nichols observes of this inscription: I feel quite incompetent to give a decisive explanation of it. I take the liberty, however, to suggest that it appears to me possible that it was copied (with some blunders) from the name of our Saviour, written in the contracted Greek formerly used, and which we see in paintings belonging to the Greek Church. I imagine it may have been something like this, fig. 2:

THSOS в

ОалХУЗ

THE8E X 0 08 YIO

୦୪

Ιησούς Χριστος ὁ Θεου υιος.

"In my reply to Mr. Nichols, I thanked him for his explanation respecting the motto, which,' I added, 'I think not only very ingenious, but also very probable.

"It is much confirmed by the fact that, as an artist (Mr. Goodeson), who has now the portrait in his charge for the purpose of copying it, informs me, several letters, as they stood in the original painting, appear on close examination to have been more lately restored, and altered in restoring.

"Sir Michael Stanhope was a Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, and as such, is represented in this portrait, bearing a kind of medal or badge, suspended by a blue riband. He also holds in his hand one of the newly discovered watches. I do not know that for either of these objects there would be any proper motto, but any one of a religious character seems natural and probable at the period of the Reformation.'

"I might have added to this letter that, in the portrait, the other hand of Sir Michael rests on a closed book-perhaps the Bible.

"Ingenious as the explanation of Mr. Nichols is, I think, on all hands allowed to be, it was never by himself put forward as decisive. Nor has it entirely convinced all those who have since considered it. Lord Macaulay, for example, to whom I showed these papers, addressed to me upon the subject a letter, which I will here subjoin :

Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay to Lord Mahon.

"February 28th, 1855.

"DEAR MAHON, "Many thanks. I cannot be satisfied by Mr. Nichols' explanation. Observe that he alters ten of the twelve characters, and alters every one of these ten characters in such a way as to destroy all resemblance. What likeness is there between T and X, or between and 3, or between 8 and λ or between y and I, or between I and T? What likeness, indeed, is there between Σ and S? It is true that is the Greek for S; but nobody who was not acquainted with the Greek character would ever guess that Σ is the Greek for S. And if the copyist was acquainted with the Greek character, how came he to make ten blunders in twelve letters? I do not pretend to guess the meaning of the inscription; but I am strongly of opinion that Sir Michael was a student of astrology and cabala, and that the characters are talismanic, and have some reference to some horoscope, probably his own. The character which stands alone (8) is very like the symbol used for the sign of Taurus in the Zodiac, and the watch would have been a most useful part of the apparatus of an astrologer. The closed book may be supposed to have been a volume on the occult sciences. There is my guess, such as it is.

Ever yours truly,

"T. B. MACAULAY."

"It will be for the Fellows of this Society, should any of them desire any further to pursue the subject, to inquire whether, as Lord Macaulay suggested, the study of astrology, so popular in Sir Michael's day, might afford a clue to the meaning of this mysterious inscription."

The Rev. R. J. MAPLETON, of Duntroon Castle, Lochgilphead, Argyleshire, communicated in some letters to Samuel Birch, Esq., F.S.A., an account of some singular markings on stones discovered in his neighbourhood, on the property of John Malcolm, Esq., of Poltallock, and transmitted rubbings of some of the examples. These markings consist of groups of concentric circles with a point in the centre, from which sometimes proceeds a line traversing the circles and joining other similar lines from other groups of the same nature. These sculptures had been brought to light on several rocks at some distance apart. The rocks are generally situated on slopes half way up between the low ground and the tops of the hills. They are portions of the trap rock, smoothed and rounded by glaciers, and showing the ruts or groovings formed by stones in the ice. The largest set of mark