The three Barrows described in this paper are in the northern part of Llantwit Major parish in the Vale of Glamorgan. Being nameless, they are defined by (a) the nearest farmstead, and (b) the height of their crests above O.D. The work of excavation was begun on 5th December 1939 and finished on 25th February 1940. It was thus carried out during the severest winter weather of modern times. Alternations of frost and thaw played havoc with sections and floors, and prolonged delays ate into the time available. Thus in many respects the effects were irremediable, and the record suffers.

In 1939, having failed after much searching to locate any extant seal of Strongbow, I gave in Historic Heraldry of Britain (Oxford, 1939, pp. 36–7) such particulars as I could of two which have perished, one known by a drawing, the other by a photograph and description. Soon after the book's appearance a letter from Captain R. B. Haselden informed me that what I had been seeking existed in the Huntington Library, namely, a complete and almost perfect seal of Strongbow attached to a charter formerly at Stowe. To the historian, the sigillographer, and the herald alike, this seal is of exceptional interest: to the historian, because it is the only known seal extant of an important historical figure; to the sigillographer, because of the unique design of the counterseal; and to the herald, for its bearing on the early history of one of the two or three oldest heraldic devices.

During the past three years the work of the Trent Navigation Company in dredging the river above Nottingham has brought to light a number of interesting finds. The company's dredger has been removing large quantities of gravel from the river-bed, and in particular it has been dealing with the Clifton reach, where a large accumulation of gravel projecting from a point on the left bank directly opposite the downstream end of the tree-covered bluff called Clifton Grove has been cleared right away. This point is in the parish of Wilford, and here the river is nearly 100 yards broad with an almost straight course for a considerable distance between Clifton Grove and a wide expanse of level meadows on the left bank (fig. 1).

In the last number of this journal (pp. 9–27) there appeared an article by Dr. Gordon Ward on ‘The Iron Age Horseshoe and its Derivatives’. Dr. Ward has a wide practical knowledge of his subject and a stimulating method of approach, but on some important aspects of his subject there is scope for considerable difference of interpretation. In suggesting certain modifications to the position which he has stated, I should like at the outset to make it clear that I am able to do so largely as the result of the work of publication and analysis undertaken by Dr. Gordon Ward himself, and by his predecessor in this field, Dr. R. W. Murray. I have also to thank Mr. C. F. C. Hawkes for much useful criticism and information.