Once more the Society's Anniversary Meeting takes place beneath that shadow which has impended for two and a half years, and, though its intensity may appear to wax or wane as fate may tip the balance one way or the other, it is evident that the decisive hour is not yet. These circumstances must inevitably place the activities of the Society under severe restraint, a restraint which must become more pressing as the intensity of our effort and the stringency of our material resources, for any but one purpose, become more and more pronounced. Excavation, except in cases dictated by military emergency, has practically ceased, research based upon our national collections and archives is almost equally impossible, and the shortage of paper will soon operate imperatively on the extent and material quality of our publications.

The architectural history of Malta has yet to be written. The thought is a depressing one at a moment when the work of centuries is being blasted to fragments, but it may serve as an excuse for publishing a few illustrations of medieval architecture in the island. At best they will furnish a reminder of the work that remains to be done; at worst they will serve as a record of what has gone. My own photographs and notes are in Valetta, and I owe the illustrations to the courtesy of the Colonial Office and of H.M. Government of Malta. I have also to thank Mr. G. L. M. Clauson, who in 1938 showed some of these pictures before a meeting of the Society, and Lt.-Col. A. V. Agius, Trade Commissioner for Malta; also my many friends in Malta and, in particular, Chev. H. P. Scicluna, librarian of the Royal Library, Valetta, and Mr. J. Galea, who gave me every possible help and assistance. I would like to make it clear from the start that this is in no sense a finished study of the medieval remains in Malta, but rather the desultory jottings of one who had hoped one day to make such a study.

The five volumes of this invaluable work appeared within two years, but it was not, I think, till a study of the Stanton family appeared in the Archaeological Journal for 1928 that use was made of the information to be found in them regarding English sculptors of the period. Unfortunately, there seems to be no evidence, either internal or external, determining the date at which Le Neve began his Collections other than the two advertisements in the Postboy (14th August 1716) and the Evening Post, 16th October of the same year, quoted in Nichols (Lit. Anec. i, 127): the first refers to a lost Proposal for the work as ‘lately printed’, the second states that ‘John Le Neve, Gent. having often advertised his intended Collection of monumental inscriptions … again repeats his request to all Lovers of Antiquity to communicate any worth printing’, with an especial appeal to incumbents. Like his other ventures, the book was a financial failure, and, taking Orders, he was presented to the living of Thornton-le-Moor, where the chalice he gave to the church still exists, as Mr. G. S. Dixon tells me, and where he ‘filled in the Registers in his fine clear hand’ save during the year December 1722–3, when he was imprisoned in Lincoln jail by his rapacious creditors. After his release he carried on his clerical duties, his successor being appointed on 23rd May 1741; the exact date of his death has apparently not been determined.

The hoard which has given its name to the type was found in 1735 on Arreton Down in the centre of the eastern half of the island. Part was exhibited to the Society that year and a further ten pieces in 1736, drawings being made of the last exhibit. In 1855 Mr. A. W. Franks (later Sir Wollaston Franks) described in detail the hoard as then known, i.e. six pieces in the British Museum and the remainder recorded by the drawings made in 1736 (Archaeol. xxxvi, 326–31). In 1909 the well-known socketed spear-head and a tanged one were acquired by the British Museum from Canon Greenwell's collection. The hoard consisted of ten spear-heads, two daggers, and four flanged axes. They are referred to below as ‘Franks, no. —’; ‘B.M.’ if in the British Museum, ‘D’ if now known only by a drawing.

The site is to be found on sheet 38 W. of the 6 in. O.S. in the area surrounding the small cross-roads (B.M. 255 ft.) about three-quarters of a mile north-west of Standlake church on the way to Hardwick. From the gently rising ground at this point one can look across the valleys of the Windrush and Thames (210 O.D. at New Bridge), and over the Faringdon–Cumnor Corallian ridge to the Berkshire Downs beyond. The arable fields which to-day cover the slope (‘Standlake Down’) are rather bleak and featureless, as the gravel terraces in this sector of the Oxford Basin tend to be; but from the Bronze Age onwards they were sufficiently attractive to maintain a relatively large population.