Subsequent to the publication of British Barrows in 1877, which recorded the opening of two hundred and thirty-four sepulchral mounds, situated in six counties, all, with the exception of Gloucestershire, in the north of England, I have examined sixty-one in addition. I propose in the following account to give the precise details of the exploration of these barrows, in order that the facts then observed may be put on record, and made available for the use of those interested in this important branch of our native archæology.

In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London for April 6th, 1874, it is mentioned that the Durham Archaeological Society had “undertaken to give an account of a very curious cross at Kelloe, sculptured with subjects relating to the Invention of the Cross.” This undertaking has not yet been carried out, but we have recently had a drawing made, and this I send for exhibition at one of our meetings, in the hope that some further information may be brought to bear upon it. It will at once be seen that the cross is of Norman, not Saxon date. It had been broken up and used as walling material, but on the discovery of the pieces they were put together again and fixed up against the inside of the chancel wall, where they now are. We were told by the then rector, who had this done, that the back is quite plain, from which, and from its being so thin, it would seem to have always stood against a wall, as at present, or at any rate not to have been an outdoor cross. The material is a fine greenish grey sandstone. The sculpture for the most part speaks for itself. In the transverse arms of the cross we have the inscription, IN HOC VINCES. The uppermost subject is that of an angel revealing to St. Helen in a dream where the cross would be found. Below this are two figures, one probably representing St. Helen, to whom the church is dedicated.

I have the honour to exhibit, through the kindness of the owner, Mrs. Rinington of Tynefield, Penrith, a planispheric astrolabe of English make. It was included among the antiquities and curiosities exhibited at a recent art and industrial exhibition held at that place, and my attention was drawn to it by a member of the committee, who asked by what name it should be catalogued. I must own that I guessed rather than knew that the object was an astrolabe, but as to its uses I was profoundly ignorant; I borrowed the instrument and endeavoured to inform myself. I found this difficult to do, as the treatises on astrolabes are rare and scarce, and it is impossible to obtain a sight of some of them without a visit to London: this I was unable through illness to undertake. The standard work on the subject is Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe; addressed to Ms son Lowys, and dated 1391. This has been most ably edited for the Early English Text Society by Professor Skeat, and to it I am much indebted. There is also an earlier edition by Mr. Brae, in 1870, which I have not seen. There is a valuable paper in The Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vol. xii. entitled Remarks on an Astrolabe, by Robert Taylor, M.A., which gives a description of an astrolabe of English make, the property of Mr. Hyett of Painswick House, Gloucestershire. A paper on the astrolabe, by the late Octavius Morgan, F.S.A., is also interred in the Archaeologia, vol. xxxiv., under the title of Supplementary Observations on an Astronomical and Astrological Table Clock, together with an account of the Astrolabe.

At the west end of the great abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul at Glastonbury are the ruins of a chapel of very remarkable character.

It was built on the site of a vetusta ecclesia dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of very great antiquity, which was consumed by fire, together with the great church and nearly all the abbey buildings, in 1184.

As the vetusta ecclesia, from its sanctity and the number of relics it contained, was a holy place much resorted to by pilgrims, its reconstruction was forthwith commenced, and carried out with such speed that “about 1186” it was ready for consecration by Reginald, bishop of Bath.

The episcopate of Roger of Salisbury, first bishop who bore the title of Bath and Wells, is short, but memorable in the annals of the church of Wells.

It was the time when the rule of election of the bishop by the joint action of the two chapters of the monks of Bath and the canons of Wells was authoritatively and finally settled, and the style of the bishop, Episcopus Bathoniensis et Wellensis, was officially adopted.

Accuracy in dating is of the first importance amongst the various contributions made by the antiquary for the use of the historian. The different commencements of the year and the introduction of the new style are well-known causes of confusion in dating events and documents; and it will perhaps not be devoid of interest if we now examine one portion of this large subject. The Catholics of this country in queen Elizabeth's time were in this matter in a peculiar position. They took their citizenship from England and their religion from Rome. The new style had been introduced by a pope, and for that very reason was not accepted in England; and indeed, apart from this, the kalendar had always been Church property, connected closely with fasts and feasts and prefixed to breviaaries and missals, so that it would seem most probable that Catholics would follow the new style. On the other hand, it is plain that if they had done so they would have been exposed to a thousand practical inconveniences while living in the midst of a people who reckoned by the old style, and we cannot therefore decide the question à priori. Unfortunately proofs are not very numerous; but we will see to what conclusion we are brought by such proofs as we can find. And there will probably be some interest in the cognate inquiry when the English Catholics ceased to use the ancient Rites of Sarum and York, and in their stead adopted the Roman Rite.

By permission of tho Council of the Royal United Service Institution I exhibit a small MS. entitled Ensignes, Trayned Bands, and Auxiliaries, 1642. It is bound in white vellum, and at one time had strings or laces for keeping it closed. Both covers have a simple tooled and gilt double line round the edge, and in the centre a curious figure drawn in ink. It represents a sort of satyr with a tail and feet like a dragon. The front of his body is covered by an oval shield bearing the arms of the city of London in red ink. The figure holds in his hands on each side of the shield a cornucopiae, out of which rise the heads of several serpents.

St. Paul's Cathedral was, as might be expected from its position and influence, unusually rich in obits and in chantries. From the foundation of the chantry of master John de London, early in the reign of Henry II., to that of Robert Brocket, citizen and baker, in the twenty-fourth year of Henry VIII., a continuous stream of benefactors appears amongst the records of the cathedral, who desired to express their piety by the endowment of chantries for their own souls and for the souls of members of their families.

The figure on which I am about to offer some remarks, is one of eighteen basreliefs on the piers supporting the arch leading into the chapel of S. Gaudenzio, in the cathedral church of Rimini. All the subjects represented are worthy of some notice, but this, being an unique symbolism of music, specially commended itself to me. I made a drawing of it under somewhat difficult circumstances, and it is my intention to set before you, if possible, the motives which influenced the artist in its design. These are evidently of classic origin and the suggestions of a scholar. Now, very few artists of the period of the early Renaissance had any claim to be so called. Their education began in the studio (bottega), and they entered at so early an age that there was little time for the humanities. We have it on record by Vasari how some, Botticelli for instance, cared nothing for school learning, yet there are works in the Uffizi by this artist full of classic knowledge, and, to my mind, the most interesting of his productions. In fact, the artist worked under the instruction of the clergy, as regards his treatment of ecclesiastical subjects; it was dangerous to travel too much out of the circle, for a charge of heresy might ensue, which was really suggested against poor Botticelli, one certainly as innocent of theology, except that taught him, as he was of Horace or Virgil. We possess a painting of his in our National Gallery, mentioned by Vasari in connection with the cleric's name who suggested its treatment. It is very orthodox in its elements.

It may be of interest to the Society if I submit to its notice some observations made last year, which render it necessary to re-write the history of one of the best known monuments of Rome.

The monument, which for fifty-six years has been called the Column of Phocas, was formerly, when nothing but the pillar itself was seen above ground, the subject of much curiosity and speculation among the visitors of the Forum. The “nameless column with the buried base” was thought by some to be the sole relic of a great temple or other public building. By others it had been conjectured to be part of the famous bridge by which Caligula united his palace on the Palatine with the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. In the early years of the century, among other works of the same kind, it was resolved to clear away the soil and débris from the substructure of this column; and on the 13th of March, 1813, the inscription of its pedestal, which had remained for centuries a few feet below the level of the ground, was uncovered, and revealed the fact that it had supported a statue dedicated by the exarch Smaragdus to the honour of a Caesar, whose name had been erased, but who, by other indications, could be no other than Phocas, an emperor of evil reputation, but to whom Rome and the world owe some gratitude for having been instrumental in dedicating the Pantheon to Christian worship, and so preserving from ruin one of the noblest and most original architectural works of antiquity.

All documents which bear upon the history of Westminster Abbey must have a considerable interest for Englishmen. A church in which so many of the English kings since the Conquest have been crowned and anointed will always be venerable in the eyes of the more thoughtful portion of our countrymen, just as Aken and Rhemes must be honoured by Germans and Frenchmen. But, unlike Rhemes, Westminster is not an episcopal church. It became cathedral only for a moment, after its suppression as a monastery, in the reign of Henry VIII. as Aken became cathedral for a few years at the beginning of this century, also a time of much confusion. When we cross the Alps we find again a like case in a church which is not episcopal but collegiate, the church of St. Ambrose at Milan, where the kings of Italy took the iron crown; and a still greater instance in the Vatican Basilica, only a collegiate church, where the golden crown of the world was bestowed upon the Roman emperor. There is a further likeness in the history of St. Peter's at Westminster and of St. Peter's across the Tiber. In both cases the bishop who bestowed the crown has left his seat close to his own metropolitan church and come to live hard by the church where he should crown and anoint his sovereign. The successor of St. Anselm, papa alterius orbis, has left Christchurch, Canterbury, for his manor of Lambeth; just as the pope has left his patriarchal church of St. John Lateran for his palace on the Vatican.

In treating of the parish of Standon, Salmon, in his History of Hertfordshire, relates that “At the Extremity of this Parish are two large Barrows on the Brink of the Hill which overlooks Thundritch Church, between which and the Barrows is the Course of the Rib. This Place is called Haven End; probably for having been the Harbour where the Danes laid up their Vessels, which they brought from the Thames to Ware and Hertford to carry off their Plunder. Here they were well seated to have the Roman Road for Carriage of what they could pick up, and to drive the Cattle they stole. And these Tumuli being at that Haven, which could never be used as such by any but the Danes, helps forward the Conjecture that these in England are chiefly Danish Work, set up for Victory and Terror.”

The Oratory of the Holy Trinity at Barton, in the Isle of Wight, came to an end long before the general dissolution of religious houses, and thus escaped the notice of Dugdale. Sir Richard Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight (page 177) contains a short account of it. The oratory was founded in 1275, by two parish priests, master Thomas de Winton, rector of Godshill, and Sir John de Insula (de l'lsle), rector of Shalfleet. They were men of property and good family, and I suppose that their object in adding another to the numerous religious houses in the island was that there should be one such house under the direct jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese, owing no allegiance to the pope, or to any of the existing monastic bodies under his influence.