The manuscript which forms the subject of this communication is a small quarto volume, consisting at present of eighty-five leaves, six and a half inches long and five inches broad, the property of Mr. David Laing, the Librarian of the Signet Library at Edinburgh.

On a former occasion I traced the history of St. Hugh from his birth in his father's castle at Avalon, on the borders of Savoy, and a few miles from Grenoble, then in the kingdom of Burgundy, to his death and burial in his choir at Lincoln, then just completed, and, as he died in the year 1200, this marks an important turning-point in the history of architecture, as many authors have observed.

The accompanying documents, which have been transcribed from the register of John Longland, who was Bishop of Lincoln from 5 May 1521 until 7 May 1547, will not, I think, be without interest for some of our Fellows, throwing as they do a clear though but feeble light on the manner of life in certain monastic houses immediately before the Dissolution. In case you agree with me in this, I shall be obliged to you if you will read them at any meeting of the Society when it may be convenient for you to do so. I am indebted for the transcript from which my copy is taken to the Reverend A. R. Maddison, M.A., F.S.A.

The Crown of England claimed in the sixteenth century, “by right of discovery and actual possession, taken on the part of Queen Elizabeth, by the deputies of Sir Walter Raleigh,” whatever lay to the north of the parallel of 32° on the American continent. The claim was limited in terms, perhaps, to the eastern or Atlantic shores: but the grants did not long stop there, for, so early as 1609, when the width of the continent was scarcely known, they were made to extend across it “from sea to sea,” and it was fiercely denied that Spain, which had never planted a colony in that region, possessed prior or any rights there.

At this period the system of government of the United States is exciting universal attention.

I am the owner of the original Charter which founds the liberties of Pennsylvania.

It is on two skins of parchment, dated 25th April, 1682.

If you think it worthy of the attention of the Society of Antiquaries, I beg to produce it for their inspection.

The Manor and Soke of Rothley, in the county of Leicester, compose a franchise described in Domesday as having been held by the Confessor, and being held, as ancient demesne, by the Conqueror at the date of the Survey. After one or two temporary alienations, manor and soke were granted by Henry III., in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, to the order of the Temple, when they were at once erected into a preceptory.

Grabhügel, Todtenhügel, Tumuli sind bekanntlich Grabdenkmäler, in welchen, unter einem Erdhaufen, ein oder mehrere Leichname unverändert oder zu Asche verbrannt, und in letzterem Falle in einer Urne verwahrt, gewöhnlich auf dem ursprünglichen, natürlichen, Boden beigesetzt sind. Um die Urne zu schützen, ist dieselbe in eine im natürlichen Boden angebrachte Vertiefung versenkt,(1) oder sie ist in einem rohen Gewölbe von Feldsteinen aufgestellt. (2) Ueber den Leichnamen erhebt sich ein 3—30 Fuss holier Hügel von Erde und Steinen, und bis auf 60 Durchmesser. In einigen steinigen Gegenden ganz aus Steinen. Ein Theil der Hügel ist von einem einfachen, zwei- und bisweilen dreifachen Kranz von Steinen umgeben, deren Gewicht bis zu einem Zentner ansteigt. Die Spitze der Hügel ist ebenfalls zuweilen mit solchen Steinen besetzt.(3) Oftmals deckt derselbe Hügel mehrere Leichname von denen, einige verbrannt, die anderen unverbrannt sind. Man findet in diesen Hügeln keine Waffen aus Stein; und obwohl viel Bronzegeräthe darin angetroffen wird, so gehört doch keiner von ihnen in die eigentliche Bronzezeit, da auch Eisen in ihnen reichlich vorhanden ist.

In the early part of September 1877 there was found on Bremeridge farm, in the parish of Westbury, Wilts, belonging to Charles Paul Phipps, esq. of Chalcot, a hoard of 32 gold coins. They were found during repairs and improvements of the homestead, about a foot and a half below the surface, in the courtyard, piled one above another, without any appearance of a purse or box. The place of deposit would be indicated by a line producing the east end of the main building southwards to a distance of about 13 ft. from the wall of the present back kitchen.

One of the commonest as well as most characteristic forms of ornamentation on the old pottery, spindle-whorls, and even buildings of ancient Mexico and Peru, dating as far back as, or anterior even to, the Spanish conquest of America, is one very nearly allied to, if not indeed identical with, the well-known meander, Greek fret or key-pattern.

The village of South Ferriby is situate on the south bank of the Humber, and is the northernmost of a chain of small villages nearly all having names terminating in “by,” placed under or on the western escarpment of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where they approach the Humber, and overlook the valley through which flows the river Ancholme. The small parish church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is chiefly deserving of notice on account of its peculiar situation and plan, and for the curious early Romanesque doorhead or tympanum shown by the accompanying illustration (Fig. 1). The church is built on a level platform cut out about half way up the hill. It consists of a nave standing north, and south, with a small chancel projecting eastward and considerably above the level of the nave, a low tower occupying the north-east angle between the nave and chancel, and a west porch opposite the chancel. Judging from some window tracery still remaining, the church seems to be of fourteenth century date, but it has been subjected to numerous alterations culminating in a restoration, in which the chancel has been converted into a vestry and the altar placed at the north end of the nave, which has been lengthened and made precisely like a barn in its general plan and arrangement. It is said that at one time there was a kind of western aisle formed by oak posts and struts supporting a beam, but no traces of this remain in the present renovated nave.

The extensive series of original documents exhibited on this occasion by favour of Sir John Lawson consists chiefly of ancient evidences of title to the manor and lands of Brough or Burgh, near Catterick, while in the hands of a family whose local surname during the three centuries of their possession passed through the forms of De Burgo, de Burgh, Burgh, Borough, or Borow.

Of all the discoveries of caves of Mithras none has equalled in interest the one recently made in the city of Spoleto; and it is fortunate for science that Professor Fabio Gori (so well known in Roman research in connexion with our Fellow, J. H. Parker, C.B.) was immediately on the spot personally to note the status quo, and to perpetuate its details by photography and drawing.

The little MS. volume, which has been laid before the Society by Mr. Aucher Taylor, is “a short treatise concerning things needful for this present state,” by John Mountgomery, of London, 1562. It is a good specimen of the political pamphlet of the time, and contains much that commends itself to us as sound common sense, while some of the writer's views bring with them more amusement than conviction. As a scheme for the better defence of the realm it serves to illustrate the popular ideas upon internal military matters at a time when standing armies were unheard of, and when the long-bow was still a rival of the new “fiery weapons ”; while there are many remarks in its pages, pointing to shortcomings in national character, which might be as truly applied to us at the present time as they were to our forefathers in the days of Elizabeth.