I have had placed in my hands by B. B. Woodward, Esq., F.S.A., the Queen's Librarian, a Map of the World, which he has found in Her Majesty's Library at Windsor, in the collection of papers in the handwriting of Leonardo da Vinci. Mr. Woodward's object in sending it to me was that I might ascertain as nearly as possible the date of its construction, from the nature of the geographical information which it contained. It was evident at a glance that, apart from the value attaching to it from its connection with so illustrious a name as that of Leonardo da Vinci, the map possessed an intrinsic interest in connection with the history of geography and cartography, inasmuch as it not only belonged to a period fertile in geographical discoveries, though scantily represented by maps which have come to our knowledge, but contained delineations of a stage in those discoveries not represented at all in any map with which I am acquainted. Independently of this, it happens to possess some special points of priority of information, which have led me to think it desirable to submit it, with the following notice of its contents, to the attention of the Society of Antiquaries.

Without at present attempting to discuss the question whether a city, town, or village occupied the present site of the city of London before the Roman invasion of this country, it is enough for the purpose of this paper to assume as a fixed fact, resting on irresistible evidence and which all parties admit, that the existing area of the city proper, that is, the space between the walls and gates which stood a little more than a century ago, was (with the exception of the Blackfriars' precinct) occupied by the Romans up to the time when their legions were recalled to the continent, and the Roman government ceased in this island. But. that the whole of this area was originally the city, is not, I believe, asserted by any antiquaries or historians; it is evidently too large to have been originally selected or laid out for a city, being capable of containing several of the cities and towns which were built and walled in by the Romans in this country.

In the discussion which took place on the reading of my former paper on this subject, on the 26th of November last, remarks were made which want of time prevented me from answering. I now, therefore, propose to lay before the Society some of my further thoughts on this subject, and, first, to answer some of those remarks.

It is a commonly received opinion that London was planted by the Romans, and that before their arrival London had no existence. In the following remarks I propose—1. To show that London was, ab origine, a British city. 2. To endeavour to define what was the primitive site of it; and 3. To point out the gradual growth of London under the Roman domination.

The papers which have been recently published in our Archæologia have established, and in some measure illustrated, the important fact in the history of art, that the great painter Hans Holbein died in the year 1543, eleven years sooner than his biographers had previously supposed.

1. The portrait of Queen Katharine of Arragon, engraved in Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens, seems to be the counterpart of a picture formerly in the Lee Priory Collection, and now in the National Portrait Gallery. In this picture the eyes are very dark grey; but in all other portraits that I have seen they are either paler grey or blue.

I propose to lay before the Society this evening some documents which appear to possess a certain interest as illustrating the administration of the Criminal Law in the reign of Edward I. One of these papers relates to the tribunal held under the presidency of the Justices of Trailbaston, the institution of which is one of the obscure events in our legal annals. I have written a few observations with a view to explain the nature of these papers, and their bearing upon the legal and social history of the country.

I beg to lay before the Society a few notes on an historical portrait, which I was so fortunate as to discover recently at Windsor Castle, and the original of which Her Majesty has been most graciously pleased to permit to be exhibited to the Society this evening.

On the beautiful domain of Trelowarren there are, in good preservation, very remarkable subterranean chambers, which appear to have been unknown to Dr. Borlase, the county antiquary, and are mentioned by one only of the Cornish historians, Polwhele. Polwhele's description, however, being unaccompanied by plans or accurate measurements, is of little use to the archæologist, and no more may be gathered from his remarks than that those galleries were not in his day, about fifty years ago, so easily to be investigated as at the present time.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the town of Royston had entirely lost its monastic character. For more than half a century its venerable priory had been dissolved; the solemn chant was no longer heard within its walls; the holy brotherhood had been dispersed, and the youngest among them before this time had probably paid the debt of nature. A new era had arrived. The site of the priory, with the buildings upon it, and a manor, including a great part of the town, had been sold to Mr. Robert Chester, one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to King Henry VIII., and the conventual edifices had been converted into a private mansion. About the same time as the priory, the free hospital of St. James and St. John of Jerusalem, and the free chapel of St. Nicholas, had been secularized; and the hermitage at the cross, beneath which lay the long-concealed but since celebrated cave or oratory, had been transformed by the lord of the manor into a market house and a prison, designed for the use of both sides of the parish, then newly created.

To keep up the remembrance of the poor Fisherman of Galilee the Roman Pontiffs adopted the custom of sealing their private letters with a signet-ring which bore the device of St. Peter seated in a boat and drawing a net from the waters.

Although literary history is less prominently an object of this learned Society, and has less claim for discussion at its meetings than other branches of antiquarian knowledge, yet I may expect to be indulged with your special attention this evening, while I lay before you a long-lost work of one of the Revivors of Literature in the fifteenth century, and that the autograph and unique copy of a production, entitled Antiquarius, or “Two books of The Antiquary.”

It will doubtless be generally admitted that the ecclesiastical buildings of the earlier centuries of the Christian era merit careful study, as well from the investigator into the history and antiquities of the Christian Church, as from the architectural antiquary. The style and ornamentation of the church and the baptistery must necessarily reflect something of the tone of feeling towards religious matters which prevailed at the time of their erection, whilst the form of the structure, and even more those fittings and arrangements by which it was adapted to ritual purposes, must obviously have been planned and modified in accordance with the views of the age as regarded liturgical and ritual observances, ecclesiastical discipline, and even articles of faith. To the architectural antiquary, on the other hand, these buildings are interesting as enabling him to study the decline of Roman art, and as links in the great chain of architectural progress.

The volume which I have the honour of exhibiting to the Society is the original manuscript of Abraham de la Pryme's History of Winterton, in the county of Lincoln. It consists of twenty-six small quarto leaves, one of which is blank; they are stitched together in a cover of marbled paper. Of its history I know little. It was given to me by my friend the late Venerable William Brocklehurst Stonehouse, Vicar of Owston and Archdeacon of Stow, the historian of the Isle of Axholme. He found it, about thirty years ago, in a cottage in one of the villages near Owston. There can be no doubt that the manuscript is the autograph of de la Pryme. The handwriting corresponds in every respect with that of other documents known to have been written by him.

I felt much interested in the little tract which you were good enough to send me on the question of the use of Human Sacrifices among the Romans. It was pleasant to see that the cares and duties of political life had not prevented Sir Robert Peel and Lord Macaulay from discussing eagerly an obscure point of classical lore.

In the volume of “Miscellanies,” which has recently appeared under the able editing of your Lordship, are some remarks by Lord Macaulay, Sir Robert Peel, and yourself, on the Use of Human Sacrifices by the Romans. These remarks, which I have read with great interest, lead me to turn to various passages in classical authors that bear on the subject. The result of my inquiry I take the liberty of forwarding to your Lordship. I have not attempted to make any selection of the extracts, and, as I have no theory to support, I must request your Lordship to consider them merely materials for the use of some one with more leisure and greater ability than myself.