Before relating the curious episode in the history of ecclesiastical institutions which forms the subject of this paper, a few words on the constitution of the institution concerned are necessary.

Beverley Minster, the quasi-cathedral church of the East Riding of Yorkshire, was, until its dissolution in 1548, a college of nine secular canons. The Archbishop of York quà Archbishop was reputed (and disputed) founder, patron, visitor, head, and a canon, besides being lord of the manor and town of Beverley.

Close to the inner margin of the King's Ditch at Cambridge, which until quite recently was the only ditch known to exist, excavations were lately made for the foundations of Messrs. Fosters' new bank. The ditch which runs along Hobson Street was only just touched, but there was at this spot a large quantity of sand and gravel. This had apparently been thrown out of the ditch, which here skirted the edge of an extensive gravel bed. No water passed through this dry subsoil from any side, and the area was soon built over, so that no rain fell into it. These were, therefore, conditions very favourable for the preservation of perishable materials

Although in his invaluable work on the Ancient Egyptians, Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells us a great deal about the sculpture, the painting, and the furniture of the tomb, and although Lepsius, Prisse d'Avennes, and others give us much information, I have nowhere found that any writer has followed the subject through from the time the order was given to make the tomb until it was completed ready to receive the mummy of the owner. The few notes I now lay before the Society were always made on the spot. My effort has been to draw the evidence from the excavations themselves.

About the middle of the thirteenth century the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral Church made a minute and careful visitation of churches in their gift, lying in the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex. The text of that visitation has been lately printed in a volume issued by the Camden Society. The record of their proceedings is so copious that a clear and distinct account can be given of the ornaments, vestments, books, and plate belonging to these churches; and some insight can be gained into the relations which existed between the parishioners, the patrons, and the parish priest.

The following pages present the results of an expedition organised in the autumn of 1893 for the purpose of investigating the antiquities of the Boman town of Doclea, in Montenegro, the reputed birthplace of Diocletian. Excavations had already been carried on there during three seasons by H.H. the Prince of Montenegro, to whom the explorers desire to record their grateful acknowledgments, not only for his gracious permission to continue the work so auspiciously begun, but also for the kind reception and many facilities accorded to them. To M. Paul Rovinski also, the skilful director of the former excavations, they owe the warmest thanks. His generous co-operation and his local experience were simply invaluable, and his genial friendship can never be forgotten.

In dealing with the Domus Vettiorum, the recent publications to which I have chiefly had recourse have been the following

1. (1) Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità comunicate alla Reale Accademia dei Lincei.

2. (2) Herrlich, in the Archäologischer Anzeiger, Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich deutschen archäologischen Instituts, 1895.

3. (3) Sogliano, II supplizio di Dirce in un dipinto Pompeiano e il Toro Farnese, Napoli, 1895.

4. (4) F. Marriott's Facts about Pompei; and his article entitled The New House in Pompei, in The English Illustrated Magazine for January, 1896.

I propose in this paper to trace the history of the prebendal stalls in the church of Wells, their number and original arrangement in choir and chapter, and to describe the carved “misericords” still remaining in the stalls.

The city of Albi is built on the steep banks of the Tarn, which drains the high table-land sloping gradually from the Cevennes to the vast plain of Languedoc. From whichever side the city be approached the lofty and massive structure of the cathedral church is seen dominating the surrounding buildings. The church, with the adjoining episcopal fortress, crowns the cliff on the left bank of the river. Adjacent to the west end of the church, and occupying the extreme point of the cliff, is the site of Castel-viel, now represented by a group of humble dwellings. Here was once a Gaulish oppidum, and later a Roman fort was erected to protect the ferry over the Tarn, which divided the territory of the Ruteni. This bourg was defended by an important fort belonging to the viscounts of Albi, who held it from their over-lords, the counts of Toulouse, and it was isolated on three sides by the ravines through which the Tarn and its tributary stream the Verdusse run, and on the east side by a moat dividing it from Albi.

In the paper on the Mausoleum which I read before the Society on 14th June, 1893, and which has since been published in Archaeologia, I stated my intention to investigate two distinct questions relating to that celebrated building:

I. What appeared from the best literary and monumental evidence to have been its architectural form?

II. What was the most probable arrangement of its principal sculptures?

The first of these questions I have sufficiently dealt with in the paper referred to, subject to one correction, which I ask leave now to submit. Since the appearance of my scheme in Archaeologia, I have been led to adopt a slight modification of the architectural arrangement there suggested for the interior of the Pteron.

When we reflect on the grandeur, wealth, and power of the numerous representatives of Hellenic culture that caused a considerable portion of Italy to be called a greater Greece, we can hardly fail to be struck with the scanty knowledge we possess of their political and social history.

A remarkable hoard of gold objects was recently acquired by our Fellow Mr. Robert Day, of Cork, who has kindly allowed me to describe them and exhibit them to the Society. The objects were found together by a ploughman, who turned them up in sub-soiling, and the ploughshare somewhat injured the boat and bowl. The spot where the treasure was found is near the sea on the northwest coast of Ireland.

The origin of the commoner breeds of cattle is a question of the greatest interest to the antiquary and historian as well as to the agriculturist and naturalist. It is an inquiry into the history of an animal, which, when wild, was always hunted by man, and, when tame, has accompanied him in all his wanderings; which was domesticated in the far-off ages when it is doubtful whether we can rightly say that man was civilized; which was his standard for barter; his chattel, and the original of all pecuniary transactions; an animal whose remains lie buried with him or accidentally covered up wherever man has been.

The report which I have the honour of submitting to the Society, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund, of the discoveries made during the year 1896, is also the record of the systematic excavation of the site by the Committee for the seventh successive season.

To make a satisfactory study of the story of a battle it is no doubt desirable to visit the field of action and examine it carefully with one's own eyes. Where much time has elapsed and many changes have taken place in the aspect of the country the written records are not always easy to interpret; and where even these are scanty and obscure a large number of open questions will naturally be the result. Such has been the case with the famous battle of Bosworth Field, of which we possess virtually only one narrative, and that not written by an eye-witness or even by an Englishman, but by an intelligent foreigner who settled in England some years after. Polydore Vergil, the first writer of a connected history of England, arrived in this country about eighteen years after the battle, and doubtless gained his information about it from those who had seen and taken part in it. The accounts given by the subsequent English chroniclers, Hall, Grafton, and Holinshed, are little more than translations, a little amplified, of the description given by Polydore. Nevertheless, their additions to the narrative, as we shall see, are not without significance.

This paper was read before the Society in 1881, but owing to the difficulty of getting the photographs necessary to illustrate it properly it has not been ready for publication until within the last two years.

In the year 1877 my late friend Dr. Paspati, then resident at Constantinople, published a list and a description of some then unidentified Byzantine churches in Constantinople, the majority of them being used as Mohammedan mosques. In the year 1880 I visited all of them, and among the number a building which Dr. Paspati describes as the Kalender Khane Djami, or the Mosque of the Kalenders.

During the recent excavations on the site of Æsica a remarkable discovery of ancient relics was made. The deposit in question was contained inside the western guard-chamber of the south gate and about 3 feet from its northern wall. Unfortunately the discovery was made in the absence of any trained archaeologist and the data at our disposal are only of an approximate nature. The relics that have come to light consist of two large fibulæ (figs. 4 and 9), a silver collar or chain (fig. 1), a gold Roman ring (fig. 2) set with a moss agate, and another of bronze (fig. 3) set with a nicolo engraved with a gnostic subject, the familiar IAO.

The bronze statuette of Hercules which Lord Carlisle exhibits to-night at the desire of the President is said to have been “dug out of the Roman wall.” But the precise spot appears to be now unknown. One statement gives Northumberland; another, his lordship's property of Naworth, in Cumberland, which is no great distance from the Roman station of Amboglanna (Birdoswald). One could suppose that the bronze had been brought to this country by some officer attached to that camp. That would mean in the time of Hadrian, by whom this station on the Roman wall was established. And were the figure of pure classical workmanship there would not be much more to be said on that point. But you will see that the bronze cannot be of classical origin, and this suggests an alternative that it may have been brought to this country by a devotee of the Tyrian Hercules established at Corbridge, in Northumberland, where an altar to him has been found.

The Papers which I have the honour of laying before the Society contain a summary of my explorations and investigations of the dolmens of Japan during a long residence in that country.

We have but little exact knowledge of the mode in which the Japanese disposed of the bodies of their famous dead in the very earliest times. The somewhat vague statements of their ancient traditional records would seem to point to burial or mere deposition on the summits of natural hills as their earliest practice, but the most ancient remains yet discovered have not been found in such localities, but on the lower grounds bordering the plains, and on the plains themselves.

Anything that enables us to picture the life of our old monasteries cannot fail to prove interesting to students of English archæology; I venture therefore to call your attention to a very characteristic feature of our oldest Charterhouses which, so far as I know, has escaped the observation of those who have examined the history of monastic remains in this country.

The first exploration of this cemetery in the autumn of 1893, of which I had the honour of laying an account before the Society was of so interesting a character that it was felt both by Mr. Edwin Henty and myself that it would be desirable to ascertain whether other graves did not exist within the limits of the ancient British camp. With this view the examination of the adjoining ground was made in the autumn of last year, and the results not only fully justified the examination, but resulted in discoveries of far greater interest than those previously made, and in one instance, at least, of a character hitherto unknown in England.