The curious triptych figured in Plate XV. appears to have been, in the first instance, a gift from Philippe le Beau and Jeanne la Folle, parents of the children therein represented, to King Henry VII., to commemorate a visit which they unexpectedly paid to this country at the beginning of 1505.

The triptych has been ascertained, by means of a brief entry in an inventory taken for Henry VIII. of goods and furniture deposited in his Palace of Westminster, to have been royal property in 1542. It is there denominated “a folding table,” and occurs at the end of a long series of royal portraits.

The manuscript from which the accompanying extracts are made came into my possession by purchase about eleven years ago. I know nothing whatever of its history, except what is disclosed by a pencil note in a modern hand on the inside of the first board of the cover. This memorandum states that the book came “From Lord Somers' Library, having passed into his private Secretary's possession, & from him to his family.” As this statement is unsigned, and as I have been unable to identify the hand-writing, I know not what amount of trust to place in it. The first page of the table of contents has upon it the signature of “Wm Milbourne.” It seems about a century old.

The excavations made in Rome during the winter of 1867–68 have been numerous, and their results important.

The first in period of time, and perhaps in importance also in an archæological point of view, was that made by the monks of SS. Cosmas and Damian behind their church and monastery, in what is now a courtyard, occupying the site of the porticus of the ancient temple out of which this church was made. In this excavation, at the depth of from twenty to thirty feet, were found several fragments of the celebrated Plan of Rome, of the third century of the Christian era, engraved on slabs of marble. The greater part of this curious plan was discovered in the sixteenth century, and placed against the walls of the staircase in the museum on the Capitol, but the exact spot on which it was found was not known, and the present discovery is therefore of high importance.

On the 29th November, 1860, I had the honour to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries a folio manuscript belonging to the Earl of Verulam, which contains an account of the Treaty between King Charles I. and the Parliament, held at Newport in the Isle of Wight in the autumn of 1648.

In the month of September last whilst staying at Brighton I examined nearly the whole of the ancient earthworks which occupy the summits of the highest eminences of the Downs between Beachy Head on the east, and the neighbourhood of Chichester on the west.

Some information respecting Easter Sepulchres may be met with in most works on mediæval archaeology ; but if the student wishes to know more about the subject, and compares their statements, he will find that the whole are derived from extremely limited sources. With respect to the structures known by the name, a paper in the Vetusta Monumenta, bearing the initials “R. G.” is the mine from which the other writers have dug their materials: and as for the ceremony for which the structures were used, one or two works furnish nearly all the little store of information yet opened to us.

In a paper which I had the honour of reading to this Society on the 6th February 1868 I gave a general description of the ancient earthworks of the downs between Beachy Head and Chichester, and I concluded by expressing an opinion, derived chiefly from a consideration of the principles of castrametation, outline, and other indications observable on the surface, that these intrenchments belonged to the Ancient British period, and were not, as some writers have supposed, the work of the Roman invaders of this country.

A tomb, or more strictly speaking a stone coffin with a coped top, which for some centuries past has been described as the tomb of King William Rufus, in Winchester Cathedral, was opened, and its contents ascertained, by direction of the Vice-Dean (the Ven. Archdeacon Jacob) on August 27th 1868. Subsequently to the examination it then underwent, its position within the building was changed on the 15th September following. No previous notice of the transaction having been given, except to a few persons residing in the town of Winchester, I have to regret that it was not in my power to be present either at the opening or the removal. As an interest of no ordinary kind attaches to this monument, I have considered the matter to be of sufficient consequence to collect together a summary of the particulars. The tomb has long been reputed to be the resting-place of the first of the great line of English sovereigns of the present dynasty buried in England; but besides this, the fatality which caused his death, the mystery in which it was shrouded, the superstitious hatred of the man, which believed the wrath of Heaven to have followed him in the Cathedral where he lay, and to have hurled over his grave the ruins of the central tower, all contribute to invest with peculiar associations this venerable memorial; to which I have now to add another point of interest, namely, that an archæological question arises for solution as to the actual identity of the tomb so recently opened, and the remains it contained, with the tomb and the remains of the Red King.

The scallop shell has been found so curiously in connection with funereal memorials of antiquity as to suggest that something must have been meant by this strange juxta-position.

It has often been the occasion of remark that out of the enormous mass of jewels, ornaments, and substantial church plate accumulated in almost illimitable profusion in the ancient religious houses of our land so few specimens have descended to modern times. This paper will deal with this subject, and will show the manner of the disappearance of these treasures. It will give a series of documents (hitherto inedited, but unique in their complete connection and fulness) relating to a Visitation conducted by the King's Commissioners in the Chapel of St. George, Windsor, and illustrating these three points: (a) the wealth of these religious foundations; (b) the manner in which that wealth (in respect to the valuable moveables) was dealt with by its proprietors during the progress of the Reformation; and (c) the ultimate fate of the jewels, plate, ornaments, and vessels of gold and silver. The various documents are somewhat lengthy, and contain some repetitions. It has, however, been deemed expedient to give them as they appear, for two reasons : first, as providing an example of the exact mode of conducting one of these ancient Visitations; and next, as exhibiting, in their curious variety of expression, the diversity of sentiment and feelings prevalent in those days.

Although every object of antiquity possesses a certain interest for the archaeologist, still that interest is much increased when a number are found together, and under circumstances which imply that they were contemporaneous.

A “find” of special interest was made in the year 1817 at Albano, and described in a letter from Dr. A. Visconti to Signor G. Carnevali di Albano. Since however this letter does not give a complete description of the antiquities in question, and is moreover not easily accessible to archaeologists, we have thought that a more complete account would be acceptable to the Society, the pottery belonging to this find being of peculiar interest.

The Roman Pilum is a quæstio vexata, which has been, for ages, an embarrassment to all thinking men given to the study of classical literature.

The Inventory which I have the honour to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries, by the kindness of its owner the Baroness North, was taken on the death of Henry Howard Earl of Northampton, June 15th 1614, and may not be unworthy of the notice of the Society, whether we consider the historical importance which must ever attach to the character of “The Lord Privy Seal,” as his Lordship is here officially called, disagreeably connected as his memory is with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury ; or the still existing “Northampton,” or as it is now called Northumberland,” House, built by this same Earl, “with Spanish gold,” says Osborne, about the year 1605.

Tacitus, in his description of the ancient Germans, speaks of their reliance upon auguries and decisions by lot. The latter was performed with twigs cut from the branches of a fruit-bearing tree, and thrown upon a white garment:—“Sortium consuetudo simplex. Virgam frugiferæ arbori decisam in surculos amputant eosque notis quibusdam discretos super candidam vestem temere ac fortuito spargunt.”—Germ. 10.

The civilization which Western Europe received at the hands of Rome was due in great part to the colonies planted by her in every subjected portion of it. It may, therefore, be neither trivial nor uninteresting to inquire whether that colonisation extended itself and its benefits to this country also. Throughout the history of Rome conquest preceded colonisation. The land of a conquered nation, if the Roman government insisted upon its right, became the absolute property of the Roman people. Belonging from that time to the State, it could be retained by the Government as public property (i. e. in fact and etymology the property of the people,) to be used for the support and relief of the finances, or it could, by an act of the Legislature, be granted and appropriated to private individuals, of course a portion of that people or their privileged allies.

All writers on the history of pottery have more or less alluded to the Bacini, or deep howl-shaped dishes of various sizes and colours, which are to be seen on the exterior of several churches in different parts of Italy. More particular allusion has been made to those found on the churches of Pisa, and various theories have been raised to account for their origin. It is particularly stated by Sismondi, in the “History of the Italian Republics” (i. 354), that the Pisans made great exertions to rid the Tyrrhenian Sea of the Moorish pirates, which had so often destroyed their vessels and ravaged their coasts. Their efforts were specially directed against a certain King Nazaredeck of Majorca, whose cruel acts of piracy had spread terror in the coast towns of Italy and Southern France.

The results of explorations in the sepulchral tumuli of the pre-Roman or ancient British period of this country have never been exhibited in a distinct manner, or in a form useful for the purpose of comparison. Numerous investigations of these barrows, in nearly every part of England, some on a larger and some on a smaller scale, have at different times been made; but, if we except Sir John Lubbock's analysis of the results obtained by Mr. Bateman in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties, and of part of those obtained by Sir R. C. Hoare in Wiltshire, no one has been at the pains of analysing the results arrived at, or of pointing out the inferences to which they lead. As is well known, “Wiltshire is the county where the monumental remains of the ancient occupants of Britain are at once the most numerous and characteristic;” in no other district of the island are the barrows so numerous, and no examinations of them perhaps so important as those conducted by Sir R. C. Hoare and his coadjutor Mr. Cunnington; whether we consider the number excavated, the results obtained, or the character of the district, the seat of great Druidical fanes and places of resort, the ruins of which are found at Avebury and Stonehenge. In the magnificent but ponderous and costly folios of his “Ancient Wiltshire,” Sir Richard Hoare printed the details of his researches; but in this work they are exhibited in a far from convenient or accessible form, and they have never been subjected to a full and complete numerical analysis.

In making the following crude and superficial observations on those varieties of pottery known among collectors and amateurs as “Persian ware,” my object is to call increased attention to the subject” by adding the few notes which a recent tour through Syria and Egypt, and to Constantinople, has enabled me to gather, and more particularly as an introduction to the notice of the Society of a piece of this ware, remarkable for its beauty, and interesting from its having been made for a mosque of world-wide renown, and also as bearing an inscription informing us of the date of its manufacture, thus giving sure evidence as to the period of the perfection of this very elegant variety of the potter's art.

I forward you herewith a transcript of all such portions as can be read of a mutilated roll in the possession of Sir Joseph William Copley, of Sprotborough, in the county of York, Baronet. I am indebted for my copy to the courtesy of Charles Jackson, Esq. of Balby. The handwriting of the document is not much more modern than the date of the last instrument contained in it. It was certainly executed during the fifteenth century, probably about the middle of that period.