There are few districts which can compete with north Oxfordshire in respect to the number of beautiful churches rich in architectural details, and still retaining much of the ornate work so lavishly bestowed upon them during the middle ages; and Banbury, once itself possessing a magnificent church, may well be selected as a convenient centre for the student of our ecclesiastical architecture.

On the 15th July, 1099, Jerusalem was captured from the infidels by the knights and soldiers of the First Crusade. The decisive attack was delivered from a remarkable wooden tower, designed and constructed by Guglielmo Embriaco, commander of the Genoese. There were days and I dare say weeks of rejoicing by the victorious host, and then it began to melt away. The object of the crusade seemed to have been attained; in batches large or small the crusaders returned to their homes by sea or by land. Thus when Baldwin became king of Jerusalem he had only three hundred horse and as many foot soldiers left to defend the city, and it must have fallen if the Saracens had delivered an attack. Just at this time, in the spring of 1101, a Genoese fleet of thirty-six galleys, six ships, and eight thousand fighting men, under the aforesaid Admiral Guglielmo Embriaco arrived at Jaffa. It will easily be understood that the crusade itself and the consequent settlement of parts of Palestine and Syria by European immigrants had created a considerable opportunity for trade between the Levant and Italy. Venice had already a strong position at Constantinople, and practically controlled the trade from that capital. The Pisans had made good their position at Antioch and thereabouts. The Genoese realized that, if a share of this lucrative trade was to be theirs, it behoved them to bestir themselves and obtain privileges for the South.

The Dolmen goddess, who is represented in somewhat varying forms on the statue-menhirs of France, is of doubtful origin. M. Salomon Reinach suggests the western world: M. Déchelette, in his Manuel d'Archéologie, favours the eastern, and says that as the cult becomes more sporadic the farther it spreads from the regions of the Mediterranean, so should its origin be sought in a region neighbouring the Aegean littoral, or at least further south than France; he refers to finds of Sir Arthur Evans in Crete, and Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik. M. Louis Siret would persuade us that the earliest and less distinct figures on the stones represent but primitive symbols of the deified elements.

Some few hundred yards west of Minster church there is a small farm known as ‘Watchester’, a name which is significant and suggests the place has a Roman origin. Standing there and looking south over the flat expanse of the Minster Marshes, one can well imagine it the landing-place of vessels when the area was covered by the sea. Northwards from this village the road leading to Birchington is doubtless also Roman; almost at the top of the first hill, in digging graves in the modern cemetery, many fragments and complete vessels of pottery have for some years past been unearthed.

A study of this great earthwork proves that at some period of our history a resident people or a retiring nation wished to cut off the whole of south-west England from a northern enemy. To accomplish this purpose a huge bank with its ditch to the north was carried from near Portishead in Somerset right across Wiltshire, ending somewhere near Andover (Hants), between which place and the sea the low-lying watery valleys of the Anton and Test would in themselves be sufficient protection without an earthwork: thus the whole of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, together with parts of Wilts, Somerset, and Hampshire, were shut in and completely protected. After drawing the above line on a map it will at once be noticed that the usual rule of human effort—to do things with the least possible labour— has not been followed, as the left flank of the dyke, instead of resting on the Avon at or near Bath, has been at great labour carried across the stony Somerset hills to the open sea: this extra length was dictated by some powerful reason, the explanation being (as I read the evidence) that the enemy was in command of a fleet of small boats by which they could at any time land on the southern bank of the Avon (the Somerset shore). To guard against this the dyke Was built south of and above the Avon valley: we may suppose also that the invaders were without boats large enough to face the open sea or that the inhabitants of the Somerset and Devon shores were numerous or brave enough to defend themselves.

At the time when I presented my last report the excavation of the ditch had nearly reached a point where the avenue approaches it. In anticipation of our arrival at this position the top of the counterscarp had been laid bare for —a width of 2 ft. in order that a good view of the avenue end, both in plan and section, might be obtained. The details shown were, however, disappointing, for when the south-east trench of the avenue appeared it presented an insignificant-looking, angular section in the bank about 18 in. deep and 3 ft. wide in top measurement, the apex of the angle cutting a groove in the solid chalk below. Where the extremity of the groove approached the ditch it ended at 8 in. from the side, leaving a ridge of undisturbed chalk, and indicating that the ditch was of earlier construction. The contents of the ditch showed that there had been no attempt to carry the avenue across it, nor was there any sign of it on the opposite side. The avenue bank was barely discernible and it is rather doubtful if it came quite to the edge of the ditch. It gave the impression that when making it the builders allowed their work to fade out as they approached the edge. The ditch continued an unaltered course independently of the proximity of the avenue.

The site adjoining the septic tanks and filters of the Byfleet and Pyrford sewage works was, on the occasion of some discoveries in 1922-3, described in the press as a Pottery-village, but has now been shown to have been occupied in the late Neolithic and Early Iron Ages by pit-dwellers who left behind plentiful traces of their culture in the shape of potsherds, and manufactured pottery on the spot, as four large kilns were uncovered and one small one, made expressly for firing the largest urn (fig. 7 A). The recovery of these relics is due to Mr. A. Choate, Engineer-in-charge of the pumping station about half a mile distant, aided by his family and others, their careful excavation and assembling of the pottery (mostly in small fragments) deserving special commendation. A representative selection of the two periods concerned has been ceded to the British Museum, and this is the first description of a discovery that adds its quota to our knowledge of local conditions in prehistoric times.