Stanley, Co. Glos., is a village on the western slope of a spur of the Cotswolds one and a half miles north of Stonehouse. The village and parish are commonly called Leonard Stanley or Stanley St. Leonards to distinguish them from the next parish of King's Stanley as well as from the Wiltshire Stanley where there was also a conventual house. Occasionally it appears as Stanley Monachorum. But generally it was simply Stanley, and Stanley without qualification is the name which local lips often assign to it even at the present day.

Stanley St. Leonards can boast of two most interesting churches. The older church, now degraded to farm-yard purposes, was the ancient preconquest rectory church, but it is small, a chapel in fact, and therefore, following medieval usage, we shall distinguish it from the greater monastic and present parish church by naming it as the chapel of St. Leonard.

So far as is known the earliest Norman Kings had only one seal with which to authenticate any written orders or communications which issued in their name: under his Great Seal the King would agree to a treaty or order payment for his wine, summon a sheriff to account or bestow an earldom, arrange his own marriage or the legal affairs of one of his subjects; and in the original documents under this seal which have survived to us from the twelfth century, even in those which we find in the enrolments of the early thirteenth, may be traced every important element which we find in executive administration by Government departments to-day; not to mention those which might be discerned in the private correspondence of the sovereign. But very early it was found that it was impossible for one seal to deal with the resulting mass of business or to cope with the situation which arose when the King (with the Chancellor in his company) was absent from the usual seat of Government: the Dialogus de Scaccario tells us that already in the twelfth century there was a second seal which was kept by the Chancellor in the Treasury per vicarium As executive business developed and increased in succeeding centuries other seal developments followed: notably the addition to the resources of royal administration of the Privy and Secret Seals and of the Signets, which are the direct ancestors of the seals that still symbolize the authority of a secretary of state. But meanwhile the principle of dividing the Great Seal itself was also extended and much used: and it is with these deputies or departmental versions of the Great Seal that the present article is to deal.

Among the ancient compotuses in the Exchequer which have been lately brought to light by the exertions of the Honourable Board of Commissioners on the Public Records, are several which relate to the measures taken by King Edward the Third to bring to justice Sir Thomas de Gournay, the principal actor, as was alleged, in the murder of his father in Berkeley Castle: and as they place the circumstances of his capture, and his ultimate fate, in a light entirely different from that in which they are placed by the old Chroniclers De la Moor and Walsingham, and by modern historians, who, in addition to the Chronicles, have had the benefit of the letters relating to this affair which are printed in the Fœdera, it has occurred to me, that it might be acceptable to the Society of Antiquaries if I were to lay a summary of the contents of these documents before it.

Perhaps there is no individual, in the whole course of English History, whose character and pretensions have been enveloped in greater mystery, or occasioned more discussion, than those of the person who in the reign of King Henry the Seventh assumed the title of Richard Duke of York, and who is better known under the name of Perkin Warbeck. On both sides of the question—his being really heir, to the Crown, or an artful impostor—have appeared many able writers, and the controversy may yet scarcely be deemed decided. On the former side are the respectable names of Buck, Carte, Walpole, Henry (?), Laing, and Bayley; whilst on the other we have the united voices of all the early historians, and in more recent times, the authorities of Hume, Lingard, Sharon Turner, and Nicolas. It would be very easy, as Dr. Henry justly remarks, for us to adopt either of the two opinions, and support it by plausible arguments, but not so easy to establish its truth in such a manner as to leave no doubt on the subject. The advocates for Perkin's claims have derived a great advantage from the absence hitherto of those contemporary documents which might substantiate or refute the statements of the Tudor chroniclers, and have continually questioned the authenticity of the narrative, on the ground of its being the invention of the writer, or adopted from motives of political expediency. Any papers therefore which may assist us in forming a clearer judgment of this “mysterious personage,” or throw even a feeble ray on the obscurity with which the transactions of that period are clouded, appear to me to behighly deserving of attention; and with this view it is that I take the liberty of laying before the Society copies of some original documents, part of which have recently been brought to light, and the remainder (probably from the difficulty of decyphering them, or from other causes) hitherto unnoticed by all our historians.

The charter which is illustrated in pl. xviii is a grant by King Edward I to Roger de Pilkington and his heirs of free warren in their demesne lands of Pilkington and elsewhere in the county of Lancaster. The grantee was the son of Alexander de Pilkington, whom he succeeded at some date after 1282. He was a knight of the shire for Lancashire in 1316; and an adherent of Thomas earl of Lancaster, being imprisoned after the battle of Boroughbridge, and dying shortly afterwards. In Feb. 1289–90 he was granted for his services in Gascony 100 li from the first wardships which fell in on the south side of Trent; and in June 1291 he was granted the present charter. In the following year he was summoned to Lancaster to show to the justices itinerant by what warrant he claimed free warren in Pilkington and elsewhere, and he successfully exhibited to them the actual charter which is the subject of this note.

It cannot but be in the recollection of this learned Society, that an account of a Roman Horologium, the only one then supposed to be existing, was given in a Letter from the late Beaupré Bell, Esq. to the late Roger Gale, Esq. and published in the Archæologia, Vol. VI. p. 133. It appears to have been a solar dial fixed at some station near Taloire or Annecy, protected by a building, and that building guarded by a fence or palisade, and attended by an officer, or servant, to give notice of the hours. Mr. Gale has collected, and this inscription furnishes, many curious particulars respecting this instrument for measuring time; compared to which the simplest and rudest modern clock, or even the first contrived clock, would be a wonderful machine.

In reflecting on the works of several writers on our British antiquities who have gone before us, the public must allow great merit to the laudable zeal and painful industry shewn in their researches. It is, however, to be lamented, that, though a great deal of useful knowledge and curious information is to be derived from them, yet an injudicious mixture of matter in some, an imperfect collection in others, and an ill arrangement in most, have left much to be reformed, and much to be supplied, by the care and exactness of other writers.

You are aware that I have, at intervals, employed myself a good deal in the manuscript room of the British Museum, during the last four years, in researches among the Illuminated MSS. of the fifteenth century, on the subject of Costume; for the purpose of helping me to form a right judgment of the ages and country of certain books of wood-engravings, which are known by bibliographers under the name of Block-Books; and are commonly supposed to have given rise to the invention of Typography: for the controversy concerning this subject has long occupied my attention; and, although so many books have been written upon it during the last two centuries, I have become more and more persuaded, that the evidence on both sides must be subjected to a nicer examination, and sifting, than it has yet had, before we can hope to come to a right decision concerning it.

At the close of the year 1834, my attention was drawn to the excavations then in progress for sewers, and foundations of houses, in the extensive City improvements, from conviction, founded on former observations, but which opportunity did not then admit my taking advantage of, that the projected line of work at depths varying from twenty to fifty feet, could not fail to afford the means for obtaining some additional and corroborating information illustrative of the ancient occupation of the soil; and, finding that investigation was likley to be attended with some little success, I persevered in examining with all possible diligence the several excavations, and now submit to your notice, though necessarily in an abridged shape, an account of the result of my labours. I shall venture no further on your patience than will be consistent with recording the principal features in the City discoveries, without theorising or wandering from a statement of facts.

In the month of December 1794, a labourer, employed to dig a drain through a marshy piece of ground, on the south side of the Quantock Hills in Somersetshire, found, about six feet beneath the surface, two rings, one lying on the other; within each of which was placed a celt, as represented in the annexed plate; he took them away with him when he left work; and on his return the following day he perceived the ground, where they had lain, was sunk, as if it had been hollow underneath: unfortunately, he searched no further. Of these curious articles of antient workmanship two celts, and one ring, which proved to be a torques, [Pl. XXIII.fig. 2.] were soon after sent to me; the other torques, I understand, is in the possession of the owner of the estate. Concluding from the circumstance of the ground's sinking, that bones, or other sepulchral relicks, might be found, I obtained permission to open the place; which I accordingly did with the person who had made the discovery, but without success. This may, in some degree, be ascribed to a road having been made, and to other difficulties in ascertaining the exact spot which we were anxious to explore.

King Henry VIII's court provided a musically rich and diverse environment, in which the King was apparently an active participant, although care is needed in interpreting evidence for this. He played instruments, sang and composed music, promoted its performance and learning, and employed numerous English and foreign musicians as well as maintaining an accomplished Chapel Royal. Evidence from the Inventory of 1547 points to him having possessed various musical instruments and books possibly containing music. Many of the latter were for Chapel Royal use. Henry VIII's compositions raise questions about originality, technique and means of performance. Editorial treatment of his music has been influenced by the perceptions and expectations of later commentators and musicians.

From time to time during the past 150 years traces of Saxon burials have been discovered at Hawks Hill, Fetcham, Surrey, and in the year 1907 a Saxon cemetery was definitely located there. The hill stands at an elevation of 300 ft. above sea-level, and overlooks the valley of the Mole; and the conclusion arrived at in 1907 was that it was the burial-ground of a Saxon population, which probably had its settlement at the foot of the hill, in the valley of the Mole, during the fifth and sixth centuries A.D.

In 1958 a rescue excavation was carried out by Miss Mary Rennie, on behalf of the Ministry of Works, in the southern half of Parsonage Field, off the Watermoor Road, on ground now covered by the County Health Centre. Here the remains of a Roman building of some size were partly examined and an interesting mosaic pavement of geometric design and late date was uncovered. In that same year the Cirencester Roman Excavation Committee was set up.