The great tower of Dudley Castle, in the West Midlands, is re-examined in order to situate it within the evolutionary sequence of great tower designs. In so doing, it is argued that the origins of its plan are to be found in the works of the early to mid-thirteenth century, and that the tower itself was probably begun during the 1260s. Furthermore, it is asserted that the tower represents a milestone in the thinking that underpinned the redevelopment of castle mottes, and that it is to be seen as the prime connection between the circle-based plans that dominated motte redevelopments in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and later developments that led, ultimately, to the radically different, but architecturally successful scheme adopted by the builder of the donjon of Warkworth Castle in Northumberland.

At the west end of the great abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul at Glastonbury are the ruins of a chapel of very remarkable character.

It was built on the site of a vetusta ecclesia dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of very great antiquity, which was consumed by fire, together with the great church and nearly all the abbey buildings, in 1184.

As the vetusta ecclesia, from its sanctity and the number of relics it contained, was a holy place much resorted to by pilgrims, its reconstruction was forthwith commenced, and carried out with such speed that “about 1186” it was ready for consecration by Reginald, bishop of Bath.

Every visitor to the abbey church of St. Alban must be struck by the more than usual quantity of armorial display; and especially that of the transepts and monks' choir. During the restoration under the late Sir George Gilbert Scott it was discovered that the painting on the ceiling of the monks' choir, a very rough production of the seventeenth century, covered an older work, which was very skilfully disclosed by peeling off the more recent film, under the auspices of Mr. Chapple, Sir Gilbert Scott's clerk of the works. The work was then carefully restored by, as far as possible, following the lines indicated. On the whole, one must concede that the result is as successful as one could expect, though there may be some lapses.

The way into the cloister of Westminster Abbey from the west is through what in the old days was the parlour, a place where the monks coming from their cloister on the east met those from outside with whom they might have business, who came from the court called The Elms on the west. Now, with its windows blocked up, its walls bare and weather-stained, and its carved and moulded work all decayed and broken, it seems a rather gloomy passage. But it was a light and beautiful room after the general rebuilding of the domestic part of the abbey, which Abbot Litlington completed with the legacy of his predecessor Cardinal Langham. It is in a line with the south walk of the cloister, and lies between the deanery—once the abbot's house—on the north, and the western part of the frater on the south. This end of the frater was walled off from the rest below and formed the pantry and buttery, above which was a gallery.

Having a very strong personal objection to the system of seat-reservation and appropriation in church, I naturally looked forward with considerable satisfaction to reading the pamphlets and works on the subject which I was told would convince me of the antiquity of the “free and open” system, and that “appropriation” and “reservation” were innovations of a comparatively-speaking recent date.

The Vase, of which a tracing is laid before the Society, has been described in the Catalogue of the Greek Vases in the Museum, although its subject could not at the time be made out, and the present memoir must be considered as an attempt to interpret its meaning, a task rendered the more difficult as there is not any distinct mention of the subject by the classical writers, and it is one transmitted only by the artists of Greece. It occurs on one of the hundred select vases presented by the late Prince of Canino to Cardinal Fesch, and subsequently ceded by the possessors to the British Museum. The Vase is of the shape called hydria or calpis, ornamented with red figures upon a black background, and its style is that usually known as the commencement of the decadence of the fictile art. It has no inscription, unfortunately, to aid in its decipherment. It was found in the sepulchres of the ancient Vulci.

Having received, from the Reverend Dr. Griffith, Rector of St. Mary Hill, the inclosed account of a curious discovery lately made at Colchester, I take the liberty to trouble you with it; that, is you esteem it at all worthy the attention of the Society, you may communicate it to them. I will only just take the liberty to add, that, in pulling down the old tower of the church at Mold, in North Wales, last year, a great quantity of grain was found buried under its foundations, in like manner; and that probably it was deposited in both places, in consequence of some ancient superstitious custom.

I have the honour to lay before the Society an Archaeological Survey, in which will be found the principal and most of the minor archaeological discoveries which have been made in the county of Kent. A work of this kind must necessarily be incomplete, as many relics of the past are being continually brought to light, and pass away unrecorded into various public and private collections, or are destroyed by ignorant and thoughtless workmen. It is hoped, however, that no important discovery has been omitted, either from the map or text, and that the general arrangement will be found convenient for reference. In order to avoid repetition of the titles of the various publications, a Bibliographical List has been given, with a key to the abbreviations, which are framed upon a plan both simple and suggestive. The signs upon the map have been made as large as its size would allow, and are marked on or near the actual sites of discoveries; but in some instances the signs have had to be placed so as to avoid obliterating names of places. It may be well to mention that where spots of different colours, indicating interments, come together in one locality, it signifies (as a rule) that remains belonging to distinct periods occurred in the same burial-place. It was deemed unnecessary to mention every individual discovery of Palaeolithic implements, a line has therefore been drawn under the name of the town or village in whose district they abound in the river-drift gravels. Discoveries of Neolithic implements have not been noticed, as they occur upon the surface in vast numbers throughout the county. British coins being of rare occurrence, have been noted, likewise hoards or large quantities of Koman coins, but single or scattered specimens have, with few exceptions, been omitted.

There is a room in Beauchamp's Tower, in the Tower of London, antiently the place of confinement for state prisoners, and which has lately been converted into a mess-room for the officers of the garrison there [a]. On this alteration being made a great number of inscriptions was discovered on the walls of the room, which probably have, for the most part, been made with nails, and are all of them, it should seem, the undoubted autographs, at different periods, of the several illustrious and unfortunate tenants of this once dreary mansion. For the discovery, as well as the preservation, of these most curious memorials, the Society stand indebted to the unremitted zeal and attention of their respectable member, Colonel Smith, F. R. S. major of the Tower of London.

The drawings (Pl. XXIII. XXIV.) which accompany this, and which I request of you to present to the Society of Antiquaries, exhibit a correct representation of the Reading Desk belonging to, and which formerly stood in, the Abbey Church of Evesham.

Surviving records afford only a very incomplete impression of the appearance of the fine Gothic cross erected by the Fraternity of the Holy Cross in the market place at Abingdon in the 1440s and destroyed by Parliamentarian troops in 1644. An early seventeenth-century painting of the Abingdon cross at Christ's Hospital in the town shows it after it had been substantially altered during restoration in 1605, but its original appearance can be partially reconstructed from what is known of the Coventry cross, set up between 1541 and 1545, which was closely modelled on the Abingdon example, the most elaborate of its type built in the fifteenth century.

Perhaps the first thing to remark about these seals is that they have suffered serious damage. Of course, anywhere seals are liable to damage. The chalky composition used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries becomes very friable with age, and sometimes seems only to be held together by the varnish; various chemical preservatives have been suggested, but it is doubtful whether they are effective. The wax of the next three centuries is very much better, and a seal free from pressure and left undisturbed should be quite perfect to-day. These conditions may often be found in the muniment boxes of corporations or old manor houses, but the public records, until their arrangement in the last century, had lain for many years in such vast piles that seals among them had a poor chance. Every one knows that the wax of seals is brittle, but it is often forgotten that it is also a liquid and will yield to any pressure, however small, if continued long enough; just as we see a block of pitch in the street sinking under its own weight, though hard to the touch. Deformation of seals is quite common, and occasionally two or more have coalesced. Cotton-wool is a good protection against concussion, but it is harder than wax and will penetrate it under pressure; while, on the other hand, the cases of wood or metal known as skippets are protection against deformation, but not so much against concussion.

Some time since, among what are known as “the Shrewsbury Papers,” preserved in the Library of Lambeth Palace, then in the care of that learned and acute antiquary, the Rev. S. R. Maitland, I met with a very singular letter, no where noticed, respecting an interview between Henry VIII. and the Countess Dowager of Northumberland. She was Mary the daughter of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who came to the title in 1473, and did not die until 1541: her husband had been Henry Algernon Percy, grandson of the Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who was killed by the populace in 1489, and son of Henry Algernon Percy, at whose instance, and under whose patronage, Skelton wrote the poem which comes second in the recent edition by the Rev. Alexander Dyce.

The troubles in the Low Countries in the second half of the sixteenth century, occasioned by the progress of the reformation of religion, caused a large emigration to this country of Protestants, who settled, by special permission of the crown, in London, Norwich, and other places. Among these was a printer named Anthony de Solen, Solempne, de la Solemme or Solemne, who came to England in 1567 from Brabant, with his wife and two sons.

“There has been a find of about 215 silver pennies, also four rings set with gems, a ring twisted like a wreath, a ring with crosses on it, and a gimmal ring (at least one with a hand like a gimmal ring), and a brooch double-wreathed, with a tongue something like what I saw when young in peasants' shirts, to keep the two parts together at the breast.

In the summer of 1907, during the construction of a new road (called South Cliff Parade) situated on top of the cliffs, at a distance of about 40 yards from the sea, between Dumpton Gap and East Cliff Lodge, there was found a number of V-shaped trenches cut in the chalk subsoil, and running transversely across the site of the road. They came into view as soon as the loamy soil, which was about 12 inches in depth, was removed from the surface of the ground. Prior to the construction of the road the land had been in cultivation, and there was no evidence whatever on the surface, in the shape of mounds or depressions, to indicate the presence of any earthworks beneath. The new road above referred to begins at Dumpton Gap, and proceeds in a southerly direction for about 600 yards. (Plate LV.) It is slightly undulating, and rises to a height of about 100 feet above sea level at its highest point, while the land gently slopes towards the sea from west to east. At about 150 yards from the starting point there was found the first indication of the ground having been previously excavated, and here was met with what appears to be the fosse which surrounded the prehistoric village. It ran in a diagonal direction from south-west to north-east, across the line of the new road in course of construction. It was 22 feet wide, about 4 feet 6 inches deep, and had been excavated in the chalk.

In attempting to investigate the origin and history of the bayonet, we encounter, at the outset, considerable difficulty; even the derivation of its name is involved in obscurity. In the dictionary of Cotgrave, first published in 1611, we find, “Bayonnette, a kind of small flat pocket-dagger, furnished with knives; or a great knife to hang at the girdle, like a dagger.” The same authority gives us “Bayonnier, as arbalestier (an old word).” In the “Glossaire de la Langue Romane,” of Roquefort, “Baionier” is explained as a crossbow-man. Neither of these words occurs in the dictionary of Palsgrave, published in 1530.