The linear patterns on British mirrors and other bronzes show with what zest the Celtic craftsmen of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. copied and adapted the triquetral design in relief exemplified on the well-known bronze plaque from Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey (fig. 1).

On the other hand, the evidence for the continued use and development of this attractive asymmetric motif in plastic art is but slight, and any additional example of fine metalwork thus decorated is welcome.

Such a specimen, an open-work disc in cast bronze, is here figured (pl. I). It is mentioned by our Fellow Mr. E. T. Leeds in his Celtic Ornament (p. 56), and this led the writer to ask our Fellow Mr. D. B. Harden, Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, for facilities for its study, and thereafter for permission to publish, both requests being readily granted. The Museum number is N.C. 448. The disc appears, Mr. Harden tells me, in a catalogue of c. 1879–80, at which time, apparently, its origin and date of accession were unknown, as they were left blank in the catalogue.

I have not found it easy, in the annual chronicles which I have already had the honour to recount, to decide which activity, which occasion, should have pride of place. In preparing this third anniversary address I had no doubts; the increased comfort provided for Fellows (until heating of any sort was denied us) is my opening theme. I extol not only the improved lighting but more particularly the circulating warmth in the library during the past severe winter. The effect on Man of radiant heat in a library may, I hope, be likened to that of sherris sack in a tavern, concerning which you will recall the immortal prognosis: ‘it ascends even into the brain, making it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes’.

The development of domestic architecture in Oxford during the late medieval and sub-medieval periods, that is to say, from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century, will be discussed in the following paper, with a double purpose in view. The first purpose is to report on a certain amount of research work done on old Oxford houses during the last ten years, in which a good many people have taken part. The second purpose is to sketch a plan of campaign, or to indicate certain lines of investigation and classification, which might, I think, mutatis mutandis, be applied to other towns. We badly need a systematic survey of the old houses in various towns in England, with plans, elevations, sections, and analyses. This is particularly needed at a time when so much is in danger of destruction, and it is a work which one hopes the Society of Antiquaries may encourage.

A doctorate thesis sets out the history of towns of Narbonensis prima, Toulouse, Narbonne, Beziers, Agde, and Nîmes, from the Germanic invasions to the second half of the twelfth century. The interest of the work is that it follows, with the aid of archaeological documentation, the stages in the topographic and material development of these towns, which from the fifth century on were attacked by a progressive paralysis, culminating in absolute decay. The Mahometan invasion appears to have had the most disastrous effects in Languedoc. A certain revival manifests itself in the Carolingian period, but is soon countered by the progress of Islam in the Mediterranean and the rise of the feudal system. In this well-defined geographical unit, which is circumscribed by the Rhône, the Ardèche, the Cevennes, part of the Garonne, the Pyrenees, and the Mediterranean, the dominant role belongs to the towns of central and eastern Narbonensis, which were directly in contact with Rome and Italy. The western part of the province, which borders on the old post-Hallstatt cultural centre, has felt Roman influence less strongly and remains a sort of March-land with considerations of security predominating.

There is, in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, part of the Franks bequest, an illustrated manuscript by Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden in Pluckley, Kent, of monuments (mainly brasses) and heraldry in various Kent churches noted by him from 1628 to 1634. The Surrenden copy of Philipot's 1619 Visitation of Kent, in Sir Edward's handwriting, was sold, with other manuscripts from Surrenden, at Sotheby's in 1865, the first dispersal of the Dering library having occurred in 1811. J. J. Howard possessed a copy of it which has recently come to rest, as part of the Elgood bequest, in the library of the Kent Archaeological Society at Maidstone. Some pedigrees have been maintained to about the date of this church visitation, and from the note under Robert Master of Willesborough ‘vid: booke of Monuments in Churches’ (he is duly entered in 1628 on folio 28), it is possible that the whole of Philipot's visitation was copied at about that date. Some of the drawings from this Book of Monuments were illustrated in volumes i and ii of Archaeologia Cantiana, at the instigation of the Rev. Mr. Lambert Larking, from facsimiles made of the whole manuscript by Mr. Herbert Smith. The Society of Antiquaries' manuscript is Smith's copy, and his notes on folio 5 and 5a establish the fact; in all his published illustrations, however, there are minor but obvious differences from the manuscript.

The following report is a summary of work carried out on the site of the Roman Settlement at Bitterne Manor, Southampton, during the summers of 1937–8. It is hoped that the excavation will be the first of a series of small trial diggings to exploit the potentialities of the site, leaving to more capable hands the task of fully elucidating the history of the Roman town.

The advent of the recent war put a complete stop to those archaeological investigations which were either in hand or for which plans had already been made.

Nevertheless, it is true to say that, as a direct result of the war, many archaeological sites were discovered and excavated which otherwise would have remained unnoticed or undug. A good example of such a case is afforded in the present instance.

Peace-time racegoers are well familiar with the large tree-clad hill which dominates the course at Sandown Park, Esher, and is known as the Warren. This hill is flat-topped and rises steeply more than 100 ft. above the river Mole, having its highest point at 165 ft. above O.D. (fig. I).

The core of the hill is composed of Bagshot Sand and, as a consequence, erosion has had a free hand in the past whenever the cloak of vegetation has been absent. The topmost portion of the hill still retains a thin veneer of Plateau Gravel amounting, in places, to 2 ft. 6 in. in thickness.

The timber and undergrowth which to-day cover the whole of the hill and the entire absence of any surface indications made the area seem a most unprofitable site to dig into.

The tomb of Archbishop Chicheley, founder of All Souls College, Oxford, who died in 1443, has always been maintained by that college. Repairs to it are known to have taken place in 1662–4, sometime about 1836, and, somewhat drastically, in 1897.

In 1937 I illustrated and described in this Journal two Anglo-Saxon urns from the collection of our Fellow, the late Mr. V. B. Crowther-Beynon. The urns, which had once belonged to Captain Arthur Trollope of Lincoln, had been rescued in fragments by Mr. Crowther-Beynon together with other debris from the Captain's collection when the latter's daughters vacated the rectory at Edith Weston, Rutland, on the death of their brother, Rev. Andrew Trollope, in 1896. No record remained of their original findspot, but in view of Arthur Trollope's Lincolnshire associations we thought it safe to publish them as coming from that county. Though Mr. Crowther-Beynon was rightly more cautious, I was myself rash enough to suggest that they might have come from Lincoln itself since another Anglo-Saxon urn which Trollope possessed (now in Lincoln Museum) was believed to have been found in the Eastgate not far from his house in that city.

The standard corpus of English Romanesque and Gothic mouldings is that of Edmund Sharpe: The Mouldings of the Six Periods of British Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation, 1871. This work was never completed, and is particularly defective for the period after 1350, also unrepresented in Sharpe's Architectural Parallels, 1848. F. A. Paley's Manual of Gothic Mouldings contains profiles on small and diverse scales, and the sources of many examples are not given; of greater general use is the appendix of mouldings in Francis Bond, Gothic Architecture in England, 1906, but no dates are indicated, and many of the specimens are chosen from buildings of very uncertain date. So far as I am aware, no collection has yet been prepared to illustrate the mouldings used by one master mason or by one school. What follows is an attempt to relate a number of details and mouldings to a particular master and to closely approximate dates. In the hope that similar collections will be formed from the work of other schools, I mention the few rules to which I have adhered:

1. To include as primary evidence details attributable on documentary grounds to a specific master mason.

2. To include for comparison similar details which

(a) can be connected with the master on definite but inconclusive evidence;

(b) are known to be of comparable date;

(c) have peculiarities suggesting a closely cognate origin.

3. To draw all mouldings to a uniform scale of not less than one-eighth full size (1½ in. to 1 ft.).

4. To give the source, date, and master (where known) of each example on the drawing itself.

The kiln was first brought to the notice of the Archaeological Research Committee by Mr. F. W. Brookes, who had observed wasters and kiln debris in the rabbit scrapes. The excavation was included in the Committee's first year's programme as it was felt that the pottery would provide a useful dating guide for the upper levels of the Roman city and at the same time give excellent training to the small but enthusiastic band of volunteers at that time being brought together.