Ironstone-digging for commercial purposes has resulted in numerous archaeological discoveries over wide areas in Northants and Rutland, as well as in certain parts of adjoining counties, but the conditions of the work render supervision difficult and delay practically impossible. The rescue of antiquities from time to time by the workmen must therefore be considered as a lucky accident, and it is only occasionally that trustworthy information as to the association of objects can be obtained. Still rarer is the preservation of an artistic specimen in a fairly perfect state, and the recent discovery of an Early British bronze mirror at Desborough is therefore notable on more than one account.

The history of the old systems of water supply in London is of considerable interest, and much of it remains untold, the material evidence being largely hidden below ground, but from time to time some important fact comes to light. This was the case ten years ago, when in a paper read before the Society and printed in Archaeologia, Mr. Norman succeeded in proving that the water supply for the convent of the Grey Friars, or Friars Minors of the Franciscan Order, in London was largely drawn from a conduit-head which still contains water and is to be seen in the garden of a house numbered 20, Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

The silver vessel here illustrated (Plate XLVII. bwas acquired many years ago by Sir A. W. Franks, and at his death passed by bequest to the British Museum. It is a deep bowl, with a cover made to be lifted by a projecting handle in the form of a quatrefoil upon a vertical stem, the height, without the cover, being 3½ inches. The whole of the exterior both of bowl and cover is richly decorated with designs in relief. Four equidistant panels each containing a large quatrefoil are enclosed by vine stems, with occasional bunches of grapes at which birds are pecking; in the interspaces between the panels the stems unite to form a lozenge containing a quatrefoil of smaller dimensions. Wherever two stems meet they are bound by collar-like bands, which are doubtless conventionalized representations of closely-twining tendrils. The design thus forms a continuous pattern well adapted to the sides of a vessel; it is repeated on a smaller scale upon the cover. The grapes, the leaves, and the bodies of the birds are all inlaid with niello. The ground throughout is gilded, as is the interior of the bowl. The bottom has been rasped or filed on the exterior, though the interior remains in its original condition. It has heen suggested that the bowl may once have had a foot.

The curious carvings to which the name “Cup-and-Ring” has been applied are very widely distributed over the globe. They are found in the British Islands, France, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe, and have been noted in India and in Fiji. They occur on natural rock surfaces, on boulders in situ, on standing stones, on cromlechs, on detached stones forming parts of chambered cairns, cist or urn covers, or built into Pictish weems or brochs; and also on grave-stones in Christian churchyards, and on the walls of churches themselves.

The silver dish reproduced on Plate XLVIII. is a small but remarkably perfect representative of its class, and was acquired by the British Museum in the course of last year. The subject is a hunting scene, introducing the Sassanian monarch Sapor II. (c. A.D. 310 to A.D. 380), the conqueror of the Emperor Julian. The king, who is recognized by the form of his headdress, is seen giving the coup de grâce to a stag, while a second stag is already laid low in the foreground. The design is parcel-gilt, and the figures are partly in relief, partly outlined upon the ground of the bowl, the details being rendered by engraving.

In April of last year I had the honour of laying before the Society a paper on Ludlow Castle.

While writing that paper my attention was drawn to certain points about the topography of the town of Ludlow, which do not seem to have been noticed before; and as these form part of an interesting chapter in the development of our town plans, I venture to submit them for the Society's consideration.

The following paper is perhaps more historical than is now customary with us, but I venture to quote in my defence the second paragraph of our charter, which commends not only the study of “Antiquity” but of the “History of former times.”

The paper chiefly describes the later connexion of the Germans with the Steelyard in London, that is from 1598, when they were turned out for a time by Queen Elizabeth, supplementing Dr. J. M. Lappenberg's book on the Hanseatic settlement here, published at Hamburg in 1851, which we have in our library. Incidentally I have written a note on the carved screen of All Hallows the Great, the parish church of the Steelyard.

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.

The evolution of the bronze spear-head in the United Kingdom is a subject of much importance in the history of the Bronze Culture in the countries which are comprised within that area. It does not appear, however, to have had the attention bestowed upon it which it demands, and the purpose of this essay is to bring together the necessary material for supplying that want, and to attempt a classification of the different forms through which the spear-head passed in Great Britain and Ireland.

Before submitting to the Society, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund, an account of the work carried out last season, I must say a few words on the loss we have sustained by the death of our two colleagues, George Edward Fox and Frederick George Hilton Price. It was chiefly on account of the interest created by our late Director's excavations on the site, of which he communicated a description to the Society in 1886 that I was able to persuade Mr. Fox to associate himself with the scheme for the complete and systematic excavation of the site which we had the honour of laying before the Society in February, 1890. With the carrying out of this scheme both our departed friends were intimately associated. As Honorary Treasurer to the Excavation Fund our late Director not only devoted a good deal of valuable time, but was himself the contributor of a handsome annual subscription to the work he had so largely inspired. Of Mr. Fox's part it is hardly necessary to speak. Most of the earlier records of our operations were written by him, and to his skill with pencil and brush we owe the beautiful drawings of architectural remains and mosaic pavements that from time to time have been enshrined in Archaeologia. Although increasing feebleness and ill health in recent years hindered our friend from visiting Silchester as often as formerly, his interest to the last was unabated, and it is sad to think that his death should have occurred within a few weeks of the end of the great work on which he had so set his heart.

The forty-sixth volume of Archaeologia contains a paper on Little Horkesley church, Essex, by Sir Clements R. Markham, with some account of the three wooden monumental effigies in that church. A carefully prepared list of the wooden monumental effigies in England and Wales is appended to that paper. This list is arranged as a topographical index, and records the existence of seventy-eight wooden effigies. Four, however, are given in error, so that this number is reduced to seventy-four. Recent research now permits nineteen more to be added to this list. Sir Clements R. Markham only refers to six wooden effigies which were destroyed; records of sixteen more, however, are now appended, and it is quite probable that this unfortunate list may have to be extended as further knowledge of our lost effigies comes to light.

The village of Basing lies in the upper Loddon Valley a mile and a half east of Basingstoke on the south bank of the river, which rises some four miles to the east, near Worting, and here runs in a flat and marshy channel. At either end of the village is a mill, the Lower Mill at the west end and Old Basing Mill at the east, near the church. A third mill mentioned in Domesday does not now exist. The ground rises gently southwards, the road running through the village along the base of the slope, and at the east end of the village is higher ground on which the church stands. At the south-west, about 500 yards from the church, are the earthworks marking the site of Basing House, and commanding at the same time the road and the approach to the bridge over the Loddon. In early days, when the river probably ran through a wider belt of marshy ground than at present, the position must have been one of great strategic importance, and in fact it continued to be so down to the time of the destruction of the house in the Civil Wars. Its strength is also witnessed to by the fact that it resisted attack after attack by the soldiers of the Parliament, and was only taken at length when the Royalist power was broken, and Cromwell himself could give all his energies to its reduction.

The excavations of 1907 were begun on 29th April, much earlier than usual, and were continued till the beginning of October, under the direction of Messrs. Ashby, Hudd, and H. L. Jones (assisted by Mr. F. King and Mr. F. G. Newton, as architects). The whole of the work has been carried out upon land belonging to Viscount Tredegar, F.S.A., President of the Caerwent Exploration Fund, to whom the warmest thanks of the Committee are again due.

The history of the foundation and building of the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick is contained (or rather was contained) in certain documents which were formerly amongst the municipal archives, but which (as I have been informed by the town clerk) are supposed to have perished in the great fire of Warwick in 1694. Fortunately full extracts from these documents are given in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire. Hence we learn that the chapel, which almost immediately adjoins the south side of the chancel of St. Mary's church, was founded and dedicated in honour of Our Lady in pursuance of the will of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1439. The earl was a man of almost European fame in his day, of great and varied achievement, and of vast wealth. His daughter Anne, who ultimately became the heiress of his only son, was the wife of Richard Neville, who also became Earl of Warwick and is well known in English history as the King-maker.