The volume I exhibit to-night is a folio copy on vellum of the Statutes 1st Edward III. to 23rd Henry VI., the text written in single column of thirty-eight lines and preceded by an elaborate index covering fifty-two folios. The legislation of each regnal year opens with a large initial letter painted in ultramarine upon a floriated vermilion background of penwork, which extends, in the form of flourishes, far into the margin of the page. The initial letter of the king's name in the first Act of each reign is of still larger dimensions, usually from 2½ to 3 inches square. It is, in each instance, elaborately illuminated in gold and colours, and encloses a shield of arms relieved upon a background of lake covered with delicate scrollwork in white body-colour. From the initial letter proceeds illuminated foliage completely enclosing three sides of the text.

Our Fellow and Local Secretary, Canon Greenwell, has recently devoted much time, thought, and labour to the piecing together of the broken portions of St. Cuthbert's coffin that were removed from the grave in 1827. Special attention having thus been directed to the matter, it was thought desirable that another examination of the grave should be made in order to recover, if possible, some of the missing fragments. For Dr. Raine expressly states that the new coffin provided in 1827 was “deposited in the bottom of the original grave, upon a mass of broken wood, iron rings, and iron bars, the remnants of the two outer coffins of the Saint, which had been thrown into the grave.” It was further considered that an examination of the human remains might throw some light upon the longdisputed question of the identity of the body that was placed in the grave in 1542 with that of St. Cuthbert, which had for nearly 840 years been enclosed in the coffin. After many delays, caused by the strong feeling in the minds of some whose objections rightly carried great weight, it was decided that the grave should be opened, the coffin of 1542 carefully raised, the other contents of the grave taken out, and the coffin returned to its place with its contents undisturbed.

The manuscript volume which, by the kind permission of Lord Hastings, I am enabled to exhibit this evening, is one of great value and interest. Those great antiquaries Sir F. Palgrave and Albert Way saw the volume, and while the former made a rough note of its contents, the latter contributed to the fourth volume of the Archæological Journal a valuable paper on one part. The notes of these two gentlemen have been compared with the original MS., and I have ventured, whilst giving transcripts of some portions of the volume, to add a few notes and descriptions. The manuscript, which is written on vellum, consists of fifteenth-century copies, with some illuminations, of various treatises dealing with chivalry, state, etc. These have been bound in one thick volume, which from external evidence we may suppose to have at one time belonged to that distinguished Prince, Henry, son of James I.

The defence of the liberties of Chester, which I am introducing to your notice to-night, is a defence by what we should call to-day constitutional methods. Herein it is exceptional for those times, which were used rather to the rough-and-ready defensive operations of the sword. For when William the Conqueror granted the earldom of Chester to his nephew Hugh Lupus, he granted it to him “to hold by the sword as freely as he held all England by the crown.” And if there is in this grant an allusion to the right of the Earl of Chester to carry the curtana (or sword of justice) at the Royal Coronation, there is most assuredly a further and fuller reference to the unceasing vigilance and activity which the earls had to exercise in the defence of their city against the depredations of the Welsh and the protection of the West of England from the incursions of those turbulent people.

We have the honour of laying before the Society, on behalf of the Executive-Committee of the Excavation Fund, a report of the work carried out at Silchester in 1899, being the tenth year in succession of the systematic investigation of the site.

The importance of Silchester as a seat of industrial activity has been enhanced by the discovery in 1894 of some metallurgical remains, of a unique character, which indicate that near the spot where they were found there had once been a silver refinery. Unfortunately they were not found in situ. They had been cast away as rubbish.

The village of Lacock is about three miles south of Chippenham, near the river Avon, and formed part of the extensive possessions of the first Norman Earl of Salisbury, whose heiress, Ela, was married to William Longespee, natural son of Henry II., who in her right became possessed of all the titles and possessions of her wealthy house.

The treasure described in the following notes was discovered a few years ago in a mound near the monastery of Acheripoetos (Aχειροποιητός), which is situated about six miles west of Kerynia, on the north coast of the island. It originally consisted of three larger objects and about thirty-six spoons, and the whole, with the exception of eleven or twelve spoons, has been acquired by the British Museum. The larger objects are a flat dish, possibly a paten; a basin; and a hexagonal vessel for suspension which was perhaps used as a lamp or censer.

On January 11th last (1899), while workmen under the directions of Commendatore Boni were removing the rough post-Imperial “selce,” or paving-stones, in front of the church of S. Adriano and some fifteen yards immediately east of the Arch of Severus, there came to light a pavement of black marble, rhomboidal-trapezoid in shape, and framed on three of its sides with blocks of travertine. These blocks were found to be grooved on the southern and eastern sides, and from the groove or “incassatura,” on the former of these sides, projected to the height of two feet, three contiguous slabs of white marble. They had been noticed two or three days before. It now became evident that they had been appropriated from some late imperial building and utilised in order to act as substitute for some older fence which had isolated and protected this remarkable black pavement.

The earliest mention of cards occurs in 1377, and their history during the next century is obscure. Card playing seems to have become a popular vice very soon, since it is said to have been prohibited by the Synod of Langres in 1404. In 1423 cards equally with dice were the object of a celebrated sermon by St. Bernardin of Sienna at Bologna. The saint attributes the invention of games of chance to the devil, and gives a list of games of chance, most of which were played with dice and a backgammon board.