I beg leave to request the attention of the Society whilst I hazard a conjecture upon the nature of the personage intended to be represented on the beautiful and singularly curious relic of antient art, exhibited by Mr. Townly from his rich and unparalleled collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.

I send you inclosed a small specimen of African manuscripst, which I obtained from one of the natives of that quarter of the globe, on a voyage into Sierra Leone River, in the year 1795. Pieces of manuscript of a similar kind are in general use among a tribe of Africans, called Mandingos, who inhabit a part of Africa, situated about one hundred miles to the northward of the British colony at Sierra Leone. They are commonly folded into a smali compass, and inclosed in little leathern cases, to which are fixed leathern thongs, by means of which they are hung, and constantly worn, round either the necks or waists of the Mandingos.

I have in several dissertations already treated of some of the Anglo-Norman Trouveres of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As a pursuit of this kind must of necessity throw great light on the literary history of England in an age of such obscurity, I am convinced that my researches of this nature must be exceedingly welcome to you; and it is with the greatest pleasure that I take the present moment to communicate to you this part of my labours on the poets of the thirteenth century.

If the subject which I take in hand appears little interesting at a time when the reigning spirit of several nations is far more disposed to destroy all the monuments of the piety of their ancestors, than to preserve any memory of them, and has already destroyed the greatest part of these I am going to mention; I hope it will appear in a different light to the learned Society of Antiquaries, whose chief care is to collect and preserve to futurity a faithful remembrance of whatever concerns former ages.

If a time should ever come when an exact account of this small part of the British nation shall be found interesting, the following lists of these establishments, collected with care and exactness, may not prove unwelcome, as they may lead to sources where a complete account of each of them may be found.

I shall make no farther apology for this essay than to beg it may be considered rather as a testimony of my profound respect for the learned Society to which I have the honour of presenting it, than for any intrinsic value which I attribute to it.

You will do me a great favour in laying the underwritten before the Society of Antiquaries; it is the result of what I saw remarkable in the register books of the parish of St. Benedict, usually called St. Bennet's, St. Paul's Wharf, London. The registers do not commence until after the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The antient monument, of which I have now the honour to transmit to the Society a description, was brought into England about the year 1777 by a gentleman of the name of Turnbull, who had resided a considerable time at Smyrna, had travelled through Egypt, and visited most of the Grecian cities and islands. This and other specimens of antiquity, chiefly Egyptian, at his death, he bequeathed to Dr. Garthshore, by whose indulgence I have been permitted the use of them; but as they were bequeathed without any history as to the places from whence they cames or as to the manner in which they were obtained, we can gain no other information concerning them, than what is to be gathered from the antiquities themselves.

There are but few subjects of architectural art to be met with in this kingdom which were executed from the period of the departure of the Romans to the reign of king Alfred; and indeed the records are but few, and rather barren, to which any reference can be made, or which are to be relied upon with respect to them. The writings of venerable Bede, the Book of Domesday, and a few others, have, however, transmitted authorities on which some dependance may be placed. With respect to buildings, their descriptions are generally short, and leave much room for conjecture; yet a sufficiency may be gathered from them in several instances to assist the Antiquary in his researches. The following extract from Domesday Book shews that the manor of Melbourne in the county of Derby (which lieth in the hundred and deanry of Repton, and is in the diocese of Litchfield and Coventry) [a] is an ancient demesne of the crown, under the head of Terra Regis.

The high veneration I feel for the character and principles of our renowned Alfred, led me, whilst we were quartered in Winchester last year, to make the discovery of his tomb an object of research.

History informs us, that Alfred and his queen Alfwitha were buried in the church of Newanminster, which he founded and began, and which after his death was finished by Edward the elder, who was also interred near his father.

Herewith I send you a transcript of a record in the Tower, which contains a pardon for Cecilia Rigeway, who was indicted, at the assizes at Nottingham in 1357, for the murder of her husband, and because she would not plead, sentence was passed upon her, and she was remanded back to prison, where she remained, as the record states, for forty days without sustenance.

First, the stewarde of houshould is to make all forraine provisions whatsoever, and to see them brought into the house and then to acquainte the comptroller therewith, as his chardge.

Hee is further to see what demeanes of his lordes is most meete to bee taken into his hanndes so well for meddowe, pasture, as earable, and those to bee imployed to his lordes best proffitte.

Page 68, 3d line from the bottom, after the word “Confinements” put a comma instead of a full stop.

369, for “dte” 8th line from top, read “dates.”

372, for “fevral” 3d line from top, read “feveral.”