The Rev. Mr. Todd, to whose kindness I was lately indebted for the opportunity of communicating to the Society the representation of a very ancient and curious Font in Yorkshire, has now requested me to present in his name three Drawings of other antiquities in that county, which have been executed for him by Mr. Barton, a young artist of promising talents.

By the kindness of Mr. Bennett, of Norwich, I am permitted to exhibit to the Society a Document connected with Scottish History, which I had the honour to shew to your Lordship last week, and which is certainly rendered interesting by the characters of the parties to whom it relates.

Through the favour of Mr. Bennett, of Norwich, who lately permitted me to exhibit a curious Instrument under the Seal of Mary Queen of Scots, I now inclose to you two other historical Documents, which you will be good enough to lay before the Society, if you should consider them to be of sufficient interest.

In arranging some loose Papers in the Chapter-house, Westminster, preparatory to their being bound for their better preservation, I met with several respecting the Interview between King Henry the Eighth of England, and Francis the First of France. Some of them were merely draughts, incomplete, and of no great interest; but others appeared to me not undeserving of being laid before our Society. I have caused them, therefore, to be carefully transcribed, and send them herewith, requesting, when convenient, you will have the goodness to read them to the Society.

Having lately had occasion to refer to the celebrated Letter written to Pope Boniface the Eighth, by the Barons of this Country, assembled in the Parliament which met at Lincoln in the 29th Edw. I. anno 1301, the series of Plates engraved by order of the Society of Antiquaries in 1729, containing drawings of the Seals affixed to the Documents preserved in the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, and which it is presumed are official duplicates of the original Letter, necessarily became an object of my attention. Through the kindness of my friend John Caley, Esq. F. R. S. and F. S. A. access has been afforded me to both these Documents, by which I have been enabled carefully to collate the engravings with the Seals as they now exist; and as I believe no remarks on the subject have ever been offered to the Society, I am induced to address to you such observations as a minute examination of them have produced.

By the kindness of the present, possessor, Andrew Fountaine, Esq. of Narford, I am enabled to lay before the Society of Antiquaries a domestick Record, which will probably be considered as having a legitimate claim to their attention. It is an Inventory of the Effects of Sir John Fastolfe, who stands enrolled among the heroes of Agincourt, and obtained still further renown as a brave and successful commander in the French wars of Henry the Sixth. His name, however, is now perhaps better remembered by its near resemblance to the fictitious one which Shakspeare bestowed on the wittiest and most delightful character of the comic Stage. This resemblance indeed, which, whether accidental or otherwise, has given rise to much fruitless controversy, begins and ends with the name, for the gravity of Sir John Fastolfe appears to have been as remarkable as his courage, prudence, piety, and hospitality.

I beg leave to transmit to you the accompanying volume, which in the absence of more important objects of attention, you will, perhaps, do me the favour to lay before the President and Society of Antiquaries.

About twenty years ago I copied a transcript, made as long previous, from an original Deed of Gift by Wenwynwyn the son of Owain Cyveiliawg, a Powysian Prince, to the Abbey of Ystrad Marchel in the year 1201, at that time in the possession of a Mr. Edward Herbert, of Montgomery. Whether it be still preserved by his family or what has been its fate, perhaps some of our Members connected with the Principality may know, but on that head I am in utter ignorance. I regret, therefore, that what I am able to send you is incomplete, wanting the final clause and attestation.

The Society of Antiquaries has recently been presented with one or two Communications of considerable interest respecting Westminster: and in the absence of any thing more important, I beg to lay before it the Transcript of a Scheme, projected in 1561, for constructing a House of Correction for that City. The original is preserved among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum, and is endorsed, as for consideration, in the hand-writing of Lord Burghley.

I beg leave, through your assistance, to call the attention of the Society of Antiquaries to an interesting Roman remain which I lately noticed whilst tracing the line of Antonine's Vallum from Bowness to Old Kilpatrick.

It is known to every person acquainted with the history of the reign of Edward the Sixth, that in the year 1547 the famous Peter Martyr and Bernardinus Ochin, in consequence of their zeal for the reformed Faith, were invited to this Country; that the former was in the following year appointed Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford; and that Ochin was nominated a Prebendary of the Cathedral of Canterbury by Archbishop Cranmer, on the 9th May 1548.

Herewith I have the honour to send you Copies of two Letters of considerable interest; and as they have never, I believe, been before noticed, I presume that they will form an acceptable communication to the Society of Antiquaries.

From the imperfect and often contradictory accounts given by Chroniclers of events which occurred in early periods of English History, our knowledge of even the most important of them is confined and unsatisfactory. Nor do the invaluable records preserved in the Fædera always reconcile discrepancies, or present a connected narrative of transactions, however much they corroborate or establish particular facts.

The accompanying Drawing (Pl. XXII.), which I beg leave to exhibit to your Lordship and the Society, was made in the autumn of 1824, from an Effigy then lately discovered in the church of Stevenage in the county of Hertford.

It is well known that Julius Cæsar made two military expeditions to Britain, in the autumns of two consecutive years, [B.C. 55 and 54]. His place of embarkation in Gaul, was Portus Itius for his infantry (lib. v. 2, 5.), and another port (not named) eight miles distant from it, probably Boulogne for his cavalry (lib. iv. 22). M. D'Anville has decided that Portus Itius was Witsand Bay, situated between the Capes of Grisnez and Blancnez; and directly facing Dover. Cæsar says that it was at the point nearest to Britain. Boulogne might perhaps have been a more convenient place for embarking cavalry.

In the paucity of Communications I take the liberty of placing before your Lordship and the Society of Antiquaries, a Copy of a Plan proposed to Queen Elizabeth by Sir Humphry Gilbert, for instituting what is called a London Academy, that is an University in the Metropolis, upon a scale of considerable magnitude, with no mean pay to the Professors of Learning. My Transcript is made from the manuscript Proposal which was actually presented. It has Lord Burghley's indorsement upon it; but is without date.

I beg to be permitted to address a few observations to you on the subject of the Origin of the Pointed Arch in Architecture.

It may perhaps appear presumptuous in me to mingle in a controversy which has already attracted the enquiries and exercised the acuteness of many, whose information and ability have better qualified them for pursuing their researches with success: but as it seems to be thought by many that the question has not yet received a satisfactory solution, I trust I shall not be deemed an inexcusable trespasser upon your indulgence, if, in the hope of throwing some additional light upon that difficult subject, I solicit your attention to a quarter to which no one, I believe, has hitherto resorted for information; I allude, Sir to the interesting remains of Saracen Architecture, which are to be found at this day in Sicily.