The little ivory figure which our Fellow Captain Acland, curator of the Dorset County Museum at Dorchester, has been kind enough to allow me to show here this evening is certainly of very remarkable beauty and interest (pl. XXIX, 1). It has not hitherto been published or described in any way. In its present state it measures just over five and an eighth inches in height (thirteen centimetres), and the missing feet would I suppose have brought it up to about six inches. It is carved in morse ivory (walrus-tooth) which has acquired an exquisite greyish-brown patina giving it something of the appearance of onyx. There is a rather serious split running all round the edge. The surface, except in the few places where it has been worn away, is highly polished and has been worked with the utmost delicacy, particularly noticeable in the hair, in the elaborately folded drapery over the right thigh and knee, and in the uncovered right hand. The face has been slightly rubbed, but the left side is still in the main well preserved, and has a curious flavour of archaic Greek sculpture about it. The eyes are drilled out, evidently for the insertion of small beads of jet or black glass.

One of the most revolutionary reconstructions of history propounded by Professor Rostovtseff in his recent book on Iranians and Greeks in Southern Russia (Oxford University Press, 1922), would appear to have passed unchallenged; and yet, if it were accepted, it would surely mean that no inconsiderable part of the history of the Roman Empire and its invaders would have to be rewritten, or at least conceived in a new light. From the results of the excavation of German graves in South Russia dating apparently from the first century B.C. and from the first and second centuries of our era, he has demonstrated that the Dnieper basin was gradually occupied by German tribes during the early period of the Roman Empire, and that it is only in the light of this fact that we are able fully to understand the invasion of South Russia by the Goths. ‘The Gothic invasion was not the first, but the last act of the activity of the Germans in South Russia.’

Fourteen bronze axe-heads of the palstave type were found in an earthen bowl 3 ft. below the surface in Southend Brickfield at a spot approximately 200 ft. from the west corner of the Girls' National School, and 510 ft. from the south-west corner of No. 1, Dodinga. The bowl was broken, and the base and the greater part of the lower part were not recovered; but sufficient of the upper part was saved to give the approximate diameter and enough of the sides to give the profile except at the base. It is hand-made and burnt a dark brown. After restoration in May 1923, it has a diameter at the mouth of 7⅞ in., and a maximum diameter of 9¾ in. The lip is slightly incurved and 1½ in. below it a shallow irregular groove ½ in. wide encircles the bowl. Below this, 2¼ in. from the lip, is a single row of impressed double circles, approximately ¼ in. in diameter and in. apart. Below these a band ¾ in. wide of six horizontal uneven lines, the row of circles being repeated below. The total width of the ornamental band, consisting of two rows of circles and the six lines between, is 1⅝ in.

In the course of a search for material likely to be useful in an inquiry into the evolution of the sailing ship in Northern Europe I was attracted to the surviving mural paintings of St. Christopher, for now and then we find a masted vessel or row boat in the stream through which the saint wades. The immediate result was disappointing, for I found only twenty-three pictures with vessels of any kind; moreover the small size of the latter precludes insertion of the details of rigging or other gear, besides which a mural painting is a work of the picture-poster order, strong lines to produce an impression at a distance. The only instance of a vessel of particular value to a student of nautical archaeology I found is in the well-preserved paintings in Breage (St. Breaca's) church in Cornwall, which is seen on the left side of fig. 18. The picture is c. 1490, the date of the church, and for that time the topsail is noticeably large, while the sheets being led to the yard-arms of the main course is a point of interest in view of the controversy whether early topsails, which came into use in the second half of the fifteenth century, were usually sheeted to the tops or to the yard-arms below. As material accumulated it seemed worth while attempting a summary of our knowledge of the mural paintings of St. Christopher in English churches, in respect of their distribution, survival, and the details of the conventional representation.

The five matrices of ecclesiastical seals exhibited to-night were bought by the writer from a dealer in antiquities in the county of Durham. Of their previous history nothing appears to be known. The writer is unable to identify two of them with any certainty, but it is hoped that their publication may lead to their identification being established. The silver matrix of the armorial seal (no. 6), exhibited by our Fellow Mr. R. C. Bosanquet, was recently found by him among a collection of family seals, medals, etc., dating from the early part of the nineteenth century; there is no record of how or when it came into the possession of his family.

The recent exhibition by Mr. Hunter Blair of the seal matrix of John de Levermonde or Learmouth, belonging to Mr. R. C. Bosanquet, affords an opportunity of putting together a few notes on a peculiar class of matrix of which that of John de Levermonde is an example. Their interest lies in the fact that the centre portion, on which is engraved the device, is made to screw out about an eighth or a quarter of an inch, thus enabling the device to be used, without the legend, as a secret. So far I have record of eight examples, all except one of silver, which are, or at least till quite recently were, extant. Although it is unlikely that this class of matrix was ever at all common, being probably but a passing fashion, yet these few surviving examples cannot represent a tithe of those that were made, and it is possible that a considerable number of small seals without legends, of which impressions only exist, belongs to this class. But unless examples should be found in both states, with and without the legend, it is impossible to be certain.

In February 1921 I read a paper to the Society of Antiquaries of London on a document dated 24th May 1652 which I showed to be the original draft of the terms of surrender of Dunnottar Castle by Sir George Ogilvie of Barras to the Parliamentary forces. That document had its chief importance in the reference which it contained to the so-called ‘Honours’ or Regalia of Scotland, which had been removed from the castle before the surrender. I had the honour of presenting that document to the nation, to be exhibited permanently in the Crown room at Edinburgh Castle, where it now is.

In 1923 the British Museum purchased the series of barbaric ornaments and jewels in the collection of the late General Bertier Delagarde, a well-known Russian archaeologist. The acquisition was made in order to secure a more worthy representation of the culture from which the industrial art of the early Teutonic tribes, including that of the Anglo-Saxons, derived its most characteristic features. We are now able to see in proximity examples illustrating the first and last stages in a long process of development, and observe the marked identity of style in the work of peoples separated from each other in time by three or four centuries, in space by the whole length of Europe. The two plates demonstrate this identity by an instant appeal to the eye. All that is required in addition is a brief indication of the source from which this far-travelling style was derived.