The fact that the Pleistocene ice-sheets mantled so great a part of Britain was long regarded as sufficient explanation of the absence of Lower Palaeolithic remains from the territory south of a line drawn from the Wash to the Bristol Channel. Recent work and finds, however, show that during genial conditions early man certainly moved quite far into areas freed by the waning ice during periods of retreat. Thus, from extremes beyond those cited, there are reports of a few Lower Palaeolithic implements from Pleistocene gravels in the valley of the Trent in Lincolnshire, from the valley of the Don and from Huntow, in Yorkshire, and of an odd piece from Cheshire. But of most import to the present study are the Lower Palaeolithic stone tools from the basin of the Severn in the Midlands, and an Acheulian hand-axe has been found within the past few months at Pen-y-lan, near Cardiff. With the palaeoliths discovered at intermediate sites in the basin of this great river the range in the Atlantic drainage is extended from Somerset into once glaciated territory.

The parish of Riseholme lies immediately north of the Lincoln city boundary and on the east side of Ermine Street as it runs along the top of the Jurassic ridge towards the Humber. It is an area of fertile, easily worked land lying between 130 and 200 ft. above sea-level, and must have presented a sharp contrast, in prehistoric eyes, to the areas of difficult settlement on the low-lying clays to east and west. The latter no doubt came under the plough in Roman times and indeed probably formed the bulk of the territorium attached to the colonia at Lincoln after its foundation at the end of the first century; but the higher ground, with few or no trees to clear, must still have seemed desirable land to the discharged legionary.

The engravings devoted to the Trésor in Dom Félibien's history of the abbey of Saint-Denis, in spite of their inaccuracy, are a precious source of information about the pieces, some extremely ancient, that composed that celebrated ensemble, unfortunately dispersed at the Revolution. On the plate by Nicolas Guérard, dealing with the third armoire, is pictured a reliquary consisting of two oval rock crystals, placed one above the other, in a rich gold setting (Fig. I). The crystal situated beneath, which is the larger one, is engraved with a representation of Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist. We learn from Dom Félibien that in his time—his book was printed in 1706—this reliquary enclosed some remnants of the clothes of St. Louis, king of France.

The delightful island of Rhodes is famous for a variety of reasons, and not least because of its possession for over two centuries by the Knights Hospitallers or Knights of St. John. After retreating from the Holy Land the Knights took Rhodes from the Byzantine Empire in 1309; they left it on 1st January 1523, according to the terms of the capitulation, after a most arduous siege by the Turks in the preceding year. They had also been besieged by the Turks in 1320, by the Egyptians in 1444, and by the Turks again in 1480. These sieges and the almost constant danger of attack by hostile neighbours laid upon the Knights the necessity of maintaining their defences in a high state of readiness. The mainland of Asia Minor is normally visible from the island at a distance of twelve miles.

The Benedictine Nunnery at Mailing, Kent, was founded by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester (1076-1107) c. 1090, and though there appears to be some evidence of a pre-conquest foundation here, it is to Gundulf that the medieval nunnery owes its origin, and much of the walling still remaining can confidently be ascribed to his period. Of particular interest is the eastern processional doorway (pl. xivb) constructed entirely in calcareous tufa and probably the earliest doorway of its kind in the country.