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an arrow backwards and forwards. The markings occur in groups. One is at Waen y Gors, near a circular encampment. The finest arrow-stone, perhaps, is about 1-mile to the south-west of Camarmaint (Llanfairfechan) on the 800-ft. contour line. On this the grooves are very numerous, about 124, and in the centre, in the direction of the length of the stone, are two exceptionally large grooves, one measuring 2 ft. 11 in. by 1 in. wide. This stone, like the others, is of a very fine grain.

In the Appendices is a useful series of Charters, copied and "extended" with unusual correctness, together with pedigrees of the Hollands of Conway and of Denbighshire.

A word of criticism may be allowed of a volume, so admirable and instructive and comprehensive in scope. The glossary of medieval words might well have been omitted. In three or four instances justice is hardly done to the excellent photographic illustrations. That of the effigies in Yspytty Church is disappointing. The volume, with its wealth of material and the 230 illustrations, is worthy of a better binding, and the author might safely have asked twice the price for his creditable venture.

"YR ENCILION," JOURNAL OF THE CARMARTHENSHIRE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY AND FIELD CLUB. Vol. I, Part I.

THIS is a new venture, in which it is proposed to publish papers at greater length and less disjointed than has hitherto been possible in the Transactions. The first place in Yr Encilion is given to the Presidential Address, 1911, by Lieut.-General Sir James HillsJohnes, V.C., who takes as his subject "Carmarthen Castle." This is followed by a useful record of "Local Events, 1547-1836," compiled by Rev. G. Eyre Evans from the Corporation Order Books, and a Kalendar of Mayors and Sheriffs. They refer to the several Fraternities in the town: Tanners, Weavers, Tuckers, Cordiners, etc.; the behaviour of Attorneys; provision of Fire-buckets and hooks; punishment in Stocks and Ducking-stool; Salmon killed by the Great Frost of 1683; Troubles about the Town Charter (James II); Master's Salary, 1723, "for teaching poor children to wright, and to teach 'em Arithmetick and Navigation"; Forestalling and Regrating.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF WALES

By MEREDITH J. HUGHES.

THIS excellent little work deals in trustworthy style with Early Wales; the extent of the Marches; the Policy of Edward I; Ancient Shires; Origin of the President and Council of Wales; Wales of the Tudors, Stuarts, and under the Hanoverians.

There are valuable Appendices on the Flemish Colony, the Cantreds of Wales, and brief summaries of the most important unpublished MSS. in private collections.

ROMAN RELICS AT CHESTER.-Further discoveries have been made near the Infirmary field during the excavations in connection with the erection of the new hospital buildings. The Chester Courant reports: "By excavations on the site of Bedward Row, adjacent to the Infirmary field, a number of human skeletons have been discovered, and although the orientation was practically east and west, the positions of the bones indicated that the bodies had been very carelessly buried, as in many instances they were partly superimposed. All the evidence pointed to the fact that the remains were of Roman origin, as they were associated especially with the fragments of Roman pottery of some rare and unusual types. Associated with these also was an extensive stratum of charcoal, indicating in all probability the remains of a funeral pyre. On the same site there was also discovered a large clay furnace with a domed cover, the whole measuring 3 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft. The feed-hole had been roughly paved with sandstone slabs, and in the interstices were found the calcined bones of the ox and goat and numerous fragments of pottery. The walls of the furnace had been considerably hardened by the action of the heat. This furnace is of similar type to those which were found near Warrington, and which were excavated some few years ago by Mr. Thomas May. It may be interesting to note that these burials, though undoubtedly of Roman origin, were of a slightly different type from those which were found in the Infirmary field, where a greater care had been exercised in the interment."

SECRETARY FOR SOUTH WALES. -At the Annual Meeting held at Cardiff, July 25, Mr. Alfred E. Bowen was unanimously elected Secretary for South Wales, in succession to the Rev. Charles Chidlow (resigned). Subscriptions from all members residing in South Wales and Monmouthshire should henceforward be sent to Alfred E. Bowen, Esq., F.S.A., Castle Vale, Usk, Monmouthshire.

At the same meeting, it was resolved to accept the invitation to hold the Annual Meeting in 1913, in Wiltshire, at Devizes.

MAUMBURY RINGS.-The following notice from The Times will be interesting in view of C.A.A. members' recent visit, in July last, to the Amphitheatre at Caerleon :

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"The excavations at Maumbury Rings, the reputed amphitheatre of Roman Dorchester, which were begun in 1908, and continued in 1909 and 1910, but suspended last year, are to be resumed this autumn under the direction of Mr. H. St. George Gray, of Taunton, in connection with the Dorset Field Club.

"It is proposed to continue the examination of the curve of the circular arena along the western side until the excavators reach the rectangular enclosure, supposed to have been a den for the confinement of beasts, which was discovered in the rising ground inside the southern entrance. It will then be seen whether the double

row of square post-holes found skirting the arena on the northwest arc continue along the south-west arc.

"The diameter of the arena from north to south has already been determined, and it is desired in like manner to determine that from east to west. With that object in view the inner curve of the eastern. bank will be explored with the spade. The west rampart having been cut through, it is also proposed to make a cutting or cuttings in the east rampart, probably on both sides; but it is unlikely that a section will be driven right through from crest to base, as this would be a work of some magnitude and expense and there is popular feeling against it, as likely to disfigure the earth work permanently."

In a later communication it is added: "The great embankment, which has not yet been cut through, has been examined to ascertain if there were any indications of tiers of seats or ledges for seats of any description; but none have been found in the north-west quarter. According to Valerius Maximus it was forbidden by a decree of the Senate, under the influence of Scipio Nasica, for any person in or near a town to place benches so as to enable spectators to witness games in a sitting posture. Scipio incurred popular dislike because he assigned separate places to the Senate and to the common people. On the other hand, we read in Ovid's Ars Amatoria, I, 108: Romulus, 'twas thou didst first institute the exciting games. On the steps made of turf sit the people.'"

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MANŒUVRE DAMAGE. It is satisfactory to report that definite instructions have been issued by the Military Authorities to the troops engaged in the Grand Army Manœuvres with regard to any wanton or thoughtless damage. The commons are not to be damaged by digging, and all antiquarian remains are to be protected. Golf greens are forbidden ground for mounted men and wagons, and entry into burial grounds is altogether forbidden.

"BRONZE URNS FOUND IN FLINTSHIRE."-Under this heading The Times of September 3, inserts a communication from a correspondent of the discovery of two "Bronze-Age" urns:

"During a recent visit of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments (Wales) to Downing Hall, Flintshire, at one time the home of Pennant the antiquary, and now part of the estate of Lord Denbigh, the Commissioners were invited to see the antiquary's library. Arranged on the top of a bookcase was a collection of Egyptian pottery. Mr. Edward Owen, secretary of the Welsh Commission, seeing an earthen pot of a different character from the rest, almost hidden by the other articles, requested that it might be brought down for inspection, and it was recognised as a perfect specimen of a cinerary urn, of the early Bronze Age. In shape, though not in size, the urn is like that found in the reputed grave of Bronwen the Fair in Anglesey a couple of centuries ago, which is now in the British Museum collection.

"Inside the urn was found a smaller one, a specimen of the 'incense

cup' type, which contained a much faded letter intimating that the urns had been found in a tumulus on a neighbouring farm, and had been sent as a present to the antiquary's son. The urns will shortly be transferred by Lord Denbigh to the Welsh National Museum at Cardiff."

The Earl of Denbigh very kindly forwards a copy of a letter to Mr. Pennant accompanying the urn.

August 26, 1832. My Dear Sir,--On my way to Caerwys Edward Williams of Rhydwen gave me the enclosed, which he had just found on clearing an old tumulus on one of his fields. Many other things were also found, but not one of them so perfect as the one I sent you. He thought it a curiosity, and therefore begged you would accept it. There were bones found, and the other vessels were very much larger than the one I sent you. Yours in E.R.

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EARLY MAN.-At the Anthropology Section of the British Association, Professor G. Elliot-Smith, President, some interesting papers on Early Man" were discussed. Professor Boyd Dawkins read a paper by Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth, describing a human jaw of Paleolithic antiquity from Kent's Cavern, Torquay. It was discovered in 1867, but apparently no detailed account of it had ever been published. It was a human upper jaw, of which a good deal had been destroyed. The remaining parts included the alveolar margin and palatine process, as well as four teeth. The most inportant points were (a) the transverse width at the level of the pre-molar teeth, and (b) the dimensions of the molar crowns. regard to these points, the specimen came fairly into line with those examples of human jaws and teeth to which Palæolithic antiquity was definitely assigned.

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Professor Boyd Dawkins, commenting on the paper, said all the discoveries which had been made pointed to one uniform type belonging to the River Drift horizon. All the other forms, which were more or less assimilated to the existing type, were open to suspicion, and in all cases where he had examined the evidence he had been forced to reject it as insufficient to establish the existence of other types of man in the Pleistocene period, either in this country or on the Continent. All the alleged cases of modern types of skull being found in caverns belonging to that period were worth nothing. He took it that the Neanderthal man held the field as against all other types in the middle and north of Europe.

The President said he regretted very much that pressure of time precluded them from discussing the very provocative remarks of Professor Boyd Dawkins, and Professor Keith protested that the whole thing was ridiculous, and was not even scientific, for the specimen. had not been shown in the position in which it had been found.

A paper by Mr. W. Crooke, on "The Study of Customs connected with the Calendar in Scotland," called attention to the importance of the study of calendar customs in Scotland, many of which seemed

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to be survivals of the primitive method of reckoning time by season, not by solar or lunar changes. It was suggested that traces of this primitive mode of reckoning might be found in the dates of hiringfairs for domestic and agricultural servants.

In a paper on "Folklore as an Element of History," Mr. E. S. Hartland said that folklore investigates the sayings and doings of the people as distinguished from the ruling classes, with a view to ascertaining their modes of thought and the practices handed down from remote and unknown ancestors, and it thus provided an element often overlooked, but essential for understanding the evolution of civilisation. The north-eastern counties of Scotland were for ages the battleground of races whose descendants formed the present population, and a collection of its folklore should therefore present many interesting features having an important bearing on the history of the country.

Canon J. A. MacCulloch, in a paper on "Fairy and other FolkBeliefs in the Highlands and Lowlands," remarked that there was great ultimate similarity of folklore everywhere, and any attempt to prove particular ethnic influences was a matter of difficulty, especially in Scotland, where races had mingled and civilisation and religion had altered so many old beliefs. Yet there was a possibility of arriving at some definite results by a careful comparison of folkbeliefs with earlier race-traditions and older pagan beliefs where these were available, and with the characteristics of the folk themselves. Illustrations might be drawn from the fairy-belief as found in three districts of Scotland-the West Highlands, the Lowlands, and the northern districts and islands, representing respectively and in the main Celtic, Teutonic, and Scandinavian cultures. Similarity of general beliefs in fairies and in kindred beings prevail in all parts of the world. The main differences must be looked for rather in the setting and in the characteristics of the fairies themselves than in the actions related of them.

Discussing "Ethnological Traces in Scottish Folklore," Mr. J. W. Brodie-Innes remarked that of the original inhabitants of Scotland before the first coming of the Celts practically nothing was known, but here and there old and unidentified folk-tales might some day give a clue. There were various migrations of Celts, Iberi, and and Celtiberians, and if the Tuatha de Danaan could be identified with the Danai of Homer, it might account for similarities with Greek legends; and if the Iberi were the same as Ibri, and thus connected with Hebrews, and with the Ibah-Erri, the men of the river or the Crossers-over, the parallelism between Gaelic and Old Testament stories would have a special interest. It might be possible in some such way to analyse the blend of the old Celtic folk-tales which were much the same in Ireland and in the Western Hebrides. On these again was grafted the Scandinavian cycle of legends, brought by the Norse invaders and conquerors. These might be sometimes distinguished by comparing the folk-tales of the West of Ireland with the same stories as told in the Highlands.

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