scene represented on the outside, and there is a rough resemblance to the higher class ware. 9. A bronze fibula. When found the pin was perfect; it has since unfortunately been broken. See fig. 10. A fragment of a quadrangular bronze bell. The ring for the clapper is perfect; outside, a portion of a circular ring handle remains. See fig. 11. A potter's implement of bone. See fig. 12. Fragments of bowls of black ware, exhibiting on the outside the ornament known as "the frilled pattern". This ornament is peculiar in appearance, and is believed to have been produced by laying on a very thin layer of clay and pinching it up between the fingers. Fragments only of this ware were found during these excavations, but a few years previously a perfect little vase was found during some excavations on the west side of Hall Gate. This is, I believe, the first time that ware exhibiting this particular pattern has been found away from York. It is believed to have been made at Eboracum. A considerable number of fragments of other kinds of earthenware, grey, yellow, and pink, also were found, but they were of a less interesting character. A heap of red clay, apparently ready for use, was also found; it was unlike anything occurring naturally in the neighbourhood. There were also remains of an open fire. The excavations were of a limited character. ON THE DISCOVERY OF A PRE-NORMAN CLERESTORY WINDOW AT OXFORD. BY J. PARK HARRISON, ESQ., M.A. (Read 17 Feb. 1892.) THOSE members of the British Archæological Association who attended the Congress at Oxford in 1890 will remember that the Dean, after he had described the alterations and improvements that had been effected in the Cathedral twenty years before, under the superintendence of Sir Gilbert Scott, called upon the writer to point out the structural and other evidence which he relied on as showing that there was much of the church, which history informs us had been restored and amplified by Ethelred II in 1004, still existent. So far as time allowed, attention was directed to the points referred to, and more particularly to the design, and evidently worn condition of some of the capitals in the choir, as contrasted with those in the nave, as well as to the remarkable thickness of the abaci of the choir capitals. Shortly afterwards, on further evidence being obtained, the facts were embodied in a lecture which was delivered in the Chapter House, and subsequently published with an appendix. It was shown that some of the capitals in the choir closely resembled ornaments in illustrated MSS. of the tenth and eleventh centuries; and the sections of bases, those in miniatures of same date. Dealing mainly with contemporary work in Normandy, in which Eastern influence was plainly seen and generally admitted, it was shown to be due to the revival of the Byzantine style, by Duke Richard the Second, whose fame as a church builder, if we may trust the records of Fontanelle and Fécamp Abbeys, had reached the East, and induced bishops and abbots from Syria and the Holy Land to visit him. In the south transept a very early base of an altogether different profile from the Norman ones had been noticed adjoining the last column at the south-east end, and there 1892 10 142 PRE-NORMAN CLERESTORY WINDOW AT OXFORD. seemed every reason to believe that it belonged to a preNorman church. There were also ashlar stones tooled in a manner that was not Norman. But further examination of the south transept had to be postponed until the systematic exploration of the choir was completed. Already it had been ascertained, by breaking through the boarding which had been erected to keep out draughts from the quasi-triforium in the choir, that considerable alterations had been made there, probably in the time of Prior Robert de Cricklade, all the capitals and bases resembling work attributed to him, but perhaps of slightly earlier date. They were finished with the spur, or foot ornament, and some of the arch stones bore Norman masons' marks. Though there was a Saxon look about the design of the triforium, which showed that earlier work had been copied, it was evident that the date of the stonework was Norman. In September last, on an exceptionally bright day, it was seen that the bases of the shafts of the so-called triforium in the centre opening, on the west side of the south transept, were totally different from those in the presbytery attributed to Prior Robert, whilst corresponding in their shallow mouldings with the one already alluded to in the south-east corner of the transept, and also with the later Roman or Romano-British bases found at Silchester and elsewhere. A ladder of sufficient length having been procured, profiles of the mouldings were kindly made by Mr. Drinkwater, M.R.I.B.A., copies of which were exhibited. In December, having in the interval found from a report of the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Oxford in 1840 that Professor Willis had pronounced the choir-triforium to be of Norman design, because he found no grooves for glass in the shafts, a ladder was again procured, and a close examination made of the shafts and small arches to see if there were any traces left of grooving, when it was found that both centre and side-shafts, and also the soffits of the arches, had once had grooves; but they were neatly stopped with mortar of much the same colour as the stone, and so had previously escaped notice. This, it appeared, was done during the repairs of 1870, when the whitewash PRE-NORMAN CLERESTORY WINDOW AT OXFORD. 143 was removed from the stonework. Also the capitals and bases were pieced, at the same time, precisely in the line of the grooves. The choir-triforium has scarcely any pretence to be called so, and there is no means of access to it save by a ladder. In the rest of the church there is not any ambulatory nor even passage. The design of the building is clearly derived from the original pre-Norman church, and so justifies the title of the lecture at Oxford, viz., "The Pre-Norman Date of the Design and some of the Stone-work at Oxford Cathedral." The uniformity of plan throughout the church affords a remarkable instance of the way in which early churchbuilders imitated previous work, the process being, at Oxford, slow enough to make stages in the construction, that must have occupied, instead of thirty years, as stated in the explanatory cards suspended in the cathedral, and quoted in some of the guide books, at least 160. There are three changes in the profiles of the bases, and three in the abaci, all before the years 1170 or 1180. As regards the very difficult question whether the lower arches throughout the church existed before the upper ones, opinions will probably continue to differ, but the discovery of what may be termed a dated example of a pre-Norman clerestory window will perhaps assist in its solution; and the quality and colour of the stone in the columns appears to be different above the line of the lower capitals. 1 It was only on a second inspection that the capitals were found to be pieced. NOTES ON THE YORK CORPORATION INSIGNIA. BY G. MACGUIRE, ESQ., TOWN CLERK OF YORK. THE mace in use to-day dates back to the year 1647. Portions of the materials composing it formed part of an earlier mace used by the Corporation. It is nearly 4 ft. in length, the staff or stem being about 2 ft. 9 ins. long, and is represented to have contained 192 oz. of silver, and, after deducting the sum allowed as the value of the old mace, to have cost the sum of £81 12s. The staff or stem has an elegant termination of the lower extremity, and a central band, decorated with the following heraldic devices in low relief : (1) A shield of the city arms; (2) a shield bearing the arms of St. George; (3) a crowned lion upon a chapeau d'honneur: the crest of Queen Elizabeth; (4) the Tudor rose, ensigned by a royal crown; the badge of Queen Elizabeth; (5) a portcullis ensigned by a prince's coronet (the portcullis is the badge of the House of Beaufort); (6) a plume of three ostrich feathers, enfiled with, or passing through, a prince's coronet (the badge of the Prince of Wales). The head of the mace is decorated with symbolical figures, executed in low relief within oval compartments, representing Charity, Fortitude, Faith, and Justice, accompanied by their usual emblems. Between the ovals are two Tudor roses. The imperial crown, of bold design, forms the summit, and within the circle of the crown is engraved a shield of the royal arms, as borne by the House of Stuart after the union of the two kingdoms. The initials and numerals, C. II. R., show the achievement to be that of King Charles II, upon whose restoration to the throne this part of the work was executed. As originally manufactured in 1647, the mace bore engraved on the top of its bowl the armorial bearings of |