FRANCIS, FIFTH DUKE OF BEDFORD, 1765-1802. BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1802. 1. Obv.-Bust of the Duke of Bedford to right, slightly draped; below, J. MILTON F. Leg. FRANCIS DUKE OF BEDFORD PRESIDENT 1802. Rev.-Britannia, seated to right, holds out a wreath to two herdsmen, one of whom is crowning an ox with a garland, the other, kneeling on left knee, rests his hand on the back of a sheep. Behind Britannia is a flag and a trident, and at her side a helmet and a shield. In the exergue, BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY. The whole is surrounded by a wreath composed of ears of corn. 2.35. MB. R. ST. Pl. IX. 11. Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford, born 4th August, 1765, died 2nd March, 1802, was specially devoted to rural science and was one of the chief patrons of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, of which he was president at the time of his death. This Society was founded in 1777. DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BEdford, 1802. 2. Obv.-Bust of the Duke of Bedford to right, similar to the preceding; below, J MILTON F; above, ducal coronet. Leg. FRANCISC. DUX BEDFORDIE AGRICOLAR. FACILE PRINCEPS. Rev. Female figure, Agriculture, reclining to left; her left arm rests upon an urn, near which is a shepherd's crook, and in her right she holds ears of corn. Leg. BONI LUGENT IMMATURE ADEMTUM. In the exergue, AGRICOLARUM COETUS CONSULTO. 1.6. MB. R. This and the following medal refer to the death of the Duke of Bedford as a great loss to agricultural science. DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BEdford, 1802. 3. Obv.--Bust of the Duke of Bedford to left, bare; on truncation, I. G. HANCOCK. F. Leg. FRANCIS CUS DUX BEDFORDIÆ. 13, 1765. NATUS JULII Rev. A farmer in attitude of grief, standing facing, and leaning with left hand on broken column, draped, the capital of which is lying on the ground. At his feet are his dog and a shepherd's crook; in the distance landscape, with oxen and sheep grazing. Leg. TIBI VOTA QUOTANNIS AGRICOLE FACIENT. In the exergue, OBIIT MARTII II. MDCCCII. K. & K. (Kempson & Kindon). 1.7. MB. E. MEMORIAL OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, 1802. 4. Obv.-Head of the Duke of Bedford to right, bare. Leg. FRANCIS DUKE OF BEDFORD MDCCCII. No reverse. 17. MB. Æ. This large medallion is probably the work of J. G. Hancock. JOHN, SIXTH DUKE OF BEDFORD, 1766-1839. SMITHFIELD CLUB, 1813. 1. Obv.-Bust of the Duke of Bedford to left, bare; below, SMITHFIELD CLUB. Leg. JOHN DUKE OF BEDFORD. Rev.- Plain. 1.55. MB. Æ. John, 6th Duke of Bedford, born 6th July, 1766, died 20th October, 1839, was, like his brother, the former Duke, devoted to agriculture, and was one of the promoters of the Smithfield Club, which had been founded in 1798 under the title of the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society. In 1813 the Duke offered the Club one hundred guineas annually, which he afterwards increased to one hundred and twenty-five guineas, in order that a five-guinea medal might be given to the breeders of the animals in each of the five classes. It was on this occasion that this medal was made. The reverse is left blank to receive the name of the recipient. A variety of this medal (MB. ST.) has the inscription below the bust on a scroll. TAVISTOCK GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 1839. 2. Obv.-Shield, arms of Russell impaled with the town of Tavistock, within the Garter, with ducal supporters and crest; below, on scroll, the motto, CHE SARA SARA: all on tablet inscribed, LIBERT DE TAVYSTOKE. Above B T; below, B. WYON, and two palm branches. Leg. MENTEM NON FRONTEM SPECTANS. Rev.-Laurel wreath. Leq. HVNC HONOREM JOHAN- 2. MB. Æ. This is a prize medal of the Tavistock Grammar School. It was given by the Duke of Bedford for special general efficiency to students on their quitting the school. No award, however, having taken place for several years, the medal is now considered to have lapsed. H. A. GRUEBER. NOTICES OF RECENT NUMISMATIC PUBLICATIONS. Historia Numorum, a manual of Greek Numismatics, by Barclay V. Head, Assistant Keeper of Coins and Medals in the British Museum; Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1887. Royal 8vo, 42s. Since the publication of Eckhel's Doctrina Numorum Veterum, nearly a century ago, no work on the science of numismatics has been produced equal in importance and width of scope to this manual by Mr. Head. It contains, in the first place, a systematic digest of countless monographs on special classes of coins, scattered in a most bewildering way through the various archæological periodicals of Europe, or printed as separate volumes, many of which are out of the reach of the majority of students. In no branch of archæology was this work of abstracting and condensing so urgently needed, and all students of the subject will owe Mr. Head a very deep debt of gratitude for the extreme care and the wide extent of reading in many languages, which he has expended on this manual. In addition to all this, Mr. Head gives us, in his introductory chapters, a very valuable mass of original matter. Especially an elaborate and highly interesting treatise on the various weight-standards, and their transmission throughout the Hellenic world. Mr. Head traces the different Greek standards to a common origin in the ancient Babylonian kingdom, where two quite different standards appear to have been in use at the same time, as is indicated by the inscribed bronze lion-weights, from Nineveh, which are now in the British Museum. These show that two mine were used during the eleventh to the ninth century B.C. one weighing about 1,010 grammes, and the other half that, or 505 grammes. Of these, the heavier standard was brought westward by the Phoenician traders to their colonies among the islands of the Egean; while the lighter mina travelled by land to the western shores of Asia Minor, where it was adopted by the wealthy and enterprising kingdom of Lydia, in which the use of coined money probably originated. Though both these standards were brought from the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, Mr. Head gives the name Babylonic" to the lighter one only, calling the other the "Phoenician," from the people who were the means of its introduction into VOL. VII. THIRD SERIES. N N Western Greece. This double current of Oriental monetary system has a close analogy in the early history of Hellenic art: the same causes being at work in both cases. Thus we find one strong infusion of Oriental influence brought by the course of Phoenician trade across the sea to Cyprus and the shores of the mainland of Greece, while through Phrygia an overland stream of art influence extended to the Ionian colonies in the west of Asia Minor. It is interesting to compare the character and influence exercised by the Phoenicians between the tenth and the sixth century B.C., with that of the Venetian Republic during its period of greatest glory-the twelfth to the fifteenth century A.D. In both cases these two races were for a long time the chief merchants and maritime carriers of the world. Their trade extended from end to end of the Mediterranean, and their language, fashions, and art were to some degree co-extensive with their trade. Just as Phoenician art was widely spread from Syria to Spain, so the peculiar architectural forms of Venice were to be seen in countless palaces and churches along the eastern shores of the Adriatic, in Cyprus and other islands of the Mediterranean, in Athens itself, and among the ruined cities of the Syrian coast. Other analogies between the relations of these two great trading races to the rest of Southern Europe might be suggested. The somewhat complicated history of the genesis of other Greek standards from the one common origin is clearly and minutely worked out by Mr. Head. He shows how the Eginetic stater of 194-180 grs. came from a gradual deterioration of the heavy Phoenician minaweight, while the Euboic standard, on the other hand, was developed from the light or Babylonic mina of Ionia. The whole of this section requires to be read with very close attention; the various chains of argument being worked out in the fewest possible words, and an immense number of important facts condensed into very narrow limits of space. The whole book in fact makes one strongly regret that the author was obliged to pack the whole of his vast subject into a single volume. Though all the facts are arranged in the most satisfactory manner, and there is not a superfluous word to be found from end to end of the work, yet one cannot help feeling that Mr. Head's rich stores of numismatic knowledge have not been fairly exploited owing to the extreme condensation with which this Historia Numorum has been treated. We may, perhaps, hope that a further instalment may follow, dealing more largely with the subjects of the most interesting types, and the art displayed by the engravers of the dies--a |