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Archaeological Notes and Queries.

STONE SAUCER FROM KEMPSTON.-Prehistoric stone vessels like the one found recently at Penmaenmawr (see Arch. Camb., Ser. V, vol. viii, p. 36) are of extreme rarity. It may, therefore, be interesting to compare the Penmaenmawr specimen with one in my own collection. It is a nodule of clay ironstone from Kempston, Bedford, which has apparently been pecked into a shallow, saucer-shape on one side; and a small central spot has been marked on the other, as shown (actual size) in the accompanying illustration. The nodule,

Stone Saucer from Kempston, Bedfordshire.

although natural, has a very artificial appearance, and was first taken for a fossil bone from the paddle of a saurian. It was found in a gravel-pit at Kempston with paleolithic implements; but neolithic, Saxon, and other antiquities occur in the soil above the gravel.

WORTHINGTON G. SMITH.

TRANSCRIPTS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE.-By the courtesy of the Deputy-Keeper I have recently been able to glance through some of the volumes of transcripts from foreign records, which were collected at great expense, some sixty years ago, as materials for a new edition of the Foedera. The new Rymer stopped dead in 1830, and with the exception of an incomplete instalment published

in 1869, nothing has been heard of it since. Meantime the materials are lying in bound volumes in the Public Record Office, practically inaccessible to all except those who can find the time to be in Fetter Lane between the hours of ten and four. Any one who would get a taste of their quality may see it in the abstracts published in the Reports on Fodera (A-E), and an idea of their number and variety may be had by consulting vol. iii of Hardy's Syllabus, pp. xxxiv-liii. They represent gleanings from the archives and libraries of France, Germany, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy; everywhere, in fact, in any part of Europe where documents could be found bearing upon the history of England. In many cases there are detailed reports appended by those who were entrusted with the search, all of which were intended for publication.

As an instance of the importance of the collection let me cite the following. It is known that Owen Glendower, in his negotiations with the King of France, was induced to transfer the Welsh obedience from the Roman to the Avignon Pope; but no exact proofs have been yet forthcoming, so far as I know. I have been able to find in vol. cxxxv a copy of a despatch sent by Owen to Charles VI, in which the details of the plan are fully set out. St. David's is to be the metropolitan cathedral for Wales, no one is to hold a Welsh living unless he can speak Welsh, all appropriations of Welsh churches for the support of colleges and monasteries in England are to be annulled, and Wales is to have two universities of its own, one in the north, and the other in the south, though they cannot agree as to where to place them. Here are the very questions that are agitated amongst Welshmen to-day; and the existence of the despatch would never be guessed by the printed reference to the volume as containing "treaties and other documents".

In any other country these transcripts would have been printed long ago, either by the Government, or by an Ecole des Chartes, or other agency; and it is to be hoped that an effort will be made to get them printed and circulated for the benefit of outsiders, for whom frequent visits to London are out of the question.

By the way, now that the Public Record Office is supplied with the electric light, why should not the hours of search be extended beyond four o'clock in the afternoon?

Athenæum, Oct. 25, 1890.

J. HAMILTON WYLIE.

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1891, 1 Jan.-Balance in Treasurer's hands £253 2 2

1 18 6

£497 1 7

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