ful Hungerfords; Bowood, the favourite retreat of more than one generation of great statesmen, the hospitable resort of wit, poetry, and philosophy, literature and high art; Draycot, for centuries the chosen seat of the elder stock of the Longs; Rood Ashton, that of another branch of the same ancient and well-regarded family; Bromham, the seat of the Bayntuns, Dauntsey, of the Danverses, Alderton of the Gores, Swindon of the Goddards, Burdrup of the Calleys, Lydiard of the St. Johns, Down Ampney of the Hungerfords, Villierses, and Elliots, with many others, all remain, not unknown, of course, but as yet undescribed in a manner worthy of the interest which justly attaches to them. No doubt some useful topographical notices of North Wilts have been published by our worthy and venerable friend, John Britton, to whom, for this and other of his life-long labours in the cause of topography, the county stands, in the estimation I am sure of us all, deeply indebted. But he himself would, I know, be the first to admit that his volumes contain very cursory and inadequate sketches of their subjects."

After reviewing the labours of the elder antiquaries who have illustrated the antiquities of England at large, and alluding to the MS. collections for Wiltshire made by Aubrey, Gore, and Tanner (the two latter of which have disappeared), Mr. Scrope urged upon his hearers the renewal of investigation into the materials preserved in public and private archives, and recommended the preparation and publication in the first instance of separate memoirs, with the ultimate view of forming a complete County History. He also advocated the claims of the central county museum of antiquities and specimens of natural history, to be formed round the nucleus of the cabinet of Mr. Britton. He concluded with some remarks on the natural history of the county: "The Geology of Wiltshire is not very elaborate, extending only from the London Clay to the Old Red Sandstone, but the Paleontology of this limited range is peculiarly rich. The fossils of our Green Sand beds have an European reputation, chiefly owing to two remarkable collections-one formed by a lady in this neighbourhood, Miss Benett; the other by our respected honorary secretary, Mr. Cunnington. The Coral Rag is nowhere more abundant in zoophytes, and nowhere assumes more strikingly its true character of an ancient coral reef, than in the hill range running northwards from this town through Bowood and Bremhill. Our Oxford clays are peculiarly rich in cephalopoda. The Kelloways rock is known to all geologists for its rare mol

luscs. Our corn brash and forest marble beds are little else than masses of organic remains. The laminated tile-stones of this formation, in their ripple-marked surfaces strewed over with fragments of coral and water-worn shells, and impressed with the footprints of crustacea, really present the exact appearance of a sandy shore just left by the retiring tide; though we know that countless ages must have elapsed since the waves of the ocean broke upon them. The oolitic limestone of Bradford has given its name to a rare and curious variety of encrinite. The great oolite of our Cotswolds is a storehouse of organic matter, including reptiles and fishes. And the lower oolites abound in molluscs. In fact, few counties offer a more fertile field for study to the paleontologist. And a closer examination would very probably discover many new or rare species of extinct animals, still further to enrich the Fauna of our Wiltshire strata."

The Rev. Arthur Fane, Vicar of Warminster, then rose to propose the nomination of Vice-Presidents, which he accompanied with an expression of regret that only two of them belonged to the Southern division of the county. Their names are, -the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, Sir J. W. Awdry, John Britton, esq., H. M. Clarke, esq., J. N. Gladstone, esq. M.P., G. H. W. Heneage, esq. M.P., the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., Walter Long, esq. M.P., Joseph Neeld, esq. M.P., R. P. Nisbet, esq., Lieut.-Colonel H. S. Olivier, W. W. Salmon, esq., T. H. S. Sotheron, esq. M.P., and Earl Bruce. The Rev. James Bliss, of Ogbourne, seconded the nomination. Mr. Whittey proposed, and the Rev. B. C. Dowding seconded that the Rev. J. C. Jackson, of Leigh Delamere, and the Rev. W. C. Lukis, of Great Bedwyn, should be appointed General Secretaries; the names of a committee were proposed by Mr. Kenrick, of Melksham, and seconded by Mr. Britton; and the following gentlemen were appointed Local Secretaries, on the motion of the Rev. G. Goddard, seconded by Mr. Falkner: Rev. James Bliss, Ogbourne; Mr. N. J. Highmore, Bradford; Mr. N. V. Squarey, Salisbury; Rev. A. C. Smith, Yatesbury; Mr. G. C. Kenrick, Melksham; Rev. F. Lear, Bishopstone; Rev. A. Fane, Warminster; Mr. J. Prangley, Heytesbury; Mr. W. Osmond, jun. Salisbury; and Mr. William Cunnington, Devizes.

A dinner afterwards took place at the Bear Hotel, at which Mr. Sotheron presided; and subsequently a Conversazione was held, at which the Rev. J. E. Jackson read a paper on the objects contemplated by the Society; and the Berthor Fane addressed the

of Boyton and the family of Giffard. A temporary Museum had been formed: in which the department of Natural History was illustrated by a portion of Mr. Cunnington's collection of fossils, by several entomological cases, horti sicci, &c. &c. The remains from barrows on the Wiltshire downs were numerous, and Dr. Thurnam contributed many Anglo-Saxon articles, and a series of Scandinavian implements. A valuable collection of medieval seals has been presented to the Society by the Rev. John Ward, formerly Vicar of Great Bedwyn, and now Rector of Wath in Yorkshire. Mr. Britton's Celtic cabinet, with models, and a large collection of drawings, busts, and choice prints, constituted prominent objects.

SOMERSETSHIRE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.

Sept. 13. The fifth annual meeting of this body was held at Yeovil, in the Town Hall. Around the walls were hung a large number of rubbings from monumental brasses, and Dr. Sydenham contributed a large and valuable collection of illuminated missals and manuscripts, &c. Amongst many fine carvings was a grotesque representation of the offering of Isaac, formerly in the kitchen of the old Angel, at Yeovil, and sent by Mr. H. M. Watts, in whose family it has been for many years. George Harbin, esq. contributed a grant under the great seal, by Charles II., of annuities of 2001. each, for the respective lives of Rachael and Frances Wyndham, daughters of Sir Francis Wyndham, of Trent, on the death of his wife Lady Ann Wyndham, and on the surrender of an annuity for her life of 4001. granted by Charles II. to the said Lady Ann Wyndham, in the 19th year of his reign, "in consideration, as recited in the said deed, of the faithful services performed by the Lady Ann Wyndham, in being instrumental to his preservation after the battle of Worcester." Some interesting fossils and other curiosities in natural history were also exhibited.

W. Pinney, esq. M.P. was called to the chair, and made an introductory address, after which the Rev. F. Warre read the report. It congratulated the society on an increase of members from 420 to 477. A beautiful collection of oriental birds, by the Hon. E. Blundell, has been added to the museum. Twelve Anglo-Saxon coins had been discovered in Wedmore Church, but, being claimed by the Lords of the Treasury, were given up; seven had been returned, and the other five had been replaced by valuable coins of which duplicates existed in the British Museum.

Mr. John Sheppard, of Frome, then read a long and interesting essay on the connection between Archæology and Natural Science; Mr. H. G. Tompkins read a paper on Anglo-Saxon and German Romanesque architecture; and the Rev. W. H. Turner, of Trent, one on the churches of Normandy, as viewed in a

recent tour.

The Rev. Wm. Arthur Jones, of Taunton, then read an ingenious paper upon the battle of Llongborth, recited in the elegy upon Geraint ab Erbin, Prince of Devon, by Llywarch Hen. prince poet of the court of Prince Arthur. The rev. gentleman contended that the Llongborth here mentioned, which Dr. Owen Pugh represents to be "some harbour on the south coast, probably Portsmouth," Mr. Sharon Turner being of a like opinion, was none other than Langport, in Bridgwater Bay. The Welsh word Llongborth signified a port or harbour for ships, and, bearing in mind that Celtic names are invariably descriptive of localities, it would be necessary to show that the estuary now confiued to Bridgwater Bay did at that time cover the plains of Sedgemoor, and thus make Langport accessible to such ships as the Britons then possessed. Having glanced at the great changes which had taken place within historic periods in the coast line of the country, Mr. Jones observed that even now Langport was within reach of the tidal waters; that Porthkerry, on the opposite side to Bridgwater Bay, was at one time frequented by " Ceri of the extensive navy," but was now quite inadequate to the accommodation of a fleet; that the characteristics of both sides of the Polden Hills afforded conclusive evidences of changes on the English coast of the Channel, and that there had been a gradual elevation of the level between Langport and the sea by the action of the floods, the subsidence of the muddy waters of the Severn, and the accumulated growth of aquatic vegetation, as the character of the alluvial deposits of the turf moors clearly indicated. Mr. Stradling, in a valuable paper on the Turbaries, published in the Society's reports for 1849-50, gave an interesting account of the different antiquities discovered by him in the bottom of the lake, whose waters reached to Glastonbury. Among those evidently British, besides flint spears and celts, he mentioned three oars or paddles, similar in form to those used in the present day by Welsh fishermen in the management of the coracle, and also a very large canoe formed from an immense oak, which had been preserved by the peculiar antiseptic properties of the soil, and which was known to the turf-cutters as "Squire Phippen's

gurt zhip." These facts clearly pointed to a time when the eastern side of the Polden Hills was washed by the waters of a large navigable lake, if not an arm of the sea; and, judging from the similarity of position, there could be no doubt but that a similar estuary or lake existed at that time to the west of Polden Hill, covering the Sedgmoor of the present day, and reaching towards Langport. Even the Saxon names of the places in the district were evidence of the same physical characteristics. Thus, in Sedgmoor (parts of which some now living remember a sedgy morass, the haunts of wild fowl, and frequented only by the sportsman), we had Westonzoyland, Chedzoy, and Middlezoy -names clearly implying the presence of an expanse of water in these localities. Considering the Polden as a ridge of hills standing between two estuaries, the one extending to Glastonbury, the other to Langport, no more descriptive name could be given to it than it bore-Moel-y-don, or Voeldon, easily changed into Polden. The name by which Glastonbury was known to the Cimri was one which accorded with the physical conditions obtaining in the district at the time when Langport was truly Llongborth--a haven of ships. Glastonbury was called the Island of Apple-trees-a name peculiarly descriptive of the place when the Turbaries were as yet in course of formation.

Mr. Yates gave an interesting description of the plants and other natural productions of Australia; and Mr. Charles Moore, of Ilminster, read a short paper on foraminifera.

Mr. Street then read a paper on paleography, endeavouring to trace the Babel of modern languages up to one common primeval tongue, and supporting his arguments by a reference to a remarkable work lately published in France, "Grammaire Comparée des Langues Bibliques," by Van Drivel, according to the discoveries of Champollion.

Mr. John Batten next read a paper of considerable local interest, being an account of Mr. Edward Curll, one of the sequestrators appointed by the Parliament in 1645 to sequester the property of all "delinquents and malignants" within the hundred of Catash. He quoted many remarkable personal details, chiefly relating to the loyalist clergy, and closed with a quaint account of "a battle fought on Babel Hill, near unto Yerrell, between the Parliament forces, under the Earl of Bedford, and those which came from Sherborne on the 7th of this instant September, 1642."

Mr. Warre read an able paper on Taunton Castle, and the meeting then adjourned. GENT. MAG, VOL. XL.

SUFFOLK INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY

AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Sept. 29. The twenty-third Quarterly General Meeting of this Society was held at Melford, under the presidency of the Rev. Lord Arthur Hervey. The company assembled at the Bull Inn, where an interesting collection of antiquities were arranged as a temporary museum. Amongst them was an extensive collection of documents and drawings relative to persons and events in Melford, &c. contributed by Mr. Almack, who also exhibited a fine gold coin of Cunobelin, with the wheat-ear reverse, found at Glemsford, and several Roman vessels, including a small cup of green glass, found at Melford. Several Roman coins found at Melford were exhibited by Mr. Ardley, jun. and others; a portrait of Sir William Drury, President of Munster; an embroidered satin apron, worked in the year 1647, and some quarries of glass with birds, and the cross and instruments of our Lord's crucifixion on a shield, from Mr. Woollard; and the bronze matrix of the seal of Alice St. Philibert, of Lackford, wife of Sir Brian Stapleton, of Carleton, co. of York, who died in 1384, which had been found in Bury on the previous Tuesday, and is now in the possession of Mr. Tymms.

The noble President, addressing the meeting, briefly alluded to the beauty of the place, and the many objects of high interest to archæologists which it offers, and recapitulated the names of some of its most distinguished worthies; and then led the way to Melford Hall, the property of Sir Hyde Parker, Bart., and the residence of J. M. Williams, esq.; a fine Elizabethan house, erected by Sir Wm. Cordell, Master of the Rolls to that Queen, who honoured it with her presence, and was entertained, says Churchyard, the historian of this progress, with "such sump. tuous feasting and banquets as seldom in any part of the world hath been seen before." A paper on the history of the place and its owners having been read by Mr. Tymms, the company proceeded to the Church, where Mr. Almack acted as guide, and pointed out and explained the very curious portraits and painted glass in the windows; the tombs of the Cloptons and Martins; the Clopton chapel, which still exhibits much of its original painted decorations, including the verses of the poet Lydgate; and the still more beautiful Lady Chapel at the east end.

The archæologists then proceeded to Kentwell Hall, the seat of Capt. Starkie Bence; another moated red brick mansion of the same period, erected by Thos. Clopton, esq. who died in 1597. It is in 3 U

the form of the letter E, a form observable in many houses of this reign, and in some instances known to have been so designed as a mark of respect to the Virgin Queen. It is nearly a mile distant from the high road, and is approached by a fine avenue of lime trees for nearly the whole distance. The hall is decorated with banners, arms, and armour; the banners bearing the arms of the various owners of this beautiful estate being worked by the lady of Colonel Bence, the mother of the present possessor. An interesting paper on the his. tory of this manor was read by Mr. Tymms. It belonged to the famous Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, to the Poet Gower, and to the ancient and knightly family of Clopton, by whom it was possessed for near three hundred years, and whose heiress was the beautiful Anne Clopton, who at the early age of thirteen became the bride of the famous antiquary Sir Simon D'Ewes, Bart.

The company lastly visited Melford Place, the residence of C. Westropp, esq. but formerly and for four centuries the abode of the Martin family, who removed but a few years since into the county of Norfolk. All that remains of the old house is the chapel, since converted into rooms; but retaining its waggon-roofed panelled ceiling, with its cornices and beam carved with foliage of rich and bold design. Here, too, were set out a great number of Roman coins, several cinerary vases, and other remains of the same period, that had been dug up on the estate, including a small amphora of green glass. Mr. Tymms having read a paper on the history of the place, the company returned to the Bull Inn, where a cold collation had been set out in the Assembly Room.

ESSEX ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Sept. 16. The Colchester section met the president, Mr. Disney, and several of the members from Tendring Hundred, at Harwich. J. Bagshaw, esq. M.P. conducted the visitors over the town, and brought many excellent specimens of oak carving of the reign of Henry VIII. under their notice, as well as a massive stonepointed arch, associated with which were the so-called Roman bricks. One of the carvings in the shop of Mr. Durrant, and some others in the remains of the old Duke of Norfolk's mansion, excited much attention. A rude stone font-like piece of workmanship, dredged up from the west rock, was noticed, and a piece of ancient ordnance from the same locality, with many other local curiosities. A denarius of Augustus, found at Harwich, was the only Roman coin seen. Numerous coins

of the Tudors are, however, constantly dredged up.

Dr. Duncan stated that he had purchased for the Society a series of documents relating to the Stone-house in the parish of St. Runwald, and which extended over a term of years from 1535 to 1636. An agreement between the English and Dutch bays makers respecting foreigners, had been presented by J. Bawtree, esq. The remainder of the coins discovered in making the foundations of the brewery in the year 1800, of which the Roman had been already named, a coin of William I. one of Henry II. and several of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, were reported to be in good preservation.

Dr. Duncan also exhibited several impressions of seals lately found in Colchester; and, amongst others, an impression of the seal of a ring, with the inscription Thermia." Dr. Duncan observed that the antiquity of the gem was admitted, but some had doubts as to the setting; a very competent judge, however, was of opinion that it was not modern. Dr. Badham of East Bergholt considers the sphynx it represents to be older than the inscription beneath it. Mr. Disney observed that he once had a sphynx, which held, as he presumed this to do, a foursided pyramid, on whose base a cartouche and hieroglyph was found. It was mentioned that Dr. Bell considered that the figure held a four-sided pyramid; that others differed from him; but that, whether it was a pine cone or a pyramid, its mythological signification was the same. The general opinion was, that the "Thermia " was a personal name; and much interest was considered to be attached to the seal, as two coins of Cunobelin have been found close to Mr. Merrell's ground, each bearing a sphynx.

SAXON BURIAL-PLACE NEAR SALISBURY, Excavations recently made at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury, under the direction of J. Y. Akerman, esq. the Resident Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, have disclosed the remains of an extensive Saxon burial-place. About 65 skeletons have been discovered, and among the bones have been found some very curious Saxon ornaments, including beads, amber amulets, buckles, fibulæ, a ring like a hoop twisted twice round the finger, spear-heads, the boss of a shield, the remains of a small casket, a comb, and, with other things, a bodkin, ear-pick, &c. attached to a ring and worn by a lady, apparently like a modern chatelaine. There have also been found a fork, a gold ring in all respects like a wedding-ring, a solitary knuckle-bone of a sheep, suggesting the

game of tali, a small article with marks on it like a domino, and a Roman coin of the time of Constantine. In compliance with the wish of a numerous body of the citizens of Salisbury, these antiquities were exhibited in the Council Chamber, where, at the request of the Mayor, Mr. Akerman offered a few remarks upon them to the following effect :-" In the summer of the present year I saw an announcement in the local newspapers of the discovery of the umbo of a shield and spear-head, on Harnham Hill. Having for many years past made our Anglo-Saxon antiquities my study, and having explored many Saxon burial-places in various counties of England, I at once concluded that this locality was the site of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and wrote to your townsman, Mr. William Fawcett, for particulars. Mr. Fawcett communicated with his noble landlord, Lord Folkestone, and the result is before you. The spot is called the Low Field, not because it is in a low tract of ground, but from its having been at one time covered with hleows, or tumuli, those small conical barrows, of which a great number may yet be perceived in various parts of England, but especially in Kent. They are not to be confounded with the larger tumuli, which form such conspicuous objects on our Wiltshire Downs, and which are ascertained to be of an earlier period. It is the opinion of some of our antiquaries that Anglo-Saxon interments were of two kinds, that is to say, tumular and non-tumular; but, with all respect for such opinion, I cannot assent to it. The very word burial (bury, a word of AngloSaxon origin) shows that the grave was covered with a mound. Thousands of these mounds have, like those at Harnham, been obliterated by the operations of the husbandman: the ploughshare and the spade have destroyed, in numberless instances, the traces of our Anglo-Saxon cemeteries before the introduction of Christianity, when the Pagan mode of in. terment was abandoned, though perhaps gradually and reluctantly, and the bodies of the converted were interred within the graveyards attached to the newly-erected churches. The first systematic exploration of the Barrows of this period was undertaken by the Rev. J. Douglas, about sixty years since, who published an account of his discoveries, and showed that the grouped tumuli in Kent must be ascribed to a much later period than had been assigned to them by antiquaries of the Stukeley school, in fact to the period embraced within the arrival of the Saxons in England and their conversion to Christianity. From the time of Douglas nothing had been done by way of further investi

gation of these cemeteries until about twelve years ago, when Lord Londesborough (then Lord Albert Conyngham) undertook, at my instigation, the examination of a considerable number of barrows in East Kent, the result of which was the discovery of many relics similar to those now before you." Mr. Akerman then alluded to similar investigations made since in other parts of England; and, recurring to the Harnham antiquities, stated his belief that the remains discovered were of persons previous to the introduction of Christianity. "It is just possible," he said, "though I think we have no proofs whatever of the fact, that some of the bodies found here were those of individuals who had been converted to the true faith; but appearances are against such a supposition. I have hinted at the possibility of such being the case, because we find in the Capitularies of Charlemagne a mandate directing that the bodies of Christian. men shall no longer be consigned to the tumuli of the Pagans, but interred within the precincts of the church, a proof that the heathen mode of interment still lingered among his subjects. If anything would favour the conjecture that some of the bodies interred at Harnham were those of Christians, it is the fact that some of them were unaccompanied by any object of personal use or ornament. Several skeletons have been found without the accompanying knife or any object whatever; but nothing definite can be deduced from this. Many Pagan customs were allowed by the primitive clergy, provided they were in themselves harmless. On the other hand, the laws of the Franks, the old Saxons, and the Visigoths, denounce with heavy penalties those who shall despoil a corpse either before or after burial; a sufficient proof that the crime was so common as to call for a specific enactment. To this cause we may perhaps assign the absence of relics in some of the Harnham interments. I have said that thousands of tumuli of the Anglo-Saxon period have been obliterated by the ploughshare and the spade; and this must be manifest to any one who has perused our Anglo-Saxon charters, in which the heathen burials' are frequently named in the recitals of boundaries. Further, the word hleow gives name to many places in England, as Ludlow, Taplow, Winslow, Onslow, and, in this neighbourhood, Winterslow. In the graveyard of Ludlow a tumulus once existed, and in that of Taplow one exists at this time." Mr. Akerman then directed attention to the numerous antiquities arranged on the table, which it is understood to be Lord Folkestone's determination to present to the British Museum.