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The other tie-beams and the pairs of queenposts resting upon them had all been cut away, to make room for a coved plaster ceiling, above which the collars and upper posts remained intact. The hidden parts have now been brought to light and the lost parts have been reproduced.

There is no arch either to the transept or to the chancel. The old oak altar rails, with pilasters of inconvenient height, have been utilised to form a low chancel screen, and a lighter rail takes their place before the altar. The chancel is early decorated, lighted by two small cusped lancets on the south side and one on the north. It has also a very good east window of three lights and intersecting tracery, without cusps but with rich mouldings. The side walls of the chancel had bulged outwards, and two graves had been made with the feet dug half way through the foundations of the east wall, causing the window to collapse into a shapeless condition so that it appeared to a casual observer like the rudest debased work; but the walls have been thrust back into position and underpinned, and the stonework of the window has been carefully taken down and replaced. A simple bracket on each side of it, like that in the transept, has survived; and a piscina with ogee head containing an original stone shelf has been opened out in the south wall, and a square-headed aumbry in the north wall, at the east end. The chancel roof, being poor and modern, has been lined with a coved ceiling in square panels. Some plain stencilled patterns were found on the east wall, and some Elizabethan texts in the nave, but the remains were not sufficient to be of any value. Among the debris of the floor were found a few inlaid tiles, most of them having a simple pattern of a circle with fleur-de-lys, which have been laid below the chancel step. A shilling of Henry VIII., and a fragment of pottery which may be Roman-British, were the only other relics of interest. At the west end is a gallery, with a front of open pilasters, supported by a beam with simple and effective carving, bearing the inscription:

JOHN BARRET • CHVRCH=

1676. WILLIAM MOOARE

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This has been retained, but thrown somewhat further back. oak pews of about the same period have been lowered and their doors have been removed. In the vestry is an oak chest, made of old panelling, and dated 1638. A painted panel with the arms of George II., formerly over the chancel, has been placed over the south doorway. The dormer windows which light the gallery have

been very effectively treated in accordance with the Jacobean character of the roof; and a plain timber porch of some antiquity, and also the south gable of the transept, have been dealt with in a similar manner. The architect, Mr. Mowbray, of Oxford, is to be congratulated on the success of his work. The result is a Church of Jacobean character with earlier features embodied in it, and with a simple chancel of the fourteenth century. It was re-opened December 15th, 1890, by the Bishop of Reading.

This is a fitting opportunity to place on record the discovery, a few years ago, of a very beautiful and well-executed seal, with the device of the Pelican feeding her young, surrounded by the legend: S' IOH'IS LE TANNVR DE BERREK. The name of Tanner still continues in the village. The seal is in the possession of Mr. W. R. Davies, of Wallingford.

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Notes.

Bronze Celt found at WEST HAGBOURNE.-An interesting specimen of bronze celt has lately been introduced to the Reading Museum, by the Rev. Richard Hooper, of Upton Rectory, which was found at West Hagbourne, on Mr. Aldworth's farm, and at a short distance from Hagbourne Hill, which appertains to the same farm, and is referred to here as some remarkable bronze implements were found there, one of which bears so great a resemblance to that found at Hagbourne as to lead to the inference that they are referrible to one series. The celt belongs to Mr. Leonard Slade, of Thorpe Farm, Aston, and is a rather common form, with socket and loop, of the well-known Irish type. It has a somewhat square mouth for hafting, with a moulded lip. An account of the implements discovered on Hagbourne Hill appears in vol. xvi. of Archæologia, p. 348. They were taken from what was described as a circular excavation, at the bottom of a pit, about four feet from the surface, and consisted of a celt, similar, as we have said, to the one jus: described, a looped bronze spearhead, some portions of bronze buckles, a bronze bridle-bit, and two bronze pins, one of which was flat-headed, while the other was looped, with a peculiar curved neck. In addition, it was stated by the workmen that two British coins were found in digging out the bronze articles, one of gold, the other of silver; but as no expert was present during the diggings the association of the coins with the bronze articles has been considered somewhat doubtful. Dr. John Evans, however, thinks that as the bronze implements were evidently "late Celtic," the coins as described might have been present, but their presence implied that the series might be considered as transitional from the Bronze Age to the time when iron

was introduced. As the chief interest appertaining to Mr. Slade's celt rests in its association with the Hagbourne Hill find, which now forms part of the national collection, I have suggested to Mr. Slade that should he desire to part with it, its most proper resting place would be the British Museum, in order that the series should not be divided. —J. STEVENS, Reading Museum.

CURIOUS RING IN BLEWBURY CHURCH.-"The iron ring which remains in the north wall of the chancel at Blewbury was for carrying the "Lenten Veil," which was stretched across in front of the altar during Lent-(on Sundays it was drawn back). The Veil was taken down on Maundy Thursday at Tenebræ, in memory of the rending of the Veil of the Temple. (Mackenzie Walcott.) There are, I believe, many such examples. We have one in our church at Oxted. I found one, or rather the pulley over which the other end of the supporting cord was passed, at Harpley, in Norfolk. The pulley remains in a very complete form in Salisbury Cathedral. I think the ring was generally on the north and the pulley on the south side."-ARTHUR FEARON.

The Rev. J. A. Cree, Vicar of Sunningdale, delivered a lecture on the history of "Bromhall Hut," which is now a farm, but in the twelfth century was a celebrated convent. The lecturer remarked that he drew his facts from the work

of Mı. Hughes on the History of Sunninghill and neighbourhood. At the close of the lecture Mr. G. M. Hughes mentioned that at a recent fire in Edinburgh, where the whole remainder of the edition of his book was stored, all were destroyed except about 40 copies, so that if his book could not claim to be a good book, it was likely to be a rare one.

SILCHESTER (THe Roman CallEVA).—On the S.E. of the city, a portion of the wall has been dislocated, forming a gap which for many years has been known as "Onion's Hole." Coins, too, found at Silchester, are spoken of as "Onion's pennies." When at Silchester I could obtain no information as to the origin of the appellation.

Lately, however, I met with some observations made by John Alfred Kempe, Esq., more than a half century ago. Alluding to Silchester, he states, "The anonymous geographer of Ravenna gives it a name which I have not yet noticed, Ard-onion; this is a pure British compound, and may be read Ardal Onion, the region of Einion or Onion. Now, it happens, by the circumstantial tenacity of tradition, that an arch or cavern in the massive walls of Silchester is called to this day Onion's Hole, and Camden bears testimony that in his time the numerous coins found within its limits were called 'Onion's pennies.""

"Onioni denarii quem Gigantem fuisse et hanc urbem incoluisse somniant." These coins are chiefly, I believe, of the later Empire, and attest the large population of the place at that period. I cannot, however, with the venerable and judicious Camden, esteem the tradition concerning the Giant Onion altogether as a dream. Doubtless he was some great chieftain of the Segontian weald; the lord of Silchester before its siliceous rampire was raised, when its defences were constructed of the earth and felled trees of the surrounding woods. The form of the station shows that its original ground plot was not Roman. Einion may, therefore, be compared to one of those beings of primeval times whom the Scripture terms giants; a race of more bodily power than man possesses in his civilised condition. The inscription found at Silchester in 1732, by which one Tammonius dedicated an altar to the Segontian Hercules, has confirmed the

account of Neunius that it was the city of that tribe; it runs to this effect: "Deo Herculi Sægontiacorum, Titus Tammonius, Sanii Tammonii Vitalis filius, ob honorem." This inscription is slightly amplified, but gives that of the fragment met with. "Onion's Hole," more properly speaking would be Onion's pit, or

dug-out dwelling.-RICHARD MANN, Bath.

VALUABLE DONATION TO THE READING MUSEUM.-At a recent meeting of the Free Library and Museum Committee, the announcement was made by the hon. Curator (Dr. Stevens), that Mr. W. R. Davis, of Wallingford, had presented to the town the whole of his valuable collection now standing in the Museum. The collection has been added to from time to time; but the greater number of the articles were introduced as a loan at the time the Museum was opened. Collectively the donation consists of a varied assortment of chipped and polished stone implements, chiefly found in the neighbourhood of Wallingford. In bronze there are local and other specimens of the so-called belts or chisels, from the plain to the socketed forms; of the same period also a British interment urn, with burnt human bones, found in Wallingford. Among the Roman relics are a valuable series of bronze fibula or brooches, mostly local; also armilla or bracelets, so-called ring-money, bronze statuettes, bronze and silver coins, bronze lamps, and some clay vessels. The later relics include antique keys, and locks of complicated and ingenious manufacture, bronze medals, an elegant bronze spur, found at Wittenham, a peculiar spring apparatus for bleeding cattle, besides sundry vessels for domestic use in the 16th and 17th centuries.

READING GRAMMAR SCHOOL.-Coates' History of Reading, p. 317, gives a list of scholars elected to St. John's College, Oxford, but is there any account of other notables educated at the Grammar School, and if so, are these two noticed :— "Sir Francis Moore, Knt., an eminent person in the time of Elizabeth, of whom the following details are given by Anthony Wood: 'He was born at East Hildersly, or Ilderley, near Wantage, in Berks, educated in Grammar learning at Reading, entered a commoner in St. John's College, Oxford, 1574, or thereabouts, continued there till near Batchelors' Standing, and then he retired to the Middle Temple, where, after severe encounters had with the crabbed parts of the municipal laws, he became a Barrister, and noted for his great proficiency in his profession, and integrity in his dealings. In the latter end of Queen Elizabeth, and beginning of King James, he was several times elected a Burgess to sit in Parliament, in which he was a frequent speaker; afterwards he was Counsellor and Under-Steward for several years to the University of Oxford, the members of which conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 1612. Two years after he was made Serjeant-at-Law, and in 1616, March 17th, received the honour of Knighthood at Theobald's, from his Majesty King James I. At length, paying the last debt to nature on the 20th November, 1621, aged 63, was buried in a vault under the church at Great Fawley, near to Wantage.' His son, Henry, was created a Baronet in 1627.-Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 2nd Edition, 1844, p. 365-6. Wood does not say that he represented Reading in Parliament, but I take it that he is identical with “Fra. Moor, esq.," elected 39 Eliz., and "Fra. Moore, esq.," 43 Eliz. and again I Jas. I.

Griffin Higgs, born at South Stoke, in Oxfordshire, in 1589. His father, also named Griffin, was a son of Nicholas Higgs, whose family belonged to Gloucester

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