vestry of his church, and suggesting a good way in which it could be fixed.

The letter was returned with an insolent message written on it, recommending the society "to amalgamate with another, called The Anti-poking the Nose into other People's Business Society.'" The secretary answered in the best possible taste, and another official also wrote as a gentleman should, but the vicar (Rev. Joshua Wilkinson) repeated his uncivil statements, adding declarations as to his own illegal proceedings and intentions. Here are two sentences: "I shall take very good care that the brass is taken from the church and kept elsewhere in safe custody." "No one is ever allowed to go to the church alone at any time." As his diocesan has requested his clergy to see that their churches are open for private prayer, this last statement is in defiance of the constituted ecclesiastical authority, as well as contrary to the common law of the land; but it is the former statement that concerns us as antiquaries. Mr. Wilkinson-we are not surprised to find that he has no degree-has no more power, although vicar, to walk out of the church with a memorial brass, or part of one, than has any sacrilegiously-inclined burglar, provided always that he has not obtained a faculty. The case should be represented to the archdeacon, and, in case of inaction, to the archbishop. We sincerely hope, for the sake of others, that the Cambridge Association will not allow this matter to drop.

We notice in the West Surrey Times of October 4 an inquiry respecting two small brasses that are missing from St. Mary's Church, Guildford. We have had occasion before in our columns to notice this interesting old church, and to comment upon a certain want of care bestowed upon its fabric by the wardens. We trust, however, that the two valuable memorials, to which allusion is made, may be speedily returned to the church. Within the last three years they were certainly in the vestry, and we cannot understand the carelessness that permits of the alienation or loss of treasures of so national a character as early sepulchral

tance.

An inscription has been found nailed face to the wall on the premises of Messrs. Geldart and Co., wine merchants, Norwich, over the mantelshelf of whose offices it now hangs. It measures 13 inches by 3 inches, is in black letter, and reads thus:

"Orate p' aia Johis kuppyng qui obiit xxIr die Junii A° dni M° do° x1° cui aie ppiciet des Amen.”

If anyone can prove what church it came from, Messrs. Geldart and Co. are willing to return it to its former resting-place on condition of its being relaid.

de

In the midst of not a little evil work still being done to our old parish churches, it is pleasant to chronicle another praiseworthy restoration. The old church of St. John Baptist, Padworth, Berks, was re-opened on November 7, after careful and necessary reparation. In the rubble walls are many fragments of Roman brick and tile. The fabric of the small Norman church has undergone few material changes since its first erection, save in the way of mutilations and modern disfigurements, which are now removed. The church consists of nave, chancel, with apse, and wooden tower on the west gable. During the restoration a piscina and aumbry have been discovered and opened out in the apse. The original stone altarslab was found amid the paving-stones of the nave, where it had been placed for deliberate desecration at the time of the Reformation. It has now been restored to its proper position and use, being supported on solid oak standards. Many traces of wall-paintings were found. Some old tiles have been relaid in the floor of the sanctuary, and a medieval stone coffin-lid has found a safe place in the porch. The architects were Messrs. Middleton, Prothero, and Phillott.

Our readers will recollect the protest made by Mrs. Chaworth Musters, in the columns of our issue for October, against the monstrous proposal of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln Railway Company to run a line through Leicester Castle. We are glad to

The directors of the disused Potteries Railway, which is about to be reconstructed, have been considering the matter of removing the well-known old stone pulpit, which stands in their station yard at Shrewsbury, on the site of the refectory of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, Salop. It has been suggested that it should be removed from its present situation, and re-erected on some part of the Abbey churchyard. This is much to be regretted; and every antiquary must hope that the greatest pains will be taken, both by the directors and by the authorities of the Abbey church, to preserve this most interesting relic. The pulpit is described and figured in Owen and Blakeway's History of Shrewsbury.

An interesting and judicious restoration of a fine old timbered house has taken place in Godalming, Surrey. The work has been carried out by Mr. Welman, a local architect, and the utmost care has been taken to preserve and uphold all the best of the old work. The massive oak timbers and richly-ornamented tie-beams of what was originally a hall some 18 feet square, are all retained in situ. The window of eight lights behind the hall is of unusual size, being nearly 15 feet wide, and much of the oak work is of rich colour and in splendid order. The house must have been one of considerable importance in its time.

tance of about 30 mètres from the Aurelian Wall, and at the depth of 4 mètres below the level of the modern road, where a sewer is being constructed. The chief of these consists of an important sepulture of the Republican epoch of very large dimensions, and constructed entirely of tufo. Its front runs along the left line of the ancient Via Salaria, and is composed of a base about a palm and a half high, and of a parallelopiped body, formed of two courses of square blocks, reaching altogether to the height of 115 mètres, around the top of which is a cornice. * * *

In the interior of the city have been found a fragment of marble frieze, like that of the forum of Nerva; remains of brick constructions and a marble capital near the convent of St. Susanna; and in the bed of the Tiber (while dredging) an ancient bronze kitchen-utensil, turned on a lathe in simple and elegant form.

* *

In the researches recently made near Rovigno, in Istria, by the Austrian Rear-Admiral Kinke, more than 20 mètres below the level of the Adriatic, have been discovered the remains of streets, houses, and walls, and which seem to be the ancient submerged city of Cissa. Divers will be sent to explore the buildings.

*

At Saint-Dié, in France (Vosges), important Celtic remains have been found, consisting of a square mass of masonry like a fortress, of which the walls are in some places 2 mètres thick and 2 mètres high, all built of blocks of unhewn stone. On the east side of these Cyclopean remains is a cube-shaped rock, supposed to have been a sacrificial altar, and having plainly marked on it the figure of a cross, Other cross-marked Celtic monoliths have occurred before, and are treated of by

IN Rome excavations have continued around the large funereal monument discovered in the Via Salaria last July. It bears the name Quintus Terentilius Rufus, and in its neighbourhood various fragments of sepulchral stones have come to light. Outside the walls similar discoveries have been made between the Salarian and Pincian gates, at the dis

Croix avant le Christianisme.

* * *

At Ascoli Piceno, in Italy, a tufo cippus has been discovered, bearing an important inscription in the ancient Sabellian dialect. It consists of three lines, and is inscribed in the boustrophedon manner.

* *

At Laurium, in Greece, Mr. Antonakopoulos, a mining agent, has discovered, a few weeks

ago, in Thorikos, a Greek inscription, which appears to have been placed as a boundarystone on the land of an ancient temple of Zeus Auantêr, a name that is new to us. Mr. Polites has made an interesting communication to the Athenian Hestia on the subject, showing that the epithet Auantêr is given to Jove as the deity of summer heat, corresponding to the epithets already known of Seirios and Aithiops.

*

In the prehistoric section of the Ethnological Museum at Berlin, near the skeletons first exhibited in the beginning of the year from the barrows of Klein-Rössen, near Merseburg, two other examples have now been placed. One is the skeleton of a woman, surrounded by her ornaments of pearl and stone and food for the dead, just as it was found in Klein-Rössen. The other is from the excavations at Lenguel, in Hungary, described by Pfrarrer Wolsinsky at the Vienna Anthropological Congress held last year. This skeleton lies with the knees raised up higher than the head, and with the hands pressing against the face. Of the double set of skeletons found on this site in Hungary, in the first all rest on the left side and turn towards the south; in the other, all rest on the right side and turn towards the east. This peculiarity may denote differences of date at which the burials took place, and the difference of

ornaments found in the interment bears out the theory that one set is older than the other. One of these Hungarian skeletons of still further interest will, it is thought, be forwarded to Prof. Virchow. Others are being prepared for exhibition by Herr Konservator Krause.

* *

The Historical Society of Dillingen has begun to excavate near the village of Faimingen, on the Brenz, in Würtemberg, the site of an ancient Roman camp, the largest hitherto found in Germany, since it measures 58.700 square mètres in area (some 15 acres).* The tower of the porta prætoria, and both of the towers that flanked the porta principalis dextra, and part of the circuit wall were laid bare last year. At the distance of 116 mètres from the north end of the western wall, and * The largest Roman camp hitherto known in Germany, that of Niederbieker, is 920 mètres in circumference, representing an area of 50,925 mètres

square.

ancient Punic necropolis, consisting of several Père Delattre has discovered at Carthage an small tombs, all of vaulted masonry, in which he has found many precious objects of gold, silver, bronze, and glass, besides painted vases dating from ancient Carthaginian times. All these valuable and highly-interesting of Carthage, founded by Cardinal Lavigerie, objects have been deposited in the museum to whose French mission at Carthage Père Delattre belongs.

Dr. Jón Thorkalson, of Iceland, who during last summer visited this country in connection with the issue of Diplomatarium Islandicum, has made some interesting discoveries of Norse MSS. In the British Museum he came upon the original MS. parchment of a Norse archbishop, Eilif Arnason, hitherto unknown, dating 1331, and giving much valuable information of affairs in Norway in the fourteenth century. He also found a large collection of MSS. by the Icelandic written between 1543-93. poet and ecclesiastic, Gottskalk Jonsson, The contents vary greatly, and there are many texts from the Sagas, hitherto believed to be lost; but the most interesting find is a MS. by Sæmund Frode, who died in 1133, which gives an account of the productions of this gifted scald.

A curious discovery has been made at Skonör, on the south coast of Sweden, in the sand a little way from the shore, consisting of the skeleton of a man in a well-preserved naval uniform. On the jacket were a number of brass buttons. On the right hand was a gold ring, but the name inside is worn away. In a purse in the jacket were found three sovereigns, three half sovereigns, and ten silver coins, struck in England in 1797 and 1800. The skull of the man was battered in.

*

At Falsterbo, in Scania, an old boat has been found, said to be over 600 years old, and built of oak. It is 44 feet in length, 12 feet in breadth. It will be sent to the National Museum.

* * A Swedish artist, Herr L. Baltxen, who has already reproduced many Runic stones in relief in plaster of Paris, has taken a cast of another in the province of Botrus, 3 mètres long, 1 mètre high.

*

A number of highly interesting frescoes in renaissance, and dating from about 1500, have been discovered in the ancient historical castle of Gripsholm, near Stockholm. They had been concealed by Gobelin tapestry.

*

A farmer in the province of Jönköping has excavated three barrows on his land, and found some interesting bronze antiquities, which, to the disgust of Swedish antiquarians, he sold to a travelling Jew dealer, without offering them to the Crown. In Denmark such a sale would be illegal and a fine imposed.

Some workmen engaged in the so-called Dowager Queen's Palace in Copenhagen the other day discovered a concealed chamber

under a staircase, in which were found eight valuable marble statues, several feet in height, together with a petition addressed to King Christian VIII.

* *

Dr. Sophus Müller, the well-known Danish antiquarian, has been giving a series of interesting lectures in Copenhagen on "The Bronze Age in Denmark."

* *

A man ploughing at Pæstö the other day brought to the surface a fine gold ring, valued at £30, having semicircular ornamentations. It has been purchased by the National Museum.

The age and style of the celebrated Roskilde Cathedral, the Danish Canterbury Cathedral, and wherein all Danish kings since five hundred years lie buried, have been the subject of an interesting study by Prof. Julius Lange, the well-known architect. By Profs. Kornemp and Löfflen the edifice is considered to date from the first part of the thirteenth century; whilst a memorial lead tablet found in one part, dated 1233, would indicate that this portion was already finished then. This Prof. Lange disputes, also the opinion that the cathedral was built from east to west, as this is contrary to what was the custom in France. He considers that the cathedral was commenced at both ends, and that an old edifice, which was built at an earlier date, stood in the centre. Prof. Lange is of opinion from his studies that the prototypes of Roskilde Cathedral were the cathedrals in north-eastern France, although differing as to the pillars in the upper gallery, which are absent in the latter. However, Prof. Lange considers that the cathedral resembled that of Tournai, in southern Belgium, more than any other, a view shared by the well-known German architect, Prof. Adler. There would, indeed, also seem to be some historical foundation for this, as there existed a warm friendship between the celebrated prelate Stephen, of Tournai, and Bishop Absalom, who built Roskilde Cathedral. The former was an ardent architect, and had a share in the building of St. Denis and the Nôtre Dame, in Paris, and built the Chapelle St. Vincent, in Tournai, connecting the cathedral and the bishop's