chapter xx.

(5) If any brother or sister be dead within the City, and have not of his (or her) goods him (or her) to bury, he (or she) shall have burning about his (or her) body five tapers and four torches, at the cost of the bretheren, provided the deceased have continued seven years in the fraternity, &c.

(6) All the bretheren be clothed in one suit, &c.

(7) The Masters, Wardens, and bretheren shall attend and hear mass on the feast of the Assumption, &c.

(8) Every brother shall keep his livery for four years, &c.

(9) The fee for entrance into the fraternity; also the form of oath.

(10) On the day of the feast, when the bretheren have eaten, they shall go together to the Chapel of our Lady before mentioned, and there continue the time of _Placebo_ and _Dirige_, and on the morrow shall attend mass of _Requiem_, and from thence come together to their Hall, on pain of 16d.

(11) If any brother revile another, he shall be fined 6d. or 8d., &c.

(12) All the bretheren, with their wives, shall go together to their meat the Sunday next after Trinity Sunday, &c., &c.

(13) Concerning the admission of apprentices.

(14) Fines for “contrarying” against the rules.

(15) Penalties for disobedience of rules and regulations as to apprentices.

These rules had been signed by twenty-nine brethren, who at the same time were sworn faithfully to keep and fulfil them.

_Gild of the Holy Trinity_ (Aldersgate).--This is one of three Gilds which were founded in connection with St. Botolph without Aldersgate, concerning which much information of interest will be found in Mr. Alderman Staples’ pleasant little book, “Notes on St. Botolph without Aldersgate:” London, 1881. Regarding this particular Gild, the duty or obligation of its members was to pay devout honour to the “five wounds of Jesus Christ; the five joys of the Virgin Mary, and the Three Persons in the Glorious Trinity.” A charity founded by this Gild exists at the present day, and is administered by the Lord Mayor and Recorder of the City.

_Gild of St. Katherine_ (Aldersgate).--Oath to be taken on entry, and a kiss of love, charity, and peace. Weekly help in poverty, old age, or loss by fire and water. The members’ payments were quarterly, 3d., women paying at the same rate as men. Members to go to church on St. Katherine’s Day, and afterwards choose officers [no feast mentioned, or apparently contemplated]. Burials were to be at the charge of the Gild, and to be attended by the bretheren. Any brother dying within ten miles of London was to have worshipful burial; all costs being made good by the Gild. Loans were to be made to bretheren out of the Gild stock, on pledge or security. Wax lights were to be found and used on certain festivals; and further services after death. New members only to be admitted by assent on the day of the assembly. Four men were to keep the goods of the Gild and render an account. Assent of all the brotherhood required to any new Gild ordinances. Each of the brotherhood was to have “a vestement, a chalys, and a massebok,” at the price of x. marks.

_Gild of Sts. Fabian and Sebastian_ (Aldersgate).--Same general features as the preceding; with the additional feature that the young were to be helped to get work.

_Gild of Garlekhith_, founded 1375.--This Gild was established for the worship of God, and to nourish good fellowship. All bretheren must be of good repute. Each was to pay 6s. 8d. on entry. There were to be wardens who should gather in the payments, and yield an account thereof yearly. A livery-suit was to be worn; and the bretheren and sisteren were to hold a feast yearly. Each member was to pay 2s. yearly. There were to be four meetings touching the Gild’s welfare to be held in each year. There were to be free gifts to the Gild by the bretheren of “what hym lyketh.” Ill-behaved bretheren were to be put out of the Gild. On the death of any, all the others were to join in the burial service, and make offerings under penalty. In cases of dispute the matter was to be laid before the wardens. Any member disobeying their award should be put out of the Gild. Weekly help was to be afforded to all members of the Gild of seven years’ standing, in old age and in sickness; also, aid to those wrongfully imprisoned. New members were to make oath to keep the Gild ordinances. Every brother chosen warden must serve, or pay 40s.

_Gild of the Blacksmiths._--The Ordinances before us do not bear date until 1434. They are made by the Masters and Wardens of the whole Company of the Craft “in the worship” of St. Loy. In all material respects they resemble those of the Glovers.

_Gild of the Shearmen_ [Clothworkers].--This is an ancient Company arising out of interests connected with the woollen manufacture. The Ordinances before us bear date 1452, and recite that “the wardens and freemen of the Craft for the more encrease and continuation of brotherly love and good example unto the honour of God, our Lady St. Mary, and all Saints, by licence of the Mayor and Commonalty the City of London form a religious brotherhood amongst themselves for the sustentation of a perpetual light of thirteen tapers to burn in the church of the Augustinian Friars in London before the image of our Lady.” This, however, seems to have been a fraternity inside the general Gild, the Ordinances of the latter being very minute in detail, but to the same general purport as the Glovers.

_The Gild of the Water-bearers._--This was formerly an important body in the City of London (as its counterparts still are in some of the Continental cities of Europe, especially Lisbon); but it dates back probably to a time anterior to that at which Peter Moris (the Dutchman) erected his water-works at Old London Bridge; and certainly before Sir Hugh Myddleton brought his New River water into the City, which was in 1620. The Ordinances before us purport to be made in 1496 by the Wardens of the whole fellowship of the brotherhood of St. Christopher of the Water-bearers founded within the Augustine Friars. There is nothing in them requiring special comment.

=German Gilds in London.=--But the most extraordinary feature was the existence in London, at a very early period, of three Gilds of _Germans residing and trading in London_. Speaking generally, their objects were good fellowship, and where need might arise, the succour of the poor members of the Gilds. These were:--

(1) _The Brotherhood of the Holy Blood of Wilsnak in Saxony._ The date of the formation of this Gild is not known, but its Ordinances were enrolled in the Commissary Court of London, April 1, 1459:

In the name of God that is Almyghti and of our Lady Seynt Mary his moder, and for the blessid blode of his sone Jesus Christ which is by all Cristen people wurshipped at Wilsnak, and opynly called the Holy Blode of Wylsnak, and of all the Seyntes of Hevyne, the xiiijth day of Aprill the yere of our Lord God Ml.cccc.lix. and the yere of King Henry the Sixt. xxxvij. A fraternitie in the special honour of the seid Holy Blode of Wylsnak and of all the Holy Seynts of Hevyn is ordayned founded and devised in the Chirche of the Crossid Freres [Crutched Friars] of London for to norish encrece and engender love and peas amonge gode Christen people in the fourme sewyng, that is to weten.

Then is set forth that the entrance fee was to be xx_d_., with other Ordinances after the manner of English Gilds of the period, and the following concerning the benefits receivable:--

Also, if any brother or suster of the same Bretherhede by fortune shall [fall] yn naturall sikenesse by visitacion of God so that he nor she mought labore and travel to helpe them selfe, the same foke by warnyng to the maysters for the tyme beyng the same day of the sekenesse comyng, or on the morow at forthest, shall have xx_d_. every wike sewing [ensuing] unto the same seke be recovered of the sekenesse and that trewly be payed at every wikes withoute any longer delay.

(2) _The Brotherhood of the Holy Blood of Wilsnak in Saxony_, held in Austin Friars. Date of foundation not recorded; Ordinance enrolled in Commissary Court of London, Dec. 8, 1490. It is recited in the Ordinances that the Fraternity with “oon aasent and comen accorde for the helthe and salvacion of our synfull sowles and for pease loue and charite to be kept with our even cresten, have proposed to holde maynten and to kepe a Fraternyte within the chirch and cloyster of the Freres Austyn within the Cite of London in the worship and honor of the foresaid holy blode,” &c. The Ordinances as to benefits to be granted to the brothers is as follows:--

And also whan eny of our brethern happith to fall sike of som sikenesse that comith of Gods hande, and not by no fawte of good governaunce and good gydyng, he shall have for his sustenacion after that he hath lien vij. dayes xx_d_. every weke as long as he lieth sike, and his benefacte and charite shall perseyve as moche the moost as the lesse, to thend this charite and almosse be not mynysshed be no wise, and whatever brother of the same brotherhod that shall owe to the same as moche as cometh to more money than iiij_d_. _ob._ he shall not have nor perceyve the forseyd benefacte and charite of the said Brotherhod.

The other Ordinances of this Gild are particularly interesting.

(3) _The Fraternity of Saint Katheryn_, which is stated to have been “founded and ordeyned by Duchemenne iiijxx yeres passed in the Crosse Fryers in the Cite of London.” This was enrolled in the Commissary Court of London Oct. 25, 1495 (10 Hen. VII.); and if it had only been founded by the Dutchmen eighty years previously, as its preamble recites, then it belongs to a later period than that of which we are writing. Another Ordinance, reciting that its earlier Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Rules had been “specyfyed and declared in Duych tong,” points, however, to a probably earlier origin. The names enrolled look remarkably English-like for even the fifteenth century.

=Staines.=--In 1456 a licence was granted to John Lord Berners, Sir John Wenlock, and other parishioners of Staines, to found a Gild or Fraternity in honour of God and the Virgin Mary, in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, in the Church of Staines; which Gild should consist of two Wardens and a certain number of brethren and sisters, who were incorporated by the King’s Letters Patent of that date. (_Vide_ Pat. 34 Hen. VI. m. 12.)

In 1548 the lands belonging to this Gild were valued at £11 17s. 6d. per annum, including 6s. 8d. for a Chamber called the Chantry Priests’ Chamber. (_Vide_ Chantry Roll in the Augmentation Office.)

These lands paid quit-rents to the manors of Grovebarns and Iveney Court.

(_To be continued._)

THE new parish church of Chiswick was consecrated by the Bishop of London on Saturday, August 2. The building, which occupies the site of the old church, has been erected mainly at the cost of one of the church-wardens, Mr. Henry Smith. The old tower remains as it was. In the reconstruction of the church, the architect, Mr. J. L. Pearson, has endeavoured to indicate the leading characteristics of the old church, which dated from the early part of the fifteenth century.

Autograph Letters.

No. IV.--BISHOP SHERLOCK TO G. SHAKERLEY, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,--I have often had a mind to write to you, since I heard of the great Calamity which happened to you and your family; but I always felt myself so affected with the circumstances of that sad Case, which came fresh into my mind on every occasion, that I thought it would be showing but little tenderness to renew your grief by expressing my own.

There is, in the misfortunes of life, a mixture of good providence, if attended to. In your Case, the escape which some of your family had was as wonderfull and providential as the Calamity was great and terrible.

Whenever such accidents happen the trial is very great, but it cannot but afford great comfort to a serious mind, to observe the hand of providence interposing to ward off that part of the distress, which of all others would have been the most insupportable. Tho’ exposed to danger you was not without help; though greatly afflicted, yet not forsaken; a consideration which will support the spirit of a Man, not only when his goods leave him, but, when the time comes that he must leave them.

I have inquired after you and your good Lady from everybody, who was able to give me any account; and it has been a great Comfort to me to hear that you support yourselves under this great affliction by reflecting on God’s great goodness in preserving the lives of yourselves and your Children. To be insensible of such Calamitys is stupidity; but to bear them and not sink under them is the spirit of a Man. To submit to them patiently is the spirit of the Gospel. I trust the God who has saved your lives, will also make them comfortable to you, by supporting you under this trial; That he may do so is my constant prayer for you.

I desire you would give my service to your good Lady. I know this trial did not find her unprepared, And I hope the many hours She has spent in serious and religious reflections will be a comfort and a support to her now. My service attends the young Ladies. I heartily rejoice in their deliverance. Poor Miss Fanny! how often have I thought of her.

My Wife desires her service to you and Lady and the young Ladies. She has truly been a partaker of the grief of her good friends.

I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant, T. SARUM.

To G. Shakerley, Esq.

[This letter was addressed to Mr. Shakerley, a connection of the Wyan family, on the destruction of his mansion, Gwersylt, Denbighshire, in 1738.]

Reviews.

_Early Church History, to the Death of Constantine._ Compiled by the late EDWARD BACKHOUSE. Edited and enlarged by CHARLES TAYLOR. Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1884.

MR. EDWARD BACKHOUSE, the original compiler of the work now before us, and of whom a biographical sketch is given, was a native of Darlington, and a member of the Society of Friends. He died in 1879. His object in commencing the compilation of this work is best told in his own words: “In second month, 1874, or about that period, I was standing painting in my own room, when an impression was made upon my mind, which I believed to be from the Lord, that I ought to devote my leisure in my latter days to writing a portion of Church history; especially with a view of exhibiting to the Christian world, in a popular manner, the principles and practices of the Society of Friends. So I forthwith began to explore Church history generally, because the history of Friends was quite familiar to me; and, ultimately, as I saw that I greatly differed from many excellent historians in the inferences I drew from many events in the history of the Church, I was induced to attempt myself to write a history of Christianity, which I thought might prove useful to some as exhibiting the principles and practices of the Churches, viewed from a Quaker standpoint, and compared as nearly as I could with apostolic precedent.” With this view he studied the Anti-Nicene Christian Library, and read the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Scholasticus, Sozomen, and Theodoret; and among modern compilations made use of Du Pin, Mosheim, Neander, Burton’s Church History, and some others. The work is illustrated by several photographs of Roman antiquities, &c., including the Arch of Titus, the corridor and staircase in the Catacomb of Pontianus, and fragments of sculpture of the fourth and fifth centuries.

_Les écrits de Leonardo da Vinci._ Par Ch. RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. 8vo. Paris: Quantin.

_Les Manuscrits de Leonardo da Vinci._ Publiés par CHARLES RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. Folio. Vols. i. and ii. Paris: Quantin.

_Conjecturers à propos d’un buste en marbre de Béatrix d’Este, etc._ Par LOUIS COURAJOD et CHARLES RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. 8vo. Paris: Rapilly.

WE have received from Paris two most interesting works in connection with the great Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci; they are the production of M. Ravaisson-Mollien, who has devoted all his time, his energies, and his learning to the editing of the Vinci MSS. preserved at the library of the French “Institut” in Paris.

It is unnecessary to go here over the ground occupied by our author in his preliminary _brochure_, and to give the history of the MSS. in question. Suffice it to say that at an early time they were scattered throughout the principal collections in Europe, and that the fears entertained by Leonardo da Vinci himself respecting the non-publication of his numerous treatises on art and on science seemed likely to be fulfilled. No sooner had death removed Francisco Melzi, Leonardo’s favourite pupil and friend, than the invaluable codices entrusted to his care were dispersed and mutilated; as even one single page would fetch a considerable sum of money, the MSS. were broken up into small fragments, so as to satisfy the curiosity of the greatest possible number of amateurs; and in order to obtain any given work in its complete form, it would be necessary to seek the elements of that work at Milan, Windsor, and Kensington. Numerous treatises have thus been lost or are perhaps buried under the dust of public and private libraries, and the materials now at our disposal represent only a small part of the whole collection, such as Francisco Melzi originally possessed it, and such as in all probability the artistic world will not see it again.

By a piece of singular good luck the “Institut de France” possesses twelve volumes of Leonardo da Vinci’s writings; they were indexed towards the end of the last century by an Italian _savant_, named Venturi, who had examined them carefully, and had even published some extracts from them; these volumes are lettered A--M, and have the great merit of giving the consecutive views of the author on the subjects which he had studied. This point is of the highest importance in the case of a man such as Leonardo da Vinci, who lost no opportunity of showing the interdependence of the several branches of science, and the light they all throw upon one another. M. Ravaisson-Mollien has accordingly undertaken the arduous task of editing the entire works of Leonardo da Vinci, so far at least as they are known to exist, and we earnestly trust that he may be able to accomplish his rather ambitious design.

The first two volumes of the entire collection are now before the public, and thus we are to a certain extent in a position to appreciate M. Ravaisson-Mollien’s qualities as an editor; we feel no hesitation in saying honestly that they are all that one could wish, and we do so the more readily because he has been attacked in the most unjust manner by M. J. P. Richter, whose English edition of the Windsor MSS. was brought out some little time ago. _Errare humanum est_ is a motto the application of which is especially true in the case of the Vinci MSS.; M. Ravaisson-Mollien himself acknowledges frankly that he may have, and that he has probably, been guilty of a few mistakes; but that the principles by which he is guided in his task are perfectly sound we do not entertain the slightest doubt, and without prolonging the discussion any further we shall merely refer the reader to the articles in the _Times_ newspaper for January last, the Italian _Nuova Antologia_ for October, 1883, and the _Journal des Savants_ for July, 1882.

Our business is more especially with the second volume of the collection, but it will not be amiss to remind our friends of what are the contents of the first. In addition to several passages already published but given more correctly here, and bearing upon drawing, painting, sculpture, and hydraulics, we have the commencement of a treatise on perspective, together with essays on movement, weight, percussion, projectiles, heat, light, sound, astronomy, cosmology, and geography. The Italian text, reproduced in _fac-simile_ by photography, is printed on parallel pages with a literal French translation, and an excellent bibliographical preface describes, not only the twelve codices of the French Institute, but all the other MSS., either complete or fragmentary, which are dispersed throughout Europe.

The second volume is the reproduction of Codices B and D; the former of these is generally regarded as the gem of the whole collection, on account of the beauty, energy, elegance, and variety of the sketches which illustrate it, whilst the latter seems to be a corrected or revised copy of one of the chapters in Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting, a treatise in which some curious and valuable remarks on optics serve as an introduction to the author’s lecture (if we may so say) on perspective. Nothing but the actual inspection of this magnificent folio can give the slightest idea of the artistic finish which characterises it, and of the extreme variety of its contents. From considerations on morality, on the soul, and on the spiritual world, Leonardo da Vinci goes on to examine questions on architecture, sculpture, agriculture, roads, draining, &c. &c., he discusses the possibility of aerial locomotion, describes the systems of warfare adopted by the ancients, dwells at some length on the properties of steam, and explains the theory of the camera-obscura. The _fac-similes_ are 188 in number; a very complete alphabetical index, preceded by the errata of the two first volumes, terminates this second instalment.

Before bringing to a close this very imperfect notice we must mention a _brochure_ recently published containing, first, an article by M. Courajod on a marble bust of Beatrice d’Este, preserved at the museum of the Louvre, and which, if not the work of Leonardo da Vinci, was certainly executed by one of his pupils; secondly, an essay by M. Ravaisson-Mollien on the great artist’s botanical knowledge, together with a letter of M. Fillon treating of the same subject.

Let us, in conclusion, pay a just tribute of praise to the liberality with which M. Quantin, the publisher, has facilitated the production of this splendid monument raised to the memory of Leonardo da Vinci.

IN _English Etchings_, Part xl. (D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place), we have another of those beautifully executed “bits” of “Old London” which are worth preserving, before they are swept away to make room for “improvements.” The spot represented is that portion of Lower Thames-street opposite Billingsgate. The church of St. Magnus, close by London-bridge, forms the centre of the picture. This is one of Wren’s churches, and was built in 1676, the old church, which was founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century, having been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The etching is the work of Mr. Frank J. Short, and is most effective in its treatment.

Obituary Memoirs.

“Emori nolo; sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo.”--_Epicharmus._

MR. THOMAS W. LIDDERDALE, for over thirty years an officer of the British Museum, and latterly a first-class assistant in the Printed Book Department, died suddenly in the Strand, on September 4, when returning home from his ordinary duties. Mr. Lidderdale was a scholar of rare attainments in Scandinavian literature, and particularly in the more contracted sphere of Icelandic bibliography.

THE death is recorded of M. STANISLAS GUYARD, a distinguished Semitic scholar. At the end of last year he was appointed Professor of Arabic at the Collége de France, in succession to the late M. Defrémery. His publications on the language and literature of the Arabs have been numerous; but to English readers it will be enough to point out his great article on “The Eastern Caliphate,” in the sixteenth volume of the new edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica.” His interests, says the _Academy_, were by no means confined to Arabic. He had recently taken up with ardour the study of Assyrian. He shares with Professor Sayce the credit of finding the interpretation of the mysterious inscriptions of Van; and, to the astonishment of English students, he declared himself a convert to the theory of M. Halévy--that the so-called “Accadian” of the cuneiform tablets is no language at all, but only a secret mode of writing Assyrian. M. Guyard was assistant secretary and librarian of the Société Asiatique, and one of the four editors of the _Revue Critique_. He died by his own hand at Paris, in his forty-first year.

MR. E. A. ROY, Assistant-Keeper of the Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum, died on August 14, aged 64. Mr. Roy had been employed at the British Museum since 1841, and was appointed by Mr. Winter Jones, the Principal Librarian, in 1871, to the post of Assistant-Keeper of Printed Books, a post then specially created for an officer charged with the superintendence and acceleration of the progress of the catalogue of books and final revision of the titles.

MR. HENRY G. BOHN, F.S.A., the oldest bookseller and publisher, and himself the author of sundry “Handbooks” of London, of Games, &c., died at the age of 88, at Twickenham, on the 22nd August. He first brought his name into notice by his “Guinea Catalogue of old English Books,” which he printed in 1841; to our readers he will be best known by his “Historical” and “Antiquarian” Libraries.

THE death is announced of Mr. JAMES NAPIER, of Stonehaven, author of two local historical works, entitled “Stonehaven and its Historical Associations,” and “The Honours of Scotland,” the latter being an account of the preservation of the Scottish regalia when Dunottar Castle was besieged by the army of the Commonwealth in 1651.

Meetings of Learned Societies.

METROPOLITAN.

THE BRITISH ARCHÆOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.

THE forty-first annual congress of this Association commenced at Tenby, on Tuesday, September 2, the Bishop of St. David’s presiding. The reception of the members, by the Mayor and Corporation of Tenby, took place at the Town-hall, where the maces and regalia of Tenby, Pembroke, and Haverfordwest, which were exhibited, were made the subject of some observations by Mr. George Lambert, F.S.A., who said that the last two were of the reign of Charles I., while those of Tenby were later. All three, he said, were in poor condition. The Bishop then delivered his inaugural address, in the course of which he expressed his belief that since he took part in a meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Society at Tenby some twenty years ago antiquarian research had begun to take rank as a science, having ceased to content itself with collecting dry facts and having begun to systematise them in an orderly manner. He drew attention to the character of the county which they were about to visit, which, though it might be somewhat poor in its churches, was so rich in castles that it might almost be styled their paradise. These castles were well worthy of attention, for even in their ruins they served to illustrate history, showing, as they did, that the feudal nobles who inhabited them were almost princes in their independence, like those of the northern borderland, and for the same reason--namely, their great distance from the central seat of royal authority. He ended his address by some excellent remarks on the five leading eras to which the antiquities of Pembrokeshire might be referred--the pre-historic, the Roman, the Anglo-Saxon, the mediæval, and the post-Reformation periods respectively; adding, at the same time, some remarks upon his own cathedral of St. David and its surroundings, its peculiar grandeur and charm of grace, instancing it and Bishop Gower’s Palace close by as the finest specimens of mediæval architecture, ecclesiastical and domestic, to be seen in the Principality.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by the members of the congress in the inspection of the various objects of antiquarian interest in which the town abounds, notably its ancient walls, which, if they are not so strong or so ancient as those of York, are of a good and original type. They are fairly perfect on the western and northern sides of the town, and probably were never built on the east and south sides, where the cliffs, rising abruptly out of the sea, were a sufficient protection. The leading features of these fortifications were explained by Mr. Edward Laws, a local antiquary, who has acted as local secretary to the present congress, and has the antiquities of Tenby at his fingers’ ends. The company also inspected several arched vaults, Gothic windows, ornamental chimneys, and other architectural details in various houses in the town. They also visited the local museum, where the civic charters of Tenby and other curious specimens of antiquarian lore were on view. These found an expounder in Mr. Walter De Gray Birch, of the British Museum, who pronounced them far above the average in interest, though not in good preservation. At the church the party were met by the rector, the Rev. G. Huntington, who pointed out to them a number of fine effigies and other monuments, especially the curiously sculptured alabaster memorial to John and Thomas White, enterprising and opulent merchants of the town, one of whom was of great service to Henry VII., when he was only Earl of Richmond, in enabling him to make his escape by sea to France--a service for which he was afterwards rewarded by a Royal grant of land. Amongst the other tombs that were inspected was that of William Risam (A.D. 1633), in the attitude of prayer; that of Walter Vaughan, of Dunraven, a noted wrecker; and, perhaps the most interesting of all, a marble effigy of a skeleton in a recess in the wall near the north door--probably erected by a priest as a _memento mori_. The curious figures supporting the roof of the chancel, the ogee arch over the western doorway, the old aumbries, the fine wooden roof, and entrance to the rood-screen, were all much admired, as were also the remains of a Carmelite priory adjacent to the west end of the fabric. These were commented on by the Rector and by Mr. Loftus Brock, who gave good reasons for believing that the church was erected in detail at various dates, as the necessity for enlargement arose, and stated that St. Mary’s, Tenby, was not only one of the finest of Pembrokeshire churches, but also a very excellent example of what a town church ought to be. Before leaving the church the Bishop moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Brock for his valuable and most suggestive paper. The day’s proceedings were brought to a close by a dinner at the Temperance Hall, at which nearly a hundred sat down.

On Wednesday, at Brownslade, their first halting-place, through the kindness of the Hon. Colonel Lambton, a raised tumulus, which had long been suspected to be a barrow, was opened, and at a distance of little more than 2 ft. below the turf a variety of human bones were brought to light, and, amongst others, the skeleton of a very tall man, which was laid bare before the eyes of the assembled congress, the rough stones which had covered the bones being carefully removed. As the body lay exactly east and west, it was surmised that it must be that of a Christian; and, if so, then it clearly must be of post-Roman date. This supposition was confirmed by the discovery of some crosses and other emblems of Christianity being found among the bones in the neighbouring graves, which were grouped thickly around. In some of these the bones were thrown in apparently at random, and others were found in a crawling posture, so that in all probability the cemetery had been used for heathen interments before the Christians made use of it. At a short distance to the north were seen the _débris_ of what was thought, from its orientation, to have been a chapel or church, though the masonry showed marks of Roman mortar and handiwork. Between the church and the above-mentioned tumulus the surface of the ground is very uneven, rising every here and there into hillocks, and it was thought probable that further excavations, if carried out, would probably reveal here the existence of an early British village. At Brownslade Mr. E. Laws and Mr. Loftus Brock and the Dean of St. David’s acted as interpreters and guides. The dean also accompanied the party to the next halting-place, the church of Castle Martin, a miniature reproduction in some respects of St. David’s Cathedral. Here the dean drew the attention of the congress to the south porch, in which were the remains of what certainly looks like a rood-loft, though why a rood-loft should be introduced into a porch it is not easy to determine. The Norman font, the tall slim tower, and other features of the church were much admired. The visitors also inspected the old vicarage, adjoining the church, now inhabited as a cottage. In it they saw a pillar of apparently Norman date, and having on its capital grotesque sculptures.

Afterwards the party drove on, under the guidance of Mr. E. Scott, to Angle, or Nangle, a village prettily situated on an arm of Milford Haven, and famous as having been once the home of Giraldus Cambrensis. Here they were shown the remains of a curiously fortified rectory-house (not unlike one of the smaller “Peel” castles of the northern border counties), consisting of a tower with Gothic windows, and elegantly adorned with carvings. Close by it is a round dovecote, probably coeval with the rectory, and dating from the Edwardian era. They also inspected a little detached mortuary chapel, with a crypt below, which stands in the churchyard a little to the north of the sacred edifice. On their way thence to Ross-Crowther the party visited a curious cromlech on Newton Burrows. At Ross-Crowther itself they were received by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Scott, who entertained the whole party at tea in his garden. He also showed them a curiously engraved stone (possibly of Roman origin) which is worked into the wall at the entrance of the churchyard, and a fine stone cross in the churchyard, remarkable as still having a perfect cavity in which money was dropped as offerings to the preacher. The altar slab, the low-browed arches, the font, and other portions of the church were much admired, as also was the “sanctus” bell, which still hangs outside the roof at the eastern end of the nave.

The party walked across the fields from the rectory in order to visit the fortified manor-house of Jestington, or Eastington, one of the most singular structures in this part of Wales. It is remarkable for its external staircase of stone, and for the curious patterns in which its stone floor is laid down. From Eastington the drive was made on the return journey to Pembroke, whence the members of the Congress were conveyed by train to Tenby. Owing to the late hour of their return only one paper was read at the evening meeting--namely, by Mr. Arthur Cope, upon the subject of “Little England beyond Wales.” The reading of this paper was followed by an animated discussion, in which Mr. G. Lambert, Mr. E. Loftus Brock, and other gentlemen took part.

Thursday was devoted to a long drive by carriages to Manorbeer Castle and Lamphey Palace. On their way to the former they paid a visit to Lydsted, a quaint little place on the coast, where their attention was attracted by some curious ancient specimens of domestic architecture. At Manorbeer Mr. E. Loftus Brock explained all the details of this most interesting structure, more remarkable for its picturesque position at the head of an inland bay than for its strength, as it is commanded on almost every side by hills which would place it at the mercy of heavy cannon. The castle is approached by a drawbridge, which spans a moat now dry. Crossing this and passing through the fortified entrance gateway, the visitor finds himself in the outer bailey, with the windows of the chapel, the hall, the kitchen, and the other domestic offices facing him. His attention cannot fail to be arrested by the external stone staircases which lead up to these rooms. Between the hall and the chapel is a large apartment, which probably was used as a drawing-room. Here, as in the chapel, the vaulting of the roof remains, as also do the chimneys in the hall; the dais also can be traced, and the stairs leading up from the kitchen are nearly perfect. Much has been done of late years to show the proportions of the chapel by removing the bricks and plaster with which its chancel windows were blocked up. The walls are almost entire, and so are the ramparts which run round them internally, thus placing both ends of the castle in immediate communication with each other, and both with the centre--an arrangement very useful in the time of constant wars and forays. Mr. Brock was able to show that the walls were of different date, the original Norman walls having been raised, apparently twice, in order to secure additional defence. Some controversy arose at the end of Mr. Brock’s remarks as to the meaning of the latter portion of the word “manorbeer,” and Sir James Picton, suggested that as the castle was under the Edwards the property of the family of Barry, or Berry, of which Giraldus Cambrensis was a member, it might mean the manor house of the Berrys; but this was negatived by the Vicar, the Rev. A. H. Wratislaw, who stated that in old college documents there was no reference to the Barry family, and that there is still in the parish a farm termed Beer, to which possibly the lands now covered by the castle belonged. On leaving the castle the party proceeded to the church, which stands on a lofty eminence looking down upon the castle and the sea. The many singular points in its structure, its utter irregularity of plan, the strange, heavy arches on either side of its nave, the large rood-loft in the north aisle, and the equally large “hagioscope” in the south aisle, and the knightly figure in armour on the north side of the communion rails, were all in turn commented upon by the Rev. Mr. Wratislaw in an address which he delivered in the nave. The party next hastily inspected the ruins of the old priory and the old rectory house adjoining the church on the south, and then proceeded on foot along the edge of the cliffs to see a cromlech, which is famous throughout the neighbourhood. It much resembles those seen in Cornwall, consisting of two short upright stones, supporting another flat stone of larger size. This was probably used for the purposes of sepulture in prehistoric times. Returning to the village the party took their luncheon in the schoolroom, which was placed at their disposal by the Vicar. After this they drove on in their brakes and waggonettes to Hodgeston, where they inspected the church, and duly admired the richly-carved sedilia, piscina, and decorated chancel, for which it is famous among Pembrokeshire churches. From Hodgeston their route led them to Lamphey, one of several palaces once belonging to the see of St. David’s, though separated from it by Henry VIII. at the Reformation, and since allowed to go to ruin by the Devereuxes, to whom it was first granted, and by subsequent owners down to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to whom it now belongs. The old hall, with its long and fine arcade of windows--an emulation, or rather a reproduction on a smaller scale, of Bishop Gower’s Palace of St. David’s--and the chapel, with its elegant east window, were both much admired, and great regret was expressed at the ruin caused by courtiers to sacred buildings which the ancient Church did its best to preserve. From Lamphey the return journey was made along the ridgway to Tenby, but in their way back the archæologists paid a short and hasty visit to Penally Abbey, only a small portion of which--namely, St. David’s Chapel--now remains. It stands in private grounds, and the chapel is now a fernery, of which the gardener is very proud. The church, which is small, and has lately been renovated and adorned with painted windows, was much admired, and so were the crosses in the churchyard. The party reached Tenby between seven and eight o’clock, and at the evening meeting papers were read by Sir James Picton on “Place Names and their Teachings, especially with reference to Pembrokeshire,” and by Mr. Edward Laws on “The Local Ethnology of the District.” The former paper gave rise to a long and interesting discussion.

On Friday the archæologists had a long and pleasant day. Reaching Pembroke by special train soon after ten o’clock, they found their carriages ready to convey them to the Stack Rocks and to Stackpole Court, Lord Cawdor’s noble seat, near the southern coast of Pembrokeshire. They reached the cliffs in good time, and saw them in their entire stretch from Linney Head to St. Govan’s Head, and were shown in turn the Caldrons, Bullslaughter Bay, the Hunter’s Leap, and the other points which are so familiar to tourists in these parts. The sea was quite calm, and the sky was bright, so that the party were specially favoured in point of weather. They were most pleased, however, with St. Govan’s Chapel, which is situated about half-way down the cliffs in a narrow gorge, which it almost entirely blocked up. Here it is said that St. Govan was miraculously brought, and still more miraculously preserved from his enemies, and here he spent many years in fasting and prayer. The rooms which served as his dwelling and his oratory are partly hewn out of the solid rock, and partly built into it and on it. The window is primitive in its simplicity, and the roof with its little bell turret above is all that shows us now that it was a chapel once. Close by it and almost forming part of it is a rock, in which there is a hollow cavity just large enough for a person to stand in it; and there is a firm and fixed belief in the neighbourhood that whoever, whilst inside of it, makes a wish, turning himself or herself, as the case may be, round three times, will see that wish gratified within the next twelvemonth. From St. Govan’s Head the party passed along the cliff, inspecting very briefly a Danish encampment which occupies one of the bold headlands close by. In their way from St. Govan’s to Stackpole the archæologists paid a visit to Bosherston Church, where the tall tapering tower and the interior monuments, including two recumbent figures, a knight and a lady in stone, under noble canopies, were much admired. The church in other respects scarcely differs from the ordinary type so common all over the southern portion of Pembrokeshire. From Bosherston they drove on to Stackpole Court, the seat of Lord Cawdor, where they were not sorry to find luncheon awaiting them. Some of the party were content to inspect the state rooms of this lordly mansion, and to admire the family portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, and the stands of arms which were used by the late Lord Cawdor’s regiment of militia in repelling the descent of the French troops at Fishguard, or taken from their prisoners. Meantime the more adventurous portion of the party walked across the park, under the guidance of Colonel and Lady Victoria Lambton, to inspect the site of a supposed pre-historic British village on the high ground about half-way between the Court and the sea cliffs. The remains are very irregular in plan, and from what is seen above ground it is difficult to make out their use, for they are scarcely strong enough to support roofs, and so could hardly serve for the purpose of domestic life. It was thought by some of those present that they were intended as places of safety for their oxen and flocks, and that the sites of their dwellings were a little further towards the sea. The subject, however, is reserved for future discussion, as soon as some further excavations can be made by Lord Cawdor, Colonel Lambton, and Mr. E. Laws. The large quantities of bones, burnt and calcined, of flints cut for arrow-heads, &c., found just under the turf led the archæologists to believe that further excavations would probably be found productive of satisfactory results; and one thing was regarded as certain--namely, that in very distant ages these bleak and barren sea-cliffs bristled with a native population. In returning through the park the party were shown some specimens of a breed of white cattle which are said to have been here from the Danish and British times, not unlike those at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, but smaller and not so fierce. The return drive was accomplished in good time to Pembroke, the party being able _en route_ just to take a hasty glance at Cheriton Church, which has been lately restored by Lord Cawdor, and is remarkable for the noble monuments, under sculptured canopies, which it contains. They much admired the monument of Sir Elias de Stackpole, who took the cross and went off to Palestine, being led thereto by the preaching of Archbishop Baldwin; and also an ivy-crowned stone cross, which stands in the churchyard, apparently unmutilated. The papers read at the evening meeting in the Town-hall, Tenby, were two--the first by Mr. Thomas Morgan on “The Plantagenets,” and the other on “The Flemings in England and their Architecture,” by the Rev. Osborn Allen. The latter was followed by a long and interesting discussion.

On Saturday morning, in spite of the wetness of the day, about sixty of the members of the Congress started in carriages for Gumfreston and St. Florence, _en route_ for Carew and Upton Castles. Arrived at Gumfreston, they were received at the church by the Rector and by Mr. Edward Laws, who had acted throughout as local secretary and _cicerone_. Here Mr. Charles Lynam read a paper upon the structural peculiarities and historical associations of the church, for which he received a special vote of thanks. The sanctus bell, the piscina, and the baptistery were much admired. From Gumfreston the party drove through drenching showers of rain to St. Florence, where they minutely inspected the church, which, like its neighbour they had just left, is an excellent specimen of the usual Pembrokeshire church, with heavy walls and stone roof, and low depressed arches of early date in the chancel and transepts. The vicar, the Rev. Eric Rudd, here showed to the party the remains of a holy water stoup and of a stone cross which had not long since been unearthed in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Brock also made some remarks upon the fabric, and the parties inspected the remains of an old Flemish house close by. From St. Florence they drove on to Carew Castle, which was the principal attraction in the day’s programme. Less in size than, and not equal in situation to, Manorbeer, Carew Castle--which, by the way, is generally styled Carey in Pembrokeshire--is not inferior to it in historic interest. It was the original fortress of the ancient Princes of Wales when they were independent of the British Crown, and, as the home of the earlier of the Tudors, it holds a high rank among the historic castles of the Principality. It passed, by the marriage of an heiress, to one of the Geralds or FitzGeralds, who was castellan of Pembroke Castle, and it is famed in comparatively recent times as having been the place where one of the Welsh lords, Sir Rhys ap Thomas, received Henry of Richmond when he landed in these parts on his way to win the battle of Bosworth Field. Here, therefore, the party were glad to lunch, being hospitably entertained, by the courtesy of Mr. Charles Allen, in the ruined and windowless, but, happily, not roofless chapel. The outlines of Carew Castle are so familiar to the Cambrian traveller that we need not attempt to describe them in detail; sufficient to say that it stands at the extreme end of one of the many “tentacles” of Milford Haven, which washes the bases of its northern and western towers. The great “Edwardian” banqueting hall, with its fine flight of stone steps externally, still frowns down upon the visitor in the quadrangle, reminding him of many details of Ludlow and Berry Pomeroy. On his right are the remains, roofless, of the state apartments, very magnificent in their decay, not unlike those of Kenilworth. Of the chapel but little is to be seen externally, though it is interesting enough in its interior details. “The inner face of the western side of the Castle Court,” writes Murray, “is the most modern of the whole, and is said to have been built by Sir Rhys ap Thomas, in a rich form of late Perpendicular architecture; it proclaims by its style that it was erected during the reign of one of the Tudors. It must have been a structure of great magnificence, though now reduced to a mere shell.” This wing was evidently built without any view to defence, though placed in connection with the towers at either end rising out of the water. On the whole, it is not in so good a condition as Manorbeer, and is not so well looked after or so tenderly “preserved.” The party inspected also, under the guidance of the Vicar, Carew Church, and were shown the remains of a small disused chapel, near at hand. Mr. Loftus Brock here offered a few remarks on the details of both these interesting structures, the church having, unlike the rest of those the party had lately visited, a Perpendicular tower. Near the Carew Arms Hotel the party were shown an old wayside cross, the inscription on which, in Runic characters, has long defied the efforts of scientific inquirers. Mr. E. Laws, however, announced that it had been lately found to be a brief record of the name of the person who erected it, and that it belonged to a date when the Welsh were in close contact with the Irish. He stated that the ornamentation of the cross, which is a megalith upwards of 12 ft. in height, is generally like that to be seen on the crosses in the Isle of Man and in Ireland, in spite of some local differences of detail. In the course of the afternoon the party, having been refreshed by their luncheon, went on to Upton Castle, where they were received by an Oxford professor of modern history, Mr. Henry Halford Vaughan, formerly fellow of Oriel College. This gentleman explained to them the details of the structure, and showed them his library. He also accompanied them to a disused church or chapel in his grounds not far from the castle, where Colonel Bramble showed and commented upon the effigy, in stone, of a member of the great Pembrokeshire family of Malefort or Mallefort. At the conclusion of their inspection of the antiquities and curiosities of Upton, the party drove across the country, along deep shady lanes, to Pembroke, where the train was waiting to take them back to Tenby in time for the evening meeting. On this evening the Mayor took the chair, and a paper was read by Mr. E. Loftus Brock, F.S.A., upon “The Historical Evidences of the Extent of the Ancient British Church in Wales.” Mr. E. Laws said that it would be more correct to call this Church Cwmric than British, and the discussion was continued until a late hour.

On Sunday the members of the Congress attended Divine service at the parish church at Tenby, where the rector, the Rev. G. Huntington, preached before them an eloquent sermon, most appropriate to the occasion, from the words of Jeremiah (vi. 16), “Stand ye in the old paths ... and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”[51]

In spite of a very wet morning on Monday, the members of the congress, to the number of nearly forty, proceeded, according to their programme, by special train to Pembroke, where Mr. E. Laws and Mr. Loftus Brock had promised to conduct them over the ruined fabric of the castle. Its site and exterior appearance need scarcely be described, so well are they known to tourists; but it may be well to say that as at Manorbeer there is no history, because there were no events in the existence of the castle, here the castle has a long and varied history, figuring in the early wars which ended in the reduction of Wales under the English yoke, and also in the Great Rebellion, when it was held for the King, and was captured by the Parliamentary leaders, Oliver Cromwell himself having a hand in its reduction. The castle stands on a rocky peninsula, which is formed by two creeks of Milford Haven, which wash it on the north and west. It thus occupies a very strong position, and though there is no actual proof of its having been occupied as a fortress by the Romans, yet there is every probability that such was the case. Soon after the Norman Conquest, however, it appears to have been fortified by Walter de Montgomery, and from that time down to the early part of the fifteenth century, when Henry VII. was born within its walls, it had a large share in the making of Welsh history. The castle, it is needless to add, though well fortified by nature, was still more strongly fortified by art, and, indeed, was at one time regarded as almost impregnable. The outer defence consisted of a double entrance, the inner one at right angles to the former, in front of which was a drawbridge and a moat, now no longer in existence. The first, or outer court, by far the larger of the two, was divided from the inner court or “bailey” by a wall, which can still be traced. Near the juncture of the two stands the Norman keep, which, unlike that of most similar structures, is circular instead of square. It is upwards of 70 ft. in height, and its walls at the base are nearly 17 ft. thick; it has a stone roof or covering of a conical or dome-like shape, reminding the visitor of the tower at the north-west angle of Windsor Castle. It is of five stages, and a stone staircase in the wall led up to the “first floor apartments;” but, alas! the floors are all gone. Some fine, semi-Norman windows still remain _in situ_. In the lower “bailey” is the old castle well, and near it a sally-port, which would stand the besieged in good stead in case of being reduced to their last shift within the walls. Near the central keep are the remains of the walls of other large apartments, but their actual use is uncertain, and the archæologists could throw little or no light upon them. Not far to the east are the walls of what once was a magnificent banqueting-hall, but there the devastation wrought by the hand of time is so extensive that it is almost impossible to decide which was the upper end of it, and where were the servants’ seats and the entrance to the buttery and the kitchen. As for the chapel, two chambers were shown to the members of the congress, but so many objections were found to each that they were inclined to believe that it could never be found except by farther excavations. The company, in spite of the drenching rain, were able to “walk round the battlements and tell the towers thereof,” and to inspect the entrances of the dungeons and of the large cavity in the northern wall known as “The Wogan”--a place which, it is thought, may have served as a second sally-port, though others think that it was the receptacle of a second well. Before leaving the party were shown by Mr. E. Laws some of Oliver Cromwell’s cannon-balls of stone, which he was forced to have made on the spot in great haste in order to carry on the siege, as his store of ammunition which he had intended to use against the castle had been sunk by a storm in the depths of the Bristol Channel. They were also shown the chamber in which, if the local tradition is to be believed, Henry of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII., was born. Returning to the principal entrance, the party assembled in the room above the gateway to hear from Mr. Loftus Brock a short description of the fabric, its history and archæology; and Mr. Brock, on behalf of the members, tendered his best thanks to Mr. Cobb and to the local committee for the care which they have bestowed on the preservation of the fabric from further decay. Leaving the castle the party then walked round the outer walls by the side of the river, and so made their way across the bridge to Monkton. Here they had before them a great treat, for they saw together, under a single roof, the strange commixture of a parish church with a monastic priory chapel, the latter having been added to the former by the Benedictine monks when they were removed thither from the castle scarcely a century after the Norman Conquest. It appears that they divided the two structures, which appeared respectively as a nave and a chancel, by a wall, which still remains _in situ_, at once separating and connecting them. The monastic church is of the Decorated style, with an east window not unlike one of the windows at Tintern Abbey. Close by it, and running parallel to it on the north, is the Lady-chapel, of about the same date. These are both now roofless, but it is hoped that the former may, ere long, be turned to good account, and be restored so as to form a chancel to the nave, which alone now serves as the parochial church. The chief obstacle to this is the wall built across them at their juncture, and which is said to be “too good to destroy and yet too bad to keep.” Possibly, as suggested by Mr. Brock, the upper part of it might be removed, and the lower part pierced, so as to form a sort of light screen which shall offer no impediment to the voice. On leaving the church and chapels the party were conducted over the scanty remains of the old monastic buildings, which are still distinctly traceable in the field to the north. They afterwards paid a hasty visit to the vicarage-house, which was once, they were told, the prior’s residence, and which has every appearance of having once been fortified. In its basement is a lofty, vaulted chamber, above which is a fine dining-hall, with its buttery-hatch as complete as it was four centuries ago.

As soon as luncheon, of which they partook at an inn in the town, was over, the whole party returned by special train to Tenby in time for the concluding meeting, which was held in the Town-hall, and was presided over by the Mayor. Here Mr. De Gray Birch read an interesting historical paper upon the Charters of Tenby, which he showed was variously spelt from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. He said that, as compared with those of other towns, the Charters of Tenby were both early and curious, and, though they were not in so bad a state as many others, they had suffered severely from neglect and from injudicious repairs, by exposure to damp, and by the absence of light and fresh air. Their value to the Town, he added, was incalculable, and their loss or further decay would be equally to be regretted. Votes of thanks were passed to the Mayor, to Mr. Edward Laws, to the Rector of Tenby, to the readers of papers, and to the various other gentlemen who had assisted in forwarding the interests and success of the congress, which then broke up, so far as Tenby was concerned; the archæologists intending to leave early on Tuesday for Haverfordwest and St. David’s, where they would examine the cathedral and the old episcopal palace, under the guidance of the Bishop and the Dean. An account of this portion of the proceedings will appear in our next number.

PROVINCIAL.

BUCKS ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--On August 11, the members of the above Society visited Buckingham, Maid’s Moreton, and Stowe House, making the Buckingham district the point for the annual excursion. The Vicar of Buckingham read a paper on the history of the Parish Church. Castle House was then inspected, the residence of Major Hearn, who gave a description of the place. The company then proceeded to Maid’s Moreton, where the church was the object of the visit, and at which place the pages of the parish register were searched with much interest. On the arrival at Stowe House the Duke of Buckingham received the company, amounting to 150 visitors. After luncheon, his Grace read a paper on the history of the place. Some interesting points in Stowe Gardens were visited, but time would not permit of a lengthened survey of the place. The annual meeting of the Society was afterwards held. The Society promises more animation in future.

CAMBRIAN ARCHÆOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.--The thirty-ninth annual Congress of this Association began on Monday, August 18, at Bala, under the presidency of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn. The report was adopted. On Tuesday an excursion was made to Castell Carndochan, Caergai, and Llannwchllyn Church. At the first-named place the Rev. W. Hughes, the local secretary, read a paper in which he referred to the leading objects of the day’s excursion. “Llannwchllyn,” he remarked, “was derived from its position above Bala Lake: _Llan-nwch-y-Llyn_, ‘the church above the lake.’” In early times, he said, the word “Llan” was not only applied to churches, but it also signified the spot surrounding the church. The existence to these days of so many Llans bearing the names of Welsh saints, such as Llandudno, Llandewi, Llandaff, and Llandrinio, showed the independence of the early British Church of the Church of Rome, and that she had a noble army of saints and martyrs to boast of long before Augustine came over from Rome, A.D. 596, to preach the Gospel to the pagan Saxon. The parish of Llannwchllyn was one of much archæological interest, not the least point in which was that the historical River Dee rose in it under the hill called Duallt, and not at Pantgwn, as was sometimes supposed. Llannwchllyn Church was dedicated to St. Duniol, and besides the cathedral of Bangor and the parish church of Hawarden, is the only church in North Wales that bears the name of the first Bishop of Bangor. The old church was taken down in 1872, and was “restored” at a cost of about £17,000. Plas Rhiwaedog, an old restored palace of Owen Tudor, the head of the six tribes of North Wales, was visited on the way back to Bala. It is now the property of Mr. Price of Rhiwlas, who has retained in it the old oak furniture and some of the oak mantelpieces, on one of which is the date 1699. On the porch is an inscription, with the date 1664. At the evening meeting, held in the County-hall, Bala, the Rev. Canon Thomas gave a _résumé_ of the investigations of the day, and read a paper descriptive of Merionethshire 600 years ago. Mr. R. Pryce Jones (Ruthin) read portions of a paper giving a history of Rhiwaedog, the palace of Owen Tudor as it has been called, in which he traced the pedigree of the resident family from 60 B.C., when the head was called Beli Mawr, King of the Britons, and from whom Billingsgate was named, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, down to Colonel Edward Evans-Lloyd of Moel-y-Garhedd, the present descendant of the family.--Wednesday’s excursion was through the Vale of Llangollen, where the party inspected another Roman mound, Tommen-y-Mur, near Maentwrog-road, and then other objects between Maentwrog-road Railway-station and Dolgelly, the route between these two places being by road. The church at Llanelltyd, with its inscribed stone, Cymmer Abbey, and Dolgelly Church were also visited.--The excursion on Thursday was eastward among the Berwyn mountains, and the antiquities in the district around Llangollen were also examined. After visiting Llantysilio Church, the travellers reached Valle Crucis Abbey. The stone fragments have been carefully collected and placed as nearly in their original positions as practicable on the carefully-shaven turf which now takes the place of the paved floor of the abbey. In the restoration of the chapter-house a curious plan was adopted for preserving a memorial which is believed to have no proper connection with the abbey itself. This a monumental slab on which the vine, Maltese cross, &c., are carved, which is built into the south wall over the central one of three recesses, and bears the following inscription: HIC IACET TARVRVET. The rest of the inscription appears to have been broken off with a portion of the stone in order to make it fit into the recess. This stone had been used as a mantelpiece in a neighbouring house, but why it was removed to its present position is unexplained. As to the foundation of the abbey, doubt is still entertained among archæologists. Dugdale, on the authority of Leland, ascribes it to Madoc ap Griffith Maylor, Prince of Powys, assumably about 1200. Looking from the west front towards the north is to be seen, a few hundred yards away in a clump of trees on a slight mound, a broken pillar, which has been the source of much controversy. This is Elisey’s pillar, and is evidently of the remotest antiquity, though bearing at present a modern inscription. The wear and tear of many centuries has almost obliterated the original inscription, but traces of letters are still to be detected. There is evidence that the cross was certainly in existence before the foundation of the abbey, which is spoken of as being “near the cross.” Castell Dinas Bran, which is locally known as “Crow Castle,” was next visited. It stands on the summit of a conical hill 600 ft. high, and its broken walls and jagged turrets, as seen from below, form a striking feature in the landscape. It must have been impregnable against any attack when fortified in the days of rude warfare. Its early history is somewhat obscure. It was in 1200 the residence of Madoc ap Griffith, the founder of Valle Crucis, from which it is distant only two or three miles. Madoc, it appears, became a traitor to his king, and when he afterwards gave in his submission it was readily accepted, for the probable reason that the Sovereign was aware of the impregnability of his castle, to which he had retired. Llangollen Church has recently been “restored.”--The excursion on Friday was in the direction of Corwen. Commencing at Llangar Church, a short drive from Bala, an inscribed stone in the town was noticed. It bore the inscription Cavoseniagii, but its interpretation is a matter of controversy. Next came Tomen-y-Castell, another of those mounds common in the district; in this case it appears to have been placed as a means of defence and observation on an important part of the Roman road leading from Caergai towards Deva (Chester). Caer Creini was next visited--a fine stone-breasted outwork. At Rhug Chapel attention was called to some good carving in the roof. Caer Drewyn is a large fort with stone ramparts. Corwen Church was then reached. This is another restored church, but here a fine effigy of a former priest is untouched. Llangan Church, also restored, has a good screen and a portion of a pastoral staff, ascribed to the founder, Dorfel Gadarn. Caerbont was next visited. This is mentioned by Mr. Hartshorne as belonging to the type of forts of the dry stone-walling period. In the evening the concluding meeting was held at the County-hall, Bala, when the Rev. Canon Thomas read a paper on the “Ecclesiastical History of Merionethshire.”--A small local museum of antiquities was formed during the week at the Calvinistic Methodists’ College, Bala. It contained some numismatic specimens and a few rare books, among them poems of Phillipe and Catherine ap Howell. A curious almsbox was shown, so contrived that an arrangement of teeth prevents the abstraction of coins placed therein. Some painted iron crosses, said to be from Cymmer Abbey, were also shown, the date said to be Henry VIII., but bearing the appearance of more modern origin.

SOMERSET ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--The annual meeting of this society took place on August 26 and two following days, in the neighbourhood of Shepton Mallet, Lord Carlingford, as president-elect, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Mr. E. A. Freeman taking part in the proceedings. Lord Carlingford, in his inaugural address, said it was most interesting to work their way through ages to the time when the oolite of Doulting was converted into the Abbey of Glastonbury and the Cathedral of Wells, and also into those humbler and charming sacred edifices which stood around them. He greatly sympathised with an eminent architect who at a meeting of the Archæological Institute last year said in regard to church restoration that the good which had been done had been mixed up with an amount of evil and destruction. The effort to bring about restoration to some architectural style or pattern selected by the restorer had led to much useless and mischievous change and destruction. The true word was not restoration, but preservation, and that idea ought to be present to the mind of everyone dealing with an ancient building. As a preventive there should be created and fostered an historic sense, an historic feeling in these matters. He knew no other safeguard, except that of the sense of respect and reverence and tenderness for the work of their forefathers--the desire that not only the years of their own lives, but the generations of men should be bound each to each by natural ties. The members afterwards examined the parish church of Shepton Mallet, and then proceeded to Doulting, where they inspected the quarries, the old tithe-barn and church, and St. Aldhelm’s Well, and on the return journey made a halt at Beacon Hill, where a mound on the summit, crowned by a rough upright stone, was the object of considerable curiosity. The Rev. H. M. Scarth said that such mounds were frequently found near Roman roads. At the evening meeting the following papers were read: “The Malet Family,” by Mr. Arthur Malet; “The Prebendary of Dinder,” by Canon Church; and “Extracts from Wills Relating to the County of Somerset,” by Mr. A. J. Monday.--On the second day an excursion was made to Leigh-on-Mendip, Mells, and Kilsmersdon, the churches and other objects of interest at each place being duly examined and commented upon. In the evening Mr. Scarth read a paper on “Roman Cookery;” among the other papers read were: “The Romans in Bath,” “Ham Hill,” and “The Penn Pits.”--The concluding day was devoted to Radstock. Mr. E. Green, the hon. secretary, read some notes which had been prepared by Mr. McMurtrie, on the Roman road through Somerset, which in its course from Bath to Ilchester passed through the parish of Radstock. The church, with its Norman font and early porch, was afterwards visited; the party also inspected the Fosse-road, here seen exactly as used and left by the Romans, a section having been cut through, and the surface cleared.--A museum of local antiquities, lent for the occasion, and arranged by Mr. W. Bidgood, the honorary secretary of the society, was open during the Congress.

WILTSHIRE ARCHÆOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.--The members of the above Society held their annual meeting at Shaftesbury on August 6, 7, and 8. At the afternoon meeting on the 6th, the President, Mr. Nevil Story-Maskelyne, M.P., presented to the Hon. Secretary, Rev. A. C. Smith, an album, enclosed in a case of woods from Syria and Egypt, in recognition of his long-continued services to the Society; and especially in the matter of his recent great work, “An Archæological Map of the Hundred Square Miles around Abury.” Some historical notes on the River Thames were followed by a paper on “Shaftesbury, or Shaston,” written some years ago by a former rector, and now read by Rev. J. B. Wilkinson. The foundation of the fortified abbey by Alfred; the final burial in state of Edward the Martyr; the death of Cnut; the imprisonment of Elizabeth, wife of Robert Bruce, here were mentioned, as also the ancient custom of the Mayor annually visiting the wells below the town with a decked broom, a calf’s head, loaves, &c. After the annual dinner, a conversazione was held in the Town-hall. Canon Jackson, F.S.A., read a paper on “Cranbourne Chace.” Its boundaries extended from Shaftesbury to Salisbury, and to Ringwood, the forest being divided into certain “walks.” The history of the Chace, and the various law-suits occurring from the time of John to its disestablishment, were mentioned, and the habits of the deer-stealers, both of high and low birth, described minutely and illustrated by contemporary accounts, sketches, weapons, &c., from Rushmore. On Thursday the Society visited the circular encampment called Castle Rings, on the edge of the high land, overlooking the vale of Wardour, and close by a half-excavated barrow, of large size, was inspected. Tisbury Church was next visited. Here the curious low western porch, the fine roof of the nave, and the later (restored) roofs of the aisles, the marks of the originally very low roof of the south aisle, and the one remaining window, and the east window, with inserted tracery, attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, were all carefully inspected. At the rectory were exhibited several objects of interest, notably one of the few folios of Shakespeare of 1625, and a large and beautiful cup of silver gilt, given to Lord Boteler by Elizabeth, for his kindness to her in her retirement. The beautiful site of (the so-called) Fonthill Abbey--that ephemeral erection of the last century, and the splendid collection of enamels, &c., in the mansion of Mr. A. Morrison, were enjoyed on the way to East Knoyle, where Mr. A. Seymour had provided luncheon for the party, and Mrs. Seymour had laid out many pieces of rare and valuable embroideries. At Pytt House, Mr. V. F. Benett-Stanford exhibited several autograph letters from Charles I. to his “Dear Nephew” (Rupert), found amongst papers in the lumber room, probably preserved by Prince Rupert’s secretary. The party then passed on to Hatch House, which has been lately repaired. Wardour Castle was thrown open by Lord Arundel, who in person conducted his guests round the rooms, pointing out such objects of interest as the peculiar “Hagar and Ishmael,” by Barteli; the “Tobit,” by Gerhard Douw; and the two full-length Reynolds’; the portrait of the lady who defended the castle against the Parliamentary army; the so-called Glastonbury cup--a wooden-covered flagon, carved with the twelve apostles under round arches, probably no older than the Renaissance. A hasty inspection of the fine ruin of the original castle brought this expedition to a close. In the evening “Local Geology” was expounded by the Rev. T. Perkins, who also threw open his observatory; and a paper on “Gnostic Amulets” was read by Rev. W. F. Short, who exhibited a considerable variety of antique seals, gems, &c. The last expedition of the Society took them to Tollard-Royal Church. Here the ownership of arms upon the shield of a knight was the subject of much controversy. General Pitt-Rivers led the way to the Larmer Tree, a spot of much historic importance as the “mere” of three parishes and two counties, and a place of assembly from prehistoric times down to the disafforesting of Cranbourne Chace. The museum at Farnham, made by General Pitt-Rivers for the instruction of his agricultural neighbours, is a model of what such collections should be in clearness of arrangement and labelling. The General met the party at a group of barrows in Handley Wood, and explained his excavations there; he then entertained the Society at Rushmore Lodge; gave an interesting and well-illustrated lecture on the various excavations of barrows, pits, and camps, which he has carried out; and, finally, pointed out the remarkable features of the great Winklebury Camp, with the square pit-dwelling and the neighbouring Saxon Cemetery that he had discovered and excavated. With this the meeting closed.

MR. BOHN has left a very complete batch of MSS. relating to the world of letters, which will shortly see the light.

LORD HERVEY’S “Memoirs of George II.,” which have become very scarce, are about to be reprinted by Messrs. Bickers, who have purchased the copyright. The new edition will be in three volumes.

Antiquarian News & Notes.

THE Earl of Ducie is collecting materials for a history of the Spanish Armada of 1588.

THE daughters of the Dean of Westminster are engaged in writing a handbook to the Abbey.

MR. AUSTIN DOBSON’S new work, “Thomas Bewick and his Pupils,” based upon his articles in the _Century Magazine_, is announced.

MESSRS. F. HILTON PRICE and J. E. Price have just published the tenth edition of their Guide to the Roman Villa near Brading, in the Isle of Wight.

THE two-hundredth anniversary of Watteau’s birth will be celebrated at Valenciennes on October 10, when a monument by Hiolle and a statue by Carpeaux will be inaugurated.

A FUND is being raised to preserve the Saxon tower of Earl’s Barton Church, near Northampton, under the direction of Mr. T. L. Pearson, R.A.

MR. E. A. FREEMAN intends to inaugurate his professorship at Oxford next term with a course of lectures on “The Method of Historical Study.” He will also lecture on “Gregory of Tours.”

DR. PHENÈ, F.S.A., is engaged in investigating the museums and private collections of antiquities in Scandinavia, and also the Mounds of Norway, and the stone monuments of Denmark and Sweden, in continuation of his researches in Iceland and the North American continent.

THE Abbot Pietro Pressutti has completed the first volume of the “Regesta” (_i.e._, the letter-books) of Pope Honorius III., dating from 1216 to 1227, compiled by order of the Pope from the Codices in the Vatican archives.

THE “History of the Church of Manchester,” compiled from ancient documents and authentic records, by the Rev. Ernest F. Letts, M.A., Precentor and Minor Canon, is announced for publication, by Mr. Henry Gray, of Cathedral-yard, Manchester.

THE suggestion of the Mayor of Lichfield that Dr. Johnson’s centenary should be celebrated in December next, was anticipated by a letter from Mr. Walford, the editor of this magazine, which was published in the _Athenæum_ several months ago.

AN order has been made by Mr. Justice Chitty, authorising the Trustees of the Marlborough Estates and Heirlooms to sell to the Trustees of the National Gallery the Madonna Ansidei, by Raphael, for £70,000; and the equestrian picture of Charles I., by Van Dyck, for £17,500. The Trustees were also authorised to sell two pictures in the Blenheim Collection by Rubens, namely, one of that artist and his second wife and another of that lady and her page, for £50,000.

THE extensive collection of coins and medals, and also of antiquities, belonging to the family of the late Dr. Jacob Amiet, ex-Attorney-General of the Swiss Confederation at Solothurn, Switzerland, is announced for sale. The coins and medals include Greek, Roman, Swiss, French, English, and Italian; and among the antiquities are Egyptian idols and Babylonian cylinders; also weapons, tools, ornaments, &c., of the stone, bronze, and iron ages; potteries and implements of earthenware, stone, and glass, &c. Full particulars of the collection can be obtained from Mr. F. Schulthess, 16, Cantlowes-road, Camden-square, N.W.

LORD GRANVILLE is about to erect a monument at Ebb’s Fleet, near Pegwell Bay, in commemoration of the landing there of St. Augustine on his mission to England in the sixth century. The memorial will consist of a reproduction of one of the famous Saxon crosses at Sandbach, near Crewe, and stands twelve feet in height. On the west front will be carved a representation of the landing of Augustine, the annunciation, crucifixion, the transfiguration, saints, early Christian martyrs, &c.

GENERAL PITT-RIVERS, as Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Great Britain, has printed, by permission of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Works, his official report to them on excavations in the Pen pits, near Penselwood, Somerset, made for the purpose of ascertaining whether any portion of these ancient pits should be placed under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act. The excavations took place in October, 1883.

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Mr. William Downing, 74, New-street, Birmingham; Mr. Frank Murray, 26, Strand, Derby (includes purchases from the Gosford Library); Mr. Andrew Iredale, 3, Cary-place, Torquay; Messrs. Jefferies & Sons, Redcliff-street, Bristol; Mr. William Withers, Loseby-lane, Leicester; Mr. A. B. Osborne, 11, Red Lion-passage, W.C.; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3, Bull-street, Birmingham; Mr. James Aston, 49B, Lincoln’s Inn-fields; Messrs. Fawn & Son, 18, Queen’s-road, Bristol; Mr. J. Whiteley, 2, Princess-street, Halifax, Yorkshire.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear among the contents of the magazines for September: _Macmillan_, “The Northumbrian Border,” and “A Genealogical Search;” _English Illustrated_ Magazine, “Covent Garden;” _Contemporary Review_, “The Purgatorio of Dante;” _Art Journal_, “Preservation of the Monuments of Cairo,” “The Port of Leith,” and “Delft Ware;” _Fortnightly Review_, “Sport and Travel in Norway; “ _Magazine of Art_, “A Cartoon by Leonardo,” “Strand and Mall,” “Head-gear in the Fifteenth Century,” “Menzel and Frederick the Great;” “The Inns of Chancery,” by Rev. W. J. Loftie, and “Old Church Plate,” by Rev. H. Whitehead; _Century Magazine_, “From Coventry to Chester;” _St. Nicholas Magazine_, “The Queen’s Museum.”

MR. J. T. WOOD, writing from Blenheim House, Brighton, draws attention to the marbles from the Temple of Diana at Ephesus which are now arranged in what is designated “The Ephesian Gallery” at the British Museum. He does so with the hope that the sight of these interesting relics of the temple will induce some of those who can well afford it to subscribe to the fund for the completion of the excavations on the site of the temple, which his committee wish to renew in the course of the month of October under his direction. By completing these excavations Mr. Wood hopes to secure for the British Museum treasures of Greek art equal in value and interest to those which are already in our possession.

THE works in connection with Peterborough Cathedral are progressing rapidly. An oblong underground chamber--not a tomb--has recently been discovered. It has sides of stone and lime, a floor of stone flags, and a roof formed of the floor of the cathedral itself. This chamber measures 6 ft. 3 in. in length, by 4 ft. in width, and has a depth of 6 ft. A curved range of steps of about two yards in extent, and hitherto quite concealed, leads down to an entrance on the flank side of the cavity. The chamber was filled with lumber of all descriptions, including fragments of the famous choir screen which fell a prey to Cromwell’s zealots, scraps of leathern work, iron, steel, half charred wood, and a quantity of bones. Its original use is uncertain.

Antiquarian Correspondence.

Sin scire labores, Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.

_All communications must be accompanied by the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication._

THE JOHNSON CENTENARY.

SIR,--I desire to place before the public generally, and my fellow-citizens in particular, the question of the forthcoming Centenary of the death of Dr. Johnson. I feel that I am not called upon to enter into the details of the life of the great lexicographer, nor need I refer to the influence he exercised in so many and various ways over the literature of his country. The question with which I, as Mayor, have to deal is--Whether the Centenary of his death, which happens in December next, shall be observed; and, if so, what shall be the character of such demonstration? From time to time various schemes have been advocated, but it seems to me that, after the numerous appeals for funds lately made in every direction, it is not advisable to undertake any responsibility calculated to entail a large financial risk. At the same time, without in any way attempting to indicate the direction of such a celebration, and, indeed, without expressing a personal opinion in the matter, I deem it a duty to thus publicly invite expressions of opinion. We have somewhat over two months before us--sufficient time, I think, if desired, to arrange a moderate programme. I therefore invite all who feel interested to communicate by letter with me on the following points:--

1. Is it desirable to observe the Centenary of Dr. Johnson’s death?

2. If so, what form shall such observance take?

3. If arrangements are made for some observance of it, in what way are they likely or willing to aid it?

I must ask that all replies and offers of assistance shall be sent to me as early as possible, marked outside “Dr. Johnson’s Centenary.” If they are of such a nature as to indicate the prospect of a thoroughly successful observance, I will at once convene a meeting of those favourable to the project, and do what I can, privately and officially, to secure its success. If, on the other hand, the replies indicate a reasonable doubt as to the success or desirability of the undertaking, I shall (after consultation with others interested in the matter) feel myself at liberty to abandon the proposed movement. I therefore wish it to be understood that the celebration, if any, will be set on foot at the desire of those who by replying to this communication express themselves in favour of it. I think this is the better way to deal with the subject; at all events it will relieve me, as Mayor, of personal responsibility should the attempt to secure some notice of the death of our chief citizen fail for want of the requisite enthusiasm. I would press on everyone really interested to give me the assistance of their opinion and advice by the date indicated.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS H. HUNT, Mayor of Lichfield.

_Lichfield Close, September 17._

PORTS AND CHESTERS.

SIR,--Your readers may have observed, and with some amusement, that the simultaneous assault on my position by Dr. Pring and Mr. Hall, in your last issue, has ended in the somewhat untoward result of their discovering that they are themselves hopelessly at issue on the fundamental point of all! Dr. Pring persists that the “port” in “port-reeve” is derived from the Latin _porta_, a city gate (p. 114): Mr. Hall asserts with equal confidence that it comes “by transition from the Latin _portus_,” a haven (p. 149). Dr. Pring appeals to “the learned Professor Stubbs” (p. 114), but “seems” (to adopt his own expression) “to have found it convenient to ignore” that I have shown Dr. Stubbs’ rendering of the passage from the Laws of Athelstan to be simply destructive of his own. I repeat, that when Dr. Pring renders it “outside the port _or gate_” (p. 115), the words “or gate” _are_, and should be distinguished as, a mere gloss of his own, and must not, therefore, be appealed to by him as evidence. My own quotation: “Newport Gate,” in Lincoln (p. 115), is no gloss of my own at all, but a _verbatim_ copy. Dr. Pring must indeed be hard up if he falls back on the Latinisation of East Gate as _portam de East Gatâ_ (temp. Henry I.), since by the mediæval scribe, as by the modern schoolboy, a gate would be rightly styled in Latin a _porta_ (“East gate” being suffixed as a proper name for the sake of distinction). What conceivable bearing has this on the use of the term “port” (for a market town) in Anglo-Saxon times? Yet such is the disingenuous argument of my critic, who proclaims that I “must surely have overlooked these and similar instances”! And if he had done me the honour to read my paper with common care, he would have seen that I carefully distinguish the “port” of proper names, such as “Newport Gate,” from the “port” in “port-reeve.” This destroys his criticism.

When Dr. Pring appealed to Dr. Stubbs, as laying down that “port” was derived from “porta,” _because the gate was the place where the markets were held_, I proved by demonstration that the markets were _not_ held at the gate, but in the heart of the town, and that consequently the argument breaks down. What does Dr. Pring do? He ridicules this disproof of the very argument he had appealed to as “scarcely necessary” (p. 116), and as based on “a well-known fact”! Verily, we have here, to quote his own words, a “unique and somewhat anomalous specimen of argument.”

Dr. Pring’s arguments could similarly be rebutted at every point, but lest I weary the patience of your readers, it will probably be sufficient if I invite them to observe that on the one hand, Dr. Pring, deriving “port” from _porta_, declares the process by which a _town_ came to be called a _gate_, so “easy and obvious” (p. 114), that he need not (_i.e._, cannot) explain it; while, on the other, Mr. Hall, deriving port from _portus_, is equally confident that an inland town would, in the natural course of things, be known as a sea-port (_portus_)! When Dr. Pring has converted Mr. Hall, or Mr. Hall has converted Dr. Pring, it will then, and not before, be time for them to think of uniting their forces in a combined attack on my own theory, which sees in the Anglo-Saxon “port,” as found in “port-reeve,” &c., a word with a denotation different from that either of _portus_ or of _porta_. At present it remains, unimpugned, as the only rational and consistent theory. It will, doubtless, like all original theories, be viewed at first with suspicion and dislike, but I hope, in time, to have it cast at me, _more Pringensi_, by those who do so, that it is “scarcely necessary” to prove it, as it is to all “a well-known fact.”

J. H. ROUND.

_Colchester._

_TO CORRESPONDENTS._

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

Books Received.

1. The Old Registers of St. John Baptist, Peterborough. By Rev. W. D. Sweeting, M.A. Peterborough: G. C. Caster. 1884.

2. The Hull Quarterly. Parts i.--iii. Hull: A. Brown & Sons. 1884.

3. A Guide to the Roman Villa near Brading. By J. E. Price, F.S.A., and F. G. Hilton Price, F.S.A. Tenth Edition. Ventnor: Briddon Brothers. 1884.

4. The Earldom of Mar. By P. H. McKerlie, F.S.A. Scot. Privately printed. 1884.

5. Annus Sanctus. Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Selected and arranged by Orby Shipley, M.A. Burns & Oates. 1884.

6. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. By J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, F.R.S. Longmans & Co. 1884.

7. Our Parish Books, and What they Tell us. By J. M. Cowper, F.R.H.S. Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. 1884.

8. Buckfast Abbey. By the Rev. S. Hamilton, O.S.B. Ramsgate: _Kent Coast Times_ Office. 1884.

9. Wilton Castle. By the Vicar of the Parish. London: E. Stamford. 1884.

10. Calendar of State Papers. Colonial Series: East Indies, China, and Persia (1625-1629). Edited by W. Noel Sainsbury. Longman & Co. 1884.

11. English Scholar’s Library. Capt. John Smith’s Works (1608-1631). By Edward Arber, 1, Montague-road, Birmingham. 1884.

12. Plant Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare. By the Rev. Henry N. Ellacombe, M.A. Second edition. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1884.

Books, &c., for Sale.

Works of Hogarth (set of original Engravings, elephant folio, without text), bound. Apply by letter to W. D., 56, Paragon-road, Hackney, N.E.

Original water-colour portrait of Jeremy Bentham, price 2 guineas. Apply to the Editor of this Magazine.

A large collection of Franks, Peers’ and Commoners’. Apply to E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

Books, &c., Wanted to Purchase.

_Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, several copies of No. 2 (February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the current number will be given in exchange at the office.

Dodd’s Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen’s Art and Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and Queries, the third Index. Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” (Ingram and Cooke’s edition), vol. iii. A New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers’ Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

(From _Messrs. Price’s Guide to the Roman Villa at Morton, near Brading_.)

_The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer._

Forecastings of Nostradamus.

By C. A. WARD.

_PART IV._

(_Continued from p. 60._)

IN the preface, addressed to his son Cæsar, he shows himself perfectly alive to the poor reception his book is likely to meet with from many; he says: “Qu’elle fera retirer le front en arrière à plus d’un qui la lira, sans y rien comprendre.” He does not write for babes and the illiterate, and has no sympathy with the words in Mark x. 14: “Sinite parvulos venire ad me.” On the contrary, he cites from Matthew vii. 6 with approval the antithetical sentence uttered by the Saviour: “‘Nolite sanctum dare canibus, ne conculcent pedibus et conversi disrumpant vos:’ which hath been the cause that I have withdrawn my tongue from the vulgar, and my pen from paper.”

“But,” he runs on, “afterwards I was writing for the common good, to enlarge myself in dark and abstruse sentences, declaring the future events, chiefly the most urgent, and those which I foresaw (whatever human mutation happened) _would not offend the hearers_.”[52]

Here the words marked in italics give us the limitation he set to his own office and position. His function is purely that of a _seer_; he foresees, and sometimes for the “common good” he records his experiences,[53] but he does not take upon himself the mission of the Baptist to “prepare a way” for great events, nor like Jeremiah to raise a cry of national lamentation, nor like Isaiah will he denounce evil nor evil-doers.

His idea of prophecy is nothing but the passivity of foresight. He says:--

“The prophets, by means only of the immortal God and good angels, have received the spirit of vaticination, by which they foresee things and foretell future events; for nothing is perfect without Him, whose power and goodness is so great to His creatures, that though they are but men, nevertheless, by the likeness of our good genius to the angels,[54] this heat and the prophetical power draws near us, as it happens by the beams of the sun, which cast their influence both on elementary and not elementary bodies; as for us who are men, we cannot attain anything by our natural knowledge of the secrets of God our Creator. ‘Quia non est nostrum nosse tempora nec momenta,’ &c. (Acts i. 7.)”

It should be noticed by every candid critic that there is strong internal evidence in this passage of genuine truthfulness in the writer. First he defines his own position to be merely that of a _seer_. He then gives his idea of a prophet, and describes him as one who has received a spirit of vaticination by foresight. He then says that this prophetical heat is unattainable by any natural knowledge of man, but comes like that of the sun, direct from the Giver of all good gifts to man. This is very much as Samuel How, the inspired cobbler, Bunyan, or any old Puritan in the seventeenth century would have described it: “The sufficiency of the Spirit’s teaching without human learning.” But in addition to this perfect simplicity of spirit, he ventures to quote the Saviour’s words: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,” which, with Matthew xxiv. 36, is the strongest passage in the New Testament against a gift of prophecy in man. Would a man who had any doubt at all about his possession of the faculty of prevision cite a passage which seemed to withhold the prophetic gift from all mankind under the new covenant of the Christian dispensation?

Grotius and Heinsius show that these words χρόνους ἧ καιροὺς should be understood of the _time, times, and an half_, of Daniel (xii. 7), when Christ, of the stem of Jesse, should begin under Constantine to direct the executive government of kings on earth as King of kings, which took place 300 years later. If this were to be hidden from Apostles, how should a layman, and idiot (so to speak), look for inspiration? To me this consideration entirely and finally disposes of any doubt as to imposition intentional. Be Nostradamus prophet and seer, or not, it is next to impossible for anyone of fair and impartial mind hereafter to hold that he was an impostor. To suppose it even, is _impossible_ to a rational judge, if we grant that we are, in a degree ever so little, capable by nature of estimating the motives of a fellow-creature.

In another part of the preface he says:--

“Not that I will attribute to myself the name of a prophet, but as a mortal man, being no farther from heaven by my sense than I am from earth by my feet, _possum errare, falli, decipi_, I am the greatest sinner of the world, subject to all humane afflictions, but being surprised sometimes in the week by a prophetical humour, and by a long calculation, pleasing myself in my study, I have made books of prophecies, &c.”

He speaks also of the mode of enlightenment, “by a long melancholy inspiration revealed,” and says it takes “its original from above, and such light and small flame is of all efficacy and sublimity, no less than the natural light makes the philosophers so secure.” All this justifies fully the distich, so far as motive goes:--

“Vera loquor, non falsa loquor sed munere cœli, Qui loquitur Deus est, non ego Nostradamus.”

He opens the first “Century” with an announcement (by some called an incantation) of the methods by which he prepared himself for the reception of the knowledge of future things:

“Estant assis, de nuit secrette estude, Seul, reposé sur la selle d’airain, Flambe exigue, sortant de solitude, Fait proferer qui n’est a croire vain.”

“Sitting by night, in secret study alone, resting on a brazen seat, a slight flame arising out of the solitude makes me utter things not vain to be believed.”

“La verge en main, mise au milieu des Branches, De l’onde je mouille et le Limb et le Pied, En peur j’escris fremissant par les manches; Splendeur Divine: le Divine prez s’assied.”

“With wand in hand placed amidst the branches, I wet with water the limb and foot, and write in fear, trembling in my sleeves; “Splendour divine! the Divinity sits at hand.’”

A tranquillised mind is requisite to prophecy. We find Elisha (2 Kings