Finance. That ill-omened word demands a sentence to itself at the beginning of this address. During the past year the claims of revenue in one form or another have hit the humanities, if not the sciences, more savagely than air-bombardment or inflation. The mechanized forces of rating-assessment have struck—not, it is astonishing to note, without some vulgar applause—at that single-minded repository of enlightenment, the London Library. It is to be presumed that this and other cases of the sort were in the mind of the Minister of Housing and Local Government when, on the 22nd of January 1958, he appointed a Committee to report upon the rating of premises in England and Wales ‘occupied for purposes of a charitable nature and other similar purposes’. The action was a timely one, and we may await its outcome with such hope as uncertain faith and over-strained charity admit to our experience. At the same time, on a wider front, the Board of Inland Revenue has withheld the refund of income-tax on seven-year covenants to a whole host of cultural charities such as our Society, with consequences that must be nothing short of shattering. Under modern economic conditions the official decision, if confirmed, means the end or drastic diminution of much that we value, of much that we can do and should do if we are to contribute our mite to human understanding. It is not for me, here and now, to comment upon the mechanics of the law or the wisdom of the Board of Inland Revenue. I hope that that will be done in another place. Nor do I propose to anticipate the sort of retrenchments which our Treasurer and Council will be compelled to impose upon us in the face of an income reduced by more than £2,000 a year. But there are certain general observations which are appropriate to the present occasion.

The ruined and gutted barrow called Tregulland Burrow, when totally excavated, proved to have had a complex structure. Stake holes denoting withdrawn stakes, an infilled ‘ritual’ pit, a satellite grave containing a cremation and arrowheads, and most probably the central grave pit, were the features of the first phase of its construction. A cairn-ring, with a buttressing bank, the soil for which was dug from an encircling ditch, and its turf covering, comprised the second. A great slab bearing cup-marks and an ‘eyebrow’ motif, also other lesser cup-marked and ornamented slabs, were incorporated in cairn-ring and bank. Cup-marked stones recovered from the disturbed central area suggested the one-time existence of a stone-built grave incorporating such elements. After this second phase the barrow centre was open and arena-like, and a food vessel and a cremation were put in close by the cairn-ring. All was finally enveloped by material from the depths of the ditch. Poorly built walling or turves retained the final mound.

This mail shirt, which was in the Hearst Collection and is now in the Armouries of the Tower of London, dates from the fourteenth century. By tradition it was the property of Rudolph IV, Duke of Austria, Carinthia, and Ferrette (1339–65), but, as far as is known, there are no records to prove this. It is, however, a fine, early shirt which is well worth recording.

The shirt is constructed of alternate rows of riveted and whole rings, of rump length, with a wide and rather square neck opening and three-quarter length sleeves. Brass rings are used for decoration, two rows on the rump edge and three on the sleeve edges.

A collar of heavy fifteenth-century mail has been added at the neck, but this is a ‘restorer's’ addition as it has been linked on with cut rings from the collar. This is a type of shirt which would not have had a high collar.

During the excavations conducted by Mr. L. F. Salzman, F.S.A., at Pevensey Castle in the winter of 1907–8, a deep pit was found and its filling dug out. The pit (called site VII) was located in the north-west quarter of the interior of the Saxon Shore fort, about 60 ft. south of the fort wall and nearly opposite the third bastion north of the Roman west gate. A short account of the pit was published in the excavation report, but the nature of the pit and the finds from it deserve more detailed study than they have yet received. The finds were divided between the Sussex Archaeological Society's Museum at Lewes and the Public Museum at Hastings; I am greatly indebted to the respective curators, Mr. N. E. S. Norris, F.S.A., and Mr. J. Manwaring Baines, F.S.A., for facilities to examine and make drawings of the objects, and permission to publish them here. Samples taken from the various wooden objects found in the pit were kindly identified by Mr. G. L. Franklin, of the Forest Products Research Laboratory, Princes Risborough, as noted in the descriptions of these objects. Acknowledgements for technical reports on the wattling are made in the text. Mr. Salzman has kindly supplied information and unpublished prints, valuable as a record of the bottom of the pit, of which the negatives are fortunately preserved at Hastings. Mr. Salzman has also read this report and approved of the interpretation placed on his findings. The following description of the pit and its contents is the result of correlating all the information now available.

Charlat is a small oppidum in Corrèze about 2 km. south of Ussel (route N. 682) but within the commune of that name. By the kind permission of the owner Monsieur Ralite and the good offices of MM. Pierre Fournier and Marius Vazeilles, a very short trial excavation was carried out here during five days in September 1957. Its purpose was to investigate the possibilities for a somewhat larger definitive excavation, permission for which is to be sought for 1959.

Craike or Crayke Hill stands on the southern slope of Garton Slack, in the north-western corner of the parish of Kirkburn, three miles west of Great Driffield (Nat. Grid. ref. SE 972576) (fig. 1). Garton Slack is a wide dry valley penetrating the central chalk Wolds of the East Riding of Yorkshire between Wetwang and Driffield. Scattered over the flat floor of the Slack are the much-ploughed remains of Mortimer's Garton Slack Group of round barrows. Once Craike Hill, which is a natural hill of fine chalk similar to the rest of the Slack floor, was a prominent landmark, but gravel digging since 1938 has reduced it to a crater. Originally it stood about 50 ft. above the floor of the Slack and was composed of beds of fine chalk gravel interspersed with sandy layers towards the base. The beds show a dip towards the north. Over the top of the hill was a fine sandy brown soil containing chalk, flint, and greenstone pebbles. Much of this remains as overburden dumped on the lower slopes.