Our learned Director, Mr. Combe, in his “Account of some Saxon Pennies found at Dorking,” has communicated to the Society his belief that the coins which have been hitherto attributed to Aethelheard king of the West Saxons, belong in reality to some unknown king, named Aethelweard, who reigned over the East Angles. This opinion, which has since been quoted by our late member, Mr. Ruding, in the second edition of his valuable “Annals of the Coinage of Britain;” certainly derives much weight from the close resemblance of the coins in question to those of Edmund the Martyr, the last of the East Anglian Princes. The resemblance indeed is so exact, as to extend (as Mr. Combe observes,) even to the formation of the letters, and the names of the moneyers. It would therefore warrant a conjecture that Aethelweard, if not the immediate predecessor of Edmund, was not long anterior to him. The history of the East Anglian branch of the Heptarchy, is in fact very imperfectly related by our earlier chroniclers, particularly during about sixty-three years which preceded the reign of Edmund; that is, from 792 to 855; and as no light has been thrown on that period of its annals by our later historians, I have ventured to think, that, with reference to Mr. Combe's observations, it might not be wholly unacceptable to the Society, to be furnished with the result of a collation which I have made of the few original authorities of that age which are now remaining to us.

In the month of February 1818, some labourers rooting up an old ash-tree in a field called Sarendells, in the parish of Great Witcombe, in the county of Gloucester, discovered a large hewn stone about six feet in length; on the removal of which, it appeared to have rested upon two other large upright stones. Sir William Hicks, Bart. of Witcombe Park, the proprietor of the ground, immediately gave directions that the earth should be removed, in order to pursue the discovery, when it was ascertained that each of the two upright stones was six feet two inches in height; and that they formed a door-way leading into a room 19 feet 7½ inches by 13 feet 7 inches, (No. 1 in the annexed plan, Pl. XIV.) the walls of which remained in a very perfect state, to the height of from five feet four inches to six feet. When first opened they were covered with a coat of stucco two inches thick, painted in pannels of different colours. The greater part of this soon fell off in consequence of the continual rains which immediately followed the discovery.

In an interesting paper which has been recently published by the Society, entitled “Observations on the Bayeux Tapestry,” that very curious monument of antiquity is said to contain “an Apologetical History of the Claims of William to the Crown of England, and of the breach of faith and fall of Harold.” The historical fact which the tapestry is supposed to establish, namely, that of Harold's mission to Normandy by the Confessor to offer the succession to William, is so important if true, and is at the same time involved in so much doubt and obscurity, that I shall perhaps be pardoned if I venture to offer a brief notice and examination of the original authorities which have a reference to the subject. I should not indeed have presumed to solicit the attention of the Society to this discussion, if the Tapestry itself had not been rendered highly interesting to us by the striking and elegant delineations of it which now adorn our walls.

The curious morsel of antiquity which Mr. Millingen has laid upon the table of the Antiquaries, and an explanation of which has been read by the Secretary, I beg still farther to comment on and illustrate, and to endeavour to show that the whole is an allusion to, and representation of the sacred rites of Mithra, and the ceremonies to be observed by all those who were candidates for initiation into the Mithraic mysteries; and in doing this, I shall not detain your Lordship long, or occupy much of the time of the Society, but content myself by laying before you the testimonies of antiquity, with the proofs and authorities on which I found my opinions.

In the year 1814 the justices of the county of Devon resolved, at their quarter sessions, to rebuild the bridge over the river Teign (commonly called Teign-bridge), situated on the turnpike-road leading through Newton Abbot and Totness, to Plymouth.

It is much to be regretted that the Surveys of the Religious Houses dissolved in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the Augmentation Office and Chapter-House at Westminster, do not, in general, describe the state of the edifices themselves at that period with any degree of exactness. I have, however, found in the latter Repository, a survey of the Priory of Bridlington, in the East Riding of the County of York, which is not liable to this objection, and which, on that account, you may perhaps think deserving of being read to the Society of Antiquaries; for this purpose I beg leave to enclose a Transcript of it. The Survey is without date, but from its having the signature of Richard Pollard, who was one of the King's General Surveyors, the time of its being written may be fixed at about the thirty-second year of Henry VIIIth, immediately after the Dissolution. I will merely add, that the Priory of Bridlington was a Priory of Black Canons, of the Order of St. Austin, and that it was founded by Waiter de Gant, early in the reign of King Henry the First.

The drawing, (Pl. VII.) is a correct plan of the Roman Encampment near East Hempstead in Berkshire as it now stands. Its situation, at one extremity of a large plateau, rendered it very fit for a permanent military station, as it must have been of difficult access on every side except that by which it is connected with the principal hill.

I. The fragment of papyrus contains eight parallel and equidistant lines of the original manuscript, with five interlineations in a different hand, apparently unconnected with them, and consisting chiefly of numbers, with some abbreviated words. It is a sort of genealogy, perhaps the beginning of a deed; the characters are much like those of the manuscript deciphered by Schow, but more distinct; and there is every reason to think them at least as ancient: so that if Schow was right in considering the Borgian manuscript as of the second century, we must refer this fragment to the same period. It was sent over from Egypt by Mr. Salt, together with a variety of other remains of antiquity, many of them extremely interesting, but without any account of the exact place in which it was found. In modern characters it must stand nearly thus:

On finishing and delivering to the Society of Antiquaries the Drawings which complete the series from the Bayeux Tapestry, I think it necessary to address you on the subject, for the purpose of stating what licences I may have thought proper to take in the discharge of my commission, and at the same time to point out such circumstances as have presented themselves to my notice during the minute investigation in which I have been necessarily engaged. I shall beg leave to offer with the latter such comments as I have made, hoping if I have produced nothing that will lead to just conclusions on the age of the Tapestry, I shall at least have furnished some useful materials for others. I believe in a former paper I observed that the work in some parts of the Tapestry was destroyed, but more particularly where the subject draws towards a conclusion. The traces of the design only existing by means of the holes where the needle had passed. On attentively examining the traces thus left, I found that in many places minute particles of the different coloured threads were still retained; a circumstance which suggested to me the possibility of making extensive restorations. I accordingly commenced on a small portion, and found it attended with so much practicability as well as certainty, that I believed I should be fully justified in attempting to restore the whole; more especially when I reflected that in the course of a few years, the means of accomplishing it would no longer exist.

Along the southern part of the vale of the Severn, beginning at the Somersetshire Avon, and extending upwards of forty miles in a north easterly direction, may be traced a chain of Ancient Fortresses, so situated as to be capable of communicating with each other by signal: but before a description of them is attempted, it will be satisfactory to give a slight one of the surrounding country, and also an extract from Taylor's Map of Gloucestershire, loosely taken on a reduced scale, [PI. XI.] in which is inserted the names of a few large and well known towns, in order to give the bearings, and also those of several other places of less notoriety, but which will afford entertainment to those who are fond of antiquities of various sorts.

There is a Symbol, which may be observed upon the medals of the Roman empire from the time of Julius Cæsar down to Gallienus, and perhaps later, resembling, as to its form, the tendril of a Vine. Its curvature is more or less convoluted in different instances; and the lower part of the stem is represented as if it had been stripped from the stock of some plant.

Among the wrecks and fragments of ancient art and magnificence, which have resisted the waste of time, or escaped the more destructive ravages of barbarism and bigotry, none are so universally allowed to approach so near to abstract perfection, both in design and execution; or so far to surpass all subsequent efforts of imitation, as those large silver coins of Syracuse with a head of Ceres or Proserpine on the one side, and a chariot with four horses abreast, driven by a Victory, on the other, commonly called Syracusian Medaglions.

Mr. Camden, in his History of Queen Elizabeth, says that on the 7th Sept. 1571, the Duke of Norfolk was sent to the Tower (from whence he had been released a year before) on account of some practices with the Queen of Scots; and says, “Afterwards Banister who was the Duke's Counsellor of Law, the Earls of Arundell and Southampton, the Lord Lumley, the Lord Cobham and Thomas his brother, Henry Percy, Lowder, Powell, Goodyer, and others, were committed to prison, who every one of them, in hopes of pardon, confessed what they knew.”

If the enclosed Paper of the Instructions given by King Edward the Sixth to the Marquis of Northampton and the other Commissioners for Survey of Church Goods within the County of Oxford, is in your judgment sufficiently interesting, I beg you will have the goodness to communicate it to the Society of Antiquaries.

The Parchments which accompany this contain the last Will and Testament of King James the Second. On his death they were deposited in the Scots College at Paris, from whence, at the time of its demolition, they were literally snatched from the flames by a Gentleman who gave them to my friend and parishioner Sir Henry Tichborne, of Tichborne, Hants. Bart.

I offer to your Lordship and the Society a short Paper on the origin and antiquity, use and advantage of Cufic Coins.

Wheresoever the arms and religion of the disciples of Mahomed have forced their way, coins that have Arabic titles, whether struck in Syria, Persia, Africa, Spain, or Arabia, are called Mahometan. The most ancient of these are said to be Cufic, because their legends are written in Cufic letters, that is, in characters first used in Cufa, a city of Mesopotamia, and first employed in transcribing the Koran for the space of three hundred years, and for inscriptions on stones and coins for three hundred more, to the 13th century of the Christian æra.

The silver Cup (Pl. XVII. fig. 1, 2). and Torques (Pl. XVIII. fig. 1, 2), which, through the kindness of Mr. Walker, were exhibited to the Society at their last meeting, were found on the 12th of February, 1815, at Halton Moor, about five miles from Lancaster, in some newly inclosed land; and were afterwards sold to a silversmith, who resides in that city. When the cup was found, it contained 860 silver pennies, and six pieces of stamped gold; it also contained the Torques, the diameter of which must have been very considerably reduced, by pressure of the two ends, before it could be admitted within the cup.