I beg to transmit to the Society of Antiquaries, through your hands, the copy of a document of some curiosity.

While searching among the Digby Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in the autumn of last year, I discovered an enumeration and explanation of the Devices borne as Badges of Cognizance by Richard Duke of York, the father of King Edward the fourth, written in a contemporary hand, evidently in the Duke's lifetime.

The announcement in the French journals of the month of August 1838, that by the researches of the distinguished antiquary of Normandy, M. Deville, the lost effigy of King Richard had been brought to light from beneath the pavement of the choir in Rouen Cathedral, induced me to take the earliest opportunity of visiting that city, with the special purpose of examining so interesting a memorial. During the last summer I had the occasion of correcting the observations previously made, and which I had reserved in the hope that no long interval would elapse, before a second similar investigation, conducted with the same enthusiasm, and rewarded by a like success, might enable me to add to this notice of the relics of the Lion-hearted Richard, some account of the Tomb of Henry his elder brother, whose remains were deposited near to the spot where the effigy of Richard has been discovered, and whose memorial shared the same fate, by which both tombs were barbarously condemned to be destroyed. Owing to unexpected circumstances no further researches have hitherto been permitted, and as I am not aware, that during the interval any accurate report of the discovery made in 1838, has been made public, I am induced to hope that a short notice on a subject so interesting both in relation to early art, and to monumental antiquities, may not be unacceptable to the Society.

The main object of this paper is to exhibit to the Fellows a collection of the Notarial Marks used by the notarial members of the Scriveners' Company of London.

These marks are preserved in a book called the “Common Paper” of the Scriveners' Company, which is in fact the register of members of the Company from the year 1390 to the year 1628.

This curious and perfect Roman fibula, which I have the honour to send to you by my friend Mr. Lort for your inspection, was found at no great distance from Rome, about the year 1770, at a place called Rocca Priore, between Frescati and Palestrina, by a peasant, who sold it, together with some coins, to my friend Mr. Kerrich, fellow of Magdalen college, Cambridge, from whom I received it very lately.

Preserved amongst the English State Papers is a mass of material illustrative of the history of tobacco-growing in this country from the time of its introduction to the time when Government finally succeeded in suppressing its growth—a task which was not accomplished till nearly sixty years had been spent in vigorous legislation on the subject, so strong was the feeling of the British farmer in favour of retaining it as an object of cultivation. The outlines of the history of English tobacco-growing have been already sketched on many occasions, especially since the question has lately been before the public—the antipathy of James I. to the use of the “noxious weed,” his contribution to literature against it, and the successive Proclamations and Acts of Parliament forbidding its culture; all these are matters that have been recently noticed, and need not, therefore, be enlarged upon in the present Paper, the object of which is to bring to the front existing evidence as to the extent of tobacco-cultivation in this country, its success, and the feelings with which its suppression was regarded.

The site adjoining the septic tanks and filters of the Byfleet and Pyrford sewage works was, on the occasion of some discoveries in 1922-3, described in the press as a Pottery-village, but has now been shown to have been occupied in the late Neolithic and Early Iron Ages by pit-dwellers who left behind plentiful traces of their culture in the shape of potsherds, and manufactured pottery on the spot, as four large kilns were uncovered and one small one, made expressly for firing the largest urn (fig. 7 A). The recovery of these relics is due to Mr. A. Choate, Engineer-in-charge of the pumping station about half a mile distant, aided by his family and others, their careful excavation and assembling of the pottery (mostly in small fragments) deserving special commendation. A representative selection of the two periods concerned has been ceded to the British Museum, and this is the first description of a discovery that adds its quota to our knowledge of local conditions in prehistoric times.

In England, crosses on commemorative carvings are unusual in the two centuries after the Reformation. In south-east Wales, however, there are numerous examples, in a range of styles, suggesting the work of several groups of stonemasons. A number have the IHS trigram, in the square capitals format popularised by Ignatius Loyola as the emblem of the Jesuits. Some of these memorials commemorate known recusants, but most seem to exemplify the characteristic Welsh combination of traditionalism and loyalism. There is plenty of other evidence for Welsh communities in the early modern period continuing with traditional ‘Catholic’ practices (pilgrimage, veneration of relics and wells) while still regarding themselves as members of the Established Church. Some similar stones are found over the border into Herefordshire, but there are very few in north and west Wales, suggesting that this was a purely local fashion.

In the month of November, 1877, in consequence of an alteration in the internal arrangements of the chancel of King's Langley church, it was determined to remove the altar-tomb of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, from the position which it had held during the last three centuries in the chancel, to one in a new memorial chapel, constructed at the east end of the north aisle of the church.