It remains a little-known fact that from March 1766 to May 1767 Jean-Jacques Rousseau – fleeing from persecution in France and Switzerland – stayed in the remote hamlet of Wootton in Staffordshire. There he composed the first half of his Confessions in a garden hermitage, a structure half natural and half architectural, ever since known as Rousseau’s Cave. Our paper records the hermitage in its current state (exposed to the elements); it creates a digital reconstruction of the hermitage as it was in Rousseau’s lifetime; and it provides digital access to a monument that is otherwise not generally accessible.

Our paper records a modest but fairly typical eighteenth-century garden hermitage and also, with the highest quality digital reconstructions and fly-throughs, provides a new insight into the creation of one of the world’s greatest works of literature.

The paper contributes substantial new material to the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and also contributes to garden history and the phenomenon of the garden hermitage.

In 1937 the philosopher Robin Collingwood excavated a henge monument in Cumbria and identified the postholes of a series of timber buildings, which he compared with those at other sites. These structures at Eamont Bridge were replaced by a stone circle. He planned to continue the work for a second season, but was prevented by illness. His project was completed by the famous German scholar Gerhard Bersu, who concluded that many of the features identified two years earlier were of geological origin; others were rootholes and animal burrows. Their projects have played a part in the history of fieldwork, but in recent years influential researchers have tried to rehabilitate Collingwood’s reputation as an excavator. Their views were encouraged by his pivotal role in studies of the northern frontier of Roman Britain. In 2023 parts of the monument at King Arthur’s Round Table were re-excavated with the aim of settling the dispute. The new work supported Bersu’s interpretation, but recognised that Collingwood’s approach was not as misguided as his critics had supposed – it was directly based on his agenda for historical research. The real problem is that he had been working without sufficient experience on a difficult subsoil. This article considers the methods used by both researchers at King Arthur’s Round Table and compares their distinctive approaches to field archaeology.

In recent scholarship on the Ottoman Mediterranean, it has become commonplace to challenge narratives of heroic discovery and cultural superiority expounded in publications by European travellers. Rather than taking a polished, published account as its starting point, this paper discusses the travels of Edward Falkener (1814–96), a lesser-known Victorian architect and writer whose extensive tour around Anatolia (1844–5) was never communicated to a broader audience. If Falkener is remembered today, it is usually as the author of the first anglophone monograph on ancient Ephesus and editor of the first British academic journal devoted to classical art and architecture. This paper reviews Falkener’s career, but instead of these publications, the focus is on his remarkable personal archive of diaries, sketchbooks, watercolours, contracts and notes for an incomplete book about his tour of Anatolia. Drawing on this collection, it explores his fluctuating interests in heritage from different periods of Anatolia’s history and well-documented interactions with a variety of local actors who helped or hindered his meandering tour. Representing the first attempt to study Falkener’s journey, this paper explores the utility of his archive for understanding the challenges and contingencies of Victorian travel in the Ottoman Empire.

John Carter’s fervour as a recorder and polemicist for Gothic architecture has been debated since his lifetime, but his classical designs have attracted less interest. However, these give some insight into the influences upon aspiring young Georgian architects, as Carter was in the 1770s. His two sets of designs for Bywell Hall, Northumberland, the first published in the Builder’s Magazine in 1776, and a more detailed portfolio now in a private collection, are presented together for the first time. This is an opportunity to examine Carter’s early ideas and his thoughts on the appropriate styles to be employed for public, domestic and ecclesiastical buildings. Analysis of Carter’s designs demonstrates his desire to create impressive interior spaces, but poor consideration of the practicalities for family and servant life in country houses. Carter’s preference for Gothic over classical architecture, combined with humble origins and personality traits, prevented his aspiration to be an architect, but his drawing skills secured fame as one of the foremost architectural draughtsmen.

As an antiquarian at the beginning of the age of professional scholarship, Francis Douce (1737–1834) has enjoyed a mixed reputation, exemplified by Meg Twycross’s account of his influence on beliefs regarding the origins of the Towneley Plays. Widely-read and embedded in a network of like-minded enthusiasts, Douce does not appear to have recorded his insights for publication, but he nevertheless participated in what might be considered scholarly exchange. This article will pay attention to the annotations that Douce made in the margins of – and on sheets tipped into – French-language books published before 1600. It will look at what sort of features attracted Douce’s attention (primarily bibliographical, but also some relating to the content of the books he was reading). It will consider where Douce was getting his information about the works he collected and will note instances where Douce revisited and revised his opinions, evaluating the extent to which he was up-to-date with contemporary advances. Where Douce expresses his own opinion, this article will examine whether this opinion has been supported by later scholars. In short, what do the annotations tell us about the state of scholarship in the first decades of the nineteenth century?

Between 1899 and 1902, Anglo-French archaeologist George Bonsor carried out an exploration of the Scilly Isles (United Kingdom). At that time the archipelago was believed to be the Cassiterides or Tin Islands mentioned by authors such as Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy – an idea first posited by William Camden in his Britannia (1586). Adopting Camden’s theory and guided by ancient literature on the Cassiterides – which refers to the Phoenicians as the first controllers of this trade route – Bonsor sought traces of the Phoenicians and their tin trade in the Scilly Isles, becoming the first person to conduct such research from an archaeological perspective. Not having found any evidence, his exploration remained unpublished and went mostly unnoticed in debates about the Tin Islands over following decades. This paper presents a brief historiographical account on the Cassiterides before and after the explorations, as well as a critical analysis of Bonsor’s field notes regarding his use of ancient sources and his archaeological method. The analysis carried out suggests that Bonsor’s archaeological exploration has been overlooked thus far and that a new assessment of his work is required.

This paper publishes for the first time two apparently unprovenanced Westland cauldrons in the collections of the Society of Antiquaries of London. An argument is made that these vessels are two of the three cauldrons from the lost Halkyn Mountain hoard found c 1760.

The Society of Antiquaries of London holds, under ms 86, an unconventional manuscript described in its catalogue as ‘brief notes on the Kings of Portugal’. The manuscript is in a mid-sixteenth-century hand and has personal annotations by William Cecil (1520–98), better known as Lord Burghley. It recounts the history of Portugal by reigns and belonged to Cecil’s personal library. Until now, no other extant example of a history of Portugal written in English in the sixteenth century was known. This article publishes the first transcription of this unique document, while analysing its contents and explaining its importance. The first section will discuss the history of the manuscript itself, explaining its owners, its likely date of composition and the problems relating to authorship. The second part will deal with the raft of reasons why we believe William Cecil ordered its composition. The third section will detail the major contents of the manuscript, discussing its most interesting details. Finally, the conclusion will reflect on why this manuscript is important for British history.

Toward the end of the first millennium ad, a burgeoning class of secular elites emerged throughout western Europe who developed local power centres to denote their prestige. Seigneurial investment was prioritised towards residences, as well as churches and chapels, the two elements often paired into single places in the landscape. In England, our understanding of these complexes is limited due to scant excavated evidence and skewed by the impact of the Norman Conquest, after which castles became the dominant form of aristocratic site. Previous approaches have often fetishised defensibility and promoted notions of national exceptionalism, but a more meaningful understanding of these places can be gained by adopting a broad chronological and thematic remit. Drawing upon the results of the AHRC-funded research project ‘Where Power Lies’, this paper offers a foundational evaluation of the landscape evidence for lordly centres, presenting data on their distribution in two regions, complemented by results from intensive investigation of case study locations (Bosham, West Sussex and Hornby, North Yorkshire). This allows a wider range of material signatures from lordly centres to be characterised, resulting in greater comprehension of how elites in England shaped and experienced a Europe-wide phenomenon.

The Society of Antiquaries of London’s collection of one hundred and seventy historical printing plates, dating from the early eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, has long been a hidden gem. This paper presents the results of a research project initiated in 2022, focusing on the provenance, manufacture and bibliographical use of these plates. It explores the evolution of printing practices and the role of coppersmith stamps, shedding light on production methods and industry connections. The project involved digitising the plates for improved accessibility and preservation and cataloguing efforts to establish standardised guidelines for similar collections. Furthermore, the study uncovers the Society’s historical interest in maintaining and utilising these plates, providing valuable insights into past printing practices and collection management. This research enriches our understanding of the Antiquaries’ holdings through meticulous investigation and documentation and underscores the significance of exploring overlooked aspects of historical collections. It also calls for future research endeavours and collaborations to explore connections within the Society’s collections further and expand our knowledge of printing history. Overall, this study emphasises the importance of preserving and studying printing technology as valuable artefacts that contribute to our understanding of the past.

This essay explores two texts in a fifteenth-century manuscript from Thetford Priory, Norfolk (now ms 329 in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). The first is an account of Marian miracles leading to the building of the Lady Chapel in the thirteenth century, and the second is an account of the formation of its relic collection in the twelfth century, which would be housed inside a statue of the Virgin Mary. The destruction of Thetford Priory at the Dissolution lends them a special significance since they offer evidence of a minor Marian cult that would be otherwise lost to us. The texts also highlight the interactions of aristocratic patrons – the Bigod family – and their Cluniac foundation. This essay explores the texts for the first time, offers a transcription and translation of them and considers their place in the cult of the Virgin at Thetford and in England generally.

The expeditions removing and excavating antiquities at the site of Xanthos in Lycia (1841–4) have been highlighted by scholars as setting a new precedent for whole-sale collection from a single site, and the support – through the national museum and the Royal Navy – of the British government for archaeological endeavours. Questions remain, however, regarding the failure of the first mission to remove the antiquities. According to the current narrative, the blame rests on the navy officer assigned to support Charles Fellows. Based on archival research, this article presents the concerns that Commander Thomas Graves had with the undertaking. His perspective sheds new light on how ill-planned the initial attempts were, and consequently how much was learned. The obstacles encountered in the first Xanthos expedition spurred developments in archaeological practice, introduced by people of non-academic professions.

The Palaeolith collection of the antiquarian Dr Tom Armstrong Bowes was the founding component of Herne Bay’s first museum and became one of the larger and more significant collections in the British Palaeolithic record. Its value to debates on the British Palaeolithic, however, has been limited by a stark lack of contextual data. Previously unstudied museum archives have now begun to unlock the lost provenance of this large collection so that it once again can contribute to long-standing regional questions on Acheulean typologies.

Although the practice of human sacrifice in the British Iron Age is mentioned by multiple authors, both ancient and modern, physical proof of such activity in the archaeological record is comparatively rare. At Winterborne Kingston, in Dorset, the skeletal remains of a young adult female found face down near the base of a cylindrical storage pit provides clear evidence of violent death in the later Iron Age. Analysis of the skeleton suggests an individual who led a hard-working life and who, having suffered an act of violence a few weeks before death, was killed, possibly with her hands tied, by a blade incision to the neck. Placement of the body further suggests that killing was enacted within the pit, execution as spectacle forming the final act in a larger ceremony involving the creation of an animal bone stack or platform.

This essay considers a mode of thought and a tradition of composition inculcated by four Latin writers, the translator of Anatolius of Laodicea’s De ratione paschali (post ad 283, ante ad 402), Evagrius of Antioch’s translation of Athanasius’s Life of Saint Antony (c ad 360–74), Jerome’s Biblia Vulgata (ad 382) and Sulpicius Severus’s Vita Sancti Martini (ad 397), based upon the Life of Antony, and his latercus (ad 410), based upon the work of Anatolius, all texts known in these islands during the period from ad 410–25 to the seventh century. A simple calculus of literary composition in the anonymous Lindisfarne Life of Saint Cuthbert, dedicated to Eadfrith bishop of Lindisfarne in ad 698, is exhibited in the iconographic elements of the Evangelists’ portraits in the Lindisfarne Gospels, written and illuminated by Eadfrith. The same calculus is displayed both in the iconographic designs and in the inscriptions in Northumbrian Old English and Latin on the Franks Casket of c ad 700 and on the Ruthwell Cross of c ad 730–5.

2020 saw the celebration of significant anniversaries connected with several medieval English saints, led most notably by the triple anniversary of the birth (1120), death (1170) and translation (1220) of St Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70, canonised 1173). This offered scholars an occasion to review and revisit important aspects of the documentary sources and material culture relating to the saints’ cults in England and across Europe. The celebrations of St Thomas Becket also coincided with the 700th anniversary of the canonisation of St Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford (1275–82, canonised 1320). Renewed scholarly interest in Cantilupe’s posthumous cult has particularly offered insights into daily life and devotion in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England and Wales. Likewise, it has recently been demonstrated that, in the wake of the Cantilupe cult at Hereford Cathedral, a period of intense church building occurred throughout the diocese. This paper is the first to assemble and publish a comprehensive catalogue of all known lost and surviving iconographical images of Cantilupe from the Middle Ages. More significantly, keeping the 2020 celebrations of both the Becket and Cantilupe cults in mind, this paper is the first to bring attention to all the examples of medieval iconography that associate England’s two Thomases, demonstrating how Becket was utilised as a model of sanctity par excellence with Cantilupe presented as a ‘second Becket’.

George Finlay was a British gentlemen and philhellene, resident in Greece in the mid-nineteenth century. His journals, letters, library and antiquities now reside at the British School at Athens, collections that provide a wealth of information both about Finlay himself and about the world of his contemporaries. This paper looks at two episodes from Finlay’s life as preserved in his archive, documenting two overseas travels: the first is a tour around Egypt, Jerusalem and the Near East in 1845 and 1846, and the second is a series of repeat visits to Switzerland beginning in 1859 and continuing in the late 1860s. By looking at Finlay’s itineraries and at the activities he undertook in Egypt and Switzerland, and by analysing what and how Finlay chose to document in his notebooks, the aim of this paper is to understand more about Finlay’s motivations for travel and his intellectual formation. While Finlay’s time in the Near East was likely spurred by the recent publication of handbooks and by a developing fashion for (biblical) tourism, his time in Switzerland coincided with the flurry of excitement from recent excavations of the Swiss lake villages, allowing Finlay to re-engage an interest in prehistory that he had long since developed. In each case, Finlay’s social connections and his networks played a large part in directing his programme.

In 1913 a set of leg shackles was recovered among skeletal remains during excavations at the east end of the ruinous cathedral of Old Sarum, Wiltshire. A recent examination of the excavation’s photographic record indicates that two further similar examples were recovered at the same time. Since the early twentieth century a body of scholarship has refined our understanding of the arrangement of the east end of the cathedral, and a closer examination of the archive in the light of this work allows for both skeletal remains and shackles to be confidently located in an archaeological context related to the tomb of Bishop Roger. This paper explores the value this evidence has for our understanding of the so-called ‘Arrest of the Bishops’, an event of notable constitutional significance in the tumultuous reign of King Stephen. It goes on to examine the shock with which the event was recalled by contemporary writers to reflect on the power of shaming and incarceration as a device of extortion, political manipulation and the infliction of social death. The integral nature of iron bonds in these strategies lends them a socio-symbolic role and the reception of their use in this well-recorded episode may facilitate the interpretation of such items from early and high medieval contexts when, frequently, primary provenance is lacking.

The Augustinian friary in Cambridge, England, was founded in the 1280s and dissolved in 1538. Investigations in 1908–9 and 2016–19 have revealed much of the friary cloister, with evidence for an initial late thirteenth–mid-fourteenth-century phase, a major phase of construction in the mid–late fourteenth century and some fifteenth-century construction. This paper will primarily consider what can be reconstructed of the claustral buildings, complemented by what is known of the rest of the friary site. The friary will also be contextualised in terms of mendicant beliefs and anti-fraternal criticisms.