Close to the inner margin of the King's Ditch at Cambridge, which until quite recently was the only ditch known to exist, excavations were lately made for the foundations of Messrs. Fosters' new bank. The ditch which runs along Hobson Street was only just touched, but there was at this spot a large quantity of sand and gravel. This had apparently been thrown out of the ditch, which here skirted the edge of an extensive gravel bed. No water passed through this dry subsoil from any side, and the area was soon built over, so that no rain fell into it. These were, therefore, conditions very favourable for the preservation of perishable materials

About the middle of the thirteenth century the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral Church made a minute and careful visitation of churches in their gift, lying in the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex. The text of that visitation has been lately printed in a volume issued by the Camden Society. The record of their proceedings is so copious that a clear and distinct account can be given of the ornaments, vestments, books, and plate belonging to these churches; and some insight can be gained into the relations which existed between the parishioners, the patrons, and the parish priest.

In dealing with the Domus Vettiorum, the recent publications to which I have chiefly had recourse have been the following

1. (1) Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità comunicate alla Reale Accademia dei Lincei.

2. (2) Herrlich, in the Archäologischer Anzeiger, Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich deutschen archäologischen Instituts, 1895.

3. (3) Sogliano, II supplizio di Dirce in un dipinto Pompeiano e il Toro Farnese, Napoli, 1895.

4. (4) F. Marriott's Facts about Pompei; and his article entitled The New House in Pompei, in The English Illustrated Magazine for January, 1896.

I propose in this paper to trace the history of the prebendal stalls in the church of Wells, their number and original arrangement in choir and chapter, and to describe the carved “misericords” still remaining in the stalls.

In the paper on the Mausoleum which I read before the Society on 14th June, 1893, and which has since been published in Archaeologia, I stated my intention to investigate two distinct questions relating to that celebrated building:

I. What appeared from the best literary and monumental evidence to have been its architectural form?

II. What was the most probable arrangement of its principal sculptures?

The first of these questions I have sufficiently dealt with in the paper referred to, subject to one correction, which I ask leave now to submit. Since the appearance of my scheme in Archaeologia, I have been led to adopt a slight modification of the architectural arrangement there suggested for the interior of the Pteron.

A remarkable hoard of gold objects was recently acquired by our Fellow Mr. Robert Day, of Cork, who has kindly allowed me to describe them and exhibit them to the Society. The objects were found together by a ploughman, who turned them up in sub-soiling, and the ploughshare somewhat injured the boat and bowl. The spot where the treasure was found is near the sea on the northwest coast of Ireland.

The report which I have the honour of submitting to the Society, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund, of the discoveries made during the year 1896, is also the record of the systematic excavation of the site by the Committee for the seventh successive season.

This paper was read before the Society in 1881, but owing to the difficulty of getting the photographs necessary to illustrate it properly it has not been ready for publication until within the last two years.

In the year 1877 my late friend Dr. Paspati, then resident at Constantinople, published a list and a description of some then unidentified Byzantine churches in Constantinople, the majority of them being used as Mohammedan mosques. In the year 1880 I visited all of them, and among the number a building which Dr. Paspati describes as the Kalender Khane Djami, or the Mosque of the Kalenders.

The Papers which I have the honour of laying before the Society contain a summary of my explorations and investigations of the dolmens of Japan during a long residence in that country.

We have but little exact knowledge of the mode in which the Japanese disposed of the bodies of their famous dead in the very earliest times. The somewhat vague statements of their ancient traditional records would seem to point to burial or mere deposition on the summits of natural hills as their earliest practice, but the most ancient remains yet discovered have not been found in such localities, but on the lower grounds bordering the plains, and on the plains themselves.

Anything that enables us to picture the life of our old monasteries cannot fail to prove interesting to students of English archæology; I venture therefore to call your attention to a very characteristic feature of our oldest Charterhouses which, so far as I know, has escaped the observation of those who have examined the history of monastic remains in this country.