On the first page of M. Delaville le Roulx' sumptuous Cartulaire Général of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem there is printed a charter relating to Clerkenwell, in which the Hospitallers are mentioned, and which is there assigned to circa 1100. As the Order itself was only founded (if indeed it was) in the year preceding, this would be the earliest charter in which it is mentioned in Europe, and its well-known priory at Clerkenwell, the first to be founded. It is again on the authority of this charter, which “se place vers 1100,” that M. Delaville le Roulx asserts in his introduction that:

“L'Ordre comptait dans les Iles Britanniques de nombreux établissements, dont les plus anciens remontaient aux premières années du xiie siècle ” (p. clvii.).

For the ninth successive year we have the honour of laying before the Society of Antiquaries a report of the work of the Silchester Excavation Fund.

Operations in 1898 were begun on 2nd May, under the direction of Mr. Frederick Davis, and continued until harvest by Mr. Herbert Jones. Later works, and the filling up of the excavations, were carried out by Mr. Mill Stephenson, who brought the season's work to a close on 26th November.

The exploration of the site on a systematic plan was begun by the Fund in 1890, and has continued yearly with such success that out of the 100 acres within the city wall over 60 have now been fully examined.

The monk Fitzstephen, who wrote a graphic account of London in the twelfth century, which is printed separately by Stow in his Survey, tells us that there are “on the northern side, in the suburbs, excellent springs, the water of which is clear, sweet, and salubrious, amongst which Holywell, Clerkenwell, and St. Clement's well are of most note, and most visited, as well by the scholars from the schools as by the youth of the city, when they go out to take the air in the summer evenings”; and Stow, who materially extends the list, mentions the religious plays performed by the parish clerks at Clerkenwell and at Skinners' well hard by, where in 1409 they gave a dramatic performance which lasted eight days.

As the rude and primitive processes by which metals were extracted from their ores and adapted to the uses of man in early times are fast disappearing, and will soon cease to be practised in the few regions of the world where they still survive, it has appeared to me to be advisable that some record should be preserved of them before they fall entirely into disuse and become forgotten.

The identification of the eighteen worthies commemorated in the Perpendicular heraldic glass in the hall windows at Ockwells Manor House (now the seat of our Fellow, Mr. Edward Barry) is the subject of this letter, which I have the honour of submitting for the consideration and attention of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

During the past few years important excavations have been carried out in various parts of Egypt, with the result that they have contributed very largely to our knowledge of the predynastic and early dynastic times, which previously to about five years ago were very little known, as such finds had not been conducted in a scientific manner. Natives have for many years grubbed into early sites and have discovered certain objects, and those they considered marketable they have sold to Europeans and to the Museum at Grizeh; other objects probably quite as interesting which they perhaps did not think they could sell have been lost, together with the localities and other details. Fully twelve years ago I had from the late Reverend Greville Chester some slate palettes, and red glazed earthenware pots with black glazed tops, and other objects similar to those found by Professor Petrie at Naqada, which he at first supposed belonged to a people he provisionally termed the “New Race.”

Original wills and testaments of the first three centuries immediately following the Norman Conquest exist only in instances of extreme rarity. In the muniment rooms of the various ecclesiastical courts examples earlier than the commencement of the fourteenth century appear almost unknown, although there is said to be at Lincoln a collection dating from the year 1283. Stray examples may here and there be found in such collections of early charters and deeds as those preserved at the Record Office, and it would seem that it is to the calendars of these now in course of publication that we must chiefly look for the possible discovery of any further examples.