Since the publication of my letter to your Lordship, on the history and construction of our Astrological Clock, I have been requested to make an addition or two to that paper, in order to its being more fully illustrative of the subject. In the first place, perhaps the mere representation of the figure of the balance which is given in the thirty-third volume of the Archæologia, page 28, does not convey a precise notion of its end and aim, and therefore another diagram, representing it as applied to the escapement, would be more explanatory: secondly, it has been suggested that to many readers not familiar with the forms of the mediæval horloge, a general drawing of our table-clock would be an acceptable illustration: and thirdly, Count Krasinski, of a distinguished Polish family, who investigated the story and times of Sigismund the Great, has further strengthened me with circumstantial evidence respecting Queen Bona, the presumed original possessor of the clock. On these grounds, therefore, I again trespass on your Lordship's time.

In the year 1847 Dr. Diamond communicated to the Society of Antiquaries an account of some excavations which he had superintended at Ewell near Epsom, when he exhibited various remains found in certain shafts sunk in the solid rock. The particulars of these discoveries, and Dr. Diamond's opinion thereon, have been printed in the Archæologia.

The subject of Mason-Marks has obtained some additional interest lately in consequence of the suggestions that they might be made useful towards ascertaining the dates of buildings. Living in a district rather remarkable for the goodness of its masonry, both in material and in workmanship, my attention had frequently been directed to the singular character of these marks, but it had never occurred to me that they might be made available for the purpose above mentioned until I read Mr. Godwin's letters on the subject in Vol. XXX. of Archseologia. Though I doubt whether these marks can be classified chronologically, so as to form an index for fixing the date of buildings, yet it is certainly desirable that those who have it in their power should contribute their mite towards such a collection as Mr. Godwin suggests, in order to a thorough investigation of the subject. It is with this object that I have collected the mason-marks on several buildings in the neighbourhood in which I live, the dates of which are pretty nearly fixed by written records or other extraneous evidence.

In turning over the records of the town of Saffron Walden a few weeks ago, I found a volume of rather miscellaneous matter relating to the government of the town, which appears to be chiefly in the writing of the time of Henry the Eighth, and in which are two programmes of Regulations for the management of the Free Grammar School established there in 1525, drawn up by two different masters. They are documents of a kind which are rare, and I think of some interest, connected with one of the most important of all subjects—the history of the development of the human intelligence.

I beg to have the honour of laying before the President and Members of the Society of Antiquaries what I cannot but deem a very interesting relic, an Impression from the Seal of Geoffrey Chaucer, perhaps the only impression which has descended to our times. I am sorry, however, that it is only a drawing from the original which is now produced; but the original itself will be shewn to any member of the Society who feels an interest about it.

By the kindness of Mr. Nightingale I am enabled to lay before the Society a drawing of various Ancient Beads in his collection.

I know of no objects of antiquity which, while they present so distinct a character, are at the same time so difficult to assign to a precise period, as these beads. Some may be ascribed with tolerable certainty to particular countries; but others are so widely distributed as to render the place of their fabrication a difficult point to settle.

I do not know if the Society of Antiquaries will think that extracts from churchwardens' accounts of the reigns of the Tudor queens are so plentiful that no addition to the present collection is required, or can afford any new information; but I venture to send you, for the Society, some extracts from the Accounts of the Churchwardens of Eltham, in Kent, which I think will be found to possess more than ordinary interest from the circumstance of Eltham being the site of one of the ancient royal palaces, and of frequent reference being made to royal visits, and other events of a public nature, as well as to some men of note, between the commencement of the reign of Queen Mary and the accession of King James the First.

In consequence of the desire you expressed for views and measurements of Ystumcegid, when we visited it together last August, I again repaired to the spot, and I now have the pleasure to forward you the result of my operations and inquiries. This cromlech, or in Welsh coetan, is situated about half a mile from the left bank of the river Dwyfawr, which winds considerably in this part of its course, and may probably have given rise to the name Ystumcegid or Ystumcuddiedig, meaning the windings of the hidden or concealed. The house which originally stood on this property is reported to have been the residence of Prince Owen Gwynneth in the eleventh century; but, having been burnt down during the wars of Owen Glendower, the present farm-house was erected shortly afterwards.

As several members of the Society have expressed a wish to see the collection of Roman glass vessels which I had the honour to exhibit a fortnight ago, I have again produced it on the table, together with other interesting objects from the same locality. Since my last communication, I have received from Monsieur Perrot, an intelligent and experienced antiquary at Nismes, a descriptive account of the interments, which I now have the pleasure of laying before you. This gentleman has been for many years conductor of the excavations made around the principal edifices of the town of Nismes, by which means he has become possessed of a great variety of antiquities; and, although the town (as I before stated) has a public Museum, the funds are extremely limited, the administration of the town having only voted towards its maintenance, since the year 1845, the sum of one hundred francs.

The small paper Casts which are lying on the table are impressions of the epigraphs that are attached to the line of captive figures sculptured on the great triumphal Tablet of Behistun; and the two large sheets which are suspended against the side wall of the room are from the same locality. This rock of Behistun is a very remarkable natural object on the high road between Ecbatana and Babylon. It was probably in the very earliest times invested with a holy character; for the Greek physician, Ctesias, who must have visited this spot in the fourth century before Christ, ascribes the most remarkable of the antiquities that were to be found there to the Assyrian queen Semiramis; and Isidore of Charax confirms this tradition of the country in his notice of the column and figure of Semiramis, at the city of Baptana, in the district of Cambadene. Now I believe Semiramis to have been altogether a mythic personage. In the historical inscriptions of Nineveh there is no trace either of Ninus or Semiramis; but both the names are probably to be recognised in the Pantheon. A very remarkable bas-relief at Behistun, which contains the full face of a colossal female figure, and which is evidently far more ancient than the tablet of Darius Hystaspes, represents, I think, the object mentioned by Isidore; and in front of the bas-relief are the remains, now barely distinguishable from the masses of rock by which they are surrounded, of the enormous pillar which stood contiguous to the shrine of the goddess, and which was doubtless an object of worship.

On the 23d of January I exhibited to the Society, through the kindness of Mr. W. M. Wylie, some Saxon Fibulae and Beads found at Fairford, with drawings of other objects of the Saxon period, which had been discovered in the same locality at intervals from 1844-5 to 1850.

The curious bronze collar, an unique variety of the beaded torc, according to the classification of these interesting objects proposed by Mr. Birch, was discovered a few years since, in Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, about two miles to the North of Cumlongan Castle. That extensive turbary appears to occupy a site once covered by a forest of great extent: the trunks of large trees are frequently found in it, and numerous vestiges of various periods have been brought to light, from time to time, in cutting peat, including a considerable number of coins. I have also seen impressions from two seals discovered in this morass: one of them appeared to be an antique gem, the intaglio representing Mars; the other was a personal seal of late medieval date, bearing an eagle displayed.

The following Notes have been arranged partly with the view of affording the means for comparing the Celtic antiquities of the Orkneys with their prototypes situated in other countries, but more particularly in the hope of inducing some resident gentleman of more leisure and antiquarian lore to draw up a detailed description of these interesting Landmarks of Time, many of which are fast disappearing before the efforts of rural industry and agricultural improvement. There is, however, but little cause to apprehend any further dilapidation in the greater monuments of the county; an interest in their conservation is daily gaining strength, and we have the faith to believe that in a short time even a peasant will feel ashamed to remove from the inquiring presence of enlightened men an irrecoverable record of the thoughts and feelings of a by-gone race. The antiquities of the Orkney and Shetland groups will be found upon examination to be well worthy of a careful study, not only from being extremely numerous for the small extent of country in which they are placed, but also from the great diversity of their forms, in many places leaving us unable to determine the purpose for which they have been erected.