Page 176, note, line 7, for Burnet read Burnel.

In 1832 I had the honour of addressing you on the occasion of the first excavation made by Lord Maynard at the Bartlow Hills. These hills were represented by me to consist of a line of four greater barrows, and of a line of three smaller barrows in front of the others; and I acquainted you that we then opened the three latter, and that, in each, we found a variety of Roman sepulchral objects.

The drawing which accompanies this Memoir represents two undescribed leaden fonts existing in the several parish churches of Llancaut, and Tidenham, situated within the manor of Tidenham in Gloucestershire, apparently of the Saxon period, and certainly casts from the same mould. The Memoir itself and the accompanying map relate also to other ancient remains existing within the same district of Strigul, which are of a local nature, but tending to connect some minor links of our national antiquities.

The volume of Monumental Effigies, drawn and engraved by Mr. Charles Alfred Stothard, F.S.A. the late draughtsman to the Society, is so generally known and so highly appreciated wherever known, that it is only necessary, in order to introduce the subject of the following remarks, to remind the reader that it was left imperfect, in consequence of the author's sudden death, from a lamentable accident which occurred in the pursuit of his congenial profession. It was a part of Mr. Stothard's plan to have included in his work a complete series of the effigies of the Kings and Queens of this country; and for that purpose he visited France, and brought from Fontevraud his drawings of the statues of Henry the Second and his Queen, of Richard the First, and of Isabella Queen of John; and from the Abbey of L'Espan, near le Mans, the effigy of Berengaria, Queen of Richard I., as well as the figure of Geoffrey, Comte of Anjou, from an enamelled Plate in the church of St. Julien at le Mans. There were others, however, and those by no means inferior to any in beauty or interest, which had been left, perhaps from the very reason of their being within immediate reach, until some convenient opportunity, which was frustrated by the premature close of the artist's career. I allude particularly to those of Queen Philippa, King Richard the Second, and his Queen Anne of Bohemia, all in Westminster Abbey.

Position.—ORFORD Castle is in no way remarkable for its position. It lies nearly two miles from the sea, and about half a mile from the river Ore, which here flows through low swampy ground, whilst on the land side the country is for some miles perfectly flat. But this natural weakness of its situation has been in some measure made up by the keep being erected upon a mound, that in a degree is artificial, and being surrounded by a fosse, varying from twenty to thirty feet in depth. In addition to this, the multangular keep was encircled by a lofty wall, that had merlons and a parapet walk all round. This concentric defence terminated at the approach across the fosse on the south-western side. Very little of it now remains, and even the whole of that which does, is so much hollowed out and broken near the ground, that it stands in a precarious and dangerous state.

I now proceed to submit to you some remarks on the presumed Saxon Fibula or Ouche, which I had the pleasure to exhibit last year to the Society. (Plate X.)

In Dr. Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. ii. p. 229, there is a copy of a Runic inscription upon a stone cross of some beauty and very great antiquity. The inaccuracy of this copy was noted by me in my Memoir on the Anglo-Saxon Runes, published in the Archæologia, vol. XXVIII. page 347, as presenting an insuperable bar to any attempt at explaining the inscription.

I have read with much interest the letters of Thomas Winter and Lord Mounteagle, communicated by Mr. Bruce to the Society of Antiquaries in February last; and as I hesitate to adopt the conclusion which that gentleman deduces from the latter of the two letters, I venture to submit a few observations upon the subject to the consideration of the Society.

The perusal of the curious letters of Thomas Winter and Lord Mounteagle, lately discovered by Mr. Bruce, suggested to my mind some remarks upon the historical effect of those letters which I have already submitted through you to the Society of Antiquaries. In my former communication I fully explained my reasons for thinking that the letter of Lord Mounteagle published by Mr. Bruce does not afford a solution of the problem respecting that nobleman's implication in the Gunpowder Plot; and I further expressed an opinion that the tendency of the evidence we now possess is to exonerate his character from the suspicion of having been in the first instance a party to the plot, and having afterwards betrayed his companions.

Among the objects acquired by the British Museum, in the year 1836, from the magnificent collection of the late Mr. Salt, were parts of some tombs, taken from the vast cemetery in the immediate vicinity of the Pyramids at Gizeh. Portions of these comprise two false doors, apparently from the same tomb, each being nearly a fac-simile of the other; and they contain the name and titles of the functionary for whom the tomb was excavated or erected, with the prenomen of the monarch during whose reign the individual lived, and other indications, such as style and composition of the hieroglyphical texts, of having been executed soon after the period when the Pyramids were erected. The replacing together of the separate pieces, as they at present exist among the other monuments of the national collection, has been executed from drawings made by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who saw them in their original state, previous to their removal by Mr. Salt; and the interest which attaches to every attempt of collating the royal names found in this vicinity with the lists of the Greek authors, entitles them to the most profound attention of the archæologist.

The last few years have been productive of much new research in the history of the reign of Edward the Fourth. Sir Henry Ellis, in his “Original Letters illustrative of English History, ” laid the foundation of a series of documents, which was followed by some articles in the “Excerpta Historica, ” by Mr. W. H. Black, and more recently has been considerably augmented by the publication of an anonymous history under the able editorship of Mr. Bruce, and another contemporary chronicle published by the Camden Society. To furnish a few additional facts on a period of history, the obscurity of which has been admitted by every writer, a has been my object in the present paper; and I place the results of my researches before the notice of the Society of Antiquaries, under the conviction that its members form the only body in Europe able to judge whether the materials here brought together are valuable additions to this portion of our country's history.

It is at your request and aided by your archæological experience that I have drawn up the short accompanying Memoir on a Vase recently acquired by the British Museum from the collection of the Prince of Canino, concerning the explanation of the figures represented upon which we hold many points in common.

After the lapse of some few years, I resume the subject of discoveries of Roman remains in London. Since the spring of 1836 (when I first had the honour of submitting the result of my exertions to the notice of the Society) there has been little or no intermission to excavations carried on throughout the City for what is termed “City Improvements,” and for sewerage, all of which have been more or less productive in furnishing means for throwing light on the state of London and its inhabitants in a remote and interesting period of their history.

The Society has already published, in the third volume of the Vetusta Monumenta, engravings of the three Crosses which alone remain of the twelve that were erected by the King in memory of his Queen. An historical discourse is also there given on the circumstances under which these beautiful structures were erected, the work of Mr. Gough, assisted by Sir Henry Englefield. This discourse contains nearly every thing which was then known on the subject, and has been the source from whence later accounts have been derived. What I now propose to do is to make some material additions to what was then known on the subject, and to correct some important misconceptions; and, in doing this, to make some small addition to the knowledge we possess concerning the arts and artists of the period, and particularly to assert for England, against Walpole and others, the claim of having produced by the hands of native artists most of the beautiful works of sculpture and architecture which are connected with the name and memory of this Queen.