At a Council of the Society of Antiquaries held at Somerset House this day, I was authorised, as President, to address your Grace on the following subject:

A controversy of great interest has recently been engaged in as to the exact place of Cæsar's landing in Britain. Two essays of especial weight and value have lately appeared upon it: one by Mr. Lewin, separately published, the other by the Rev. Dr. Cardwell, late Principal of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, which came forth in the Archæologia Cantiana of last year. Mr. Lewin contends that the landing place was at Hythe, and Dr. Cardwell that it was at Deal. The question between them seems to turn chiefly, if not entirely, upon the direction of the Channel tides. It is admitted that Caesar was off the Dover coast at three o'clock p.m. on the fourth day before the full moon (Aug. 27, B.C. 55), and the question is then, whether in that position the tides would have borne him to the north or to the south.

Having been invited to address to the Society any remarks which might occur to me on the subject of the communication from the Admiralty, I would first observe that the result of this investigation proves the great advantage of the course pursued by the President and Council, namely, that of referring to official authority for the determination of critical points applying to the question at issue. The Society have expressed so fully their sense of the liberality and courtesy of the First Lord and the Board of Admiralty, and the care bestowed on this matter by the Hydrographer, that it is needless for me to speak on that subject. I will therefore proceed to advert lightly to the history of these investigations, and state how the hydrographical inquiry undertaken by the Admiralty bears upon the matter.

As probably many of those who have heard the Correspondence with the Admiralty read have not made the subject of Cæsar's Invasion their particular study, it may be useful to state the precise question which the recent survey by the Admiralty was intended to settle. It is well known that the first invasion was in the year B.C. 55, and in the harvest month at the south of England, i.e. in August, and it is mentioned incidentally by Cæsar that the full moon occurred on the fourth day after his arrival. The expression is “post diem quartum quam est in Britanniam ventum” (Bell. Gall. iv. 28); and this, according to the Latin idiom, would mean the fourth day, not exclusive but inclusive of the day of arrival, as in the familiar passage of Cicero, “Neque te illo die, neque postero vidi … post diem tertium veni.” (Cicero, Philip, ii. 35.) The full moon here referred to has been ascertained by exact calculation to have occurred on the night of the 30th August, B.C. 55. The day of Cæsar's arrival therefore was on Sunday, 27th August. He tells us that he reached Britain himself at 10 A.M. and waited for the rest of his fleet until 3 P.M. when he advanced eight miles, with the tide in his favour, “et ventum et æstum uno tempore nactus secundum.” (Bell. Gall. iv. 23); so that, assuming him to have anchored off the cliffs between Dover and Sandgate, if he sailed with the flood-tide he would go eastward towards Deal, and if with the ebb tide he would go westward towards Hythe.

The tablets which form the subject of the following communication are two of the most remarkable of those of the Ptolemaic period, which is not rich in inscribed monuments of this kind. There is, indeed, a series of tablets of this period in the British Museum, and others are in the Louvre at Paris. None of them, however, surpass in interest those now to be described, which relate to the family of Pasherenptah. It will be seen from their contents that they shed great light on the mythology of the Ptolemaic period, add to our knowledge of the annals of the Lagidæ, and afford additional facts with regard to the functions and organisation of the Egyptian hierarchy.

It is not without reason that singularities in the tenure of land have always excited considerable interest among antiquaries. For in that state of society which prevailed in Europe during the middle ages, the relation of the individual to the soil on which he lived determined his most important relations with his fellow men and his political and social condition. An accurate and minute acquaintance with the nature of tenures is therefore an object of no slight consequence with the student of medieval history.

By the kind permission of William Selby Lowndes, Esq., I have the pleasure of sending you four illuminations, on vellum, for inspection by the Society of Antiquaries. From the alphabetical table at the foot and back of one of them they seem to have belonged to a MS. law treatise of about the time of King Henry VI.; to which reign, from several points in the illuminations themselves, as well as from the character of the writing, I attribute the date of these interesting representations of the King's four superior courts at Westminster.

As no one appreciates more justly than yourself the value and importance of early heraldry in archæological pursuits, I address to you this communication, the object of which is to bring before the Society of Antiquaries a Roll of Arms comprised in the MS. No. 6589 of the Harleian Collection. Unfortunately nothing is known of the original, nor does it appear to whom it at any time belonged. The copy in the Harleian Collection was written in 1606 by Nicholas Charles, Lancaster Herald, who supposed the original to be of the time of Henry III. Judging from internal evidence, it is not quite so early; yet it should seem to have been not later than about 1280. It will be seen from the copy which follows, that it consisted of about 180 coats, comprising the arms of the emperors of Germany and Constantinople, and of most of the kings of Christendom, of several French and German dukes and counts, and about an equal number of English coats, among which are those of a few earls and several barons; and intermixed with the English arms are others with French names prefixed, possibly those of persons from the English dominions in the south of France.

The first of the two following rolls, the entire blazon of which has never before appeared in print, has for many years been preserved in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries. How or when it came into their possession does not appear, and the only fact that has been ascertained as to its previous history is, that about the year 1610 it was in the custody of Nicholas Charles, then Lancaster Herald, to whose pains we owe the preservation of the second roll, known of late by his name, and now also published for the first time.

Three interesting Coptic papyri have lately been brought from Egypt by Mr. Stuart Glennie, forming an important addition to those which have already been obtained by different recent travellers, and of which a very considerable number is now in the collection of the British Museum.

The interest which you so kindly took in the communication that I made to the Society at the beginning of the present year upon the portrait at Windsor Castle, presumed to represent Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., induces me to address this letter to you. I do so the more willingly as it enables me to state the result of a few investigations begun at your suggestion, and also to acknowledge the liberal assistance I received from various sources whilst prosecuting my researches.

Percy Herbert Lord Powis is a noble author overlooked by Horace Walpole; a loyal sufferer unnoticed by David Lloyd; a Welshman omitted from the useful Biographical Dictionary of the Rev. Robert Williams; and a Roman Catholic who was apparently unknown to Dodd.

The subject on which I have the honour to address you is the correctness of the method of interpreting Hieroglyphics originated by Dr. Young and developed by Champollion. This method, after having long been generally accepted by scholars, is now seriously attacked, and the learning of the assailant demands as serious a defence. The question is one of much graver importance than at first appears. The immediate results of the interpretation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions seem meagre and uninteresting, but it will be found that these results have been largely used by almost all inquirers into the primaeval period of the world's history. To abandon them is nothing less than to go back at least thirty years in this province of historical inquiry. If we have erred let us frankly acknowledge the fault and retrace our steps, but let this not be done without a careful consideration of the evidence before us.

Early in February last I received from His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir John Young, Bart., K.C.B., Governor-General of Australia, a note to the effect that, in consequence of the lowering of the level of Drumkeery Lough, near Bailieborough, on his property in the county of Cavan, a Crannoge had been discovered; and also that several articles had been obtained belonging to the former occupants thereof. On receipt of this information, I communicated with Major Dalton, the brother-in-law of Sir John Young, now residing at Bailieborough Castle, and, availing myself of his invitation and hospitality, I had an opportunity of examining this ancient Irish habitation.

Whatsoever may have been the real character of the Edifices of Roman London —that most unsettled and open question—it seems to be an indisputable fact, that there must have been within the city many dwellings in which were to be found ornamental pavements, varying in character and beauty, perfection and intention—no less than in the difference of the localities in which they have been brought to light. There was once in the history of the metropolis, a wonderful opportunity for ascertaining what Genuine Reliques of Londinium really existed in London: but at that unparalleled time the exigency of rebuilding a ruined city was so pressing, and the taste and understanding for antiquities so exceedingly limited and low, that almost nothing was done in respect of their discovery, their record, or their preservation. In all these particulars Dr. Woodward, John Strype, Thomas Hearne, and John Bagford, were Antiquaries incomparably in advance of their age; notwithstanding all the want of knowledge and the countless mistakes which may be charged upon them by their successors, whom they have really instructed.