In the thirteenth century Wells was a place of some educational equipment in connection with the cathedral church of secular canons, an academic town of the times. There was a school for choristers, there was also a schola grammaticalis of a higher grade under the chancellor's authority. Since bishop Jocelin's time in 1240, the chancellor, by the terms of his office, was required to give lectures on theology at stated times. There were many boys and many vicars choral and younger canons more or less under some education of the time. There were books for worship and for use of the canons, which required safe keeping. Records, registers, etc. were kept of the acts and statutes of the chapter, and copies were made of the charters and important documents, the originals of which were kept in the treasury, all which required a scriptorium.

We have the honour of submitting on behalf of the Executive Committee a report of the operations carried out by the Silchester Excavation Fund in 1900.

The work was begun on the 4th May under the direction of Mr. Frederick Davis, whose death in July last has deprived the Committee of valuable services freely given and intelligently performed. The further conduct of the work was undertaken by Mr. Mill Stephenson and Mr. Hope, and the closing operations, which were prolonged until 4th December, were also directed by Mr. Stephenson.

In February, 1900, when Mr. George Payne gave us his excellent report from Kent as our local secretary there, he exhibited drawings (since reproduced in the Society's Proceedings) of a crypt or undercroft beneath the George Inn, Rochester, probably one of the most perfect specimens of the kind in England. I then mentioned that a somewhat similar crypt had existed on Laurence Poultney Hill, close to Cannon Street, until quite recently, that it had formed part of the mansion of Sir John de Pulteney, and that it was of great historic interest. Structures of this kind were common in English towns during the Middle Ages, not only beneath churches and chapels but under domestic buildings. They tended to make the upper portions dry, and merchants no doubt found them useful for the storage of goods, or as cellars only, according to circumstances. When art was not merely a thing to be discussed and criticised, but formed an essential part of every-day life, they were naturally also beautiful. These crypts, built of stone and only in part below ground, frequently had superstructures of wood, which in course of time have disappeared or been rebuilt. A good many of them still exist in provincial England, and in London several fine ones have been destroyed during the present century. I will begin by very briefly referring to a few of which I have found record.

The Winchester College manor of Meonstoke is an agglomeration of the principal manor of the parish, known at one time as Meonstoke Perrers, after the mistress of Edward III., with another manor in the same parish, formerly known as Meonstoke Ferraunt, and some freeholds, all of which were the gift of William of Wykeham to his college near the end of the fourteenth century. The tenure is copyhold of inheritance, and the descent is to the youngest, which was probably the prevailing custom of the Meon Valley at that time. There is, however, another little manor in the same parish, the manor of Meonstoke Parsonage, in which the tenure is copyhold for lives without power of renewal, and the tenements are chattels real passing to the legal personal representative. The consolidation was doubtless by the college steward for convenience of management. The statute Quia Emptores did not prevent it, and it was an easy thing to include the freeholds.

At a meeting of the Society on 16th February, 1899, Mr. A. T. Martin, in his Report as Local Secretary for Gloucestershire, gave an account of some recent “trial excavations ” at Caerwent, and formulated a scheme for the systematic exploration of the site. The suggestion having been approved and encouraged by the Society, it was shortly afterwards decided, at a meeting of local antiquaries held at Clifton, to appoint a Committee, and to start a Fund to be called the “Caerwent Exploration Fund.” At a meeting held at Caerwent on 11th September, 1899, Lord Tredegar was elected President, and other officers and a Committee were appointed. Also an Executive Committee, consisting of Messrs. Alfred E. Hudd, A. T. Martin, J. E. Pritchard, and John Ward, was elected (to which Mr. Thomas Ashby, jun., was added later), under whose superintendence the excavations have been made.

The remains of walls found in October and November, 1900, during the process of laying down a wood block floor in the nave and crossing of Romsey Abbey, are shown on the accompanying plan (Plate XLL). Those on the south side of the nave may be dealt with first, as they have no bearing on the structural history of the church, and the record of them is chiefly of value because they are now buried beneath 6 inches of concrete and a wood block floor, and will probably not be seen again for many years. They are of two dates, the wall running east and west being the older. This is 19 inches thick, of flint and stone rubble, and was traced from the eastern angle of the first nave pier to within 2 feet of the fourth, where it ends without a return. It is plastered on the north or inner face with a coat of rough yellowish plaster, continuous with a floor of the same character, 16 inches below the present pavement level, which is at the original level of that of the existing Norman nave. This plaster floor rests, as to its western part, on a layer of flints on the undisturbed soil, and extends along the whole length of the wall from east to west, and northwards as far as the digging went, that is, nearly to the south edge of the paving of the central alley of the nave.

I have the pleasure of showing you to-night a very interesting little picture (Plate XLIV.) which belongs to Miss Isabel Akers, who has kindly lent it for purposes of exhibition. And, in order that we may appreciate it the more, I will begin by recounting very briefly a few of the leading facts in the life of the man who painted it.

The dial exhibited is interesting, both as a good example of a combination of dials, which was in the first half of the sixteenth centary considered to be the perfection of the diallist art, and of which early examples are almost unknown, and also because it was made for Cardinal Wolsey. Nothing is known of its history, but it is said to have come from a village not far from Peterborough, and it was bought by me in London early in 1900.

Cardiff Castle can hardly be classed with the better-known English castles, nor has its history been a particularly stirring one. Nevertheless its position in Norman and Plantagenet times was one of considerable importance, for it was the seat of the chief lords of Glamorgan, or to use the ancient and more correct term, Morganwg. Its medieval history, however, scarcely concerns the present paper, which has to do with sundry remains of an earlier period; but should its perusal demand some reference to that phase of the subject, the concise history of this castle in the late Mr. George T. Clark's Mediæval Military Architecture in England may be consulted with advantage. It is, however, necessary to bear in mind that its definite history begins with the Norman Conquest of G-went and Morganwg in the eleventh century and the immediate circumstances which led to it. Prior to this event, the light of history gives place to shadowy tradition, and archaeology becomes our only safe guide.

In the latter half of the fifteenth century great changes took place in the fabric of the priory church at Great Malvern, and by the beginning of the sixteenth century it had been transformed from what was largely, if not entirely, a Norman church to one of Perpendicular character. With the exception of a doorway on the south side of the nave, the nave arcade, and the bases of the piers that support the central tower, there are no evidences of work prior to the alteration. To this rebuilding both Richard III. and Henry VII. are said to have contributed, the west window of the nave is said to have been the gift of the former and the north window of the transept that of the latter, besides a very long list of benefactors, members of well-known families of the day, local and otherwise; and it is therefore not surprising that even in its present comparatively mutilated state the decorative work in this church is among the finest in England of its date, and the glass and encaustic tiles practically unsurpassed for beauty and interest.

The sources whence our knowledge of the early metallurgy of silver and lead, as of the other metals known to antiquity, is derived are two, distinct in character and differing greatly in the value and amount of their contributions. The first, and by far the most important, is the débris and other remains of the operations of the ancient metal workers which, from time to time, have been unearthed in many localities in Europe and "Western Asia, and in Egypt. The second lies in the records, more or less fanciful, given by classical authors of the technological processes and products of their times. It is needless to say that the information afforded by neither source is always definite in character or free from obscurity. As regards the remains, they are unfortunately too often fragmentary and incomplete, whilst the records are those of men not conversant with technical processes, and hence are full of errors of observation. The remains are, however, as a rule, more to be trusted than the records, and although no single find may admit of complete interpretation, yet, when several are collated the difficulties which they present individually disappear and their meaning is evident. They present us, moreover, with concrete evidence about which there can be no dispute, although there may be differences of opinion as to the deductions to be drawn from it.