I have examined the colours found on the walls of the Roman house discovered at Bignor in Sussex, and I find that they are similar in chemical composition to those employed in the baths of Titus at Rome, and in the houses and public buildings at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The Parchments which accompany this contain the last Will and Testament of King James the Second. On his death they were deposited in the Scots College at Paris, from whence, at the time of its demolition, they were literally snatched from the flames by a Gentleman who gave them to my friend and parishioner Sir Henry Tichborne, of Tichborne, Hants. Bart.

I have more than once had the honour to lay before the Society of Antiquaries Transcripts of Letters and other Papers from a very curious volume in the Lansdown Collection of Manuscripts at the British Museum. There is another Paper in that volume, to which I beg to call the Society's attention: it is a fragment of a public document, with some remarks at the foot of it in the running hand of Queen Elizabeth.

The very interesting Memoir of Mr. Claudius Rich, on the Remains of Ancient Babylon, having a tendency, as well from the facts set forth, in it, concerning the present State of the Site of that City, as from his Reasonings on them, to occasion doubts respecting the established opinions that have been entertained, on the authority of the Ancient Historians; it appeared to be almost a required duty from myself to the Publick, as having already written on the subject, to vindicate the consistency and truth of Ancient History; (as well as that of my own Statement, which was conformable to it:) for if all the Remains of Ancient Babylon, are found on one and the same side of the Euphrates, as Mr. Rich reports them to be; either that River must have altered its course, in that particular place, or the Statements of the Ancients must be wrong.

I propose to offer to your Lordship and the Society some remarks on Gog and Magog as we find them in Genesis x. v. 2. Ezekiel xxxviii. and in the Revelation of St. John, c. xx. v. 8.

Ezekiel is the first, from the days of Moses to his own time, who mentions Gog and Magog in a certain prophecy, that a nation from the North should in some future time invade Palestine, Gog being the Prince, and Magog the Country.

I have the honour to exhibit to your Lordship, and the Society, a gold Quinarius of the Emperor Vitalian, which reacls oh the obverse, DN VITALINVS P.P.A.V. on the reverse, VICTORIA. AVGVSTOR. and in the exergue, CONO. The obverse has the head of the Emperor, crowned with a diadem of pearls; the reverse represents a figure of Victory. The Numismatic Authors that mention it, are Beauvais, Tom. III. p. 28, as the only coin of this Emperor that had occurred when he wrote; D'Ennerie Cat. p. 277, 4to. and Tanini in Supplern. p. 383. Descriptions of a coin of Vitalian have been since given both by Eckhel and Rasche.

The Letter from Lady Jane Grey is that which she addressed to the Marquis of Northampton on taking possession of her short-lived power in 1553. The most striking peculiarity which marks it, is in the passage where she stigmatizes Queen Mary as the bastard offspring of King Henry the Eighth. This Letter is to be considered rather as the Composition of the Dudleys than of the Princess whose signature stands at its head: who relinquishing her own judgment, fell a sacrifice to the ambition of her relations.

The second Letter is from Queen Elizabeth to Sir John Forster, respecting the Murderers of David Rizzio: indorsed in Lord Burleigh's hand. It at least bears testimony to the temper of the Queen's mind on that remarkable event.

It appears from Sandford's Genealogical History, that, at the suppression of the Religious Houses, under Henry VIII, the rage of Reformation went so far as to destroy even the tombs and monuments of the founders. This he particularly specifies to have been the case with the tomb of Henry I. the Founder of Reading Abbey, whose bones, he says, “Could not enjoy repose in his grave,—but were thrown out, to make room for a stable of Horses.” p. 28. Accident having lately brought to light what appears to be a part of the wreck of that very tomb, I have thought that a short account of it might be acceptable to the Society of Antiquaries.

I beg to communicate through your hands to the Society of Antiquaries a Transcript of the Regulations which appear to have been framed in the Reign of King Richard the Second for the Government of the Tower of London. The Manuscript containing them is preserved in the Lansdown Collection here.

If you think that the following account of some customs in husbandry, and the prices of various articles relating thereto, in the time of King Richard II. will furnish any amusement to the Society of Antiquaries, you will please to lay it before them.

The Letter, of which I enclose a Copy, shews that in the time of King James the First there was a more summary mode of settling disputes in a Corporation, as to the choice of their officers, than that now in use of applying to the Court of King's Bench for a Mandamus, or a Quo Warranto.

If you think it worth reading to the Society as a morsel of the history of one of the ancient Cinque Ports, it is at your service.

Juratts or freemen, whereby the scope in the eleccỡn of the Mayor might be more large, wch was then (amongst many other) a mayne greevaunce to the Inhabitants, the place having att that tyme bene for many yeares together supplyed only by three; for reformacỡn whereof we addressed or Irềs for election to be made into yt office for ye yeare following of Thomas Pelham the only Juratt yt had bene held out of that place, while ye Mayrolty was contynued in three. But in ye last yeares election, whether out of ignourance or perswacỡn wee know not, wee are informed ye freemen swarved from our scope & intencỡn, and contrary to the Lord Warden's exp'sse comanndmt made choyce of one into that office yt was neither antientest Juratt, nor yet capable of any governnt. being before suspended by his loppp. & the Mayor inhibited to call him to ye Bench, who under p'tence of Seigniority, as being sometymes a Juratt (wth place he had many yeares before waved & given ovr) challenged to himself a right by relacỡn to ye tyme of his first admittance wth was long before lost. Forasmuch as it is thought fitt, that in ye successive election of the Mayor, the Juratts should from henceforth be chosen to succeede in that office by Seigniority & place of Eldershipp, as they are in order of Auntientnesse recorded in ye Towne booke kept for that purpose and have held & exercised yl place wthout discontinuance according to ye example of Romney & Sandwth, as ye best meanes to establishe peace, & to cutt of ye cause of envye and partiallity (ye seedes of y1 dissencỡn) wth hath bene soe long & soe unhappily nourished amongst yow: These are therefore to require yow to observe ye said orders for ye better gouvernem1.

Among the miscellaneous Papers contained in the Cotton Manuscript, Titus B. I. I find a Note of “The Chardges of certayne Prisoners in the Tower.” The contents of this Paper are curious. It is confined to the time of King Henry the Eighth, and enumerates the Names of some persons who are no where else chronicled as having fallen under the royal displeasure. It also affords a notion of the allowance made at that period for the support of Prisoners of State.

If the enclosed Paper of the Instructions given by King Edward the Sixth to the Marquis of Northampton and the other Commissioners for Survey of Church Goods within the County of Oxford, is in your judgment sufficiently interesting, I beg you will have the goodness to communicate it to the Society of Antiquaries.

I propose to give a short but comprehensive View of the Opinions of various Writers on the identical place where the Ark rested, and leave it to your Lordship and the Society to determine, if what has been already suggested be so satisfactory as to require no further discussion on the subject.

As you expressed a wish to exhibit my ancient Gold Ring to the Society, I with much pleasure communicate the following account of it.

The Ring was found in Coventry Park, near the Town Wall, in the autumn of 1802, by a person getting up potatoes, and weighs 1 oz. 13dwts. 8 grains.

I offer to your Lordship and the Society a short Paper on the origin and antiquity, use and advantage of Cufic Coins.

Wheresoever the arms and religion of the disciples of Mahomed have forced their way, coins that have Arabic titles, whether struck in Syria, Persia, Africa, Spain, or Arabia, are called Mahometan. The most ancient of these are said to be Cufic, because their legends are written in Cufic letters, that is, in characters first used in Cufa, a city of Mesopotamia, and first employed in transcribing the Koran for the space of three hundred years, and for inscriptions on stones and coins for three hundred more, to the 13th century of the Christian æra.

Amongst many curious papers preserved at Losely, near Guildford; the ancient seat of the Mores, and now possessed by their descendant James More Molyneux, Esq. are accounts relating to the Christmas Diversions given by the Lord of Misrule, and relating to the King's Office of Revells and Tents. The former may serve as an addition to the account of the Lord of Misrule, given by our late worthy Secretary, Mr. Brand; the latter I do not remember to have seen in print.

I lately addressed to you some account of a person known by the title of Lord of Misrule, whose office it was to amuse the King and other great men by his frolicks during the twelve days of the Christmas holidays. I have since met with an account of the power with which he was invested in the Mansion House of Richard Evelyn, of Wotton in Surrey, Esq a gentleman of considerable fortune, who always kept open house during those days of mirth and jollity; but, who being High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1634, seems to have called in the assistance of this officer to celebrate the feast with more than usual ceremony. Perhaps it may serve as a supplement to the former Paper, but you will make what use of it you please.

During an inquiry into the Theory of Equilibration of Arches, I had occasion to take sections of those buildings in this country most remarkable for the arcuation in them; and circumstances induced me to select Trinity Church Ely, King's College Chapel Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Ely, Lincoln, York, and Peterborough Cathedrals. The three sections, viz. of St. Paul's Cathedral, of the Temple Church, and of Henry the Vllth's Chapel, which I have sent with this, (Pl. XXI. XXII. XXIII.) were made at a subsequent period, when I was engaged in the inquiry into the different forms of vaults, which led to the Observations published in the seventeenth volume of the Archaeologia.