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son John was made Lord of Ireland. John, when king, held councils here in the 5th, 8th, and 15th years of his reign. The last was the immediate preliminary movement to his treaty with the Barons on Runnymede. In all, John visited Oxford in nine different years of his reign, and passed here forty-five days, which may be deemed a considerable proportion of his restless and vagrant life. Various councils were held at Oxford by King Henry III. and in his 42d year (1258) the Barons here exacted those memorable Provisions which greatly advanced the cause of national liberty.

Wm. Sidney Gibson, esq. F.S.A. read a very elaborate memoir on Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, and Lord Chancellor in the reign of Edward III. He was one of the most earnest book-collectors of the middle ages, as represented in his interesting treatise, entitled "Philobiblos." He bequeathed his library to Durham college at Oxford, but no catalogue of his books is known to be extant. His intercourse with Petrarch at the Papal court was fully discussed by Mr. Gibson, as well as other particulars of his history; he omitted to refer to his fine episcopal seal, engraved in the Archæologia (vol. xxvii. p. 401), and which is one of the most beautiful in the Durham series.

The attention of this Section was finally directed to a very interesting discourse by Edwin Guest, esq. F.R.S. on the Earthworks which formed the boundaries of the Belgic Settlements in Britain, and on those which were made after the treaty of Mons Badonicus. It was in continuation of his views propounded at the Salisbury meeting last year, and of which we gave some account in our Magazine for Oct. 1849, p. 405. The continuous lines of earth-works which cross the country in various directions are either-1. British roads; 2. Roman roads; or 3. Boundary lines. It was Sir R. C. Hoare's discovery that the ditches with two mounds were not boundary lines, but roads of communication between British villages; they were worn down into hollows by the traffic of a dense population, and may be compared with the hollow lanes of Devonshire and the Channel Islands. Mr. Guest considered the more important lines of ditches provided with mounds on one side only, as the boundaries of ancient tribes. They were not exactly military lines of defence, like the wall of Hadrian, which was furnished with castella, defended by a body of 15,000 men, and provided with ready means of communication by a parallel military road; but they were lines of demarcation, fixing the boundaries of territory.

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Such was Offa's Dyke between the Dee and the Wye; and such were the ditches of the Belga. Stukeley counted four of these ditches. 1. Combe Bank, south of Blandford; 2. Bokerley Dyke, south of Salisbury; 3. the ditch immediately north of Old Sarum ; and 4. Wansdyke. Warton increased their number to seven, and seems to have included in that number the Grimsdyke south of Salisbury, the Old Ditch on Salisbury Plain, and another ditch in the vale of Pewsey. Mr. Guest placed on his map only three successive lines of boundary. When the Belgæ first settled in the vales of the Stour and Frome their territory seems to have been bounded by Combe Bank and Bokerley Dyke as parts of one and the same boundary; Vindogladia was their capital, and Badbury near Bland. ford their fortress. When they had conquered the rich vales, which unite at Salisbury, the Old Ditch became their boundary, and Old Sarum their capital. Their third and latest boundary was Wansdyke. There is a very remarkable passage of Cæsar in which he speaks of a Belgic chieftain named Divitiacus, 66 rex totius Galliæ potentissimus," who magnæ partis harum regionum (i. e. Galliæ Belgica) et Britanniæ imperium obtinuit." The phrase Britanniæ imperium probably meant nothing more than a supremacy over the civilised portions of the island, or, in other words, over the districts occupied by the Belgæ. Stukeley surmised that Divitiacus was the chief who advanced the Belgic frontier as far as Wansdyke. It is a very remarkable fact that this boundary line approaches within a few miles of the temple of Abury, but leaves it to the north, and approaches close to but does not include Bath. Mr. Guest suggested that on the settlement of the boundary line the Dobuni may have insisted on the retention of their great temple and their hot baths. And this led him to a very important conjecture on the age of Stonehenge: viz. that the Belgæ, having excluded themselves from the great national temple of Abury, built Stonehenge under the government of Divitiacus about the year 100 A.C. The huge stones forming the trilithons came from the vale of Pewsey, which was just within the last Belgic boundary. Mr. Guest insisted that the Grimsdyke south of Salisbury and the ditch north of Old Sarum were not Belgic earthworks, but boundary lines made by the Welsh after the treaty of the Mons Badonicus.

THE ARCHITECTURAL SECTION assem

bled in the great room of the Oxford Architectural Society in Holywell Street, under the presidency of the Principal of

Brazenose, Dr. Harrington: and three papers were read :

1. On Dorchester church, Oxfordshire, by E. A. Freeman, esq.

2. On the construction of Timber Houses existing in Berkshire, by the Rev. James Clutterbuck.

3. On the manor-house of Mere in Somersetshire (built by the abbot of Glastonbury in the 14th century), by Alexander Nesbitt, esq.

THE EARLY AND MEDIEVAL SECTION met in the Writing School. W. W. Wynne, esq. (President of the Cambrian Archæological Association) presided.

The first communication was by Edward Hawkins, esq. F.R.S. of the British Museum, on a remarkable collection of gold ornaments, recently purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum, from the collection of Mr. Brumell. They were discovered some years since in the county of Durham, with a large hoard of Roman coins, and they are of especial interest as an accession to the list of objects connected with the worship of the Dea Matres found in England. All the smaller objects, including 280 silver coins, the latest of which was of Antoninus Pius, were found in a silver porringer. They consisted of two gold chains fastened by wheel-shaped ornaments, and about ten inches from it a crescent-shaped ornament. A third gold chain similarly fastened had a gold bead on each link, but no crescent. There were three gold rings set with coarsely engraved stones; one with the inscription MATRVM COCOAE stamped upon it; a fifth of thick gold wire, the ends being reverted and terminating in heads of serpents; a silver ring exactly the same as this last. There were also three small silver spoons; and upon the vessel was a flat silver plate, by some considered a cover, but more probably a mirror. The handle of the vessel was much ornamented, and had an inscription in gold letters, MATR. FAB. DVBIT. i. e. Fabius Dubitatus to the Matres or Deæ Matres. A chain similar to the first described, with the wheel-shaped ornament and crescent, was found near Llandovery in Caermarthenshire (see last Archæol. Journal). The inscriptions show clearly that two of these objects were connected with the worship of the Deæ Matres; it was therefore supposed that the rest might have been, and antiquaries were urged to be very minute in their recording of the several articles which might be found together, as clues were by that means preserved to link together other objects found elsewhere, and to explain the object and use for which they were made. A few slight notices were made of the worship GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXIV.

of the Deæ Matres, and intimating how the crescent, the wheel, and the serpent might not improbably be emblematical of their peculiar influences.

This memoir was followed by others

On the classification of Arrow-heads of Flint and Bronze, by G. Du Noyer, esq. of Dublin. This paper forms a sequel to the author's valuable suggestions on the Classification of Bronze Celts, read at the Norwich meeting. (Archæol. Journ. vol. iv. pp. 1, 327.)

An Account of the opening of Bishop Fox's tomb in Winchester Cathedral, Jan. 28, 1820, by the late Dr. Nott. The ledger-stone covering the grave of that prelate had fallen in, during the removal of accumulated rubbish at the back of the altar-screen. Several curious fragments, portions of sculptured stone, elaborately painted, the remains probably of a reredorse or shrine, were found in the tomb. The coffin was of wood; on each side lay the broken wands of the officers who had attended the obsequies: the remains were found clad in the pontifical vestments; the mitre, apparently of velvet, upon the head, the hands covered by gloves, but no ring was found, which caused a suspicion that the tomb had been opened previously. The crosier was of wood, elegantly carved; on the feet were the episcopal calige, and between them a small leaden box, with the initials R. F. containing a parchment scroll, recording the date of the Bishop's death and interment, Oct. 5, 1528. These curious details had been communicated by Dr. Nott to the President of Corpus Christi college, founded by Bishop Fox; as also a drawing of the crosier discovered in the grave.

Notice of a Book of Prayers belonging to Jane Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton, by the Rev. H. O. Coxe. The volume described, which is in the Bodleian Library (marked Laud. Latin MS. i.), may be regarded as a devotional album, with autographs of distinguished friends. Among these are "Margaret Dowglas," the granddaughter of Henry VII. and grandmother of James I., Queen Mary of England when princess, Katharine Parr, and others. The peculiarity of this volume is that the entries are rhythmical: as in this of Katherine Parr:

Madame, althowe I have differed writtynge in your booke,

I am no lesse your frend then you do looke. Kateryn the Quene, KP.

Mr. Coxe illustrated this volume by others which partially resemble it, such as the MS. once the property of Lady Jane Grey, in the British Museum, that of Mary in the Bodleian, the book of Hora in the possession of Mr. Maskell, &c.

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The afternoon of this day was agreeably spent in visiting the Temporary Museum, formed in the Taylor Building; the College Plate, which was exhibited in the halls of All Souls, Corpus Christi, and Queen's; and the more ordinary objects of curiosity in the University. The large assemblage of charters and seals preserved in the Treasury of Balliol college were exhibited to those who were interested in such matters.

At six o'clock the public dinner took place in the Town Hall, at which about 350 ladies and gentlemen were present. The Marquess of Northampton was in the chair; the chief toasts were responded to by the Vice-Chancellor, the Mayor, Sir Charles Anderson, the Principal of Brazenose, Mr. Hallam, the Warden of New College, and Professor Waagen. In the evening the Rev. William Sewell, in his capacity of President of the Architectural Society of Oxford, entertained a party of more than 700 in the hall, quadrangle, and gardens of Exeter college, which were furnished and illuminated with much taste and splendour for the occasion.

Thursday, June 20. No sectional meetings were held this morning, which was devoted to an excursion to the church at Dorchester and the church and hospital at Ewelme. The latter (the most distant) place was visited first. The Rev. Dr. Jacobson, who is Rector of Ewelme in connection with his office of Regius Professor of Divinity, met the archæologists in the church, and afterwards entertained them on the lawn of his parsonage house. At Dorchester the chief architectural points of interest in the church were explained by Mr. Freeman, and the monuments, stained glass, and brasses by the Rev. John Baron. Afterwards a collection was made, to continue the repairs, which amounted to more than 177. A portion of the party then proceeded on foot to the entrenchment called the Dyke Hills, where excavations had been made; but the only relics discovered were some pieces of Roman pottery. On the road back the Norman church of Sandford was inspected.

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At an evening meeting in the Town Hall, an important subject was introduced, by a letter from D. Wilson, esq. Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, on the losses sustained by archæological science by the present state of the law of Treasure Trove upon which it is proposed to make some representation to the legislature. (See the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in our last Magazine, p. 76.) This was followed by a discourse given by C. Winston, esq. on the Art of Glass Painting, and on the Ancient Glass remaining in Oxford,

Friday, June 21. All the Sections met this morning. In the HISTORICAL SECTION the first paper was read by John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A. on the descent of the Earldom of Oxford. This earldom continued for more than five centuries and a half in the family of Vere, of which there were twenty Earls in male succession, from Aubrey the first Earl, created by Henry II., to Aubrey the twentieth and last, who died in the reign of queen Anne. The first Earl was previously, by marriage, count of Guisnes in Normandy: his father, also Aubrey, was chamberlain to Henry I.; and his grandfather, the first Aubrey de Vere in England, appears as a tenant in chief in Domesday book. But the comes Albericus of that record was a different person, and his family has never been ascertained. The Earls of Oxford were hereditary chamberlains of England until the attainder of Robert the ninth Earl, the unworthy favourite of King Richard the Second, who had advanced him to the extraordinary dignity of Duke of Ireland. The office of lord great chamberlain was restored to John the 13th Earl, upon the accession of King Henry VII. whom he had materially helped to the throne; but on the decease of Henry the 18th Earl in 1625, it fell to coheirs, from whom it has descended to the present Marquess Cholmondeley and Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, who now hold the office conjointly, and exercise it in alternate reigns. Mr. Nichols further noticed some other points connected with the descent of the dignity, with the most eminent junior branches of the family, and with their heraldic insignia; and exhibited impressions of the seals of seven of the Earls. After the extinction of the Veres the title of Earl of Oxford and Mortimer was conferred by queen Anne on her prime minister Sir Robert Harley, whose descendant the sixth Earl is now the last male survivor of his race.

A communication was read from Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. containing some biographical notices of Walter Map, archdeacon of Oxford. Its principal object was to prove that it was not Walter Mapes who gave Geoffrey of Monmouth the Historia Britonum, as asserted by Leland, Bale, and Pits; but another Walter the archdeacon long prior to him.

There were also read, Memorials of Sir Robert Dudley, son of the Earl of Leicester, by the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, B.D.; and a history of Exeter Castle, by the Rev. Dr. Oliver.

In the ARCHITECTURAL SECTION were read

1. Biographical Notices of John Carter, F.S.A. by John Britton, esq. F.S.A. This memoir has been published entire in The

Builder of the 29th of June. At its close the author took occasion to lament the deficiency of a metropolitan museum for the preservation of national antiquities; in reply to which the Marquess of Northampton, speaking as one of the Trustees of the British Museum, stated that some steps had already been taken at that establishment to effect the object required, and further measures were now under consideration.

2. Notices of Sherbourne Church, Dorsetshire, by the Rev. John Louis Petit, M.A., F.S.A. This large and handsome church, which is now undergoing repair, is a uniform Perpendicular structure, having owed its almost entire reconstruction to a fire which happened in the reign of Henry VI. in consequence of a dispute between the monks and the townspeople. (See a view of the church in our Magazine for February, 1842.) The whole internal length is 200 feet, the width of nave and aisles 60 feet; the height of the choir vaulting 54 feet 8 inc. The roofs are very fine, and in connection with these Mr. Petit offered some observations on the construction of vaults, which have been published in The Builder of the 29th of June. It appears that complicated vaulting is more prevalent in English than in foreign churches.

There was also prepared for this Section a paper On the Monumental Remains in the Cathedral Church of Oxford, by M. H. Bloxam, esq.; but the author was suddenly called away from Oxford before reading it.

In the EARLY AND MEDIEVAL SECTION, H. W. Acland, esq. M.D. gave a notice of a rude tracing upon stone, brought from Utica, of an antique ship, affording illustrations of the technical expressions

which occur in the account of St. Paul's voyage and shipwreck, as given in the Acts of the Apostles.

Evelyn P. Shirley, esq. communicated some curious extracts illustrative of Domestic Manners and Household Expenses, in the times of Elizabeth, being selected from the executorship accounts of Thomas Fermor, esq. of Somerton, Oxfordshire, deceased in 1580. An account of the family and their seat at that place will be found in this Magazine, 1827, p. 113. The account of funeral expenses is curious, including payments of 201. for the testator's tomb, and 47. to the "waynman who brought it. The sculptor's name is unfortunately omitted. It was closed in by a grate, and placed under a "teasterne." Many interesting particulars occur regarding the education of the son and daughter of the deceased, and items illustrative of the costume of the period, prices of commodities, rates of wages, and other matters.

M. J. Johnson, esq. made some remarks on Illuminated MSS.; and the Section also received a note from the Rev. John Barron on the singular discovery of some earthen vessels immured in the wall of a church in Oxfordshire, and intended to serve, as he supposes, in the fabrication of the wafer for the service of the mass; a paper by Dr. Bromet on the Chariot-wheels of the Ancients; a short Memoir on Saxon Runes and corrected readings of the inscriptions upon several ancient sculptured Crosses in the Isle of Man; and a paper on the substances employed in forming the Tessellæ of the Cirencester Pavements and their Chromatic arrangement, by James Buckman, esq. F.L.S., F.G.S., Professor of Botany in Cirencester College.

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In the afternoon a very large assemblage was congregated in the Theatre, in order to hear the lecture of Professor Willis on the Cathedral Church. After a few apologetic remarks, explaining that he undertook this task, in the presence of so many local students of architecture, in continuation of his annual custom of examining the Cathedral Churches visited by the Archæological Institute, the Professor declared, that, though he had, sometimes the credit of assuring the inhabitants of every city he came to that their cathedral was the very best of its kind, he could not pursue that course on the present occasion; for he was bound to say that the cathedral-church of Oxford was unworthy of the university, the college, and the see! But that fact was sufficiently explained by its history. Oxford, as is well known, of the sees founded after the Reformation; and its church, which had originally be longed to a nunnery, had been reduced to its present dimensions to form a college-chapel. The nunnery was founded in Saxon times, and there had been antiquaries who were induced to attribute part of the church to that early period. He, however, agreed in opinion with those who held it to have been erected about the middle of the 12th century. Its workmanship is good, though unequal, and not so rude as some parts of Norwich cathedral, which is historically known to have been commenced in 1096. The sculpture of the capitals is florid and well executed. The Professor then proceeded to notice a portion of the design which has given rise to much controversy. Each arch of the nave and choir is in appearance double, and the capitals are as it were cut in two, one-half towards the ailes standing at a much lower elevation than than the other half towards the nave or choir. Between the lower and the higher arch is a triforium, and above the higher arch a clerestory. It had been suggested that the lower arches marked the original height

Accounts of Wadham College, communicated by the Rev. John Griffiths, M.A. Fellow of that college. The first stone of this edifice was laid on the 31st July, 1610, and the chapel was consecrated on the 29th of June, 1613: no architect's name has been found, but the "head-workman" was apparently William Arnold, who received wages of 11. a week. He was proba bly related to Mr. John Arnold, the steward of the foundress. The most remarkable circumstance about this college is the entirely different character of the architecture of the chapel, and that of the antechapel, though both were clearly in progress at the same time. The chapel is of very fair Pointed architecture; the antechapel exceedingly debased in style, its windows corresponding with those of the hall. It is evident two entirely different sets of workmen were employed, and it was suggested in Mr. Jewitt's paper (which will be presently noticed) that the superior masons engaged on the chapel may have been brought from the county of Somerset, where the founder's estates were situated, and where ecclesiastical architecture was maintained in greater purity than in most other parts of the country. The stone was brought from Burford and various other places, and Magdalene college allowed the gratuitous use of its quarries, a favour which was acknowledged by a present of books. Timber was obtained from the Lord Norris.

The subject of the second paper was Abingdon Abbey: contributed by Miss Spenlove. It consisted of a long detail of its history, and a description of the present remains, accompanied by drawings made by Mr. A. S. Palmer.

Mr. Orlando Jewitt communicated an historical and synoptic memoir on the Jacobean Gothic Architectnre prevalent in Oxford. After remarking that the Divinity School remains as when built in the time of Humphrey duke of Gloucester, soon after 1480, with its handsome ambulatory, he noticed the fact that the east front of Bodley's building is panelled to correspond with the Divinity School. Sir Thomas Bodley died in 1613, and the first stone of the Schools was laid the day after his funeral. Selden's addition was made in 1634. Mr. Jewitt then proceeded to notice the building of Wadham college; and remarked that Trinity, Jesus, Exeter, St. John's, and almost all the other colleges have portions of post-Gothic architecture. Inigo Jones was employed at St. John's to build the second quadrangle, including the library, and the east front towards the garden. He also built the chapel of Lincoln college, which is one of the best specimens of the period. In the works at Brazenose, between 1656 and

1666, all the characteristic features of Gothic have vanished, the tracery being oval, but a roof of Gothic form is retained and one of the finest Gothic roofs in the University is that of the staircase at Christ Church, which was built as late as 1620. Mr. Jewitt concluded his paper with some account of Water Eaton, a mansion built by the Lord Lovelace, four miles from Oxford. The chapel was planned in the old ecclesiastical style, like the chapel of Wadham college, with screen, pulpit, and open seats; the house in the

new manner.

At two o'clock this day a Convocation was held in the Sheldonian Theatre, at which the Marquess of Northampton. President of the Institute, and late Pres. R.S., and William H. Prescott, esq. the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella, were presented by Dr. Phillimore, the Regius Professor of Civil Law, for the honorary degree of D.C.L. The Rev. John Louis Petit, M.A. of Trinity college, Cambridge, was admitted ad eundem in a Convocation held on Friday the 21st.

In the evening the Mayor gave a soirée to the Institute and to a large party of his fellow-citizens, at the Town hall. It was amply supplied with pictures, drawings, and books of prints, and an amateur concert was performed under the direction of Mr. Corfe.

Tuesday, June 25. The ARCHITECTURAL SECTION met this morning, when a paper on the Gothic Architecture of the Continent, by the Rev. Dr. Whewell, was read; and another on some of the peculiarities of Continental Churches, as to their form and arrangement, by A. Milward, esq.

The charters of the Corporation, some early deeds, and interesting autographs and seals, were exhibited by the Town Clerk, G. P. Hester, esq.

At half past twelve the concluding meeting was held in the Sheldonian Theatre, the Marquess of Northampton in the chair. Charles Tucker, esq. Hon. Sec. read the annual report. It announced that there had been an accession of 162 members during the year. Seven had withdrawn, and others had been lost by death; among whom were particularly noticed the Bishop of Norwich, the President of 1847; the Dean of Hereford, one of the most useful Vice-Presidents, and whose exertions in the cause of archæology on the downs of Wiltshire last year had possibly hastened his death; Mr. Stapleton, formerly a constant attendant of the Central Committee; Louis Hayes Petit, esq; and James Bandinel, esq. who died of cholera taken at Salisbury. To these names might very properly have been added that of Dr. Bromet, one of the

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