In the Commune of Vieuxbourg near Quentin, in Britany, is a dilapidated Temple of the Celtic religion, which, among the multitude of such sanctuaries scattered over that ancient and interesting country, might have attracted little notice, but for a discovery within its precincts, which may rescue it from oblivion, if not from destruction.

The historical works of Tacitus which remain to us are, as is well known, besides the Life of Agricola, the four first books of the Annals, part of the fifth, the sixth, the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and part of the sixteenth, the four first books of the History, and part of the fifth. It is asserted by Brotier, in his excellent edition, that the total number of books must have been sixteen of Annals and fourteen of History, and this assertion has never yet, so far as I know, been doubted or called in question. I think, however, that there are strong grounds for presuming that the real number of books was eighteen of Annals and twelve of History; and, though the point be of small importance, it may perhaps not be without some interest to the admirers of the greatest of Historians.

Amongst the documents relating to Scotland of the reign of Edward I. Rymer has printed one (new edition, vol. i. p. 994) to which he gives the following title: “Instrumentum continens nomina plurimorum nobilium Scotiæ fautorum Roberti de Brus qui missi sunt ad diversa castra in Angliam,” including, amongst the mandates for the custody of other prisoners, the well-known order directing the confinement of the Countess of Buchan in a cage at Berwick, and which instrument is quoted by Rymer as being in this repository. I do not, however, find amongst the muniments any one such instrument; but, instead thereof, there are three distinct documents, apparently Orders made by the King in Council, and in which, the several directions for the modes of disposing of these captives were from time to time varied and altered, and in a manner highly deserving of attention. The document given by Rymer, is in fact an instrument framed by him by a consolidation of these orders, not distinguishing where one begins and another ends; and in this process, he has concealed the most remarkable features, namely, the modifications which the orders sustained in their different stages. The documents are all intended for publication by his Majesty's Commissioners on the Public Records, in the volume which is to contain the inedited Scottish documents; but, in the mean while, I trust that a summary of some of the particulars which they disclose, will not be unacceptable to this Society.

Amongst the transcripts of charters which I possess relating to Normandy, I have thought two of sufficient interest, as illustrative of judicial proceedings and feudal obligations at the time of the invasion of England, when the national usages of the conquerors were partially blended with the institutions of our Saxon population, to venture to offer them through you to the notice of the Society. The first is from the muniments of the celebrated abbey of Jumièges, now deposited in the archives of the Département de la Seine Inférieure, and my transcript is taken from a copy upon paper in the possession of Mons. Deville of Rouen, to whose kindness I was indebted for the loan of it. It contains the narrative of a monk of Jumièges (Rainald the chaplain) detailing the circumstances under which he became possessed of certain property in Bayeux, in replication to a claim set up by Samson the clerk, apparently the same person with Samson de Douvres, afterwards treasurer of Bayeux, consecrated to the see of Worcester in 1097.

As Mr. Strutt, in his “Habits of the People of England,” has already given us a very full account of the female head-dress from the earliest periods, accompanied by many curious and interesting engravings, I shall confine my observations on the subject to those of a subsequent date.

I have the honour to send you an account and some drawings of the celebrated Old Bridge at Stratford le-Bow, and I hope you will consider them of sufficient interest to be submitted to the Society of Antiquaries.

Since the paper was written, the greater part of the bridge has been taken down to give place to another of granite, of one arch, which is now in progress of erection under the direction of Mr. Walker and myself as engineers; and, should any further information respecting the Old Bridge be obtained during the progress of the work, I shall have great pleasure in transmitting it to you.

Having, at various times, amused myself with tracing the Roman roads Watling street and Ikening street, more especially as connected with the station Magiovintum, perhaps the result of some of my personal observations relative thereto, may add something, however little, to the stock of antiquarian knowledge in reference to Britannia Romana. The roads, to which I have alluded, are too well known to warrant my offering any lengthened remarks. They are considered to have been British trackways many centuries before the island was traversed by Roman roads, and that while the latter run from Venta Icenorum, Caister near Norwich, to Durnovaria, Dorchester in Dorsetshire; the former, commencing at Rutupium, Richborough in Kent, proceeded north-west to Mona, Anglesea, in North Wales. Both these roads had many vicinal branches, of which I will only name four of the Ikening. One seems to have branched off westward to Venta Silurum, Caerwent, in South Wales; another southward to Venta Belgarum, Winchester; a third, I suspect, run along to Camulodunum, Maldon, in Essex; whilst another took a northerly direction to Durobrivae, now Dorenford or Dornford, in Huntingdonshire.

The enclosed Communication was sent to me as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, by Mr. William Hardy, an ingenious and diligent young man, who is one of the clerks in that establishment. As it ascertains a fact (hitherto, I believe, unknown), namely, that the regnal years of Richard the First were calculated, not from his father's death, but from his own coronation, and that before the latter event he had the title of Dominus Angliæ, not Rex Anglorum; I think it worth the notice of the Society of Antiquaries, and in the absence of Lord Aberdeen send it to you, with a request, that at your convenience you will communicate it to that Society.

I trust it will not be deemed foreign to the pursuits of the Society of Antiquaries, to receive some particulars respecting the Autograph of an individual, the magic of whose name must best plead as my apology for abstracting them from their graver subjects of inquiry. The individual I allude to is no less a personage than our immortal dramatic poet William Shakspere, to mention whom, and to excite curiosity and interest, I may, I believe, in any society of educated persons, assume to be inseparable. By the assistance of my friend Charles Frederick Barnwell, Esq. of the British Museum, I am enabled to lay before the Society an accurate fac-simile of the signature of this Great Man, written on the fly-leaf of a volume which, there is every reason to believe, once formed a part of his library, and which has hitherto, strange to say, been hidden from the knowledge and indefatigable researches of the whole host of Shaksperian commentators, collectors, and illustrators. Already, on the mere announcement of the fact, one might fancy, with nogreat effort of imagination, the shades of Warburton and Johnson, Tyrwhitt and Steevens, Ritson and Chalmers, Warton and Parr, again crowding round the volume, toview the characters traced by the hand of the Bard of Avon; again might we view the adoration of Boswel's bended knees, and on this occasion no sceptic sneer would distort the lip or depress the brow of the critical Malone.

“Connaght, by the antient division amonge the Irish, was accompted the fifte parte or Cocge of the Iland of Ireland, and was then and is still called by the name of Cocge Connaght, and contynewed the name and stile of a Kingdome in the posterity of Con Kedcagh, one of the three races discended of Mylle Spaynagh, whome all the Cronicles of Ireland agree to be the absolute conqueror of the whole island.

Since the date of my last communication to you respecting the restoration of Westminster Hall now in progress under the direction of my brother, Sir Robert Smirke, the interior of that building has been completed, and the exterior is now under the hands of the mason. You will remember, that in the course of the internal repair, I stated that a vast number of carved stone fragments of the older Norman Hall were met with, which had been used in some cases as ashlaring for the new face given to the walls from the string-course upwards in the reign of Richard II., but in most cases merely as rubble for filling up and rendering solid those parts which had been previously void. Some of these fragments of the original building, however, had remained undisturbed in their proper positions; for it does not appear that those who were employed in renovating the Hall at the last mentioned period gave themselves the trouble to move more stones than was absolutely necessary in order to effect their alterations. By means of these undisturbed remains it has been an easy task to compose a complete restoration of one side of the Norman Hall, a drawing of which I have the pleasure to forward to you.

At the close of the year 1834, my attention was drawn to the excavations then in progress for sewers, and foundations of houses, in the extensive City improvements, from conviction, founded on former observations, but which opportunity did not then admit my taking advantage of, that the projected line of work at depths varying from twenty to fifty feet, could not fail to afford the means for obtaining some additional and corroborating information illustrative of the ancient occupation of the soil; and, finding that investigation was likley to be attended with some little success, I persevered in examining with all possible diligence the several excavations, and now submit to your notice, though necessarily in an abridged shape, an account of the result of my labours. I shall venture no further on your patience than will be consistent with recording the principal features in the City discoveries, without theorising or wandering from a statement of facts.

Perhaps there is no individual, in the whole course of English History, whose character and pretensions have been enveloped in greater mystery, or occasioned more discussion, than those of the person who in the reign of King Henry the Seventh assumed the title of Richard Duke of York, and who is better known under the name of Perkin Warbeck. On both sides of the question—his being really heir, to the Crown, or an artful impostor—have appeared many able writers, and the controversy may yet scarcely be deemed decided. On the former side are the respectable names of Buck, Carte, Walpole, Henry (?), Laing, and Bayley; whilst on the other we have the united voices of all the early historians, and in more recent times, the authorities of Hume, Lingard, Sharon Turner, and Nicolas. It would be very easy, as Dr. Henry justly remarks, for us to adopt either of the two opinions, and support it by plausible arguments, but not so easy to establish its truth in such a manner as to leave no doubt on the subject. The advocates for Perkin's claims have derived a great advantage from the absence hitherto of those contemporary documents which might substantiate or refute the statements of the Tudor chroniclers, and have continually questioned the authenticity of the narrative, on the ground of its being the invention of the writer, or adopted from motives of political expediency. Any papers therefore which may assist us in forming a clearer judgment of this “mysterious personage,” or throw even a feeble ray on the obscurity with which the transactions of that period are clouded, appear to me to behighly deserving of attention; and with this view it is that I take the liberty of laying before the Society copies of some original documents, part of which have recently been brought to light, and the remainder (probably from the difficulty of decyphering them, or from other causes) hitherto unnoticed by all our historians.

Among the Roman antiquities which have been discovered during the last two years in Great Britain, three sepulchral monuments found at Watermore, about half a mile on the south side of Cirencester, merit especially the attention of the Antiquaries, both on account of the Inscriptions which they present, and the locality where they were discovered.

Every thing involved in mystery carries with it a certain degree of interest, especially when connected with the history of the past; and there are few things more deeply so involved, and more calculated to show the worthlessness of criminal tribunals under irresponsible authority, than the singular judicial enormity commemorated in the following pages.

I congratulate you, in common with all the lovers of our antique lore, on the publication of the “Towneley Mysteries” by the Surtees Society. I trust this volume is but the forerunner of a complete edition of the Chester and Coventry Plays, in a similarly elegant form; though with greater accuracy, and a more correct glossary. Mr. Markland, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Sharp, have shown how admirably competent they are to such a task, by the specimens with which already they have respectively enriched the literary world; and I hope they may be prevailed upon to complete the work.

I send herewith a copy of the original record of the Form of Public Entry of King Henry VIII. into Tournay, after the surrender in 1513, which I lately met with in the Register, called (from its binding) “Cuir noir,” remaining amongst the archives of that city.

There are few subjects within the range of archæological inquiry which present to us greater interest than that which arises from a consideration of the antiquities of Egypt, and particularly of those points which bear reference to the religion, the ceremonies, and the customs of the ancient Egyptians in connexion with the dissolution of the body, and the modes adopted to arrest the progress of decay. The reasons which induced them to take such extraordinary care in the preservation of the bodies of their deceased is, I believe, to be sought for in their religious opinions; and, it is most probably to be explained, upon their adoption of the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. Upon this subject it is not my intention here to enlarge, as I have already treated of it in my “History of Egyptian Mummies.” I am anxious, however, upon this occasion, to introduce to the Society an account of the examination of a Mummy, belonging to the Museum in the Island of Jersey, which presents to our notice some peculiarities differing from those which have been hitherto observed in the process of embalming. I owe to our respected member, my friend Sir George Staunton, intelligence of this Mummy, which was brought from Thebes by the late John Gosset, Esq. who travelled in Egypt in 1835 in company with E. Lane, Esq. the author of a most excellent work on Modern Egypt. Mr. Gosset died at Paris returning from his travels; and his entire collection of Egyptian Antiquities, consisting of several articles of great curiosity and interest, has been presented by his father, Isaac Gosset, Esq. to the Island of Jersey, and has formed the commencement of a Museum, which promises to rise rapidly into distinction.

Among the ancient compotuses in the Exchequer which have been lately brought to light by the exertions of the Honourable Board of Commissioners on the Public Records, are several which relate to the measures taken by King Edward the Third to bring to justice Sir Thomas de Gournay, the principal actor, as was alleged, in the murder of his father in Berkeley Castle: and as they place the circumstances of his capture, and his ultimate fate, in a light entirely different from that in which they are placed by the old Chroniclers De la Moor and Walsingham, and by modern historians, who, in addition to the Chronicles, have had the benefit of the letters relating to this affair which are printed in the Fœdera, it has occurred to me, that it might be acceptable to the Society of Antiquaries if I were to lay a summary of the contents of these documents before it.

The Gold British Corslet lately exhibited to the Society will be fresh in their recollection, and I now have the pleasure of submitting the drawing of a little round Buckler, (Pl. XXII.) recently added to the collection of Antiquities in the British Museum, which for its workmanship may be classed with the Corslet.