I have not found it easy, in the annual chronicles which I have already had the honour to recount, to decide which activity, which occasion, should have pride of place. In preparing this third anniversary address I had no doubts; the increased comfort provided for Fellows (until heating of any sort was denied us) is my opening theme. I extol not only the improved lighting but more particularly the circulating warmth in the library during the past severe winter. The effect on Man of radiant heat in a library may, I hope, be likened to that of sherris sack in a tavern, concerning which you will recall the immortal prognosis: ‘it ascends even into the brain, making it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes’.

The development of domestic architecture in Oxford during the late medieval and sub-medieval periods, that is to say, from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century, will be discussed in the following paper, with a double purpose in view. The first purpose is to report on a certain amount of research work done on old Oxford houses during the last ten years, in which a good many people have taken part. The second purpose is to sketch a plan of campaign, or to indicate certain lines of investigation and classification, which might, I think, mutatis mutandis, be applied to other towns. We badly need a systematic survey of the old houses in various towns in England, with plans, elevations, sections, and analyses. This is particularly needed at a time when so much is in danger of destruction, and it is a work which one hopes the Society of Antiquaries may encourage.

The following report is a summary of work carried out on the site of the Roman Settlement at Bitterne Manor, Southampton, during the summers of 1937–8. It is hoped that the excavation will be the first of a series of small trial diggings to exploit the potentialities of the site, leaving to more capable hands the task of fully elucidating the history of the Roman town.

The tomb of Archbishop Chicheley, founder of All Souls College, Oxford, who died in 1443, has always been maintained by that college. Repairs to it are known to have taken place in 1662–4, sometime about 1836, and, somewhat drastically, in 1897.