In the course of last year I exhibited to the Society two swords, and some other fragments said to have been parts of an image found in a bog at Cullen, in the county of Tipperary, in Ireland, on the lands of Lord Milton. These are now in the posession of that noble lord; and his politeness gave me an opportunity of communicating them.

These two pieces were dug out of a bank near Lord Willoughby de Broke's seat at Compton-Mordock, alias Compton-Vernai, in the county of Warwick, A. D. 1774. Three sculls were found with them lying in a row. The pieces had been suspended on the necks of two of the parties there interred, as being their most valuable trinkets; and are now the property of Sir Charles Mordaunt, a respectable member of this Society, on whose estate they were found.

The royal warrants repeatedly issued by King Edward the Third, and his two immediate successors, directed to the treasurer and chamberlains of their exchequer, De cera renovanda circa corpus regis Edwardi primi; and the total silence of all our historians, and public records, as to a similar attention having been paid to the corpse of any other of our deceased momarchs; are circumstances, that not only indicate the high veneration in which King Edward the First was held during a long series of years after his decease; but when considered, together with the strong injunctions under which, it is said, that king in his last moments laid his son, to send his heart to the Holy Land, attended by 140 knights, and to carry his remains along with the army until Scotland was reduced to obedience, gave rise to an opinion, that upon his decease a more than ordinary care was taken to preserve his body from putrefaction; and that, in subsequent times, the utmost endeavours were used for preventing its decay.

The Seal, which I have the honour to present to the Society through your hands, was found some years ago in pulling down an old house in Oxford. It is made of copper, with a brass handle behind it, which turns down for the convenience of carriage in the pocket. Its breadth is one inch and ⅝, and its length two inches and ¾. Its sides are formed by two segments of a circle, of which the breadth of the Seal is the radius, uniting in a point at the top and bottom. The device is the royal arms, viz. France and England, quarterly; surmounted by an arched crown, and supported by a lion crowned on the right, and by a dragon on the left; in nearly the same attitudes as those stamped on the gold sovereigns of the 34th and 36th of Henry VIII. The dragon evinces this Seal to have been engraved under some of the princes of the house of Tudor; who all used this supporter in memory of their descent from Cadwallader. And its being placed on the left side, and accompanied by a lion (crowned) on the right, seems to fix it to some period betwen A. D. 1542 and 1554, or else to the reign of queen Elizabeth.