The want of contemporary documents to illustrate the complicated events produced by the feuds of the Yorkists and Lancastrians, during the agitated reign of Henry the Sixth, has been a subject of complaint with more than one of our historians. Every portion, therefore, of information, derived from original sources, which enables us to obtain a clearer insight into the transactions of that period, must be considered as valuable, and should be placed on record. With this view it is, that I beg to lay before the Society, by your hands, the copy of a paper preserved among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, No. 914, which contains some notices of circumstances hitherto unknown to our annalists, and is also of considerable interest from the light it throws on the state of the adverse parties at the beginning of the year 1454.

The last few years have been productive of much new research in the history of the reign of Edward the Fourth. Sir Henry Ellis, in his “Original Letters illustrative of English History, ” laid the foundation of a series of documents, which was followed by some articles in the “Excerpta Historica, ” by Mr. W. H. Black, and more recently has been considerably augmented by the publication of an anonymous history under the able editorship of Mr. Bruce, and another contemporary chronicle published by the Camden Society. To furnish a few additional facts on a period of history, the obscurity of which has been admitted by every writer, a has been my object in the present paper; and I place the results of my researches before the notice of the Society of Antiquaries, under the conviction that its members form the only body in Europe able to judge whether the materials here brought together are valuable additions to this portion of our country's history.

A Short time ago I took an opportunity of laying before the Society of Antiquaries by your hands, a Letter containing much interesting information on the state of parties in the year 1454; and I now beg leave to add, as a supplementary communication, copies of several Political Poems written at various periods of the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth, all of which, with the exception of the first, have hitherto remained unpublished. Documents of this kind are confessedly not beneath the notice of the historian, since they shew the popular feelings of the time better than any other contemporary record, and often mention minute circumstances worthy of note, which may in vain be sought for elsewhere. In the Transactions of the Society some few specimens of this political versification have already appeared, of the reigns of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Edward the Fourth, and some others belonging to the reign of Henry the Sixth, may be found in the Excerpta Historica Of the six poems now sent, five were composed by adherents of the house of York, the first of which relates to the murder of the Duke of Suffolk, in 1450; the second to the chiefs of the Yorkist faction, probably about May, 1460; the third to the battle of Northampton, in July following; the fourth, to the policy and position of the adverse parties, probably towards the end of the same year; and the fifth to the battle of Towton, in 1461. The remaining poem was written by a Lancastrian, and presents a curious contrast to the others. It enumerates the principal Lords on the King's side, and, under the metaphor of a ship, describes the position of each in the guidance and government of the state towards the close of the year 1458.

It is at your request and aided by your archæological experience that I have drawn up the short accompanying Memoir on a Vase recently acquired by the British Museum from the collection of the Prince of Canino, concerning the explanation of the figures represented upon which we hold many points in common.

My attention was drawn towards the present subject by an old manuscript book which I saw, some years ago, in the Royal Library at Munich. It was dated A.D. 1400, and contained a collection of Drawings on vellum, executed by or under the direction of one Paulus Kail, who filled the post of Master of Defence to the then existing Duke of Bavaria. These appeared to have been designed for the use of the Duke, and purported to display the parades and stratagems employed in combats with the different weapons which were in use at the beginning of the 15th century. It seemed, however, to have been more than a mere fencing master's instruction book; for the drawings were accompanied by written remarks, which gave it rather the air of a book of directions as to the conduct of Judicial Combats, showing any one likely to be engaged therein, how he might bring matters to a prosperous issue.

After the lapse of some few years, I resume the subject of discoveries of Roman remains in London. Since the spring of 1836 (when I first had the honour of submitting the result of my exertions to the notice of the Society) there has been little or no intermission to excavations carried on throughout the City for what is termed “City Improvements,” and for sewerage, all of which have been more or less productive in furnishing means for throwing light on the state of London and its inhabitants in a remote and interesting period of their history.

The Society has already published, in the third volume of the Vetusta Monumenta, engravings of the three Crosses which alone remain of the twelve that were erected by the King in memory of his Queen. An historical discourse is also there given on the circumstances under which these beautiful structures were erected, the work of Mr. Gough, assisted by Sir Henry Englefield. This discourse contains nearly every thing which was then known on the subject, and has been the source from whence later accounts have been derived. What I now propose to do is to make some material additions to what was then known on the subject, and to correct some important misconceptions; and, in doing this, to make some small addition to the knowledge we possess concerning the arts and artists of the period, and particularly to assert for England, against Walpole and others, the claim of having produced by the hands of native artists most of the beautiful works of sculpture and architecture which are connected with the name and memory of this Queen.