P. 317, l. 2 from bottom, for pelerins read pelerius.

P. 323, l. 7 from bottom, for dunes cuirasses couvertes, read dunes cuirasses meschantes cuirasses.

The following Narrative and Extracts, copied from a Journal of Surveying, at the instance of the Honourable East India Company, have been obligingly delivered to me by my good neighbour Lieutenant Colonel James L. Caldwell, C. B. of the Honourable East India Company's Engineers, and as several incidents thus stated appear to deserve the notice of Antiquaries, I commit them, together with three ancient specimens of silver Coins, to your hands, desiring the latter to be placed in your cabinet, if they come within the range of that valuable collection.

The three irregularly square pieces of silver which accompany this Letter, weighing from forty-three to thirty-five grains each, in a dimension of about a quarter of a square inch, are not properly Coins, having no impressions in relief stricken from dies, but merely incuse marks, irregularly imprinted by small and very neat stamps worked by hand: nor do these marks appear to imitate or represent any thing, but to be mere arbitrary signs; though their being found with the relicks of the dead, in sepulchral urns, proves them to have have had some sacred or symbolical meaning. The pieces themselves appear, from the irregular bulging in the edges, to have been beaten flat and stamped, after being divided into monetary portions; and they are worn and polished in a manner which proves them to have been long in use as a circulating medium. Both the circumstances of their discovery, and the simplicity of their fashion are such, that we may, perhaps, safely pronounce them to be the most ancient and primitive specimens of money extant; though it is in vain to offer any conjectures concerning their date, or to seek for any accounts of the nation by which they were fabricated and employed, all the native histories and traditions of India terminating in allegorical fable at a much later period.

I beg leave to communicate, through your hands, to the Society of Antiquaries, a fac-simile Copy of a curious Manuscript, preserved in the Public Library at Ghent.

The Manuscript appears to be an illuminated transcript of a Report, drawn up by one of the followers of King Edward the Fourth in his final expedition from Zeland, anno 1471, and forwarded to the Court of Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy, through whose advice and aid the same had been principally planned and effected.

Bisechith ful mekely youre continuel orator & poure liege man Richard Hunt, How he to yow, that been right ciable lord moved with pite, cy, and grace, pitously compleyneth, beyng in grete disolation & hevyness of herte.

The Runic Inscription on your Lordship's very curious Gold Ring, which I have copied at the head of my letter, is composed with a mysterious abruptness, and arranged with a studied obscurity, well befitting its high thaumaturgical pretensions, as an amulet against fever and leprosy.

By the kindness of Mr. Philip Audinet, I am enabled to lay before your Lordship, and the Society, a Drawing of an impression from an unpublished Seal of Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln, the second of the natural sons of King Henry the Second by fair Rosamond. The original is appended to a grant of certain Churches to the Priory of Bulington, in Lincolnshire, remaining among the Harleian charters in the British Museum.

Among the books under my custody in the Chapter House, Westminster, is one bearing the title of “Liber Memorandorum Camerariorum Receptæ Scaccarij,” commencing with the 39th year of Edward the Third, and concluding 35th Henry the Eighth.

As every new discovery relating to British Antiquity must prove interesting to your Society, I beg leave to send you an account of some discoveries which were made within these few years on Hamden Hill; and which I should have transmitted to the Society long ago, had I not hoped that some more able Antiquary would have given you notice of them.

The Poem, of which I inclose a faithful Transcript and a hasty abstract, is contained in No. 124 of the Bodley MSS. at Oxford. It is fairly written upon parchment, in a hand apparently very few years later than the date of the event which it commemorates. Some leaves have unfortunately been torn away at the conclusion.

I observe, that several communications respecting municipal Seals have been formerly made to the Society, and am consequently induced to address you upon the subject of one, which presents a fair claim to their notice.

The first municipal Seal now extant, which was used by the commonalty of the burgh of Bristol, is no less curious for the excellence of the engraving, as a work of art at the time of its execution, than the historical design, concerning which, I request to submit some Observations which have occurred upon a careful examination of it.

The attention of the Society of Antiquaries having been lately drawn to the circumstances connected with the latter days of King Richard the Second, I conceive that the enclosed Verses, from a coeval manuscript in my possession, may be acceptable to them; and shall therefore beg you to introduce them at your leisure.

The Question concerning the place of Shipwreck of St. Paul (Acts, ch. xxvii.), and which had been, with great appearance of truth, referred, from the earliest times, to the Island of Malta, might be thought too trite for discussion, had it not been disputed by some learned persons in latter times; on a supposition that the term Adria, as applied by St. Paul to the Sea in which the shipwreck took place, could only refer to the Adriatic Gulf, or that of Venice. It may therefore be proper to show, that this is an error of the modern Critics; since there can be no doubt that the term Adria was really applied more extensively; and that it included, besides the Gulf of Venice, a considerable portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying in the direct course of St. Paul's voyage to Rome.

I have the honour of sending your Lordship a Copy of Proceedings had in the Parliament of the Middle Temple, (for so a formal Meeting of the Benchers of that House for its business, is denominated,) respecting a Petition of Sir John Davies, praying that he might be restored to his degree of Barrister, and the enjoyment of his seat and commons in that capacity, all which he had forfeited under a judgment of theirs of nearly four years standing, on account of a gross outrage committed in their Hall at the time of public dinner.

The derivation of the word “Mass” having lately been the subject of our conversation, I am induced to offer you the following Remarks upon it, from which I think it will appear that the word, as used to signify the service of the Roman Catholic Church, is wholly distinct, both in derivation and sense, from “mas” the adjunct to Christ, &c. in the words, “Christmas,” “Candlemas,” “Lammas,” &c. In the former sense it seems to come from the Latin “Missa,” and in the latter from the Anglo-Saxon “mærre;” the one having been used in the early ages of the Church as a word of dismission to the congregation, or a part of it, and the other signifying a feast or solemn festival.

The Runic Inscription on Mr. Cumberland's Jasper Ring, which you have submitted to my consideration, is less difficult in its characters and construction than either that on Lord Aberdeen's Ring, or on any other relique of the same class which you and I have hitherto had the pleasure of discussing.

The explanation of the Inscription on Mr. Cumberland's Runic Ring, which has been presented to the Society by its truly learned Member Mr. Hamper, is, in all respects, so lucid and satisfactory that not a shadow of doubt could have fallen on its accuracy and propriety; but it will be no small gratification to that gentleman to learn, that previously to the application which he received on the subject, a copy of the inscription on the Ring had been conveyed to Professor Finn Magnuren, of the Scandinavian Society at Copenhagen; a person who is said to be extremely well skilled in the knowledge of the ancient Northern languages, and that this gentleman has reduced the inscription to precisely the same words, the parties differing only in one letter, where the advantage is evidently on the side of Mr. Hamper. The gratification must indeed be mutual to these learned investigators.

Some doubt has arisen concerning the identity of the magnificent Grecian Ruins, discovered by Dr. Seetzan, in 1806, at Jerash, situated in the country lying to the eastward of the River Jordan: and whether they are those of Gerasa, or of Pella; two Cities, celebrated in Ancient History.

I beg leave to advert to a very interesting Communication, which you laid before the Society of Antiquaries, the last night of their Meeting before the recess, of Letters from Charles Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Buckingham, to King James the First, from Madrid, in April 1623, requesting that a supply of Jewels might be sent to Spain, for their use, and to make presents; which you have recently printed in your valuable Collection of Original Letters on English History; and I have now the pleasure of transmitting to you, a copy of a very curious Document in this Office, which I flatter myself you will consider as an interesting appendage to the Letters alluded to, as it specifies every Jewel which was delivered to King James the First, to be sent to Spain, in consequence of the Prince and Duke's requisition.

Permit me through your hands to communicate to the Society of Antiquaries, a few Specimens of ancient Buildings, collected during a professional journey in Prussia. I did not meet with any remains of pure Saxon or Norman Architecture, i. e. buildings consisting of the Semi-circular Arch alone. The earliest specimens of antiquity I have been able to find, are those composed of a mixture of the Semi-circular and the Pointed Arch, as in the drawings marked I. and II. If we are to judge from the style of Architecture in England, these buildings appear to have been erected between the year 1150 and 1200; and which is remarkable, they are composed of moulded bricks, of which we have no example in this country at so early a period (except in the works of the Romans). In the northern part of Germany bricks are generally used, and frequently covered with composition, see a specimen of a church tower in Berlin, in the drawing No. III. the character of which is of the reign of our Henry the Third. The drawing No. IV. represents two windows from another Church in Berlin, which may be considered curious from the slenderness and great length of the munnions, composed of moulded bricks, which like the church windows in Holland are carried to great perfection, and differ much from the heavy brick munnions as executed in England during the 16th and 17th centuries.