The antiquities I have the honour, by the Duke of Bedford's permission, of transmitting an account of to the Society of Antiquaries, were found on two different parts of his Grace's estate during the spring of the years 1844 and 1845. Those to which the attention will be directed first are two small statues, with a sepulchral amphora and its contents, discovered together at the earlier period, by some labourers whilst they were engaged in cutting a drain betwixt Wansford and King's Cliffe, and upon the western side of an extensive wood, called Bedford Purlieus. From the proximity of this spot to the Ermine Street, to Castor, Alwalton, and Chesterton, places whose names alone are indicative of Roman possession, and whose soil has at various times disclosed abundant memorials of this early occupation, it might not unreasonably be expected that similar evidences would be extensively scattered throughout the district. The direct trending of the road by the side of which these remains were discovered, renders it far from improbable that it was one of those vicinal ways that fed the great military one traversing this part of England; and that funeral memorials should have been placed in such a locality is a circumstance far from unusual.

The object of the present communication is to lay before the Society of Antiquaries of London, first, a concise history of the extraordinary variations of opinion among the antiquaries who have devoted themselves to the study of the Roman antiquities of Britain, respecting the site of a station the name of which is preserved by Antonine, Cambodunum or Camulodunum, the copies of the Itinerary varying; and secondly, a piece of evidence which I have lately discovered which seems to me to go very far towards determining this long doubtful and unsettled question. I may add that if the evidence which will be produced is thought sufficient to establish the point, the opinion respecting the site of Cambodunum which has now for more than half a century had possession of the public mind will be shewn to be untenable, and a course of one of the principal roads made, or at least used, by the Romans, be shewn to be drawn with more of the wisdom which is justly attributed to that wise and noble people.

It is perhaps not generally known that the different archives of France are full of documents of the greatest interest to English history, many of them dating back to a remote period when such documents are less common than in more recent times. The archives of the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, by far the most difficult of access to foreigners, is especially rich in records of different kinds relating to the affairs of this country during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and in a recent visit to Paris I obtained, through a friend, copies of a few letters of Henrietta Maria (the Queen of Charles I.) and of Oliver Cromwell, which you may perhaps think worthy to be laid before the Society.

On making some researches amongst the Records of the Corporation, assisted by our able and intelligent officer Mr. Firth, my attention was led by him to a History of the Muster of the Citizens in the reign of King Henry VIII., contained in the Journal, No. 14, folio 166.

An old and valuable Fellow of our Society having at a recent meeting invited the junior branches to transmit communications, I have thought that the account of this Muster might form an interesting Paper, and I have therefore copied it, and forward it to you herewith.

The following description of the Church of Mạ́rtula Máriam in Abessinia, built by the Empress Helena in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and restored by the Jesuits in the century following, the ruins of which were discovered by me during my recent journey in that country, may perhaps be considered of sufficient interest to be submitted to the Society of Antiquaries.

I send you, according to promise, a few remarks on the interesting brass and inscription which you exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries at their last meeting,

Among the many interesting objects which have been brought to light in the progress of the restoration of Hereford Cathedral, a work which, I am proud to say, is entirely worthy of the congratulations and admiration of every lover of ecclesiastical architecture, and its noble achievements of early periods, that which supplies materials for the present communication will not be the least entitled to the notice of the Society of Antiquaries.

By the kindness of Miss Gurney of North Repps, in Norfolk, I am permitted to lay before your Lordship and the Society a jewel or ornament, (Plate VII. fig. 1.) composed of an ancient cast from a gold coin of the Emperor Mauricius, set into gold of rough workmanship, with a ring or loop at top to suspend it by, and bits of red glass or stones, let in, in a double row on that side which bears the obverse of the coin, forming a border to it. To these rather a rich appearance is given by bits of stamped gold being placed under each.

As I believe I was the first to draw public attention to the absence of all contemporaneous authority for the derivation of the badge and motto of the Prince of Wales from the personal insignia of John King of Bohemia, slain at the battle of Cressy, and to express my doubts in consequence respecting such an origin, I read with much pleasure the interesting paper of Sir N. Harris Nicolas, in the last published part of the Archæologia, and now venture to offer a few remarks in further illustration of the subject.

In a letter dated St. Petersburg, the 15th of March last, which I have received from Prince Alexander Labanoff, the accomplished editor of the “Correspondence of Queen Mary of Scots,” he expresses anxiety to ascertain the opinion of the best English antiquaries respecting the alleged residence of that princess at Hardwick Hall, now, as is well known, the property of the Duke of Devonshire. He states, that in 1839 some doubts were expressed to him by le savant Dr. Hunter, meaning, I conclude, our esteemed brother-member of the Society of Antiquaries the Rev. Joseph Hunter, whether in reality Queen Mary had ever been at Hardwick. At the time when those doubts were expressed to him, Prince Labanoff did not concur in them; but, on a further comparison of dates and consideration of circumstances, he has become convinced that those doubts are perfectly well founded. “After long research,” says he, “I am bound to acknowledge that no trace exists of any visit of Mary Stuart to Hardwick Hall; on the contrary, her correspondence appears to prove that she never was at that place.”

Scarcely two writers agree either in the names or the succession of the Lord Chancellors of the reign of King John. The earlier compilers of the list of those officers had to rely either on the historians, who were often mistaken, or on their own examination of original documents, which was necessarily limited and unsatisfactory. Since the publications issued by the Record Commission, and subsequently by royal authority, the means of arriving at correctness have been materially increased; and recent authors must be presumed to have used them. Much allowance is therefore to be made for the errors of the former, while the assertions of the latter become a fair subject of critical inquiry; the more especially in John's reign, most of the records of which have been published in extenso.

As I believe that the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London does not include a specimen of the Leaden-pellet or Sling-bullet of the Greeks, I do myself the honour to forward you one; of which, together with the accompanying drawing, I beg the Society's acceptance.

The Observations of Thomas Stapleton, Esq. F.S.A., in No. 9 of the Archæological Journal, purporting to be “in Disproof of the pretended Marriage of William de Warren with a daughter of the Conqueror,” contain so much curious matter relating to the early locations in Normandy of some families afterwards belonging to English history, that the reader may have failed to notice how little of such disproof there really is in the numerous extracts from Chronicles and MSS., however interesting, brought forward by that able antiquary.

A Direccion takyn for the receyvyng of the Corps of the Most Noble Princes Quene Elizabeth.

When the present Society of Antiquaries of London determined on printing from time to time communications which were made to them, in a series of volumes to be entitled Archæologia, they determined also that there should be prefixed to that work an Introduction, in which should be given a history of their own foundation, and of the attempts which had been previously made to collect the lovers of history and antiquities in associations for the prosecution of their inquiries, and for mutual assistance in their studies. It is not necessary to inquire to whom they committed the task of preparing this Introduction. It is done perhaps as well as the state of the knowledge of the literary history of the country at that period allowed. But when looked at from times when the public mind is not so easily satisfied to remain in ignorance of the minute facts in the history of great undertakings, it cannot, I fear, but be regarded as imperfect and unsatisfactory.

The Cylix, which I propose an explanation of in the present Memoir was found at Vulci, (see Plate VIII.) and formed part of the hundred select vases of the Princess of Canino. I also, as particularly illustrative of the same myths, accompany it with tracings of two other Vases from the same source. They all are portions of the great original discoveries of Hellenic fictile art at Vulci.

I have the honour to lay before the Society of Antiquaries to-night the drawing of two heads in bas-relief, and of heroic size, forming a portion of the recent discoveries of Mr. Botta at Khorsabad. They were sent by Mr. Rassam, Her Majesty's Consul at Mossul, to Sir Stratford Canning, and by him to Sir Robert Peel, who has sent them to the British Museum for examination and inspection.

The manuscript entitled Mappæ Clavicula, signifying the Little Key of Drawing, or Painting, is a small duodecimo volume of sixty-seven leaves of vellum, written in the twelfth century. It appears to be perfect, except a leaf torn out between pp. 64 and 65 of the modern paging, and a little cropping in two leaves.