The curious triptych figured in Plate XV. appears to have been, in the first instance, a gift from Philippe le Beau and Jeanne la Folle, parents of the children therein represented, to King Henry VII., to commemorate a visit which they unexpectedly paid to this country at the beginning of 1505.

The triptych has been ascertained, by means of a brief entry in an inventory taken for Henry VIII. of goods and furniture deposited in his Palace of Westminster, to have been royal property in 1542. It is there denominated “a folding table,” and occurs at the end of a long series of royal portraits.

On the 29th November, 1860, I had the honour to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries a folio manuscript belonging to the Earl of Verulam, which contains an account of the Treaty between King Charles I. and the Parliament, held at Newport in the Isle of Wight in the autumn of 1648.

Some information respecting Easter Sepulchres may be met with in most works on mediæval archaeology ; but if the student wishes to know more about the subject, and compares their statements, he will find that the whole are derived from extremely limited sources. With respect to the structures known by the name, a paper in the Vetusta Monumenta, bearing the initials “R. G.” is the mine from which the other writers have dug their materials: and as for the ceremony for which the structures were used, one or two works furnish nearly all the little store of information yet opened to us.

A tomb, or more strictly speaking a stone coffin with a coped top, which for some centuries past has been described as the tomb of King William Rufus, in Winchester Cathedral, was opened, and its contents ascertained, by direction of the Vice-Dean (the Ven. Archdeacon Jacob) on August 27th 1868. Subsequently to the examination it then underwent, its position within the building was changed on the 15th September following. No previous notice of the transaction having been given, except to a few persons residing in the town of Winchester, I have to regret that it was not in my power to be present either at the opening or the removal. As an interest of no ordinary kind attaches to this monument, I have considered the matter to be of sufficient consequence to collect together a summary of the particulars. The tomb has long been reputed to be the resting-place of the first of the great line of English sovereigns of the present dynasty buried in England; but besides this, the fatality which caused his death, the mystery in which it was shrouded, the superstitious hatred of the man, which believed the wrath of Heaven to have followed him in the Cathedral where he lay, and to have hurled over his grave the ruins of the central tower, all contribute to invest with peculiar associations this venerable memorial; to which I have now to add another point of interest, namely, that an archæological question arises for solution as to the actual identity of the tomb so recently opened, and the remains it contained, with the tomb and the remains of the Red King.

The scallop shell has been found so curiously in connection with funereal memorials of antiquity as to suggest that something must have been meant by this strange juxta-position.

The Roman Pilum is a quæstio vexata, which has been, for ages, an embarrassment to all thinking men given to the study of classical literature.

The Inventory which I have the honour to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries, by the kindness of its owner the Baroness North, was taken on the death of Henry Howard Earl of Northampton, June 15th 1614, and may not be unworthy of the notice of the Society, whether we consider the historical importance which must ever attach to the character of “The Lord Privy Seal,” as his Lordship is here officially called, disagreeably connected as his memory is with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury ; or the still existing “Northampton,” or as it is now called Northumberland,” House, built by this same Earl, “with Spanish gold,” says Osborne, about the year 1605.

All writers on the history of pottery have more or less alluded to the Bacini, or deep howl-shaped dishes of various sizes and colours, which are to be seen on the exterior of several churches in different parts of Italy. More particular allusion has been made to those found on the churches of Pisa, and various theories have been raised to account for their origin. It is particularly stated by Sismondi, in the “History of the Italian Republics” (i. 354), that the Pisans made great exertions to rid the Tyrrhenian Sea of the Moorish pirates, which had so often destroyed their vessels and ravaged their coasts. Their efforts were specially directed against a certain King Nazaredeck of Majorca, whose cruel acts of piracy had spread terror in the coast towns of Italy and Southern France.

In making the following crude and superficial observations on those varieties of pottery known among collectors and amateurs as “Persian ware,” my object is to call increased attention to the subject” by adding the few notes which a recent tour through Syria and Egypt, and to Constantinople, has enabled me to gather, and more particularly as an introduction to the notice of the Society of a piece of this ware, remarkable for its beauty, and interesting from its having been made for a mosque of world-wide renown, and also as bearing an inscription informing us of the date of its manufacture, thus giving sure evidence as to the period of the perfection of this very elegant variety of the potter's art.

I forward you herewith a transcript of all such portions as can be read of a mutilated roll in the possession of Sir Joseph William Copley, of Sprotborough, in the county of York, Baronet. I am indebted for my copy to the courtesy of Charles Jackson, Esq. of Balby. The handwriting of the document is not much more modern than the date of the last instrument contained in it. It was certainly executed during the fifteenth century, probably about the middle of that period.

The remarkably beautiful Chalice and Paten which I had the pleasure of being able to obtain for exhibition at one of the Society's meetings belong to the church of the parish of Nettlecombe, in Somersetshire. They are objects of very great interest, not only from their beauty but also from their antiquity, and the very perfect condition in which we now see them; and this interest is greatly enhanced by the fact of their being of English manufacture, and some of the very earliest remaining examples of English goldsmith's work. In addition to this we have some curious documentary evidence of the manner in which they were preserved, and so have come down to our time.

The paper which I have the honour of laying before the Society of Antiquaries was drawn up by me at the suggestion of J. Y. Akerman, Esq. F.S.A. and in the hope that it might serve as a continuation of his “Report of Excavations in an ancient Cemetery at Frilford, near Abingdon, Berks,” which may be found in the Society's Proceedings for May 25, 1865.