At the north-eastern extremity of the parish of Ashdon, in Essex, are certain artificial mounds, a plan of which I have the honour to lay before you. They consist, as you will observe, of a line of four greater Barrows, and of a line of three smaller Barrows, at the distance of between seventy and eighty feet in front of the others. The situation of these mounds is remarkable; they stand on a gentle acclivity in face of Bartlow church, the country gradually rising round them like an extended amphitheatre. Between the hills and the church, is a hollow to the north, down which runs a little brook that divides the parishes of Ashdon and Bartlow, forming the boundary of the counties of Essex and Cambridge. Though the hills do not belong to the parish of Bartlow, which is in Cambridgeshire, nor to the hamlet of Bartlow, which is in Essex, still, from the received interpretation of the Saxon word Low a Barrow, it is clear that they give name to the place, a proof of their antiquity. Ashdon church stands considerably more than a mile distant, and is not visible from the hills.

It will probably be in the recollection of many of the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries that our late worthy Member William Hamper, Esq of Birmingham, in the year 1820, published a Tract, entitled, “Observations on certain Ancient Pillars of Memorial, called Hoar-stones.” These pillars, or massive blocks of stone, scattered through England, with a few instances in Wales and Scotland, having received no satisfactory elucidation, Mr. Hamper, in his Treatise, gave: 1st. The notions of different writers concerning them; 2nd. An exposition of their name, in which he shewed the intention of our ancestors in erecting them; and, 3rd. A list of places where they occur, or which it was believed had been denominated from them.

Few men have suffered the extreme penalty of the law under circumstances more calculated to arouse general commiseration, than those which attended the death of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. It has nevertheless happened, that whilst the most trifling circumstances relating to his illustrious companion in misfortune have been dwelt upon with great minuteness, the fall of Fisher has not been investigated with any thing like a proportionable diligence. The chief reason for this marked difference may be found, I imagine, in the personal character of Sir Thomas More, compounded as it was of qualities more showy and attractive than the meek and Christian virtues of Bishop Fisher. The discrepancies and contradictions in the accounts of the proceedings against Fisher given by our best historians are so numerous, that I have thought a careful statement of the circumstances which accompanied his fall, partly derived from MSS. which do not appear to have been printed, would probably be acceptable to you, and if you think the matter of sufficient general interest to merit the attention of the Society of Antiquaries, you will oblige me by submitting the following remarks to their notice.

Amongst the Documents, Letters, and Records of different kinds, presented to Queen Elizabeth's favourite Minister, Lord Burghley, and now preserved in the British Museum, there are a few, chiefly in the form of Memorials and Petitions, which throw some partial light upon the History of the Literature of that period; at least upon the mechanical management of it among the Printers of the day.

It appears to come so peculiarly within the scope and intention of the Society of Antiquaries, to receive from its Members notices of such subjects of antiquarian or historical interest as circumstances may have given them advantageous opportunities of examining, that I make no apology for now sending you some Drawings which represent almost the only remaining fragment of a Palace which was the principal residence of the English Court for more than a century and a half, during a brilliant and important period of English History: I allude to the ancient Palace of Whitehall.

I Inclose you a Copy of Henry the Eighth's Proclamation on his Divorce from Katherine and his Marriage with Anne Boleyn, which is in the possession of the Corporation of Norwich.

I beg to submit to the inspection of the Society of Antiquaries, the Drawings which I caused to be made in August last, by Mr. John Swaine junior, student of the Royal Academy, from the Effigy of John de Sheppy, Bishop of Rochester, which was discovered in the year 1825, during the repairs which took place in Rochester Cathedral, under the superintendance of Mr. Cottingham the architect.

In the year 1821 a respectable gentleman, Thomas Thompson, Esq. of Cottingham Castle, published “Ocellum Promontorium, or short Observations on the ancient state of Holderness.” In page 8 of those Observations he says, “in Horsley's Map of Ptolemy's Geography, in which are inserted the names of the British tribes, we find marked on the promontory Ocellum, the name Parisi, and there is no doubt that such was the name of the inhabitants of that promontory at the invasion of the Romans,” and for his authority quotes Whitaker's History of Manchester.

During my last excursion to France I had the good fortune to preserve some original charters relative to the Priory of Trulegh in Kent, which was a Cell to the Abbey of St. Bertin at St. Omer, in France, of which Priory very little has been discovered either by Dugdale, Tanner, or the Editors of the New Monasticon.

I send you a Survey of the Royal Manor of Clarendon in Wiltshire, made in the first year of King Edward the First. When I resided at Salisbury in 1821, I obtained leave to dig on the site of Clarendon Palace in order to discover the plan of it. In the course of searching for the traces of the foundations, I found some painted glass, Norman tiles, and fragments of painted stucco; but I should doubt their being part of any thing described here, for it is most probable that the walls had been often fresh painted and the windows new glazed since the time of Henry the Third or Edward the First. The painted glass, however, was very thick, which is a mark I believe of great antiquity.

Having, in company with my friend the Reverend William Whewell, of Trinity College, Cambridge, spent a few weeks in examining the ecclesiastical Edifices in Picardy and Normandy, and having conferred with Messrs. Le Prevost of Rouen, De Caumont of Caen, and Lambert of Bayeux, all active and zealous Members of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, I am desirous of laying before the Society some account of the results of this examination, if the Society think it worthy of their notice.

The introductions which you kindly procured for me to the Authorities in Britany having enabled me, through the assistance of Mr. Vicars, a professional surveyor of Exeter, to complete a Plan of the Druidical Temple of Carnac, I have great pleasure in requesting you to lay it before the Society of Antiquaries, together with the following Observations on Dracontia. In these observations there is little of novelty; but I have adopted this method of introducing my remarks upon Carnac, because by it I can convey with greater ease and clearness my sentiments on the figure and dedication of this Sanctuary.

The accompanying plan of the village of Locmariaker and its vicinity is necessary to the completion of my description of the Dracontium of Carnac, lately read to the Society of Antiquaries; and I shall be obliged if you will lay it, together with the following remarks, before the Society.

The Dedication of Churches had its beginning under the OLD Law, and was observed by the holy Fathers in the NEW: whence the Synods both of St. Patrick and of Calcuith enjoined, that no priest should offer up sacrifice in any church to be built, unless the bishop of the diocess first came and hallowed it.

On hearing lately read at the Society a very able and interesting Paper by Mr. Gage, on the Consecration of the Anglo-Saxon Churches, a passage in it, intimating his belief that crosses cut on the face of the walls marked the spots touched by the Chrism at the ceremony of the Consecration, brought to my recollection a case bearing much on the subject, and affording corroborative evidence of the correctness of Mr. Gage's supposition.

The accidental discovery of a number of these Coins, greater than any hitherto made, having been communicated to me by the Reverend William Airey, the Perpetual Curate of Hexham, I am enabled to lay the following account before the Society of Antiquaries.

On Monday the fifteenth day of October last, the sexton and his assistant were employed in preparing a grave, at the west side of the north transept of the present church of Hexham, about three yards from the wall. It was in that part of the church-yard now used, which is called the Campey Hill; and which many years ago was an eminence, but has since been levelled; and, though not originally any portion of the burial ground, has been of late years appropriated for that purpose. Why this place received its name of the Campey Hill we have not at the present day the means of ascertaining; but the hill would appear to have been principally formed by the ruins of part of the church, and the consequent accumulations of soil and rubbish since the time at which the Coins were concealed, which was prior to the erection of the present building.

Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, rebuilt by Edward, Duke of Buckingham, is a remarkable example of the mixed architecture of the Castle and the Hall; in which, as far as the design was carried into execution, military and civil conveniences were happily united. In the book of the survey of the Duke of Buckingham's lands, we have the following general description of the place, at the time of the tragic death of the noble owner.

The jurisdiction of the Court of Star Chamber is connected with a variety of curious questions relative to the ancient “Consilium Regis,” which, although often approached by writers of great reputation, do not appear to have been as yet satisfactorily elucidated. Whilst men were within the reach of this powerful judicature, they seem to have been unwilling to inquire too curiously into its origin; and, since its overthrow, the loss, or destruction, of its records, has increased the difficulties inseparable from such an investigation. I propose to attempt an outline of that part of the subject which is necessary to be considered by those who desire to form a general idea of the nature of the judicial jurisdiction exercised in the Star Chamber, and, by that means, to understand the reasons of the abhorrence in which that Court was held by our ancestors of the seventeenth century. If you deem the inquiry likely to interest the Society of Antiquaries, you will oblige me by submitting my remarks to that body. Amongst them I am aware there are many persons who are more favoured by circumstances, and better able, than myself, to treat the whole subject satisfactorily;—perhaps my paper may induce some one of them to give his attention to the inquiry.

The letter which I some time since did myself the honour to address to you, upon the subject of the Court of Star Chamber, contains a sketch of the history of the judicial authority of the Consilium Regis down to the reign of Henry VI., during whose minority there occurred something like a parliamentary acquiescence in the interference of the Council in all causes, in which there appeared to be too great might on the one side and “unmight” on the other, or in which there existed other reasonable cause for the withdrawal of the dispute from the ordinary tribunals. I shall now trace the subsequent history of this celebrated Court, commenting, as I proceed, upon some of the cases which came under its notice.

It was not my intention to trouble you further on the subject of the death of Richard the Second, until it might be rendered necessary by some remarks, which Mr. Tytler, in a very courteous communication, gave me reason to expect from him, and which, I understand, are still likely to appear. But having been recently favoured by Sir Harris Nicolas with the transcript of an important record connected with that event, I will not any longer defer availing myself of his permission to lay it before the Society. It has been extracted by him from the Minutes of Henry the Fourth's Privy Council, in the British Museum, which I am glad to learn he is now editing for the press, under the authority of the Commissioners of Records.