The town or settlement of ancient Aquae Sulis comprised an area of less than thirty acres. It was encircled on three sides by the river Avon, and almost surrounded by the lofty outliers of Cotswold and Mendip. The situation was an attractive one, and singularly appropriate for the important structures contained within the walled area. The baths occupied a central position in the town, and were in length at least one-third of its width from east to west.

The origin of letters of ‘confraternity’, or of ‘participation in benefits’ for the two classes seem to be, as I hope to show later on, practically equivalent, is to be sought in the natural desire among those who were fighting against the corruptions of the world, to feel themselves fortified with the prayers of others engaged in the like conflict, and the no less natural wish to help their brethren in that struggle. Such associations would, equally naturally, be formed first and principally between monastic houses, since these formed, as it were, the entrenched camps into which religion retreated during the dark ages of Europe. But inasmuch as those thus associated were reckoned as in the fullest sense brothers, it was not long before the practical usefulness of these acts of confraternity became apparent in providing a means of arbitration in case of disputes between head and members in an abbey, as well as a sort of appeal against unjust treatment by a superior, or a remedy for fundamental incompatibility of temperament. Dom Ursmer Berlière, O.S.B., in an interesting article in the Mémoires of the Royal Belgian Academy, has investigated the jurisdictional side of these monastic confraternities, and therein relates the surprising experience of an abbot of St. Trond, who on approaching in the course of a journey the abbey of Brogne or St. Gérard, finds himself received with all ceremony, conducted at High Mass to the abbot's stall, and is informed that the officers of the monastery had to surrender to him their keys of office, and that he had the right to remit the punishment imposed upon a brother of the house. He asks the reason; and the only explanation his hosts can give, is that this is always done to an abbot of St. Trond on his first visit to Brogne. The author explains these proceedings by supposing the former existence of a formal act of confraternity between the houses, entirely forgotten on one side, and only partially remembered on the other.

We all know what maps are. Most of us have occasion to use them frequently. Many of us, no doubt, have spent pleasant hours in our studies, performing, with their help, what have been called ‘armchair travels ‘. But only a few have been led to inquire into the history of maps and mapmaking, and fewer still have interested themselves in that period of the history of cartography which is the subject of this paper—the medieval period.

A Natural tendency to regard perforated axe-hammers as belonging to the Neolithic period, the Age of polished stone, is soon corrected by a study of the available evidence, which shows that most of the specimens found in Britain date from the Bronze Age, several having been discovered in association with that metal. If any reliance can be placed on the division of the Bronze Age into two parts, characterized respectively by inhumation and cremation, in that order, then it is clear that axe-hammers cover practically the whole of the period, extending over some fifteen centuries. The lower limit is not at present fixed; but there are primitive examples that from their form and method of boring may well be assigned to the Late Stone Age, and there is reason to believe that at least one type was introduced during the period of transition to Bronze—that is, in the Copper or Aeneolithic period.

Keynsham is a village on the high road that runs between Bath and Bristol, and is distant from the latter city about four miles. In the year 1877 the then vicar and churchwardens of Keynsham, rinding the graveyard round the parish church incapable of either receiving any more burials or of being enlarged, purchased two and a half acres of ground to make a public cemetery. This was situated a quarter of a mile beyond the village, on the Bristol side, and was part of the fine stretch of meadow-land that borders the river Avon, being known as the Hams. Two mortuary chapels were built, adjoining one another, in the centre of the new cemetery, and the ground was thickly planted with trees. After the purchase of the land, the owner of a property adjoining it on its western side managed to get an embargo or restriction placed upon the use of the upper part for burials. The part so restricted was about a third of the original purchase. In 1908 the Parish Council, by the payment of a sum of money, had the restriction removed, but it was not until twelve years afterwards that the site was used for interments.

John Fromond's chantry chapel stands in the garth of the cloisters at Winchester College, and is now commonly known to the inmates of the college by the brief name of ‘Chantry’ (pl. XXI, fig. 1).

The college was founded by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, in 1382: its buildings were first occupied by the warden and scholars in March 1394; and on St. Kenelm's day (17 July) 1395, the college chapel, and the cloisters which lie on its south side, were consecrated by Wykeham's suffragan. Simon, bishop of the Irish see of Achonry. The cloister garth, which was included in this consecration, was intended to be the college cemetery. John Fromond, who died on 20 November 1420, and his widow Maud, who died in or before April 1422, were buried, as he had desired, in one grave in the middle of the garth, and the chantry was afterwards built over their grave by his executors.

St. Stephen of Muret founded the Order of Grandmont about 1076 in the diocese of Limoges. More than sixty years after his death in 1124, Gerard Itier, the seventh prior of Grandmont, wrote his life, and it is difficult to reconcile some of the dates with known historical facts.

This graceful crozier-head (pi. xxxvn, fig. 1) was found in December 1838 in a stone coffin containing an imperfect skeleton, on ground to the north-east of the cloisters supposed to have been the cemetery of the Abbey.

It is of latten, and cast hollow, as may be seen in a damaged part on one side of the volute. The stem is eight-sided; in place of a socket at the base, it has a tang driven into the top of the wooden staff, a short piece of which is preserved; above the tang is a moulding. In respect of the octagonal crosssection and the use of a tang in place of a socket, this example recalls the larger of those found at St. Davids (Archaeologia, lx, pl. LIII). Over the wood of the staff is passed a detached latten knop, above which is twisted a narrow band of metal to prevent splitting.2 The metal has been gilded. The two holes in the leaf may possibly have been filled by beads of coloured glass, or originally left empty as they now are.