Among the archaeological remains of central Europe there are some of quite distinct Scythian character. They testify the presence of the Scythian nomads on that territory in the period about 500 B.C. Besides, the fact that the dating of those remains is quite well established should provide a basis for the proper dating of those central European cultures which came into contact with the Scythians.

The Scythian remains in central Europe are divided into two groups. To the first group belong the remains found in limited areas, with Scythian graves among them; those remains enable us to establish local groups of Scythian culture. The other group occurs among the remains of other, non-Scythian, cultures where they arrived either by way of peaceable trade exchange or were brought there by the Scythians themselves during their invasions or inroads into those territories.

In this short article I do not intend to give any detailed description of the Scythian remains in central Europe or to give an appreciation of their artistic value. They do interest me, but only as evidence of certain historical happenings, and I refer to the works of Professor E. H. Minns, Professor M. Rostovtzeff, Dr. N. Fettich, and others for their dating.

It is, at such a time as this, a matter for pride that the Society of Antiquaries, since it is named ‘of London’, is directly associated with the City which has suffered, and steadfastly withstood, the utmost that the malice and skill of our enemy could contrive against it during five and a half years. It is likewise a matter for pride that the Society's arms bear the Cross of the patron Saint of England so that, with complete propriety, and in accordance with our charter, we hold our Anniversary Meeting on St. George's Day. In this annus mirabilis, this year of Victory, we feel profound thankfulness for deliverance from the peril of national death which would have been our fate in defeat, and profound appreciation of the wisdom, steadfastness, and courage with which, under our Prime Minister, our national affairs have been carried on in Cabinet, in Parliament, and in battle by air, sea, and land.

The bronze brooch illustrated from photographs on pl. xi (and here also from drawings by Mr. F. Cottrill), was found a number of years ago by Mr. T. W. Armitage of Trent Lock, Long Eaton, on the high ground known as Red Hill, above the steep right bank of the river Soar just south of its confluence with the Trent in southern Nottinghamshire, between the villages of Thrumpton and Ratcliffe-upon-Soar and on the west side of the main L.M.S. railway line from Leicester to Nottingham, Long Eaton, and Derby. The site is habitually arable land, and Mr. Armitage has collected a number of antiquities from its surface, including besides this brooch several Roman coins and Romano-British bronze brooches along with some amount of mainly Romano-British pottery, to which, in the winter of 1943, he drew the attention of the Society. In subsequent correspondence he readily gave permission for the publication here of this unusual brooch, which he had himself recognized as a Celtic product of the pre-Roman Iron Age; and in lending it to the present writers for the purpose, he allowed it also to be cleaned and examined at Oxford, under Mr. Jacobsthal's direction, by Mr. V. R. Rickard in the laboratory of the Ashmolean Museum. The photographs were taken in the studio of the same museum.

A few months ago the catalogue of an auction sale in Shropshire contained an entry of a manuscript, believed to be of the fifteenth century, relating to Herefordshire. Upon inspection it was established that this was an imperfect rent roll, probably of the steward of a bishop of the see of Hereford. Unfortunately as the caption and several membranes are missing it is impossible to give the exact date.

Near by in the sale room was a box of oddments, largely consisting of old school books and miscellaneous articles. Upon turning these over the writer noticed a folio manuscript volume, bound in leather, and found that this was the steward's records of leases of various properties belonging to the Somerset family in Herefordshire in the seventeenth century. A commission to purchase the two manuscripts for Hereford Public Library was unsuccessful, but later they were secured by negotiation. Upon closer examination the volume was found to have served two purposes. It had been turned upside down and the one end used to record the private purse expenses of the marquis of Hertford for a year from Michaelmas 1641 to Michaelmas 1642 by William Booth, his steward. It had been intended to record six months' expenditure only, but this had been extended to the full year, as noted in a different handwriting.

On the north wall of the chancel of the small chapel at Idsworth, on the borders of Hampshire and Sussex, is a fine fourteenth-century wall-painting executed in distemper in red and yellow on a white ground. The composition is divided into two broad horizontal bands by a narrow zigzag band. In the top half is a scene with huntsmen, dogs, and a wild man, and what appears to be the arrest of St. John Baptist. In the lower part is St. John Baptist put in prison and a long scene showing Salome dancing a sword-dance before Herod and Herodias (pl. I). The scene of the huntsmen and the wild man requires rather closer examination, because it is commonly and wrongly described as showing a scene from the life of St. Hubert.

On the extreme left of the picture are the remains of horsemen and dogs, then there is a figure of a crowned man winding a horn with his left hand and holding in his right hand a long bow which he rests on the ground. Behind him are two men. At his feet are dogs, and in front of him to his left are three men who bend down towards an old man covered with long hair who is emerging from some bushes on all fours. The attribution of this scene to the legend of St. Hubert requires full consideration, because an examination of the lives of that saint printed in the Acta Sanctorum yields no indication of any legend bearing the remotest resemblance to this scene. There seems, moreover, to be every indication that the whole painting represents something quite different.

The megalithic cult of southern and western Europe appears to have been largely seaborne. It was spread in western Britain, too, by a people who used the northern sections of the Atlantic route. This paper deals with the distributions of different types of megalith in the Irish Sea basin and in its northward extension. It describes the burial and ceremonial monuments of the lands which front on to a mainly land-locked sea. The routeways of the Irish Sea were used to diffuse the megalithic cult over a long period, and the better favoured coastlands attracted large colonies of megalith builders (see fig. i) comparable in size to those of any section of the Atlantic route. The controlling geographical features such as tidal currents and their influence on routeways; or diffusion in relation to areas of lighter soil, or patches of bare rock, or wind-swept coastlands (i.e. the less densely forested areas); are of vital importance, and will be discussed elsewhere.

From time to time excavations in the City of London, particularly in the region of King William Street and Lombard Street, have revealed at the base of the Roman deposits thick layers of bright red clay, containing burnt roofing-tiles, charred wood, etc., evidently the debris of timber and clay houses destroyed by fire. Hitherto little or no internal evidence for dating these layers has been forthcoming, and from their position it has usually been assumed that they result from the sack of the town by Boudicca. In recent years, however, the burnt layers have again been found in situ at a number of sites, and are now shown by the pottery contained in them to belong to two different periods, namely, the mid-first century and the early second century. It is necessary to recognize, therefore, that the Roman town suffered from extensive fires on two occasions.