The Manuscript, from which the following description is taken, is conjectured to have belonged to one of the Wriothesleys, afterwards Garter, King of Arms, and seems to have been written at different times, during the reigns of Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII. It is a quarto volume, of about two hundred leaves of paper, and contains miscellaneous entries on heraldic affairs, but chiefly Lists of Knights, and Coats of Arms.

Acton Scott is situated about three quarters of a mile to the east of the Watling Street road, which leads from Wroxeter, through the Strettons to Leintwardine and Brandon Camp, and from thence to Kentchester. In the “Salopia Antiqua” another line of Roman road is described by Mr. Hartshorne, as going from Nordy Bank, at the foot of the Brown Clee hill, to Wroxeter, which at Wall would pass within four miles of Acton Scott, on the other side.

I venture to submit to you a Document which may perhaps offer some interest to the Society of Antiquaries.

Unable to show my gratitude for the honour they have conferred upon me, in admitting a stranger amongst them, by any work of great length, because it is very hazardous to write on scientific subjects in a foreign language, I will try, notwithstanding, to prove that I am not entirely unworthy of the favour done me. Having been occupied for six years in researches among the old records and charters of Flanders, I have collected a good number of documents relating to the connexion which existed formerly between England and my Country. If it were agreeable to the Society of Antiquaries, I could send you, from time to time, Copies of these Documents. I have now the honour of submitting to you one of them, on the carved Stalls of the ancient church of Melrose Abbey in Scotland.

So much interest has been felt in the origin and history of the Badge and Mottoes of the Prince of Wales—The Ostrich Feathers, “” and “,” that they have been treated of by many able antiquaries; from the learned Camden in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the Messrs. Nichols, Willement, and Planché, in the present day.

In the absence of other communications, I beg to lay before our Society, through your hands, transcripts of two or three papers, each having some interest in their contents.

The first relates to the purchase of chantry lands by the corporate bodies of the city of London.

The second is a letter of a priest to the Earl of Arundel, in 1588, whom he had falsely accused whilst undergoing the punishment of the rack in the Tower.

The third relates to the state and affairs ecclesiastical of the isles of Guernsey and Jersey from the Reformation to the time of James the First.

I Have much pleasure in bringing before the notice of the Society some ancient remains, very recently discovered at Stowting, in the county of Kent.

If I am not mistaken, they will be admitted to possess considerable interest, by reason of the circumstances under which they were brought to light, having been, without loss of time, noted and authenticated; the objects themselves preserved and delineated; and because they afford evidence to warrant classification and appropriation, and confirm the correct arrangement of similar remains found frequently in the same county, as well as in other parts of England.

By the liberality of my friends, Messrs. Smith, of Lisle Street, I have the pleasure of exhibiting to the Society of Antiquaries the accompanying Specimens of the works of that most interesting artist Maso Finiguerra, who was undoubtedly the inventor of the art of taking Impressions on Paper from engraved plates of Metal; and I am also entirely indebted to their kindness for being enabled to give you the following short statement respecting them, for I am certain that every one connected with the Society will feel an interest in these fine specimens of the early art of Engraving. But, in the first instance, I trust that I may be excused in requesting that every care may be used in handling them, and that they may not be removed from the cases. At the sale of Sir Mark Sykes, in 1824, these now exhibited alone fetched a sum exceeding eight hundred pounds; and as all objects of Art have greatly increased, and in many instances doubled their value since that time, these must be deemed of very great price, and deserving the utmost care.

Some time since you will remember that you were looking at the accompanying drawings, taken from the cases of a mummy which I opened in company with Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, in the autumn of 1843, and you suggested that, from the great fidelity with which they were executed, they were deserving of exhibition at some meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. I now send them to you, with some descriptions thereof, which I am enabled to furnish by the kindness of Mr. Birch.

In the course of my labours at the British Museum, a volume came recently into my hands containing two tracts: the first, “Meditacions sur les Sept Pseaulmes Penitenciaulx;” the other, a French version of the “Cordiale, sive de quatuor Novissimis.” It became my duty to ascertain all the typographical particulars relating to these works, as they had been hitherto but partially described in the Museum Catalogue; and I was much struck, in the course of my inquiry, by the resemblance between the types with which they are printed, and those used by the first English printer. A closer examination has led me to the conclusion that they are actually the production of Caxton's press. The “Meditacions” are printed in the same character as the French and English Recueil of the Histories of Troy, and the first edition of the Game of Chess. The Cordiale is printed in the same type as the English version of the same work, made by the unfortunate Antony Widvile Earl Rivers; the Propositio clarissimi Oratoris Magistri Johannis Russell, the second edition of the Game of Chess, the first edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Mirrour of the World, and several other pieces, printed by Caxton.

You will oblige me by laying before the Society of Antiquaries an autograph letter of Sir Harrye Stradling to his wife Elizabeth, the sister of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, dated from Rome “the laste day of March.” The year is not stated, but may be collected from the notice of the great battle between the troops of the King of Hungary, commanded by John Hunniades, and the Turks, at Belgrade, A. D. 1456, wherein the latter were defeated with a loss of “forty thousand men.” Heylin (Cosmographie, p. 544, ed. 1666) estimated their loss at 50,000.

It is not a little remarkable that so few objects of geological, or antiquarian, interest should hitherto have been brought to light, by the excavations and cuttings made, during the formation of the numerous lines of railway, in various parts of England. Extensive as are these operations, the accessions to the collection of the geologist, and to the cabinet of the antiquary, have been comparatively unimportant. The most interesting archaeological discovery effected by the railway cuttings, is unquestionably that which took place, about six weeks since, in the ruins of Lewes Priory; namely, of the two leaden coffers, containing the remains of the founder and foundress of that once celebrated religious establishment.

It is well known that the coffin-shaped tomb of Gundrada, finely sculptured in black marble, probably a limestone found in Britany in Dr. Mantell's opinion, was discovered in 1775 in Isfield Church, five miles from Lewes, forming the upper slab of the monument of Edward Shirley, cofferer to Henry VIII. who died in 1558; and Sir William Burrell removed it to Southover Church in Lewes, where, after seventy years' interval, her bones and coffin, as well as those of her husband, have now been brought. The sandstone slab, which was substituted on the Shirley monument, is five feet five inches and a half long; and as Gundrada's monument has been broken off at five feet four inches, it may be suspected that the Shirleys broke off the twelve or fourteen inches, wanting to complete it, in order to adapt it to the space required.

The three bronzes engraved, Plates XIII.—XVI. and exhibited by Mr. Vint to the Society of Antiquaries, Nov. 27, 1845, were discovered in the month of October last, on the line of railway now forming between Colchester and Ipswich, about a mile to the east of the Colchester terminus, and half a mile north of the town. They were dug up at the depth of about five feet from the surface; portions of red pottery, bronze, and lead, were found near them, and, at the distance of about six feet, a human skull and some horses' teeth. The spot presented no indications of having been a place of dwelling or of sepulture, but two or three hundred yards nearer the terminus is a small rising ground, in cutting through which the railway labourers are said to have found urns containing bones.

Some time ago I promised that I would draw up a short description of the antiquities of the part of Lancashire called Furness, which are commonly ascribed to the Druidical period. I do not consider that I have, by any means, fully investigated these remains; and I should have preferred the perfecting of my acquaintance with each, by careful investigation, did I not fear that the information already collected may, very possibly, together with my intention, be lost.