Permit me through your hands to lay the enclosed papers before the Society of Antiquaries, concerning an ancient custom of setting up Posts, which were occasionally to be new painted, on each side of the gates of Chief Magistrates of cities. The accompanying drawings (see Pl. XXXVI.) are taken from different houses in Elmhill near the Tomb-land, Norwich. The posts of fig. 1 are the most ancient, and are in the style which prevailed about the reign of Henry VIIIth; they are covered with red paint.

There is a Symbol, which may be observed upon the medals of the Roman empire from the time of Julius Cæsar down to Gallienus, and perhaps later, resembling, as to its form, the tendril of a Vine. Its curvature is more or less convoluted in different instances; and the lower part of the stem is represented as if it had been stripped from the stock of some plant.