The manuscript from which the accompanying extracts are made came into my possession by purchase about eleven years ago. I know nothing whatever of its history, except what is disclosed by a pencil note in a modern hand on the inside of the first board of the cover. This memorandum states that the book came “From Lord Somers' Library, having passed into his private Secretary's possession, & from him to his family.” As this statement is unsigned, and as I have been unable to identify the hand-writing, I know not what amount of trust to place in it. The first page of the table of contents has upon it the signature of “Wm Milbourne.” It seems about a century old.

The excavations made in Rome during the winter of 1867–68 have been numerous, and their results important.

The first in period of time, and perhaps in importance also in an archæological point of view, was that made by the monks of SS. Cosmas and Damian behind their church and monastery, in what is now a courtyard, occupying the site of the porticus of the ancient temple out of which this church was made. In this excavation, at the depth of from twenty to thirty feet, were found several fragments of the celebrated Plan of Rome, of the third century of the Christian era, engraved on slabs of marble. The greater part of this curious plan was discovered in the sixteenth century, and placed against the walls of the staircase in the museum on the Capitol, but the exact spot on which it was found was not known, and the present discovery is therefore of high importance.

In the month of September last whilst staying at Brighton I examined nearly the whole of the ancient earthworks which occupy the summits of the highest eminences of the Downs between Beachy Head on the east, and the neighbourhood of Chichester on the west.

In a paper which I had the honour of reading to this Society on the 6th February 1868 I gave a general description of the ancient earthworks of the downs between Beachy Head and Chichester, and I concluded by expressing an opinion, derived chiefly from a consideration of the principles of castrametation, outline, and other indications observable on the surface, that these intrenchments belonged to the Ancient British period, and were not, as some writers have supposed, the work of the Roman invaders of this country.

It has often been the occasion of remark that out of the enormous mass of jewels, ornaments, and substantial church plate accumulated in almost illimitable profusion in the ancient religious houses of our land so few specimens have descended to modern times. This paper will deal with this subject, and will show the manner of the disappearance of these treasures. It will give a series of documents (hitherto inedited, but unique in their complete connection and fulness) relating to a Visitation conducted by the King's Commissioners in the Chapel of St. George, Windsor, and illustrating these three points: (a) the wealth of these religious foundations; (b) the manner in which that wealth (in respect to the valuable moveables) was dealt with by its proprietors during the progress of the Reformation; and (c) the ultimate fate of the jewels, plate, ornaments, and vessels of gold and silver. The various documents are somewhat lengthy, and contain some repetitions. It has, however, been deemed expedient to give them as they appear, for two reasons : first, as providing an example of the exact mode of conducting one of these ancient Visitations; and next, as exhibiting, in their curious variety of expression, the diversity of sentiment and feelings prevalent in those days.

Although every object of antiquity possesses a certain interest for the archaeologist, still that interest is much increased when a number are found together, and under circumstances which imply that they were contemporaneous.

A “find” of special interest was made in the year 1817 at Albano, and described in a letter from Dr. A. Visconti to Signor G. Carnevali di Albano. Since however this letter does not give a complete description of the antiquities in question, and is moreover not easily accessible to archaeologists, we have thought that a more complete account would be acceptable to the Society, the pottery belonging to this find being of peculiar interest.

Tacitus, in his description of the ancient Germans, speaks of their reliance upon auguries and decisions by lot. The latter was performed with twigs cut from the branches of a fruit-bearing tree, and thrown upon a white garment:—“Sortium consuetudo simplex. Virgam frugiferæ arbori decisam in surculos amputant eosque notis quibusdam discretos super candidam vestem temere ac fortuito spargunt.”—Germ. 10.

The civilization which Western Europe received at the hands of Rome was due in great part to the colonies planted by her in every subjected portion of it. It may, therefore, be neither trivial nor uninteresting to inquire whether that colonisation extended itself and its benefits to this country also. Throughout the history of Rome conquest preceded colonisation. The land of a conquered nation, if the Roman government insisted upon its right, became the absolute property of the Roman people. Belonging from that time to the State, it could be retained by the Government as public property (i. e. in fact and etymology the property of the people,) to be used for the support and relief of the finances, or it could, by an act of the Legislature, be granted and appropriated to private individuals, of course a portion of that people or their privileged allies.

The results of explorations in the sepulchral tumuli of the pre-Roman or ancient British period of this country have never been exhibited in a distinct manner, or in a form useful for the purpose of comparison. Numerous investigations of these barrows, in nearly every part of England, some on a larger and some on a smaller scale, have at different times been made; but, if we except Sir John Lubbock's analysis of the results obtained by Mr. Bateman in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties, and of part of those obtained by Sir R. C. Hoare in Wiltshire, no one has been at the pains of analysing the results arrived at, or of pointing out the inferences to which they lead. As is well known, “Wiltshire is the county where the monumental remains of the ancient occupants of Britain are at once the most numerous and characteristic;” in no other district of the island are the barrows so numerous, and no examinations of them perhaps so important as those conducted by Sir R. C. Hoare and his coadjutor Mr. Cunnington; whether we consider the number excavated, the results obtained, or the character of the district, the seat of great Druidical fanes and places of resort, the ruins of which are found at Avebury and Stonehenge. In the magnificent but ponderous and costly folios of his “Ancient Wiltshire,” Sir Richard Hoare printed the details of his researches; but in this work they are exhibited in a far from convenient or accessible form, and they have never been subjected to a full and complete numerical analysis.