During the recent excavations on the site of Æsica a remarkable discovery of ancient relics was made. The deposit in question was contained inside the western guard-chamber of the south gate and about 3 feet from its northern wall. Unfortunately the discovery was made in the absence of any trained archaeologist and the data at our disposal are only of an approximate nature. The relics that have come to light consist of two large fibulæ (figs. 4 and 9), a silver collar or chain (fig. 1), a gold Roman ring (fig. 2) set with a moss agate, and another of bronze (fig. 3) set with a nicolo engraved with a gnostic subject, the familiar IAO.

The county of Hertford from its proximity to London, from its containing the important Ancient British Capital Verulamium, from its being traversed by several British and Roman roads, and from the presence within it of more than one Roman station, might naturally be expected to prove rich in ancient remains, indications of the existence of which would profusely stud an archaeological map. As a fact, however, it seems doubtful whether such a map will exhibit so many interesting features as that of several other counties more remote from the metropolis; and certainly, for variety and number of archaeological discoveries, it cannot compete with that of Kent.

In November, 1886, being at Aylesford in company with my father Dr. John Evans and with Dr. Sebastian Evans, we paid a visit to the sand and gravel pit belonging to Messrs. Silas Wagon and Son, our immediate object being to search for palaeolithic implements which had been discovered at this spot. Our attention was then called to another and highly interesting discovery that had just been made whilst removing the surface earth, which here to a depth of about three feet covers the old river deposits. This consisted of a bronze pail or situla (fig. 11), and a small fragment of another, an ænochoê (fig. 14), a long-handled pan or patella (fig. 16), and two fibulæ (figs. 17, 18), also of bronze, together with calcined bones and fragments of earthenware vases. On examination the situla proved to be a characteristic example of that peculiar style of art which had taken root in Britain during the century or so that preceded the Roman Conquest, and to which Mr. Franks has given the name of “Late-Celtic.” The ænochoê, or bronze vase, the pan and fibulæ were also of great interest as representing imported specimens of late Greek or Italian fabrics. The earthenware vases themselves exhibited an elegance of form and a style of manufacture such as had not yet been associated with British remains in this country, and which, as I hope to show, point not less distinctly to Gaulish and in a somewhat remoter degree to North Italian connexions.

By the kind permission of Mr. Oliver Claude Pell, of Wilburton Manor, near Ely, I am enabled to exhibit to the Society an exceedingly interesting and extensive hoard of ancient bronze objects recently found in Wilburton Fen. I am indebted to Mr. Pell for the following particulars as to the manner and the place in which the discovery was made. The hoard was found in the month of January of the present year (1882), in Wilburton Rush Fen, in the county of Cambridge; the exact spot being about 800 yards due south of Mingay Farm, on the catch-water drain, and just six miles south-west of Ely Cathedral. The objects were resting on the clay, at a depth of from 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches below the surface of the black peat earth, and were found by a man while “gripping ” or cutting a deep narrow grip across the ground, in order to let off superfluous water. The whole of the articles lay within a space of about 6 feet by 3 feet, and they were for the most part dug out under the immediate supervision of Mr. Pell. A second careful examination of the spot brought to light a few small spear-heads and some minor articles, which are included in the list which follows.

Owing to the neighbourhood of the civilized republic of Ragusa, which sprang as it were from the ashes of the Græco-Roman city, the antiquities of the Dalmatian Epidaurus have been investigated from the early days of the Renascence. The merchant antiquary, Cyriac of Ancona, who visited Ragusa during his voyage into the Levant, undertaken in 1435, had already begun the work of copying the remaining inscriptions, which was continued in the next century by the native Ragusan antiquaries, who supplied Aldus Manutius and others with epigraphic materials from the Epidaurian site. The work thus early begun was worthily continued in the last century by the Ragusan patrician De Sorgo, more recently by Dr. J. A. Kasnačić and others, and Professor Mommsen personally collated many of the inscriptions for the great work of the Berlin Academy. The aqueduct and general antiquities of the site are treated at length by Appendini, but in a somewhat fantastic and uncritical manner. A residence on the spot has now enabled me to make some fresh contributions to the materials already collected, and to correct perhaps some prevailing misconceptions.

In the month of November, 1877, in consequence of an alteration in the internal arrangements of the chancel of King's Langley church, it was determined to remove the altar-tomb of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, from the position which it had held during the last three centuries in the chancel, to one in a new memorial chapel, constructed at the east end of the north aisle of the church.

It is now nearly two years since I had the honour of communicating to this Society an account of the discovery of flint implements fashioned by the hand of man, in undisturbed beds of gravel, sand, and clay, both on the Continent and in England.

The natural connection between Geology and Archaeology has at various times been pointed out by more than one writer on each subject; and it must, indeed, be apparent to all who consider that both sciences treat of time past as compared with time present. The one, indeed, merges by almost imperceptible degrees in the other; while the object of both is, from the examination of ancient remains, to recall into an ideal existence days long since passed away, to trace the conditions of a previous state of things, and, as it were, to repeople the earth with its former inhabitants.

I have great pleasure in sending you for communication to the Society of Antiquaries copies of a series of letters written by the Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James I., which are I believe unpublished, and which, like all the letters of that unfortunate princess, will be found of some interest. They are all addressed to Sir Edward Nicholas, who, as you are well aware, was Secretary of State to both the Charleses. The letters which passed between the Queen and Sir Edward, from August 1654 to January 1655, fifteen in number, have already been published in the Appendix to Evelyn's Diary, edited by the late Mr. Bray; and the twenty-five I now send you may be regarded as a continuation of the same correspondence, embracing as they do the period from April 1655 to January 1656.

By the kindness of James More Molyneux, Esquire, of Loseley, I am enabled to lay before the Society of Antiquaries a transcript of another of the Loseley MSS. some of which have already appeared in the eighteenth volume of the Archæologia, and a collection from which was published in 1835 by Mr. A. J. Kempe, a Fellow of this Society. It is an account of the presents received and the expenses incurred at the wedding of the daughter of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) More, of Loseley, in 1567, and will, I think, be found of considerable interest as throwing light on the wedding customs among the landed gentry of that period, the more especially as I am not aware of any similar account having hitherto been published.

In a former communication read before the Society of Antiquaries in December, 1851 (Archæol. Vol. XXXIV. p. 394–398), attention was called to the existence of two Roman Villas, one in the immediate neighbourhood of Boxmoor Station, on the London and North-Western line of railway, and the other at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from it. On the present occasion an account will be given of the result of subsequent excavations carried on at both these spots, and at one of them, as you are aware from personal observation, with some very interesting results.

The Antiquities represented in the annexed anastatic Sketch have been found in the immediate vicinity of Boxmoor Station, on the London and North Western Railway, and have nearly all been brought to light and preserved by the intelligent clerk at that station, Mr. Byles. The neighbourhood was first known to contain any Roman remains through the discovery in 1837 of some Roman sepulchral interments in the burial-ground attached to Box Lane Chapel, which is about 300 yards distant from the station. An Account of the Objects then discovered will be found in the Archaeologia, vol. XXVII. p. 434. They consisted of a circular glass urn about 12 inches in diameter; the fragments of another of the same character; another of a square form with a handle; an earthen præfericulum or pitcher-shaped vessel used for funereal libations; a bronze lamp-stand and an earthen lamp; together with a number of large iron nails, with which the wooden cistae in which the interments were made were fastened together. It will be at once observed that these remains and those represented in the sketch are of a totally different character; the one being adapted for sepulchral and the other for domestic purposes. The majority of the latter were found in and around one of those circular pits or culinae which are not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Roman buildings.