New Shakspere.—Oct. 24, Mr. F. J. Furnivall, Director, in the chair. The Chairman congratulated the society on reaching its one hundredth meeting. In speaking of work done during the past year, he called attention to Mr. S. L. Lee’s work on “As You Like It,” and that of the Rev. W. A. Harrison on “Richard III.,” as examples of critical work; he also spoke of the success of the Society’s performance of Shakespearian music in chronological order; and took the blame on himself for the delay in the appearance of the “old spelling” edition, mentioning some points in which the editors are endeavouring to make the edition as complete as possible. The following papers were read: by Miss Leigh-Noel “On Shakespeare’s Garden of Girls: I. Hothouse Flowers—Juliet, Imogen, Ophelia,” and by Mr. E. Flügel, giving some early German criticisms on Shakespeare by an ancestor of his own (1699), noticing Shakespeare as not a learned man, not worth much attention, and greatly inferior to Dryden.
National Society for Preserving the Memorials of the Dead.—Oct. 28 and 30, twenty-four new members, including Lords Dartmouth and Wharncliffe, and the Bishop of Chester, were elected. Reports as to the work of the Society in the following cases were approved: The replacing of four brasses in Cheam Church; enclosure of the De Ros effigy, near York; restoration of the Barnewall altar-tomb at Lusk, Ireland; replacement of memorial slabs in Milford Church, and in the church of St. Michael in Coslany, Norwich; headstone in Chetwynd churchyard. Reports from the Executive Committee on the following cases were placed before the Council: The replacement of the “Pedlar’s Window” in Lambeth Church; restoration of the monument of Sir Laurence Washington, in Garsdon Church; preservation of the De Vere effigies at Earl’s Colne; removal of memorial slabs from Bishops Stortford Church; and of the Blackhall monument from Totnes Church; the replacement of memorial slabs in Bishops Cannings Church; publication of registers and inscriptions in Banstead Church. It was stated that the work of the Society could be greatly enlarged if larger funds were forthcoming.
Hellenic.—Oct. 23, Professor C. T. Newton, C.B., in the chair. The Rev. Edmond Warre, Head Master of Eton, read a paper on “The Raft of Ulysses,” as described in the fifth book of the Odyssey. By personal research and observation of modern processes of shipbuilding, the writer had arrived at a clear idea of the construction of the raft in question, and set forth his conclusions in detail, illustrating them by two models of a raft and of an ancient axe and adze, which had been made under his direction in the School of Mechanics at Eton. Mr. Warre alluded to a confirmation of his theory which he had lately seen in the construction of certain flat vessels which are used at Portsmouth for raising heavy weights from the water. Mr. Newton, after thanking Mr. Warre for his paper, reminded the audience that there existed in the British Museum two genuine fragments of ancient vessels—(1) a bronze figure-head from the Bay of Actium, and (2) a cross-beam from the floor of an ancient galley, dredged up from the bottom of the Lake of Nemi. Professor Jebb considered that Mr. Warre’s paper not only for the first time made quite clear the passage in the Odyssey, but also explained the poetical use of the term σχἑδια for ships in general in a passage in the “Hecuba” of Euripides, because it snowed that such a raft seen from land would really resemble a ship. Mr. E. A. Gardner read a paper on some armour and ornaments from Kertch, which were now in the new Museum at Oxford. After a description of the several articles, Mr. Gardner showed that the importance of these finds in the Crimea lay in the fact that, if not of Athenian handiwork, they were certainly of Athenian design, and so might be added to the comparatively scanty remnants of genuine Hellenic metalwork. In connection with the representation of a camel upon one of the ornaments, Mr. Newton pointed out that in a bronze found at Kameiros and now in the British Museum, a man with an Assyrian cut of beard was seated upon a kneeling camel. This bronze, though possibly of Phœnician design, was found in association with other objects belonging to archaic Greek art. Professor P. Gardner, alluding to the complete and sumptuous way in which the results of these Russian discoveries were published, said that in this respect despotic Russia set a good example to free England.
Royal Institute of British Architects.—Nov. 3, Mr. Ewan Christian, President, in his opening address alluded to the immense strides which architecture had made during the last fifty years under Barry, Pugin, Scott, Street, Burgess, Ruskin, and others. He compared the great advantages which students of the present day enjoyed with those which had to be sought for and only acquired after long years of study, at the time when the Institute was founded, and said that the good old charter under which they were incorporated had been carried out to the letter, for they had promoted, as far as possible, the general advancement of architecture, and the various arts and sciences connected with it. Mr. G. Shaw-Lefevre, M.P., the First Commissioner of Works, in seconding a vote of thanks to the president, said it had been his duty to clear away the old Law Courts, and to consider how the west front of Westminster Hall could be best restored. He had taken the advice of Mr. Pearson, one of the most eminent architects in works of that kind, and he had suggested that it should be restored to the condition in which it existed during the reign of Richard II., the period when the Law Courts were added to it. That would involve the building of a double-storied cloister against the wall of the Hall, so that all the beautiful Norman work would be preserved, and, whilst not concealed, it would be kept from the effects of the atmosphere by which it was surrounded. As there were different opinions, however, as to the expediency of this work, he had decided to refer the question to a Select Committee of the House of Commons, when evidence could be heard for or against it. Another great improvement would be found in the works at the Tower—a mass of old warehouses had been removed, the inner ballium wall and the Lanthorn Tower had been rebuilt, and this was a work which the public would greatly appreciate when it was complete. No grander field in the world for architectural display was to be found than in the Metropolis. An unbroken series of great buildings, showing every phase of architecture during the last 800 years, was to be seen in it, specially in the Tower, in Westminster Abbey, and in the works of Inigo Jones, Wren, and Barry. He believed, however, that they had arrived at the end of the Gothic revival, so far as secular buildings were concerned, although it might flourish in other respects for many years. Public opinion and the employment of experts were doing a great work in the selection of styles for buildings of all kinds, and he hoped that the present race of architects would be able to leave us buildings as beautiful as did those who lived in the past.
PROVINCIAL.
Cambridge Antiquarian Society.—October 20, Mr. J. W. Clark, M.A., President, in the chair. Mr. A. G. Wright exhibited five denarii of Posthumus, with the legends FELICITAS · AVG: IOVI · STATORI · NEPTVNO · REDVCI: SAECVLI · FELICITAS: SARAPI · COMITI · AVG · from the Beaconsthorpe hoard (1878): also a Roman bronze ear-ring and a mediæval bronze signet-ring, both found at Stony Hill, Lakenheath, early in this present year; also a photograph of a rare palæolithic implement found at March, in 1877. The Rev. S. S. Lewis exhibited a first brass of Marcus Aurelius,rev. HONOS with portrait of the Emperor erect, olive-branch and cornucopiæ (141 A.D.), found in 1883 at Litlington. The Rev. G. F. Browne exhibited an outlined rubbing of the Wilne font, a very intricate and elaborate piece of early work, with twelve bold characters round the base, supposed to be runic or Oriental, and, in the latter case, probably Palmyrene. Mr. Browne showed next a rubbing of the cross at Hawkswell, near Catterick, with the inscription on a small panel, Hæc est crux sancti jacobi: “This is the Cross of the holy James.” The letters have now almost entirely perished. Bede says that James the Deacon, who was with Paulinus when he Christianised Northumbria and baptized so many thousands (A.D. 627), lived to a very advanced age near Catterick, and that the place where he lived was called by his name. Gale, in his Itineraries, said this was Akeburg. The only place now known by any such name is a single farmhouse called on the ordnance map Akebar, near Hawkswell Church. Mr. Browne found that jacobi was spelt gacobi on the cross, and therefore supposed that it was pronounced in Anglian times with a strong initial y, and with a short o, and asked the people whether there was any place near beginning with Yak. He was told that Akebar was pronounced locally Yakbur. This and the cross together made it practically certain that James the Deacon lived at Akebar, i.e., Jacob-burh, or Yakŏbur, and was buried at Hawkswell. The close resemblance of the panel and the inscription to Welsh crosses made Mr. Browne suspect a British influence, and he thought this gave the key to a great puzzle in the early Church history of Northumbria. Nennius said that Rum (or Rumin), son of Urien, baptized Edwin and the Northumbrians, when it is known that Paulinus was the baptizer, and there is nothing to show that Paulinus was Rum. James had an ally in Romanus, the chaplain of Queen Eanfleda, who was the first infant baptized in Northumbria. This Romanus may account for the British character of James’s monument, and may be the Rum or Rumin who has puzzled historians. The Jarrow inscription, In hoc singulari anno vita redditur mundo, had always been taken as a hopeless puzzle. Mr. Browne showed that the stone on which it is cut had formed part of the wall of the original building, in which also was a stone setting forth that the church was dedicated in the fifteenth year of King Ecfrid (A.D. 684) and the fourth year of Abbat Ceolfrid. This would give a year to which the inscription might refer, if it could be shown that any very remarkable restoration took place in that year. Mr. Browne showed from passages in Bede that it was the year in which the Abbot of Monkwearmouth and many of his monks died of a pestilence which ravaged the district, and especially Jarrow, which is not heard of after that year. Hence the reference was to the cessation of the plague in the year 684. Mr. O. C. Pell, after stating the strong grounds for supposing that there were many “libere tenentes” in existence at the time of Domesday Survey, and that they appear in the “Inquisitio Eliensis” as villani holding acres of demesne land, argued—from (among other examples) an entry in the “Inquisitio Eliensis” respecting Chatteris Manor—that the carucæ of the “lords” and the associated carucæ of the “homines” were of one and the same uniform standard for rating purposes and for measuring areas of terræ ad carucam, and showed thereby that this standard was the capacity of a plough drawn by eight oxen. The necessary consequence appeared to be that there must have been at least 324 “homines” holding virgates in villenage in the Isle of Ely alone. This theory was proved to be correct by a comparison of Domesday Survey with the surveys of certain manors contained in old MSS. of 1221 and 1277.
Haileybury College Antiquarian Society.—Sept. 29. The Rev. H. C. Wright gave an account of a holiday spent in Norway. After a few remarks on the beauty of Norwegian cathedrals in general, and on the wooden church at Borgund, he proceeded to describe a Viking’s ship which he had seen. The mound in which the Viking was supposed to be buried was very much dilapidated. The ship was built entirely of oak, and apparently had neither deck nor seats, so that the rowers had to stand upright to row it. The word Viking, he added, is probably derived from the Vicks or Fiords, and is in no way akin to the word sea-king. Mr. F. W. Headley pointed out, with reference to the Viking’s ship, that the planks were fastened on to the ribs of the ship by withies. Speaking of Trondhjem Cathedral, he mentioned the transepts as in good repair. The nave, now almost gone, has contained some very fine Norman work, and the apse at the end of it, which is divided from the choir by a light screen, contains several styles of architecture, ranging from Early English to Flamboyant. Several photographs were passed round in illustration of the speaker’s remarks. Mr. A. W. T. Perowne spoke of Knaresborough Castle, in one of the dungeons of which may be seen a pillar with twelve arches springing from it. He also spoke of Fountains Abbey, which contains both Early English and Norman work—the cloisters and refectory being specimens of the latter. He also gave short accounts of Ripley, Bolton Abbey, Fountains Abbey, and St. Mary’s Abbey, at York. Mr. H. F. Fisher described Wimborne Minster, a cruciform building having two towers—the central and the western. Between the central tower and the east end is a Norman arch. Under the chancel is a crypt, and there is a church library over the vestry. The church contains also a lunar orrery, of which there are only two other specimens in England—at Wells and at York. Mr. H. Swainson next spoke of Bosham, near Chichester. The setting out of Harold from Bosham Harbour on a voyage to Normandy is recorded in the Bayeux tapestry. The church is built on the site of an old Roman basilica. In the vestry may be seen the corbels of the floor of the room once occupied by the man who kept the light in the tower. The church has a wooden spire. The chronicler spoke of St. Nicholas Church, Leicester, where are some Roman bricks in the tower, and of the Town-hall, which is of wood. He next spoke of Warwick Hospital, founded by the Earl of Essex for twelve old men and a minister, each of whom has a strip of garden; they all move up in turn whenever one dies, the minister always retaining the first strip. Passing on into Shropshire, he spoke of Wenlock Priory, which contains two very large ambulatories; also of the Town-hall, where are a set of stocks, which are not fixed, but stand on wheels. In speaking of Lichfield Cathedral, he mentioned the three spires, and seven huge decorated windows in the Lady-chapel, and also the watching gallery, a feature which exists also in St. Alban’s Abbey. The Close at Lichfield was formerly defended by a moat, of which the present Minster pool is a survival. He also censured the recent removal of the “Pedlar’s Window” from the parish church at Lambeth. Mr. E. P. Ash, a visitor, spoke of Eisenach and the Wartburg, which is said to derive its name from the following incident of Lewis the Springer, who in one of his hunting expeditions, happening to come on the hill on which the Wartburg now stands, exclaimed “Wart Berg du sollst meine Burgsein” Having given some account of the connection of St. Elizabeth with the Wartburg, from which she was ultimately expelled, and took refuge in a convent, he proceeded to speak of Luther, who is said to have spent ten months therein translating the Bible. Several relics of Luther and his family may be seen there still. In the chapel are some swords that are supposed to have belonged to Gustavus Adolphus.
Surrey Archæological Society.—At a special general meeting held Oct. 15, Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower, F.S.A., in the chair, it was resolved that the annual general meeting be hereafter held in January or February, instead of in June or July as at present.
