Catalogues of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Messrs. Farrar & Fenton, 8, John-street, Adelphi, W.C.; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand, W.C.; Mr. J. Hitchman, 51, Cherry-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Quaritch, 15, Piccadilly (including the major portion of the Hamilton Palace Library); Mr. W. J. Withers, Leicester; Mr. F. Edwards, 83, High-street, Marylebone; Mr. Edward Howell, 28, Church-street, Liverpool; Mr. G. P. Johnston, 33, George-street, Edinburgh; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3, Bull-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Sutton & Son, 91, Oxford-street, Manchester; Mr. J. Coleman, Tottenham, N. (consisting entirely of royal and noble deeds and documents, and containing upwards of 500 articles, alphabetically arranged under the titles of the respective families); Mr. Albert Cohn, 53, Mohrenstrasse, Berlin; Messrs. Robson & Kerslake, 43, Cranbourne-street, W.C. (includes a fine copy of the Nuremberg Bible of 1477, and Albert Durer’s “Life of the Virgin, &c.); Mr. U. Maggs, 159, Church-street, Paddington-green, W.; Mr. H. Edwardes, 20, Drury-court, W.C.
Some doubts having arisen as to whether authorities which act under the Public Libraries Act have powers to fulfil the conditions required for a Parliamentary grant in aid of the establishment of a school of science and art, the Lord President has brought in a Bill, which declares that where an authority accepts a grant of this kind from the Education Committee of the Privy Council, it shall have power to do so on the conditions prescribed by the Committee, and it is to be, as also are its successors, bound to fulfil them. An interpretation is also placed on the 8th section of the Public Libraries Act of 1855, which enables the Council of a borough and the Board of a district to erect buildings for the purposes of the Act. It is declared that under this and the corresponding Scotch and Irish provisions buildings may be erected in any of the three Kingdoms “for public libraries, public museums, schools for science, art galleries, and schools for art, or for any one or more of those objects.” Where one of these institutions is established under the Public Libraries Acts, any other may (it is here provided) be established at any time in connection therewith without further proceedings being taken under the Acts.—The Times.
In the first week of July the City of Winchester commemorated the 700th anniversary of its incorporation by a series of festivities, in which the Bishop of the Diocese, the Lord Mayor of London, and a number of provincial chief magistrates took part. The proceedings included a procession to the Cathedral, where the Dean delivered an address, in which he traced the gradual growth of freedom under municipal institutions. A public luncheon afterwards took place in the restored banqueting-hall of the Palace, and in the evening there was a torchlight procession, together with a series of tableaux vivants, which were witnessed by crowds of persons. The persons who appeared as actors in events affecting the fortunes of Winchester were habited in dresses designed from authentic records of the period. First came a representation of the granting of the charter of incorporation to the city by Henry II.; the second picture represented Richard II. giving the charter to William of Wykeham; the third, Henry VI. and Church dignitaries before the shrine of St. Swithin in Winchester Cathedral; the fourth, Charles I. brought a prisoner to the city on December 21, 1648; the fifth representing some Roundheads searching for Royalists, and looking in at the window of a forge, where a Royalist, disguised as a blacksmith, was talking to the owner of the forge; the sixth, Sir Christopher Wren presenting plans for a Royal Palace at Winchester to Charles II. The anniversary will be further perpetuated by the publication of a volume entitled “Memorials of the City of Winchester: a Collection of Charters and other Records Illustrating its Municipal History,” edited by Mr. F. J. Baigent, F.S.A.
An antiquary writes to the Athenæum as follows regarding the lamentable destruction of documents belonging to the see of Durham and lodged in a building within the precincts of the episcopal palace at Bishop Auckland: “In a building adjoining the gateway of the episcopal palace of the Bishop of Durham a large number of documents—how valuable it is impossible to say—were preserved until a short time ago. It seems that this building was required for the holding of clerical meetings and other purposes; and, in order to make it more convenient for these, the documents, which had hitherto found a safe repository there, were removed, and without, apparently, any proper examination having been made, were destroyed. A few of them were, happily, rescued, and judging from these some reasonable conjecture may be arrived at with regard to the nature of the mass of the documents. Among those which have been preserved are a survey of Allertonshire—an ancient possession of the Church of Durham—made in the middle of the seventeenth century; an inventory of the contents of the episcopal castle at Durham in the middle of the eighteenth century; a complete list of Roman Catholics resident within the city of Durham in the year 1700; a report to the Bishop from Sir William Williamson, Sheriff of the County of Durham, and certain justices of the peace, about proceedings against Papists in 1743; and a list of the rolls and other muniments formerly kept in the auditor’s office at Durham, but now removed and placed somewhere among the enormous mass of valuable material, locked up and practically inaccessible, within the offices of the Ecclesiastical Commission or of some of its officials. Who is the person responsible for the unwarranted destruction I do not know, but it is most desirable that the public should be made acquainted with what has taken place, and that it should be made known by whose authority these valuable records have been destroyed.”
Through the courtesy of Mr. Bosworth Smith, the Athenæum has been enabled to print an interesting letter by Mr. H. A. Brown, regarding some explorations which he has been making in Minorca. He has visited a remarkable cave city which has not been properly explored:—“The locality is a wild-looking inlet between high cliffs. In these cliffs are a vast number of rock-hewn caves—possibly 300. Such tradition as there is concerning this most curious spot ascribes it to the Phœnicians; but we concur in thinking that it is the work of a much earlier people.... In some of the larger ones there are evidences of considerable development; for instance, in one of the largest are three recesses in the wall, some two feet from the ground, a sort of rock divan, while several have ante-chambers communicating with the main room; but, on the other hand, the smaller are mere holes in the rock, having, however, in some cases, a sill, or threshold, distinctly raised above the level of the floor. It seems to us that this disparity may be accounted for in three ways: either the people during a long occupation advanced in the construction of their dwellings, or the smaller caves are merely the tombs of the inhabitants of the larger, or possibly the chiefs inhabited the large and the people the small caves.... The small caves are all in a more or less inaccessible position, but having entered one near the ground we commenced to dig. At about nine or twelve inches down we came upon the bones of animals and two most remarkable skulls. Being compelled by pressure of time to move on, we went round the inlet and entered a cave on the other side, higher up the cliff than the former. Immediately after removing the loose sand, we came to thick, black earth, and the first stroke of the hatchet brought up some human bones, and by the time we were obliged to leave, the best part of a skeleton was unearthed, including several pieces of the skull. The majority of the bones were of a reddish colour, but all in one corner were perfectly black, either from extreme age or the action of fire.”
The Temps gives an account of the collection of objects found by Monsieur Nicaise in the tombs of the ancient Gauls, Département de la Marne, which he laid before the Academie des Inscriptions de Paris at their meeting, April 18. The collection is of great interest, and in some respects unique. It includes a great variety of implements of warfare, jewellery, enamels, and finely wrought bronze ornaments, and some articles of toilet throwing a light on the mode of shaving 2,000 years ago. The razors found are shaped like a sickle. With them was found a vessel supposed by Monsieur Bertholot, who was present at the meeting, to have contained soap, which he states was by no means unknown to the ancient Gaul. A coral necklace, bleached by its couple of thousand years’ sepulture, is remarkable. Between the beads of coral are various amulets or charms, such as a wild boar’s tooth, a shell, and a peculiar thin circular plate or disc of bone, ascertained beyond doubt to be part of the human vertebræ. There are also numerous bronze torques finely worked, and a fragment of a jewel similar in workmanship to the finest granulated or filigree jewellery so well known at Genoa and Venice at the present day. A skeleton of a female was found adorned with necklace, bracelets, and anklets. A bracelet, from its diminutive size, must have been retained on the arm during its growth from childhood to womanhood. Not the least curious is an ornament composed of a material which gave rise to many conjectures, but which careful analysis shows to consist of some argillaceous or ceramic compound, finely pulverised, then agglutinised and compressed until it formed a solid agglomerated substance of a texture capable of receiving the highest polish. The revelations of these ancient sepultures, and the high artistic merit of the articles they contain, justify the inference that the “barbarism” with which Julius Cæsar was so impressed in Gaul, was a barbarism strongly impregnated with civilisation.
The annual summer congress of the Royal Archæological Institute will be held this year at Newcastle-on-Tyne, during the week from Tuesday, August 5, to Wednesday, August 13 inclusive, under the Presidentship of the Duke of Northumberland. Tuesday, the 5th, will be devoted to an inspection of the castle and cathedral of Newcastle, after the public reception of the Society by the Mayor and Corporation at the inaugural meeting. On Wednesday the Archæologists will visit Warkworth and Alnwick Castle, which will be described by Mr. Clark. On Thursday they will go by train to Beal, from which place Lindisfarne and Holy Island with its church and castle will be visited. Friday will be devoted to a visit by rail to Belford and to Bamburgh Castle. On Saturday the annual meeting of the Society will be held. At its conclusion the members will proceed to Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, and, by steamer down the river, to Tynemouth. On Sunday a special service will be held in the cathedral, when it is expected that the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr. Wilberforce, will preach. Monday will be devoted to an inspection of sundry parts of the Roman wall, and to a visit to Chesters, where the Roman remains will be explained by the Rev. J. C. Bruce. On Tuesday the Archæologists will go by train to Corbridge, from which they will visit Aydon Castle, Bywell, and Prudhoe Castle. Wednesday will be occupied by a visit to Durham, where the cathedral and castle, and probably Finchall Priory, will be inspected. There will be a meeting on the evening of Tuesday, at which papers will be read, and probably, also, at least one conversazione. A temporary local museum, under Mr. R. Blair, F.S.A., will be open during the week in the Black Gate, where also the sectional meetings will be held. Among those who have sent their names as patrons of the congress are the Duke of Portland, Lords Ravensworth and Scarbrough, the Bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Newcastle, and Hexham; Sir Charles Trevelyan, Sir Joseph Pease, Sir Edward Blackett, Sir Matthew White Ridley, and Sir Walter James, &c.
“In the early part of last winter,” writes a correspondent of The Times, “operations were begun in the bed of the Rhone, at Geneva, in connection with a scheme for utilising the power of the stream for mechanical purposes. During the work a part of the river bed, near the island on which stands Julius Cæsar’s Tower, and where Philibert Berthelier, the Genevan patriot, suffered death, was laid bare, and in view of the great antiquity of Geneva, and the fact that it was an Allobrogian town before it became a Roman station, sanguine expectations were entertained as to the likelihood of making important archæologic finds.” These hopes have not been disappointed; for there has been lately found, buried in gravel among a range of piles, relics of the lacustrine age, a block of white Jurassic rock, evidently dressed by the hand of man, and having in the centre a circular depression surrounded by a sort of crown. Further examination showed it to be the upper part of a Roman altar. It is in the ordinary form of a pilaster with capitals and a corresponding base terminating in a crown, in relief, cut in the stone. The height of the relic is 80 centimetres, the width 33. There is no other trace of ornamentation than the mouldings and cornices of the upper and lower parts, but on the principal face there appears an inscription, in superb letters and an admirable state of preservation. It runs thus: DEO NEPTVN C. VITALINIV VICTORINVS MILES LEGI. XXII. ACVRIS V. S. L. M. Only two letters are lacking. At the end of the second word the engraver had not room for the final O, and at the end of the fourth word an S has been effaced by time or worn away by water. The word legionis has been shortened into LEGI, but the truncation of the I may be due to an accidental erasure. The inscription, which is easily read, is to the following effect:—Deo Neptuno, C. Vitalinius Victorinus, miles legionis XXII., a curis, votum solvit libens merito. The author, therefore, was a soldier of the twenty-second legion, Caius Vitalinius Victorinus, who, having without doubt escaped shipwreck on the lake, had vowed to raise an altar to Neptune, the god of the waves, and by a singular chance the whole stone of the Jura which testifies to the fulfilment of his vow has been preserved by falling into the very waters from which he was saved. Besides this altar stone, several other objects have lately been found in the bed of the river; among them are the upper part of a tin vase representing, in relief, Diana and Endymion, and a transparent stone cut in facets; the latter, if not false, will be highly interesting and valuable.
Antiquarian Correspondence.
Sin scire labores,
Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.