In 1960 and 1961 Ole Klindt-Jensen published two short notes about a golden statuette of a Celtic warrior, soldered to a fine brooch. He was convinced that the warrior did not belong to the brooch, and thought that they had been combined fairly recently. J. M. de Navarro added a comment to the 1961 note, concluding: ‘My impression (from photographs only) is that the brooch might date from the fourth century BC and the figure not before the latter half of the third or the second century BC, i.e. that it was added later.’ Klindt-Jensen's notes were accompanied by plates, and at the same time another photograph was published on the front cover of Celticum, volume I. A decade later the brooch was shown at the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and at the Hayward Gallery, London, as item no. 35 in the Early Celtic Art exhibition held in 1970. The catalogue entry was based on Klindt-Jensen's note, but no photograph was published. In the mid 1970s R. M. Rowlett prepared a paper on the authenticity of the brooch, including metal analyses and a comparison of its proportions with those of some La Tène II brooches: Rowlett considered that the figure of the warrior was contemporary with the rest of the brooch, which he accepted as an authentic antiquity. His paper was eventually published about twenty years later.

The results of architectural recording within the North Range of the University's Old Schools are described. Argued to have stood independently as a hall in the later fourteenth century, the progressive development of the Schools' quadrangle, and extensive alterations to it – culminating in Wright's neo-classical facade of 1754–58 – reflects upon the historical development of academic architecture. The prestigious display of the complex in the mid eighteenth century, facilitated through the mass levelling of domestic properties, equally tells of the institutional ‘realization’ of the University.

A Short time ago I took an opportunity of laying before the Society of Antiquaries by your hands, a Letter containing much interesting information on the state of parties in the year 1454; and I now beg leave to add, as a supplementary communication, copies of several Political Poems written at various periods of the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth, all of which, with the exception of the first, have hitherto remained unpublished. Documents of this kind are confessedly not beneath the notice of the historian, since they shew the popular feelings of the time better than any other contemporary record, and often mention minute circumstances worthy of note, which may in vain be sought for elsewhere. In the Transactions of the Society some few specimens of this political versification have already appeared, of the reigns of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Edward the Fourth, and some others belonging to the reign of Henry the Sixth, may be found in the Excerpta Historica Of the six poems now sent, five were composed by adherents of the house of York, the first of which relates to the murder of the Duke of Suffolk, in 1450; the second to the chiefs of the Yorkist faction, probably about May, 1460; the third to the battle of Northampton, in July following; the fourth, to the policy and position of the adverse parties, probably towards the end of the same year; and the fifth to the battle of Towton, in 1461. The remaining poem was written by a Lancastrian, and presents a curious contrast to the others. It enumerates the principal Lords on the King's side, and, under the metaphor of a ship, describes the position of each in the guidance and government of the state towards the close of the year 1458.

By the most gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen, I bring before the Fellows of the Society two MSS., the one in Latin and the other in English, of one of the several draft schemes which, were drawn up in the reign of Edward the Sixth for a revision of the Statutes of the Order of the Garter. They present the new Statutes as submitted at a Chapter on the 24th of April, 1552, with subsequent alterations and additions made by the king himself and by Sir William Cecil, Chancellor of the Order, with a view to submission to a later Chapter.

It is a curious fact that in these days when so much notice is taken of and so many papers have been compiled on the various objects of architectural interest, which fortunately still abound in our English churches, so little attention has been paid to perhaps the most distinctive feature to be found in the churches of Devonshire, namely, the series of scriptural subjects, apostles, prophets, and saints, depicted on the panels of the screens, of which so many and such fine examples have been preserved throughout the county. Elsewhere, except in Norfolk and parts of Suffolk, it is extremely unusual to find figures of saints painted on the panels of the screens, though it is probable that the vandalism and mistaken religious zeal of former days have obliterated many which then existed, and it therefore seems especially important that some attempt should be made to describe and thereby perpetuate a memorial of these specimens of religious art, so comparatively uncommon in this country.

Recent remedial work at Frogmore House, Windsor, presented the opportunity for an investigation into the origins and development of the building. In this paper the original house of 1680 is described and attributed to Hugh May. The subsequent history of Frogmore is outlined up to the late eighteenth century, when the house was altered and enlarged by James Wyatt. A previously unknown scheme of wall-painting was discovered during repairs in the staircase hall, and this is here analysed and assigned to Louis Laguerre. An inventory of the contents of the house in 1700 is appended.

It may be premised that no stone or wooden weapon can rightly rank as a sword, for such can at best be but a flattened club, and not until the advent of metal could such a weapon as the sword be made. Moreover, in early days metal was too scarce and the workers were insufficiently skilled to make so large a casting. It has been assumed that because arms took a higher rank than tools or domestic implements, therefore the first use to which metal was put was the manufacture of arms, but such a deduction is erroneous, at least as far as Great Britain is concerned.

The inventory of the jewels of Anne of Denmark, wife of James I of England, belongs to a group of catalogues of personal jewellery of Tudor and Stuart royalty of which one of the most important is that made after the death of Henry VIII in 1550. It is now in the National Library of Scotland (Adv. MS 31.1.10) and was compiled in 1606, the last entry being dated January 1607. It records over four hundred items giving the weight of gold or silver, and the number and nature of the gems in each. The text was written in a neat secretary hand on the recto of each folio, the verso being left blank for later notes. Most of these, together with the marginalia and corrections to the main text, are in the same hand; but two other writers can be distinguished. The presence of these corrections and annotations show it to have been the working copy kept in the Jewel House.

The detailed descriptions make it possible to trace some of the jewels in the earlier inventories of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Queen Elizabeth, and, in the case of the latter, to donors such as her favourite, the Earl of Warwick. On his accession James I declared certain jewels to be ‘individually and inseparably for ever annexed to the kingdome of this realme,’ but this did not prevent either their use at Court of subsequent dispersal.

The Roman city known to us under the name of Silchester forms part of a large farm upon the Hampshire estates of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. The land was occupied till very lately by Mr. Barton, whose name is familiar to archæologists in connection with the place as having formed a small but interesting collection of coins and antiquities found within or around the walls. At Mr. Barton's death, in 1864, this collection was purchased by his Grace.

I have the honor to exhibit to this Society a brass instrument lately found by digging in the ruins of Gleaston Castle, situated in The Lower Furness, in the county of Lancaster. Lord George Cavendish the elder, whose property it is, was so obliging as to put it into my hands, as a curiosity not unworthy the notice of this Society. It is about nine inches long, and half an inch thick in the middle; one end, formed like our common hatchet, with a sharp edge, is 5 inches broad; from this end it tapers on both sides, gradually, to the other end, which is not above if inch broad, and is formed also with a sharp edge. It is for the most part finely polished, and covered with a beautiful patina, except where it has been injured by rust. It weighs two pounds, five ounces. In some respects it is similar to those instruments, called Celts, which have been found in great numbers in various parts of this island, and figured and described by various authors. These, in general, have had one end sharp, as this has; but the other has been formed into a kind of groove, or socket, to fix a handle in; and some have a loop annexed to them; but this is destitute of every thing of that kind, and seems intended to have been held in the hand only for use, whatever that use might have been; for there can be no doubt, but that, if a handle of any kind had been necessary, the workmen who formed this, could as easily have formed it with one, or with a conveniency to fasten one to it. The learned antiquaries who have seen and considered these Celts, have differed much as to the uses for which they were designed.

This report describes sections cut through the Roman wall of Caistor, and includes a new survey of the outline of the walled area, as surmised from the evidence given by these sections and by field-work.

In the years 1899, 1900, and 1901 Mr. George Bonsor, a British subject residing in Spain, visited the Scilly Isles, the archipelago of tiny granite islands 28 miles south-west of Land's End, for archaeological research. Mr. Bonsor was long a profound student of the archaeology of his adopted country and was interested in the history of the ancient tin trade. It was in this connexion that he visited the Scillies, for he wished to test the hypothesis that they were the Cassiterides, the fabled tin islands of the Atlantic. With regard to the tin trade, his researches proved entirely negative, but in the course of his visits he excavated and planned some of the numerous megalithic tombs that abound in the islands. Mr. Bonsor, however, never published an account of his work in Scilly, but kept the notes and finds at his castle at Mairena del Alcor near Seville for many years. There he was visited in 1926 by Mr. T. D. Kendrick of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, and through him sent a part of the finds to the Museum. At the same time the writer had become interested in the archaeology of the islands, and with the help of Mr. Kendrick was able to obtain more of the finds for the British Museum as well as plans of the more important tombs and some notes with regard to their excavation. The most important plans and an abstract of the notes the writer has included in his Archaeology of Cornwall, but space prevented the use of all of Mr. Bonsor's material. Mr. Reginald Smith, Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, had for a long time urged Mr. Bonsor to communicate the results of his excavations to the Society of Antiquaries, but the latter died without having done so. Subsequently Mr. Smith obtained Mr. Bonsor's plans and the full account of the excavation of the most important tomb, and these he has kindly permitted the writer to publish.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts three curious chequered garments. These garments are usually identified as gambesons, or some form of scaled armour. Several scholars have observed similar garments in the early twelfth-century Bible of Cîteaux. The Cîteaux garments are depicted in a pattern later used to represent fur (called ‘vair’) in heraldic art. This identification is confirmed by the pattern’s usage in cloak linings, but its simultaneous appearance as tunic material is unfamiliar in later art. The Cîteaux tunics suggest the possibility that the Bayeux garments may also have been intended to represent fur tunics. Reasons for that identification, as well as problems with the identification, are considered.

The court of Common Pleas was one of the most important courts in the English legal system for more than 600 years, until its abolition by Act of Parliament in 1873. The cases heard before this royal court were civil disputes between the king’s subjects, often relating to land, inheritance and debts. The purpose of this paper is to introduce readers to the ornament and imagery that appeared on the headings of the main records of the court of Common Pleas between 1422 and 1509 and to explore the origins and contemporary context of the images and representations employed by the clerk-artists who wrote and decorated these headings. The decoration they chose ranged from simple ornament to representations of plants, birds, animals and people. Great emphasis was placed on the role of the sovereign as the fount of justice, and this emphasis was reinforced by the incorporation of words and phrases, acclamations and verses from the Psalms chosen to underline the majesty and power of successive monarchs. The illustrations provide an important insight into the art, history and politics of late fifteenth-century England.

In 1816 the Society of Antiquaries of London sent Charles Stothard to Bayeux to produce a fullsize colour reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry. During this time, plaster casts of the tapestry were made and a small fragment of the famous textile was removed. Stothard's wife, Eliza, was accused of looting the fragment, but was later absolved. So who was the thief? This paper examines the mystery of Charles Stothard and the Bayeux Tapestry fragment.