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cimens were shewn, the works of Leonard Limosin, Pierre Raymond, Jean Court, Penicaud, and other distinguished artists of the period. Mr. Way invited attention to the beautiful devotional folding tablets with sacred subjects, contributed by Mr. Addington, Mr. Bale, Mr. Morland, Mr. Webb, and other collectors; to two caskets enamelled by the celebrated Penicaud, in grisaille, brought by Mr. Magniac, one of them formerly in possession of Horace Walpole; the exquisite tazze from the Duke de Berri's collection, exhibited by Mr. Charles Tucker, with works of the choicest class of enamelling, contributed to the collection by Mr. Whitehead, Sir Edmund Lechmere, Bart., Mr. Mayer, Mr. C. S. Bale, Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. Slade, Mr. Addington, &c. Some fine plates with mythological subjects, brought by Mr. Durlacher, presented illustrations of the skill of Leonard Limosin.

Of the latest period of Limoges art many examples were shewn, works of the Courtois, Laudin, Court, and other families engaged on a branch of artistic industry which supplied all Europe. Among their latest productions Mr. Way cited a purse, exhibited by Mr. Octavius Morgan, and bearing portraits of Prince George of Denmark and Anne Queen of England. About 1650, however, the art of Limoges was thrown into the shade by the rich enamels on gold, the works of Toutin and other skilful painters. At all periods specimens of exquisitely enriched jewellery occur, of which the most remarkable exhibited on this occasion is the Lennox jewel, sent by Her Majesty's gracious permission; it has been regarded as a work possibly by George Heriot, and was made for the mother of Lord Darnley, the consort of Mary Stuart, on occasion of the murder of the Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland. A very interesting gold jewel, or pendent ornament, with a figure of St. George on one side, and on the other the Man of Sorrows with symbols of the Passion, was contributed from Stonyhurst College. The whole is encrusted with brilliant coloured enamel, mostly transparent. It belonged to Sir Thomas More, and was presented by his last male descendant to the college in 1773. Around the verge of this remarkable relic is inscribed,-O PASSI GRAVIORA DABIT HIS QUOQUE FINEM. A rich display of enamelled miniatures by Toutin, Petitot, Huaut, Zincke, Hone, and other artists, was contributed by Mr. Fischer, Sir C. Anderson. Bart., Mr. Botfield, Mr. Shirley, Mr. Colnaghi, Mr. Blaauw, Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Franks, &c.; also numerous works by Henry Bone, W. Bone, and H. P. Bone. Two exquisite productions by Zincke, pourtraying Martha and Theresa Blount, whose romantic attachment forms so curious an episode in the history of Pope, also a lovely miniature of Peg Woffington, by the same skilful artist, were contributed by Mr. Fischer. A very beautiful portrait of Nathaniel Hone, the enameller, by his own hand, dated 1749, was brought by Mr. Anderdon; and Mr. John Gough Nichols added two choice works by Zincke, a portrait of Anne, Princess Royal, and one of the third Earl of Scarborough. The Duke of Northumberland contributed two remarkable enamels by Essex, copies of paintings by Reynolds and Lawrence; also an exquisite miniature of the Duke of Buckingham by Sir Baltazar Gerbier, in an enamelled frame of singular beauty.

Several remarkable enamelled works of the Elizabethan age, rich in colouring and important in their dimensions, formed an interesting group, being probably of English art. Among these were a sumptuous set of andirons, sent by the Rev. E. Duke; candelabra, by Mr. J. J. Rogers,

M.P.; and a choice object, stated to have been brought from Italy by the Earl of Yarmouth, in the seventeenth century, and preserved at Shadwell Park, Norfolk. This fine specimen was exhibited by Sir Robert Buxton, Bart. It is a large Oriental shell, mounted on a richly enamelled stand, as a decoration of the buffet or table. The celebrated candlesticks which belonged to Sir Thomas More, formerly in the Bernal Collection, are examples of this peculiar class of enamelling on mixed yellow metal.

In concluding his observations on an art presenting such rich variety, Mr. Albert Way directed notice to the very valuable series of watchcases, bonbonnières, snuff-boxes, &c., chiefly from the collection of Mr. Octavius Morgan; a very fine watch, exhibited by the Earl Amherst; another of great beauty, by Mr. W. Russell; and a cruciform watch of the choicest enamel, by Dinglinger of Dresden, belonging to Mr. Whitehead. He moreover invited attention to the large series of Battersea and Liverpool enamels, portraits, and small objects chiefly decorated by transfer printing, and of interest as a section of the art of enamelling connected with our own country. He closed his observations with a notice of the rich Chinese vases and numerous objects recently obtained from the Summer Palace, and of which admirable examples were contributed by Mr. Morgan, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Rohde Hawkins, Mr. Bale, Mr. W. Russell, Mr. Addington, and Mr. Franks. They are rich in colouring, and very curious in form. The earliest are dated about 1426; at a later period painted enamels occur in great variety, probably imitated from European works, being called in China Fo-lang vases. Fo-lang is the name usually applied in France.

After some announcements regarding the congress at Worcester, which will commence July 22, the meeting adjourned.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.

June 11. Dr. JAMES COPLAND, F.R.S., V.-P., in the chair.

J. H. Heal, Esq., of Finchley, and Samuel Heywood, Esq., of College Green, Bristol, were elected Associates.

Various presents to the library were announced.

Mr. Gunston exhibited various relics lately obtained from the bed of the river Fleet. Among them were curious specimens of early penknives, daggers, dagger-sheaths, and carved bone knife-handles, one representing a female bearing in feature and costume a striking resemblance to Catherine de Medicis, wife of Henry II. of France. One of the knife-blades had an inscription, which seems to read-LEAVE TO DFLYTE IN ONE HAND OF (a hand holding a flagon) THE DRUNKEN NEED AND WANT CREDYT KRYE AN 1566 (?)

The Rev E. Kell exhibited a sceatta, found in St. Mary's-road, Southampton, where other Saxon coins have been obtained-tending to substantiate the opinion of the extension of the ancient site of the town to this part.

Mr. Kell also exhibited some glass, found among the debris of the muniment-room of Netley Abbey, where the windows were of painted glass of the fifteenth century,

Mr. S. J. Mackie read an interesting notice on some bronze and bone relics found in Heathery Burn Cave, in Weardale, Durham. A discussion took place as to the period to which the instruments were

to be assigned, some regarding them as Celtic, others as Roman. The subject will be fully enquired into, and the result published in the Journal.

Mr. Vere Irving read a paper on Early Celtic Poems, which will also appear in the Journal.

The Rev. Mr. Ridgway read a paper on the proceedings of Charles II. with the Pendrill family, and exhibited a ring given by that monarch to the Pendrills.

The Association then adjourned over to November, but it was announced that a congress would be held at Leicester in August, the programme for which is in preparation, and on this occasion the Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire Societies will co-operate, taking part in the excursions, reading of papers, and discussions.

May 15.

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

W. S. W. VAUX, Esq., President, in the chair. W. H. Waddington, Esq., of Paris, was elected a member of the Society.

Mr. Rolfe called the attention of the Society to a leaden or pewter religious medal of large size, which there was little doubt was a modern fabrication.

Mr. Peacock exhibited, through Mr. Roach Smith, some enlarged drawings of several Saxon coins lately discovered in the neighbourhood of Chester: they consisted principally of pennies of Edward the Elder, St. Peter, and St. Edmund.

Mr. Vaux exhibited some Oriental copper coins belonging to W. H. Crank, Esq., which were remarkable as bearing legends in which English names and Roman characters were mixed with those of native Indian origin.

Mr. E. Pretty exhibited impressions of a penny of Henry III., found at Northampton, and bearing the name of the moneyer, NICOLE ON NORHAM. It is remarkable as being a plated coin, for the forged coins of the period are usually merely washed with silver, though the practice of plating them had been in common use among the Romans.

Dr. Lee exhibited a half-shekel of Simon Barcocab bearing the date of "the second year."

Mr. Madden read a notice, by Mr. R. Westmacott, of a medal of Pope Paul III., on the reverse of which is a naked youth (Ganymede?) carrying on his shoulder a water-pot with which he is watering a lily. The legend is ΦΕΡΝΗ ΖΗΝΟΣ ΕΥΡΑΙΝΕΙ, which is usually translated Dos Jovis bene irrigat. In the Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique it is translated Il arrose le don de Jupiter, which is evidently incorrect, as EPNH must be in the nominative case. Mr. Westmacott suggests that the legend is a play upon the Pope's family name and device. Paul III. was of the house of Farnese, PEPNH ZHNOƐ becomes then Farnesinus, and EYPAINEI "bene irrigat" his own family, represented by the Farnese lily; not by any means an unusual proceeding on the part of sovereign pontiffs.

The Abbé Cochet of Dieppe communicated an account of a cross or medal of St. Benedict, a sort of religious medal the origin of which is of considerable antiquity, but which was especially in favour in the seventeenth century. That of which a drawing was exhibited had been found

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in the grave of a Benedictine monk in the abbey of Fontenelle. a loop for suspension, and bears on the one side a cross moline, on which are the letters

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In the angles of the cross are the letters c. s. P. B., which stand for "Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti." The letters on the cross are thus interpreted, "Crux Sancti Sit Mihi Lux Non Dæmon Sit Mihi Dux." On the centre of the other side are the letters IHS with the three nails of the Passion, and around it the legend v. R. S. N. S. M. V. S. V. Q. L. I. V. B. These mysterious letters are the initials of the following couplets, or leonine hexameters :

Vade Retro Satana
Non Suadeas Mihi Vana

Sunt Vana Quæ Libas
Ipse Venena Bibas.

In illustration of this communication Mr. Evans exhibited a medal of similar character from his own collection, but having the figure of the saint upon the obverse, and the cross, together with the whole of the mysterious inscriptions, on the reverse; and read a short paper containing some farther remarks upon the subject of similar acrostic inscriptions.

The Rev. Assheton Pownall communicated an account of the hoard of pennies of Henry II. found some years ago at Ampthill, Beds., and lately presented to the Numismatic Society by Lieutenant-General Fox. They are all of one type (Hawkins, No. 285), with but minute variations, but out of the 142 coins only forty-eight are sufficiently well struck for the legends to be determined. These were struck at the following mints-Canterbury, Exeter, Ipswich, Lincoln or Lynn, London, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Bury St. Edmunds, Thetford, Wilton, Winchester, and possibly Worcester. On some of them the old form P appears instead of w, but on many the later form w is found. Their average weight is a fraction over twenty-two grains. The paper concluded with some remarks on the meaning of the word on, which is always put before the place of mintage on these coins. This was shewn to be 'at,' not 'in' or 'of,' so that the legend TVRSTAN ON GIP, for example, means only that the coin was struck at Ipswich by a moneyer named Turstan.

CHESTER ARCHITECTURAL, ARCHEOLOGICAL, AND

HISTORIC SOCIETY.

May 20. The Rev. H. VENABLES, Minor Canon of Chester, in

the chair.

Dr. Brushfield read "Jottings from the Cheshire Manuscripts of the three Randle Holmes in the Seventeenth Century." After describing the character of the MSS. generally, and explaining that they formed a portion of the Harleian collection, now in the British Museum, he read some notes relating to St. Mary's parish, Chester, by which it appeared that the tithes of some of its outlying townships were alienated to Backford by an ordinance of the Commonwealth, and had not since been

recovered. Another extract referred to a weekly market obtained for Oxton in Wirral, at the instance of the then overseer, Sergeant Glynne, the founder of the line of baronets who for two hundred years have ranked as lords of the castle of Hawarden, and are represented now by Sir S. R. Glynne, Bart., one of the original members of this Society. Other extracts referred to the sufferings of the Quakers in the time of the Commonwealth, and to the Calves' Head Breakfast, which used annually to be given by the sheriffs of Chester.

In reply to a question, Dr. Brushfield explained that the name Roodee was variously spelt in ancient MSS., but he believed the most ancient form of spelling the word was Rode-eye, which meant literally the eye or island of the rode or cross. The base of the Roodeye Cross still exists, it is believed, in its original position, having been replaced there by the Corporation of Chester, a few years ago, at the instance of this Society.

Mr. T. Hughes read a paper on some Saxon Coins recently Discovered at St. John's Church, Chester, considered in their Connection with the History of that Church, and of Cheshire generally in the Tenth Century. He gave résumé of the history and condition of England at the close of the ninth century, when Alfred placed the province of Mercia, to which Chester belonged, in the hands of Earl Ethelred, who had recently married Ethelfleda, the king's daughter. The new rulers devoted themselves to building towns and castles on the Cheshire or north-western frontier of Mercia. Chester itself was restored, nay almost rebuilt, under their direction; the castles of Bromborough and Runcorn, Eddisbury and Warburton, all in this county, rose up at their command. Eddisbury exists in the present day but in name; and a similar fate at this moment awaits another of these Saxon strongholds, the castle hill of Runcorn, just about to be destroyed with a view to improve the navigation of the Mersey. Earl Ethelred died in 911, leaving his widow to rule her people, as indeed she did for several years afterwards. Mr. Hughes stated that the coins, about fifty in all, were found buried, nearly sixteen feet deep, beneath some ancient interments of apparently the fifteenth century,-that they were all coins of either Edward the Elder, or of St. Peter or St. Edmund, contemporary money issued by the church. He said that the four types of Edward's coins, preserved and exhibited that evening, were of the rarest description known, one bearing the design of a house and the mint mark of Canterbury, another a man's hand with the mint mark of York, -that the other two were struck by moneyers whose names were severally associated with the coinage of Alfred and Athelstan, one the predecessor and the other the successor of Edward the Elder. The coins had evidently never been in circulation; they were as fresh and sharp as when first struck; they were in his (Mr. Hughes') opinion the actual foundation coins of the church, and had evidently escaped recognition during the several rebuildings of the church in later times. He believed also that history, or rather local tradition, was wrong in ascribing the foundation of the church to King Ethelred in 676; for if these coins were foundation coins (and if not, what were they doing in the place where they were found?), then they proved most clearly that it was Earl Ethelred, husband of Ethelfleda, who, between the years 901-911, first built the church of St. John on the spot where he captured the white hind of his vision. This and other important historic points were referred to in the paper,

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