An Angel, in a Vesica within a Quatrefoil, with the Sun and Moon and the Four

Evangelists in the intervals. Inscription;

to the woodblock itself, instead of the usual process of drawing, so that these have the same accuracy as the original impressions,

only reduced to half the size in order to bring them within the size of our page.

These four examples, being one of each class, give a sufficient idea of the whole, but Dr. Bock's work is so extremely curious that it should be in every good library. It is the first time that we have had engravings of the twelfth century brought before us with such unmistakeable evidence of their genuineness.

ANTIQUARIANISM IN CAITHNESS.

MR. SAMUEL LAING, M.P. (ex-Finance Minister of India) has recently made some very interesting explorations in Caithness, and has thus described the results in a letter to the "Northern Ensign :"

"Two remarkable mounds exist on the sandy links of Keiss, near the point where the Wester-burn enters the sea, [seven miles north of Wick]. These mounds are obviously artificial, and are strewed over with remains of shells, broken bones, teeth of animals, and stones and calcined matter, shewing the action of fire. Having obtained the kind permission of the proprietor, Major Macleay, I have had some excavations made with the intelligent aid of Mr. Sang, the gardener at Keiss Castle, who has had some previous experience in opening tumuli in the south.

"Six human skeletons have been found, enclosed in rude cists of unhewn stones, having the appearance of great antiquity. One of these was found at the base of the smaller mound in Keiss links; the five others in the large burrow, where from every appearance there must be from 50 to 100 others.

"The remarkable fact about these skulls is, that they shew a type of singularly low development, being of small capacity, with narrow receding foreheads and projecting jaws. One skull in particular shews the prognathous type, or sloping outwards of the upper-jaw teeth characteristic of the negro and other inferior races, in a degree which seems scarcely human. Combined with this is a forehead receding at the same angle, and narrower by fully half an inch than the narrowest I can find among a table of thirty-nine skulls of ancient tumuli given by Wilson in his Prehistoric Scotland.' As far as I can judge, without the means of very accurate measurement, and with nothing to compare with but the drawings of ancient crania on a reduced scale in Lyell's work on the Antiquity of Man,' this Keiss skull in its facial angle and vertical depression approaches closely to the celebrated Neanderthal skull, which has been quoted as the closest approximation of the human skull to that of the quadrumana. It is, however, of a different type from that skull, the occipital region, instead of being deficient, being extremely projecting, so that between the extreme lowness and narrowness of the frontal region and the posterior projection, if a vertical line were drawn over the skull from ear to ear, three-fourths or more of the total volume of the brain would be found behind the line.

"The skeletons generally indicated men of short stature, from five feet to five feet four inches in height. They were buried at full length, or nearly so, but without regard to position, lying in some cases on the back, in others on the face, or sideways, and with their heads to different points of the compass. The peculiar type of these crania adds to the interest of the question of their antiquity. Unfortunately, no trace can be found of any implement or ornament having been interred with them. But the shelly mounds, with which they are evidently associated, give evidence of their having belonged to the stone period.

"Excavations have disclosed part of a subterranean dwelling, or place of sacrifice, built like the Picts' houses, with narrow passages and some small chambers, walled, paved, and roofed over, at a great expense of labour, with large unhewn stones, brought from the beach at some distance. In these were numerous shells, charred bones, and burnt matter, and among these débris were found two stone implements, one a smooth oval sandstone block, about six inches in diameter, round which a deep groove had been cut, giving it exactly the appearance of a ship's block cut in two.

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The other was a small round stone, pierced with a hole, of the sort well known to antiquaries as 'whorls.' Another 'whorl' was found of bone, made of the ball of the femur of some animal; also a large pin and a skewer or bodkin made of bone. One or two chalk flints were found, which had some appearance of having been artificially chipped and thrown aside as failures, but no trace of any flint weapon. These, however, with the total absence of any mark of tools on the stones and on the graves and buildings, their identity in type with other tumuli and burrows in which stone and flint weapons have been discovered, and the total want of any trace of pottery or earthenware, which must have mixed largely with the refuse heaps of any people acquainted with their use, will probably suffice to satisfy us that the mounds, with their accompanying remains, are really of the stone period. "The limpet and periwinkle have evidently furnished the staple article of food; but mixed with these are numerous fragments of teeth and bones, among which I believe I can identify the ox, the horse, the hog, the sheep, the deer, the roe, and the rabbit, but whether of the domestic or wild species, will require the future determination of some skilful comparative anatomist. There are also bones of birds, several species of fish, large and small, and a few remains of the crab, cockle, and mussel.

“I may add that I have seen a mound of apparently the same character covered with the same shell and teeth on the shore of the little sandy bay immediately to the west of Duncansbay Head, and I doubt not there are many more in the county."

GREEK ANTIQUITIES.-The British Museum has recently acquired a valuable collection of antiquities, excavated from the tombs at Camirus, and including many articles in gold, iron, bronze, stone, glass, wood, ivory, and clay, painted and unpainted. These are in the forms of men-especially noticeable are one seated on a kneeling camel, and another with a panther; vases of various forms, rings, beads, tablets of ivory, decorated with archaic ornaments of concentric rings, lachrymatories, bottles, and alabastra of different sizes. Most interesting among these recent acquisitions is a tazza of clay, white in the inside and black without, excepting the handles, which are lined with red. Upon the upper surface is painted, in a bistre colour, a lovely figure of Aphrodite, mounted on a flying wild swan, and inclosed by a ring. The name of the goddess, in Greek characters, is beside her. The spirit and grace of the design, and its exquisite drawing, are marvellous. The strong-winged bird flies, with the goddess upon one of its wings, and almost upright; the characteristic differences between the wild swan and its tame relative are curiously marked in the head and wings of this figure. The forms of the goddess are lovelily severe, as in the best Greek time of art, and in her outstretched right hand is a flower; the thumb and forefinger of the other hand are pressed to. gether. A diaphanous under-robe, sprinkled with stars, and gathered at the throat, clothes, but hardly hides, the grandly severe fulness of her form; this garment reaches to her feet, where it is ornamented with a key-fret border of dark saffron hue. From behind her neck, across the shoulders, and suggesting -by its line that crosses the direction of the body of the swan the even flight of the bird, passes the saffron over-robe that falls to her ancles and enwraps her knees. This Aphrodite wears a carcanet and a coif; the latter is bound upon her hair by a fillet, which crosses the brow in the Greek manner. These acquisitions are in the four table-cases which occupy the corners of the first Vase Room in the Greek and Roman Gallery, upper story of the British Museum.-Athenæum.

AUBREY AND JACKSON'S WILTSHIREa.

THREE years ago, in recording the proceedings of the Shaftesbury meeting of the Wiltshire Archæological Society, we printed the report of the committee, and we now reproduce a portion of the same, as giving the best account of the noble volume before us:—

"The press of our printer, and the time and attention of our editor, the Rev. Canon Jackson, have been entirely absorbed in preparing another work connected with the county, which the Society has undertaken to publish. Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, made 200 years ago considerable collections for the Topography of Wiltshire, especially the northern part, of which we have as yet no regular history. The manuscript which contains his collections was printed many years ago, but so few copies were made of it, that the book is seldom to be met with. Canon Jackson has been for some time occupied in preparing a new edition of it, to be enlarged by notes and additions of his own, and to be illustrated with plates, chiefly of the family heraldry, then in the windows of the churches and gentlemen's houses, the greater part of which have long since perished. It has been a very laborious task, but the volume is now passing through the press, and is considerably advanced towards completion. It will be a thick quarto, of about 400 pages, and between 40 and 50 plates; and though it is of too large and expensive a character to allow your committee to present it to members of the Society, it is contemplated to offer, it to them at a reduction of one-third of the price at which it will be sold to the public, an offer of which your committee has little doubt members generally will hasten to avail themselves."

The work was accordingly published in the year 1862, and was justly spoken of in the next report of the committee as "the most valuable magazine we possess whence to obtain materials, whether for the history of the county generally, or of the several parishes which compose it."

The committee wisely printed a larger number of copies than would be required by the members of the Society, and they deserve thanks for having done so, as the work is thus rendered accessible to the public generally, and we doubt not that it will very soon find its place in the libraries of all lovers of county history. Such persons are of course aware that one large portion of Aubrey's Wiltshire Collections (Liber B) has long been missing, and we are sure that they will join with us in the hope that it may yet be recovered, and that too in time to allow of its publication under the supervision of such an accomplished antiquary as Canon Jackson.

"Wiltshire. The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F.R.S., A.D. 1659-1670, with Illustrations. Corrected and Enlarged by John Edward Jackson, M.A., F.S.A., of Brasenose College, Oxon., Rector of Leigh Delamere, Vicar of Norton, and Hon. Canon of Bristol. Published by the Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Society." (Longmans; Bull, Devizes.)

b GENT. MAG., Oct. 1861, p. 415.

Ibid., Oct. 1863, p. 476.