greed of the clergy. To this day supernatural effects were attributed to the reading of this Gospel, or to its being carried round the neck. In the Middle Ages the powers attributed to this Gospel were in excess of those attributed to the others, and John XXII. helped on the superstition by granting an indulgence of a year and forty days to its recitation, while under Pius V. it was definitely added to the Mass Book.

66

The first of the winter gatherings of the EAST RIDING ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY was held on December 7, at the Royal Station Hotel, Hull, the Rev. M. Morris, of Nunburnholme, president, in the chair. Among the papers read was one by the Rev. N. J. Miller, vicar of Winestead, on Leager Book of Winestead." The Book of the Hull Coopers' Guild was next explained by the Rev. Dr. Lambert, Vicar of Newland, who prefaced his description by some account of ancient guilds of Asia Minor, being the outcome of recent archæological discoveries in the district. Canon Maddock also gave some account of the Withernsea Register, as well as of the Nunburnholme Register.

の

At the ordinary monthly meeting of the NEWCASTLE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES on November 24, 1897, Mr. W. H. Knowles said that he had much pleasure in announcing that it was the intention of Mr. Thomas Oliver, architect, Newcastle, to present to the society the following important local works by his father, viz.: A plan of town and county Newcastle and the borough of Gateshead, measuring 4 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 4 inches, and published in 1830 with a book of reference containing the name of every owner of property in the town. A plan of the borough of Newcastle together with Gateshead, 3 feet 11 inches by 3 feet 1 inch, and book of reference, published in 1844. A reduced plan (31 inches by 22 inches) of the borough of Newcastle together with Gateshead, published in 1858. A reduced copy (13 inches by

10 inches) of the 1830 plan of Newcastle and Gateshead, showing the late improvements, and published in 1844. A reduced copy (13 inches by 11 inches) of Newcastle-on-Tyne, published in 1849. A map of the environs of Newcastle and Gateshead, showing the railways of 1851, and also a copy of Corbridge's plan (11 inches by 7 inches), reduced and republished by Thomas Oliver, 1830; together with a copy of the book, "The picture of Newcastle being a historical and descriptive view of the town and county of Newcastleon-Tyne, Gateshead and environs," published 1831. The two large plans will be mounted on rollers for easy reference, and the smaller ones will be suitably framed by Mr. Oliver. The whole are in a very perfect condition, and form a valuable supplement to the last century surveys, Corbridge and others. The various plans exhibit the growth, and represent the streets, buildings, and fortifications, etc., of the town as they existed and developed during the first half of the present century. The book of reference issued with the 1830 plan of Newcastle contains considerable information, and the plan itself is the result of enormous labour, a model of care and accuracy, and particularly valuable, as so much of the town therein delineated has since disappeared. Mr. Thomas Oliver was a native of Jedburgh, and sometime

assistant with John Dobson. A contemporary of Dobson and Green, he was also associated with Grainger. He enjoyed a large surveying practice in connection with docks and railways, and died 1857. Mr. Knowles concluded by proposing that the best thanks of the society be tendered to Mr. Oliver for his valuable gift. This, on being seconded, was carried by acclamation.

Mr. John Ventress exhibited the Constable's accounts for Elmton and Creswell, in Derbyshire, of which the heading is: "The Accountes of John Masonn Constable of Elmnton and Creswell for this yeare beganne october the 11th 165."

These accounts having no local reference, were deemed unsuitable for insertion in any of the society's publications; but Mr. R. Blair, F.S. A., has made a transcript of them, which will be found printed at the end of this report.

Messrs. Oliver and Leeson also sent for exhibition a grave-cover, about 20 inches long, by 9 inches wide at top, and 8 inches at bottom, having in relief upon it a floriated cross, at one side of the stem a sword and buckler, and at the other a square and compasses, and a portion of a gable cross, about 18 inches across arms, having a lamb in high relief in the centre, both found in pulling down an old house in Collingwood Street.

The secretary read the following letter from those gentlemen:

"We have much pleasure in submitting two stones which were found during the recent demolition of some old premises situate at the back of Collingwood Street. There were a great number of stones, apparently the materials of a church of considerable size, and which had been re-used in some seventeenthcentury buildings. The two stones which we have sent for your inspection are a grave cross of late thirteenth-century date, bearing a head of eight arms beautifully interlaced. On the dexter of the shaft is a piercing some object which we are unable to detersquare and compass, and on the sinister a sword

mine.

The other stone is apparently the east gable cross of Early English work, with the Northumbrian sculptor's idea of a lamp. Of course, this would be at a height of probably 40 feet above ground, and is opinion of your learned society as to the meaning of therefore very old. We shall be glad to have the the symbols on the grave cross. Possibly they may have some idea in whose memory it was dedicated.”

Mr. Knowles said about a hundred stones had been found at the place in question. He had made careful drawings of these, and intended putting them together to endeavour to ascertain where they had come from. There were fragments of tracery windows, arches, doorways, piers, etc. He would ask Mr. Sanderson, the owner of the stones, to present those which he had sent for inspection to the society.

Mr. Hodges said that the date of the grave-cover was A.D. 1300 or thereabouts. It had on the sinister side of the floriated cross stem a sword through a buckler, and on the dexter side a pair of compasses and a square. These objects probably commemorated an architect or a master-builder. Small grave-covers of this description did not necessarily imply, as was popularly supposed, that they commemorated children.

It was decided to apply to Mr. Sanderson, the owner of the building'in which these stones were discovered, for a gift of them for the society's museum.

A communication as to Roman roads in Scotland was read from Mr. Hugh W. Young, F.S.A. Scotland, and also a paper by Mr. W. W. Tomlinson on "Chopwell Woods," which will be printed in Archeologia Eliana.

Among the gifts to the museum which were announced was that of the large iron key of the old gao' of Newgate, Newcastle, by Mr. Goolden, ex-mayor of the city, to whom it had been given by Mr. T. E. Smith. の

The following are the Derbyshire Constable's Accounts, the original of which was exhibited at the meeting, and for the transcript of which we are indebted to Mr. Blair:

THE ACCOUNTES OF JOHN MASONN CONSTABLE OF ELMNTOUNE AND CRESWELL FOR THIS YEARE BEEGANNE OCTOBER THE 11TH 1654.

ffor the presentment to the sessions makinge

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626

Three old Third borowe Theire Charges o

The new Thirdboro his Charges his oathe

...

paper ffor the Collectors

to a waterman that had a pass ffor 3 weekes

o 8

40

4004OOONI

10

I

2

3

904

110

6

...

12 ffor seruinge a warrant of Ann Lunn giuen to william bagshaw ffor a souldiers lodginge one night

O

for goeinge to bossouar [Bolsover] to the excise

с

32

3

...

fo searchinge with a hue and Crie one night...

giuen to the watchmen the ffeast day o O IO June paide to mastr Bowman for the shirehall

ffor repaires of bridges mentioned in

315 0

1486

2000

2

000

At the meeting of the SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY held on December 7, Mr. Walter Morrison, M.P. (who has succeeded the late Sir P. Le Page Renouf as President), in the chair, gifts of various books were announced. After other formal business, Mr. J. Offord read some notes on the Congress of Orientalists, held at Paris, and the Rev. C. J. Ball read a paper by Professor Dr. Oppert, entitled "The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Book of Kings."

The anniversary meeting of the society is to be held at 37, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, W.C., on Tuesday, January 11, 1898, at 8 p.m.

At the monthly meeting of the ROYAL ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, on December 1, Mr. C. Edwards exhibited twelve Romano-British pewter vessels, part of a remarkable deposit of thirty-three vessels found at Appleshaw, near Andover, by Rev. G. Engleheart. They consisted of three round dishes of about 15 inches in diameter, and ornamented in the centre with geometrical patterns. The other nine vessels were cup-shaped, resembling the wellknown types of Samian pottery. A small dish in the shape of a fish, and having an ornament in the centre of a fish, as well as a shallow circular bowl with the Labarum marked on its base, show their connection with Christianity. It was announced that the British Museum had acquired the whole collection.

Dr. Wickham Legg read a paper on "The Eastern Omophorion and the Western Pallium." Many years ago G. B. de Rossi had pointed out to him that the modern vestments of a Greek bishop corresponded to those of an emperor or consul, the stoicharion and saccos to the two undergarments shown in a consular diptych, and the omophorion to the consular scarf. The epigonation, not seen in the diptych, Dr. Legg referred to the lozenge-shaped ornament seen on the emperor and his courtiers in the mosaics at Ravenna. With the aid of illustrations from mosaics and pictures the relation between the two forms of omophorion and pall, the one broad and silken, and the other narrow and woollen, was discussed, and numerous points of resemblance in detail pointed out. The pall in the East was the distinctive episcopal ornament, much as the stole is considered the distinctive presbyteral ornament in the West. According to Abbé Duchesne, the pall was formerly worn by all bishops in the West, at all events in the Gallican countries. Here it was noticed, however, that we left the safe ground of the monuments and began to deal with the uncertain information given by writers who attributed various meanings to the same word, and the difficulties of the antiquary in unravelling the tangle were not diminished by the controversies which had raged round the symbolism of the pall. A great deal of sentiment had been talked about the Christian vestments, and much unhistorical writing had darkened the history of things, in itself plain. But no Christian vestment had suffered more than the pall. The writings on the pall by Du Saussay, Vespasiani, and Dr. A. Gasquet, might give pleasure at the Court of Rome, but they can hardly be considered serious history; while the essay of Dom Tierri Ruinart, though now 200 years old, was still of value in archa

ology, especially if supplemented by Abbé Duchesne's able résumé of the subject in his Origines.

Mr. H. S. Cowper gave an account of the examination of a "bloomery," or old iron-smelting furnace at Coniston. Very little is known of these sites, which in the Furness district are numerous, and hitherto no attempt has been made to elucidate them by excavation. It is known that the Abbey of Furness had three smelting-hearths in Hawkshead parish, and that after the Dissolution the smelting was leased to a private firm by the Crown. These, however, were stopped in the time of Elizabeth, on account of the damage to the woods, but the decree allowed the tenants to continue making iron for their own use. Heaps of slag are, however, found, not only in the manors belonging to the Abbey, but also in the adjacent lay manors, and to the latter class the Coniston example belongs. The excavations (conducted by Mr. Cowper and Mr. W. G. Collingwood) failed to bring to light anything to put a date to the site; but the foundations of the circular hearths were small and rude, and point to very primitive methods having been in use. A very difficult point to explain is the fact that all such sites are close to a stream, and as the ore was brought a long distance, it is thought washing would have been done before its arrival at the furnaces The actual situation of the mounds of slag in some cases renders it difficult to suppose that the stream was to drive a wheel for an air-blast, and it seems possible that iron was wrought at every site as well as made, which shows the use of the stream. Mr. Cowper thinks that, in spite of the rude methods, many of these furnaces were post-Reformation in date, and used by the people for making iron for farm use; but it may well be that different bloomeries represent very different ages.

The second meeting of the session of the BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION was held on November 17. Mr. Earle Way brought for exhibition some antiquities from Egypt, consisting of two bronze figures representing Osiris and Isis and Horus, of about 700 B. C., also a specimen of mummy cloth from a mummy recently unrolled, and two ancient bronze sheep-bells. Mr. Way also submitted some Roman coins of Carausius, Constantius, and Constantine, found lately in excavating for a main sewer in Union Road, Southwark, and a shilling of Charles I.

A paper was read by Mr. Thomas Blashill, entitled "Some Illustrations of Domestic Spinning." Mr. Blashill said that spinning, except in its modern revival, may be considered a lost art, and although it went out of practice in England only fifty or sixty years ago, it is as completely forgotten by most persons as if it had for centuries been extinct. From time to time spindle-wheels discovered in deep excavations have been exhibited at meetings of the Association, and implements used in spinning are seen in the most ancient Egyptian sculptures, and spindles with the whorl attached are found in Egyptian excavations. As regards hand-spinning with spindle and distaff, there has been no progress through all the ages, and the most ancient specimens that are found might be used by women who in remote countries practise hand-spinning to-day. Mr. Blashill described the use of the spinning and wool wheels he had

The

brought for exhibition. The great wool-wheel appears to have been in use as early as the fourteenth century, and lingered on in Wales down to recent times. ordinary spinning-wheel was known as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, the wheel being at first turned by hand, and afterwards by a treadle. The earliest spinning-wheel remaining in this country is believed to be in the British Museum, and is of the fourteenth century. In former times the art of spinning was a necessary accomplishment for women and girls, and perhaps its use was rendered more popular with them by its being considered to promote grace in the female form. In the year 1721 an aged lady left considerable property for the purpose of endowing a school for spinning. The art was practised in this country in the drawing-rooms and servants' halls of country houses as late as 1830. In the museum at Constance there are several good examples of spinning-wheels, but their use is now forgotten. Rabbit-wool is spun at Aix in Savoy at the present time. A large number of engravings and drawings illustrated the paper.

A discussion followed, in which Mrs. Collier remarked that the Southerland folk still use the spinning-wheel, and Mr. Way said that "home-spun is made in the Isle of Lewis at the present day. Speaking of Egypt, Mrs. Marshall said the Bedouins use their fingers only, and no distaff. Mr. Gould mentioned that in pulling down a house in Essex twenty-eight years ago a distaff was found, but its use was utterly unknown. Mr. Astley, hon. sec., pointed out that the wheels used in the Princess of Wales's schools at Sandringham were just the same as those upon the table.

Mr. Patrick, hon. sec., announced that during some recent alterations at the Bishop's Palace at Peterborough, part of the great drain of the monastery had been laid open, the line of which had previously been unknown.

Reviews and Motices
of New Books.

Publishers are requested to be so good as always to mark clearly the prices of books sent for review, as these notices are intended to be a practical aid to book-buying readers.]

THE REGISTER OF THE PRIORY OF WETHERHAL. Edited, with introduction and notes, by J. E. Prescott, D.D. Being Vol. I. of the "Chartulary Series" of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society. Cloth, 8vo., pp. xliii, 552. London: Elliot Stock. Kendal T. Wilson. Price 18s.

The Priory of Wetherhal, a Benedictine house for a superior and twelve brethren, was founded in the eleventh century as a cell of St. Mary's Abbey at York. The site of the house, a beautiful one in the valley of the Eden, is four or five miles from Carlisle. At the dissolution the possessions of the Priory of Wetherhal were transferred to the newly-constituted secular chapter of a dean and prebendaries at Carlisle and it is said that stones were brought from the dismantled buildings at Wetherhal as material for the

erection of prebendal houses in the cathedral city. Little now remains at Wetherhal, except a fine entrance gateway, of which a good photograph is given as a frontispiece to the Register.*

The Register of Wetherhal is, it may be explained at the outset, a Chartulary of the Priory, but in several respects from the light it throws on obscure portions of local history, is of considerably wider interest and importance than is often the case with similar collections of charters. Archdeacon Prescott deserves to be warmly congratulated on the very thorough and scholarly manner in which he has edited it. The original chartulary was in the possession of the Dean and Chapter as late as 1812, but when Dr. Prescott set to work it could not be traced, and he had to make use of three transcripts of the original, two in the possession of the Dean and Chapter, and the third among the Harleian Manuscripts. Scarcely, however, had the work appeared than Mr. G. W. Mounsey-Heysham wrote to the Carlisle Patriot to say that he was unaware that Dr. Prescott was at work on the Register, and that he believed that the original, which had been lost from the Cathedral library, must be none other than a volume in his possession, and which he would restore to the library. While it is a matter for sincere regret that Archdeacon Prescott had not the original Register before him to work upon, there is no reason to question the substantial accuracy of the three transcripts of it which he was able to collate. It will be at least some satisfaction to him to know that his labours have resulted in the discovery of the original volume, and its restoration to the Cathedral Library at Carlisle.

The work is really a very great one, and the many important points raised by several of the charters are so numerous that we are compelled, from want of space, to forbear entering into a discussion of them. Archdeacon Prescott's editorship is a model of what such work should be. Not a place, or a person, or an object, is mentioned in a charter, but what an admirable explanatory footnote is given. Legal terms are briefly but clearly explained, persons and places identified, dates discussed and settled, and simple deductions drawn to aid the reader in grasping the gist or drift of the matter. We know of no better work of the kind anywhere, and we are not sure that we know of any quite so good.

Among what may be termed minor points of interest in the Register is that of early place-names, of which there are a goodly number, some of them being of considerable interest. We see that Dr. Prescott

* It may not be out of place to mention here that the pretty woodcut at the foot of page 162 of Graves's History of Cleveland is a picture (not very accurate in detail) of this gateway. There is nothing in the book itself to indicate what the picture represents, and it has been a puzzle to a good many people who have naturally supposed that it depicted some building in Cleveland. Graves's book was published at Carlisle, and it would seem that the printer, having the wood block at hand, used it to fill up the page. In the background a building is shown, which looks as if it were intended for some portion of the monastery, which must therefore have been in existence when the drawing was made from which the block was engraved.

derives "Wandales" from the Scandinavian "wang," an open field, and "dale," a portion. This may be the true explanation of the name which prevails almost everywhere in the north, but the derivation from "wang" is more or less a piece of guessing, and is, we think, open to doubt. Elsewhere Dr. Prescott translates "salina" by "salt-pans." This is the usual meaning, but in many cases, especially in lowlying marshy land by the seashore, artificial hillocks were raised, and on the top of these the seawater was boiled down to produce the salt. Such hills, called "salt-hills" and "saltcote hills," are very common at the mouth of the Tees, and elsewhere along the north-east and east coast, and they are invariably described as 66 'salince in Latin documents ranging from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. We should not be at all surprised to find that the "salina' mentioned in the Register were similar salthills, and not saltpans at all. Perhaps even some of them yet remain at Brough, unidentified as to their original object and use.

The third part of volume vii. of the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland has been issued. It contains the following papers: (1) "A Crannoge near Clones" (with two illustrations), by Dr. S. A. D'Arcy; (2) "Notes on some of the Kilkenny Oghams," by Mr. R. A. S. Macalister ; (3) the conclusion of Miss Hickson's paper on "Ardfert Friary and the Fitzmaurices, Lords of Kerry." Besides these three papers, several shorter communications are given under the general heading of "Miscellanea," and there is also a full account (with many illustrations) of the Lismore meeting and the summer excursion of 1897.

*

Part 7 (June, 1897) of the Portfolio of the Monumental Brass Society has reached us. It contains facsimiles of the following brasses: (1) Laurence de St. Maur, Rector of Higham Ferrers, 1337; (2) the children of Sir John and Lady Joan of Salesbury at Great Marlow, 1388 (lost), from rubbings in the British Museum, and belonging to the Society of Antiquaries; (3) Sir Ingelram Bruyn, South Ockenden, Essex, 1400; (4) Sir Thos. Brook and his wife Joan, Thorncombe, Devon, 1437; (5) John Lord Strange and wife Jacquetta, Hillingdon, 1509; (6) Umphry Tyndall, D.D., Dean of Ely, 1614, at Ely Cathedral. The facsimiles are, as usual, admirably executed by Mr. Griggs, of Peckham.

NOTE TO PUBLISHERS.-We shall be particularly obliged to publishers if they will always state the price of books sent for review.

TO INTENDING CONTRIBUTORS.-Unsolicited MSS. will always receive careful attention, but the Editor cannot return them if not accepted unless a fully stamped and directed envelope is enclosed. To this rule no exception will be made.

Letters containing queries can only be inserted in the "ANTIQUARY" if of general interest, or on some new subject. The Editor cannot undertake to reply pri vately, or through the " ANTIQUARY," to questions of the ordinary nature that sometimes reach him. No attention is paid to anonymous communications or would-be contributions.