gates of the learned societies of the departments of France, who meet annually in the hall of the Luxembourg, at Paris, suggesting that the Society of Antiquaries should be represented by some of its members at the session which opens in February next.

Beriah Botfield, esq. F.S.A. exhibited some large and fine amber beads, recently discovered under a rock near Doddington, Salop. Mr. Akerman expressed his belief that these beads were of the Celtic period, hidden, perhaps, in flight by some Cambrian chieftain, whose insignia of rank they might probably have been, since a passage in the "Gododin" of Aneurin speaks of chaplets of amber beads worn by the leaders of the Celtic tribes.

W. M. Wylie, esq. F.S.A. of Fairford, exhibited a bronze circular dish-shaped fibula, a ring, and another fibula of ordinary form, obtained by him of a labourer, who found them on the site of the ancient cemetery near that town a few years ago.

T. A. Johns, esq. of Evesham, exhibited a bronze fibula of the Roman period, with an ornamental groove, or cavity, which had once been filled with coloured vitreous pastes. Also a leaden ampulla, found at Evesham. It has been cast from a mould, and on its surface are represented several subjects in low relief. In one compartment are the figures of an archbishop, a bishop, and a king; in another, an abbot seated in his chair; in a third, the murder of Saint Thomas of Canterbury. military costume of the figures favours the belief that the vessel was fabricated shortly after the murder of Becket, and it appears not improbable that it was one of the vessels in which portions of his blood, or rather of water which had been put in contact with the relics of his blood, were carried away by pilgrims from Canterbury.

The

Sir George Musgrave exhibited, by the hands of the Director, two small slabs of hone-stone, found in the ruins of Hartley Castle, an old seat of the Musgrave family, down to the year 1700. They are engraved with the characters of the alphabet, and contrived for casting abecedaries, or miniature horn-books, in lead.

Lord Londesborough communicated drawings, which were accompanied by a description by Mr. Roach Smith, of a bridge, at the confluence of the small stream of the Cock and the river Wharfe, which bounds his lordship's property at Grimeston, near Tadcaster, the Calcaria of the Romans. This bridge, which is in a very perfect condition, was always considered Roman by Lord Howden, but has hitherto been unnoticed by antiquaries and

topographers.* It is a single arch, of a 12-foot span, of very solid masonry, the stones of the foundation being particularly large, and on one side extending along the margin of the river several yards. On some of these stones masons' marks occur. A Roman road can still be traced from this bridge, running through the park at Grimeston towards Ferribridge. Up to the beginning of the last century this road appears to have been used as a highway, and an old milestone which stood upon it is still preserved. It is curious in showing that, when the old road was closed, the distances to several places to which the milestone directed are much increased. By the old route Sherborn was three miles, it is now six; Selby was only eight miles, it is now ten. Mr. Smith's notice also included an account of Roman antiquities at Malton and at Godmundham, in Yorkshire.

A note was read from John Williams, esq. substituting another reading for the legend of the coin of Bona of Savoy, cited by the Director in his account of the Society's curious astrological clock, in the last part of the Archæologia.

A note from Mr. Richard Sims was also read, on a seal of the abbey of St. Edmundsbury, presented to the Society by Mr. Ouvry, correcting the reading of the legend given in the New Monasticon, and substituting

Telis confoditur Eadmundus et ense feritur, Bestia quem munit Deus hunc celestibus unit. Dec. 4. Lord Viscount Mahon, Pres. Edward Phillips, esq. of Whitmore Park, near Coventry, was elected a Fellow.

The President laid on the table a series of prints of early sculptured stones, scattered over the country from the Forth to Caithness, executed for a work about to be issued by the Spalding Club.

Thomas Wright, F.S.A. communicated a note on some fragments of Roman pottery recently found at Folkestone. Also some remarks on a MS. which he exhibited to the Society, and which was evidently the Note-book of Patrick Ruthven, a sketch of whose life and misfortunes was recently communicated to the Society by Mr. Bruce. Ruthven, in his latter

A letter has appeared in the Yorkshire Gazette, signed B. B. T. and dated Tadcaster, stating that the Roman road crossed the Wharfe at Tadcaster by a ford; that the bridge above described is called Kettleman's bridge, and was built not many generations back by a mason named Kettleman; and that another bridge, of precisely the same shape and architecture, exists at Sutton, a mile higher up the Cock.-EDIT.

days, is said to have subsisted by the practice of physic, and, like most of the men of his time, was an alchemist. These facts are apparent in the entries of this curious volume, which also proves that the famous mathematician, Napier of Murchistoun, was addicted to the same pursuit.

Mr. E. B. Price, F.S.A. presented etchings of two ancient stone coffin-lids found about sixteen years ago on the site of the church of the Grey Friars within Newgate, in the city of London. One is inscribed in uncial letters round its verge, ICI: GIST: DEEN: [q. for DAN or DOMINUS] PHILIP DE: SREPHAM: MOYNE:

DE: ELYA: KY: DEU FACE: UERAI: MERCI. The other, BERNART: DE: IAMBE: GIST ICI DEV DE SA: ALME: EIT: MERCI PATER: NOSTER: This stone is ornamented with a coat of arms, of the canting class, namely, a human jamb sinister. That of the monk of Ely is plain. These coffin-lids are both of the early part of the fourteenth century; and it is remarkable that neither of them were exposed to view at the time when, shortly before the Reformation, a careful register was made of all the monuments and gravestones then apparent in and about the church of the Grey Friars; and which register has been published in the Vth volume of the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica. They consequently escaped the total destruction of monuments and tombs, more than five hundred in number, which were sold to Sir Martin Bowes, one of the aldermen of the time. Bernart de Jambe was probably one of the Italian merchants, many of whom were interred at the Grey Friars. The monk of Ely was doubtless a native of Shropham, in Norfolk.

Mr. Robert Cole, F.S.A. exhibited a box of weights and a pair of scales, used by a Dutch money-changer, at the commencement of the seventeenth century. The weights comprise those of all the coins of Europe in circulation at that period.

These

Lord Londesborough communicated an account of the opening of a number of tumuli, on his lordship's property, near Driffield, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in the autumn of the present year. excavations led to the discovery of several urns of the usual Celtic character, and some fragments of weapons in flint and bronze. The practice of cremation appears to have obtained in this district, but there were also examples of the interment of the body entire. In one instance the corpse appeared to have been folded or wrapped in linen from head to foot, but this interment was probably of a subsequent period.

ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.

Dec. 5. Edward Hawkins, esq. Treasurer, in the chair.

Mr. Farnham Lyte gave an account of a discovery, not less interesting to geologists than to the antiquary, of a cavern in the limestone strata near Brixham, Devon, containing under the floor, formed of stalagmitic crust, various relics indicative of occupation by man, objects of bone, shale, and bronze, with bones of men and animals mixed together. Dr. Mantell, upon being called on to explain this interesting collection of human and fossil bones, pointed out the occurrence of similar assemblages in other caves, both in England and South America; especially in another remarkable cave in Devonshire, known as Kent's Hole, near Torquay. The rapid formation of stalagmite in these caverns had hermetically sealed up, as it were, the vestiges of the early British tribes with the extinct mammalian remains imbedded in the floor of clay and rubbish. Among the fossil bones was part of a skull of a rein-deer, in a beautiful state of preservation; the remains of this genus are very rare in England. There were also amongst the remains now produced, bones of the horse and ox, the elk and common deer, with the hyena, and a relic of the rhinoceros, or, possibly, the elephant. Some of the objects of bronze appeared to be of the Roman period. Mr. Lyte sent also a fine bronze spear-head, lately found in the drainage of Whittlesea Mere.

Mr. Hawkins read a memoir on a collection of personal ornaments of silver from Tunis, with others from Asia Minor, exhibited to the meeting. They had been brought to this country as part of the specimens of manufacture for the Great Exhibition, and claimed the notice of antiquaries on account of their striking resemblance to the silver ornaments discovered in Cuerdale, Lancashire, with Saxon and other coins, as also to various ancient ornaments in the Museum at Copenhagen, and those discovered in Livonia. pointed out the interest of these objects when compared with the Anglo-Saxon remains, of which they form a striking illustration, the forms and arrangement being closely similar, and they serve to explain the use of the singular brooches and other ornaments found in Ireland.

He

Mr. Ffoulkes described some vestiges of doubtful character, lately noticed by him in Merionethshire, in a district full of primeval remains, cromlechs, and stones of memorial. He produced a facsimile of the carvings on a rock, near Dolgellan, at a spot traditionally called, the field of the swords," representing seemingly two blades, of the ancient leaf-shaped British

weapon. According to popular story, the scene of a signal conflict and subsequent treaty between the Welsh and the English (the Romans?) was hereby commemorated.

The Rev. Joseph Hunter produced an ancient receipt for making ink, preserved in the records of the exchequer of North Wales, upon which some remarks were offered by Mr. Westwood, relative to the inks and writing materials used by the ancient scribes in various countries. He stated that the best ink, so far as his knowledge of MSS. enabled him to judge, had been in use in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Professor Buckman reported the successful results of the investigations at Cirencester during the previous month, and sent drawings of many Roman antiquities already discovered: extensive buildings, part of the ancient suburbs, had been laid open.

Mr. Squiers, the distinguished American archæologist, laid before the meeting representations of numerous antiquities discovered by him in Nicaragua, as yet unpublished; and gave a striking outline of the extent of his antiquarian inquiries in the New World, the great variety of remains, and their magnitude, adverting especially to those earthworks, hill-temples, and stone monuments, analogous to those of the Wiltshire plains, Silbury and Abury, which he had that week visited. The antiquities of the Mississippi valley appear to bear most resemblance to those of Europe; but he declared his conviction that there are no vestiges in America sufficient to prove any connexion in ancient times with the nations of the Old World.

Mr. Pitman Jones gave an account of the discovery of an interesting fragment of an effigy, armed in mail, presenting some unusual details of costume. It was dug up at Exeter, with numerous fragments of architecture, probably indicating the site of some desecrated church. The Rev. C. Bingham sent a notice and drawings of Roman urns and remains found at Stafford, near Dorchester; several interments were brought to light, and in one case the bones of a horse lay near the human skeleton.

Amongst the antiquities brought for inspection by various members were some remarkable Egyptian objects, from Dr. Mantell's collection; bronze armlets, with an agate ball, probably talismanic, from the Scilly Islands, brought by Mr. Franks; a collection of antique and medieval bronzes, by Mr. Whincopp; a fine tiltinghelmet, recently added to the Tower armoury, being the visored helm of the reign of Richard II.; casts from early sculpture in Prussian Poland, by Mr. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXVII.

Nesbitt; some exquisite gold ornaments, jewelled and enamelled, belonging to Lady Fellows; a collection of Frankish weapons and ancient objects, found near St. Omer; and a fac-simile of the supposed Cufic inscription on St. Peter's chair, at St. Mark's, Venice, taken by Mr. Auldjo during a recent visit. Mr. Vaux stated that this inscription, which had excited much attention, is probably Arabic, and the ornaments are of a Moorish character, resembling the decorations of the fifteenth century at Granada.

The Rev. G. Weston sent drawings of a fine ring-fibula and torc, both of silver, found in Westmerland. Mr. Freeman exhibited various antiquities, weapons, and implements, found at Broad Blunsdon, Wilts. Mr. Westwood brought an impression of a sepulchral brass lately found at St. David's. Mr. Franks produced a leaden seal, lately found at Sleaford, Sigillum Hugonis Capellani; and several other matrices were exhibited by Mr. Almack, being Italian seals of early date.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND.

Dec. 1. The anniversary meeting of this Society was held at Edinburgh, W. W. Hay Newton, esq. of Newton, in the chair, when office-bearers for the ensuing year were elected.

A report submitted by the Council to the meeting conveyed the gratifying intelligence that the negotiations long pending with the Treasury had been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and by the deed which has been drawn up and signed, the Society have made over to the Crown as national property the whole collections of antiquities formed by them during the last seventy years, to form the nucleus of a National Archæological Museum for Scotland. The Treasury have, on their part, vested the curatorship of the collection permanently in the hands of the Society's office-bearers, and become bound, so soon as the new gallery on the Mound is finished, to fit up the entire suite of rooms occupying the north and west sides of the Royal Institution buildings on the upper floor for the accommodation of the Society's collections and meetings. The utmost satisfaction was expressed at this very gratifying announcement, and the Secretary expressed his hope that now, as the collections will be placed on the same stable footing as any other national museum, Scotsmen may be induced to deposit there some of the numerous valuable antiquities at present scattered through private collections, and liable to all the vicissitudes by which such objects are so frequently lost.

The vacancies in the rank of Honorary

L

Members (the number of which is strictly limited to twenty-five) were filled by the election of the Lord Viscount Mahon, President of the Society of Antiquaries of London; his Excellency the Chevalier Bunsen; Councillor C. J. Thomsen, Director of the Royal Museum at Copenhagen; and Professor P. A. Munch, of the University of Christiania. Sir John Watson Gordon, President of the Royal Academy of Scotland; Archibald Campbell Swinton, esq. Professor of Civil Law in the University of Edinburgh; and three other gentlemen, were elected Fellows.

In the evening the Society's rooms were opened for a conversazione. Among the objects of interest exhibited were the famous Dunvegan Cup, commemorated by Scott in "The Lord of the Isles," where the inscription upon it is strangely misread; and two ancient ecclesiastical bells, the one in very recent use at the church of Strowan in Perthshire, the other dug up a few years ago in the churchyard of Kingoldrum in Angus. Next to these remains of ancient handicraft, most attention seemed to be given to an elaborate archæological map of Fifeshire, executed by Mr. D. Millar, of Arbroath, with singular neatness and precision. There is some hope of its being engraved, and we should gladly cherish the belief that it may prove only the first of a series of antiquarian maps of Scotland. Among other objects of antiquity, recently acquired by the Society, which were displayed, was a two-handed sword, said to have been used by a Lindsay at the battle of Methven, in 1309; the shaft of a sculptured stone cross found in Hoddom church; casts of twenty figures from Melrose; cast of a tomb from Arbroath; the arms of Cardinal Beaton, from his palace in Blackfriars-wind; a curious painting of the infant Saviour, on panel, inscribed OPVS FELICIS · DE · SCOTIE 1488; seven painted panels from the ceiling of Dean House, demolished in 1845; a painted ceiling of the early part of the 16th century from the Guise Palace, Blyth's-close, &c.

Dec. 8. Robert Chambers, esq. in the chair.

Various valuable donations to the museum and library were laid on the table, including the Skellach or Ancient Bell of Kingoldrum, presented by the Rev. J. O. Haldane, minister of the parish; a beautiful small Roman bronze Hercules; together with two curious grotesque leaden figures, armed with halberts, and various coins and other relics, dredged up in the Seine, presented by W. H. Scott, esq. F.S.A. Scot.

The first communication laid before the

Society was by Professor P. A. Munch of Christiania, honorary member of the Society, which we have the pleasure of inserting at length

Why is the mainland of Orkney called Pomona ?

In

I have always wondered how it came to pass that the mainland of Orkney, called Hrossey, i. e. the Isle of Horses," by the Norwegians, got the Latin-looking name of Pomona after its annexation to the Scotish crown; as such a name certainly does not appear any where in the Latin authors who happen to mention those islands. The name has, as it seems, also puzzled some of the British etymologists: Barry, for instance, derives it (page 22) from the British words pou (small) and mon (patria), which derivation, however, being not at all satisfactory, the name has remained a riddle until this day. Yet I think it possible to explain this riddle, and moreover in a way not at all expected. Torfæus, in his Orcades, gives the key to it without knowing it himself. In this work, he says, p. 5, " Pomona ... a Julio Solino polyhistore Diutina appellatur." Now, in looking for this appellation in the common editions of Solinus, we find no notice of such a name. mentioning Thule, however, Solinus says, chap. 22: Ab Orcadibus Thyle usque quinque dierum ac noctium navigatio est. Sed Thyle larga et diutina pomona copiosa est." Here it is remarkable that the word diutina really occurs, but only as an adjective, the author's obvious intention being to say: Thule is a fertile island, and plentifully productive of long-lasting corn. The fact, however, that Torfæus, as will be seen, could read diutina as a proper name instead of an adjective, shows that in his copy or MS. of Solinus the reading must have been such a one, or that diutina has been marked with an initial letter as being the name of some island. His MS. then read thus: Sed Thyle larga, et Diutina pomona copiosa est (Thule is fertile, and Diutina has plenty of corn). Now, when such a reading could be adopted in some MSS. it is not only probable, but almost certain, that in some other MSS. the words have been arranged thus: "Sed Thyle larga et diutina, Pomona copiosa est," or, "Sed Thyle larga, et diutina Pomona copiosa est." In both cases, as in that of Torfæus, the Diutina or Pomona has been construed as a name belonging to the mainland of Orkney, evidently because Thule was not believed to be productive of corn, Pythias describing it in such an unfavourable way.

Solinus was a great oracle in the middle ages. He is quoted by Adamus Breminus (in the 11th century), and even by the

author of the Hystoria Norwegiæ, edited by me, from the Panmure codex. It is therefore not to be wondered at that the names supposed to be used by him should be adopted by writers of the middle ages, or in the beginning of the more recent times. Although Buchanan says, that "Orcadum maxima multis veterum Pomona vocatur," I am certain that the name is not to be found in any book previous to Fordun's Scoti-chronicon, 1. ii. c. 2. where he calls the Orkneys "insulæ Pomoniæ," having, what is to be well remarked, quoted Solinus himself only two pages before (c. 9), where he speaks of the manners and languages of Scotland.

Thus it is to be regarded as evident, that the name Pomona is only the fruit of a complete misunderstanding of Solinus's words, and that consequently it ought henceforth to be cancelled. That it should, however as it certainly has done-succeed in getting established even among the common people now-a-days, is not to be wondered at, a space of 400 years being long enough for gaining proselytes to equally grave and much more important historical blunders.

The next communication was by Dr. Daniel Wilson, one of the secretaries of the Society, entitled, "Notes on the Buidhean or Bell of Strowan, and other primitive ecclesiastical bells of Scotland." This, which was in continuation of a former communication laid before the Society, was chiefly designed to confute the erroneous idea advocated by the late Dr. Samuel Hibbert and other British antiquaries, that the curious relic of this class found at Kilmichael-Glassary, Argyllshire, and now in the Society's museum, is of Scandinavian origin. In illustration of the paper, Dr. Wilson exhibited several ancient Scotish hand-bells, and among them the buidhean or bell of Strowan, a curious example of this primitive class of ecclesiastical relics, which continued in use in the parish of Strowan, Blair-Athol, until replaced by a new bell given in exchange for it by its present possessor, J. P. M'Inroy, esq. of Lude, through whose kindness it was forwarded for exhibition to the Society. A letter from the Rev. A. R. Irvine of Blair-Athol, detailed a number of curious illustrations of the high virtues long ascribed to this ancient relic. The church of Strowan appears to have been dedicated to St. Fillan, and near the old church a well still bears the name of that favourite Celtic saint, the water of which was supposed to be a specific in certain ailments. The old church contained a small image of the saint, and, in years of great drought, the immersion of the figure in the well was

believed to be an infallible way of bringing rain. The buidhean or bell enjoyed a share of the reverence paid to the saintly image, and was supposed to be under the particular protection of the patron saint of the place. When the bell first was brought to Strowan, and by whom, the writer had been unable to find out, but that its antiquity was very great, he inferred from certain facts leading back to a very remote age. After referring to the famous bell of St. Kentigern, which figures on the Glasgow seals, some of which were exhibited to the meeting-and to the Ronnel bell of Birnie, described and figured in the "Morayshire Floods " of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Dr. Wilson entered into a detailed account of the curious relic found in the churchyard of the parish of Kingoldrum, Forfarshire, and presented to the Society by the Rev. J. O. Haldane, minister of the parish. This ancient bell was dug up in 1843, and contained, in addition to its detached tongue, a bronze chalice, and a glass bowl -the latter imperfect. Various notices tended to show the great antiquity of Kingoldrum as a Christian site; and Mr. Chalmers of Aldbar's valuable work on the sculptured stones of Forfar and Angus was produced, where some of the remarkable sculptures, specially illustrated by him, are figured from this site. Dr. Wilson referred in all to fifteen different examples of this peculiar class of Scottish relics, which he had now traced out as belonging to Scotland, all either still existing or of which authentic accounts have been preserved; and added his conviction of the probability of additions being yet made to the list. It may, perhaps, further the researches if we give the list of those already noted, viz. :-The bell of St. Kentigern, figured on the Glasgow seals; the bells of St. Kessogius and St. Lolanus, both included among the feudal investitures of the earldom of Perth; the bell of St. Barry, at Kilberry Castle, Argyllshire; the holy bell of St. Rowen, Monivaird; the bell of St. Meddan, noted in the Airlie Papers; the ronecht, or bell of St. Ternan, in the Aberdeen Breviary; the Ronnell bell of Birnie; the bell of St. Fillan, Killin, Perthshire; the Buidhean, or bell of St. Fillan, Strowan, Blair-Athol; the Perthshire bell, from the collection of C. K. Sharpe, esq.; the bell of St. Kennach, Isle of Inniskenneth; the skellach, or bell of Kingoldrum; the Kilmichael Glassary bell and shrine; the inscribed bell shrine, in possession of Guthrie of Guthrie; and to these may be added the bell of St. Columba, at Iona, repeatedly referred to in the life of the saint. (A Member mentioned to the