their faces the local blacksmith's art. The foundations of the former church are said to be north-east of the present one in the very same churchyard (see No. 1, A, B, C, D). In the reports of the Yorkshire Society, others still more rudely marked are given (see note, p. 298).

Specimens of the rudest and simplest types are not uncommon in the stone districts of Northamptonshire, as well as of their gradual change and improvement, until that later age when their designs melt away into the more richly ornamented and costly body-stones, thus thoroughly showing the progress of society under the influence of peace and regular government, and the wealth thus diffused among the masses. Of the earliest class is No. 2 E, sketched where it lay thrown out among fragments of rude native limestone; part of the old walls undergoing underpinning at Croyland Abbey, and where it would be again shortly broken up for further concrete. This unwrought fragment had a small cross and base line incised on it. The next illustrations, No. 3 F F, G G, are of stones found in the porch walls of Castor Church, when lately undergoing careful and conservative repairs. In F an ornament occurs on both sides, one of which is a cruciform design, a custom usual afterwards.

In No. 4 H (from same place) a fresh advance is seen. (The stone is from same walling.) It now takes a wedge outline to more readily enter the ground, as also seen in fragments used as wall stones in the lantern walls of Peterborough Cathedral, see No. 5, 1J. Compound cruciform designs follow (as in No. 5), where the ordinary cross is again crossed with that of St. Andrew; and in No. 6, K, a fragment which in 1886 was preserved in the north choir aisle (or chapel) of Yarwell Church : a design which is again seen on No. 4 (1), already mentioned, and preserved with others at Castor by the good feeling and interest taken in such matters of Mr. Hailes, mason, of that village. The next specimen is of special interest from having on the principal face a sunk cross, No. 7, M. (No), connecting it at once with the Late Norman or even Early English period; Body stones. This and NO were found during repairs of Thornhaugh Church, executed under orders of Messrs. Clark and Micklethwaite, archi

tects, and are still preserved in the church. The fragment N retains sufficient to suggest what its main face was; while in o the rudeness of design renders it questionable. Compare with these No. 8, P, where, in a fragment found under the west front of Peterborough Cathedral in 1896, small crosses almost as rude as that on the fragment from Croyland are seen, with what must be intended for St. Andrew crosses. In No. 9, Q, also from Thornhaugh, we have an interesting specimen of the headstone now making an advanced improvement in design. The Roman cross is here again united to the St. Andrew's, but the arms of the former are also themselves crossed: may we not suspect that the sleeper had visited the Christian kingdom of the Holy Land?

The progress in these headstones becomes now so rapid that their designs are seen to have much in common, both in size and ornamentation, with ordinary body-stones; and a repetition of the cross appears on both sides, as in No. 10, RR, a fragment preserved in the Saxon tower of Barnac Church, and described as found used as a wall stone in the remains of the stone seat found to have existed around the inside of that tower when its base was excavated in or about 1845. A cruciform design existed on both its sides, the same being yet recoverable, and is so far akin to one, No. 11, ss, used as a mere wall-stone in that sleeper wall of Norman date (1117) which crosses the opening of the arch from the north aisle of the nave of Peterborough Cathedral into its north transept.

The Barnac stone, again, closely connects with late Norman body-stones, as in the case of No. 12, TT, (one found outside the very same transept): and also the Thornhaugh stone, м: and gives evidence both of the connection among such designs, as well as their continued user to a date as late as 1200 or thereabouts at least.

Proceedings of the Association.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 1897.

T. BLASHILL, Esq., V.-P., Hon. Treasurer, IN THE CHAIR.

The following Members were duly elected :

The Right Honble. the Lord Mostyn, President, Mostyn Hall,
North Wales.

Robt. Hovenden, Esq., F.S.A., Heathcote, Park Hill Road,
Croydon.

Richd. Clout, Esq., Brown House, West Malling, Kent.

Mrs. M. O. Hart, c/o. Mrs. Stoneham, 18, Wickham Road,
S. John's, S.E.

Frank Ashley Barrett, Esq., The Hollies, Mason Hill, Bromley,
Kent.

Thanks were ordered by the Council to be returned to the respective donors of the following presents :

To the Society, for "Smithsonian Reports", 1894-5, for a Smithsonian 14th Annual Report", Parts 1 and 2, and "15th Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology", 1892, 3, 4.

for the "United States National Museum Reports",

for the "American Historical Association's Annual Report", 1895.

for the "United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Report", 1895, Parts 1 and 2.

for the "Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Science", vol. vi, 1889-97.

for the "Memoir of George Brown Goode", 1851-1896, by S. P. Langley, 1897.

for the "Chicago Academy of Science, 39th Annual Report", 1896.