As Hon. Corresponding Member:

Allan S. Walker, Esq., 28, Devonshire Hill, Hampstead, N.W. Thanks were ordered by the Council to be returned to the respective donors of the following presents to the Library :

To the Society, for "Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society", vol. vi, pt. iv, New Series.

Society for "Annales de la Societé d'Archæologie de
Bruxelles", Tom. xii, Liv. 1, Janvier 1898.

Mrs. Collier exhibited two prints from engravings on copper by Albert Glackendar of playing-cards used in the seventeenth century, the cards being the eight and ten of swords. It was explained that in old packs of cards the suit of "swords" took the place of what we now call "spades" (and wrongly figure as such), Espada being Spanish for "sword".

The Rev. H. J. Dukinfield Astley exhibited several arrow-heads and flint implements, of the Early and Later Stone Ages, found in the

Thames valley, and one found near the town of Iroquois, Illinois, U.S.A., which was turned up in a field while ploughing, and is supposed to have been left by the Indians. This was very interesting, as showing the persistence of type among primitive peoples, down to historic times; also a good example of a farthing of the Irish money of Charles I, bearing on the obverse a crown with sceptre crossed, and this inscription: Caro: D:G: Mag: Brit.", and on the reverse the Irish harp crowned, and the inscription: "Fra: et Hib: REX."

Mr. Astley also exhibited a photograph of a very beautiful floriated cross, of the fourteenth century, having on one side the mutilated remains of the figure of our Lord, which now surmounts the south transept of East Rudham Church, Norfolk, but being obviously out of place, is supposed to have been the village cross, from which the name Rudham (Rood-ham) is derived.

Mr. J. Chalkley Gould read a very interesting paper upon a somewhat unusual subject, viz., a naval MS. of the time of James II. The MS. is in the form of a small bound volume, beautifully written, and is full of curious information concerning the ships of the British navy in the latter days of the last of the Stuart kings of England. The writer of the book is unknown; but, from internal evidence, it seems highly probable that it was prepared under the personal supervision of Samuel Pepys upon his resumption of the office of Secretary of the Admiralty in 1684, after five years of retirement, by the request of Charles II. During those five years the navy had been allowed to fall into a very calamitous condition, some of the ships, indeed, "being with difficulty kept above water", as Pepys himself wrote in 1680. The MS. is full of curious information and valuable statistics as to the size, tonnage, armament, and so forth of the ships of his Majesty's navy; and much more historical information is also to be gleaned from its pages. Whatever may have been the actual purpose of the book, there is no doubt about its date-1687 or 1688-although the MS. itself bears no date upon its title-page. A ship, the Sedgemore, is mentioned in its pages under the date of 1687 therefore the MS. could not have been written earlier, nor could it have been compiled much later, as the name of "Samuell Pepys" appears among the Admiralty officers, and he lost his berth at the Revolution in 1688.

It is interesting in the present time of monster battle-ships to find that the largest ship of Pepys's day mentioned is the Brittannia, 146 ft. long, 47 ft. broad, and 1,546 tons. Amongst other items of historical interest suggested by the paper is the perpetuation of ships' names. For instance, it appears that the name Royal Sovereign, which occurs in this list, dates back as far as 1485, and it is in use in

the navy now. The paper was illustrated by a fine engraving of the naval engagement off Cape La Hogue, from a painting by B. West, showing very correctly the type of ship of the period; also by a pen-and-ink drawing of the stern and quarter of a man-of-war by “Della-Bella” a Florentine artist (born in 1610, died in 1664), contributed by Mr. Patrick. Two original letters of Pepys to Sir Richard Rothe, dated 1678-9, and a facsimile of the illustration of the Dutch fleet in the Medway and Thames, taken from the hill of Gillingham by Evelyn, the original of which is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, were also exhibited.

In the discussion which followed, Mr. Compton and the Chairman took part, and Mr. Williams mentioned that in the Beaulieu river, opposite the Isle of Wight, the slips still exist upon which the ships of the time of Elizabeth were constructed; and, as a curious illustration of the manners of the day, the fact that on board one ship 370 tons of beer were taken to only 178 tons of guns.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH, 1898.

T. BLASHILL, ESQ., HON. TREASURER, IN THE CHAIR.

The following members were duly elected :—

George Smith, Esq., J.P., and Mrs. Smith, The Gleddings,
Halifax.

Sir Llewelyn Turner, Parkia, Carnarvon, N. Wales.

Miss Ashe, 38, Evelyn Mansions, Carlisle Place, Westminster,
S.W.

As Hon. Corresponding Member :—

Charles Dack, Esq., 4, Nene Villas, Peterborough.

Mr. Patrick announced that he had received gratifying replies to his letters from the Bishop and Dean of Peterborough, the former accepting the post of President of the forthcoming Congress.

C. J. Williams, Esq., and Thos. F. Peacock, Esq., were elected Members of Council.

Intended for his father's

1 Bella (Stefano della), a Florentine artist, born in 1610. calling of goldsmith, but developed so great a talent for drawing and painting that he was placed with Cesare Daudini for some years. He, however, relinquished painting for the art of engraving, in which he rose to pre-eminence, and executed many works of merit and prints of great excellence, some from his own designs. He died in 1664.- Vide Allan Cunningham's Dictionary of Painters.

The resignation of Mr. F. Sills was announced.

Mr. J. Chalkley Gould exhibited a pack of playing-cards printed at Besançon in the latter part of the last century. This pack consists of four suits (Deniers, Batons, Epées, Coupes) of fourteen cards each, viz., ace, king, queen, knight or valet, and ten ordinary numbers ; also twenty-two other picture cards, making seventy-eight in all. The twenty-six cards beyond the usual number were used as fortune-telling cards.

The Chairman exhibited a small bag worked with silver thread, which contained a deed, being a conveyance of land, with the impression of the scal affixed, the date being 31 Edward I; and he also exhibited a receipt on paper for money paid to Mr. Abraham Gould, dated 1610, who acknowledged it as a receipt in full from the beginning of the world.

"On

The paper of the evening was by the Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma: Australian Lights on Britain in the Later Stone Period." The author said it might seem futile to suppose that Australia could throw any light upon the prehistoric life of Britain, or on the old men of early days; but that really we know so little about the ancient world of the later Stone or Bronze Age that any light, however dim, is useful. The best existing living illustration in this nineteenth century of the Stone Age, and what it was like, is to be found in Australia. Men of science tell us that the now-extinct Tasmanians were the best representatives of the men of the early Stone Age, and in the still existing Australian races, and our fellow-subjects of the British Empire, we have some of the best representatives of mankind of the later Stone Age or Neolithic period, making, of course, all due allowance for different climatic and racial forces. The habits of thought of the people of the Stone epoch, and their ideas concerning natural objects and the heavenly bodies form a very interesting, but difficult subject. Some information on this head may, however, be gleaned from a comparison of the folk and legendary lore of Australia and that of the countries of Southern Europe. In Australian folk-lore a great confusion is apparent between human beings and animals, and in the folk-lore of Cornwall the remains of a very primitive folk belief in the transmigration of men and women into animals, and vice versa, have lingered almost to our own day. The author quoted from Mrs. Langloh Parker's book on Australian Legendary Tales to show the similarity which might be traced between the folk lore of Australia and that of Britain as regarded the belief in spirits and the influence of the stars and pointed out the curious resemblances to be met with in some of our nursery tales and the legends of Australia.

Mr. Gould, Mr. Duppa Lloyd, and the Rev. H. J. D. Astley took part in the discussion which followed.

Mr. Patrick read some notes descriptive of a sketch sent by Mr. J. T. Irvine (received from the Rector of Bassingham Church, Lincs.) of a curious early font discovered below the floor when the church was restored. It is oblong in shape, 2 ft. long and 1 ft. 5 ins. wide and deep, resting on a basement stone 2 ft. 4 ins. long and 10 ins. thick. The font has on one face interlacing knotwork and cable moulding of uncommon design, and has apparently been formed out of the socketstone of a still older churchyard cross.

This paper will be published later on.

WEDNESDAY, 2ND MARCH, 1898.

THOS. BLASHILL, ESQ., TREASURER, IN THE CHAIR.

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

To the Society for "Journal of the Royal Archæological Institute", 2nd Series, vol. iv, No. 4.

Society for "Journal of the Cambrian Archæological Association", 5th Series, No. 57, vol. xv.

Society for "Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological and Natural History Society", 1897, vol. xliii, Third Series, vol. iii.

Author, Charles Dack, Esq., Hon. Corresponding Member, for "The Trial, Execution, and Death of Mary, Queen

of Scots".

There were no exhibits except two fine specimens of polished granite celts: one, the smaller, perfect; the other, broken in half. These were found by the lecturer at Carnac, and are noticeable on account of the unusual material of which they are made, which is the same as that of the majority of the great menhirs, etc., of that neighbourhood.

The paper of the evening was by Mr. T. Cato Worsfold, "On the French Stonehenge", illustrated with limelight views by Mr. A. E. Brown. The author apologised for his title, but said he thought it told its story better than "The Megalithic Monuments of the Morbihan in Brittany" would have done. "Carnac" is the Breton for "the place of the cairn"; just outside the town there is a tumulus about 25 ft. in height, evidently artificial, and surmounted with a grove of