The Antiquary.

FEBRUARY, 1897.

Notes of the Month.

AT a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on January 14, the following were elected Fellows of the Society: Mr. Willoughby Aston Littledale, 23, Rosary Gardens, South Kensington; Mr. William Walter Watts, 14, Fulham Park Gardens, S.W.; Mr. James Murray Mackinlay, M. A., 4, Westbourne Gardens, Glasgow ; Sir Samuel Montagu, Bart, M.P., 12, Kensington Palace Gardens; Mr. D'Arcy Power, M.A., 26, Bloomsbury Square, W.C.; Mr. George Lord Beeforth, The Belvedere, Scarborough; and the Rev. Frederick Charles Hipkins, M.A., The Priory, Repton.

Just as the Antiquary is going to press, the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough, heedless of all requests, and deaf to all entreaties, have begun the destruction of the west front of their church, which for more than six centuries has been one of the chief glories of the country. This, too, by a bare majority of votes, and in spite of assurances from most competent authorities that there was no need for such vandalism. There can be but one reply to such a monstrous defiance of public opinion, and that is, the disestablishment of the dean and chapter. It is intolerable that our great cathedral churches should be left any longer at the mercy, and in the uncontrolled possession, of any three clergymen, whose main object seems to have been at Peterborough to stand on their dignity. We are sorry for the change which will now have to be made, and we are sorry for it, too, because other deans and chapters (who do

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We say it with deep regret, but there has been a great deal of unworthy shuffling and deception in this Peterborough business on the part of clergymen, who, as individuals, would shrink with horror from telling a lie. In their corporate capacity they have not hesitated to throw dust in the eyes of the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries and the members of the Royal Archæological Institute by their equivocating replies to those societies; while at a later period they have endeavoured to put the public off its guard by repeated statements that there has been no proposal to pull down any but the north-west gable, although they knew perfectly well that both Mr. Pearson and Sir A. Blomfield had made such proposals, which are actually in print. We confess we cannot understand all this, but it only shows how easily well-meaning men may allow their higher sense of right and wrong to become warped and distorted, when they find themselves cornered in an inconvenient manner.

The evidently inspired notice in the newspapers, that the demolition of the north gable had been begun, concluded in some papers with the statement that "it was found that the stones were perished to a greater extent than had been expected." This significant announcement will prepare antiquaries for what has all along been contended by the opponents of the rebuilding: (1) that it was impossible to replace the gable "stone for stone," because only a small percentage would be considered fit to be set up again ; and (2) that, when once demolition was begun, little "discoveries," like that quoted above, would be made from time to time, until finally the whole front would come down and be replaced by a new one.

into a state of insecurity, while they have been spending thousands of pounds on a number of trumpery and disfiguring fittings inside. The hideous baldachin, for instance, which is such an eyesore over the high altar, must have cost a very large sum. Instead

of squandering money on such things, and begging other persons to help them in doing this, they ought to have made their church safe and sound first. They have no doubt done what they conscientiously believed to be the best they could for the church which has been handed down to them to minister in, but by the very things which they have done, and more especially by the things which they have left undone, and now, last of all, by this crowning act of vandalism, they have plainly shown that they are incompetent to be allowed to remain in possession of the church they have in their ignorance so grievously misused.

In December last we gave a small picture of the west front, in order to show the extent of the demolition proposed or threatened. That picture served its purpose well enough, but it was too small to show the exquisite beauty of the work which is now being pulled down. We have therefore decided to give a larger picture, copied by the Meisenbach process from a photograph taken some fifteen years ago, which shows the late west front much better, and gives a clearer indication of its exquisite details.

An important discovery is announced from India, of which more is sure to be heard soon, and the significance of which it is not easy to estimate. The Indian Government, it seems, recently applied to the Nepal Durbar for authority for an officer of the Archæological Survey to examine certain Buddhistic ruins in the Nepal Terai, or lowlying land at the foot of the Nepal Hills. The Durbar deputed an official to meet the officer appointed for the work, and it happened that at the place of meeting there stood one of the Emperor Asoka's pillars or monoliths, which are among the most memorable antiquities of India. Upon examining the pillar, an inscription was deciphered, which read that, after having been anointed twenty years (B.C. 239), the Emperor had come to the

garden of Lumbini, worshipped and erected this column on the very spot where the Lord Buddha was born, in order to commemorate this happy event for future generations. About eighteen miles north-west of this column lie vast ruins extending over an area of about five miles by seven, which are the remains of the ancient city of Kapilavastu, the capital of Suddodana, the father of Buddha. The locality is described as being junglecovered, dreary, and desolate, recalling the account given of it by the Chinese travellers, Fa-Hian and Hiuen Tsiang, in the fourth and sixth centuries. The Nepal Durbar propose, it is said, to undertake a thorough exploration of these ruins.

A remarkable announcement recently made by Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott is published in the January number of Natural Science. The discovery, if it be eventually confirmed, tends to throw back the antiquity of man in our island to a far earlier date than has hitherto been supposed-in fact, long before the great Glacial period of geologists. At a recent meeting of the Geological Society, Mr. Abbott had some remarkable exhibits, on which our contemporary comments as follows: "The honours of this geological soirée went to Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott, some of whose exhibits were indeed remarkable. From the Ightham Fissure alone he has increased Prestwich's list of thirty-seven British cave and fissure vertebrates to about ninety, all of which were shown, and among them one of the most interesting was Canis lagopus, the arctic fox. From the Hastings kitchen midden he has secured a large assemblage of diminutive implements, supposed for the most part to be fish-hooks, and to have been used by a peaceful race that in many parts of Europe were settled on the seashore, often in proximity to more warlike tribes. Concerning the customs of this race much information has been accumulated, and we hope in a forthcoming. number to publish a paper by Mr. Abbott, with illustrations of the extraordinary relics that he has found. He also had some remarkable specimens of stone-working, discovered on the supposed sites of ruined cities of India. Their strangeness consisted in the fact that the stone had been chipped into

almost perfect cubes and globes, a feat which the modern imitators of the stone-workers, including Mr. Abbott himself, are quite unable to perform; many of these specimens, too, were delicately ornamented, presumably by the burning of an alkali into patterns incised upon them. But the interest of all these specimens was completely cast into the shade by some rough-looking stones lying on the table. These were flints, which certainly bore a striking resemblance to the work of man, which we believe the most critical expert would say probably were the work of man, and which had been obtained by Mr. Abbott's own hands, in the presence of a witness, from the Cromer Forest Bed at Runton, where they were found sticking in the iron pan, portions of which were still attached to them. One of them showed an undoubted bulb of percussion. We shall publish next month an illustrated account of these specimens, which are among the most interesting evidences of human antiquity that have been turned up for many a long year. The Forest Bed, we may remind those of our readers who are not geologists, lies, according to Prestwich, at the base of the Pleistocene or Quaternary system, but is now usually regarded as forming the top of the Pliocene series; it contains remains of the cave-bear, of the rhinoceros, of the hippopotamus, various species of elephant, deer, and other species of mammals, both living and extinct. In this country, at all events, no one has ever professed to find the remains of man at so low a horizon, although the opinion has before now been hazarded that if they occurred at this horizon at all, they would be found at the place where Mr. Abbott has actually discovered them." Antiquaries will await the true meaning of Mr. Abbott's discoveries with much interest.

the Cumberland and Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science, No. IX., p. 213. Mr. Holmes writes:

"The low foreshore consists of tough boulder clay. Above is a belt of fine clay covered in its turn by blown sand, which is being cut back at a faster rate than the tougher clay below. The most interesting point about this section was the fact. . . that the surface of the fine clay had been regularly drained, and that it exhibited the most unmistakable evidences of the action of the plough, the furrows remaining perfectly distinct. In short, the remains of a ploughed field covered up by blown sand were exposed to view," Our correspondent saw a similar revelation made, some years prior to 1884, when the foundations of Silloth Church were dug. These sand buried ploughed fields have nothing to do with the site of the destroyed Edwardian town of Skinburness, which is probably still under water, but may be part of the "overblown sands" mentioned in a survey of Holm Cultram tempore Queen Elizabeth, as destroyed by blown sand. Such catastrophes were not uncommon along the Solway. The site of the chapel of the Grune at Skinburness is well known, and some antiquaries once started to excavate it, but were soon forced to desist by coming upon corpses. Inquiry afterwards showed that the economical overseers of the parish, until within this century, used to bury bodies cast up by the sea here to save the expense of carting them six miles to Holm Cultram.

دال

The positions of the Roman burial-grounds at Carlisle are well known. The chief of them lies right and left of Botchergate, a street on or about the line of the Roman road to the south from Luguvallium, and extends from the well-known central railway station as far as Harraby Bridge over the Petterill, a distance of about a mile. The discovery of many interments in this cemetery is on record, and many more must have been found and escaped record. Another was discovered in the last week of last year— a plain urn of red clay, without any ornamentation, having a minimum diameter of a little less than 3 inches at its base, and a maximum of 7 inches at a height of 5 inches above that base. The upper part of the urn is broken away and lost, but the lid had fallen into the urn, and is the round base of another urn, 3 inches in diameter. In ad

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dition to this lid, the urn contained the cremated bones of a child from four to six years of age, and a small carving in bone, 2 inches long, the upper half of a grotesque figure of a man in an enormous head-dress, not unlike that worn by our highland regiments at the present day. It is flat at the back, now somewhat warped by fire, and so must have been intended to be attached by glue or cement to some object or otherperhaps a knife-handle. It has been burnt, and the obvious suggestion is that it was part of some favourite toy or property of the deceased child, and was cremated along with its owner. So far as can be ascertained, the urn was not protected by any cist, either of stone or wood, but was just inserted in a hole in the ground; no inscribed stone was found. The child was probably of poor parentage; the Romano-Britons of wealth, whose ashes occupy glass vessels, stone cists, or massive coffins of oak, and whose names are recorded in memorial slabs, lie more to the south. By the kindness of the contractor, the urn, with its contents, has been presented to the public museum in Tullie House.

Chancellor Ferguson has become the possessor of a veritable curiosity-a bishop's official wig-and of all places in the world it has come to him from Wales. The last bishop of Carlisle who wore a wig of this kind was Bishop Percy, and this peruke was his. Bishop Percy held the see from 1827 to 1856, and when he wore this wig last it would not be easy to say. We may take it for granted, however, that it was during the earlier part of his tenure of office. The wig is of short curly hair of brown colour, mixed with a little gray. In shape it is quite plain. It comes forward a little over the forehead, then sweeps down in a graceful curve to the ear, and it is short at the back of the head, fitting close in to the nape of the neck. Upon the top there is a triangular thin place for ventilation, over which the curls do not extend, but a wisp of hair has been adroitly used to conceal the opening. It is lined with silk, which was originally white, but has now a dirty-yellow faded look. Upon the lining is printed the name of the maker, Ravenscroft, "Bishop's Wig-Maker," who for so many years has been famous for

his wigs; and sewn inside is a label, after the customary fashion, bearing the inscription, "The Lord Bishop of Carlisle." This would be put in by the maker before the wig was sent home in its mahogany box. But how did the wig get into Wales? In the most simple manner possible. simple manner possible. From 1832 to 1856 there was a traveller at Mr. Charles Thurnam's, in English Street, Carlisle, named Railton Potter, who had a brother-in-law named Richard Coulthard, who was carpenter at Rose Castle. Potter would no doubt go over to Rose Castle occasionally to visit his brother-in-law, and Bishop Percy's wig was given to him by some connection of the bishop's after the bishop had no further use for it. From Railton Potter the wig descended to his son, Armstrong Potter, who resides near Wrexham, and from him Chancellor Ferguson has lately bought it, and placed it among his curios at his residence in Lowther Street. There it sits on a barber's wig-block, an interesting relic of a bygone time. Perhaps some day it will gravitate to Tullie House, where there is a fine collection of portraits of bishops of Carlisle.

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Among the recent additions to Tullie House is the "Sheriff's ring," which the late Mr. William Farish, of Chester, by his will, bequeathed to that institution. But what is a "Sheriff's ring"? it may be asked. It is, we believe, a speciality at Chester. Some time in the seventeenth century, a certain Owen Jones left money to the Mayor and Corporation of Chester for charitable purposes. their trouble in distributing the money, the Mayor was to have 40s, and the Sheriff 30s., to buy rings with. In the course of time, the Charity Commissioners became administrators of the fund, and after that there were no more rings for either mayors or sheriffs provided out of the trust. A practice grew up, however, of presenting rings to the sheriffs by private subscription, and the one which Mr. Farish left to Tullie House is probably that which his friends presented to him in the year 1869, when he filled the office. It is a handsome gold ring, with some arms, at present unidentified, engraved on the bezel. It is interesting as a curio; but still more so from the fact that it was the mark of a high honour conferred upon a native of Carlisle who