Two were broken. I bought a small gold specimen, of which you have a tracing; this weight—168 grains, divided by 12, 14 grains. On the former sheet of tracings you had one of a copper specimen of ring-money, which also answered exactly when divided by twelve grains—2,136 grains, divided by 12, 178 grains. Our Liverpool merchants trading on the coast of Africa, at Bonney and elsewhere, send an article called a manilla, of cast-iron, shaped like the Irish copper or bronze ring-money, which is taken on the coast as money; twenty are estimated as a bar, and the bar varies in value according to circumstances, from 3s. to 4s. In the interior these manillas not only pass as money, but are used as ornaments to the person. The manillas are manufactured at Birmingham, and formerly were composed of copper and block tin."
August 28.
Mr. C. R. Smith read a letter from Mr. George K. Blyth, of North Walsham, Norfolk, announcing a satisfactory result in the application of solution of potash recommended by Mr. Smith at the last meeting of the Committee for the removal of paint from some wooden panels in North Walsham church. Mr. Blyth remarks,—"I applied the potash to all the panels, twenty in number; on eighteen I discovered figures, each with a highly and richly ornamented gold nimbus.
The first panel on the north end of the screen is blank, being painted of a rich and deep red, with gilt ornaments, with the circles formed by the foils. The panels are arched, the form being what may be termed the second, or Decorated period of Pointed architecture, the heads filled in with a cinquefoil moulding, of an apparent later date than the original screen, and painted and gilt in a rather meretricious, or perhaps what may be termed a bad-taste style. I shall now proceed to enumerate the figures, and describe them as well as I can.
