device being a figure of St. Catharine. A small plain hoop of gold found at Beverley, and belonging to Mr. Ellison, of Sudbrooke Holme, Lincoln, bears the words—tut. "dis. en. bn. This posy may be classed with the "resoun"—Une sanz pluis, and en un sans plus, inscribed on certain ornaments enumerated in the Kalendars of the Exchequer. Camden states that it was the "word" of Henry V. (Remains, under "Impreses").
By Mr. Bright.—A brass seal, probably Italian, XIVth century, of pointed oval form; the device is a rudely designed representation of the capture of the Unicorn, according to the fable of romance, by a fair virgin. The lady is seated on the ground, and the unwary creature is about to repose on her lap. The inscription is as follows:— + S' FRATRIS. AB'TINI. D'. ASADIS. The popular notion regarding the capture of the Unicorn is found in the "Bestiaire." by William, a trouvère of Normandy in XIIIth century.[1]
January 6, 1854.
The Lord Talbot de Malahide, President, in the Chair.
In opening the Proceedings of the Meeting, the noble President expressed the gratification which he felt in being enabled to take part in the first assembly of the Society at the commencement of a new year. He regretted that pressing occupations, more especially in connexion with the Industrial Exhibition and the arrangements for the "Archæological Court." had precluded the possibility of his being present at their Monthly Meetings during the past year. He would take this occasion to advert to the success which had attended the formation of the collections at Dublin, illustrative of Antiquity and Art, in which he acknowledged with pleasure the cooperation and warm interest shewn by the Institute. He had witnessed with great satisfaction the gratification afforded to many members of the Society and to other English Antiquaries who had visited Dublin during the past summer, and had availed themselves of the opportunity, then for the first time presented, of examining an extensive series of the singular antiquities of the sister kingdom, and of forming a comparison with those more familiar to them. Lord Talbot expressed his conviction that important advantages in the extension of Archæological Science must accrue from the impulse which had been given, and the friendly intercourse established between persons engaged in kindred pursuits in the two countries; and he looked forward with satisfaction to the prospect that on an early occasion the Institute might extend the range of their Annual Meetings, and visit Dublin, where numerous Archæological attractions were presented to their attention. Meanwhile he would urge all who took interest in the advancement of the Society to use their best exertions in giving full effect to the meeting of the present year at Cambridge. He had received encouraging assurances of the cordial disposition there evinced towards the Institute; and he felt no slight anxiety that their Meeting in his own University
- ↑ See "Le Bestiaire Divin," with introduction by M. Hippeau, Caen, 1852, pp. 126, 235. This myth is constantly alluded to by middle-age writers, as in Poesies du Roi de Navarre, t. ii. p. 70. The unicorn was the mediæval emblem of virginity. See the treatise by the Abbé Cahir, entitled "Sur quelques points de zoologie mystique," Paris, 1842. See also various writers cited by Gesner, de Quadrup. lib. i.
