bridge Camden Society, London, 1845, 8vo.—By Mr. Albert Way. Memoirs of Gothic Churches, read before the Oxford Society for promoting the study of Gothic Architecture, No. 1, Great Haseley Church, Oxfordshire: No. 2, Fotheringhay Church, Northamptonshire, 8vo. Remarks upon Wayside Chapels, with Observations on the Architecture of the Chantry on Wakefield Bridge, by J. C. Buckler and C. Buckler, Oxford, 1843, 8vo. Promptorium Parvulorum, the Earliest English and Latin Dictionary, compiled about A.D. 1440; edited for the Camden Society, with various readings and notes by Albert Way, tom. i. A—L, London, 1843, 4to.—By Mr. Michael W. Boyle, the History of the Nevill Family, particularly of the house of Abergavenny, with some account of the Family of the Beauchamps: by Daniel Rowland, Esq.; illustrated by numerous engravings; printed for private circulation only, folio. Mr. Boyle also presented a volume containing a collection of sketches taken by himself, and comprising representations of Penshurst Place; the priory church of St. Botolph, Colchester; the gateway of Bayham abbey; Carisbrook castle; the halls at Sudeley castle, and the archiepiscopal palace at Mayfield, with other interesting subjects.
Mr. Way read the following note, communicated to him by Mr. Patrick Chalmers, of Auldbar, near Brechin:—"The cathedral of Brechin, of which a great part was pulled down about forty years ago, and the remainder converted into a parish church, is supposed to have been built in the twelfth century. The roof was of oak, said to have been cut from an ancient forest covering the base of the neighbouring hills, the Braes of Angus, or lower range of the Grampians. Tradition points out certain hollows or irregularities of the ground in a district formerly occupied by the forest, as the remains of 'the Pits' in which the timber for the kirk roof 'was salted,' a term which seems to imply that it was steeped in some chemical solution. The writer knows not to what degree of credence this tradition is entitled, whether it is supported by any similar tradition elsewhere, or by any record of a process of steeping timber in old times in order to its preservation, or its preparation for use in building. Larch timber is steeped in the Tyrol, the water (pure) being changed several times before the process is completed. The wood becomes very hard and brittle, and it may be doubted if its value as a building material be increased, at least in parts where it is subjected to a strain."
The Rev. Richard Gordon, of Elsfield, communicated a sketch of a bronze figure representing the Gaulish Mercury. It measures in height nine inches, and was discovered in ploughing land in the neighbourhood of Abingdon.
Francis H. Dickinson. Esq., M.P., communicated an account of a discovery of Roman coins recently made on his estate at King's Weston, Somersetshire, at a spot about a mile and a half from Somerton, on the London road, adjoining to the sites of two buildings supposed to have been Roman villas, in one of which a tesselated pavement exists. The recent discovery comprised about forty coins of the Lower Empire, as stated by Mr. Hassell of Littleton, who has carefully investigated the Roman remains
