English, but among them several Roman. One of the English pieces was laid on the table, and proved to be a penny of Henry the Third, struck at Durham. It was suggested that the cavities to which Mr. Gunner alluded were the remains of ancient granaries.
The Rev. Arthur Hussey, of Rottingdean, stated in a letter to the Secretary, that there is a family at Chiddingfold, in Surrey, (a parish near the borders of the county, between Godalming and Petworth,) who claim to be of uninterrupted Saxon descent, and not merely to have held the property on which they reside from the period of Saxon ascendancy, but also to possess a deed which is dated before the Conquest. Mr. Hussey mentioned that his information was derived partly from private intelligence, and partly from Cart- wright's and Dallaway's History of the Rape of Arundel, (note to p. 363,) and that his object in calling attention to the subject was to suggest the expediency of making inquiries upon the spot, should any opportunity occur.
Mr. Beck, of Esthwaite Lodge, Ambleside, Local Secretary, transmitted a drawing of the fragments of an inscribed stone, which were discovered by him, a few years since, in excavating the site of a Roman encampment, supposed to be the ancient Dictis, at the head of Windermere, in Westmoreland. The slab is of limestone, about four inches and a half in thickness, and was found among the ruins of the rampart at the south-east angle of the parallelogram. The inscription is very imperfect, but Mr. Beck stated that he would endeavour to obtain the remainder of the stone in future excavations, and that he hoped to be able, in a short time, to send a plan of the encampment and some observations upon it.
Dr. Richardson, of Haslar Hospital, exhibited, by Mr. Birch, a small engraved onyx, representing Mars gradivus, found in the Sochar moss, near Dumfries, at Mansewold, north of the Roman wall, and close to a Roman station. A large oak tree, with its roots striking down through the sand to a substratum of clay, was discovered in cutting a drain through this moss and near it was found an iron hatchet, apparently of no great antiquity. The moss varied in depth from 20 to 25 feet, and was filled with roots of trees embedded in sand resting upon clay. A block, such as is used in the rigging of a ship, was dug up in the sand stratum.
OCTOBER 6.
Mr. Clement Smythe, of Maidstone, communicated, through Dr. Bromet an abstract of the will of Richard Marley, of the parish of Holy-cross, Canterbury, dated 12th of June, 1521. He desires to be buried in the churchyard there, "afore the crucifix of our Lord, as nigh the coming in of the north door as conveniently may be:" mentions the brotherhood of the holv cross, and the three altars in the said church. Wills that his executors "shall cause to be gylt well and workmanly the crucifix of our Lord with the Mary and John standing upon the porch of the said north door." The testator alludes to the pictures of "our lady of Pite," and of St. Erasmus in the said church, and bequeaths five shillings "towards the setting up of a new Rode Loft" therein.
