Sir Piers of Exton, as adopted by Shakspeare; but it did not appear that he did so on any new or substantial authority.

Nov. 22. Henry Hallam, esq. V.P. Mons. de la Fontenelle de Vaudoré, Conseiller a la Cour Royale de Poitiers, was elected a Foreign Member.

George Fred. Beltz, esq. F.S.A. communicated a copy of a very interesting paper, written by Sir Philip Sidney on the morning of his death. The original is preserved in the State Paper Office; and besides some lines in Latin from the hand of the languishing hero, which we believe are given in the Sidney Papers, contains also a letter, hitherto unpublished, written in Dutch by a medical attendant to his uncle, an eminent physician, stating, in pressing terms, how much his attendance was desired. Mr. Beltz recounted the particulars which have been preserved relative to Sir Philip Sidney's last illness, whilst he lay for twenty-four days suffering from the effects of his fatal wound received at Zutphen; and the whole formed a memoir of a highly interesting character.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.

Nov. 8.-The first meeting of the season was held, W. Tooke, esq. in the chair.-Mr. Hamilton read a letter addressed to Col. Leake, of great interest to the topography of Athens, and the right understanding of ancient writers, from a Mr. Ross, who has been some time resident there, and is an antiquary of great zeal and ability. Mr. Ross is of opinion that the so-called temple of Theseus was in reality a temple of Mars. He describes some recent discoveries on the outside of the old walls, which appear to decide the gate by which Pausanias entered from the Piræus; and also to determine other sites and buildings of Athens hitherto mistaken or unknown. In digging some foundations at the spot indicated, the excavators fell upon an edifice of large square blocks, approached by two (or perhaps three) steps. Near were found two marble heads of a youth and a female, the latter with the ears pierced for ear-rings. Another head, and a female torso of colossal stature, were also found, though only one side of the temple was laid open. All these antiquities are deposited in the temple of Theseus, which has been converted into a museum. They are thought to be of the period of the Roman empire, and the newly discovered temple to be that of Eubulides (see Pausanias), with its thirteen statues of Minerva, Jupiter, the Muses, &c. If this be correct, Mr. Ross

suggests that it fixes the Pyraic gate, and gives a very different distribution of the great Athenian public buildings than has heretofore been supposed.

On breaking ground for a quarry at Wovershill, in the parish of Banwell, near Axbridge, Somerset, at about two feet depth, a burial-place was discovered, whence seven bodies have already been exhumed, some of them in excellent preservation. The coffins containing them were in good condition, and made of burnt clay, about three inches thick, and dovetailed together, something on the same principle as is now adopted by carpenters.

Some labourers while digging a hole in the Rope-walk, Lynn, for the erection of a post, lately discovered, just below the surface of earth, two stone coffins, containing bones. The place where they were found is contiguous to an old monastery.

SEPULCHRAL EFFIGY OF RICHARD I.

Some researches recently made in the cathedral of Rouen have led to the discovery, under the pavement of the sanctuary, of the effigy of Richard Cour-deLion, which used to ornament his tomb, and a box enclosing his heart. This statue, which is in perfect preservation, is six feet and a half in length, and represents the king in a recumbent position, in a long robe, a crown on the head, and the feet resting upon a lion; the figure is in perfect preservation, with the exception of the nose, hands, and feet, which have evidently been broken for the purpose of flattening the figure to lay the present pavement over it. By the side of the tomb was found a large leaden case, with the inscription "Richard Courde-Lion, Duc de Normandie, Roi d'Angleterre." In the lid of the box a hole had been made, probably to search for money, as it is said the leaden case was once inclosed in a silver one, and that money was placed in it. Some rubbish, as mortar, bits of stone, and wood, had got into the case by means of this hole, and with this was mingled a dark substance, supposed to be blood, which had issued from the heart after it was placed in the case. The lion heart is still perfect, but much shrunk in its dimensions; it was enveloped in a sort of taffety of a greenish colour. The heart at present remains at the palace of the Archbishop of Rouen, the case having been repaired and fastened up in the presence of the prefect and the principal authorities.

The effigy has been conveyed to a chapel behind the high altar, and will be placed upon a sarcophagus of black marble when the broken parts of the figure are restored, for which purpose an Italian artist is employed, who has very successfully restored the magnificent monument in the same chapel, familiar to all visitors of Rouen cathedral.

A rude representation of King Richard's effigy, and other corresponding effigies of his queen, Berengaria, and his elder brother King Henry junior, will be found engraved in Montfaucon, plate LXX. together with the more elaborate effigies at Fontevraud, which have since been so carefully drawn and engraved by C. A. Stothard. The tomb was once inclosed by a railing of silver, which was sold in the middle of the thirteenth century, in order to pay the ransom of St. Louis.

ANTIQUITIES OF ROME.

At the meeting of the Archæological Academy, on the 17th May, the Secretary, Visconti, read an account of an interesting and important discovery made in a vineyard situated without the gate of Sta. Maria Maggiore, near the church of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, and the tomb of St. Helen. The proprietor was led, from some remains of antiquity, to examine a neglected building, in the floor of which he discovered an entrance to a subterranean gallery, which had been filled with soil falling through apertures made in the ceiling for the admission of air. He caused this passage to be cleared, and was amply rewarded by the discovery of a mosaic pavement, seventy-two palms in length, and five in breadth. From the close resemblance of the tombs to those in the catacombs, and principally from the emblems of the cross in the pavement, the learned secretary pronounced GENT. MAG. VOL. X,

it to be a branch of the ancient cemetery known by the name of St. Tibertius, SS. Peter and Marcellinus, and inter duas lauros. The gallery is of the same vaulted form as the other catacombs, but is higher and more spacious; along the sides, and in the transverse galleries which cross the main branch, are tombs, about seven feet in length, and two in height, hollowed in the wall, or in the form of altars, with arches over them. The mosaic pavement is of the most elegant and varied design, and, besides the figure of a dove bearing an olive branch, ornaments emblematic of the cross are repeated in different forms. It is supposed that the pavement was executed about the time of Constantine, and that a passage will shortly be discovered, connecting it with the well-known cemetery already mentioned.

A large basso-relievo has recently been found in the foundation of an ancient tower near the Porta Maggiore, which represents a Roman bakehouse, with all the operations of bread-baking, Galignani's Messenger also states, that the great aqueduct of Claudius is being cleared out with much activity.

ANCIENT CARTHAGE.

Sir Grenville Temple has employed himself for the last six months in making excavations on the classic soil of Carthage. On the site of the temple of Ganath, or Juno Coelestis, the great protecting divinity of Carthage, he found about 700 coins, and various objects of glass and earthenware. But the most remarkable, and least expected of his discoveries, is that of a villa, situated on the sea-shore, and buried fifteen feet under the ground. Eight rooms have been completely cleared, and their size and decorations prove that the house belonged to a wealthy personage. The walls are painted, and the floors beautifully paved with mosaic, in the same manner as those at Pompeii and Herculaneum, representing a great variety of subjects, such as marine deities, both male and female, different species of sea-fish, marine plants, a vessel with female figures dancing on the deck, and surrounded by admiring warriors; other portions representing lions, horses, leopards, tigers, deer, zebras, bears, gazelles, hares, ducks, herons, &c. Ten human skeletons were found in the different chambers. In another house are mosaics, representing gladiators contending in the arena with wild beasts, and over each man is written his name. In another part are seen horse races, and men breaking in young horses. Sir G. Temple will shortly publish a complete account of his important and extra, ordinary discoveries.

40

A company has also been formed at Paris for exploring the ruins of the same ancient city, and fifteen cases of antiquies have been brought to France.

ROMAN COINS FOUND NEAR

HUDDERSFIELD.

MR. URBAN,-In page 182, I furnished a brief account of certain discoveries of Roman remains in this neighbourhood, and more especially of a collection of Roman coins found near Thurstonland, a few miles from Huddersfield. In consequence of their subsequent dispersion in so many quarters, I was enabled to send the names only of a few of the emperors whose images they bore. I have since heard of several others; but, by the favour of Mr. Morehouse, an intelligent surgeon, living near Thurstonland, (whose antiquarian zeal led him to exert himself on this occasion,) I can now add the fruit of his labours. The list of coins I have received from him is as follows: Claudius Gothicus-Cl. TacitusVictorinus - Tetricus-Gallienus - Carinus-Carausius - C. M. Aur. Probus -and the Empress Mammea Augusta. The discovery of so many coins of the Lower Empire, is a strong proof that this part of the kingdom was not abandoned by the Romans till a very late period.

The remains also of some funeral urns, of a very coarse construction, and one more complete than the rest, containing burnt bones, have been found at Deanhead near Huddersfield. As this part of the country is in the neighbourhood of the ancient Cambodunum, there is every reason to suppose that they are Roman urns; and as it is asserted that similar dis

coveries have been made near this spot, above forty years ago, there is yet a probability that a more diligent search may be rewarded by other more important discoveries. The township of Scammonden, where these urns were found, is spelt, in the most ancient documents, "Scameden," which appears to me to be nothing more than a continuation of the Roman name Camodunum, divested of its Latin termination, and with the addition of the letter S prefixed. Huddersfield.

J. K. W.

DISCOVERY OF ROMAN SKELETONS.

Some interesting discoveries have been recently made at Shooter's Hill, near Pangbourn, Berks, on the line of the Great Western Railway. Several human skeletons, in a high state of preservation,

have been disinterred, together with small sepulchral urns, of rude workmanship, but elegant and classical devices, and upwards of 40 Roman coins, of gold, silver, and brass, of the reigns of Domitian, Constantine, Julian the Apostate, Constantius, Gracianus, Licinius or Lupicinius the Pro-prætor (who was invested with regal authority), and several others. Spear-heads, battle-axes, and spurs of British and Roman manufacture, were also found; and some of the graves contained considerable masses of charcoal, without bones. The bones are well preserved, having lain in dry gravel, about four feet from the surface, immediately overlaying the chalk; and one of the skulls appears heavier and more consolidated than is natural.

BURIED CITY DISCOVERED IN PERU.

The Captain of an American vessel, named Ray, has lately discovered on the coast of Peru, in the environs of Garvey, province of Fruscillo, an ancient buried Following City of considerable extent.

the course of some excavations which he made, he found the walls of the edifices still standing, and many of them in a complete state of preservation. He infers from the numbers and extent of them that the population of the city could not have been less than 3,000 souls. Numbers of skeletons and mummies in a perfect state of preservation were found among the private and sacred edifices, and a great number of domestic utensils, articles of furniture, coins, and curious antiquities. The earthquake by which it would appear the city was engulphed, appears to have surprised the inhabitants, like those of Pompeii, in the midst of their daily avocations, and many of them were found by Captain Ray singularly preserved, by the cise action or employment of the moment exclusion of atmospheric air, in the prewhen overwhelmed. One man standing up as if in the act of escaping, was dressed in a light robe, in the folds of which coins were found, which have been sent to the scientific institution of Lima for

investigation. A female was also found sitting in a chair before a loom, which contained an unfinished piece of cottonstuff, which she was in the act of weaving. The cotton-stuff, which is of a gaudy pattern, but very neatly fabricated, is about eight inches in diameter, and appears to have been only half completed. A great number of antiquities and curiosities found in this American Herculaneum have been sent to the Museum of Lima.

GREEK ANTIQUITIES.

From a letter, dated Athens, May 27, 1831, addressed to the Minister of Public Instruction of France, by M. Raoul Rochette, entrusted with an archæological mission into Greece, we glean the following particulars :—

At Syra, the Syrus of the ancients, and the country of Pherecydes, an island situated in the centre of the Cyclades, he met with a collection of antique marbles recently formed at Syra, some of them of that place, and others from the neighbouring islands; and hitherto unknown. They consist of inscriptions and basso-relievos, principally of funereal subjects, the inscriptions all in Greek. One of them was the pedestal of a statue in honour of the Emperor Adrian, undoubtedly brought from Delos;-a beautiful antique marble still bearing the Greek dedication in all its integrity. This pedestal has been recently converted into a font, and placed at an angle of the portico around the principal church. There exists in some parts of the town, indeed on the rock on which it is seated, remains of inscriptions, which would well repay researches.

In the isle of Myconi, M. Rochette found more than one curious monument to draw and describe, and acquired a beautiful Greek inscription engraved on the two faces of a piece of red marble. He likewise copied some inscriptions at Delos; but the mass of ruins which cover almost the entire soil of the sacred isle, is so considerable, that it would require the lapse of months, and a hundred workmen to dig continually, in order to exhume the buried monuments. But this is a task that only a government can undertake; and it is an enterprise I have taken the liberty of recommending to King Otho, who proposes to excavate at Delphos, and who would certainly not find fewer treasures at Delos.

The letter then proceeds to describe the recent purgation of the Acropolis of Athens from the modern structures with which it was encumbered. Much of the architectural elements of the Propylæa, which had been employed as materials in the Turkish fortifications, have been restored to their places; others are lying on the ground, where they can be measured with greater facility, and studied very closely. Among the most interesting appearances which have very recently resulted from this double work of demolishing and restoring, is the little Temple of Victory without wings, which had so long been a problem to antiquaries, as much as the Propylæa themselves, buried in Turkish buildings, had remained a mystery. This little temple is now found

entire, with its four columns on both its façades, and with the walls of its cella on three of its sides. Each block of marble marked with the imprint of the time of Pericles, has been brought from the middle of a mass of masonry, and restored to its ancient place. The sculptures of the frieze have likewise been found; these escaped the hand of Lord Elgin, as they were hidden, like unhewn stones, in a modern wall; all that is wanting are the four fragments of the frieze which are now in London. The mosque erected in a part of the cella of the Parthenon will soon disappear; excavations are being made in the masses of rubbish which still cover the soil and avenues, and four beautiful fragments of the frieze have been found; and, though long buried in the ruins of the edifice, they have not suffered from attacks of age or barbarism. They are all four of different subject and cha

racter.

In an excavation opened last year at the south-east angle of the principal façade of the Parthenon, numerous fragments of the ancient temple of Minerva, burnt by the Persians, have been found at a depth of about twelve feet; they were undoubtedly buried by the Greeks themselves, as materials of no value, when they constructed the Parthenon under the administration of Pericles. But they are at the present time precious remains of the history of art; they consist of tiles, called antefixes, of fragments of cornice and frieze, of burnt-coloured earth, which are authentic monuments of a taste for polychrome architecture.

An account of the principal recent improvements at Athens will be found in our Magazine for Sept. 1837, p. 288.

Lately, on searching for stone near the garden of Woodperry House, in the parish of Stanton St. John, Oxfordshire, the pavement of a chancel of a church was discovered, with two head-stones, exhibiting ornamental crosses. The pave

ment consisted of yellow glazed tiles, curiously divided for adaptation to use in various parts. Under these stones the bones of two skeletons were found in a very perfect state. A tradition is still handed down in the neighbourhood that the greater portion of Woodperry, with its church, was destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt. Woodperry formerly was the property of Richard, Duke of Cornwall, King of the Romans, and at the time of the dissolution of monasteries, under Henry the Eighth, was possessed by the Abbey of Osney. It was purchased in the reign of Mary, by New College, Oxford, to which it now belongs.

The anarchy in Spain becomes from day to day more irremediably confounded, and more deeply stained with blood. Half the capital is in a state of war with the nominal Sovereign, who resides in the other half-and every day discloses a new conspiracy pervading the whole city. The army is divided like the country and the towns-one division adhering to one general, another to another-and it is hard to say whether they prosecute more zealously their hostilities amongst themselves or against the Carlists. The war with the latter has assumed a new character-instead of meeting in the field, the belligerents content themselves with shedding the necessary quantity of blood, by the slaughter of whatever unarmed political opponents may fall into their hands.

An insurrection took place at Valencia on the 23d Oct. in which General Mendez Vigo, the Captain General of that city, was murdered by the infuriated populace; after which between thirty and forty Carlist prisoners, were brought out from their dungeons and deliberately butchered. Again, on the 4th Nov. in reprisal for the slaughter of 55 prisoners taken by Cabrera at Villiamalifa, an equal number of Carlist prisoners, confined in a the gaol of Valencia, were brought out and shot. At Saragossa a political inquisition sits, under the name of the Junta of Reprisal, daily sending its victims to death.

AFRICA.

The French have recently taken possession of the Stora, a new naval station on the Algerine coast. The occcupation of the province of Constantine is completed. The roads of Stora form one of the best naval positions of Africa. The Romans seem to have been aware of all its advantages, for considerable ruins prove that a numerous population was formerly crowded together on the spot. It will be very easy to make use of the walls, which are very strong, and which may be raised on the same foundations. Vegetation is extremely luxuriant in the whole country; from Col de Kentorse large and lofty trees fill the valleys, and every thing indicates the elements of the highest prosperity, which require only judicious and active direction to be rapidly developed,

CIRCASSIA.

The Russians are not successful in their warfare with the hardy mountaineers of Circassia. In a recent engagement, they were defeated with great slaughter; chiefly in consequence of the desertion of a body of Cossacks of the Black Sea, with officers, arms, and baggage, to the Circassians. Desertions are very frequent; and the number of Polish and Russian soldiers in the Circassian army is sufficient to justify the formation of a distinct corps of deserters. The Russian General Rajowski had offered terms of pardon and submission to the Circassians; but they were indignantly rejected, with the intimation that all future proposals of accomodation would be torn in pieces, and the bearers put to death.

INDIA.

For some time past the Government of India have been adopting very active measures, in consequence of the position assumed and persevered in by Persia. The Shah of Persia, who was raised to his throne mainly by British assistance, has within the last two years been under Russian influence; and Persia can no longer be looked upon as a barrier against the progress of Russia, whose dominion, extending over the greater part of the extreme North of Asia, reaches in a southerly direction to the borders of the Caspian Sea, and the northern frontier of Persia. Stimulated by Russia, the Persian undertook an expedition against Herat; an important place, to which a small principality is attached, in the territory of Afghanistan. In consequence, Lord Auckland determined upon sending 30,000 men, composed of native and British forces, towards the northern frontier. It is composed as follows:-two troops of Horse Artillery; Major Pew's Camel Battery; two companies of European Foot Artillery; two companies of Sappers; her Majesty's sixteenth Lancers; Second, Third, and Fourth Regiments of Bengal Light Cavalry; her Majesty's Third and Thirteenth Regiments of Foot; the Hon. East India Company's European Regiment; Second, Fifth, Sixteenth, Twenty-seventh, Twentyeighth, Thirty-first, Thirth-fifth, Thirtyseventh, Forty-second, Forty-third, Forty-eighth, and Fifty-third Regiments