in August, 1860, was elected an associate in the following November, and was a frequent attendant at our Congresses. The Society of Antiquaries appointed him their Local Secretary for Oxfordshire in 1869. He was one of the founders of the North Oxfordshire Archæological Society, a member of the Archæological Institute, the British Association, the Palæontographical Society, etc., also a Fellow of the Geological and the Royal Geographical Societies, besides being connected with many other societies literary or religious. Mr. Faulkner died very suddenly, of heart-disease, on the 11th of September, 1871. He bequeathed his numerous fossils, chiefly local specimens, to the New University Museum at Oxford; and what the Trustees of that establishment did not want, to the Warwick Museum. All the books, antiquities, and other curiosities, were left to his only daughter, wife of Mr. J. Severn Walker of Worcester; and the collection will shortly be arranged at their new residence, Stuart's Lodge, Malvern Wells. GEORGE JAMES DE WILDE, Esq., who was one of our oldest members, having joined our Association in 1846, died at his residence in Northampton, on the 16th of September, 1871, in his sixty-seventh year. Mr. De Wilde's early years were passed in London, where he devoted himself to the fine arts, and formed a large literary acquaintance. In 1830, he was appointed Editor of the Northampton Mercury: an appointment which was of about forty years' duration, and ended only by his death. During the time he conducted the Mercury, he won the respect and esteem of all classes, of whatever politics or shades of opinion. He was very studious, and was also a good antiquarian and archæologist, and contributed many papers to the Gentleman's Magazine, Notes and Queries, and various artistic and literary publications. He was one of the chief promoters of the Mechanics' Institution at Northampton, and the Northampton Museum owes its establishment to his unceasing labours, which were continued up to a few days before his death. He was for many years a member of the Northamptonshire Architectural Society, and was a zealous supporter and contributor to all the local charities, so that in him the town has lost a most accomplished man and a most useful and excellent member of the community. ROWLAND FOTHERGILL, Esq., of Hensol Castle, Glamorganshire, joined our Association, at the Durham Congress, in 1865. He was an intimate friend of our late valued associate Mr. Forman, and was largely connected with the iron manufacture of Wales. He died the 19th of September, 1871. JOHN SAVORY, Esq., was a qualified medical practitioner, but best known as the head of the celebrated firm of Savory and Moore, chemists. He was a member of our Association from 1859, and died at Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, October 12th, 1871. WILLIAM WHITE, Esq., of Fulwood, near Sheffield, joined our Association in 1860. He died early in the year, but we have not been able to ascertain the exact date of his decease. SIR PEREGRINE PALMER FULLER PALMER ACKLAND, of Fairfield, Somersetshire, Bart., was born in 1789, and succeeded his father as second baronet in 1831. By his marriage in 1815, he leaves an only surviving daughter. He joined our Association in 1856, at the Bridgwater and Bath Congress, when he acted as one of the Vice-Presidents, and remained a member up to the time of his decease, in December 1871. We have also to announce the death of the following foreign member. M. JACQUES BOUCHER DE CREVE CŒUR DE PERTHES was born in Rethel, the 10th September, 1788. For more than thirty years he had been President of the Société d'Emulation of Abbeville, and had given the best direction to the proceedings of that Association. His publications are numerous, and almost of every kind. He wrote tragedies, comedies, accounts of travels in Constantinople, in Greece, in Denmark, in Russia, in Spain and Algeria; also Sous Dix Rois, Souvenirs de 1791 à 1860; De la Création; a Dictionary of The Sensations; Des Preuves de l'Existence de l'Homme Antediluvien; Antiquités Celtiques et Antediluviennes. These last researches, and, lately, the discovery of Moulin-Quignon, are the principal titles of M. Boucher de Perthes to fame. THE JOURNAL OF THE British Archaeological Association. DECEMBER, 1872. NOTES ON THE WEST SAXON BISHOPRICS, MORE PARTICULARLY THAT OF SHERBORNE. BY HENRY GODWIN, ESQ., F.S.A. IN presenting a brief memoir of a succession of men who once held aloft the torch of Christianity and civilisation, and, having passed it on to others, disappeared from the scene, I feel that the subject demands less apology than the imperfect manner in which I have treated it. propose to trace the bishopric of Wessex from its first establishment at Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, until it was divided into the sees of Winchester and Sherborne; and then, leaving Winchester to its happier fortunes, to accompany Sherborne through all its vicissitudes until it loses itself in the see of Sarum. My principal object will be to unravel an ecclesiastical entanglement which has existed for many centuries, relative to the episcopal sees in the counties of Wilts and Berks; but before I arrive at that point, I shall have occasion to mention the successive bishops who held jurisdiction within the narrowing limits of the diocese of Sherborne; the renowned individuality of some of whom will, it is hoped, relieve the subject from being a mere hortus siccus of episcopacy. It is important to bear in mind that the kingdom of West Saxony embraced the counties of Surrey, Berks, Southampton, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, and Devon.' The first bishop of this territory was St. Birinus, who, having promised Pope Honorius (probably without any misgivings as to his own Florent. Wigorn., Mon. Hist. Angl., p. 619. 1872 11 ability) to complete the conversion of England, commenced by St. Augustine about forty years before, was, by command of the Pontiff, consecrated by Asterius, Bishop of Milan, to the office of a bishop generally, without any precise territorial jurisdiction being assigned to him," in episcopatus consecratus est gradum." He commenced his labours among the Gewissi, or West Saxons, and baptized their king, Cynegils, on the day of his marriage with the daughter of Oswald, the powerful king of Northumbria, A.D. 635. Both kings concurred in the grant of the city of Dorcic (Dorchester in Oxfordshire) to Birinus for his episcopal seat. From this joint concurrence it has been inferred that Cynegils was a subregulus to Oswald. Doubtless Oswald was a bretwalda, or chief, among the kings of the Heptarchy at this period; and it is not improbable that as far as Oxfordshire, which was a portion of South Mercia, is concerned, Oswald was the chief ruler. Be this as it may, Birinus held his episcopal seat at Dorchester; and, having exercised his episcopal authority over the whole of Wessex, he was buried there A.D. 648.4 Birinus was succeeded by Egelberht, during whose episcopate the West Saxon king, Canwalch, divided his kingdom into two dioceses (parochias), Winchester and Dorchester, appointing Wina to the former see, A.D. 661; upon which Ægelberht retired in disgust, and became Bishop of Paris; and Wina presided, as bishop, over both sees, 661-6; as did also his successor, Leutherius, 670-76. Hædda, who followed (676), transferred the see of Dorchester wholly to Winchester, 678, and from thence ruled the whole territory of the West Saxons until 705. On the death of Hædda, Dorchester," which properly belonged to Mercia, having been abstracted, the bishopric of West Saxony was again, and permanently, divided into two sees,-Winchester, including the counties of Surrey and Southampton; and Sherborne, including all the other counties above specified; and the former see was placed under the episcopal presidency of Bishop Daniel, and the latter under that of Aldhelm." I A.D. 597. Bedæ Hist. Eccl., iii, c. 7. 3 "Donaverunt autem ambo reges." (Bed. ut sup.) His remains were afterwards translated by Bishop Hædda to Winchester. 5 Dorchester continued a separate see until removed to Lincoln by Remigius, 1067-93. It may be well to note in passing that this arrangement was made by King St. Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne, deserves a more extended notice, as he is one of the most interesting personages of early medieval times, and perhaps reflects more of the higher ecclesiastical life in England, during the infancy of the Church, than is to be found elsewhere. He was born A.D. 656, of Saxon parentage, and was related, though distantly, to King Ina. His early education was derived from Adrian, abbot of St. Augustine's Monastery at Canterbury, from whom he acquired considerable knowledge of Greek and Latin; and he afterwards pursued his studies under Maildulph, or Meldum, an Irish monk, the founder of a little monastery, on the site of which Malmesbury Abbey now stands. Aldhelm became an accomplished scholar, and had the merit of being the first Englishman practically acquainted with classical metres. In no vain spirit of jactitation he appropriated to himself the lines of Virgil:' "Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, and verse, His writings, which were numerous both in prose attracted the correspondence of all his literary contemporaries, foreigners as well as fellow countrymen, and also the high commendation of Beda, who pronounces him, “vir undecumque doctissimus." William of Malmesbury, his best biographer, was enthusiastic in his praise. "If you read Aldhelm attentively," says he, "you would judge from his acuteness that he was a Greek, from his high polish that he was a Roman, and from his pomp that he was an Englishman." From the specimens which remain (and they leave no deficiency to be regretted), modern taste would, perhaps, give a qualified assent to this criticism; for, passing over the slight tinge of Greek sophistry which appears in his writings, and which in its full development has, perhaps, more than anything else served to debase the currency of human thought and feeling, Aldhelm's style might be assigned a place between the silver age of Rome and the silver-lead age of early British literature. Church bells are, I believe, Ina, Brightwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Egwine, Bishop of Worcester. (Flor. Wig., ut sup.) 1 Georg. iii, 10, 11. 2 H. E., v, 18. See W. Malmes., Gesta Pontificum, lately published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, pp. 330 et seq. A life of St. Aldhelm, by Faritius, abbot of Abingdon, is given by the Bollandists in the sixth volume of the Acta Sanctorum, p. 84, 25 May. See also Wharton's Angl. Sac., ii, præf., and pp. 1-19. |