"At the lower part of this page is a most puzzling kind of cipher, composed partly of figures and partly of letters; the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, representing the letters a, e, i, o, u, l, n, r. It stands thus: '18th48y 21t48 2st 5295s p4ss2ss49 h535s 63b93.' The Rev. Dr. Hume discovered this jumble to imply 'Anthony Eaton est verus possessor hujus libri.' "Ramphilus. Solvendum. Thomas.' Here is repeated the quatrain which Anthony Eaton wrote under the letter B. "In page 20, as in page 3, mention is made of the monarch in whose reign this copy-book was executed: "William. 'Unto great Charles, Our most gratious king, Lets honour give next God In everiething.' October 12th, 1673.' 'When as fair Flora sate thrownd in her glory in June, And Phebus' glistering beames did shine uppon me, I laid me downe without (fear).' "For heare my task, the book itself, is done, for yeares and moneths in restless pases run. By me, John Marple.' 66 Page 22, in the present arrangement of the MS., may have once been the beginning of the book. It displays a verse of mixed Latin and English doggerel: 'Cujus hic liber, if that you would know, In duobus litteris I will you show. Prima est A, splendat soe bright, Si meum nomen you chance to miss, Aspice subter, and there it is. "Page 23 exhibits two bits of fancy writing, the one being the Lord's Prayer, and date, 1673, within the compass of a circle which may be hid by a modern shilling; the other the subjoined anagram, to be read either backward or forward, or up or down: SATOR OPERA ROTAS This anagram has a lozenge-formed border composed of interlaced zigzag lines with roses at the angles. "The twenty-three folios we have now analysed are contained in a parchment cover, a portion of a deed of conveyance of certain property to Anthony Eaton, no doubt the father of the young gentleman who subscribes his name to several of the copies. The deed bears date Nov. 25, 1666, and in it occur the names of Sir Richard Astley, Gilbert and Thomas Pegge,' Robert Fitz Herbert, Sir Aston Cokayne2 and Thomas Cokayne; and on the dos may be read, 'Loving brother, William Eaton.' "This present copy-book is the first example of such an object that has been brought to the notice of the Association, and in all probability long will it be ere another of equal date is submitted to us. "The oldest manuscript copy-book I possess is seventy-nine years younger than the one we have been viewing, having been executed by my grandfather in 1752, when he was fourteen years of age. It is an oblong 4to, of thirty-six leaves inscribed on one side only, and stated on the title-page to be 'A Specimen of Writing in all the usual Hands. now practis'd in England. By Richard Cuming, 1752.' The copies are in prose and verse, comprising aphorisms and extracts from favourite authors; the whole being bordered more or less elaborately with scrolls and flourishes, in which human faces, birds, fish, etc., are intertwined with much ingenuity and elegance. Several of the capital letters are exceedingly beautiful, surpassing in neatness and minute finish the best performance of either Eaton or Marple; and showing the influence Shelley still exercised over the art of penmanship,-an art which is now all but extinct. "We continually hear that the 'schoolmaster is abroad'; and to judge from the wretched scrawling of the present day, we might well conclude that the writingmaster had returned to his mother earth, or else emigrated to some far off land unknown to us. It has been said that many persons consider it an act of vulgarism to write legibly; but surely it was never intended for us to deform and obscure one of the most precious and glorious contrivances which antiquity devised, and left for our comfort and behoof, and respecting which the poet truly declares: 'Great was that genius, most sublime that thought, This image of the voice did man invent To make thought lasting, reason permanent. To spread deep mysteries from pole to pole.' 999 I Was the latter father of Katharine Pegge, who in 1657, by King Charles II, became the mother of Charles Fitz Charles, Earl of Plymouth? This is the author of The Obstinate Lady and other dramatic pieces and poems. Antiquarian Entelligence. DURING the past year the first set of a most valuable series of photographs of various objects of antiquity in the British Museum has been published by W. A. Mansell and Co., of 2, Percy Street, Rathbone Place, W. It consists of upwards of a thousand plates, each 12 inches by 10 inches, representing about five thousand examples, and is arranged as follows: Part I.-Prehistoric and ethnographical series. Plates 1-157. Part IV.-Grecian series. Plates 600-785. Part V.-Etruscan and Roman series. Plates 860-896. Part VI.-Antiquities of Britain and foreign mediæval art. Plates 901-946. Part VII.-Seals of corporations, sovereigns, etc. Plates 9511041. The photographs, which have been taken by permission of the Trustees, are executed by Mr. Stephen Thompson by the advice and under the superintendence of gentlemen attached to the various departments to which the objects represented may be severally referred; and a descriptive catalogue of them has been arranged (approximately chronologically), with an introduction, by Mr. Charles Harrison. Each photograph is sold separately at two shillings, unmounted; and the subjects are intended to "supply evidence of man's advancement from the lowest stage of his history to the latest epoch." The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain, by our learned Vice-President, John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., is a most valuable addition to our archæological literature. Hitherto we have had no work which is worthy to be regarded as a text-book upon the stone period of England; but Mr. Evans has now supplied this want, and has done for this country what Professor Nilsson has done for Scandinavia, and Dr. Keller for Switzerland in his volume upon the lake-dwellings of that country. Mr. Evans discusses the three subjects of the neolithic period, cave-implements, and implements of the river-drift, and under each of these heads are classified the forms peculiar to each period. The author argues most forcibly and cogently against those who still deny the succession of the stone and bronze ages, and brings forward such a mass of fresh evidence, from ancient, classical, and other writers, as serves to render his position almost incontrovertible. The volume is illustrated by two plates and nearly five hundred well executed woodcuts, which considerably enhance its value; and it displays a degree of research, scholarship, scientific knowledge, and logical reasoning, which place it far above the level of any works which have hitherto been produced upon similar subjects. A second edition of Traces of History in the Names of Places, by Mr. Flavell Edmunds, comprises all the matter contained in the first edition, with various revisions and additions. It is an interesting work, and supplies much information which is useful both to the antiquary and the general reader. Moeurs, Usages, et Costumes au Moyen Age, et à l'Epoque de la Renaissance. Par Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob). In reference to this. work we cannot do better than reproduce the following extract from a review of it which appeared in the Athenæum of 6th July, 1872:"Of the numerous volumes which bear the name of M. Paul Lacroix, this is the most recent, and certainly the most magnificent. It is a complete sketch of the history of the subjects mentioned in the title, and of allied themes, such as the condition of the people in Europe, and especially in France; feudal and communal rights and privileges; the customs of the nobles, as well as those of the citizens and rustic population; cookery, hunting, amusements, trade, corporations, money, law, and justice; secret tribunals; the punishments which obtained; the Jews, gipsies, beggars, ceremonies, costumes, etc. Six hundred pages and nearly five hundred illustrations do not, of course, afford space and opportunity for more than general accounts of subjects so many and so recondite. The illustrations, both the chromolithographs and the wood-engravings, are excellent. The former, being chiefly reproductions from illuminations in MSS., are as nearly perfect as they can be. M. Kellerhoven, who produced them, never did better, and he has been eminently fortunate in his subjects. The woodcuts are excellent, worthy of French skill in these matters." From these remarks, the scope and value of M. Lacroix's work will be apparent, and the praise bestowed upon it is not in any degree less than that which it deserves." The following most interesting letter was published in the same periodical, in reference to the discovery of antiquities at Yecla : "Madrid, June 26, 1872. "Near the village of Yecla, in the province of Murcia, in Spain, there is a hill called 'El Cerro de los Angeles,' owing to the numerous 1872 53 era. fragments of statues which have been discovered near it. A little more than a year ago the heavy rains, or some other circumstance, brought to the surface some fragments of antique statues, which attracted great attention, and caused excavations to be made in the locality. The result could not be more satisfactory. The ruins of a temple appeared, a considerable number of stone statues, and a large quantity of small objects of earthenware and bronze. Part of these objects have been bought for the Archæological Museum of Madrid, and of these it is my intention to give a brief notice. I regret not having been able to study the other antiquities found at Yecla, for it is probable that the sight of them would have helped to resolve some of the most difficult questions. "The antiquities of Yecla do not all belong to the same period. Some are, in my opinion, anterior and some posterior to the Christian In all of them there is a marked oriental influence. The most notable of all these antiquities is a series of female standing statues with most curious emblems and vestments connected with the pagan mysteries, which were propagated among the Romans in the first centuries of the empire. As it is not common to meet, in any collections, with specimens of this period as important as these, it is necessary to call the attention of archæological students to the antiquities of Yecla. "The specimens bought for the Museum at Madrid consist of a large quantity of heads of statues, some of which have an archaic type. The female statues, to which I have already alluded, are of different sizes, most of them smaller than life about a dozen in all. Several statues without attributes, fragments of others. Among these is one with the inscription, L.LICNI, a Cerberus, a phoenix, a hippopotamus, a hippocampe, and several small bulls, a sun-dial, the ship Argo (?), separate vases (and of the same form as those which appear in the women's hands), earthenware lamps, and vessels of different kinds; and small pieces of iron, bronze, and lead. Some of these objects have Greek inscriptions. : "The heads which possess an archaic type are of different sizes. Some are male heads with an ear-ring hanging from the ear,—an ornament very rarely used in Greece or Rome, but very common in almost all the nations of the East. Others have a helmet fastened to the skull in the same way as the wigs which figure in the Asiatic and Egyptian statues. Some of these heads are of natural size, and their hair is divided in symmetrical sections like an imbricated pattern, not unlike the sculptures so often found in the ruins of the Grecian colonies. Part of these heads have the same artistic character as the interesting statues which have been discovered lately in the Temple of Venus of Golgi in the island of Cyprus. Some of them are exactly like Etruscan models. One small head, especially, is, by its modelling, the form of its eyes, and the cap which covers its head, identical with a terra |