supported by Mary's statement in one of her letters, that the place is not fortified.

The stone coffin outside this small lodge is said to have been found in the walls of Sheffield Castle, and to be that of Thomas de Furnival. The quaint gargoil in Queen Mary's chamber was rescued by Mr. Hodgson, of Stand House Farm. His workmen had found it amongst a lot of loose stones, and were just going to break it up for roadmending! May it not have been fixed at one of the angles of the towers?

It will be gratifying to the members of the Association who recently visited the ruins of the Manor House, to learn that their condition having been brought to the notice of the Duke of Norfolk by his agent, Mr. Henry Coverdale, his Grace has decided on the removal of the modern additions, and the conservation of so much of the ancient buildings as can be preserved. This work is now being carried out under Mr. Coverdale's instructions by the writer, his Grace's local architect and surveyor. The whole of the modern additions are being removed, and where there are gaps in the stone walls they are being built up in brickwork, so that there may be no fear of their being mistaken for old work. In two or three cases, the removal of modern chimney-breasts have disclosed the existence of ancient fireplaces in situ, and in one case an ancient doorway and a small window were found behind a chimney-breast.

BY REV. H. J. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY, M.A., F.R. HIST. S., F.R.S.L.

(Read January 20th, 1904.)

N the fourth fascicule of the first volume of Portugalia, 1903-the leading Portuguese journal of Archæology-is contained a long account, fully illustrated, of the curious and, in some respects, unique discoveries made by Father José Brenha and Father Rodriguez among the group of dolmens situated at Pouca d'Aguiar, in the province of Traz-os-Montes, Portugal.

The account occupies no less than sixty-four large 4to. pages, and besides numerous drawings and illustrations in the text, there are sixteen pages of plates, containing representations of all the most remarkable "finds." An account so given merits the earnest attention of the archæological world, and it merits it the more by the manner of its telling. This is as follows: First, there is an introduction of four pages, in which Don Ricardo Severo, the Editor of Portugalia, and one of the most learned of Portuguese archæologists, recounts his connection with the discoveries, and describes the miseen-scene; then follows a full, detailed, simple and straightforward narrative of the discoveries by Father Brenha, extending over sixteen pages; and finally Don Severo examines the bearing of the discoveries in all their relationships in a thoroughly painstaking and scientific Paper, which he calls a " Commentary," and

This

which fills up the remaining forty-four pages. Commentary" is dated March, 1903, and contains, so far, the latest word on the subject.

The question therefore arises: What are these discoveries, which have created such a stir in archæological circles in Portugal, and seem likely to flutter the dovecotes of students of anthropology thoughout Europe, even if they do not help to revolutionise the ideas held till now as to the conditions of life among the aboriginal Iberian population of the Peninsula, and, incidentally, as to the culture attained by that race in its migration through Europe in Neolithic times? Father Brenha tells us that his attention was first called to the group of dolmens at Pouca d'Aguiar as far back as 1894, and that he systematically explored them, in company with Father Rodriguez, from that date onwards; while in 1901 Don Severo visited the scene, having observed the notices of them published in 1895 by Father Rodriguez in the Archeologo Portugués; and in the same journal in 1898, by Dr. H. Botelho; and the references to them made by Dr. J. Leité de Vasconcellos in his book on The Religions of Lusitania, in 1897, who stated that he considered them "most important."

The whole province of Traz-os-Montes abounds in dolmens, situated for the most part high up in the mountains, the number of them which exist in a relatively small district testifying, in Father Brenha's opinion, to the density of the population, and its long persistence in Neolithic times. As is well known, dolmens are the burial-places of the Neolithic population; they are fashioned after the model of their dwelling-places when alive, and they are found along the whole line of march of the primitive Iberian or Berber race westwards, till on the western shores of Europe and the British Isles their march was perforce stopped, and they had to settle and resist as best they could the pressure of the Celtic peoples from behind. On the plains of Moab, in Asia Minor, in Central Europe, dotting the northern parts of Africa, dolmens are to be seen in more or less abundance; but it is in Cornwall, in Brittany, and here in Portugal that the most numerous and the most interesting are to