RECEIPTS.

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Delivery of Journals and other Postages

Balance at Bank of England, December 31st

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18TH, 1904.

C. H. COMPTON, ESQ., V.-P., IN THE CHAIR.

The following members were duly elected :—

Rev. C. T. Astley, Summer Bank, Llandudno, N. Wales.

Mr. William Wesley, Essex Street, Strand, W.C.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rüffer, of Menibal, 51, Crystal Palace Park

Road, S.E.

Thanks were ordered by the Council to be returned to the donors of the following presents to the Library :

:

To the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society for "Transactions," vol. xxvi, Part 1.

Brussels Archæological Society for "Journal," 1904.

Society of Antiquaries, Scotland for "Proceedings," 19021903.

Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for “Journal,” vol. xxxiv, Part 1, 1904.

Kent Archæological Society for "Archæologia Cantiana,"
vol. xxvi.

Smithsonian Institution for "Twentieth Annual Report of
Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898-99."

Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia for "Report," 1903.

A Paper was read by Mr. R. H. Forster, on "Durham and other North-Country Sanctuaries."

A second Paper was read by the Chairman, on the question "Can Votive Offerings be the Subject of Treasure Trove?" which supplemented his previous paper read on December 16th last, upon the recent decision of Mr. Justice Farwell that the finds at Lough Foyle were "treasure trove," and belonged to the Crown as such.

Both these Papers will be published. Time did not allow of any discussion upon them.

At the Council in the afternoon the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Patrick, called attention to the needless and persistent destruction by the Town Council of Berwick-on-Tweed of the Edwardian walls of that interesting old town; and the greatest regret was expressed that the Town Council were unable to appreciate the value of the remains of the ancient glory and history of their town. Printed slips describing the present condition of the walls and towers, forwarded by Dr. King, the Vicar of St. Mary's, Berwick-on-Tweed, were circulated at the evening meeting.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15TH, 1904.

C. H. COMPTON, ESQ., V.-P., IN THE CHAIR.

Thanks were ordered by the Council to be returned to the donors of the following presents for the Library :

To the Society of Antiquaries for "Scheme for Recording Ancient Defensive Earthworks and Fortified Enclosures."

Derbyshire Archæological and Natural History Society for
"Journal," vol. xxvi, 1904.

Royal Archæological Institute for "Journal," vol. lx, No. 240,
December, 1903.

The Rev. H. J. D. Astley exhibited a volume of sermons preached in various parts of Norfolk during the Commonwealth period, entitled "Præterita: a Summary of Sermons by John Ramsay, Minister of East Rudham. Printed by Thos. Creake, for William Reade, at his house over against ye Bear Tavern in Fleet Street, 1660." Mr. S. W. Kershaw said the dedication of the first sermon in the volume to Mr. James Duport offered interesting data as to the family of Duport, who had settled in East Anglia, as refugees from France. The name Duport has also been connected with Caius College, Cambridge. The sermons preached in Norfolk would naturally lend themselves in dedication to one of a noted local family.

Mr. Patrick exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Winder, of Sheffield, a curious earthenware water-pipe, about 12 in. in length and 4 in. in diameter externally. Each pipe at one end is shouldered to form a neck 3 in. in diameter, for insertion into the next pipe, where the two were joined with a very hard cement. The pipes are of a rich brown glaze outside, very like Brampton ware, but where broken the section shows a close-grained bluish earthenware. At the thick end of some of them there is a narrow band sunk, about ths of an inch wide, and half that in depth, having raised dots, about six to an inch, in the circumference. About 3 in. from the neck the pipe is rough, the surface of the rest of the length to the band being quite smooth. A broken pipe shows the interior to have corrugations, more or less spiral, like the thread of a screw, the corrugations being about from ridge to ridge. Some twenty to thirty of these pipes were dug out of an old cart-track, 7 to 8 ft. below the general level of the ground, the pipes themselves being from 2 to 3 ft. below the track level, in Canklow Wood, near Rotherham. The site is within a mile of Templeborough Roman camp; but whether they had any relation

in.

to the camp, or are of Roman or mediæval origin, there is no evidence to show.

A Paper was read by the Rev. H. J. D. Astley upon a subject which at first sight might seem to have but little relation to archæology, viz. : "Was Primitive Man Ambidextrous?" but the Paper was instructive and very interesting.

Mr. Astley deduced from the many implements discovered in Kent, in France, and elsewhere, belonging to the so-called Eolithic Age, which he preferred to call the "Proto-Paleolithic Age," adapted for use by the left hand, and almost as numerous as those for use by the right hand, that from the earliest period man was an ambidextrous being. As we descend the stream of time to the dawn of history, we find man continuing to use both hands impartially. Palæolithic Man, in his artistic representations of animals, birds, etc., drawn on rock and pieces of bone with equal facility from both left and right, must have been ambidextrous, although for purposes of warfare he had begun to use his right hand for offence and reserve the left for defence. The Neolithic Age affords evidence in the pounders, knives, scrapers, borers, and hammers that, for purposes of domestic life, man still used both hands indifferently. In the Bronze Age, all weapons were hafted, so that there is no actual evidence forthcoming as to the use of the left hand; but that the right hand had not yet finally obtained the victory may be deduced from the fact that the Semites, Greeks, and Romans, at least apparently, wrote first by preference with the left hand, and that the early Greeks and Romans wrote impartially with both. It was not until well within the historic period that the right hand finally achieved the predominance it has maintained to the present day.

Mr. Cheney, Mr. MacMichael, the Chairman, and others took part in the discussion which followed.

The Paper will be published in extenso, under the auspices of the Ambidextral Culture Society, before which body, and in furtherance of whose objects, it was originally read.

N.B.

The Editor has received a number of Books for notice in the pages of the Journal, but the Reviews of these, together with other antiquarian intelligence, and the Obituary Notices, are unavoidably postponed owing to the exigencies of space.

THE JOURNAL

OF THE

British Archaeological Association.

DECEMBER, 1904,

NOTES ON THE FOREST OF GALTRES.

BY S. W. KERSHAW, F.S.A.

(Read, in connection with the Sheffield Congress, January 20th, 1904.)
HE traveller from York about fifteen miles
northwards will now little realize he is
traversing this ancient forest, one of the
most important districts in old times in
the county of Yorkshire.

Few local historians refer in detail to this tract, described by one writer as a Royal demesne, and preserved as a place of amusement for the British and Saxon Kings."

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In like way, Hatfield Chase, about seven miles east of Doncaster, had in the centre of the ground a King's Palace; and De la Pryme, in his interesting Yorkshire Diary (vol. liv, Surtees Society), mentions that in 1694 "there is part of the Palace standing, being an indifferent large hall, with great courts and a garden.

Galtres, like other forests, has played its part in history, and specially came into prominence during the Commonwealth transference of property. All the district around was woody, a fact corroborated in Stukeley's Diaries (another Yorkshire annalist), who in 1694 wrote:

1904

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