20 female servants were kept. Forty-nine persons were assessed at more than the normal 4d.-one, "merchant" as high as 10s., another merchant at 5s., William de Mapples, barker i.e., tanner, at 2s. ; another "barker" at 40d., and an innkeeper ("osteler") at 40d. Two other innkeepers, three drapers, a baker, an ironmonger, a lyster (dyer), two walkers, a webster, a mason, and a chaloner (in all 13 against Sheffield 3) had to pay 12d. each; while 30 (against Sheffield 37) of these or other trades (carpenter, tailor, malt-maker, spicer, i.e.. grocer, and so forth), were assessed at 6d. From the 49 paying more than a groat at Rotherham 53s. 8d. was extracted; the 42 at Sheffield yielded only 28s. 2d. Both the callings and the prosperity indicated by this list form a remarkable contrast to the Sheffield schedule. There is no draper at Sheffield: there are three at Rotherham. We have no "spicers," only a "mustardman "-Rotherham has two. We have no ironmonger. It is doubtful whether there was a tanner; Rotherham had two. Here there was only one webster against four there. Rotherham shows three prosperous innkeepers; Sheffield has not one-unless we hazard a guess (from the fact of the association of the name with long subsequent innkeeping, and his having had four servants) that John Trypet may have been an "osteler" or "taverner." But he and his wife, as we have seen, were only mulcted in a groat. A comparison with the parish of Ecclesfield (excluding the Chapelry of Bradfield) is not without interest. In population and taxable heads it was almost the same as Rotherham, but it yielded more than either Sheffield or Rotherham Ecclesfield, 132s. 6d. ; Sheffield, 132s. 2d.; Rotherham 116s. 8d. This disproportion is, however, accounted for by the fact that Ecclesfield happened to include a "chevalier," Johannes de Waddeslay, and a "milites," Thomas Fitz William, each of whom had to pay 20s. Out of the remaining 242, 218 paid 4d., seventeen, 6d., two, 24d., and one, 40d. Of trades, Ecclesfield had six smiths, two souters, two "marchands de beestes," two tailors, and one each bocher, flessehewer (butchers), bakester, mercer, cartwright, wryght; besides one arusmyth (arrowsmith), and one cotteler (cutler). In contrast with these, the importance and wealth of the neighbouring town of Doncaster is shown by the fact that its contribution to the Poll-Tax was as much as 233s. 6d. Our good neighbours below us on the Don are fond of declaring that the old address was "Sheffield, near Rotherham." Their population ranked above ours in prosperity and in the social scale, though it was less in numbers. The town was also on a higher grade than Sheffield in the administrative and magisterial business of the Riding. Justice had to be sought there by Sheffield, with much expenditure of horse-hire and immense inconvenience to complainants, defendants, and witnesses. Ours, indeed, was but an overgrown village. Whatever else we can boast of now, ancient prestige does not contribute to the broadening of our phylacteries.1 1 The above paper was prepared to be read at the Sheffield Congress of 1903; hence its local allusions. Proceedings of the Congress. (Continued from p. 174). THURSDAY, AUGUST 13TH, 1903. On Thursday morning, August 13th, a large party of members and friends visited the earthworks at Wincobank and the fifteenthcentury church at Ecclesfield. The sun was shining brilliantly as the visitors toiled up the rough pathway to the top of the hill on which the camp of Wincobank is situated. On the one side of the hill it shone on smiling fields and waving trees, and made the distant brown moors shimmer hazily. On the other side it struggled through black smoke and grey steam down into the grimy, sordid, dismal streets of Brightside a sadly - misnamed quarter of Sheffield. The contrast was startling, but characteristic of the busy West Riding city. For most of our knowledge of the Wincobank Fort we have to thank the Library and Museums Committee of the Sheffield Corporation, who have defrayed the cost of the excavations recently carried out under the direction of Mr. E. Howarth, who acted as the guide of the party on this occasion, and described the camp. Oval in shape, 150 yards in one diameter and 120 yards in the other, the earthworks can be clearly traced as they encircle the crown of the hill. The outer defence is a bank of earth, next a ditch, and then an inner rampart formed of rough stones piled up to a considerable height, with the larger ones at the base, and the surface faced with smooth clay to render attack more difficult. In this rampart a quantity of burnt stones and charred wood were found built into the wall, and it is surmised that these are relics of the builders' fires. In one or two places the wall had been bored and cut through, so that it might be more thoroughly examined. Round about are small mounds, which have been explored. In one part of the wall the remains of an open hearth have been discovered, but the only "finds" consist of two unworked pieces of jet, four or |