spirit and feeling. Mr. Drew also went appropriately through the other gallant part of Charinus. Mr. Lennard, in the part of Mysis, sustained his petticoat with considerable savoir faire, as did Mr. Robinson the deeds of old Mother Lesbia. Mr. Balston, in Byrrhia, showed himself a very respectacle tiger to a Roman gentleman on town. On the whole the play was fairly supported, much applauded, and went off with success. When it had concluded, an epilogue, after the manner of a Terentian scene, was spoken by five or six of the dramatis personœ. On the curtain being drawn up Davus is seen at a desk in the character of a Poor Law Commissioner, and Simo and Chremes in another part of the room, representing two Magistrates. Besides these, there are an overseer and paupers.

Davus com

mences by telling the Magistrates that their services are no longer required in the administration of the poor laws, and that they may take their departure as soon as they please. The conversation is then interrupted by a noise outside, when two paupers rush in, exclaiming, "We want to see the tyrant. We want bread, and that, too, without the trouble of working for it." They are informed that they must go to the workhouse, and that in the workhouse the husbands and wives are to live separate. They express great indignation, and call on the gods and goddesses to bear witness to the cruelty of the framers of the Poor Law Bill. A young woman next appears with a child concealed under her cloak, and applies for parish relief to support her offspring. She is told that, according to the new law, she must support the child herself. She appeals in vain to one of the Magistrates, who finishes the epilogue with a short address to the paupers, and with a devout wish that the new system may be the means of rearing an industrious and independent peasantry.

PROLOGUS IN ANDRIAM.

Si quis ad has sedes jam forte accesserit hospes
Talia eum tacite secum agitare putes:
"Te quondam, Graiæ decus Ŏ insigne Camoenæ
Pulpita ceperunt digna lepore tuo:
Rome marmoreis extructa est scena columnis,
Auri, eboris pulchrum luce nitebat opus.
Exulat hic inter tenues tua Musa Britannos
Hospitium hic triste et vile, Menander, habes.'
Nostro ergo liceat veniam exorare Theatro,
Si vacua ornatu deliciisque domus :
Hic antiqua vides nostræ incunabula gentis,
Sancta immutati religione loci.
Hos, quos Musarum genitrix sibi vindicat alma
Mnemosyne, temnet num pia Musa Lares?
Quod si cui vestrum curta hæc sit visa supellex,
Seu quis somne humilem credat obessé
torum,

Hic tamen occurrunt ævi monumenta vetusti,
Hic oculos signát dulcis et alta quies.
Ipse valet memores paries evolvere fastos,
Et gerit incisa nomina cara nota

Testor, si qui adsunt, quibus his sæpe ædibus olim

Obrepens molli transiit hora pede : [tum, Seu quis, amici avidus fucatum agnoscere vulAltera quem mater jam fovet alma sinu : Seu quis adest spernens annosa volumina juris, Ostia dum frustra pulsat operta cliens: Seu quis, adhuc hilaris, quamvis provectior annis,

Cui capiti aspersit blanda senecta nives: Testor, nonne placent vobis et scrinia et arca? Nonne placent tabula, stragula, ligna, foci? O quantum ista placent, tantum placeamus et ipsi,

Justitia et nobis sit pietate minor.

EPILOGUS IN ANDRIAM. (Davus, sitting at a table as a Poor Law Commissioner-Simo and Chremes, as Magistrates-Sosia, as Beadle-Paupers.)

D. Sic res est-e quinque viris ego delegor

.

black letter character, and bears the following impress. • Imprented at Edinburgh, be Robert Lekfreuk, Prentar to the Kingis Majestie. Anno Do. M.DLXVIII.

Dec. 3. Henry Hallam, esq. V.P. John Gough Nichols, esq. of Parliament street, and John Hare, esq. of Springfield, near Bristol, were elected Fellows of the Society.

H. Booth, esq. exhibited a stone smoking pipe, elaborately carved by a native hand, brought from North America by Captain Back, R. N.

The Rev. Mr. Bower communicated several specimens of square_encaustic tiles, from Rossington, near Doncaster. The following armorial coats are to be found upon them: 1, a fess vaire between three leopards' heads jessant de lis: 2, a dancette between ten billets: 3, on a bend sinister cottised three spread eagles: 4, lozengy. These tiles are supposed to have formed part of the floor of a chapel in a mansion at Rossington, belonging to the Lords Morley.

The Secretary then continued the reading of Mr. Repton's collectanea relative to the head attire of both sexes, formerly worn in this country; chiefly consisting of quaint and amusing extracts from old dramatists and essayists, down to the days of the Spectator, and even lower.

Dec. 10. Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P. Mr. W. Impey exhibited some frag. ments from the ancient Aquileia, (near Venice,) which was destroyed by Attila the Hun, in the fifth century. They consisted of a portion of mosaic pavement, part of a Corinthian capital, heightened, after the Roman manner, with perforation by drilling, a piece of verd antique, and a few coins of Constantine. Several Roman inscriptions remain there, built into the wall of a house.

J. P. Collier, esq. communicated some notices of Sir Francis Bryan, his family, and connexions. A volume of his Poems was published in 1557. He married Lady Fortescue, a widow, and made himself liable to several debts owing by her before her marriage, and in 18 Hen. VIII. a bill in Chancery was filed against him by the lady's creditors. Mr. Collier communicated a document, which appeared to be an ex- parte statement of the allegations and claims set forth in the bill, with Sir F. Bryan's answer to each-part of which

was read.

Dec. 17. Mr. Gurney in the chair.

Mr. Collier presented a copy of another miracle play entitled "The Advent of Antichrist." This drama has no parallel in any other known collection of productions of the same description. It relates to the advent and defeat of Antichrist, by GENT. MAG. VOL. V.

Enoch, Elias, and the Archangel Michael; and the incidents are conducted in a manner consistent with the singularity of the subject. Twenty-five copies have been printed from a MS. in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, containing the twenty-four Scriptural dramas formerly represented at Chester. It is the last but one of the series, and it was performed by the dyers of that city. The MS. is dated 1591, and was made by "Edward Gregorie, a scholar of Banbury." Mr. Heber had an imperfect copy dated 1592, written by George Bellin, the transcriber of the two MSS. in the British Museum, dated 1600 and 1607. At Oxford is a fifth transcript, which was completed in 1604. (Of the Miracle Plays see Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, I. 10, II. 138, 218.

Jabez Gibson, F S. A. esq. exhibited an ancient enamelled ornament, supposed to be one of the pomanders or boxes of perfume, which used to be worn at the end of a long chain fixed to the waist, in the middle of the sixteenth century.

Sir Francis Palgrave, F.S.A. made known to the Society the discovery of some documents hitherto unedited and unknown, found amongst the Rolls and Instruments of Homage in the Treasury of the Exchequer (having been there deposited by King Edward I.) which entirely alter the aspect of the ancient history of Scotland. They consist of a series of minutes evidently written by a Scottish scribe, and apparently intended as the draft of a notarial protocol, and of a letter, prepared to be produced to the King and Council of England, by one who claimed the Scottish crown, though his name does not appear. The facts which these documents evidence, are the following:

1. That in the life-time of Alexander II. the rights of the elder Bruce, being investigated before the Scottish legislature, received what we should now term a Parliamentary recognition, followed by a Parliamentary settlement.

2. That there existed from time immemorial, in the Kingdom of Scotland, a known and established constitutional body, denominated the Seven Earls of Scotland, possessing privileges of singular importance.

3. That, upon the death of the Maid of Norway, William Fraser, Bp. of St. Andrew's, and John Comyn, proposed at once to raise Balliol to the throne, to the prejudice of the rights of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale; and that thereupon Bruce and the Seven Earls of Scotland appealed from such decision to the authority of the King and Crown of England,

M

to whose judgment, he, Robert Bruce, declared he would submit, not as an arbitrator of a contested question, but as a superior, whose protection and defence he implores,-so that, whatever claims Edward I. may have preferred at Norham, they were either prompted or confessed by this previous acknowledgment of supremacy, hitherto unknown in history. The documents are now in-the press, under the direction of the Commissioners of Public Records.

W. H. Rosser, esq F.S.A. exhibited the mummy of an Ibis, which he purchased at the recent sale of Mr. Salt's Egyptian antiquities, and which he has since unfolded. The bird is in a state of preservation much more perfect than is commonly found in mummies of the smaller animals. The legs had been doubled up so as to bring the feet close under the wings, and the neck is laid down over the breast; the head and beak lying between the thighs. Having been salted and thus trussed, it was covered with asphaltum, or bituminous matter, and then surrounded with numerous bandages, forming a firm and solid mass.

A magnificent British corslet, or lorica, of gold plate, found in October 1833 at Mold, in Flintshire, was exhibited to the meeting. The attention of the Director, Mr. Gage, was first directed to it by a drawing forwarded from Sir R. C. Hoare, which was presented at this meeting. Mr. Gage furnished a few remarks, from which we learned that it was exhumed from beneath a mound of stones, called Brin yr Ellylon, or the mound of the Spirits; and the late Dr. Owen Pughe conjectured that it once belonged to Ben lli Gawr, whose camp, Caer Benlli, is at a short distance from the tumulus. The weight of the stones doubled it nearly flat; but some human bones were found in it, which seems to show that it was interred upon the body of its owner; and some perforations indicate that it was fastened on to his garment. It is richly embossed with a waving pattern, and in this respect precisely corresponds with a British shield, of bronze, in the collection of Sir S. R. Meyrick. The intrinsic value of the metal, which weighs 17 oz., is £60.

J. A. Repton, esq. F.S.A. presented a drawing of a doorway and window of Witham Church, Essex: with some critical observations upon their architec

ture.

Dec. 24. Mr. Amyot in the chair.

Mr. Frederick Devon presented a lithograph print of a singular pen-and-ink drawing, found at the head of one of the Rolls of the Jews in the Pell office of

the Exchequer. It is a sort of caricature, representing in the centre the head of Isaac of Norwich, with three faces, and on either side several other figures, intermixed with demons. It is of the age of Henry III. and therefore a very early specimen of its kind.

A communication was then read from Sir Frederick Madden, F.S. A. in which, after reminding the Society of the interesting nature of the Household Book of Henry fifth Earl of Northumberland, which was edited by Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, he introduced to their notice a document entitled 66 The Apparel for the field of a Baron in his Sovereign's Company," belonging to the same period, and we believe directly relating to the same magnificent nobleman. It is a complete inventory of the equipments required for making a foreign campaign; and describes the Earl's wardrobe, his "harness" and "cote armure beaten with his arms quarterly: coats, standards, banners, and hundreds of pencils all "beaten or "powdered with my lord's arms;" chargers, hacknies, and sumpter horses for every domestic office, as the kitchen, buttery, ewery, &c.; halls, or moveable stables, each for sixteen horses; tents, and pavilions; a moveable coffer, which would serve for an altar, and other sacred furniture for divine offices. All sorts of provisions, including a great variety of confectionary, wax lights of several sorts and sizes, ointments, &c. every species of vessel, tool, and utensil, and all the requisites for their repair, carried in two chariots and seven carts. In conclusion is given a list of the retinue, including, among others, a master of the horse, two chaplains, two heralds, a pursuivant, five henchmen, &c. &c.

The Society adjourned to the 14th of January.

ROMAN COFFINS AT YORK.

On the 9th Nov. while the workmen engaged in levelling the Castle Yard, York, were digging for a drain, about seven or eight feet below the surface, not far from the governor's house, they found a stone coffin, about seven feet long, with a lid of great thickness, weighing nearly a ton; and proceeding further, another of nearly the same size and shape, the lid being of less thickness, lying abreast and about three feet apart, nearer to the County Courts. Each of these contained a skeleton; and one of them bears this inscription: :-"Aurelio Supero Centurioni Legionis vi. qui vix. annis xxxviii, mensibus iii, diebus xiii. Aurelia Censorina conjux memoriam posuit."

The Director of the Customs has published a statement of the trade between France and her colonies and with foreign countries, during 1834, from which it appears that the merchandise imported during that year amounted to 720,194,336 fr. of which 503,933,048 fr. worth was consumed in the country. The exports amounted to 714,705,038 fr.; the goods entered in the bonding warehouses to 469,330,593fr.; the goods taken out of bond to 436,968,771 fr.; the goods upon which the transit duties were paid to 123,770,323 fr.; premiums on exportation to 9,262,221 fr. The value of the specie and bullion imported, and which is not included in the above account, amounts, as nearly as can be ascertained, to 192,408,884 fr., and of that exported to about 97,286,744 fr. The value of goods seized as contraband amounts to 1,313,022 fr. During the year 10,089 vessels entered the ports of France, of which 3,965 were French; and 9,304 took their departure, of which 4,221 were French.

A very minute and long report respecting the Fieschi affair has been distributed to the Peers. Amongst the other preparations making at the Luxemburg, for the trial, is that of arranging the implements of the prisoner's crime, so as to serve as reference to the members of the Court. The infernal machine itself, so long the attraction of visitors in the apartments of the parquet at the Palais de Justice, has been put completely together, and fixed in its original position at a window.

GERMANY.

The first rail-road in Germany was opened with much ceremony on the 7th of December at Nuremberg-it runs from that city to Furth. The monumental stone has the inscription, "Germany's first iron railroad with steam power, 1835." The journey was made in fif teen minutes.

The steam navigation of the Danube has ceased for this year in consequence of the severe cold. The accounts of this vast enterprise give the most striking proof of the progress of this navigation since its commencement. The effects of this great undertaking on the state of civilization of the inhabitants of the banks of the Danube in Wallacia, &c. become more and more apparent. Little colonies are already springing up at the several landing places, which will soon become considerable. On the appearance of the first steam-boat, not six years ago, the Wallachians conceived it to be a work of Satan, and fled from it. Now they anxiously wait for the day of its arrival, to offer their services to the passengers.

ITALY.

The Neapolitan Gazette of the 7th of November, contains a melancholy account of the destruction of Castiglioni by an earthquake, and the burying of more than

100 of its inhabitants under its ruins. The small village of Bovello, with a population of 370 persons, shared the same fate, although with the loss of only two lives and about 30 wounded. In Leppano a family of six individuals was buried in the ruins of a fallen house. In Rende two were killed from the same cause, and one in Casole. Nineteen perished in Santo Pietro, where also several houses were thrown to the ground.

EAST INDIES.

Capt. Ouseley, the resident at Hosungabad, has, after various unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in discovering some very valuable beds of coal in the rich mineral district in which he is stationed. The discovery of this treasure in India at this period, when every exertion is making to bring steam communication between the distant places of India into use, is of the utmost importance, as the greatest obstacle to the establishment of steam-vessels on the rivers was the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of coal, without incurring an expense which the proceeds would not warrant.