Art. III. Hiftorical Notes concerning the Power of the Chancellor's Court at Cambridge. By the Rev. Robert Richardfon, D. D. late Rector of St. Anne's, Soho.

Art. IV. Obfervations on the Practice of Archery in England. By the Hon. Daines Barrington. In the numerous difquifitions made by Mr. Barrington relative to British antiquities, he discovers fo much laudable induftry, and fuch an extent of information, as muft render his obfervations peculiarly interefting to all the lovers of antiquarian refearches. We fhall therefore, for the gratification of our readers, fubmit to them a part of his remarks on the prefent subject.

As fome of our most fignal victories, in former centuries, were chiefly attributed to the English archers, it may not be uninterefting to the Society if I lay before them what I have been able to glean with regard to the more flourishing state of our bowmen, till their prefent almoft annihilation.

This fraternity is to this day called the Artillery company, which is a French term fignifying archery, as the king's bowyer is in that language styled artillier du rey, and we feem to have learnt this method of annoying the enemy from that nation, at leaft with a cross-bow.

• We therefore find that William the Conqueror had a confiderable number of bowmen in his army at the battle of Haftings, when no mention is made of fuch troops on the side of Harold. I have, upon this occafion, made ufe of the term bow-man, though I rather conceive that thefe Norman archers thot with the arbaleft (or cross-bow) in which formerly the arrow was placed in a groove, being termed in French a quadrel, and in English a bolt.

Though I have taken fome pains to find out when the fhooting with the long-bow firft began with us, at which exercife we afterwards became fo expert, I profefs that I cannot meet with any pofitive proofs, and must therefore ftate fuch grounds for conjecture as have occurred.

Our chroniclers do not mention the ufe of archery as exprefsly applied to the crofs, or long bow, till the death of Richard the Firft, who was killed by an arrow, at the fiege of Limoges, in Guienne, which Hemmingford mentions to have iffued from a cross-bow. Joinville, likewife, (in his life of St. Lewis) always fpeaks of the Chriftian balitarii.

After this death of Richard the First, 1199, I have not happened to ftumble upon any paffages alluding to archery for nearly one hundred and fifty years, when an order was iffued by Edward the Third, in the fifteenth year of his reign, to the fherives of most of the English counties, for providing five hundred white bows, and five hundred bundles of arrows, for the then intended war against France.

Similar orders are repeated in the following years, with this difference only that the theriff of Gloucestershire is directed to furnish

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furnith five hundred painted bows, as well as the fame number of white.

The famous battle of Creffy was fought four years afterwards in which our chroniclers ftate that we had two thoufand archers, who were oppofed to about the fame number of the French, together with a circumftance, which feems to prove, that by this time we ufed the long-bow, whilft the French archers fhot with the arbaleft.

Previous to this engagement fell a very heavy rain, which is faid to have much damaged the bows of the French, or perhaps rather the strings of them. Now our long-bow (when untrung) may be most conveniently covered, fo as to prevent the ain's injuring it, nor is there fcarcely any addition to the weight from fuch a cafe; whereas the arbaleft is of a most inconvenient form to be sheltered from the weather.

As therefore in the year 1342, orders iffued to the sherives of each county to provide five hundred bows, with a proper proportion of arrows, I cannot but infer that these were long bows, and not the arbaleft.

• We are ftill in the dark, indeed, when the former weapon was first introduced by our ancestors, but I will venture to shoot my bolt in this obfcurity, whether it may be well directed or not, as poffibly it may produce a better conjecture from others.

Edward the First is known to have ferved in the holy wars, where he must have seen the effect of archery from a long-bow to be much fuperior to that of the arbaleft, in the ufe of which, the Italian ftates, and particularly the Genoefe, had always been diftinguished.

This circumstance would appear to me very decifive, that we owe the introduction of the long-bow to this king, was it not to be observed, that the bows of the Afiatics (though differing totally from the arbaleft) were yet rather unlike to our long-bows in point of form.

This objection, therefore, must be admitted; but ftill pof fibly, as the Afiatic bows were more powerful than the arbalest, fome of our English crufaders might have fubftituted our longbows in the room of the Afiatic ones, in the fame manner that improvements are frequently made in our prefent artillery. We might, confequently, before the battle of Creffy, have had fuch a fufficient number of troops trained to the long-bow, as to be decifive in our favour, as they were afterwards at Poitiers and Agincourt.'

Art. V. Illuftration of an unpublished Seal of Richard Duke of Gloucefter. By the Rev. Dr. Mills, Dean of Exeter.

Art. VI. Conjectures concerning fome undefcribed Roman roads, and other Antiquities in the County of Durham. By John Cade, Efq. of Durham.-This ingenious gentleman maintains, with great plaufibility, that the traces of an ancient road in the county of Durham are the remains of Ryck

nild Street, mentioned by old historians, but which has long been loft in the uncertainty of topographical description.

Art. VII. A Letter from the Rev. Dr. Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland, tending to confirm Mr. Cade's opinion. Art. VIII. Mr. Bray on the Leicester Roman Military Stone. Though Leicester is generally fuppofed to be the Rate Coritanorum of the Romans, it has been doubted by fome antiquaries; but, by a ftone lately difcovered near that town, and defcribed by Mr. Bray, the common opinion is confirmed.

Art. IX. Obfervations on the prefent Aldbrough Church at Holderness, proving that it was not a Saxon building, as Mr. Somerset contends. By the Rev. Mr. Pegge.-We thall lay thefe obfervations before our readers.

The infcription Mr. Somerfet has produced is not of great antiquity, as he ftates, for Ulf, who firft put it up, flourished but in the reign of king Edward the Confeffor. However, it is a Saxon infcription, and fufficiently both ancient and cu rious to merit the attention of our Society. But the inference drawn from this conceffion, viz. that Aldbrough church, as now exifting, is a fabric erected in the Saxon times, or before the Norman conqueft, appears to me to be liable to two very fpecious, not to fay formidable objections.

First, there was no church at Aldbrough when Domefday furvey was made, the record being entirely flent as to that particular; and yet, I prefume, all the churches then in being are there very punctually recited. It may be faid, perhaps, in reply to this, that the church at Kirkdale, where a Saxon infcription alfo occurs, is not mentioned in Domesday Book. I answer, that the fabric at Kirkdale cannot be expected to appear there, as it was not properly a church, i. e. a rectory endowed with tythes, but only a chapel of eafe.

The fecond objection is, that this structure does not prefent us with any refemblance of Saxon architecture, but on the contrary, every thing there favours of a poft-normannic æra. Mr. Brooke himself confeffes," it now has a more modern appearance;" but this he endeavours to account for " from the fucceffion of repairs it has undergone, and the addition of windows very different from the original lights." A fuggeftion which may be admitted in regard to this or that part of a church; but furely, fir, can by no means fuffice for a whole and entire building. The arches within, which can never be thought to have been altered or repaired, thofe of the windows, and that of the door-way into the chancel, are all elliptic, a mode of building never feen, I believe, in any Saxon erection whatsoever. There is, it feems, fome hewn ftone-work in the lower part of the fouth wall of the chancel," fuch, fays Mr. Brooke, as was generally used in our most ancient cathedral churches."

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churches." A circumftance which, in my opinion, militates very strongly in favour of the recent erection of this church, our cathedrals of this ftyle of building being all pofterior to the Conqueft. It is obferved, again, that there is fome zigzag work in the door of the chancel, and upon this fome brass is laid, Mr. Brooke remarking, in regard to this particular, “that this was a ftyle peculiar to the Saxon architecture." This now appears to be plausible; but it should be remembered on the other hand, that though our Saxon ancestors often applied this fpecies of ornament, as here ftated and alledged, yet we find the fucceeding architects did not fo totally forfake it, but that they fometimes retained it; witnefs the zigzac mouldings, noticed by Mr. Denne, as occurring in poft-normannic ftructures,

But now you will afk, how then do you reconcile this Saxon infcription, fo pofitive and exprefs, with the fuppofed recency, or polt-normannic erection of this church? This, fir, I acknowledge, is a difficulty not eafily to be removed; and I, for my part, can only do it by a fuppofition, which you will think but barely poffible; to wit, that Ulf built a church, which in a few years, and by fome means now unknown, was deftroyed and lay in ruins, A. 1080, when Domesday Book was made: that when the prefent fabric was erected, the old ftone with its infcription, which had happily been preferved, was put up in the new ftructure, and in the place it now occupies: and lastly, that in all probability, Odo earl of Champaigne, Albemarle and Holderness, or his fon Stephen, was the person who founded the prefent church; if at last it was built fo early.'

Art. X. Particulars relative to a Human Skeleton, and the Garments that were found thereon, when dug out of a Bog at the Foot of Drumkeragh, a Mountain in the County of Down, and barony of Kinalearty, on Lord Moira's Eftate, in the Autumn of 1780. By the Countess of Moira.-The parti culars concerning this skeleton, fo far as they could be collected from the imperfect evidence procured by lady Moira, are related with great precifion, and accompanied with such observations on antiquities as do the highest honour to her ladyfhip's literary accomplishments. Amidft our fincere regret at the failure of all the endeavours which were exerted by this illuftrious lady for obtaining more explicit information, we have the fatisfaction to find that the perfeveres in the hope of yet furmounting the obitacles which have hitherto fruftrated her enquiry. When a lady of fuch eminence contributes her efforts towards the cultivation of antiquarian researches, her example cannot fail of producing the moft advantageous effects.

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Art. XI. A further Account of Difcoveries in the Turf Bogs of Ireland. By Richard Lovell Edgeworth.—This ar ticle mentions a coat found ten years ago fifteen feet under ground,

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ground, in a turf bog or peat mofs. With it were many hundred iron heads of arrows, fome bowls of beech and alder, and other wooden utenfils, many of which were unfinished, and two or three facks full of nuts. In the fame place were the remains of a work-fhop, &c. which favour the author's conjecture that this fpot had probably been a large wood, where turners had been employed; to one of whom the uncouth habit is fupposed to have belonged. The texture of the coat was fuch as the knitters and weavers of Ireland, we are told, are unable to imitate.

Art. XII. On the Progrefs of Gardening. By the Hon. Daines Barrington. This well-informed writer, with his usual learning, traces the progrefs of horticulture from the earliest accounts of it in the ancient hiftorians and poets. The gardens first mentioned are thofe of Solomon, Babylon, Alcinous, and Laertes, with the gardens of Lucullus and Auguftus Cæfar; but it should feem, our author obferves, that the two laft were walks, with regular plantations of trees, as Virgil, in his Georgics, recommends the form of a quincunx.

"Non animum modo uti pafcat profpectus inanem.”

In the private gardens of the Romans he remarks, that there were commonly Tweet smelling fhrubs and flowers; in support of which opinion he produces a paffage from Horace. But he evinces, by the authority of Martial, that towards the end of the first century, the prevailing tafte was to have clipt box amongst myrtles and planes. About the fame period, likewife, the Romans appear to have found out the method of forcing rofes, which it had formerly been the custom to obtain from Egypt, at great expence.

Our author justly obferves, that upon the fall of the Roman empire, little attention can be supposed to have been paid to gardening. Since that period, therefore, the earliest defcription of any fuch inclofure which he has found, is that belonging to the Hotel de St. Paul, at Paris, made by Charles the Fifth of France, about the year 1364. In this garden were apples, pears, cherries, and vines, befide peas and beans, beds of rofemary and lavender, with very large arbours.

Mr. Barrington obferves, that in the beginning of the fixteenth century there were green-houfes in England, as appears from one of Leland's poems entitled, Horti Gulielmi Guntheri, hyeme vernantes.' In the Itinerary of the fame author, mention is made of the gardens at Morle in Derbyshire, at Wrexhill, on the Oufe in Yorkshire, and at the Caftle of Thornbury.

Thefe three inftances, fays Mr. Barrington, feem to fhew, what were the gardens commonly which belonged to confider

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