napkin or hand-towel (measuring 46 inc. long by 30 wide) of very fine linen, adorned in diaper or damask work, with the royal arms as borne by the house of Tudor, the dragon and greyhound as supporters, and various arabesque borders and patterns of the age of Henry VIII. It belongs to a lady named Chichester, to whom it came from the family of Sparrow of Ipswich, which has been one of the leading families of that town from the time of Henry VIII. to the present, and more connected with the corporation than any other. The Duke of Suffolk, King Henry's brother-in-law, and Sir Anthony Wingfield, his Vice-Chamberlain, both had households at Ipswich, from which the King's linen," (for there is said to have been more of it,) may have been transferred to what has been jocularly termed "the Sparrows' Nest."

It was announced that John Bidwell, esq. Decimus Burton, esq. the Rev. Philip Hunt, and Sir J. T. Staunton, Bart. had been nominated Auditors of the Society's accounts for the present year.

March 16. Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P. Robert Blackmore, esq. of St. Martin's place, Charing-cross, M. R.S.L. was elected a Fellow of the Society.

A letter was read from Sir William Betham, F.S. A. pointing out the extreme curiosity and interest of the Etruscan tombs now open for public exhibition in Pall Mall (see a subsequent article); and stating that the inscriptions had confirmed him in the opinions he has previously expressed of the identity of the Phenician language with the Celtic-the an. cient language of Ireland. The inscriptions on the tomb evidently read from right to left; and, as decyphered by Sir William, are moral reflections appropriate to their situation.

W. H. Rosser, esq. F.S. A. exhibited the perfect skeleton of an Egyptian mummied cat, which he has lately unwrapped, and could not preserve in its mummy state; also two small figures in bronze and porcelain of Bubastes, the Egyptian goddess to whom the cat was sacred, and who was represented with the head of that animal.

The Rev. Lancelot Sharpe, F.S.A. communicated some remarks on the Towneley Mysteries, recently published by the Surtees Society, as well pointing out their value in a philological view, and also the copiousness and variety of their metres. In particular be quoted some hexameters, half English and half Latin.

Sir Henry Ellis then concluded the reading of the description of Connaught; and the Society adjourned over the Easter recess to the 6th April.

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY,

The

March 16. J. Y. Akerman, esq. the Secretary, communicated a paper on the Coinage of the Ancient Britons. learned continental numismatists, Eckhel, Sestini, and Mionnet, have either treated these coins as unworthy of credit, or placed them amongst those of Gaulish chiefs. Our English antiquaries have, however, good evidence to the contrary. No coins bearing the words VERVLAMIO, or CVNOBELINVs, are ever found in France; nor are many other varieties, which are supposed to be of an earlier date to those assigned to the British Prince, and which all differ in type and fabric from those of the Gauls. They may be divided into two or three classes, each belonging to different periods. The former are of the rudest designs, with scarcely intelligible figures or features. Those of the third class, or of the time of Cunobeline, have been too fancifully supposed to bear representations of objects peculiar to this country, when in fact they are rude imitations of Greek and Roman coins. A remarkable instance of this is one engraved by Ruding, Plate 5, No. 9, which he described as representing a British chieftain holding a human head, when in fact it is copied from a coin of Mæonea, upon which Bacchus is represented in a similar posture, holding a bunch of grapes. Mr. Akerman has

formed a classification of the coins engraved in three plates of Ruding's “ Annals of the Coinage," which are partly British and partly Gaulish. He has also collected nineteen unpublished types, which will be engraved in the 4th Part of the "Numismatic Journal," where his disquisition is about to be printed. includes some remarks on the Ring-money of the Celts, and on certain metal wheels discovered in France.

It

Sir Henry Ellis communicated some remarks on the Pewter Farthings of the 17th century, as described by Ruding, who thought they were issued by some tradesman, but Sir Henry showed they were actually circulated by the Govern

ment.

ETRUSCAN ANTIQUITIES.

Campanari's collection of Etruscan and Greek antiquities, now exhibiting at No. 21, Pall-mall, is a collection of the highest interest and philological importance.

The Etruscans were undoubtedly the descendants of those Pelasgi which were conducted by Tyrsenus or Tyrrhenus into Italy, they had established themselves previously in Lydia, whence they colonized both Greece and Italy (Magna Græcia), expelling the Umbri from the latter country.

The Pelasgi may have partly been de rived from the Canaanites and Phoeni cians; their knowledge of the fine arts they probably had at first from the Egyptians. Whatever, therefore, we find in Ancient Etruria herself, derived from this Pelasgic source, supplies the link between Egyptian, Phoenician, and Greek arts and inventions. The Etruscans had many rites and customs in common with the Phoenicians, and one or two very remarkable in accordance with the Hebrews. The order of the priesthood always remained in one family, and in colonizing Etruria, they divided it into twelve tribes, or, as they styled them, lucumonies. They had an extensive mythological scheme, much of which was borrowed by the Romans; they used human sacrifices, a proof that their origin was not Egyptian; their divinities are represented with wings of which circumstance some interesting examples will be found in Signor Campanari's collection. Arnobius styles Etruria the parent of superstition. Their letters are of the earliest form of the Greek, said to be brought by Cadmus from Phoenicia. According to the eastern practice, the writing of their oldest inscriptions is from right to left (see some of the inscribed surcophagi in this collection). They excelled in the potters' art, for which fact we appeal to the numerous specimens in public and private collections; in painting, see the decorations on their vases, and the sides of their tombs; and they were acquainted with the first pure and simple principles of sculpture, for a demonstration of which fact we now refer to the original sepulchral effigies and bas-reliefs in Campanari's collection.

These relics are from the neighbourhood of Corneto, the ancient Tarquinia; the sepulchral chambers, which have been explored, are excavations in the sides of the native rock; the openings to them have been closed with ponderous stones, and their contents are of the most interesting and extraordinary description; the sides of the apartments painted with sacred processions, public games, festivals, rural diversions, the emblems of divinities, &c., hung round with various utensils and instruments of earthenware or bronze; and forming the receptacles of stone sarcophagi, which contain the bones of the deceased, their arms, ornaments, or sacred instruments, according to their office. Signor Campanari has, with excellent judgment, fitted up several apartments, of the size of the original tombs, and decorated them with careful copies of the ancient paintings with which they are adorned, so that the spectator has exact full-sized models placed before him of the several receptacles, while in them

are carefully arranged the real objects in the same situation as they were found. The stone sarcophagi, by Campanari, or his English editor, in the guide book to the exhibition, erroneously terined urns, are most singular relics. In the first chamber is one, the lid of which is formed like those of the coffins of the middle age, by a recumbent statue; a matron holding a vase; the whole formed of the stone of the country, called peperino. In the second chamber, a family tomb, is a priest of Bacchus, with his symbols, the prefericulum and ivy chaplet; his cippus or coffin contains his sacrificial implements: another figure is that of a middle-aged corpulent man, decorated with a large dependent torques round his neck, and leaning on his elbow, as reposing at the festive board. The lectisternium, or table couch, is the cover of his coffin. Another cippus, in the same style, bears the effigy of a young warrior; a third, that of a young woman. The statues were evidently real portraits of the deceased; a proof of the high antiquity of individual memorial sculpture. The male statues, observes Signor Campanari, have almost always a patera in their hands, or a vase, the women a branch, or a fan. The men wear on the neck a circular ornament, surrounded with a ribband, in spirals, which it is difficult to define more accurately. Now, on the first, we have to observe, that these effigies represent the manes or spirits of the deceased in the act of feasting in their Elysian abodes ; and, in conformity with this notion, we ever find, in ancient sepulchres, the vessels of the festive board: and as to the ornament with spiral bands, which adorns the necks of the figures, if they be garlands of flowers so bound together, as Signor Campanari thinks (although they are by no means distinctly defined as such by the sculptor), we have little doubt but they were the predecessors of the ancient Torques-torques of flowers, as well as of gold, are mentioned by the classical writers. The third chamber is the tomb of a priestess of Bacchus; her effigy in low relief reposes on her coffin lid; in one hand she bears the thyrsus; in the other, holds by the leg a young fawn. On either side the door are painted two panthers; and on the walls are represented rural dances to the double flute; preparations for chariot races, feastings, and athletic games, with the spectators seated, and looking on with an intense interest, marked by the painter in their countenances, and signifying their approbation; we observed by their hands held up, and thumbs erect, which last bent back we know was the sign of disapprobation, and

in gladiatorial combats the signal of death to the vanquished.

Verso pollice vulgi
Quemlibet occidunt populariter.*

The sides of the sarcophagus in the centre of this tomb, are ornamented as the others, with bas-reliefs; one of these represents two human victims being brought with their arms pinioned to an altar for sacrifice; on several we see the winged divinities to which we have before alluded.

The fourth chamber is the tomb of another priestess of Bacchus,† profusely decorated with representations of games, dances, and festivals. In some of these dances the figures use a sort of castanets. A lad serving at one of the tables holds in his hand a kind of strainer, for the wine; and one precisely similar, formed of bronze and metallic wire, hangs up against the wall in the first tomb. In the other hand he has a wine pitcher.

In this very cursory view of a collection, which must be seen to be appreciated, we must not omit to notice the weapons of a warrior, deposited with his remains in one of the chests. The defensive arms, a fine circular shield, cap-shaped helmet, and greaves, are of bronze; his sword and lance of iron; all the offensive weapons appear to be of the last-mentioned metal. This chest also contains some bronze fibulæ, neatly engraved with parallel and zig-zag lines, and some very ponderous coins, of the size of the ancient Roman AS; one of them bears a head of Janus, of the best execution, and a thunder-bolt on the reverse.

When Mr. Sams brought his Egyptian antiquities from the Necropolis of Thebes to this country, we were among the first to notice that interesting assemblage, which has finally been added to the stores of the British Museum. We think these Etruscan antiquities, particularly the sarcophagi, with their sculpture and contents, well worthy of similar preservation. It might be a matter of regret to see them dissevered from the paintings that surround them; and we understand that the King of Bavaria has placed some similar Etruscan remains in his museum, within

*Juv. Sat. 3, v. 36.

The writer was greatly gratified to see the roof of this chamber of the priestess of Bacchus entirely covered with the leaves of the classic ivy (of the simple pointed form), as he has described it in the Archæologia, from several Samian vessels found in Britain, and as it is represented from that paper in the Gent.'s Mag. vol. VI. p. 502.

chambers, corresponding in all respects with their original depositories. This is very good taste, and much do we lament, as we have formerly said, that the original casts that formed the decorations of Belzoni's Egyptian tomb (since the exhibition of which we have seen nothing till now, of the same sort, so interesting) should be crumbling to dust under the open shed of a statuary's yard in the New Road. Campanari's Etruscan tombs will, we hope, have a better destination, and at least be preserved by the graver and colourist. It is a singular fact, that all the males in the paintings are of a red or copper hue, while the females are perfectly white. Was this but a pictorial compliment to the fairness of the sex? A. J. K.

ANCIENT SHIELD.

Feb. 20. At the Ashmolean Society, Oxford, after a synoptical essay on Saxon coins by Professor White, a letter was read from the Rev. James Clutterbuck, of Long Whittenham, Berks, detailing an account of an ancient shield found in the pool below Day's Lock, near Dorchester, Oxfordshire, in a bed of gravel which had the appearance of having been the ancient bed of the river, being below the present bottom of the river, and not far distant from an ancient ford. There are Roman entrenchments on Sinodun-hill, which is very near. The dimensions of the shield are 14 by 13 inches, the outer surface being covered with round bosses arranged in concentric circles, with a large boss in the centre. The metal seemed to be a mixture of copper and tin. Mr. Duncan and the President of Trinity, made some observations upon it, the latter considering the workmanship too rude for a shield of Roman construction. Some fragments of ancient pottery were likewise exhibited, found in the same neighbourhood.

EGYPTIAN MUMMIES.

March 6. At the close of a series of six very interesting and instructive Lectures on Egyptian Antiquities, delivered at Exeter Hall, by Mr. Pettigrew, that gentleman unrolled a mummy, liberally presented for the occasion by Mr. Jones, of the Admiralty. The inscription on the outer case differed from that on the inner. Both stated the party to have been a female; but the names and genealogies were different, and the latter stated the mother of the deceased to be living when her daughter died. It might be that the wrappings would settle the point; which, however, they did not,for no name was found on them, as often

Occurs. The mummy was Greco-Egyptian, and embalmed after the ancient manner; the bowels being extracted by an incision on the left flank, and the brains probably through the nostrils, as the nose was much broken. The legs were separately bandaged, and the ankles bound by stripes of painted linen, about half an inch in breadth. The figures were not hieroglyphic, but simply ornamental. Bands of. the same kind surrounded the arms, which were crossed upon the breast; and a similar circle went round the neck, with a thin golden scarabeus in front. On each knee was also a thin piece of gold, resembling the lotus-flower; over each eye the proviIdential eye of Osiris, of the same material; and another golden ornament upon the top of the ridge of the nose. upper wrappers were not voluminous, and of coarse nankeen-coloured linen. Then came a complete envelope of asphaltus, and below that the usual disposition and extent of linen rolls. On the soles of the feet were slight sandals, transversely striped black, white, and red, exactly like those painted on the bottom of the inner case. The finger and toenails were gilt; and there were rings on the fingers.

The

On the 10th of April Mr. Pettigrew will assist at the unrolling of a splendid munimy found at Memphis, and brought to this country by Signor d'Athanasi.

All the mummies that exist in the museums of this and other countries have been found at Thebes and Abydos, and all that have hitherto been unrolled were from those places, and when opened were found destitute of the numerous ornaments which mummies in general are supposed to contain. The discovery of a mummy at Memphis is now of the rarest occurrence, and when the Arabs happen to find one, they immediately proceed to its destruction with the view of obtaining the gold and silver ornaments.

A person digging in the neighbourhood of St. Mary's Church, Scarborough, lately discovered a circular silver box, a silver spoon, a number of silver clasps, a massive silver ring, and several ancient gold and silver coins. The silver box, of rude workmanship, is about two inches in diameter, and appears to have been gilt; on the bottom is engraved, in a rough manner, a representation of the Crucifixion, and the lid is covered with an etching of the Holy Lamb. There is little doubt it was a reliquary. The spoon is jointed in the handle, so as to fold up to put in the pocket; the slide which passes over the joint to fix the handle represents a bishop's mitre, and it is sup

posed to have been used by the priest in anointing with oil or administering extreme unction. Among the coins are a silver penny of Edward I., a groat of Edward III. struck at Calais, an angel of Edward IV. a gold noble and a quarter noble-all in fine preservation, and a German jetton. From the various dates of the coins, it is evident that they have been hoarded as curiosities.

Feb. 22. As some labourers were digging in a field belonging to Mr. Samuel Forster, of Southend, near Lewisham, they discovered two old blue china jars, in which were about 850 gold coins of the reign of Charles I., value about 10007., which they immediately took to their master. The lord of the manor is the Earl of Dartmouth.

CARTHAGE.

Extract from a Letter on board the Vanguard.-" "We have been to Tunis since I last wrote to you, and I visited and took sketches of the ruins of Carthage, which are very interesting. Sir Thos. Reade, our Consul there, has commenced excavating the ruins, and has been very successful hitherto, having discovered a number of beautiful Corinthian columns supposed to have belonged to the temple of Jupiter: the shafts are quite plain, but the capitals are beautifully worked, and as perfect as if they were just finished. He has also found a colos sal head of Jupiter, and his foot, and a small hand of Ceres holding a cornucopia. His collection of coins is also, I understand, very beautiful, and must be very valuable, as some of them are 2000 years old." (See our January number, p. 86.)

ANTEDILUVIAN DISCOVERIES.

Dr. Klippstein, a German savant, who has long devoted himself to the study of geology, and who is at present directing the excavations in the neighhourhood of Alzei (a small town in Rhenish Hesse), where numerous fossil bones have been found, has lately made a most valuable discovery for natural history.__ In digging 28 feet below the soil, near Eppe'sheim, about a league distant from Alzei, he found in a state of the most perfect preservation the head of a donitherium giganteum, probably the most colossal of the antediluvian animals, whose existence was first indicated, and nearly specifically determined by Dr. Caup, the learned zoologist. The head measures six feet in length, by three-and-a-half in breadth; and its weight is nearly five quintals. Near the head was found a humeral bone, six feet long, weighing two quintals, appertaining apparently to the same animal. No remains of this kind have ever been found before.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Feb. 24. Mr. Walter made his a motion relative to the New POOR LAWS. In the course of his speech he introduced a mass of documentary evidence in support of his argument against the new system of administering relief to the necessitous poor, and concluded by moving for the appointment of “a Select Committee to inquire into the operation of the Poor Law Amendment Act, and to report their opinion to the House."-Lord John Russell opposed it. The Noble Lord was not hostile to inquiry into the mode in which the law was administered, but he could not consent to the Hon. Gentleman's motion, which went to attack the principles of the new system. He moved, as an amendment, "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the administration of the relief of the poor, under the orders and regulations issued by the Commissioners appointed under the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act."-After some discussion the question was adjourned.

Feb. 27. The Attorney General moved the order of the day for the third reading of the MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS' Acts Amendment Bill. He proposed to add to the Bill a clause to the effect, that freemen entitled to vote before the passing of the Act, but who had not claimed, be still entitled to the right of voting. The clause was carried on a division by 218 to 14.

The Bill was then read a third time, and passed.

The adjourned debate upon the POOR LAWS was then resumed. After a long discussion, at the suggestion of the honourable Members on both sides of the House, Mr. Walter withdrew his motion, and that of Lord John Russell having been agreed to, a Committee was appointed,

To inquire into the administration of the relief of the poor," &c.

March 3. After the presentation of numerous petitions for and against the abolition of CHURCH RATES, the House resolved itself into a committee, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose to submit a resolution on the subject. He observed, that the present was a most important question-it was a question of extending religious power throughout the land. The Government did not propose

The

it in any hostility to the Established Church-for, in fact, they were convinced that the settlement of the question would prove of essential service to that Church. The intentions of the framers of this measure were to advance the cause of religion, and to give peace and stability to the Church. At present, the income of the Church was uncertain, because the majority of the vestry in any town might refuse a rate: this was a state of things which led to conflicts and resistance to Church Rates-had caused hostilities between Dissenters and Churchmen-and would not tend to the stability of the Church. The discontent in question was not merely a plague-spot in one place: it was spreading over the land. right honourable gentleman then referred to various places in which opposition had been made to Church Rates, and after some further observations, said that he should propose the total abolition of Church Rates; but still he would provide for the repairs of the fabrics of the Church; and he hoped that this abolition would not injure the property of the Church. The simple principle of the Bill he was about to introduce was, that by a better management of the lands and property of the Church, there would be a surplus for the purpose he had mentioned. He hoped by this means to obtain 250,000. per annum. The right honourable gentleman concluded by proposing the following resolution :-" That it is the opinion of this Committee, that, for the repairs and maintenance of Parochial Churches and Chapels in England and Wales, and the due celebration of Divine Worship therein, a permanent and adequate provision be made out of an increased value given to Church Land, by the introduction of a new system of management, and by the application of the proceeds of Pew rents-the collection of Church Rates ceasing altogether from a day to be determined by law-and that, in order to facilitate and give early effect to this resolution, the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury be authorised to make advances on the security of, and repayable out of the produce of, such Church Lands."-A long conversation followed, in which Sir R. Inglis, Mr. Gally Knight, Mr. T. B. Lennard, Mr. Goring, Mr. Plumptre, Mr. Aglionby, Mr.