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The village of Basing lies in the upper Loddon Valley a mile and a half east of Basingstoke on the south bank of the river, which rises some four miles to the east, near Worting, and here runs in a flat and marshy channel. At either end of the village is a mill, the Lower Mill at the west end and Old Basing Mill at the east, near the church. A third mill mentioned in Domesday does not now exist. The ground rises gently southwards, the road running through the village along the base of the slope, and at the east end of the village is higher ground on which the church stands. At the south-west, about 500 yards from the church, are the earthworks marking the site of Basing House, and commanding at the same time the road and the approach to the bridge over the Loddon. In early days, when the river probably ran through a wider belt of marshy ground than at present, the position must have been one of great strategic importance, and in fact it continued to be so down to the time of the destruction of the house in the Civil Wars. Its strength is also witnessed to by the fact that it resisted attack after attack by the soldiers of the Parliament, and was only taken at length when the Royalist power was broken, and Cromwell himself could give all his energies to its reduction.

The changes which have taken place of late years in the procedure at our Anniversary Meetings have materially altered the position in which the President finds himself on these occasions. Formerly the whole programme of reports, elections, and address was carried through in the afternoon, doubtless with the intention of leaving the evening free for a dinner, if the Fellows decided to have one. To that end elections, report, and address were taken simultaneously, with the result that the two latter were periodically held up by the declaration of the opening of ballots or of their results. From the President's point of view the procedure had its disadvantages and also its advantages. It was doubtless irksome to have to break off in the course of a carefully-prepared speech, but it must be remembered that a good part of that speech consisted of records of elections and deaths of Fellows, with obituary notices, all prepared by the Society's officers and entailing on the President no more mental effort than that required by the reading of them. Now it is far otherwise: the annual dinner is becoming only legendary, and the President's address occupies its place in the programme; nor is it now his office to refer to the state of the Society's boilers, or to note the setting up of a flagstaff on the Society's premises. He is left to his own resources, and, as I myself can vouch, is torn between the apprehension of producing a discourse bearing too close a likeness to the general run of former addresses, and that of straying into side issues of small practical value.

The earliest Christian churches of England must have been built‘while the Romans yet dwelt in Britain’. It is quite possible that some remains of them exist, unrecognized by modern eyes, and offering in their arrangements none of the conventions which have since so greatly influenced the development of the church plan. But we have at Silchester the plan of a building which has been claimed as a Christian church, probably of 4th century date, and of it we may say that if it be actually so—a matter which is not capable of definite proof,— it falls well enough into line with later churches of whose nature there can be no doubt. It is a little building with a rectangular nave flanked by side chambers or aisles and preceded by a porch. The nave ends in an apse, in this instance to the west, with transeptal chambers to north and south.

The last Interim Report on the excavations at Glastonbury was read before this Society on 29th November 1928, and a precis of this report was printed in vol. lxxiv of the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological Society.

The following inscriptions were copied during the winter of 1897–8: those from the temple of Der el Bahari in November and December; those from the neighbourhood of El Kab in February, 1898.Der el Bahari.—The funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut of the XVIIIth Dynasty, dedicated in honour of Amen Ra, and now known as Der el Bahari, stands on the western side of the Nile valley, under the eastern cliffs of the limestone ridge which separates the valley of the tombs of the kings from the great Theban cemetery which stretches from Goornah to Medinet Habou. The temple is laid out at three levels, having an entrance court on the lowest level, from which there is access by a central incline to a second or middle court, and this leads to a third or upper court, whose western and northern sides are built against the cliffs in which the sanctuary is excavated. All the graffiti given here (Fig. 1) come from the Eastern and Southern walls of this upper court. They are noted in the order they occur, on the Eastern wall from N. to S., on the Southern wall from E. to W.

The Palace of Hampton Court is a building to which even the most unimaginative person cannot be indifferent. Built by one of the greatest and most splendid of English statesmen, and completed by one of the most magnificent of our kings, it has always been a royal pleasure-house, recalling rather the intimate private life of our sovereigns than their formal acts of state. In four years' time it will complete its fourth century of existence, and though much of its first splendour has long perished, it remains essentially a royal building; no one could take it for anything but a palace. This being so, its careful preservation is a matter of public interest, and needs no urging in this room, but for this very reason it has been thought well to lay before the Society an account of an important piece of work now being carried out there, namely, the excavation and repair of the moat and the stone bridge which spans it at the west or entrance front of the palace

The Cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx owes its foundation to a mission from Clairvaux, sent to England under the direction of St. Bernard in 1131. Waverley Abbey in Surrey, and Tintern in Monmouthshire, daughter houses of L'Aumone, were already in existence, having been founded in 1128 and 1131, the first Cistercian houses in England. A beginning having thus been made in the South, it was no doubt a matter of policy that the order should be planted in the North also, and Rievaulx came into existence, the first of that splendid company of Yorkshire Cistercian houses which numbers Byland, Fountains, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, and Roche among its members. A benefactor was found in Walter le Spech or l'Espec, who gave in his charter of foundation nine carucates of land in Griff and Tilstone, and with this endowment the monastery was started, receiving no considerable increase of revenue till 1145, when the founder added Bilsdale to their lands. In spite of this Rievaulx must have grown quickly, for colonies went from it to inaugurate new monasteries at Melrose in 1136, Warden in the same year, Dundrennan in 1142, and Revesby in 1143. But a grant of a site at Rushen, given by Olaf, King of Man, could not be accepted for lack of any one to send to take possession.

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(1929). Rievaulx Abbey: The Shrine in the Chapter House. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 86, No. 1, pp. 20-28.

The two matters which I have to lay before you to-night are the results of chance discoveries made at Ripon during the installation of a heating system and at York in digging a grave. Cathedral churches in full and constant use do not lend themselves to exhaustive archaeological investigation, but it is my first duty to express to the Deans of York and Ripon my most sincere acknowledgement of their kindness in allowing these researches to be pushed to the farthest possible limits. That certain points must remain doubtful is obvious, but since nothing short of the complete ruin of the two Minsters would ensure a full examination we may content ourselves with the reflection that it is possible to pay too high a price for knowledge.

The remains of walls found in October and November, 1900, during the process of laying down a wood block floor in the nave and crossing of Romsey Abbey, are shown on the accompanying plan (Plate XLL). Those on the south side of the nave may be dealt with first, as they have no bearing on the structural history of the church, and the record of them is chiefly of value because they are now buried beneath 6 inches of concrete and a wood block floor, and will probably not be seen again for many years. They are of two dates, the wall running east and west being the older. This is 19 inches thick, of flint and stone rubble, and was traced from the eastern angle of the first nave pier to within 2 feet of the fourth, where it ends without a return. It is plastered on the north or inner face with a coat of rough yellowish plaster, continuous with a floor of the same character, 16 inches below the present pavement level, which is at the original level of that of the existing Norman nave. This plaster floor rests, as to its western part, on a layer of flints on the undisturbed soil, and extends along the whole length of the wall from east to west, and northwards as far as the digging went, that is, nearly to the south edge of the paving of the central alley of the nave.

The growth of interest in archaeological research, of which our own times afford so many proofs, has the double advantage of assuring recognition of such additions to knowledge as may from time to time be made, and of emphasizing the need to fill the gaps which the increase of knowledge only serves more clearly to define. While it would be unreasonable to look for the solution of most of the outstanding problems of archaeology in the near future, it is evident that a clear conception of the most profitable lines of inquiry is essential to any progress.

(1901). On Saxon Churches of the St. Pancras type. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 402-434.

In Northern mythology Wayland the Smith corresponds to the Roman Vulcan or the Greek Hephaestus; and his name cannot have been attached to the well-known group of sarsen slabs in Berkshire till the Teutonic invaders reached the upper Thames in the fifth century. This cunning worker in metals appears on the Franks casket in the British Museum, dating from soon after 700; and the monument is mentioned under the name of Wayland's Smithy in a charter of King Eadred to Aelfheh dated 955.

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