terrific, whilst the snaky tail, upon which the victor firmly plants one foot (as does Hercules on the Hydra's, in the coin of Phaestos), goes curling up into the field behind him, and terminates as a barbed arrow-head. The human-headed serpent, as typifying the Evil One, first makes his appearance upon the solidus of Valentinian III. (A.D. 420-435).-Prof. Hughes exhibited a bronze helmeted bust, from the Banks' collection. It consists of the bust proper, seven inches high, the helmet two inches high, and the crest, which stood one inch above the helmet. They were all separated, most likely owing to the decomposition of the solder which had originally held them together. The bust is that of a Roman Emperor. Mr. King suggested that it represented Marcus Aurelius. The chief interest of the specimen is, however, in the helmet, which represents the face of a Gaul or Briton. The same character of face, the same lips and moustache, may be seen in the statue of the Gaul in the Villa Ludovisi, on the Dying Gaul of the Capitol, or the earlier Pergamene sculpture. On the forehead is an ornament, like the ring-money of ancient Ireland or modern Africa; and behind that, on either side above the ears, are two snake-like figures. As it would not do to represent the hair in strong relief on a casque, it is merely indicated by a rough etching, which seems also used for shading on other parts of the face. The specimen is said to have been found near Cottenham, but unfortunately the exact circumstances of the "find" are not known. From the same district came the Earith bronze, now in the British Museum, and various less important bronze objects in the Banks collection and elsewhere. It seems not improbable, therefore-unless these were spoil carried away from the Romans -that we may find by-and-by that there were stations and villas of considerable importance and wealth on the gently rising grounds that run into the Fen lands north of Cambridge.-Dr. Bacon showed two specimens of medieval pottery, dug out recently at Ditton, and consisting of two vases or jugs. One was unbroken, and had remains of a dark bluish colour, and was glazed. It was 10 in. in height, the mouth had a diameter 4 in., and the greatest circumference was 23 in. The other was of a light red colour, and glazed, and had some yellow lines of ornamental tracery. The measurements of this were very nearly the same as the last. The cubic capacity of each would be about 3 pints. They were found in an old well which was being excavated, and at a depth of 18 ft. The red one was broken by the pick of the excavator.-Mr. Wilkinson exhibited a silver-gilt vase, 25 in. high, enriched with repousée work of the close of the sixteenth century. A shield on the inside of the cover bears the arms of the Austrian family of Müelich. Figures in relief, representing Faith, Wisdom, and Justice, adorn the lower part of the bowl. The cover is decorated with oval medallions, and surmounted by a Minerva in full armour.-Mr. F. H. Fordham exhibited two gold coins of James I., the one dating before, the other after, his accession to the throne of England, which had been recently found near Roystone.

CAMBRIDGE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-Nov. 3. -Annual Meeting,-The President, Prof. Mayor, in the Chair.-Mr. Magnússon read a Paper on

=

"Akimbo," a compound which, he observed, in its present state must be taken to represent an older compound in which the elements of composition came more clearly to light. As it now stood it could not be made up of any two words which in form were identical to the composition elements, him and bo. It clearly bore the stamp of strong wear and tear upon its face. The hitherto proposed etymology from Celtic cam 66 'crooked," could not be admitted, on the ground that it gave no such clear sense as would satisfy the mind, and warred altogether against the logical method in which languages built up their compounds. For cam attenuated kim "bent," and bo= "bent" would make kimbo with a sense "bent-bent" or "bowed-bowed," which scarcely could have any meaning. A clearer light was thrown on this obscure word by the Icelandic keng-boginn and the Middle-English kene-bowe. Keng-boginn meant "bent as a crook." Keng was the stem of kengr, which in Icelandic was the name for the object which in English was called a "staple," a hook or crook of metal driven into uprights of timber, posts, &c., for various purposes; boginn was the past participle of a lost strong verb, of which it was the only remnant left. Keng was found mentioned chiefly in connection with doors and door-posts, gates and gate-posts, though it was also found used in connection with other domestic appointments. In primitive times it was undoubtedly chiefly used as a contrivance to fasten doors by, and was the rude primitive forerunner of the elegant instrument which, with advancing civilization and retiring honesty, took the shape of a key. In a derived sense kengr meant the bend of the body such as, for instance, the cat made when it set up its back. It was not used in Icelandic to signify any bightformed appearance, however, of the limbs. In one point, therefore, the Icelandic keng-boginn and the English akimbo stood quite disconnected-namely, in their application. While the Icelandic referred exclusively to the bend of the body or of the spine, the English referred chiefly to the bend of the arms. This point was of paramount importance for the derivation of akimbo. The word occurred now chiefly in the phrase "to stand akimbo," or "to stand one arm,' or "both arms, akimbo," which meant to stand with the arms bent out, and the hand on the flank, in such a way that the bight so formed by the arm or arms resembled the appearance of a staple driven into a post. This was a purely English development of the sense, and quite foreign to the Icelandic kengboginn. How did that happen? Of the three possible ways in which it might have come about, Mr. Magnússon adhered to that which seemed the most natural-namely, that the Englishman of old must have had ready at hand in his daily language both the elements of which the proto-compound of akimbo was made up. But this assumption involved another-namely, that the English then possessed a name for "staple" whose form was capable of naturally changing into kim. This, Mr. Magnússon meant, was the case with the first element of the compound kenebowe, which Prof. Skeat had adduced under akimbo from The Tale of Beryn. Here kene could mean nothing but a "staple;" it stood for keneg, Mr. Magnússon thought, the g having been dropped before & in order to avoid harshness of sound, as was so fre

quently the case in Anglo-Saxon under similar circumstances-e.g. kyne-bot for kyneg-bot, cyne-botl for cyneg-botl, &c. The g once dropped the transition from kene-bowe to ken-bow, and of that again into kin-bow, to finally become kimbo, was of such a common type that the matter need not be gone into. Bo was then the pp. bogen of A.-S. strong bugan, to "bend ;" an obviously natural case of denudation in a language which had been busy for centuries in eliminating its weak terminations. Although the form keneg was not on record, the corresponding Icelandic kengr made its existence quite probable, for the correspondence of the two forms expressed a general law of parallelism between such forms in Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon; such, for instance, was the case with A.-S. cyneg and Icelandic kongr, and a similar one that of tine (for older tined?), Icelandic tindr, the "tooth" of a rake or a harrow. That keneg therefore was once upon a time the Early English name for a staple was thus rendered not only quite probable from the formal point of view, but from the point of view of the sense it bore in kene-bo, kimbo, quite certain. Finally, Mr. Magnússon suggested that A.-S. cag, a "key," was an outcome of the older ceneg, a staple, which must have done the service among the primitive Teutons for fastening doors, as kengr had done among their Scandinavian neighbours; kengr, ceneg and cag, therefore, were, in all probability, cognate names for one and the same object. The base of kengr was kang (kag), and remained still observable in the colloquial saying in Iceland at kanga við hurd, "to rattle with the key in a door," which showed that key with its base cagan was a cognate to kengr. But kinga, though connected with kengr by the lexicographers, had nothing to do with that word, but was a Low Latin introduction, from cingula, "a round, coin-formed ornament."-Mr. Verrall read a Paper on Æsch. Ag. 1227 sqq.

Nov. 17. Mr. Munro, President, in the Chair. -Mr. Postgate read a Paper on the Reform of the Pronunciation of Latin and Greek, considered as a practical University question.-A discussion followed, in which the President, Prof. Mayor, Prof. Skeat, Mr. Verrall, Mr. Candy, and Mr. Ridgeway, took part. A resolution was passed that a Committee be appointed for the purpose of drawing up a scheme for the reform of the present pronunciation of Latin, to be submitted to the Society at a subsequent Meeting.

GLASGOW ARCHæological SOCIETY.-Nov. 17. -At the annual general meeting, the Report of the Council was submitted and approved. It is intended to publish a new part of the Society's Transactions, before the end of session 1881-82. The Marquis of Bute, the Marquis of Lothian, Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Mr. W. J. Thoms, F.S.A., Mr. Walter de Grey Birch, F.S.A., and Mr. G. L. Gomme, F.S.A., were, on the recommendation of the Council, admitted honorary members. The office-bearers for the year were elected - Professor Young, President. -Mr. Alexander Galloway, Foreign Society, read a Paper upon the archeological work recently undertaken in foreign countries.

The Antiquary's Note-Book.

Stonehenge. (See ante ii. 150-51; iv. 86). We propose printing from time to time descriptions, taken from authenticated sources, of the prehistoric monuments of the British Isles. Of course many of these will be known to our readers in some shape or other, but it is thought that to have at hand a referance to them would be carrying out one of the most salient features of the Note-book. At the present time special attention has been drawn to the condition of Stonehenge, and hence we begin with this wellknown monument, and the more readily because, by the courtesy of Messrs. Longmans we are able to give a reproduction of the engraving affixed to the newly-published fourth edition of Sir John Lubbock's Origin of Civilization. We have already spoken of Stonehenge, and therefore in the present note shall rest contented in giving some information additonal to that of Dr. Nicholson in the second volume of this journal, and to Mr. Osborne's useful quotations from the European Magazine upon the fall of some of the stones in 1797. Professor Boyd Dawkins has described Stonehenge as it originally stood, and places its date as a monument of the Bronze age :

"It consisted of a circle 100ft. in diameter of large upright blocks of sarsen stone 12ft. 7in. high, bearing imposts dovetailed into each other so as to form a continuous architrave. Nine feet within this was a a circle of small foreign stones, and within this five great trilithons of sarsen stone, forming a horseshoe; then, a horseshoe of foreign stones eight feet high, and in the centre a slab of micaceous sandstone called the altarstone. When perfect it probably formed a temple like the restoration made by Mr. Brown. At a distance of 100ft. from the outer line a small camp, with a ditch outside, formed the outer circle, 300ft. in diameter, which cuts a low barrow, and iucludes another, and therefore is evidently of later date than some of the barrows of the district. A foreign block near the first great trilithon, on the north-eastern side, has two holes in it, which, in the opinion of Mr. Stevens, have probably been intended to receive libations like the elf-stones and cup-stones. The foreign stones composing the inner circle and the inner apse, some of which are igneous, may have been derived from Wales, Cornwall, or from the Channel Islands. It is obvious that they would not have been transported to Salisbury Plain excepting under the influence of some strong religious feeling, and a peculiar value must have been attached to the material, since the stone of the neighbourhood would have satisfied all the purposes of a monument. 'If Stonehenge,' writes Mr. Stevens, was erected at two distinct periods, the horseshoe and circle of foreign stone probably formed the earlier temple.' It may even have been erected elsewhere at some former period, and then transported to Salisbury Plain and again set up. An intrusive and conquering people may have brought these hallowed stones with them, and have added to the impressive appearance of their old temple in its new situation by repeating its features on a far larger scale, using local stone for the purpose. The date of Stonehenge is indicated by the surrounding tombs. Sir Richard Colt

Hoare counted 300 barrows within twelve square miles, and in the days of Stukeley 128 were visible from a hill close by."-Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, pp. 372376. William Smith, in his Particular Description of England, 1588, a MS. edited by H. B. Wheatley and E. W. Ashbee, figures Stonehenge in the twentysecond plate. The circle is represented as very nearly complete, though its quaint drawing does not allow us to compare it with any degree of preciseness with the figured restoration in Mr. Dawkins' Early Man in Britain, p. 374. Still the leaning stone now in dispute seems to be in its original position, and the south side, which is now very much disturbed, seems to be tolerably perfect. The whole circle is represented as surrounded by a rampart. Unfortunately Smith does not say anything about the monument in his MS.

Remains of Stoke Old Church.-The following Paper, by Mr. C. Lynam, of Stoke, taken from the Staffordshire Advertiser, on the "Remains of Stoke Old Church," which have recently been reerected in the churchyard, should find a place in THE ANTIQUARY:-One day, passing along the dry beds of the former water-courses near to Upper Boothen Mill, the writer hereof noticed a stone, shaped to some special purpose. He looked further, and observed several others, and amongst them, one, not only shaped but modelled.. This, it was clear to him, had been the base of an ancient pillar, and it was soon perceptible that these stones were the remains of Stoke Old Church. With this idea they were sent to his garden, at Hartshill. As the workmen got up one stone, others appeared, and in time some cart-loads were turned up. At Hartshill they were sorted and rudely put, together, when the Rector visited them, and expressed a wish to have them erected in the old part of the churchyard. Excava tions were then made, and the foundations of the old work were come to, and these remains (taken out of the overflow course from the mill-pond at Boothen) have been erected on their former site. They mainly consist of two arches and their piers. The western pier is a "respond," and has been rebuilt as such. One of the others is octagonal, and the other circular. The arches are semi-circular, and are formed of two orders, with moulded edges; they are surmounted in part by their original dripstone. In the spaces between the arches have been placed some carved stone heads from the old church, which had been at Cliffville for some years; also one carved corbel, which had been a long time in possession of the writer; and at the termination of the western dripstone on the north side a carved head, most kindly given by Mr. Holtom, from Stoke Hall. In addition to the arches and their supports, parts of other pieces have been put up, and, what perhaps is of more interest than any other part, some Norman remains of the arch of a doorway were also found at Boothen, and have been embodied in the re-erection. It is a singular fact, that a carved capital belonging to those early Norman remains had been preserved at Cliffville, and is now built in with the others. In addition to the erection of the arches, the foundations of the old chancel have been raised and clearly defined. The original altar-slab, which has lain on the ground against the east wall of the chancel ever since the old church VOL. V.

was taken down, has been raised, whereby its various parts may be distinctly seen. The old font, which has also been preserved at Cliffville, is reerected in what may be considered its original position. A portion of the shaft of the churchyard cross, found some years ago against the south wall of the chancel, has been put up near to the vestry of the present church. Of the date of these early remains, it may be fairly said that the bit of the shaft of the cross is the earliest, being, no doubt, prior to the year A.D. 100. Next come the fragments of Norman workmanship, which are early in that style, and may be said to have been executed before A.D. 1150. Then come the piers, with their moulded capitals and bases, and the arches they bear, which may be assigned to the period between A.D. 1200 and 1245. The base of the chancel walls, the altar-slab, and font are also of this date. From these remains, and from various illustrations of the old church, it may be pretty safely accepted that Stoke Church, including the chancel, nave, and aisles, was uniformly rebuilt in the first half of the thirteenth century. It would be interesting to find whether there is any record confirming this view. Something should be stated as to the manner of the erection of the old stones, and it may at once be emphatically said that no stone now again put up has been altered in any way or shape. Every one of them is now as it was found, so that the genuineness of their original form is absolute. This has been the ruling idea throughout the work, and in order to further it and to pronounce it, the necessary filling-in has been done in common brickwork, which, while it draws a sharp line between itself and the ancient work, sufficiently insures its own modernness. If stone had been used instead of bricks, in the course of time the identity between ancient and new work would have been obscure; now it is clear, and will always remain so. The next idea in the erection was that the work should be put up in a substantial manner, and to this end cement has been used throughout the rebuilding. Then it was considered desirable that the work should be put together so as to avoid dilapidation as much as possible, and for this reason the walls have been covered with tiles so as to throw the weather off the work.

Popular Names of Tumuli, &c. (iv. pp. 77, 219). Merry Maidens. Nearly all the circles in the neighbourhood of St. Buryan's, Cornwall, are called Merry Maidens or Nine Maidens, irrespective of the number of stones really contained in them-the tale running that the stones are maidens petrified in the act of dancing on Sunday. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 2.

Logan Rock. A huge block of granite, weighing, it is said, 60 or 70 tons, on the summit of the cliffs by the sea coast, and rocks slightly when pushed. The promontory on which it stands is called Treryn Castle. Cornwall. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 3.

Nine Maidens, at Boscawen-un. About sixty feet in diameter, and consisting of nineteen stones, with one nearly in the centre leaning in a north-easterly direction, and about 9 ft. high by 2 by 1. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 3:

Chun Quoit. A column consisting of four upright stones, two of them 74 to 8 ft. long, and I to 1 ft. D

thick, rising about 4 ft. above the ground outside and 7 ft. above the ground inside. They stand about 5 ft. apart, forming the sides of a chamber, one end of which is almost entirely enclosed by another stone. Cornwall. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 3.

Men-an-Tol. An upright stone 3 ft. 8 in. high, 3 ft. 10 in. wide, and about I ft. thick, having a hole about 18 in. in diameter through it. It faces about northeast and south-west, and has a four-sided upright stone, 4 ft. high and 1 ft. across each side, placed 7 ft. to the north-east, and a stone, similar but threesided, at the same distances to the south-west, against which another similar stone lies flat on the ground. Beyond each of these two equidistant upright stones but not in the same straight line, stands a small upright stone. Near Penzance. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 4.

Hurlers (The), in the parish of St. Cleer, Cornwall, They appear to be three ovals, standing as it were on a line running in a north-easterly direction. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, page 5.

Longstone Circle, on Scorhill Tor, Dartmoor. An oval circle, the diameters of which are respectively a little more and a little less than 80 ft. It now consists of twenty-four upright and six fallen stones. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. i., appendix, P. 6.

XOX

Antiquarian News.

The researches undertaken for a few months at Epidaurus, by the Greek Archæological Society have been successful. One of the most celebrated theatres of antiquity, that of Esculapius, has been discovered. It is constructed of Pentelic marble, and was capable of holding at least 30,000 spectators. The theatre is built under a hill, the summit of which was covered with a sacred grove. In form it is a hemicycle; the steps are divided into two parts-the upper, measuring on the lowest level about 233 yards in length, consists of twenty rows of seats traversed by twenty-four staircases, which enabled spectators to gain their places with ease. The lower part, separated from the upper by an esplanade several yards wide, contained three rows of seats and thirty-two of steps, to which access was given by twelve staircases. Several statues were unearthed, all, however, unfortunately, in a mutilated condition. The results hitherto obtained cannot but encourage the society to continue its work.

There are in the British Museum several texts of great interest for the light they throw upon the religion, superstition, &c., of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. Mr. T. G. Pinches communicates to the Society of Biblical Archæology an account of these texts. They comprise what have been called Hæmerologies (of which several fragments exist, together with one almost complete) and calendars. Of the latter we have two in the national collection, each of a different character. The more complete of the two, of which two copies exist, is extremely difficult to translate, but what is certain is often of a

most interesting character. Most of the directions are very commonplace, such as, "In the month of Nisan, the first day is wholly lucky;" or "the fourth, half the day is lucky;" or, "the eleventh, a day of joy of heart." Some of the directions, however, are very curious, as those for the fifth and sixth of Iyyar. That for the fifth is, "If one take not a wife, one grows old ;" and that for the sixth, "Take a wife and grow old." On the ninth of Iyyar there is the information that "If one eat fish, one takes evil;" and the twentieth is an excellent day for killing a snake. The other tablet, which contains only the first four months

namely, Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, and Tammuz-differs entirely with regard to the omens, and devotes a long paragraph to the first day of each month. It is noteworthy that there is no mention of a regular sabbath, it being only here and there directed that "one should not pay money," or that "one should not ride in a chariot," or in a "ship," on certain days-recommend. ations made, not on account of the sacredness of the day, but only because it was considered unlucky to do these things.

The workmen who were making a trench for a drain across the road at the bottom of the Wyle, Shrewsbury, found, at the distance of about 8ft. from the shop front, the remains of a red sandstone wall, of very good masonry, at least 3ft. thick, and at 14ft. further south similar remains of another wall running parallel to the first. These seem to mark out the line of road leading to the Old Bridge.

From the excavations now being made for the sewer in St. John's Road, Hertford, it appears that the monks who inhabited the ancient Priory must have been buried in that spot. The graves dug in the gravel are clearly visible, and contain a quantity of human remains, many of the skulls being in a very perfect state of preservation. From the fact that not a particle of iron or other metal has been found with the remains, it is evident that no coffins were used for interment; but the monks were simply wrapped in cloaks or cassocks, and laid on a layer of flints. No medal or coin of any description has been found to determine the date of their burial.

We learn, from a report presented by Mr. F. H. Middleton to the Royal Institute of British Architects, that the High Wycombe Grammar School is about to be pulled down. The oldest part of the building now remaining is a very fine late Norman hall, about 1160, arranged with nave and aisles. The nave is 62 ft. by 16 ft., and the aisles are 8 ft. wide. The arcade is formed of plain square semi-circular arches in five bays. The pillars are alternated round and octagonal, 2 ft. in diameter and 8 ft. 6 in. high. They have square moulded abaci and are carved in a very spirited manner with foliage and dragons. All this fine stonework is as fresh and sharp as if it were new. At the north of the nave is a curious breadoven, which appears to be contemporary with the Norman wall it is in. At the dissolution of religious houses the building was granted by Elizabeth to the corporation, to found a grammar school, and for this purpose it has been cut up into many rooms.

The oldest remaining half-timber house in Here. ford was offered for sale by auction recently. The