Considering that the saint to whom the chapel was dedicated and the saint in whose honour the fair was to be holden were one, it is highly probable that this free chapel had been recently built upon the foundation of a more ancient hermitage, and was in great measure dependent upon the offerings of those who came to the fair. Indeed, those who look into the habits and customs of our ancestors will find that all licensed concourses of people brought with them offerings to the convent, or favourite shrine at the place of meeting. Jocelin de Brakeland, in his Chronicles of St. Edmundsbury,* remarks, that because the Londoners did not resort to St. Edmund's fair for two years, in consequence of some disagreement about the tolls exacted, that fair sustained great loss, and the offerings belonging to the sacrist were extremely diminished, a subject that is feelingly spoken of by this conventual chronicler; so that we may conclude that the name of St. Armill, the religious devotee or hermit, not having sufficient credit to obtain offerings, was associated with St. Mary Magdalen, for the purpose of increasing the offerings, which in their turn were to be augmented by the fair.

Totehill was also one of the ancient fields, or camps, or uninclosed grounds around the metropolis, up to comparatively recent times. The word campus, in records as well as in more augustan Latin, is always descriptive of an open field or uninclosed even ground;† and here and at Mile-end Green military reviews or musters used to take place, as Wither remarks:

And though they have seene

No other warres but those at Mile-end greene
Or Tutle-fields, great Mars himself of these
May learn to be a souldier, if he please.

Of Mile-end (Mr. Urban) allow me to remark, that of the early history of this hamlet or division of Stepney parish, little seems to be known, and for that little we are indebted to Lysons's "Environs of London." Under" Stepney" he notices,

that, "in the year 1290, Hugh of Cressingham granted to John Huskarl and his wife Alexandra the Manor of Stebynhyth Huscarl, with remainder to their son Humphry, and his heirs. (Claus. 18 Edward I., m. 18 dorso.) In 1393 Adam de St. Juon being indebted in the sum of £600 to Thomas Newenham, an estimate was made of his landed property; amongst other estates was a messuage called Huskarls, in Stepney, with certain lands and rents of assize. In 1443 the daughter and heir of John Huskarl released to John Stopyngdon and others her claim in all manors or lands in the parishes of Stepney and Hackney." He then proceeds to state that the Manor of Aschewys or Mile-end appears to have been the property of John Hadeley; but from the following deed or grant in fee farm, which, from internal evidence, is of the early part of the reign of Henry III., it is evident that one Roger Huscarl was, at that time or previous thereto, chief lord of the land therein mentioned, which lay within the vill of Stebenhee, and that such land, in fact the Manor of Huscarl, was also situate at Mile-end, is plain from the indorsement on the deed, in a very ancient yet later hand, which may be referred to the time of Edward III., viz. Cart' vet' del milhend. So that it may be concluded that the conveyance in 1290 was not a new grant, but probably a regrant of the land holden under Roger Huscarl, as lord paramount, after a forfeiture on mortgage, or a similar transaction, by Hugh of Cressingham to one of Roger Huscarl's descendants. The grantor, in the following deed, appears himself to have been a landholder of no small importance, by his having a somewhat large seal inscribed with his name, viz. :

Sciant presentes et futuri, Quod ego Silvester filius Radulfi, Dedi et concessi et presenti Carta mea confirmavi Waltero de Haldstede ferroni Totam terram cum pertinentiis, Quam tenui de Rogero Huscarll in villa de Stebenhee, scilicet, Qua

p. 56.

tuor Acras cum pertinentiis In campo qui vocatur Wylegripescroft, Et unam acram terre cum pertinentiis in campo qui vocatur Karlesneweland, Et duas solidatas redditus de mesuagio cum pertinentiis Quod Robertus Parons tenuit de me, Scilicet Quicquid in predicta terra et in predicto Redditu habui, In longitudine et latitudine et in rebus cunctis cum omnibus pertinentiis suis Integre: Habendum et tenendum eidem Waltero et heredibus suis vel cui ipse terram illam dederit vel assignaverit de me et heredibus meis In feodo et hereditate, Libere, Quiete, Integre et finabiliter Reddendo nide Annuatim mihi et heredibus meis pro omni servicio et exactione et rebus cunctis Quinque solidos, et sex denarios, et dimidiam libram Cymini, Ad quatuor terminos anni, Scilicet Ad Pascha xvj d. et obolum, Ad Nativitatem Sancti Johannis Baptiste xvj d. et obolum, Ad festum Sancti Michaelis xvj d. et obolum, Ad Nativitatem Domini xvj d. et obolum, et predictam dimidiam libram Cymini vel j d.

Pro hac quidem donatione et concessione, et warantisione, et acquietacione, et escambio si evenerit, predictus Walterus dedit mihi Silvestro Decem marcas argenti In Gersuma. Hiis testibus, Willielmo de Pontefracto, Roberto de Pinkeni, Hugone Belebarbe, Daniele filio Salomonis, Hamone filio Humfredi, Roberto de Brambele, Roberto filio Radulfi, Adam filio Alsi, Godmundo Ferrone, Roberto Bret, Johanne Blundo, Richardo del Chesne, Herveo Ferrone, et multis aliis.

To this deed is pendant a seal of green wax, without armorial device, on the circle of which is S. SELVESTRE FIC RADVLFI. +

Indorsed in an ancient, though later hand: "Cart' vet' del milhend." Yours, &c.

MR. URBAN,-Your correspondent T. E. T. whom I thank for his kindly mention of my name, will find a notice of St. Mary Magdalen Chapel in my Memorials of Westminster, pp. 289, 290. "It adjoined Cornelius Van Dun's almshouses, and was granted to the abbey at the time when King Henry VIII. made Westminster a bishopric; it was confirmed to the dean and chapter by Queen Elizabeth.

T. E. T.

The annual meeting of the Geological Society was held on the 16th Feb. W. J. Hamilton, esq. President, in the chair. The President announced the award of the Wollaston Palladium medal to Sir H. T. De la Beche; and in the absence of Sir Henry, on account of ill-health, placed it in the hands of Sir R. I. Murchison. Having briefly alluded to the geological writings of Sir H. De la Beche, he dwelt more fully upon his having been the

chief author and promoter of the establishment of the Museum of Practical Geology, and of a School of Mines, on an enlarged and liberal scale, and also particularly alluded to the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, based on the Ordnance Maps, and of which Sir Henry had the superintendence; mentioning the skill and impartiality Sir Henry had shown in the choice of an able staff of naturalists, geologists, palæontologists, chemists, and

mineralogists, who had assisted him in this great national work. The President also alluded to the success attending the establishment of lectures in that museum, for the purpose of teaching the application of geology and the kindred sciences to agriculture and other purposes. The balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund are awarded to MM. G. and F. Sandberger, of Wiesbaden, eminent geologists and palæontologists.

At the anniversary meeting of the Statistical Society, held on the 15th March, the report noticed the increasing circulation of the Society's Journal, as evidenced by an increase of sixty-five per cent. in the sales of the last year as compared with those of the previous year; and alluded to the success which had attended the publication of a General Index to the Society's Journal. The expense of compiling and printing an Index, which had analysed every paragraph of the Journal from its commencement, has been considerable; nevertheless, it has not only defrayed the expense of its publication, but has created a new source of income to

the Society. An Alphabetico-Classified Catalogue of the Library has just been completed by Mr. Wheatley, by whom the Index was prepared. The principles upon which it has been compiled are similar to those of the Catalogue of the Library of the Institute of Actuaries. The library contained 2,000 distinct works, exclusive of Blue Books.

The Rev. Henry Christmas, the new Professor of British History and Archæology in the Royal Society of Literature, has commenced a series of eight lectures, given in the afternoon of successive Tuesdays. Their subject is the Domestic Life of our Ancestors, and they will treat successively of the houses, furniture, domestic economy, diet, cooking, costume, ornaments, amusements, arts, and learning of old times in England. At the introductory lecture, held on the 6th of March, the chair was occupied by the Earl of Carlisle, who intimated his intention to resign the chair of the society, in consequence of his removal to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant.

An interesting course of eight lectures is announced to be delivered at the Royal Institution, commencing April 19th, by Mr. George Scharf, jun., on Christian Art, from the earliest period, A.D. 300, to the period of Raphael and Michael Angelo, at the close of the fifteenth century. The subjects are divided as follows: 1. The Catacombs of Rome and Churches of Ravenna; 2. Sicilian Mosaics and Architecture; 3. Assisi; 4. Campo Santo at Pisa; 5. San Marco at Florence; 6. The Carmine at

Florence; 7. Walls of the Sistine Chapel; 8. The Vatican. From Mr. Scharf's known skill as a draftsman, the lectures will doubtless be well illustrated.

The Committee of the Assyrian Excavation Fund, having exhausted their finances, and seeing little hope in the present aspect of public affairs of getting them replenished, called a general meeting of the subscribers on the 6th March, with the view of winding up their affairs. With the funds at their disposal, about 2,7007., the committee despatched Mr. Loftus, with a very competent artist, Mr. Boutcher, who commenced their labours at Wurka, in South Babylonia. Subsequently Mr. Loftus was induced, at the request of Colonel Rawlinson, to join the agents of the British Museum at Nineveh, and Mr. Loftus proceeded with the excavations there. About the beginning of August he lighted on the remains of a building on a level twenty feet lower than the palace which was then being excavated by Hormuzd Rassam, on account of the trustees of the British Museum, and which, consequently, he had every reason to believe was an entirely independent building, but which now proves to be a lower story or terrace, more carefully elaborated and in better preservation than those previously discovered in these ruins. The Government has declined, in the present state of political affairs, to continue the grant to the Museum, and the explorers are all now on their way home. Some exquisite drawings and photographs of slabs were exhibited at the meeting, but no hopes are entertained of getting any of the slabs home. Mr. Loftus is expected to bring home with him as many small antiquities as he can conveniently find means of conveyance for. It is to be considered that the Assyrian Excavation Society is not dissolved, but that its operations are suspended until better times.

It has been announced, on apparently good authority, that an important discovery of ancient Greek sculpture has been made in the course of excavations on the site of the Temple of Juno at Argos. The Government has taken charge of the works, and it is confidently hoped that the explorations will bring to light valuable relics of ancient art. Pausanias records that in his time, towards the close of the second century, many temples and statues were at Argos, and though some objects may have been destroyed or removed, there is every probability that the researches of antiquaries will be amply rewarded on the sites of the Argive temples, which were adorned by the greatest sculptors of Greece.

In the Literary Gazette of the 3d March

to the society by the trustees of Lady Hastings, and removed to the museum; and the still more recent one of a pavement more beautiful in pattern, and more highly finished than any previously discovered in that neighbourhood, on the estate of the late Sir George Wombwell, near the line of the Roman road from Malton to Isurium. Permission to remove it, when the season should be favourable, had been obtained from the late owner; and a hope was expressed that either the improved state of the society's finances or the liberality of the public would afford the means of displaying this and the other remains of the same kind in an appropriate building. Donations of coins, from Mr. Davies, Mr. Procter, and the curator himself, were also recorded; and a collection of drawings of the encaustic tiles of Jerveaux Abbey, from the Rev. John Ward, of Wath.

The committee of the new Architectural and Archæological Society for Leicestershire held a meeting in the Town Library at Leicester on the 26th February, and arranged to meet in future once in every two months. The general meeting of the Society will be held in the autumn. In the mean time it is arranged that a conjoint meeting of the Societies for Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Cambridge, shall be held at Peterborough on the 23d and 24th of May.

The annual meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Archeological Society was held on the 8th March at the Guildhall, Norwich, Sir J. P. Boileau, Bart. in the chair. Sir W. Ffolkes, Bart. was elected President for the ensuing year, and it was arranged that, at the usual summer excursion, the churches in the marsh-land district near Lynn and Wisbech shall form the subjects of investigation.

The Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded its gold medal for 1854 to M. Hitlorff of Paris, Member of the Institute of France, in consideration of his important buildings in Paris, and his numerous published works. This is the third time our Architects have manifested their appreciation of foreign talent, the medal having been awarded on previous occasions to the Cavaliere Canina of Rome and the Baron de Klenze of Munich. The Institute silver medal is adjudged to Mr. W. P. Griffith, Fellow, for an essay on Medieval Decorations and Ornaments. The Soane medallion was not awarded. The silver medals of the Institute are now offered to the authors of the best essays on any subjects tending to promote or facilitate the knowledge of architecture, or the various branches of science connected therewith. Three subjects are proposed for the Soane

medallion: 1. a town mansion; 2. á restored plan of the priory of Saint Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London; 3. a building to contain six courts of law.

Mr. George Gilbert Scott, of London, has obtained the first premium for a Gothic design for the new Hotel de Ville and Senate House at Hamburgh.

The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council have appointed Mr. Henry Cole the sole superintendent of the British department of the Universal Exhibition at Paris. The opening, as officially announced in the Moniteur, will take place on the 1st of May.

Dr. George Wilson, of Edinburgh, has been appointed by the Board of Trade Director of the Industrial Museum of Scotland, the active organisation of which has now commenced. Ground has been purchased by Government in the immediate neighbourhood of the university at Edinburgh, for the erection of the museum; and specimens, illustrating the application of science to the arts, are in process of collection from various quarters.

Mr. Layard has been elected Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen by a majority of three out of the four nations, over Lieut.-Colonel Sykes.

The office of Keeper of the Regalia of Scotland, vacant by the death of Sir Adam Ferguson, is conferred on Mr. James Grant, author of Memoirs of Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, and of various other works, among which is The Memorials of Edinburgh Castle. As the Regalia are preserved in that fortress, this appointment is appropriate.

Mr. Edward Matthew Ward has been elected a Royal Academician in the room of the late Mr. J. J. Chalon.

In consequence of the appointment of Sir G. Cornwall Lewis to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is announced that he has resigned the editorship of the Edinburgh Review into the hands of Mr. Henry Reeve, of the Privy Council Office.

Mr. Halliwell, who is now devoting his sole attention to his great edition of Shakespeare, in folio, has issued a circular letter of entreaty, soliciting the communication of early editions of the Plays and Poems of the Poet, or of other rare poems or plays more or less illustrative of his works and times. He is ready to pay handsomely when so required: offering no less than 1001. for a perfect copy of the first edition of Titus Andronicus, and proportionately for other rarities.

M. Boucher de Perthes, of Abbeville, is about to publish a new edition of his Antiquités Celtiques et Antediluviennes, first published (with eighty plates) in 1847.