Archaeological Intelligence.

THE proposed formation of an "ESSEX ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY," noticed in a former Journal, has been carried into effect, with the fullest promise of local encouragement. A considerable number of members have been already enrolled; and Mr. Disney, well known to our readers, through the friendly part he has constantly taken in the proceedings of the Institute, has been elected President. The rules and statement of the objects of the Society, in which the formation of a Museum at Colchester is included, may be obtained from the Secretary, the Rev. E. L. Cutts, Coggeshall. Mr. C. G. Round, proprietor of Colchester Castle, has consented to grant to the Society a long lease of the eastern court, as an appropriate site for their Museum. The spot is now occupied by small tenements; and their removal, for so desirable an object, will present a very satisfactory pledge of the influence which this Society may exercise, in a county abounding in objects of archæological interest.

CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. Feb. 14, 1853. The Rev. J. Fenwick in the chair.—Mr. C. H. Cooper communicated extracts from the Kerrich MSS., now in the British Museum, concerning the stone coffins found near Cambridge Castle, in 1785, and in one of which a brass plate with an unintelligible inscription, is stated to have been found. The coffins were of the ordinary form, with a separate hollow made to receive the head.

The Rev. C. Hardwick made some remarks concerning an inedited matrix of a seal bearing the legend,—

Sigillum indulgecie plenaiie cöcesse in subsidium civitatis rhodi. and the device of a hand holding a cross, having two horizontal bars, the extremities being of the Maltese form, and above it the keys of St. Peter. He knew of no record of these indulgences; and therefore this seal is of especial interest. Date of the seal 1522.

Mr. C. H. Newmarch read a paper, to show that the cause of the fresco painting in some of the Roman houses at Cirencester, was their liability to floods, requiring the original floors to be raised.

Feb. 28, 1853. The Rev. C. Hardwick in the chair. Some current Spanish coins were presented by the Rev. T. Field, from which it would appear that the pieces struck by the titular Charles III. (Archduke) were so altered by erasure, as to present the semblance of those of Charles II. The only alteration was the removal of one of the figures to convert III. into II.

A cast from an impression of the recently discovered seal of the dissolved Hospital of St. John, at Cambridge, was exhibited, from the Society's collection. The original matrix appears to have been a work of the twelfth century.

Mr. John Rigg read a paper upon the Orientation of King's College Chapel, tending to prove that but little confidence is to be placed in that theory of the Ecclesiologists.

Mr. C. C. Babington read a description of a Roman wooden causeway

discovered in Cambridge, in 1822. This will shortly appear as part of his "Ancient Cambridgeshire."

Mr. C. H. Cooper offered some observations, proving from ancient deeds that the street, called Petty Cury, in Cambridge, derived its name from the old Latin name of Parva Cokeria.-C. C. B.

CAMBRIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-The Annual Meeting for 1853 will be held at Brecon, commencing Monday, September 12. Sir Joseph Bailey, Bart., M.P., President. All communications should be addressed to the Rev. W. Basil Jones, University College, Oxford.

KILKENNY ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-March 16, 1853.-It is proposed to give extension to the efforts of this Society, by including a larger district within the range of its operations. It will be henceforth designated as the "Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archæological Society." It was determined at this meeting, that 100 subscribers of ten shillings annually being found, a volume should be produced each year, comprising historical and antiquarian matter, to the publication of which the existing small contribution of members (five shillings per annum) is wholly inadequate. The numerous memoirs communicated to the Society will thus be preserved and rendered available for general information.

The Rev. J. Graves read a notice of silver "ring money," of which an example had been added to the Museum; part of a hoard found in the cuttings for the Waterford and Kilkenny Railway, but unfortunately dispersed or lost, with the exception of this ring. A considerable quantity of silver, a collection apparently similar to that found at Cuerdale, described in this Journal, had been deposited on the rock, and covered by a stone. There were numerous small ingots and pieces flattened, possibly for coining. The silver had become so black by oxydation that it attracted little notice. Mr. Hitchcock gave an account of a singular sculpture at Annagh, co. Kerry, representing a mounted warrior; it is regarded with certain superstitious notions by the people near the spot, but no tradition of its history has been traced. Mr. Prim read a Memoir on the Olden Popular Pastimes in Kilkenny, especially the Mysteries, or religious plays; and the exciting, though barbarous amusement of the Bull-ring, which from an early period was much in vogue in that part of Ireland. The sports of the Kilkenny arena were under the special control of the municipal authorities, and directed by the "Grand Council of Bull-ring," the chiefconstable being styled "Lord of Bull-ring," a similar designation being also retained by the mayor, subsequently to the charter of James I. in 1609. Mr. Prim gave some curious details regarding this and other diversions, as illustrated by the Corporation Records. Mr. Hitchcock read a Memoir upon the Round Towers of co. Kerry, giving a minute account of all particulars relating to the examples existing, or recorded as having existed, in that district. He invited the aid of Irish Archæologists, to compile a complete description of these remarkable structures throughout Ireland, observing that the best list hitherto published is that given with the Map of Ireland, produced in 1845, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

A numerous accession of members was announced, and several interesting antiquities, as also antiquarian publications, were presented to the Society. Those who may feel desirous to aid its proceedings, or to be enrolled amongst the subscribers to the proposed annual volume, may communicate with the Rev. J. Graves, Secretary, Kilkenny.

The Archaeological Journal.

JUNE, 1853.

QUEEN ELEANOR OF CASTILE.

SOME NEW FACTS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF HER LIFE AND TIMES.1

I HAVE to submit to the notice of the Institute some particulars relating to Queen Eleanor of Castile, taken from original documents of which no public account has yet been given. The circumstances of King Edward I.'s sincere and well-deserved attachment to his first wife,-of his intense grief at her decease,-of the manner in which he publicly manifested those feelings at her funeral,-how profusely he arranged for the performance of services for the soul of her "whom living he had dearly loved, and being dead would not cease to love," and how he engaged all the artistic talent he could obtain in showing his determination to do honour to her memory, are well known to all. Those who wish to read what modern antiquaries have written upon the subject will find all the incidents fully stated and the arguments arising out of them discussed, in a paper written by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, and printed in the Archæologia, vol. xxix.; and in the introduction to one of the publications of the Roxburghe Club, supplied by a gentleman whose name and talents are as well known as his loss is now deplored-the late Mr. Hudson Turner.2 The documents which form the groundwork of the two memoirs I have referred to, are the accounts of the executors of the Queen Eleanor, and in them numerous references are made to certain "Auditores querelarum."

The chief auditor and his associates are mentioned in the Rolls, payments being made to them for performing the

1 Read at the Monthly meeting of the Archaeological Institute, January 7, 1853.

VOL. X.

2 Illustrations of Domestic Expenses in England. Presented to the Roxburghe Club by Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P.

P

duties of their office, to the Queen's bailiff who appeared before them on her behalf, and to certain friars preachers and minors, for assisting them in it. What their duties were, however, can only be partially gathered from those accounts; they were the only documents relating to the subject which had then been brought to light, and great obscurity still prevailed respecting those officers. The discovery of a large portion of the proceedings of the auditors themselves has lately been made among the miscellaneous stores of one of the public record repositories. They were found in the very building, whose walls for upwards of 250 years, had heard, on each returning eve of St. Andrew (the day of the Queen's decease), the solemn reading of the magnificent grant made by the sorrowing King to the monks of Westminster, on behalf of the soul of his loved consort.

The memoir by Mr. Hunter, to which I have referred, was the first which showed that the King was with his Queen during her last illness, and at the time of her decease. The arrangements of the funeral, and the erection of those beautiful works of art where her mortal remains last rested on earth, were doubtless devised by the King himself.

Throughout those accounts of the executors, to which I have alluded, it is evident that the King's wishes were largely acted upon. I must not, however, omit to refer to the doubt that prevails in the minds of some as to the circumstances of the erection of those crosses. The fact of the payments for them having been made by the executors of the deceased Queen, has been considered to overturn the argument which would ascribe them to conjugal affection. But such an ascription could surely be well maintained by the consideration of other circumstances as quite consistent with those payments being so made. The sole ground for the objection in question is, that the crosses were directed and paid for by an authority independent of the King. There has as yet, however, appeared nothing to show fully who the Queen's executors were. The Chancellor, Robert Burnel, Bishop of Bath, is referred to as chief in the executors' rolls. But the documents now referred to, show that the King himself was the chief executor; and they will thus, I trust, be the means of restoring to him the credit of those beautiful erections, even in the minds of those who previously had any doubts upon the subject. And they

show that in his anxiety to omit nothing that would make his Queen's memory universally honoured throughout the length and breadth of the land, he went even far beyond this. He knew that the course of justice had long been tampered with; that the rights of the poor suitor or claimant had not availed with many a superior and subordinate officer unless there was wealth to support or maintain them. At the very time of the Queen's decease, inquiries were going on as to these acts of oppression and corruption, by virtue of a Royal Commission.3 Supposing such acts had been committed by the officers of his deceased Queen, they would be known only to the sufferers themselves, for her very virtues would be made to hide them. What would avail the sculptured stone, the engraved brass, or even the solemn services for her soul, to the feelings of the oppressed vassal and wronged neighbour, if any injustice done by her officers was by her decease placed beyond all hope of redress? And it is surely some sign of the degree to which the King was affected by his loss, to find such a disposition as his so moved.

Very speedily then after the Queen's decease, instructions appear to have been given for proclamations to issue, calling upon all persons who had any cause of complaint or claim to make against any of the Queen's servants to appear and support it; and, if any could be proved, ample amends should be made. I say such would appear to have been the case, for I have been unable to find any such Commission recorded as might be expected to have been issued; but so much may be gathered from several passages in the documents now brought under notice. These consist of four rolls of pleadings before Ralph de Ivingho and his associates, in the 19th and 20th years of the reign of Edward I. The cases on one of the rolls relate to the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge; on another, to those of Chester and Flint; on the other two to divers counties. In important cases the Queen's executors were represented by Hugh de Cressingham, well known from his fate some years afterwards at the battle of Stirling. He had been one of the Queen's bailiffs, and about the time these proceedings were completed, he was at the head of the justices itinerant for the northern counties. I will now extract some of the cases

3 See the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1852, p. 265.