Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/178

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160 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. Notice of the Pkoceedings at the Monthly Meetings of the Akch^ological Institute. Various papers of considerable interest have been read at the Monthly Meetings held during the present season. At the last Meeting, on Fri- day, June 4th, a wish was very generally expressed that a detailed report of these communications and the remarks they elicited should be given in the Journal. Owing, however, to the difficulty of obtaining accurate notes of the proceedings at the earlier Meetings, and more especially of the conversations, and also to the press of other matter, it has been found im- possible, at present, to publish more than a general account of the papers read at two of the Meetings. In a future number it is proposed to print an abstract of the proceedings on the other occasions. On Friday, March 5th, the Marquis of Northampton in the chair. Professor Willis communicated his investigations on the " Conventual buildings attached to the cathedral at Canterbury." He had given he said to the cathedral on a former occasion an entu-ely separate examination, and he now proposed to extend his researches to the remains of the Benedictine monastery and its architectural history. The remains of the buildings were very numerous, but so involved and concealed for the most part in the gardens and private apartments of the, canons, that they were not fully known and appreciated. He desired to acknowledge the kind and ample facilities that had been afforded him, and by which he had been enabled to make the survey which he now exhibited to the meeting. The ancient arrangements of the monastery are curiously elucidated by the drawing which is attached to the Psalter of Eadwin, now preserved in Trinity college, Cambridge. This drawing, or plan, was engraved (not very perfectly) in the second volume of the Vetusta Monumenta, and was there conjectured to be meant for the monastery in question. It should be observed that no inscription remains on the drawing, to shew for what place it was intended. However, if any doubt could exist upon this point, the comparison of Eadwiu's drawing (of which an enlarged copy was exhibited to the meeting) with his (the Professor's) survey of the existing remains, must remove all difficulty. The survey was purposely laid down upon the same scale as Eadwin's, and due allowance being made for the peculiarly conventional mode according to which the ancient drawing was framed, it would be shewn that the correspondence between the two was complete, even to the proportional magnitudes in most cases. In fact, wherever Eadwin indicates a building, Norman remains of a building are still to be found, or a good reason to be shewn why a later building supplies its place. As Eadwin has written upon most of the buildings their names, we are thus en- abled to appropriate securely each of the existing remains to their original purpose, and can thus investigate the arrangements of the monastery and interpret its history with peculiar facility. The Professor in the next place proceeded to follow out the investigation by taking each building of the monastery in turn. Here, in llie monk's drawing, is the church of tlio