Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/130

92 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. some of the most attractive and valuable contributions to these volumes. Mr. Dawson Turner has also freely opened for the gratification of his readers, many a rich store of historical or biographical materials, preserved amongst his invaluable collections. As a remarkable specimen of art of another class, we would call attention to the exquisite niello, in gold, found at Matlask, and selected by Mr. Fitch from the choice series of precious objects and antique personal ornaments, of which he is the fortunate pos- sessor. To Mr. Hart, whose " Discourses on Antiquities " long since fostered the rising taste for these researches in Norfolk ; — to Mr. Bulwer, also, Mr. Gunn, and others whose names are associated with agreeable days passed during the assembly of our Society in Norfolk, we are indebted for several interesting memoirs. Mr. Harrod, who labours with such successful assi- duity in the investigation of the past, has contributed a valuable survey of Thetford Prior}', of which little was known previously to the Congress of the kindred Societies, to which we have alluded. On that occasion, Mr. Harrod undertook the excavation of the plan of the Priory church, and adjacent remains of the conventual buildings. By his kindness we are enabled here to convey to our readers a notion of what the ruins of that noble structure had been about two centuries since. This curious view is a fac-simile of an etching by Hollar, a rarity for which we are indebted to the local collec- tions of Mr. Bidwell. The remains have subsequently suffered continual injuries, less from time and decay than the " destroying hands of rapacious tenants," according to the complaint of Gough. Amongst the most inter- esting portions now standing, may be mentioned the fragment at the west end of the interior of the church. The most prominent object is one of the internal piers of the tower, with its singular angular face ; beyond this, appear the bases of an arcade along the wall to the great west doorway. The accumulated debris through which Mr. Harrod had here to carry out his laborious operations, was twelve feet deep. His toils were, however, amply repaid by the development of the greater part of the plan of the monastic buildings, including the church, with the Lady Chapel, north of the choir, and parallel to it, — the vestiary and chapter-house, the refectory, cloisters, and part of the Prior's apartments. The plan forms a valuable accession to our data in regard to ancient conventual arrangements. We here must take our leave, for a while, of the good services to British Archaeology which East Anglia has rendered. The Society has, unhappily.