Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/562

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414 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. the seal corresponds in all respects with that of seal F, as described by Professor Willis. The Rev. E. Venables read an abstract of the Inqiiisitiones Nonarura, as far as they relate to Cambridgeshire. It appeared that at the date (c. 1340), a very large part of the arable land in the county was out of cultivation, — owing chiefly to the poverty of the tenants, caused by innumerable " taxes and tallages," by Avhich they had been impoverished. The number of inhabitants of the town of Cambridge who paid this tax was 438, and the value of their moveable goods is returned at 300?, 2^. 6d. The whole sum paid by the country parishes was 1319/. 19s. lOc^., being the value of the "ninth lamb, the ninth fleece, and the ninth sheaf," granted by Act of 14 Edw. III., c. 20. In 1290, Pope Nicholas's taxation of the tenth amounted in the county to 3019?. 155. 5d. ; thus the ninth in 1340 fell short of the tenth (which included the ecclesiastical property) of 1290 by 1700?. 5s. Id. Kilkenny Archaeological Society. — At the meeting held on Nov. 6, the Marquis of Ormond presiding, the most satisfactory evidence of the increasing influence of this institution was aftbrded in the numerous pre- sentations to the museum and library ; the rapid accession of members since the character of the society had become more fully known, through the publication of the transactions of the last year ; and in the friendly intercourse already established with kindred societies in other parts of the kingdom. In several cases the farmers and other persons who had found objects of interest had carefully preserved and brought them to the society. Dr. Browne, Master of Kilkenny College, presented a transcript of the ancient register of that school, originally connected with the cathedral of St. Canice, and he gave some interesting notices of eminent names found therein recorded, distinguished alike in the annals of literature and science, as of the state, rendering these memorials of general, as well as very great local, interest. The Rev. J. Graves gave a valuable memoir on the ancient territorial divisions of the district of Kilkenny, and adduced much curious information from the original and unpublished sources of Irish history : he stated some singular facts regardiug the disuse of the Irish language in certain districts, and he produced plans of the remarkable earthwork or rath at Glenfoyle, supposed to have been the fortress of a chief of the O'Brcnans, a sept long distinguished by their bold spirit and martial habits. John Windele, Esq., of Cork, communicated the discovery of a curious example of the ancient water-mills, formed of fi-amed timber, of which several had been previously found in the county of Cork ; of these, and of their construction in general, Mr. Windele gave a very interesting account. He stated the grounds which had disposed him to assign the date of the eleventh or twelfth century to these mills, which are found almost invariably in the immediate vicinity of a fort or rath. Professor 'Donovan had shown from ancient evidences that the use of such mills was well known in those periods when the Irish were accustomed to dwell in fortified enclosures. Mr. Graves gave notices of Cromleacs in the county of Kilkenny, hitherto undescribed, and especially the remarkable example to which the attention of the society had been called by the Rev. P. Moore. It was evidently of a sepulchral character, and not an altar. He exhibited drawings of two other unnoticed remains of this description. Mr. Graves related also the discovery of an ancient tomb, or cist, in the singular form of a shoe, formed of stones set edge-wise. It contained bones and oak-