a marsupium or crumena, of a description apparently unknown before the discovery of the specimens under consideration. To borrow a name from mediæval costume, we may perhaps term it a Roman-British gypsere. The exact mode in which such a receptacle was used is not very evident; it appears but ill-adapted for being worn about the person, either as attached to the girdle or in any other way."
The dimensions of this very curious object are as follow: greatest diameter, measured across the handle, 414 in.; greatest breadth of the lower part, or receptacle, measured across its cover, 2610 in.; breadth of the cover itself, 2 in.; diameter, from top of the handle to the lowest edge, or keel, of the receptacle, 414 in. All the inside edges of the handle are smoothly rounded off, and apparently worn by use; it seems possible that it might have been worn passed over the arm, and by this means the operculum would be kept securely in place, without risk of the monies falling out. No indication, however, of any such purse having been formerly in use has been discovered. The only objects bearing any resemblance to these bronze marsupia, noticed hitherto, are the little coffers (if they may be regarded as such) with one handle, carried in the left hand, as seen on several Gaulish sepulchral sculptures found in Burgundy or Lorraine. This has been usually explained by French antiquaries to be a little bucket (seau), possibly because the other hand usually holds a kind of cup. They are occasionally rectangular, and appear much more like a casket for precious objects than a seau. One of them, communicated by Calmet to Montfaucon, resembles a small basket; and, with the exception that the bottom is flat, has considerable analogy with the objects under consideration.[1]
Mr. W. H. Clarke communicated a notice, accompanied by a drawing, relative to a small effigy of stone, supposed to represent one of the Vavasour family, which was placed in a niche in one of the buttresses at the east end of York Minster, being that nearest the north-east angle of the fabric. An escutcheon of the arms of Vavasour (a fesse dancetty) was affixed to the side of the niche, as shown in Britton's view of the east end, in his History of York Cathedral, Plate XI., and described at p. 45. Of this escutcheon, a drawing was sent by Mr. Clarke. The figure had been taken down, about November last, the restoration of the east end, now for several years in progress, having reached that part. It is intended to restore it by as exact a copy as can be produced. The effigy measures about 6 feet in height and 20 inches across the body; it had been repaired with cement, and is in a very defaced condition. The right hand rests upon the hilt of the sword. The Presbytery appears to have been erected between 1361 and 1370, and the choir from 1380 to 1400; the great eastern window being glazed in 1405. The frequent benefactions of the family of Vavasour, of Hazelwood Hall, near Tadcaster, appear by various statements in Browne's valuable History of the Minster; and it is stated especially that on several occasions they gave stone for the fabric from the quarries of Thevesdale, situate on the Vavasour estates. About 1225, Robert le Vavasour granted free passage for that purpose, as often as there should be occasion to repair or enlarge the church;[2] and about 1302 and 1311, Sir William le Vavasour gave ample license for the supply of stone for
