Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/547

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THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.
421

Folkstone; where at length they were noticed by our secretary, Mr. Way. In consequence of his representations exertions were made to rescue these interesting memorials from further injuries; and about a month ago the Directors of the South-Eastern Railway Company most obligingly presented the whole of them to the Board of Ordnance, to he deposited in the national collection at the Tower.

"The length of the gun (from one end of which a portion has disappeared) is 6 feet, 10 inches; the diameter of the barrel is 6 inches. The piece is formed of strips of iron welded on a mandrel, and bound at intervals with rings of iron. The most curious feature, however, of this old gun is, that it still retains the stone shot with which it was loaded at the time of its submersion.

"The gun-carriage is constructed out of a solid beam of timber, measuring in breadth and depth 21 inches by 17. It has belonged to a piece of larger calibre than that described. With the carriage itself is still found the block which served to wedge in the chamber when fitted to the barrel.

"The iron chamber accompanying these relics has suffered a good deal from the action of the salt water, but it appears to have belonged to a gun of 8-inch diameter in the barrel.

"It will be remembered that in the Archæologia are figured some iron pieces found in the Isle of Walney, which the possessor, from their rude construction, was disposed to assign to the period of Richard II. They were, however, exactly like the examples described above. A gun of similar material and construction has lately been fished up on the coast of Norfolk. A drawing of it was sent to the Tower within this week; but here the Tudor pattarero was labelled 'A cannon of the thirteenth century.'"

The Rev. J. L. Petit sent a Memoir on the distinctive features of Ecclesiastical Architecture in some parts of France, recently visited by him, comparing the peculiarities of the various periods with those (if the contemporary styles in England, especially as shown in Anjou and the Beauvoisis, and he presented to the Library a valuable work, by Woillez, on the Churches of that district, recently published in Paris.

Mr. A. W. Maberley communicated an account of Rising Castle, Norfolk, explanatory of an interesting series of plans and sections, exhibiting the details of that remarkable Norman fortress, from actual survey made by Mr. Cruso and himself, on the occasion of the Meeting of the Norfolk Archæological Society, at Lynn.

Antiquities and Works of Art Exhibited

By Mr. S. P. Pratt.—Four ancient objects of stone, found in excavations made near Alexandria. Their use is unknown: two are in the form of escallop shells, and possibly were used as cleaving implements without being hafted, or were fitted with a sallow, or some flexible tough stick, twisted around, to serve as a handle. Of the larger of these, measuring 8 in. by 6 in. broad, a reduced representation is here given; the smaller has no longitudinal lines on its surface, and measures about 4 in. by 3 in. greatest diam. Another is an oval stone, of which the form is shown by the annexed woodcut: it has been conjectured that it was used as a