lectures have been surpassed by none hitherto; but we trust that this precedent will not fall for lack of following. It is by this means, among others, that the public will be able to get some idea of the value and importance of the vast collections stored up at the Museum; and all antiquaries ought to be grateful to those workers who, like the author of this work, have gone to the best possible source for the pièces justificatives of their deductions. We feel sure that the second course of Lectures on kindred subjects, shortly to be held, will meet with as hearty a reception as the first. Buckfast Abbey.-Up to December last all that remained visible of this once important Cistercian Abbey consisted of what is locally known as "the Abbot's Tower", a four-storied building of Perpendicular character, built, it appears, at the south end of the "Domus Conversorum." In 1806, before which the ruins were extensive, a modern house was built upon part of the site, from the materials of the old buildings, which were at the same time carefully levelled and covered over, and all record of their existence appears to have been since lost in the locality. One clue, however, was available, being a description of the ruins written in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1796 by a Mr. Laskey, and quoted by Mr. Brooking Rowe, F.S.A., in a work of his upon the Cistercian houses of Devon. Mainly guided by this description, the foundations of the church were partially discovered from December 18th to 22nd of last year, when, owing to want of funds, the work was discontinued. In January, with a little more means, it was again carried on for a week, and resulted in the finding of the greater portion of the church foundations and part of the north cloister. In February, with the aid of a grant of £20 from the Society of Antiquaries, great progress was made, and the greater part of the Abbey buildings have now been more or less uncovered. These include the church (a cruciform building, 217 feet long by 63 feet wide, and 94 feet across the transepts), the sacristy, chapter-house, slype, fratry, refectory, kitchen, etc., and the "Domus Conversorum", all surrounding the cloister after the usual Cistercian plan. The cloister-garth is 66 feet in the clear, and square. The work is now again discontinued until further funds are available. These are much needed in order that the large accumulation of earth arising from the excavations can be removed, to enable the walls already found to be completely uncovered, and those of what are believed to be the abbot's house and the infirmary to be opened out. It would also be very desirable to be able to remove the soil from the area of the buildings. Amongst other objects of interest found during the excavations are many broken but highly ornamental, embossed, and glazed tiles of very early character; each tile being, when whole, 9 inches square. Possibly, if the church floor is cleared, others may be found in situ. THE JOURNAL OF THE British Archaeological Association. JUNE 1884. DOVER RECORDS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. BY R. SIMS, ESQ. THE MSS. relating to the ancient town of Dover, its port and Castle, deposited at the British Museum, are interesting in the highest degree to the county historian, and especially so to local antiquaries, since it is believed that many of them formed, at one time, a part of the archives of the Corporation. They are, in all, about one hundred and fifty in number, one half of which consists of separate papers of from two to a dozen pages each, whilst the remainder are in the form of volumes extending, in some cases, from 50 to 500 pages of closely written matter. The larger and more important of these records were acquired for the nation at various times between the years 1869 and 1875, from Messrs. Read and Barrett, the well known booksellers at Ipswich, and are now numbered amongst the MSS. forming the Egerton and Additional collections. Previous to the year 1869 the Manuscript Department was by no means rich in materials for the compilation of a history of the town and its surroundings. In the collection named after Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the Museum, but one MS. exists, viz., "A Discourse of Sea-Ports, chiefly that of Dover, by Sir Walter Raleigh." This treatise was printed in the year 1700. Amongst the Cottonian MSS. are some relating to Dover, of which the principal are:-Extracts from Hoveden's Annals, and observations respecting the Castle, temp. Edward I; letters of Henry III relating to the wardship of the Castle; memoranda relating to St. Martin's Priory; and numerous valuable plans and drawings of the town, Castle, and harbour, made in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth; copies of some of which are exhibited upon the walls of the Council Chamber. The Harleian collection contains eight MSS. having relation chiefly to the Castle in the reigns of Edward II and Henry VIII; a customal of the port, made in the fourth year of Edward VI; and some brief memoranda on St. Radigund's Priory. The library purchased by the Trustees in the year 1807, from the executors of the first Marquis of Lansdowne, contains some eighteen or twenty valuable papers relating to surveys of the harbour, pier, and fortifications, between the years 1559 and 1591, with reports on their decaying condition, and proposals for their repair, by Thomas Fludd, surveyor, of Kent, in 1578; also to surveys of the Maison Dieu, then a storehouse, in 1590 and 1591. There is likewise a curious petition for the repair of the "grene and black bulwark" in 1559. These MSS. belonged at one time to Sir Julius Cæsar, Judge of the Admiralty in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Between the years 1796 and 1868 twenty-three volumes only were added to the preceding collections. These were chiefly acquired by purchase. The more important are: "A Discourse of the Harbour, from the Time of Julius Cæsar to 1604, by John Fooke, a Jurat of Dover"; papers relating to the taxations for repairing the harbour, 1625, formerly belonging to Sir Julius Cæsar; a collection of the antiquities of the Castle and town of Dover, with an exposition of and upon the charter of the port and their liberties, compiled for King James I, taken from an old book belonging to Mr. Marsh, clerk of Dover Castle, 1658; plans of the Castle, town, and harbour, in 1581, made by Thomas Digger, head engineer; accounts of Thomas Marchaunt, Receiver of the Constabulary of Dover in 1405; a fragment of the Register of St. Martin's Priory, fifteenth century; charters of liberties granted by Henry III and Edward I. Thus far the earlier collections. We now come to the most important acquisitions in relation to the history of this venerable town, viz., the MSS. obtained by purchase from Messrs. Read and Barrett, as above stated. These are forty-six in number, and are divided between the Egerton and Additional collections, having been purchased partly from the funds arising out of the bequest made by Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgwater, in the year 1825, and partly from the grant annually made by Parliament. They are said by the vendors to have been obtained at an auction in Kent; but how they were brought from Dover they are unable to say,-probably borrowed for some literary purpose, and not returned. Instances of this kind have been and are of frequent occurrence. There are, at this present time, in the hands of a broker at Ipswich, two large boxes of early documents relating to Bury St. Edmund's, which had been so taken (probably from the Guildhall there), which were a short time since sold for waste paper at a local auction. The records in question extend, with a few breaks in the chronology, from the year 1354 to 1768. A brief account of them cannot, we presume, fail to be interesting at this particular moment. They are as follow:ordinances for the better government of the town, 1385; accounts, receipts, and expenditure of the Wardens of Dover between the years 1380 and 1598; correspondence and papers relating to the affairs of Dover during the Wardenship of Edward Lord Zouch; Thomas Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and Theophilus Howard, Earl of Suffolk, between 1615 and 1636; original accounts of receipts and expenses of the Corporation between 1365 and 1546; extracts of similar accounts from the time of Edward III to the reign of William and Mary; fragments of Registers, 1426-56; courts held before the Mayors between 1383 and 1426; acts and decrees made by the Mayor, jurats, and commons, 1545 and in 1603-71; cases tried before the Mayor, bailiffs, and jurats, and punishments awarded, between 1428 and 1436, 1603 and 1624; minutes of proceedings of Common Council and of the Mayor and Corporation from 1506-1768; proceedings of the Sessions of Peace, 1601-92; compoti of Mayors of Dover, 1510-13; extracts from the Court-Books of the Corporation, chiefly final concords, indentures, recognizances, etc., from 1558-1668; depositions made before the Mayor and jurats, 1630-59; proceedings at courts, viz., hundreds' courts, 1506-1605; horn-blowing courts, temp. Henry VI and 1506-1605; guestling-meetings, 1558-1768; brotherhoods, 1558-1668; courts of lodemanage or pilots' fellowship, 1550-1725; entertainment of ambassadors and other distinguished personages, temp. Henry VIII; royal proclamations concerning Dover, 15201615; accounts of the wardens of the "wyke" or pier, and of its "maintences", from 1510-65; receipts of the "fereboys" or ferry-boys plying between Dover and Calais, 1518-25; accounts of Dover Almshouse from 1588-1690; wardens' accounts of St. Mary's Church, Dover, from 1536 1558. In concluding this brief account of the Dover records at the British Museum, it may be added that the charters and deeds are twenty-three in number, being chiefly grants to the Hospital of Domus Dei and the Priory of St. Martin. |