UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

The Porson Prize has been adjudged to Mr. George Druce, of St. Peter's College. Subject-Shakspere's Tempest, Act iv. sc. 1. Beginning, "This is most strange," and ending," To still my breaking mind." Translated into Greek verse.

Sir William Browne's gold medals were adjudged as follows:

Greek Ode.-Reginald Robert Walpole, Gonville and Caius College. Subject"Principissa faustis auspiciis recens nata."

Latin Ode.-Henry Mildred Birch, scholar of King's College. Subject—"Annuus exactis completur mensibus orbis."

Epigrams.-Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, Trinity College. Subjects, Greek"Hoc est

Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui." Latin-"Vehicula vi vaporis impulsa." The Chancellor's gold medal for the best English Poem was adjudged to John Charles Conybeare, of St. Peter's College. Subject-"The Death of Marquess Cam

den."

Durham, with a view to maintaining the University of Durham in a state of reThe followspectability and efficiency.

ing are its principal provisions :

The office of Warden, upon the first vacancy, is to be attached to the Deanery of Durham; the present Warden receiving 500l. annually during his incumbency.

A Canonry in the Cathedral Church is to be attached to each of the Professorships of Divinity and Greek.

The present Professor of Mathematics is to be appointed Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, with an annual salary of 7001.

When the office of Warden shall be annexed to the Deanery, the salary of 5001. paid to the present Warden during his incumbency is to be applied to found a Professorship of Hebrew and the other Oriental languages.

In addition to the six Fellowships, already founded by the Dean and Chapter, there are to be founded 18 Fellowships, making 24 such Fellowships in the whole. Two of such 18 Fellowships are to be founded on the 29th day of September, 1841, and the same number in each year until the year 1849 inclusive. Eight only of the 24 Fellows who have exceeded the age of The 23 are allowed to continue laymen. Lay Fellowships are tenable for eight, the clerical for 10 years. They are to be of the annual value of 1201., the 10 senior clerical Fellows receiving 150l. didates for Fellowships must have been admitted to the degree of B.A. in the University of Durham, and are to be elected according to the regulations now in force, or such other regulations as shall be duly made for securing the election of the most meritorious candidate, regard being always had to moral character as well as to learning. The Fellowships are to be vacated by marriage ór ecclesiastical preferment.

Can

Towards providing the funds for making these payments, all the estate and interest now vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the lands, &c. formerly assigned to the Deanery and to the 11th Canonry of the Cathedral Church of Durham (all tithes being excepted), are to be vested in the Warden, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Durham; and when it shall become necessary, further provision is to be made for granting such additional endowment as may appear to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners necessary for making up the deficiency.

ETON COLLEGE.

The triennial celebration of Ad Montem took place on Whit-Tuesday, with unusual eclat, in the presence of Her Ma

jesty and Prince Albert, and an immense concourse of spectators. The procession moved from the College towards Salt-hill between 11 and 12 o'clock, accompanied by the bands of the First Life Guards and the Rifles. Her Majesty and the Prince were received by the Provost, the HeadMaster, &c. in the usual manner, and afterwards went to the window of the College Library in the Clock Tower, from which they had a full view of the procession. The dresses of the Salt-bearers, the attendants on the Captain and the Marechal, and on the other authorities and magnates of the day, were very elegant and splendid. There were Greeks, Poles, Turks, Circassians, Highlanders, &c. The Captain, Mr. Thring, with the oppidans of the 6th and 5th forms, were, as usual, in scarlet, and the collegers or foundation boys for the first time were in blue and gold coats, with cocked hats and swords. The whole of the procession mustered nearly 700 strong. The amount in "salt," or money collected, was about 1,3007., from which the Captain had to defray expenses, nearly one-half.

Prince Albert has been pleased to present 501. annually to Eton College, as a prize for that boy who shall be the most distinguished in a knowledge of modern languages. All the details respecting distribution will be left to the arrangement of the Provost and Head-Master.

An East India Director, William Butterworth Bailey, esq. who was educated at Eton, has offered a writership to the boy who proves himself, upon examination, a "No. 1" in classical, mathematical, historical, and general knowledge, and as a linguist.

BERKSHIRE ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY.

May 24. This society held its first annual meeting at the Council Chamber, Reading, J. B. Monck, esq., Director, in the chair, when the Secretary read a Report of the Council, congratulating the Society on the prosperous condition of its affairs.

Although little more than twelve months have passed since the Society was esta. blished, the members amount in number to 163, and those obtained previously to the first publication of the society being issued.

The first fruits of their labours :"Original letters, and other documents relating to the Benefactions of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, to the county of Berks. Edited by John Bruce, esq. F.S.A."-are already in the hands of the members; and the balance of subscriptions in the Treasurer's hands will be available for the payment of the cost of

publication of the two next forthcoming works, viz. :—

"A Chronicle of the Abbey of Abingdon, from an unpublished MS. in the University Library, Cambridge." Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. And "The Unton Inventories, relating to Wadley and Farringdon, co. Berks, in the years 1596 and 1620; with a Memoir of the Family of Unton." Edited by John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A., which will shortly appear, and to copies whereof the members will be entitled in respect of their first year's subscription.

The Council further reported that the following works have been suggested for publication :

"A Collection of Pedigrees of Berkshire Families, with biographical Notices of Eminent Persons." To be edited by John Richards, jun. esq. F.S.A.

"A descriptive Catalogue of all MSS. relating to the county of Berks, in the British Museum, and in the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, or elsewhere." To be edited by James Orchard Halliwell, esq. F.R.S. F.S.A., &c.

"A similar Catalogue of all printed books, especially relating to the History, Antiquities, or Topography of the County."

"A Berkshire Index Comitatûs, comprising a variety of useful statistical details relating to the county." To be edited by John Richards, jun. esq. F.S.A.

"The History and Antiquities of Wallingford, from an unpublished MS. by John Man (author of the History of Reading), in the collection of John Richards, jun. esq. F.S.A." To be edited, with additions, by Richard H. Allnatt, M.D.

"A Translation of the Survey of Berkshire contained in Domesday Book."

"Inedited MSS. relating to the History of the Order of the Garter."

"A Berkshire Index Monasticus." The Earl of Abingdon, D.C.L. was reelected President; the Marquess of Downshire, K.P., D.C.L., and the Ven. Archdeacon Berens, M.A., Vice-Presidents; and the following gentlemen the Council of the Society for the year ensuing :

R. H. Allnatt, M.D.; Charles Blandy, esq.; John Bruce, esq. F.S.A.; William Congreve, esq.; Charles Eyston, esq.; J. O. Halliwell, esq. F.R.S., F.S.A.; Rev. John Kitcat; W. Fuller Maitland, esq. M.A., F.S.A.; J. B. Monck, esq. (Director); Philip Pusey, esq., M.P.; John Richards, jun. esq. F.S.A. (Secretary); Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, M.P.; W. J. Thoms, esq. F.S.A.; R. T. Woodhouse, M.D. (Treasurer); Rev. S. W. Yates, M.A.

Auditors :-Thomas Garrard, esq., Capt. Purvis, and William Tiley, esq.

WILTSHIRE TOPOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. June 5. This Society held its first Annual General Meeting, at the Freemasons' Tavern.

The Council gave a favourable report of the finances of the Society, and of its literary prospects. Mr. Britton has made considerable progress in collections for the parishes of the northern portion of Damerham Hundred, in which is to be in. cluded a Memoir of John Aubrey. One of the parishes of this district (Christian Malford) has been undertaken by Mr. John Gough Nichols. The collections for Castle Combe, by Mr. Poulett Scrope, are copious, and abound with interesting documents and materials; whilst those for the Hundred of Cricklade, by Mr. Richard Mullings; for the manors of Bowood and Whetham, by Mr. Stoughton Money; for the romantic parish of Box, with its Roman villa, mineral waters, &c. by Mr. E. Mullins; for Corsham, by Mr. Alexander; for Chippenham, and the Geology of Wiltshire, by Mr. Provis; for Bradford, by Mr. Bush Saunders; and for Melksham, by Mr. Phillips and Mr. Cochrane, offer a large promise for the future. An Essay on the Tradesmen's Tokens of Wiltshire, by Mr. Akerman, will explain some curious facts relative to times and localities when and where such currency was employed. These subjects are in various stages of preparation, and when successively completed will give manifestations of the utility of the Society, and excite a laudable spirit of emulation in other gentlemen of the county.

IRISH ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

May 3. The First Annual General Meeting of the Irish Archæological Society was held in the rooms of the Natural History Society, at Dublin, John Smith Furlong, esq. Q.C. in the Chair.

The Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D. Secretary of the Society, announced that His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant had been graciously pleased to permit himself to be named Patron of the Society. Also that His Grace the Duke of Leinster, at the invitation of the Council, had accepted the office of President for the year now commencing. The Report from the Provisional Council stated that the favour with which the general design and objects of the Society have been received, and the highly respectable names that will be found in the list of original Members, leave no doubt of the practicability of the undertaking.

The first step taken with a view to the future operations of the Society, was to put into the hands of Mr. O'Donovan and Mr. Curry, two scholars pre-cmin

ently qualified for the task, the celebrated Glossary of Cormac Mac Cuillionan, King of Munster and Bishop of Cashel, who flourished at the end of the ninth century, and was killed in battle, A.D. 908. This curious repertory of ancient Irish is of incalculable value to all students of the obsolete part of the language, and will be indispensable hereafter to the Society, should it so far prosper as to be able to undertake the publication of the Brehon laws, and other difficult remains of the ancient literature of Ireland. Through the kindness of Mr. George Smith, a very ancient manuscript of Cormac's Glossary was placed at the disposal of the Council, and another very valuable MS., for the use of which the Society is indebted to George Petrie, esq., has been adopted as the basis upon which the text of the work has been formed, by a careful collation with the MSS. deposited in the Libraries of the University and of the Royal Irish Academy. This collation has been already completed by Mr. O'Donovan, assisted by Mr. Curry, and from the text thus formed Mr. O'Donovan is at present engaged in preparing a translation and illustrative notes. Mr. Curry has also undertaken to examine other ancient glossaries, preserved in the University Library, by whose aid he hopes to throw much light on the obscurities of the original. Council recommend, therefore, that the work should not be published in haste, but kept in Mr. O'Donovan's hands until it receives such accessions, from a full examination of all the other sources of information on the subject, which are or may be placed within his reach, as will render it as nearly complete as the nature of the case will admit.

The

In the mean time a volume of miscellaneous tracts is preparing for early distribution among the Members. This volume will contain three very curious and interesting tracts, the first of which, to be edited by Mr. O'Donovan, is an Irish poem, written in the year 942, describing a journey undertaken by Muircheartach, Prince of Aileach, for the purpose of taking hostages from the native chiefs, who were most likely to oppose his accession to the throne of Tara, of which he was then the heir apparent. This poem will be published in the original, accompanied by a translation and notes, in which a mass of information, historical and topographical, the greater part of which was never before published, has been brought together in a manner highly creditable to Mr. O'Donovan's industry and learning. It will also be accompanied by a Map of Ireland, in which the names of the districts and places mentioned in

the poem are given, and which may, therefore, be considered as a very correct representation of the geographical state of that country in the middle of the tenth century.

The second tract in the volume will be edited by Dr. Aquilla Smith; it is a reprint of a very scarce tract printed in London in the reign of Elizabeth, and is a description of Ireland by an English settler named Payne, who had obtained ground in the County Cork, and who wrote evidently with a view to attract others of his countrymen to embark their capital in a similar speculation. For the use of this very rare tract the thanks of the Society are again due to Mr. George Smith.

The third tract is an account of the war of King James the Second, in Ireland, written by Colonel Charles O'Kelly, one of the commanders in the army of that prince, and a very accomplished scholar. The tract will be edited by George Petrie, esq. from a MS. which has recently been added to the collection of Trinity College.

The following Noblemen and Gentlemen were then elected as the President and Council of the Irish Archæological Society for the ensuing year :—

President,-His Grace the Duke of Leinster. Council,-The Earl of Leitrim, Viscount Adare, M.P. Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci, Lord George Hill, Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D. Rev. Richard Butler, M.A. John Smith Furlong, Esq. Q.C. James Mac Cullagh, Esq. LL.D. Aquilla Smith, Esq. M.D. Joseph Huband Smith, Esq. M.A. George Petrie, Esq. R.H.A. Edward Cane, Esq.

The Society now consists of 229 Members. It is limited (at present) to 500.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

May 24. The eleventh Anniversary Meeting was held, G. B. Greenough, esq. President, in the chair. From the Report, it appeared that forty new members had been elected during the year, and that nine vacancies had been occasioned by death. The Society now consists of 714 members, exclusive of sixtythree foreign, honorary, and corresponding members.

The state of the finances continued very satisfactory. The Council felt great regret in announcing the resignation of the Secretaryship by Captain Washington; it had been accepted by Colonel Jackson; and the editing of the Journal had been confided to the Foreign Secretary, under whose direction the third part of Vol. X. had already been published. Considerable accessions had been made to the library, particularly in maps and charts, a large portion of the latter derived from the liberality of the Board of Admiralty. The Kurdistan Expedition, undertaken under the joint auspices of the Geogra

phical Society and of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and confided to Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Rassam, has concluded its labours, and Mr. Ainsworth's last Report, just received, will appear in a subsequent number of the Journal.

The thanks of the Society were voted to the officers and members of the Council retiring, and the following gentlemen were elected to fill the vacant offices:-W. R. Hamilton, esq. President; Lord Colchester, G. B. Greenough, esq. and Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, Vice Presidents; F. Beckford, esq., R. W. Rawson, esq., Capt. F. P. Blackwood, the Earl of Burlington, Sir John Barrow, Bart., Capt. Chapman, R. A., C. Fellows, esq., Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and Capt. Washington, R.N., as new members of the Council.

The two gold medals, of equal value, being the Royal Premium annually placed by her Majesty at the disposal of the Council, were presented, the one to Lieut. Raper, R.N., for his work on "Practical Navigation and Nautical Astronomy," and for his papers on Longitudes in the Nautical Magazine; and the other to Lieut. J. Wood, of the Indian Navy, for his journey to and re-discovery of the source of the Oxus, and for his labours on the Indus.

The President then read his annual Address, which consisted of two portions, the first appropriated to a review of the progress of Geography throughout the world during the past year, and the second to Philosophical Considerations on the various departments of Geographical · Science.

LINNEAN SOCIETY.

May 24. The Anniversary Meeting of this Society was held, the President, the Bishop of Norwich, in the chair. The usual Reports were read, and gave satisfaction. During the year the Society has lost by death twelve fellows, one foreign member, and one associate; the Society had elected during the year the same number of fellows, three foreign members, and two associates. Among the deceased fellows is Mr. Francis Bauer, the botanical draughtsman, distinguished for the skill, beauty, and accuracy with which he executed his microscopical drawings. The officers of the preceding year were re-elected; the new members of the council are the Marquis of Northampton, Sir William Hooker, Joseph Janson, esq., John Parkinson, esq., J. O. Westwood, esq. In the evening the fellows of the Society and their friends dined as usual at the Freemasons' Tavern.

The Society then adjourned over Whitsuntide to

June 10. When W. R. Hamilton, esq. V.P. was in the chair, and the following gentlemen were elected Fellows:- Henry Annesley Woodham, esq. B.A. of Jesus college, Cambridge; the Rev. Harry Longueville Jones, M.A. late Fellow of Magd. coll. Camb.; John Evans, esq. of Worcester; Thomas Chapman, esq. of Whitby, co. York, and Montagu Place, Bryanstone-square; and Samuel Solly, of Morton Woodland, co. Lincoln, and of Upper Gower-street, F.R.S.

George Vivian, esq. presented an impression of a seal found in 1840 at Monkton Butleigh, co. Somerset (inserted in our Jan. number, p. 82).

John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a silver seal of very remarkable construction. When complete it gives an impression of a coat of arms, a bend cottised between six martlets, and this inscription: SIGILLUM THOME PRAYERS. By means of an internal screw the centre is pushed forward and the shield will give an impression free of the legend. Again, the centre may be screwed off, when a small seal, or secretum, appears, engraved with a shield bearing a bendlet ragulée on a fretty field, and this English motto: 3AT I NE WERE. The original owner of this seal probably lived in the reign of one of the first Edwards; his family resided at Dorsington, in Gloucestershire, and from the heiress of Prayers the seal has descended through other heiresses of Drayton and Lovett, to the family of Shirley Earl Ferrers, and is now in the possession of E. P. Shirley, esq. of Eatington-park.

Sir Henry Ellis, Secretary, communicated a letter of Sir John Smith to Lord Burleigh, dated Baden, 23 Nov. 1590, being a remonstrance upon the suppression of Sir John's book, entitled, "Certain Discourses, concerning Weapons, and

other matters military," published shortly after his return from an embassy to Spain. June 17. Thomas Amyot, esq. Treas. in the chair.

Mr. John Reddock, C.M.F.H.S.communicated some account of a Roman altar found on the line of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, at Brighton Bridge, near Falkirk. It is a square, about three feet high, ornamented around the top and base with carving. It is nearly a foot broad at the bottom, gradually tapering to the top. On one of the faces is the following :

HERCVLI

MAGV SAN SACRV M VALNIGRI

NVSD VPLI A LAETVN GRORVM

:

We understand that it is most properly to be transmitted to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,

A. J. Kempe, esq. F.S.A. exhibited some paintings brought from Mexico, drawn on a substance apparently the bark of trees. One was evidently the fragment of a rude map, and has inscriptions in Spanish in various parts. Mr. Kempe conjectured they might be of the age of Cortes, but possibly they may be of a later period.

Mr. Britton, F.S.A. exhibited some drawings of Brixworth church, Northamptonshire, and of several other buildings of a kindred style of architecture.

Mr. C. R. Smith, F.S.A. addressed a letter to the Secretary, in continuation of his account of the Roman remains found on the site of the French church in Threadneedle-street. He also presented a drawing of a second tesselated pavement, there discovered; and a model of the same in plaster of Paris was presented by Mr. Moxhay, the owner of the place. It is of a very beautiful "kaleidoscope " pattern.

The Session of the Society was then closed, and the meetings will be resumed on the 28th of November.

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

May 20. Dr. Lee, V.P. in the chair.

Mr. Le Clerc, medal-engraver to the King of the Belgians, presented a set of proofs of his medals, in bronze and in silver, of eminent statesmen and of patriots of Belgium and Greece.

Capt. Martin exhibited coins and a drawing illustrative of discoveries made in