The two matters which I have to lay before you to-night are the results of chance discoveries made at Ripon during the installation of a heating system and at York in digging a grave. Cathedral churches in full and constant use do not lend themselves to exhaustive archaeological investigation, but it is my first duty to express to the Deans of York and Ripon my most sincere acknowledgement of their kindness in allowing these researches to be pushed to the farthest possible limits. That certain points must remain doubtful is obvious, but since nothing short of the complete ruin of the two Minsters would ensure a full examination we may content ourselves with the reflection that it is possible to pay too high a price for knowledge.

The rarity of any traces of Christianity among the Roman remains of this country has often been the subject of comment.

The little church at Silchester and its probable analogue at Caerwent make a poor show beside the more than twenty known pagan temples, and setting aside certain recognizably Christian tombstones, no other relics are hitherto known save some examples of the Chi-Rho monogram. The object here published is therefore anyhow worthy of remark, and the more so since its decoration exhibits a symbolism of long history and peculiar interest, namely, that of the Sacred Tree.

The charter which is illustrated in pl. xviii is a grant by King Edward I to Roger de Pilkington and his heirs of free warren in their demesne lands of Pilkington and elsewhere in the county of Lancaster. The grantee was the son of Alexander de Pilkington, whom he succeeded at some date after 1282. He was a knight of the shire for Lancashire in 1316; and an adherent of Thomas earl of Lancaster, being imprisoned after the battle of Boroughbridge, and dying shortly afterwards. In Feb. 1289–90 he was granted for his services in Gascony 100 li from the first wardships which fell in on the south side of Trent; and in June 1291 he was granted the present charter. In the following year he was summoned to Lancaster to show to the justices itinerant by what warrant he claimed free warren in Pilkington and elsewhere, and he successfully exhibited to them the actual charter which is the subject of this note.

The three carved stones which are the subject of these notes have been in the possession of the Society for an indeterminate length of time. The late Sir William Hope appears to have known nothing of their provenance, which carries back the Society's possession of them beyond the year 1885 when he became Assistant Secretary. They were probably exhibited or were intended to be exhibited to the Society and never subsequently removed, though no record of such exhibition is to be found in our Minutes. This unfortunate omission deprives us of an exact knowledge of the place from which the stones came, but a scientific examination of the material of which they are made identifies it as Northamptonshire oolite or some very closely allied stone. This indicates the Peterborough district as the approximate area from which they came.

Of the two boats described, the first, from Llandrindod Wells, was examined by the writer in 1929 for the National Museum of Wales. The second was found before 1866 at Llyn Llydaw, Snowdonia (Arch. Camb. 1874, 147). It has recently been presented to the National Museum of Wales by Mr. Mervyn Griffith, and re-examination having shown that the illustration in the published record gives a wrong impression of its form, this opportunity has been taken of refiguring the vessel.

The history in the seventeenth century of a fourteenth-century picture can only be of secondary importance. But since many writers on the Wilton diptych and the Westminster Abbey whole-length portrait of Richard II have complained of disputed statements and doubtful evidence, it is worth while to set out a few new suggestions which appear to be adequately supported. They are based upon a close study of such sources of information as we possess, and may perhaps ultimately help to a clue to the undiscovered first owners and authors of the paintings.