Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/428

 310 ANNUAL MEETING. " Provisions " of Oxford, exacted by the Barons from Henry III. in 1258. Ilis observations were illustrated by a large ground-plan of the castle, and he entered fully into the peculiarities and date of its erection. No castle is mentioned at Oxford in Domesday Book ; the mound is, how- ever, probably of Saxon times. The Empress Maud was besieged here in 1142 by Stephen ; and the portion traditionally called Maud's Cliapel is supposed by Mr. Hartshorne to have been a crypt under the hall. It is of early Norman character, and highly curious. He brought forward numerous extracts from public records : his remarks were accompanied also by notices of the chief Parliaments and Councils held at Oxford. William Sidney Gibson, Esq., read a Memoir on Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, Lord Chancellor in the times of Edward III. He was a zealous collector of books, and bequeathed his library to Durham College, in Oxford. Edwin Guest, Esq., gave a discourse on the Earthworks which formed the boundaries of the Belgic settlements in Britain, and on those made after the treaty of Mons Badonicus. His interesting observations were in con- tinuation of his views brought before the Institute at the Salisbury Meeting. Mr. Guest considers the territory of the first Belgic settlers in the Vale of the Stour, to have been bounded by Combe Bank and Bokerly Dyke, Vindogladia being their capital. AYhen they pushed their conquests towards Salisbury, the Old Ditch became their boundary, and Old Sarum their capital. Their latest boundary was Wansdike. Mr. Guest propounded an important conjecture on the age of Stoneheuge, which he supposes may have been constructed by the Belgaj, under Divitiacus, about the year 100 A.c. The Grimsdyke, South of Salisbury, and the ditch North of Old Sarum, he believes are not Belgic works, but boundaries traced by the Welch after the ti-eaty of the Mons Badonicus. The Architectural Section met, by the kind permission of the Architec- tural Society, in their great room in Holywell, Dr. Hauington, President of the Section, in the chair. A paper was read by Mr. E. A. Freeman on "The Architecture of Dorchester Abbey Church." The documentary history and architectural detail of the building having been exhausted in the volume published by Mr. Addington, the subject naturally divided itself into three parts : 1 St. General criticism on the building as a whole ; 2nd. Architectural history of the fabric ; 3rd. A notice of the recent restoration. Leaving the second to form the subject of a viva voce lecture on the spot on the ensuing day, Mr. Freeman proceeded to comment on the peculiar character of the building ; being that of a small church developed to conventual proportions, without at all acquiring the character of a minster. In this respect it may be compared with Llandatf Cathedral, and still more closely with jMonkton Priory, near Pembroke. Both at Llandaff and Dorchester, the peculiar arrangements seem to be owing to a much smaller building liaving received successive enlargements till it attained its present size, without any complete rebuilding from the ground. He also pointed out how remarkably these arrangements, which detract from the beauty of the church as a whole, have given scope for the introduction of numerous individual features of great magnificence. He then gave some account of the restora- tions effected between 1845 and 184S, during which time a careful repair of the presbytery was effected, regretting that so small a portion could be