Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/128

92 after causing Phocas to be beheaded, 610, was proclaimed Emperor of the East, and died  641. The limbs of the cross are of equal length, slightly dilated, and are enriched with pieces of bright red-coloured glass, forming a sort of mosaic, in the style of certain precious objects of the Carlovingian age. This is the second ornament, thus decorated, which has been found in Norfolk. A pendant medallion, set with a cast from a coin of the Emperor Mauricius, was discovered on the shore near Mundesley, and was presented by Miss Gurney to the British Museum. It is figured in the Archæologia, vol. xxxii, pl. vii. A representation of the cross will be given in the Transactions of the Norfolk Archæological Society.

By .—A small enamelled plate of twelfth century champlevé work, representing the Passover. One Israelite holding a basin filled with blood, inscribes a T (or tau) with a pen over a door, under which lies au animal recently slaughtered. Two other Israelites are in the act of eating the passover; they hold clubs, and appear to be already on their march. Above appear the letters—PHASE. Dimensions, 3 in. by 2$1⁄2$ in.

By .— Drawings, representing some curious sculptures, of the Norman period, at Bishop's Teignton church, Devon. One of them is now inserted in the south wall: it consists of four figures, in a small arcade of as many arches, and between each was originally a slender shaft, as shown by the capitals and bases which remain. A fragment of one of the shafts remains, and it is spirally moulded. The figures represent a female seated, seen in full-face; three persons in long robes, the two first, wearing a kind of mitre, are viewed in profile, as if approaching to pay her homage. This sculpture appears to have been destined to fill the tympanum of a round-headed doorway. The arch-mouldings of a western door, at the same church, are very curious: they consist of grotesque heads twined with foliage, and cones of the pine, from which a bird, with the mandibles much curved, is pecking out the seeds. Under its feet is another cone. It may probably represent the cross-bill; and Mr. Tomkins observed, that this bird was possibly introduced in decorations of a sacred nature, on account of the notion, of which he had hitherto only been able to discover a trace in the translation from the German—"the Legend of the cross-bill," to be found in Longfellow's Poems, It would appear that a popular tradition attributed the curved bill and red-stained plumage of that bird, to its having attempted to relieve the Saviour's agony by wrenching out a nail from the cross, so that the wings were spotted with his blood. If this legend were anciently known in England, it is probable that representations of this bird may be found in the symbolical sculptures and decorations of other churches. The cross-bill, it should be observed, lives in the pine-forests of Germany, and greedily extracts the seeds from the cones.

By .—A collection of beautiful drawings, representing ancient relics and objects of art, chiefly preserved in the Fejervary Cabinet, in Hungary, M. Pulski observed, that the inspection of the interesting exhibition of Ancient and Mediæval Art, formed during the previous season at the Adelphi, and to which the members of the Institute largely contributed, had induced him to lay before the Society a selection of drawings of objects of similar nature existing in foreign countries. They comprised a series of examples of sculpture in ivory, beginning with a diptych, designed with singular grace and feeling, equal to the finest works of the sixteenth century; but, possibly, of as early date as the fourth or fifth century.