lege of making which was granted to private individuals, for their own benefit, and which caused endless discontent among the people, from the fact of their being much below their nominal value; they, in consequence, failed in superseding the Tradesmen's Tokens, notwithstanding the proclamations for abolishing the latter; and several Nuremburg tokens, issued by Hans Kranwinckle, two of which bore the inscription, "GOTTES. GABEN, SOL, MAN, LOB."

By MR. JOSEPH GODDARD, a small bronze coin of Constantine the Great, struck at Treves, lately found near the Horse-water, Belgrave Gate, Leicester.

By the REV. A. POWNALL, of South Kilworth Rectory, what is believed to be an unique penny of Athelstan I., found in Northamptonshire, and upon which he communicated the following remarks:

This coin presents an unpublished type of the money of that Athelstan who is supposed in some way to have been governing in East Anglia during the reign of Egbert, about the middle of the first half of the ninth century; and who is probably the son of Ethelwolf, to whom, on succeeding to the throne, that sovereign gave "the kingdoms of the Kentish men, and of the East Saxons, and of the men of Surrey, and of the South Saxons," as is recorded in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," under the year 836 A.D. Besides this prince, there are two others bearing the name of Ethelstan, whose coins we possess; one of them being, of course, the grandson of Alfred, and sole monarch of England in 925 a.d. "Rex totius Britannia," he is styled on some of his coins; and, judging by the high sounding titles used in many of the charters of his reign, it was not an appellation he disliked. His money is comparatively common for he had sixty places of mintage in the kingdom, and we know the names of more than a hundred of his moneyers. More rare, however, are the coins attributed to the Danish leader Guthrum, who assumed the name of Ethelstan when he was baptized, in the year 878. At first the enemy, at last the godson and friend of Alfred, we find this Guthrum mentioned, with two other Danish chiefs, as "sitting down" before the town of Cambringe, for a whole year, 875 A.D.; and three years afterwards, in the summer of 878, he was beaten into right good friendship by our great king. Taking up his abode in East Anglia, as a sort of lieutenant or deputy for Alfred, Guthrum, alias Ethelstan, appears to have contributed by his efforts towards the peaceable settlement of that portion of the English domain. On a certain occasion, also, he was employed in a more private capacity, with one Sighelm, "to carry to Rome the alms which the King had vowed to send thither" (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle); this was in 883 A.D., and seven years later he died. Scarcer than the coins of the King of all England, his money is, however, more common than that of the prince I have named first, one of whose coins forms the subject of

the present communication. It reads ETHELSTANI on the obverse, having the letter A in the centre, as is usually found on the money of East Anglia; and it bears the moneyer's nameTORHTHELM-a name already known: but the cross moline on the reverse distinguishes it completely from all other published types of this prince's coinage, and connects it closely with a coin of his father Ethelwolf, which is figured in Ruding (Annals of Coinage, plate xxx. 16). The forms of the letters on these curious pieces are very remarkable; indeed, it is chiefly by them, and by the general character of the workmanship, that numismatists are enabled to arrange the various mintages of that early period of English history. I would specially call attention to the shape of the letter M, and to that which for the Saxon eye represented the sound "TH." In the coin exhibited, these letters are very different in form from the same letters as they appear on the coins of King Athelstan, a hundred years later. I will only say, in addition, that this singularly rare and interesting coin came into my possession recently, through the kindness of a friend in Northamptonshire, in whose parish it was found about two years ago. Turned up by a farm labourer with the plough, I am told it only just escaped the "drill," for its first owner was greatly tempted to pierce it, and then wear it at his watch chain, in compliance with the present fashion.

By MR. HENRY GODDARD, a small pectoral cross of bronze, about two inches high; a small bronze coin of Valens, both lately found in Leicester; and the neck of an amphora, of very large. size, found in excavating for the new Gas Office, Millstone Lane, Leicester.

By the REV. J. H. HILL, drawings of a flint celt, and of two pieces of pottery, found some time ago at Nosely, and now in the possession of Sir A. G. Hazlerigg, Bart. Judging from the ornamentation of the pottery, as shown in the drawings, it would belong to the Early British period, being chiefly composed of zigzags and parallel lines.

MR. NORTH Communicated the discovery of a small leaden coffin, in the parish of Smeeton-Westerby, in this county. The coffin (which is two feet seven inches in length, by eight inches in width, at the one end, and twelve inches at the other,) was dug up by men procuring gravel in an orchard, at the southern extremity of Smeeton, that is, midway between the hamlets of Smeeton and Westerby, now forming the parish of Smeeton-Westerby, at a depth of about three feet from the surface. It is rudely made of two pieces of tolerably thick lead, without solder or any fastening at the ends, the lead being merely folded up, and the ends bent back over the sides. The piece forming the lid or top was also bent over the sides, in the same manner as the ends, and had been fastened with nails, as may be judged from the holes, but the nails

themselves have rusted away. Within the coffin was a small human skeleton, which when first seen, was apparently perfect, but it was quickly disturbed, and some of the bones crumbled to dust. Mr. Macaulay, surgeon, having examined the bones, pronounces them to be the remains of a young child. The leaden coffin is much corroded at the place where the head of the child lay. Its lid, which is tolerably perfect, bears no letter or marks of any kind upon it. There is no appearance to indicate the presence of a wooden coffin having been used with the leaden one. Upon the coffin a number of large rough stones had been thrown before the earth was replaced. Nothing of a similar kind has been found in the immediate neighbourhood of this coffin; but an aged parishioner remembers some skeletons without coffins being dug up, many years ago, in another part of the same gravel-bed, about 200 yards from the spot where the coffin lay. He also reports that his grandfather used to relate, that before his time the plague was very bad in Smeeton, and that many bodies were buried in various parts of the village without coffins or funeral rites.

ALDERMAN NEWTON'S NEW SCHOOLS.

MESSRS. GODDARD AND SON, architects, produced for the inspection and criticism of the Society, their approved plans and working drawings of the new schools shortly to be erected in St. Martin's, Leicester, by the trustees of Alderman Newton's charity.

The Schools, which will be Gothic in style, of the Late Perpendicular period, will stand back from the street about 140 feet. The ground in front (a portion of which, it is hoped, will eventually be used as the site for the master's house,) will partly be planted with shrubs, and partly used as a play-ground for the children. The school-room, which will, internally, be a parallelogram in form, will measure sixty feet by twenty-five feet, and the height from the floor to the level of the wall-plate will be twenty-four feet, with an open high-pitched roof above. A class-room, twenty-four feet by fourteen feet, will be on the south-east side, with cloak and book rooms on each side of the porch. Externally, the buildings will present, without the expense of much ornamentation, a handsome and picturesque appearance; and they will be a great improvement to the locality in which they will stand.

The Society congratulated the trustees on the choice of the national style of architecture for the new schools, in place of the exotic or no-style buildings, which until lately were so generally erected.

Considerable discussion took place with respect to some of the internal features of the school, which were, however, satisfactorily and clearly explained by the architects. With regard to the plan, as a whole, Mr. Alfred Ellis, one of the trustees of the charity,

remarked, that without desiring a building of too ornate a character, the trustees did wish the schools to be in some sort a memorial of their munificent founder, and as such they were anxious to have them built, architecturally, as good and as handsome as the funds will permit.

After remarks from Mr. Ordish, Mr. Thompson, Mr. North, and other gentlemen present, the following resolution was unanimously carried:

"That the Society having examined the designs and working drawings of the new school in connection with Alderman Newton's Charity, is of opinion, that in pictorial effect and general arrangement they are highly satisfactory."

RAGDALE HALL.

MR. DUDGEON, artist, sent for exhibition several extremely beautiful watercolour and india-ink drawings of Ragdale Hall, in this county.

MR. JAMES THOMPSON (using Mr. Dudgeon's pictures as illustrations to his remarks) read the following paper upon Ragdale Hall:

Rakedale is supposed by Nichols, the county historian, to have taken its name from a remarkable break, or rake, which forms a very deep dale, beginning about a quarter of a mile above the village, through which it extends itself a considerable distance, till it gradually diminishes to so small a breadth as only to allow the passage of a little brook, which runs to Hoby, and there falls into the river Wreake.

Ralph, Lord Basset of Drayton, was the proprietor of the manor, in the reign of Richard II. He died without issue, in the year 1389. As he was then seized in fee simple of the estate, he entailed Ragdale and the adjacent lordship of Willows upon his nephew, Sir Hugh Shirley, Knight, the son of his sister Isabella, who had married Sir Thomas Shirley. The condition of the entail was repugnant to Sir Hugh Shirley, who refused to assume the arms and name of Basset. He was a high-spirited man, and prouder of the name of Shirley than he would have been of that of Basset. He was the grand falconer of Henry IV., and the "valiant Shirley" of Shakespeare. At the battle of Shrewsbury, when Douglas encounters King Henry, the dramatist introduces Prince Henry, who enters to rescue his father, and who, before attacking the Scotch warrior, says:

"The spirits

Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms." Sir Hugh fell on the field, clad in royal armour.

Through the refusal of this knight to fulfil the condition of his uncle's entail of Rakedale, law disputes ensued between him and

the Earl of Stafford, who claimed under an old entail, made in 1340, by Ralph, Lord Basset, his grandfather. Between thirty and forty years elapsed in litigation, when Rakedale was finally released to Sir Ralph Shirley, Knight, by the feoffees of the said Ralph, Lord Basset.

Thenceforward the Shirleys remained in undisputed possession of Rakedale. Their original nidus in this county was here; for it was not until some generations had passed away that they were seated at Staunton Harold. That property came into their possession, in fact, through the marriage of Sir Ralph Shirley (the grandson of Sir Hugh) to Margaret Staunton, sister and heir of Thomas Staunton, their son, John Shirley, Esq., inheriting Staunton Harold, in right of his mother. He died in 1485, and was buried at Garendon Abbey.

As his son and his grandson did not live at Rakedale, but at Staunton Harold, it may be assumed there was no resident lord of the manor in the former village in their lifetimes; but early in the reign of Elizabeth, John Shirley, Esq., the great grandson of the inheritor of Staunton Harold, settled at Rakedale; and it is no unfair presumption to suppose he built the manor house of that period. He died in 1570.

His son was Sir George Shirley, who was sheriff of this county about the year 1603, and who, eight years after, was created a baronet. To him may be attributed the enlargement of the Elizabethan manor house in the style prevalent in the reign of James I., and the substitution of red brick, as a building material, in the place of timber. He died in the year 1622.

To Sir George succeeded Sir Henry, whose alliance with the Devereux family ultimately raised his descendants in rank, and gratified their ambition. The lady to whom he was allied was Dorothy Devereux, daughter of Robert, Earl of Essex, and co-heiress to her brother, Robert, Earl of Essex. In the days of Sir Henry and Lady Dorothy the old manor house of Rakedale was considerably "beautified." They were proud of their ancestry, and delighted in the insignia of the races from whom they had descended. Sir Henry, therefore, added the east bow and projecting porch to the front, about the year 1629; and above the door he caused to be carved in stone the family coat of arms, containing fifty quarterings; thus showing the families with which he was connected, by alliance and descent; the last of the fifty quarterings being that of Paris, of Lincolnshire, from which, obviously, the shield of Pares has been derived. On each side of this coat of arms are two others, that to the left of the spectator being the coat of Sir Henry's mother, who was Frances, daughter of Edward, Lord Berkeley, and that to the right the coat of Devereux, his wife's family. On the sides of the doorway are the crests of Shirley and Devereux. In the parlour, on a finely emblazoned shield, carved in wood, over the