1732 to 1763; Nichols' History of Sparkenhoe Hundred; collection of china.

· By MR. GUTTERIDGE: Hinkley Inclosure Act; and English coins.

By REV. JNO. SANKEY: manuscripts on vellum, a portion dated 1343, comprising apparently an office for the celebration of the Festival of Corpus Christi, and a summary of the Canons and Provincial Constitutions; various books, including Latimer's Sermons, the title page of the first bearing date 1548; Fuller's Holy State, 1642; Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, 1559; several medals, one by John Lilburne, giving the names of the jury who acquitted him, October, 1649-A. Wood says of him, that he was so quarrelsome that if he were alone in the world, "John would be against Lilburne, and Lilburne against John;" coins of James II., William III., &c., &c.

By MRS. BONNER: Saddle covered with green velvet from Bosworth Field (?).

By MRS. SHEEN: View of Charing Cross and Westminster Abbey in 1450.

By SIR A. B. C. DIXIE: Small box, containing four Tradesmen's Tokens, viz.--William Iliffe, Hinckley, 1662; Thomas Davell, Hinckley; Samuel Willson, Leicester, and Joseph C. Hinckley.

By MR. BROCKLEHURST: Manilla China.

By MR. W. COWDELL: Tobacco box, "George Cowdell, Naseby, Northamptonshire, 1734."

By MR. C. J. LEA, of Lutterworth: many specimens of mural decorations, executed by himself and under his guidance.

By MR. WEATHERHEAD: Drawings of bronze antiquities, found

in the Town and County of Leicester.

By MR. JAMES WYKES: Prayer and New Testament, temp. Elizabeth.

By MR. FARNDON : Collection of silver and copper coins; lady's shoe, temp. Queen Anne.

By MR. JAMES LEES: Working model of stocking frame.

By MR. S. R. BONNER: Small silver box for suspension-on front, the sacred monogram I.H.S. and a heart pierced by three nails-on back, M.R.A. and a heart pierced by a sword; small pectoral crucifix, and various coins; old spectacles.

By MRS. COTTON, Burbage: Indian curiosities and personal

ornaments.

By REV. E. TOWER: Models of statuary from the Vatican; Italian casts.

By MR. JAMES ARGYLE: Dress, temp. George III.

By S. ANGENT, ESQ.: Chinese curiosities, very fine.

By REV. WM. SKIRROW: Glass lachrymatory from Egypt, with modern stopper; fine Indian carvings in ivory; gold comfit box,

seventeenth century; Swiss and other foreign curiosities of great beauty; Russian triptich from the Crimea; jewel box, A.D. 1614, richly ornamented with bead work, velvet, and mirrors; curious Chinese figures and china; Canadian curiosities.

By MRS. PRIDMORE: Specimens of china.

By T. S. LUDLOW, ESQ.: Kaffir gourd bottles from Natal, &c., &c.

By REV. T. H. EVANS: Statue in wood from Alexandria.

By MESSRS. HEATON, BUTLER, AND CO.: Specimens of stained glass, and various designs for windows.

By REV. —. BRADFORD: Sword hilt from Bosworth Field; fine specimen of ancient British bronze; arrow-head found in Bosworth Field two feet below the surface in December, 1837.

By MR. A. ATKINS: Lachrymatory from Pompeii.

By REV. E. TOWER: Large Dutch Jug, temp. Geo. I.

By MRS. CLEAVER: Pair of Jugs.

By MRS. PRIDMORE: Ancient Needlework.

By REV. M. BERRY: Horns found at Burbage, three feet below the surface, in cutting a drain.

By MR. W. A. TODD: Comfit box, temp. Elizabeth.

By MRS. SMITH, Elmsthorpe: Box enamelled on copper; Chinese idol, &c., &c.; indentures, dated 1714; various boxes; ancient watch and key; piece of tapestry, representing the story of Susannah and the Elders; a large brass button, with the initials W. R., formerly belonging to Sir William Roberts, of Sutton Cheney-he founded an hospital there in 1612, was sheriff of Leicestershire in 1618, was knighted at Belvoir, August 6, 1619, died 24th February, 1633, and left the interest of £30. between the poor of Hinckley and Barwell; portraits of John Ward of Hinckley and John Throseby; ancient spur and bit; specimens of ancient delf; a large collection of ancient and modern china.

At four o'clock, MR. BLOXAM commenced a lucid description of the more prominent specimens, beginning with a quern or hand corn mill, dug out of the railway excavations near to Whetstone. Mr. Bloxam described it as one of the largest and most perfect of these Roman mills he had ever seen, and it must have originally come from Germany. He next inspected some spear heads found at Bosworth, pointing out that one of them must be considered of the early English period, consequently much older than the date of the Battle of Bosworth Field. Several keys, said to be of the Roman period, were hardly of the pattern they should have been if they were authentic; one especially, found at Twycross, he pointed out as being about one hundred years old. Some earthenware, spurs, a small casket, and unfinished needlework, he described as rare specimens of their class. In the course of his remarks, Mr. Bloxam alluded to a number of curious horns of the Roman

period which had been found in a heap at Burbage; he was not naturalist enough to say to what species of animal they belonged. There was a remarkable little coffer, covered with leather and bound in iron, probably of the Elizabethan period. Having described some local tokens formerly used by the tradesmen of Hinckley, Mr. Bloxam alluded to an illuminated MS. described in the above list, as a curious relic, and proceeded to call attention, especially that of the ladies, to a very perfect but laughable specimen of a "poke bonnet" worn "when George III. was King," believing that we should soon come round to the same fashion again. One of the next objects pointed out was a copy of Latimer's sermons, printed in his lifetime, which he thought was very interesting.

MR. JAMES THOMPSON supplemented Mr. Bloxam's observations by a few general remarks on the successive periods of English history, with a view to the classification of articles of antiquity according to their dates and styles of ornamentation. He briefly glanced at the Roman, Saxon, and Norman periods, and then referred to the styles of Gothic architecture, including the Early English, the Decorative, and the Perpendicular, and added that the subsequent periods were known as the Renaissance, the Elizabethan, and the Jacobean. Mr. Thompson gave these explanations with a view to prevent misunderstanding as to the use of terms in connexion with the articles exhibited in the Museum.

THE ORDINARY.

AT half-past six o'clock in the evening there was an Ordinary at the George Hotel, Hinckley, which was largely attended, the room being quite full.

THE EVENING MEETING.

AT eight o'clock a public Meeting was held in the Corn Exchange, the Vicar, as President of the Congress, occupying the chair.

The Chairman called first upon MR. JAMES THOMPSON to read his Paper on

ANCIENT HINCKLEY.

AT the Norman Conquest, when the defeat of the native English by the Norman conquerors was followed by a complete change of proprietors, the land at Hinckley fell into the possession of Aubrey de Vere, the Lord High Chamberlain of King William.

At this time (about the year 1086) the lordship consisted of fourteen ploughlands, which in the time of Edward the Confessor

-thirty years or so before-had been valued at six pounds' weight of silver, but which now were worth in yearly rent ten pounds' weight, or between thirty and forty pounds in modern reckoning. This was at a time, too, when money gave a greater command over commodities than it does in this age; as wheat, for instance, then sold for 1s. 9d. a quarter. Earl Aubrey had four ploughs and eight serfs or bondsmen; while forty-two villans (whom, for the sake of plainer speaking, I may call "smockfrock farmers"), with sixteen bordars or cottagers, and three persons in higher rank and more independent position, called "sokemen," had nine ploughs and a half. There was, at an outside computation, supposing every ploughland to consist of 120 acres, 1680 acres under cultivation about Hinckley. There was a meadow six furlongs long and three broad; and a wood one mile long and three furlongs broad, which probably covered the ground on the south side of the town, between it and the adjoining parish of Burbage. From these particulars (still preserved in the Domesday Survey) it may be inferred that Earl Aubrey kept in his own hands as much as could be ploughed by four ploughs and eight serfs, while the remainder of the inhabitants, all in a more or less dependent condition, worked as much as nine ploughs, and half as much as one plough more, would enable them to do-that is, they had not enough to require ten ploughs to be going regularly. The whole male adult population, all husbandmen, numbered 69. If they were married men, with an average family of three children each, the number of residents would be 345. It is probable the arable land in the parish was much less than 1680 acres; as the ploughland has been variously estimated at from 30 to 120 acres; and therefore, of the 2000 acres of which the lordship consisted, there may have been as few as 420 undergoing culture.

By comparison with Market Bosworth at the period under notice, we learn that Hinckley was the larger domain; there being 32 males employed in agriculture in Bosworth, when there were 69 in Hinckley, and 14 ploughlands in Hinckley when there were 8 in Bosworth. Barwell, at the same date, was still lower in the scale, having only five ploughlands under the share, and 26 men to labour in the fields.

Humble, obscure, and oppressed, the men of Hinckley anciently huddled together in huts round the open space now known as the Market Place and the Round Hill in the Borough, in which different roads centered. Their dwellings were built of timber, with mud filled in between the parts of the framework, and they were covered with sods, boards, or thatch. One room, lighted and entered by the door, served as lodging room and kitchen; and there was no storey above, for if another room could be afforded, it was added to the end or side of that already erected.

The lord of Hinckley succeeding Earl Aubrey was Hugh de

Grantmesnil, or (as it may be Englished) Hugh of the Great House, who was the largest landholder in Leicestershire. He was a Norman and an intimate associate of the Conqueror, and became High Steward of England, as well as possessor of the manor and bailiwick of Hinckley. To him is attributed the erection of the Castle, the foundation of a park around it, and the building of the parish church.

If it be permissible in an historical paper like this, to refer to the pages of fiction, I may show you from Bulwer's novel, "Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings," what these Norman barons were: "Like the Spartans," says Bulwer, "every Norman was free and noble; and this consciousness inspired not only that remarkable dignity of mien which Spartan and Norman alike possessed, but also that fastidious self-respect which would have revolted from exhibiting a spectacle of debasement to inferiors. And, lastly, the paucity of their original numbers, the perils that beset, and the good fortune that attended them, served to render the Spartans the most religious of all the Greeks in their dependence on the Divine aid; so perhaps, to the same causes may be traced the proverbial piety of the ceremonial Normans."

When in the story Wolnoth, the darling son of Harold, pleads that he may go to the court of William the Norman, he says, "the good king knows that I shall be welcome, for the Norman knights love Wolnoth, and I have spent hours by the knees of Montgommeri and Grantmesnil, listening to the feats of Rolfganger, and playing with the gold chains of knighthood." Throughout the narrative, Grantmesnil is mentioned again and again, always as one of the bravest of Norman knights. In the course of the fierce conflict, the Norman Conqueror exclaims, "Our soldiers are but women in the garb of Normans. Ho, spears to the rescue! With me to the charge, Sires D'Aumale and De Litton-with me, gallant Bruse and de Mortain; with me, De Graville, and Grantmesnil-Dex aide! Notre Dame !"

The town standing on a sloping site, the spot selected for the Castle was at its upper end, some distance from the dwellings, and there a mound of considerable elevation was probably raised by the labour of the Earl's serfs and tenants. A deep ditch was dug around it, and on its summit a tower of stone in all probability was erected. In this the armed retainers of the baron were lodged, and by their power the surrounding country was kept in subjection. With enemies on all sides, composed of the inhabitants dispossessed by the Normans of their lands and homesteads and houses (some of the natives reduced from being the lords of the soil to become labourers on estates which had once been their own), the soldiers of the castle needed a stronghold to fly to, and from which they might defy the menaces of the exasperated population.

In this unsettled state of things, the relations of the people of