(2). A blue and white jasper ware medallion, dated 1789, representing "Hope addressing Peace, Labour, and Plenty," made by Josiah Wedgwood from clay sent to him by Sir Joseph Banks from Botany Bay.

BY MR. HENRY SYMONDS :—

(1). A copy of the original edition (1676) of "Observationes Medica," by Thomas Sydenham, M.D., of Wynford Eagle.

(2). A half crown of the Civil War period, attributed to the mint at Sandsfoot Castle.

(3). Greek bronze coins of Syracuse and of Magna Grecia, of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.

BY MR. A. POPE :

A photograph of the head of a cross which had been dug up in a garden adjoining the old manor house at Fiddleford.

A number of ancient Egyptian articles which had been dug up in a tomb at Luxor, including a necklace, a few scarabs, and a little bronze vase.

BY CANON FLETCHER:

Sketches and plans of an ancient building on the Kingston Lacy Estate, on which he read the following notes:

Nearly 2 miles from Wimborne, on the road to Badbury Rings, is an interesting old building. It goes by the name of " The Lodge Farm," but is now a labourer's cottage. The walls, the roof, the windows, and other details, bear witness to considerable antiquity, and seem to speak of an ecclesiastical origin. Nothing is known of its history, and there can only be conjecture as to its original purpose. There may, it is true, be some ancient documents hidden away at Kingston Lacy, or in the Estate Office, which would supply some information about it; bat, for obvious reasons, the muniment room on a large estate is not always easy of access. And, moreover, the Bankes family, to whose representative Kingston Lacy belongs, only purchased the estate in the middle of the seventeenth century.

I have myself, at one time or other, paid many visits to the "Lodge Farm," and have recently had the advantage of the help of a gentleman, an architect by profession, temporarily resident in Wimborne, whose hobby is the careful study of ancient buildings. He has spent several days in studying the house, has taken careful measurements, and has made it the special object of his thoughtful consideration. I have made free use of his notes in the following observations.

The building may be divided into two distinct portions. The original portion is built of stone (rubble work). The external measurements are 33 feet by 23 feet. The walls are 3 feet thick! Judging by the original roof, the date would be sometime in the fourteenth century. There were, in the first instance, neither floors, partitions, staircase, fireplaces, nor chimneys-the walls being probably unplastered. The entrance door would doubtless be larger than is the present one on the South Front, though the thick plaster, with which the whole of that front is now covered, prevents any part of the wall from being seenand, consequently, the alteration in the size of the entrance from being traced.

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The later portion, the kitchen building, was probably added, with the floors, some of the windows, and all other features in the main building-notably the staircase-when it was decided to turn the building into a dwellinghouse. The brickwork of which it is composed, being of the kind known as Old English Bond" (or alternate courses of headers and stretchers), shows almost conclusively that it was added at least 250 years ago. The feet of the curved braces of the roof were cut off in order to allow the floor of the top story to be inserted. The fireplaces, as the west front shows clearly, were an addition formed in the thickness of the walls.

There is a great variety in the fittings, floors, windows, &c., &c. scarcely two being alike. The stone heads to some of the windows, internally, are of the fourteenth century. There is an interesting piece of screen work which is used as a partition on the first floor. And a considerable portion of the flooring (first floor) is paved with bricks laid flat angularly. But what the construction of the floor is, or why it was thus paved, for the weight must be considerable, cannot at the present time be seen or known owing to the plaster on the underside of the ceiling.

The gentleman to whom I am indebted for his careful study of the building is of the opinion that the main building was originally (in the fourteenth century) erected as a tithe barn ; * and that the windows

* There was a barn at Kingston which, with the tithes arising in Kingston, belonged to the second prebend at Wimborne Minster. Hutchins' Hist. of Dorset, Vol. III., p. 192).

"The Lodge Farm," Kingston Lacy. Window on 1st Floor of S. Front

and other fittings came three centuries later from a house of some pretentions; * (e.g., such as might have been at Kingston Lacy), which would have been pulled down to give place to a larger one. I venture to think that, if this were the case, their ecclesiastical appearance would suggest that they belonged to the private chapel of the medieval house, if there was one. Or they might have been brought from the decayed church of St. Stephen; † which is supposed to have stood somewhere near to Kingston Lacy, and which was served by the clergy attached to the Minster at Wimborne.

A long ribbon, which she had bought at Wincanton, woven in silver with the following amatory " posy "lines :"Betty Porter of Henstridge this and

the giver is yours for ever and so
pray God bless us both together.
I am your humble servant,

James Huson. 1721."

Mrs. Dixon said that she would be glad of information as to the purpose of the ribbon and to know whether there was any custom connected with it.

PAPERS.

The following papers were read :—

(1). Some unrecorded Deans of Wimborne," by Canon FLETCHER. (Printed).

(2). "New species of Birds observed in Dorset since the publication of Mansel-Pleydell's 'Birds of Dorset,' 1888," by the Rev. F. L. BLATHWAYT. (Printed).

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*The present house was built in 1660 (and the exterior faced with stone, &c., in 1834) on the supposed site of a palace of the West Saxon Kings." Hutchins' Hist. of Dorset, Vol. III., p. 236.

†The services at St. Stephen's were discontinued about the year 1550, as the inhabitants of the neighbourhood" wholly frequented the collegiate church."