Round Churches.

indirect but very convincing evidence , may almost surely be attributed to the first great name in Northampton annals —Simon de St . Liz , first Norman earl of this county , the founder of the castle , and of St . Andrews , twice a pilgrim to the Holy Laud , aud whose name has become so identified ivifch Northampton as to have gained a settlement in the racing card of fche spring meeting . ( To be continued . )

Essex Archæological Society.

ESSEX ARCH ? OLOGICAL SOCIETY .

The Annual Meeting of this Society was held on Wednesday , Sept . 26 , in Colchester—a town rich in archreological curiosities , and probably more fertile than any part of the kingdom in Roman antiquities , especially funeral urns , coins , pottery , & c . The meeting was vested with more than ordinary interest , as the occasion of the opening of the new Museumwhich has recentlbeen formed in the Castle of

, y Colchester , by the kind permission of C . G . Round , Esq ., and , as might have been expected , there was a large muster of antiquarians , not only from the town , but from all parts of the country , and even from London , and more remote parts of the kingdom . The business commenced at halfpast eleven o ' clock , when J . Gurdon Rebow , Esq ., took the chair .

The place of assembly AA-as the Library , in Colchester Castle , upon tho walls of whieh were maps of the town of Colchester , showing tho extent of the Roman wall , and the jilaces whence the principal antiquities had been exhumed , together with a restoration of the Roman entrance to the town by Balkerne Hill . Upon the table were illustrations of tesselated pavement found in Colchester—some in the

year 1763 , upon ground in the occupation of Mr . J . M . Barnard , surgeon , of Colchester , and other specimens discovered in tho yard of the Red Lion Hotel in 1858 . Mr . A . F . Sprague exhibited beautifully executed drawings of Sfc . John ' s Abbey Gate , ' as it might be restored ; a famous Avindow in the church at Coggeshall , supposed to be of the 15 th century ; a chair screen from the same church , AA'hich was destroyed in 1 S 26 ; and a head of tho Saviour in glass , taken from one of the English churches , the date of which was unknown .

The OliAilwiAX , in opening the business , said , in the absence of the noble President , he had been requested as one of the Vice-presidents , to take the chair ou this interesting occasion , and he need scarcely say that he did so ivith the greatest possible pleasure . It was a matter of great gratification to witness so numerous an assembl y after the re-organization of this society , and upon the

inauguration of the new Museum for the toivn of Colchester . The SECIIEI ' - ( Rev . E . L . Cutis ) then read a lengthened report , setting forth the progress of the Society and the steps which had been taken to secure a museum , for the county , and concluded by asking the meeting to join in a cordial vote of thanks to Mr . C . G . Round , for his munificent kindness in providing a Museum andcurator ' sresidenec ; and also to the Town Council for their co-operation in tho establishment n . nd conduct , of the Museum .

The vote of thanks , both to Mr . Round and to the Corporation , were carried by acclamation . The Rev . F . SI ' UIUIELL , Financial Secretary , then read the balance sheet ofthe Society ' s funds , from ivhich it appeared that the total receipts of tho Society from its commencement had been £ ' 217 15 s . 5 d ., of which £ 100 had been invested , and after tho payment of certain expenses , there

Avas in the banker ' s hands about £ 60 , the clear annual income of the Society being about £ 50 . Tho officers were re-elected for the current year , and several new members were admitted . This being all the formal business of the day , the Chairman called upon the Rev . C . Merivale to read his " Notes upon the Roman Conquest of Essex . " The paper in question

was a lengthened and elaborate argument against the theory advanced by Professor Airoy , ' Astronomer Eoyal , that Aulus Plautius and the Emperor Claudius landed in Essex , on tho occasion of their invasion of Britain , A . D . 4-3 . This was followed by a paper by the ROA- . Professor MAIISOEX on "Tho Greek Coins found in Colchester and elsewhere in Great Britain . " These , he showed , were nine

in number , four of them having been found in Colchester Out of eight Greek coins which had been identified , seven belonged to cities in Asia ; and there were two from each ol the three cities Nicrua , Cassarea , and Anfcioch . Now , inasmuch as these coins had been found along with Roman coins , and in places where the Romans where kiioum to

have had a station or settlement , and inasmuch as the Roman occupation of the country was , for the most part , a military occupation , ifc ivas oasil } ' inferred that there was a certain connection between some of the Roman soldiers stationed in Britain and tho Greek cities in Asia . And some inference might also be drawn from another kind of monumental evidence still existingnameldedicatory

, y , inscriptions upon stone—chiefly upon altars , made by Roman soldiers about the same period . The united monumental evidences of coins and inscriptions placed it beyond a doubt that among the residents and settlers in Britain , during the period of its occupation by the Romans , there was an intermixture of Greeks from Asia , and that in certain places these Asiatic Greeks were rather numerous . They

belonged , doubtless , to those bodies of auxiliaries to the Roman legion , which was raised from almost every proAunce of the Roman empire , and were carefully transplanted , according to a wise and characteristic policy , from their own country into another , and sometimes a distant one . The Rev . J . M . JEPIISOV , of Mountnessing , then read a paper upon " The Dialects of Essex" the illustrations of the

, respectii-e branches under AA'hich he classified his subject occasioning considerable amusement . He said : — Many Essex men who are present will , I am afraid , think me presumptuous in daring to speak on a subject of which they must needs know much more than I . I have lived but five years among the East Saxons ; my knoAA'ledge of the idiom must , therefore , be comparatively small . Yet , I believe , my

former ignorance of tbe subject is rather a qualification than othenvise . A stranger remarks things AA'hich are passed by without notice by one who is to the manner born . Words and phrases which we have heard from our youth make little impression upon us . Ifc is when we come upon , them suddenly that they strike us as something uncommon , and set us thinking of their peculiar meaning and significance .

This is the reason ivhy grammar is best studied in a dead language . The learner is obliged to take nothing for granted , but to follow out every construction to its element . And thus it was that when I first came to this count ) -, about five years ago , I perceived thafc in the tongue of the common people , with whom I am alwaj's glad to talk , there was something not only unusual , but unusually strong ,

expressive , and poetical . From the mouths of village hinds I hoard the language of Chaucer , Piers , Plowman , Shakspeare , Spencer , Hooker , Saunderson , Pearson — in short , of the great masters of English , both in prose and verso . Words and phrases which ivould call forth a smile in polite society—which , by tho way , thinks it knows , ivhen in reality it knows very little—I found wore those which

gave its strength and point to our English tongue before ifc ivas Gallicised by Pope and Latinised by Johnson , and utterly barbarisod by newspaper writers . Much has been done directly by such Avriters as Dean Trench to restore the old Saxon family of words to their lawful rights , and to send back the beggarly usurpers to the place from AA'henco they came . Much , too , has been done indirectly , in the way of example , by such Avriters as Mr . Kingslcy , who never , as far as I have observed , uses a- word of modern introduction

from the Latin or French where a Saxon one will serve his turn . And tho greatest poet of our day , and one of the greatest that England has ever produced , has drawn from the " wells of English undented" a stream of language which flows throughout the Idylls ofthe King in crystalline point and brilliancy . All these are leaders—men ivho set their mark upon the thought and language of their age .

Theirs it- is to reap the full harvest ; yet they leave a fenears to lie gleaned by such as me . I don ' t think any of our critics have noticed the fact which I wish particularly to bring before you to-day , and that- is , that many words and forms of speech ivhich are now considered low and vulgar , are , on the contrary , not only perfectly good English , but much better than those by which they have been ousted . I say better , because they arc generally Anglo-Saxon , aud , I