Xll 



Experiments in the Botanic Garden of the Royal Agricultural 

 College. 



Paper by Dr. Lankester on the Water at Cirencester. 



Geological papers, by Messrs. Wright, Ramsey, and Hull (of 

 the Ordnance Survey), Brodie, Etheredge, Moor, and myself; these 

 will be fouud reported in the Transactions of the British Associa- 

 tion ; and as regards the experiments in the College Garden, they 

 are being continued in an augmented and careful manner, and in 

 obedience to the recommendation of the Committee of Section C., 

 will be duly reported upon at the request of the General Com- 

 mittee of the Association at the forthcoming Dublin Meeting. 



Brief Notes on Cirencester High Cross. 



Read at a Meeting of the Cotteswold Club, Sept. 16th, 1856. 

 By CHARLES POOLEY. 



As recently as the year of our Lord 1800, there existed, in the 

 town of Cirencester, the vestiges of no less than six ancient 

 crosses. 



These structures, I have ascertained, were distributed over the 

 town, and occupied the following positions : 



One stood in the open part of Dyer-street, where the pig-market 

 is now held ; another was placed in the Churchyard ; a third, 

 occupied the point where Sheep-street crosses Castle-street ; a 

 fourth was built near the southern extremity of the borough, hard 

 by a stream of water running at the end of Dyer-street ; a fifth 

 marked the spot where Cricklade-street crosses Leuse-lane ; and 

 a sixth, called the High Cross, and which is the subject of this 

 paper, was erected opposite the Earn Inn, in the Market-place. 



The march of improvement, which has destroyed many of the 

 picturesque gables of the old town, has also swept away these 

 ancient relics, one after another, and with the exception of the 

 last, not a fragment of either remains to reward the search of the 

 archaeologist. For the High Cross, however, though removed 

 from its former site in the Market-place, a better fate has been 

 reserved, a pretty situation having been found for it near the 

 Wood-House in Oakley Park, the seat of the Earl Bathurst, 

 where it forms a worthy object of attraction to visitors. 



In Rudder's History of Cirencester is the following description 

 of this cross : " The High Cross stood upon a base of about ten 

 feet square, with four steps on each side gradually diminishing 

 from the lower to the uppermost. From the middle of the base 

 rose an octangular column or pillar, supporting a capital which 

 was much defaced and broken, but it appeared to have been orna- 

 mented with carvings, of which the subject could not be distin- 

 guished. It is supposed, however, to have been a very curious 

 piece of workmanship, as more than ordinary care had been taken 

 to preserve what remained of it. It was encompassed with an 



