24 Transactions of the 



MEETING, November 17, 1871. 

 The President in the Chair. 



The third meeting for the term was held on 17th November. 

 Fifty-three members and visitors were present. 



Donations to Museum acknowledged : — Two Birds' Nests, by 

 C. Henderson, O.C. ; Dried Plant {DiantJms deltoi'des), by Miss 



E. Marriott ; a Scorpion in glass shade, by J. E. Jose, O.C. ; 

 young stufi'ed Turtle, and piece of Heart Oak, by W. Webb, Esq. ; 

 Quarterly Journal of Science, Parts 31 and 32, Geological 

 Magazi7ie, No. 89, and " Handbook of Cornish Mineralogy," by 



F. F. Tuckett, Esq. ; two pieces of Maundy Money, by W, F. 

 Trimnell, Esq. ; some Tin and Copper Ores, by H. Grylls ; some 

 Fossils, by J. G. Grenfell, Esq., and the Geological Section. 



J. I. Fox, O.C, next read the following paper on — 



BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 



About the middle of the twelfth century there resided at Bristol, 

 in Baldwin Street, a merchant of great wealth and enterprise, 

 Eobert Fitzharding by name. His father was Harding, son of 

 the king of Denmark, and is said to have come over to England 

 in the train of William the Conqueror. This man entertained 

 Dermot MacMurrough, the exiled king of Leinster, when he came 

 to solicit help from Henry II. He received, for his fidelity to the 

 Empress Maude, the lordship of Berkeley, which had been for- 

 feited by his kinsman, Roger de Berkeley, who had followed the 

 fortunes of Stephen, and from him are descended the present 

 Earls of Berkeley. In 1142 he founded a monastery, which was 

 completed in 1148, into which he himself retired towards the 

 close of his life. At the beginning of the fourteenth century it 

 was considered necessary to rebuild the monastery, for what 

 reason we do not know, but judging from the strength of what 

 now remains, it is hardly probable that it was decay. All that 

 is left of the original structure is the vestibule, chapter-house, 

 and the arches in upper and lower CoUege Green. 



The establishment of the abbey consisted of an abbot, prior, 

 subprior, and fourteen friars. The abbey was dedicated to St 

 Augustine, and was also called " The Monastery of the Black 

 Regular Canons of the Order of Saint Victor." The rebuilding 

 of the abbey was commenced in 1306, by Abbot Knowle, and was 

 not finished until 1363. For the purpose of obtaining money, 

 Pope Urban II. granted a bull giving forty days' pardon and 



