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ancient privileges, and holding their lands as tributaries. We are 

 therefore compelled to take with some quahfication the statements 

 of writers like Gildas, who speak of something like a general 

 expatriation of the Eomano-British population. The subject is 

 worthy of very careful investigation, and I think it will be 

 possible to show that even when Britain fell under Saxon rule, 

 the cities and towns stiU preserved their corporate independence, 

 and much of the Eoman laws and customs existed to very recent 

 times, and their influence is felt even to the present day. 



I must now refer to Charterhouse on Mendip, formerly visited 

 by the Club. Nothing of importance has lately been found there, 

 but I had hoped to bring before the Club a notice of the engraved 

 stones that have been discovered in the lead workings, sometimes 

 set in rings, and sometimes found alone. The Rev. S. S. Lewis, 

 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, has exhibited and described 

 some of the more perfect of them to the Cambridge Antiquarian 

 Society, and drawings have been made of them. These I should 

 have placed before you had I received them, but I conclude they 

 have not yet been completed.* 



The ancient borough of Axbridge, situated under the Mendip 

 on the southern slope, is well known, and its ancient charters 

 have been published in the proceedings of the Somersetshire 

 Archaeological Society. 



The Church, which is a fine specimen of 15th Century work, 

 but which had been allowed to get into a very dilapidated 

 condition, is now undergoing restoration, and in this process 

 certain portions of mural paintings have been brought to light. 

 The pUlars and arches of the nave are ornamented with a very 

 elegant pattern, consisting of vine leaves running up the columns, 

 and flowers at intervals. There are also fresco paintings in the 

 spandrels of the side arches leading from the aisles into the choir, 

 On the north side is apparently the martyrdom of St. Katharine, 



* Now engraved in the Report of the Caubridge Antiquarian Society for 

 May 27, 1878. 



