tAUNTON AND DUNSTER. Ixiii. 



collection of encaustic tiles, the fine range of Somerset coins and tokens, the series 

 of Saxon silver coins, beginning with that famous mint-founder, King Athelstan, 

 being especially markworthy. Entering the large hall, formerly the Court of 

 Assize, the party were struck by its dignified dimensions, and the noble timber 

 roof which was revealed to sight when the low plastered ceiling was demolished. 

 It cost 850 to restore the roof and the rest of the hall before it was fit for the 

 reception of the Museum collections, which are here so effectively set out. In 

 view of the Clab's visits to the Belgic lake villages of Glastonbury and Meare, and 

 the lecture on the excavations given to the Club by Mr. Gray at Wells last year, 

 attention was immediately arrested by the fine case of relics from the Glastonbury 

 lake village. Most interesting and instructive was it to see, alongside the old 

 bone weaving combs, the specimen of weaving in three colours done by Mrs. 

 Whistler, of Chesilborne, showing the way in which the weft was worked in by 

 means of wooden imitations of the perforated meta-tarsal bones of sheep found 

 in the Glastonbury Lake Village. Next year, remarked Mr. Gray, they were 

 going to begin work on the Meare Lake Village, which is twice as large 

 as the Glastonbury Lake Village, which has been excavated ; and, if they 

 proceeded at the same rate, it would take 20 years to complete the task ! Xear 

 by the Lake Village case was one which caught up the thoughts of the visitors, 

 and took them back to Dorset some of the duplicate finds made at Maumbury 

 Rings last year, especially the picks of red-deer antler found in the prehistoric 

 pit or shaft which is, with one exception, the deepest archaeological excavation 

 ever made in the country. Another case of much interest is that containing the 

 finds, of the Bronze Age, from Wick Barrow, popularly called " Pixies' 

 Mound," Stoke Courcy, excavated in 190", especially the skulls, the three 

 beakers found with the secondary interment, a fine flint knife or dagger, and a 

 human tibia of the platycnemic or " sharp-shinned " type. Other exhibits of 

 note are the fine collection of Elton ware from Clevedon ; the assortment of old 

 club brasses, pole-heads, and emblems ; Mr. John Marshall's collection of British 

 " Albino " birds, the finest British collection, and including (ornithological 

 paradox) specimens of the white blackbird ! There is, said Mr. Gray, no finer 

 collection in the kingdom than that in the Taunton Museum of the bones of the 

 extinct mammalia found in the Mendip Caves ; and as the party gazed at the 

 complete skeleton of the hyaena, and the remains of other big game, long 

 extinct, he mentioned that natural science experts from London frequently come 

 down to make drawings of these bones for comparative purposes. The party 

 next inspected a beautiful case of 17th and ISth century Somerset pottery, made 

 at Wincanton, Ilminster, Bristol, and Watchet, which last pottery is now 

 extremely rare. The finest specimen of Somerset and Bristol pottery is a fine 

 dish, dated of the same year as Sedgemoor 16S5. There are also on view 

 specimens of the curious and tricksy old fuddling cup or " jolly boy." 



After dinner at the Castle Hotel a short Business Meeting was 

 held. 



