XXX111. 



Sir Talbot Baker (Vice-Presiclent), now occupying the chair, referred 

 to the general impression of the existence ot a Roman Villa in the parish 

 of Iwerne Minster which had never been excavated. He had written to 

 General Pitt Rivers, who owned the field where the villa was supposed 

 to exist, and in reply the General stated his doubts of the existence of a 

 Roman Villa on the spot alluded to, which was immediately east of 

 Hambledon Hill. However, with his permission, some preliminary 

 excavation had been commenced, and various objects, such as the 

 remains of a flint wall, fragments of pottery, tiles, and a large number 

 of nails, which were found, led to the conclusion that a habitation 

 had existed on the spot. On reaching the Greensand, which formed the 

 substratum, there were marks of fire, soot, and ashes about the walls and 

 tiles. General Pitt Rivers, who was working at Oxford, had promised 

 to commence excavating the spot himself, and in the summer they might 

 hope that something really interesting would be opened out. 



Mr. T. B. Groves exhibited a case of birds, collected by him in the 

 vicinity of Weymouth during the recent hard weather. No less than 

 seven Bitterns had been killed in the neighbourhood during this winter 

 viz., two at Chickerell, one at Weymouth, two at Dorchester, and two 

 at Abbotsbury. The case exhibited contained a male bird, from a flock 

 of six, one of the finest he had ever seen. The bird's crop on examination 

 was found to contain nothing but hairs of animals. The other birds in 

 the case were a golden eye, a sheldrake, and grey plover, and the little 

 spotted woodpecker, Picus minor, which had had been observed pecking 

 at one of the posts on the Portland railway. Mr. Richardson exhibited a 

 Queen wasp he had observed on December 14th hibernating on the 

 curtain of a bedroom. The insect was found suspended entirely by its 

 mandibles, its wings and legs being folded up under its body. Mr. 

 Eustace Bankes said that on February 17th he had found a wasp sunning 

 itself on a paling, which was a very early date to find wasps out of doors. 

 Mr. Wallis exhibited some relics of Romano- British times lately found 

 at Portland a ring, beads, fragments of pottery, and a portion of a 

 human jaw (female) containing teeth. Three graves had been 

 discovered on the Island lately by some workmen whilst setting up a 

 crane, two of which each contained an urn ; the ring and the beads were 

 found in the third grave. 



The papers on the printed programme for the day were then read in 

 order. These included the following : " Stone Implements in the Dorset 

 County Museum " by H. J. Moule, Esq. This was a supplementary 

 paper to that read by him at the meeting on November 28th on "Dorset 

 Stone Implements." This will be found at p. 25 of this volume. 



