" A FINE OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN " 315 



some doggerel verses, and had them printed for circula- 

 tion 



"Adieu, ye twin sisters, fair spires 



By learn'd architects anciently rais'd," etc. etc. 



He went also to the expense of legal opinion on the 

 matter, from Doctors' Commons. The result was dead 

 against the right of any inhabitant or landholder in the 

 diocese to question the discretion of the Dean and Chap- 

 ter, or to compel them to account for their proceedings. 

 So this agitation was speedily at an end. 



Banks's lifelong connection with the Society of An- 

 tiquaries has been mentioned. Several communications 

 were made by him to the Society concerning local excava- 

 tions, and some instances of objects being unearthed by 

 accident. 1 He was immediately interested by any dis- 

 covery of the kind, and made it his business to have it 

 properly recorded. One (unpublished) memorandum of 

 his own relates to the three barrows near Revesby village, 

 which had been noticed by Stukeley in Itineraria 

 Curiosa, but not closely examined. In October, 1780, 

 Banks employed two men to open one of these barrows. 

 The result showed that the heaps could not be very 

 ancient. At the depth of about eleven feet, were pieces 

 of a small twig, or switch, not yet decayed. He deposited 

 a stone before covering in again, bearing date 1780, so 

 as to certify to later explorers that it had been opened. 



Two days later, some examination was made in the 

 neighbourhood of the Abbey ruins. As far as they went, 

 however, there was little to reward the labours of the ex- 

 plorers. 



The remains, such as they are, of the ancient monastic 

 ruins, are just south of Revesby village, near the edge of 

 the great Fen. In 1811 there were existing " foundations 

 of walls, and a fragment two feet high of brick and stone, 



1 v. Index to the first fifty volumes of Arch&ologia. . 



