620th ordinary GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL 

 WESTMINSTER, S.W., on MONDAY, MAY 17th, 1920, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



GiLBEKT R. Redgrave, Esq., Assoc.Inst.C.E., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed and signed, 

 and the Hon. Secretary announced the following Elections : H. 0. 

 Weller, Esq., and E. Luff Smith, Esq., as Members ; and Miss Mary R. 

 Fleming, M.D., Arthur J. S. Preece, Esq., Bernard S. M. Blythe, Esq., 

 and Professor Addison Hogue, of Lee and Washington University, U.S.A., 

 as Associates. 



The Chairman then introduced the Right Rev. Bishop G. Forrest 

 Browne, D.D., to deliver his lecture on "Monumental Art in Early 

 England, Caledonia and Ireland," illustrated by lantern slides. 



MONUMENTAL ART IN EARLY ENGLAND, CALEDONIA 

 AND IRELAND. By the Right Rev. Bishop G. Forrest 

 Browne, D.D. (With lantern illustrations.) 



NOTES OF THE LECTURE. 



THE early Anglian Monuments are graceful and aspiring 

 in form. Their ornamentation is rich in the intricate 

 patterns of interlacement, and beautiful in the flowing 

 scrolls of arabesques based on the idea of the tree of life ; while 

 scenes from Holy Scripture and the earliest Ecclesiastical 

 History are remarkably well rendered. The inscriptions are 

 general, and run to very considerable lengths. They are 

 indicative of personal affection for deceased persons. They 

 are made supremely interesting by being incised in Anglian 

 Runes, in which script we have had preserved to us the earliest 

 piece of English prose and the earliest piece of English verse, 

 as they were originally produced. 



The origin of the beautiful vine-scrolls, with birds and other 

 creatures feeding on the grapes, we trace to Byzantine or 

 Near Eastern ornamentation, as set forth on the ivory chair 

 of Maximianus, Archbishop of Ravenna, 546-556, who conse- 

 crated the Church of St. Vitale there, and whose name appears 

 in the great mosaic of Justinian and his Court in that church. 



p 2 



