26 
cemeteries are alike. I mean tire existence of hazel rods in the 
coffins. In Germany there were nuts as well, hut these have 
not been detected here. The presence of hazel rods or twigs 
has never yet been observed in any early tomb in this country. 
Obviously it is only in such coffins as these that it would he 
possible to find them preserved. A veneration for the hazel 
lingers still in the superstitions of Grermany. In this instance 
the superstitions are evidence of an ancient belief common to 
the whole Teutonic family, whether at home or in England. 
In the cemetery at Selby we have, I believe, the remains of 
what —pace Mr Freeman—we may still venture to call an old 
Saxon community, poor in worldly wealth, which lived by 
hunting in the woods and fishing in the Ouse. When anyone 
died, the oaks under which he so often followed the chase saw 
one of their brethren fall to be roughly shaped into a coffin for 
the dead. Even in Abbot Benedict’s time those oaks w r ere in 
profusion at Selby. Where are they now P The only remnant 
of them that survives may be found in Stainer wood. But here 
they are far inferior in size to their sylvan ancestry. There 
were giants in those days. 
Dec. 5th. —The Rev. Canon Raine read the following 
paper by the Rev. S. S. Lewis, of Cambridge, “ On two Greek 
Inscriptions found at York” :— 
“ Of the eleven inscriptions in the Greek language which are 
known to have been found in England not the least interest¬ 
ing, and from various points of view, are the two of which an 
exact fac-simile, made from the originals, is given on the op¬ 
posite page. The tablets on which they are punctured were 
found about thirty-five years ago in digging foundations for the 
old Railway-station at York, and are happily exhibited in the 
Museum of this Society : they seem to have been originally 
suspended, but rust (or some other cause) has joined them back to 
back, and thus helped to preserve these curious monuments of 
Greek speech and Roman dominion which may probably, from 
the shape of the letters and the rudeness of the puncturing, 
be assigned to the second or third century a.d. 
The material is thin bronze which in the course of time 
