TWENTY-FIRST REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE

ON SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA.

TWENTY-FIRST REPORT of the Committee-consisting of Mr. John S. Amery, Mr. Francis Brent, Dr. T. N. Brushfield, Mr. Robert Burnard, Mr. Alfred Chandler, Mr. E. A. S. Elliot, Mr. H. M. Evans, the Rev. William Harpley, Mr. C. E. Robinson, Mr. J. Brooking Rowe (Secretary), Mr. Alexander Somervail, and Mr. H. B. S. Woodhouse-for the purpose of noting the discovery or occurrence of such facts in any department of scientific inquiry, and connected with Devon, as it may be desirable to place on permanent record, but which may not be of sufficient importance in themselves to form the subject of separate papers.

Edited by J. BROOKING ROWE, Hon. Secretary.

(Read at Great Torrington, August, 1899.)

THE notes contained in this Report relate to

I. Archæology,

II. Seismology,
III. Meteorology,

IV. Deaths by Lightning,

V. Anthropology,

VI. Palæontology, and

VII. Mineralogy.

I. ARCHEOLOGICAL.

SAXON CRYPT AT SIDBURY CHURCH.

"A very remarkable discovery has recently been made at Sidbury Church-an interesting building not very well known to archæologists-about three miles north of Sidmouth. The church was carefully restored in 1884-5, and a great deal was then done to repair the mischief that time and workers of evil in the past had wrought.

"In the autumn of last year preparation was being made for putting in pipes for heating the church. The chancel has much Norman work remaining, and the foundations are in good condition, averaging about four feet below the floorlevel. During the excavation the clerk of the works, Mr. Mann, observed traces of walling below the Norman foundation walls, and on further examination the outlines of a Saxon crypt, within the lines of the Norman chancel, were discovered. Unfortunately there is little left of the walls except on the western side, where there was an entrance. Here against the jamb of the doorway the Saxon masonry is about four feet high, and there are two quoin stones, still in position, in good condition, and showing the axed working upon them. There is a flight of steps leading into the nave, the treads and risers are rough, and covered with a coating of lime plaster, which is found elsewhere, and is supposed to be the degenerate descendant of the Roman 'opus signinum.' The walling is rough, and, except the quoins just mentioned, there is no evidence of any faced stonework, and there is not enough left to show whether there were any windows. There is no appearance of any vaulting-shafts, or any trace of a central pier, so that it may be assumed that the crypt was vaulted in one span.

There is no doubt that we have here the only remains of the Saxon church at Sidbury, a similar building to the churches of St. Wilfred at Hexham and Ripon, but without aisles. Such churches had a raised platform at the end upon which an altar stood, and below this was a vault or crypt called the 'confessio,' which was intended for the deposit of sacred relics, and, where the levels allowed, there was a window, through which the confessio could be seen into from the church.

"In this crypt the centre of the entrance is two feet eight inches north of a central line drawn through the church from east to west, and the reason for this becomes apparent -says Mr. Walter Cave, from whose account this note is compiled-when we consider that the steps leading up to the presbytery would probably be placed as nearly central as possible, and therefore the steps down to the crypt would have to be on one side.

"The only other five examples known of Saxon crypts in England (ie. those at Hexham, Ripon, Wing, Repton, and Brixworth) have quite a different place of entrance, and with the exception of Ripon each has the remains of two entrances from

the church, and in each outside passages round the central chamber. But at Sidbury there is but one entrance, and this is direct from the nave, and the crypt itself is unbroken by any divisions.

"From the above remarks we can draw the following conclusions: before the Roman church was built at Sidbury there existed on the same site a small Saxon church, with a nave and narrow presbytery and crypt below, the latter arranged in a manner that differs from all known examples. (J. B. R.)""

THE SWORD-HILT OF LEOFRIC.

"In the last number of The Reliquary and Illustrated Archeologist [July, 1899] there is an interesting note by, presume, the Editor, Mr. J. Romilly Allen.

He says that while looking over the collection in the Saxon Room at the British Museum, he noticed a prettilyornamented little bronze sword-hilt, bearing a label which stated it had been found at Exeter, and with the following note at the bottom: See W. T. P. Shortt's Sylva Antiqua Iscana, p. 143.

"Reference to the book quoted disclosed the following account of the object in question :

"The hilt of the dagger of Mefitus, the Frisian (a Roman Pugiunculus or Parazonium), was dug up under the foundation of the house of Mr. Downe, Plumber, South Street, in 1833. This bronze relic was handsomely worked, belonging to a corps of German Auxiliary Troops from the Rhine, as will be seen from the name of the military tribune who owned it, and who commanded, it would appear, a body of Frisian Horse in those days. the under part of it is the inscription, tolerably plain, E. MEFI TI Ꭲ. EQ. FRIS [EQ. thus EO.] SERVII or MARCII MEFITI, TRIBUNI EQUITUM FRISIORUM. The dagger or poignard (sic) was worn on the left side, the legionary sword on the right, that it might not be in the way of the shield. It is here rather

66

On

singular to see the Greek sigma used for S (unless an M transposed, which I think it is), but we have evidence from the Alphabetum Bouterorii" (eruditissimi) that it often appears in that way, as well as in nine other different shapes on ancient coins... The dagger of this tribune was probably his Parazonium, peculiar to his rank, and buried with him in his headquarters in South Street.'

"Mr. Romilly Allen rightly characterises this as an astounding statement. The whole theory which Mr. Shortt so

1 WALTER CAVE, Archæological Journal, vol. lvi. [2nd ser., vol. vi.] pp. 74-76.

elaborately built up is altogether shattered when it is certain that the fragment is a Saxon sword-hilt, and that the supposed Latin inscription is one in Saxon capitals, and reads most clearly, LEOFRIC ME F 'Leofric made me,' and so Mefitus, the Frisian, the 'Roman Pugiunculus or Parazonium,' the Captain of a Roman cavalry regiment, melts away into thin air!

"Mr. Allen points out that,

"Although the name Leofric is distinctly Saxon, the ornament on the sword-hilt bearing his name is as distinctly Celtic as the name is Saxon, and it is curious to note that the two diagonal key patterns found on the sword-hilt occur also in combination on early Christian sculptured monuments at Penally, Pembrokeshire, and Llanivet, Cornwall. It may be inferred from this that the worker who made the sword-hilt, and the sculptors who made the monuments, belonged probably to the same period and the same school.

"There need be nothing to surprise us in finding the same decorative patterns in use in Devonshire, Cornwall, and Pembrokeshire, as dedications to the same early Celtic saints are common to all three counties (notably dedications to St. Petrock), showing that there must have been (as we know there was) an intimate connection during the Saxon and Danish invasions between the Celtic inhabitants, what is now South Wales and what was then West Wales.' (J. B. R.)"

II. SEISMOLOGY.

EARTHQUAKE OF 17TH DECEMBER, 1896.

The Secretary prepared notes on the earthquake of December, 1896, but no Report of the Committee was presented at the Annual Meeting of 1897, and in last year's report, by accident, the account was omitted. Other earthshocks have been reported on by this Committee in former years, and it is desirable that some facts with reference to this one, which covered a considerable area, and which for various reasons is the most remarkable, so far as England is concerned, of which we have any knowledge, should be recorded. Although somewhat late, we give some details connected with it.

The shock, which took place about half-past five in the morning of the 17th December, 1896, from its unmistakable effects and extent, has probably never been surpassed, at all events in modern times, in this country. It was much more extensive than the earthquake of 1883 [vide Report Scientific Memoranda Committee, 1884, vol. xvi. p. 77], which was

practically confined to the Eastern Counties. Upon that occasion the severest shocks were experienced at Colchester, where damage was done to churches and public and private buildings to the extent of some thousands of pounds. Several persons in delicate health succumbed to the fright caused by the shocks, and at least one life was lost through the collapse of a house. Only one death owing directly or indirectly to this earthquake was known to have occurred, but the damage to property must have been very great.

According to an article in Symons' Meteorological Magazine, the area affected was 350 miles in diameter, or one of about 100,000 square miles. Nearly central in this there seems to be an elliptical area of about 130 miles, from north to south, say from Tortworth (Gloucester) to Manchester; and of a greatest breadth of forty miles, near the latitude of Birmingham, within which structural damage was produced. This area would be nearly 4000 square miles; but the chief damage occurred in the southern portion, including parts of the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester. From historical evidence, supported by sketch-maps marking approximate boundaries of present and previous seismic disturbances, it is conjectured that this shock was one of a series which can be traced for 600 years. The initial shock of December 17th was felt at Hereford at 5.32 a.m., and from that centre it travelled at the rate of thirty miles a minute.

It was widespread over the Midlands and the West of England. The disturbance does not seem to have been felt north of Lancashire or much south of London, but it travelled as far east as Lincolnshire, and was most severe on the Welsh border.

'Inquiry at Greenwich elicited the fact that there was no apparatus there for reporting earthquake shocks, such visitations in this country being so infrequent that no one was told off to keep the necessary records. England in this respect is far behind Japan, in which country the Government has established a seismological department. The only way in which yesterday's disturbances could have been noticed at Greenwich would have been by the barometer, and by the reflecting galvanometer, which is specially designed for registering earth-currents. An inspection of the charts made by those instruments, showed that at about half-past five there was a very slight disturbance, so slight in fact that it would probably have passed unnoticed but for the fact that numerous telegrams had been received at the Observatory calling attention to the earthquake shocks. Some of these telegrams