In submitting to the Society our twentieth and final report on the excavation of Calleva Atvebatuni, it may be pointed out that for the first time our work during the past season has lain altogether outside the Roman town. We were able in 1908 to bring to an end the excavation of the whole of the 100 acres within the wall, but, as was then foreshadowed, there still remained to be examined the outer defences and the ditch encircling the wall itself. This formed the work of 1909.
The roll of arms which is to be dealt with in this paper was presented to, the Society by our Fellow Mr. John Bilson, under date 12 January 1905. Proceedings, xx, 173, notes that ‘John Bilson, Esq., F.S.A., exhibited and presented an illuminated Roll of Arms (defective at the beginning) of a date circa 1530 with 439 shields arranged in rows of five each’. As the meeting was one for the election of fellows, no discussion upon the roll took place, nor has any notice been taken of it since. The description given in Proceedings as above is somewhat misleading, as will be seen hereafter. The roll was exhibited by the Society in 1916 at the exhibition of objects of British Heraldic Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, being no. 12 in case A, described on page 7 of the Catalogue, though not quite accurately. It excited much interest and induced us to think that a complete publication of its contents might be of value.
In the year 1880 Mr. R. W. Binns of Worcester exhibited a painted panel of arms belonging to the Hadley Bowling Club. Mr., afterwards Sir Wollaston, Franks made some remarks on the arms which will be found in Proceedings, viii, 259. At the end of his remarks Mr. Franks called attention to a set of roundels or counters in the British Museum bearing the arms of peers of the reign of Elizabeth of about the date 1587, which corresponded nearly exactly with those on the Hadley panel, which it has been suggested was painted to commemorate the queen's visit to Worcester in 1575. Mr. Franks remarked of these roundels that he did not know of any similar set, and up to the present time none such has been noted, so that for the time being they may be spoken of as unique. No representations of the panel nor of the roundels were published in the Proceedings. By permission of the Keeper of the Medieval Department photographs of the counters have been taken and are now exhibited.
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