Royal Historical and ArchÆological Association of Ireland.—The Munster Conference of this Association commenced on Tuesday, May 13, at Killarney, Mr. Richard Langrishe, V.P., in the chair. The Secretary having read the minutes of the quarterly meeting, and submitted the audited statement of accounts for 1883, they were signed by the Chairman. In explaining the minutes to those present, he said that they chiefly had reference to the schedule of the Act of 1883, for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments. Some of our Irish antiquities were included in it, but not as many as there should be. Kerry was full of monuments, which ought to be placed under the Act. Only four or five monuments in the south of Ireland were included, but this was far less than ought to be. The Society, as would be seen, was making exertions to have something done in reference to the matter. It was not generally known that this Act for the Preservation of ancient monuments was in existence, or greater efforts would be made in connection with it. The Chairman added that members ought to send a list of those monuments in their neighbourhood to the provincial secretaries, in order to have them placed under the Act. Mr. Arthur Hill, M.R.I.A.I., read a paper on “The Cathedral of Ardfert, and other remains there.” The President read a paper dealing with the subject of Bells in Ireland, and including, amongst others, a description of the six bells at St. Andoen’s, Dublin, with their inscriptions. Mr. Robert Day exhibited some curious specimens of stone and bronze implements, three copper celts, and an ancient silver pyx in good preservation. A visit was afterwards paid to Muckross Abbey, Inisfallen, and Aghadoe. On Wednesday the party, headed by the Rev. James Grant (Hon. General Secretary), proceeded to Tralee, whence excursions were made to Ardfert, where the ruins of the ancient churches, the cathedral, and the Franciscan abbey were duly examined; and to Barrow, where the great fort on the east side of the island called “Barrowaneanach,” was inspected. Thursday was devoted to an examination of Dunloe Gap, and the Ogham Cave, in the demesne of Dunloe Castle; and on Friday the party visited the caves at Shanavalla, Arbella, near Tralee.

Cambridge Antiquarian Society.—May 26, annual meeting, Mr. J. W. Clark, M.A., President, in the chair. The Council and other officers for the next year were elected. The annual report announced that the Society’s collections had been placed in the new Museum of ArchÆology, that eight meetings and two excursions had taken place during the past year, that forty-seven new members had been elected, and that the first of a series of loan-exhibitions of University and College portraits under the auspices of this Society was now on view in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Professor Hughes, in speaking of the so-called Via Devana running from the end of Wort’s Causeway towards Horseheath, pointed out that there was little, if any, evidence of its Roman origin, and insisted that it was rather an entrenchment, to be referred to the same later age which has given us Offa’s Dyke in the west, and the Devil’s Dyke, and as many other notable earthworks in East Anglia also. The Roman roads in the neighbourhood of the Castle Hill, too, he remarked, seemed to converge to Grantchester rather than to Cambridge, and the Roman pottery found here indicated rubbish-heaps rather than the site of a camp or permanent fortification; and from all available evidence he drew the conclusion that the mound and all the earthworks about it are of Norman origin. Mr. Browne exhibited outline rubbings of two stones recently presented to the British Museum by Mr. A. W. Franks, acquired some years ago from persons who described them as coming from the city: also of the remarkable rune-bearing stone from St. Paul’s Churchyard, in the Guildhall Library. Mr. Waldstein made some remarks descriptive of two stones from the Via Appia at Rome, lately given to the Fitzwilliam Museum, and also of a red jasper intaglio, from Smyrna, in the possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis.