even been preserved. At every meeting they
proposed a question or two respecting the history or the antiquities of
the English nation, on which each member was expected, at the subsequent
meeting, to deliver a dissertation or an opinion. They also "supped
together." From the days of Athenaeus to those of Dr. Johnson, the
pleasures of the table have enlivened those of literature. A copy of
each question and a summons for the place of conference were sent to the
absent members. The opinions were carefully registered by the secretary,
and the dissertations deposited in their archives. One of these
summonses to Stowe, the antiquary, with his memoranda on the back,
exists in the Ashmolean Museum. I shall preserve it with all its verbal
_aerugo_.

"SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

"To MR. STOWE.
"The place appointed for a conference upon the question
followinge ys att Mr. Garter's house, on Frydaye the 2nd. of
this November, being Al Soule's daye, at 2 of the clocke in
the afternoone, where your oppinioun in wrytinge or otherwise
is expected.

"The question is,

"Of the antiquitie, etimologie, and priviledges of parishes
in Englande.

"Yt ys desyred that you give not notice hereof to any, but
such as haue the like somons."

Such is the summons; the memoranda in the handwriting of Stowe are
these:--

[630. Honorius Romanus, Archbyshope of Canterbury, devided his province
into _parishes_; he ordeyned clerks and prechars, comaunding them that
they should instruct the people, as well by good lyfe, as by doctryne.

760. Cuthbert, Archbyshope of Canterbury, procured of the Pope, that in
cities and townes there should be appoynted church yards for buriall of
the dead, whose bodies were used to be buried abrode, & cet.]

Their meetings had hitherto been private; but to give stability to them,
they petitioned for a charter of incorporation, under the title of the
_Academy for the Study of Antiquity and History, founded by Queen
Elizabeth_. And to preserve all the memorials of history which the
dissolution of the monasteries had scattered about the kingdom, they
proposed to erect a library, to be called "The Library of Queen
Elizabeth." The death of the queen overturned this honourable project.
The society was somewhat interrupted by the usual casualties of human
life; the members were dispersed or died, and it ceased for twent