The second season's excavation at Fishbourne was concentrated on the eastern part of the southern field, shown by last year's work to be occupied by the eastern wing of the Period 2 building. In addition, trial trenches were dug in other parts of the village in order to examine the extent and nature of the Roman settlement (fig. 1).

The excavations of 1962 were originally planned to take place on three sites: the Amphitheatre, which lies outside the town wall a little to the south-west; a rescue excavation in a derelict garden in Coxwell Street; and a section across the front of the south-east defences at a point about 200 feet west of Miss Rennie's section cut through them in 1952. A week after the start, news came that work for a new police station was to commence during the current financial year, on a site north of Dyer Court, which our Fellow Dr. Graham Webster investigated in 1957. With such short notice, rescue work had to begin here almost at once. Imminent development of yet another building-site, in Victoria Road, was reported towards the end of the excavations, which had to be extended for a fortnight to meet this fresh emergency. Five sites have thus been dealt with this year instead of three, an undertaking of considerable magnitude, and the Committee here records its most grateful thanks to each of those bodies who contributed towards the expenses; to all those who assisted the excavations; to the Gloucestershire County Council for permission to explore the police station site; to the Cirencester Urban District Council for permission to dig in Coxwell Street; to Lord Bathurst for permission to dig at the Amphitheatre; to Mr. Harry Pitts for permission to cut a section across the southern defences; and to Messrs. R. van Gelder, Keen and Co. Ltd.

The purpose of this article is to elaborate the recent publication of a remarkable piece of bronze-smithing and to illustrate rather more fully than has been done hitherto an object which should be of particular interest to British prehistorians. Some discussion of the implications of a Belgic bowl imported into the Germanic area of the Roman Iron Age may be added by way of an appendix to Lady (Aileen) Fox's recent paper on the Rose Ash find.

The description Zuckerhut has been used in German publications to distinguish the tall shield bosses of the eighth century which have certain variations in form but remain constant in being unusually tall in proportion to their width. The term is taken from the shape of the clay mould in which, as late as the end of the nineteenth century, sugar was left to drain and set, the walls of the resulting sugar-loaves being usually slightly convex, rising to a point. ‘Sugar-loaf’ is therefore used here as a general term for the whole species of shield boss of tall proportions, but more specifically for the high, curved cone. The straight-sided cone may be more properly referred to as conical. Some of these have been noticed in England, and as they begin at the end of the pagan period when grave goods are sparse, it seemed likely that a study of them with their associated finds and relations overseas might provide a useful contribution to this part of Saxon chronology. It must be remembered that examination of shield bosses of this period is often made difficult by a thick coating of rust with other accretions, but the inside is sometimes less affected and yields more information. Although every effort has been made towards accuracy, it is possible that details may have been missed which might become visible after cleaning, but a number of the bosses are so fragmentary that further treatment would not seem to be advisable.

I Have been looking about for a house for the wife and kids, and whither do you guess my eye is turned now? Kelmscott, a little village about two miles above Radcott Bridge—a heaven on earth; an old stone Elizabethan house like Water Eaton, and such a garden! close down on the river, a boat house and all things handy. I am going down there again on Saturday with Rossetti and my wife: Rossetti because he thinks of sharing it with us if the thing looks likely.…

[William Morris to C. J. Faulkner, 17 May 1871]