90 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. writer of the present notice ventures to offer another suggestion, having met with an almost precisely similar ornament on gnostic gems, and coins bearing cabalastic inscriptions : hence he is led to think that the carvings on the reverse sides of these stones may have been intended to refer to the perpetual conflict between the cross on the one hand, and false doctrines and worldly pursuits on the other. The gnostic emblem being intended as an indication of the former of these principles, counteracting and opposing the spreading of the doctrines of the Cross, and the scenes of the chase, &c., as indicating the latter. We cannot dismiss this subject without expressing our warmest thanks to Mr. Patrick Chalmers, (who has so munificently undertaken the publica- tion of this volume,) for so important an addition to our materials for an authentic and accurate " Lapidarium Britannicum." We trust that the example thus set by him will have the effect of rousing the zeal of his brother antiquaries in Scotland ; and that the numerous other cai'ved stones still lying neglected, not only in Scotland butin various other parts of the king- dom, will at length be rescued from oblivion. Casts ought, doubtless, to be taken of them, because, as they are mostly exposed to the vicissitudes of the climate, they must every year become more and more defaced. In many cases we think they ought to be removed and fixed within the churches of the parishes where they exist, or else that they should be placed in the county Museums. We regard them as National Monuments, which ought to be preserved as public property, and insist that every care should be taken of them. THE MONUMENTAL BRASSES OP ENGLAND. A Series of Engravings upon Wood, from every variety of these Memorials, accompanied with descriptive Notices. By the Rev. CharlesBoutell, M.A.London. G. Bell, Fleet-street. Royal 8vo. In Monthly Numbers. It may seem altogether needless, in commending to the notice of readers of the Archaeological Journal an undertaking of this character, to advert to the value with which such specimens of Medieval design are stamped by the fact of their undeniable authenticity. In the works of sculpture, such especially as the exquisite productions at Lincoln, to which the attention of the members of our Society has recently been called by the tasteful discernment of Professor Cockerell, all who possess cultivated feeling for art, not strictly conformable to the more exalted models of a classical age, must perceive a charm. Sepulchral brasses, frequently in imperfect preservation, and mostly less graceful in design than sculpture, owing to difficulties in the mechanical process or the conventional formality by which they are so strongly characterised, had rarely been admitted to a jolacc in the series of examples of art. Their just claim, however, has been recognised, not only since numerous collectors have engaged in the in(juiry, encouraged by ingenious devices for readily making fac-similes of incised memorials ; but chieily, in consequence of the fidelity and skill evinced in recent illustrated works relating to this branch of our national antiquities. It is to the Messrs. Waller that our most cordial acknowledgment is due for the production of a work, which has no equal in the Archaeological
