MY DEAR SIR,

Since I addressed you two years and a half since, on the subject of Anglo-Saxon antiquities discovered in the county of Kent, you have been so fortunate as to receive communications on other objects of the same class, brought to light at various places, under accidental circumstances. On the former occasion, the Kent Archaeological Society, by a liberal supply of engravings, spared the readers of its Transactions a considerable amount of what would have been, to them, tedious description; for it is the eye only that can clearly and fully appreciate the subject-matter of 

disquisition’s on varied and complicated works of ancient art, such as are illustrated in the first volume of the ‘Archaeologia Cantiana.’ In most branches of natural history, recognizable types can usually be referred to, so as to dispense with engravings; but it is not so in the regions of antiquity. It is true that reference can often be made, as it necessarily must be, to illustrated works; but these are not accessible at all times to everybody. The effect of the most careful and laboured description of antiquities, unassisted by’ drawings or engravings, is repulsive to the general reader, and often unsatisfactory even to the proficient antiquary.