instituted with the object of affording to the young men of the town the means of acquiring general and scientific knowledge, by the formation of a library, delivery of Lectures, and establishment of Classes for French, Germany Drawing, &c., and an opportunity of spending their leisure hours profitably in a Reading Room supplied with the London and local Newspapers, and several of the leading Reviews, Magazines, and periodicals devoted to mechanical and artistical subjects. There is, also, a Debating Society connected with the Institution. The subscription is 15s. per annum, with free admission to the Lectures, Library, and Reading Room, the latter of which is open from 12 at noon to 10 o’clock at night, every day, (Sundays excepted.) Behind the wainscot of the dining-room of a house situate a little below the Institute in Dogpole, now the property and residence of Dr. Henry Johnson, Senior Physician to the Salop Infirmary, and known in ancient documents by the name of “THE OLDE HOUSE,” was recently discovered an ancient painting, on canvas, fixed upon a board forming the mantelpiece over the fire-place of the room. In the centre is a shield of arms, France and England quarterly, surmounted by a royal crown, and on either side a pomegranate and Tudor rose (white and red conjoined), twice repeated. The ground of the whole dark-maroon, ornamented or damasked with white wavy feathery embellishments. Above, on the plaster of the wall, is a rude painting of heavy scroll-work ornaments; and it is thought that the rest of the walls, if the wainscot were removed, would be found covered with similar paintings. In the absence of all positive evidence, conjectures can only be hazarded as to the cause of these arms, &c. having been placed here. One thing, however, is certain that they are connected, in some way with Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine of Arragon, inasmuch as the pomegranate was first introduced as a royal badge of England, upon Katherine’s marriage with prince Arthur, son of Henry VII. Now if we consider this painting contemporary with an inscription on the wainscot of the adjoining drawing-room, “PETRVS ROBERTS M M SECO 1553,” and interpret it thus, “PETRVS ROBERTS MARIÆ MATERNITATEM SECO, 1553. I Peter Roberts decide (the question of) the maternity or legitimacy of Mary, 1553.” Then we may regard it as a loyal demonstration on Mary’s accession to the English throne by some one of those many friends and adherents who so warmly sympathised in her early adversity, in the unjustifiable degradation of her royal mother and her own consequent exclusion from the succession to the throne.