"To make the reader some amends for such a loss I have given a specimen of supposed Druid writing, out of Lambecius' account of the Emperor's library at Vienna. 'Tis wrote on a very thin plate of gold with a sharp-pointed instrument. It was in an urn found at Vienna, rolled up in several cases of other metal, together with funeral exuviæ. It was thought by the curious, one of those epistles which the Celtic people were wont to send to their friends in the other world. The reader may divert himself with trying to explain it." Has this inscription ever been explained, and how? Stukeley's book is by no means a rare one; therefore I have not trusted myself to copy the inscription: and such as feel disposed to help me in my difficulty would doubtless prefer seeing the Doctor's own illustration at p. 31. Henry Cunliffe. Hyde Park Street.{120} ATHELSTANE'S FORM OF DONATION.--MEANING OF "SOMAGIA." Tristram Risdon, in his quaint _Survey of the Co. of Devon_, after mentioning the foundation of the church of High Bickington by King Athelstane, "Who," he says, "gave to God and it one hide of land, as appeareth by the donation, a copy whereof, for the antiquity thereof, I will here insert: 'Iche Athelstane king, grome of this home, geve and graunt to the preist of this chirch, one yoke of mye land frelith to holde, woode in my holt house to buyld, bitt grass for all hys beasts, fuel for hys hearth, pannage for hys sowe and piggs, world without end,'"-- adds presently afterwards, that "Sir John Willington gave _Weeksland_ in this tything, unto Robert Tolla, _cum 40 somagia annuatim capiend in Buckenholt_ (so be the words of the grant) in the time of K. Edw. I." The Willingtons were lords of the manor of Umberleigh, where Athelstane's palace stood, with its chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity, formerly rich in ancient monuments, and having a chantry near to it. Some of the monuments from this chapel are still preserved in the neighbouring church of Atherington. My Queries upon this Note are: 1. Whence did Risdon derive his copy of King Athelstane's form of donation? 2. What is the precise meaning of the word _Somagia_? In _Ducange_ (ed. Par. 1726, tom. vi. col. 589.) I find: "_Somegia_. Præstatio, ut videtur _ex summis_, v. gr. bladi, frumenti. Charta Philippi Reg. Franc. an. 1210. Idem etiam Savaricus detinet sibi census suos, et venditiones, et quosdam reditus, qui _Somegiæ_ vocantur, et avenam, et _captagia_ hominum et foeminarum suarum, qui reditus cum una Somegiarum in festo B. Remigii persolverentur; deinde secunda Somegia in vicesima die Natalis Domini, et tertia in Octabis Resurrectionis Dominicæ, ei similiter persolventur; caponum etiam suorum in crastino Natalis Domini percipiet solutionem: unaquæque vero somegiarum quatuor denarios bonæ monetæ valet."