AT Beckhampton, near Avebury, Wilts, a very interesting discovery has lately been made of an ancient British dwelling pit. The dwelling consists of two circular holes, sunk in the clean chalk, adjoining and intersecting one another. They are about five feet six inches deep, and five feet in diameter. On the floor of the pit were found the fragments of an earthen cooking vessel resting on three stones, and under it the ashes of the fire that had been used in boiling the pot. There were also found a well-shaped “spindle-whorle,” a “loom-weight,” bone ornament, and several so-called “pot boilers,” also bones of the ox, sheep, rabbit, &c. The whole of the goods and chattels, &c., found in this interesting dwelling are now in the County Museum. CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, most of which contain the names of works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Mr. F. Edwards, 83, High-street, Marylebone; Mr. U. Maggs, 159, Church-street, Paddington-green; Mr. G. P. Johnston, 33, George-street, Edinburgh; Mr. W. Scott, 7, Bristol-place, Edinburgh; Mr. G. Harding, 19, St. John-street, Westminster; Mr. A. B. Osborne, 11, Red Lion-passage, Holborn; Mr. J. E. Cornish, 33, Piccadilly, Manchester; Messrs. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William-street, Strand; Messrs. Robson & Kerslake, 43, Cranbourn-street, Leicester-square; Mr. W. Wilkins, Merthyr Tydvil; Mr. E. Parsons, 45, Brompton-road, S.W.; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand; Messrs. Farrar & Fenton, 8, John-street, Adelphi. A PROPOSAL for the foundation of a museum devoted to the antiquities of Palestine, has recently been attracting attention in Paris. A room in the Louvre is now devoted to the display of objects of this class, which, however, in 1879 did not exceed 83 in number; to these about 100 more have recently been added, including between 50 and 60 vases and lamps in terra-cotta. In the British Museum exist between 50 and 60 similar objects; and a much larger collection, belonging to the Palestine Exploration Fund, is partly in possession of that association, either in London or in Jerusalem, and partly at the South Kensington Museum. The whole collection, in these several detachments, does not, perhaps, exceed 1,000 objects. MR. FREDERICK HAWKINS’S “Annals of the French Stage,” which Messrs. Chapman & Hall are to publish in two volumes, extend from its origin to the death of Racine. Notwithstanding the light recently thrown in France upon the development of her old literature, no English writer has thought fit to illustrate, at least upon anything like a comprehensive scale, the rise and progress of the theatre in Paris. The author has tried to verify carefully his statements, and study at first hand the important plays which he has ventured to criticise. For the rest, these annals, unlike most books relating to the stage, give quite as much prominence to dramatists and dramatic literature as to players and their work.