Vol 55

12 Barney SloaneBoman bronze Fibula, actual size, found in Katcliff Highwiiy,October 27, 1852.In the possession of the liev. Tlionias Hugo.Fig 1. Hugo's Ratcliff Roman brooch (image enlarged here)agenda. The study of extant antiquities was ofobvious importance, with our Society publishingarticles on St Helen's Bishopsgate, and work onmonumental brasses in the region in its firstvolume. Religious architectural fragments werealso of interest. During late 1854-56, stoneworkderived from Blackfriars, St John Clerkenwell(Fig 2), Greyfriars, and St Stephen's chapelWestminster was exhibited (Illustrated LondonNews]une 1855; Trans London Middlesex ArchaeolSac I, 121, 133; Proc Soc Antiq London 3, 248).Westminster was ripe for antiquarian pickingsfollowing the fire that had gutted the palacein 1838, and the massive rebuilding projectstill under way in 1855, and the accounts offurther medieval antiquities give wonderful (andsobering) details of how they were acquired(Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc 1, 143). Anentire medieval painted panel deriving from thepalace's Painted Chamber was purchased in acellar on the palace site from workmen usingthe proceeds to 'buy liquor'. At the same time,Tudor painted glass could be obtained fromHenry VII's chapel by paying boys to clamberup the exterior water pipes and tease quarriesout! To set academic curiosity at ease in theabbey itself, the stone step between the shrine ofEdward the Confessor and Henry V's tomb wasbroken out to free the previously obscured endof a worn medieval grave slab. What was revealedis really quite beautiful and formed the very firstcolour plate published by LAMAS. It was (so it is