NOTICE OF THE MEETING OF THE FRENCH SOCIETY FOR

THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS, Held at Lihle, June, 1845. The following account of tlie Archfeological transactions at the congres of the French Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, held last June at Lisle, is partly from the local press and partly from notes taken by the writer. But as the programme of the questions for discussion was published by him in the Gentleman's Magazine for May last, and as in a future number of that useful repertory he may possibly give an account of the historical transactions at the congres, and of some of the sjieeches at the banquet given to it by the citizens of Tournay, he need here only state that, as the Deputy of the Archseological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, he Avas on every occasion treated with especial honour and respect. The meeting having taken place in the apartment destined for it — once the chapel of the palace of the Counts of Flanders — Monsieur de Caumont, as director of the Society, invited to the president's chair the Baron de Contencin, Prefet of the Department, and placed on the bench with him some of the other local authorities and distinguished foreigners there pre- sent, with such secretaries and committees as were necessary, and then pointing out the advantages and pleasure derivable from the " re-union"' of the learned men of distant provinces and kingdoms, concluded an eloquent address by presenting ten silver medals to be the rewards of such gen- tlemen as the Society should deem to have best carried out its several in- tentions. The President then enumerated those monuments of antiquity in his " Department" which he considered as most remarkable, and announced the time of meeting of the Archseological section for each day. A list of the several Essays received was also stated, when the Baron de Roison was called on to produce his Essay on the question, " Wliether the architectural styles of Flanders and its neighbouring provinces were bor- rowed from France or Germany ;" and which was particularly interesting, on account of its frequent allusions to the edifices near the Rhine, and to the " Notes on German Churches," published by our learned countryman Dr. "Whewoll, some of Avhose dates, however, M. de Roisin had occasion to correct. A memoir was next read by M. Kesteloot of Brussels relative to some ancient frescoes lately found on the walls of a stone stair-case at Nieuport, and the Count de Merode described a fresco at Utrecht. The Baron de Reiffenberg then presented a fac-simile of the woodcut, dated xiv xviij, lately found at Mechlin, and under circumstances which, he said, precluded any suspicion of the authenticity of this interesting date. It represents the Virgin and Child accompanied with angels offering to them crowns, and with four females represented by emblems, the names St. Ka- VOL. II. 3 G