This volume catalogues and illustrates 860 engraved gems and finger-rings in the Ashmolean Museum, with the aim of demonstrating how the collection developed over the last 150 years or more and to identify, wherever possible the source and provenance of the items. The catalogue or inventory is preceded by a discussion of the collection, including its most distinguished piece, the beautiful Felix Gem' which can be followed through collection inventories since the 15th century. The gems are presented according to their decorative theme, including dieites and emperors, scenes from daily life,...

Binsey is a village to the west of Oxford, on the south bank of the main channel of the River Thames, opposite Port Meadow, which has been an open space belonging to the burgesses of Oxford since late Saxon times. Although now within the ring-road, the village is essentially rural and unspoilt. The hub of Binsey is a row of cottages and the Perch Inn on one side of the village green. At one time when the river was wider there was a ferry here taking travelers across to Oxford. The church, its present building no earlier than the 12th century though on an older site, lies a third of a mile...