iiflavk Intonu iDiufv
Mi '
COLLECTA^iEA AiNTlQUA,
ETCHINGS AND NOTICES OF
ANCIENT REMAINS,
ILLUS’TEATIVE OF THE
HABITS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY
OF PAST AGES.
BY
rHARLKS 1U)ACH SMTITI. K.S.A.
Honorary Member of the Societies of Antiquaries of France, Denmark, Spain, Normandy ,
Picardy, the West of France, the Morini, Scotland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the
Society of Emulation of Abbeville, the Numismatic Society of London,
the Archeological Societies of Chester, Cheshire and Lancashire,
Bury and West Suffolk, Scarborough, Mayence,*
Wiesbaden, and Sinsheim.
V01\. II.
LONDON :
J. RUSSELL SMITH, SOHO SQUARE.
LONDON :
SICHABDS, PEINTEB, 37 OBEAT QUEEN STBEET,
w*
TO
THE SUBSCRIBERS
TO THE
COLLECTANEA ANTIQUA,
THIS VOLUME IS
EESPECTEULLY AND GEATEEULLY
DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In the introduction to the first volume^ I stated the
reasons which induced me to commence the Collectanea
Antiqua, and which, I conceived, justified its continuation.
With the same convictions of its usefulness, strengthened
by further experience, in a much shorter space of time
than that in which its predecessor was completed, a second
volume is now brought to a close. It is hoped that its
contents, and the manner in which they have been col-
lected and made public, will excuse, if not warrant, the
exaction of a comparatively high subscription from its few
but willing supporters.* It must be obvious to all who are
acquainted with the cost of printing and publishing, that
pecuniary remuneration for works on subjects which
interest only a very few persons, is out of the question,
even when aided by a subscription list more extended
than that under the auspices of which this volume has
been produced. But, as heretofore, friends have not
been backward in contributing plates, and thus the
expenses have been rendered more bearable. My reward
is the approbation of some of the first antiquaries of the
* It is, however, gratifying to observe, that the first volume,
which is now out of print, produces considerably more than the
subscription, whenever it occurs for sale.
VI
PREFACE,
day, and the flattering terms in which the Collectanea has
been referred to in standard works both at home and
abroad.
The present volume 023ens with an account of the
excavation of a E-oman villa, at Hartlip, conducted by
Mr. Bland, at his sole expense. It is fortunate when,
under similar circumstances, pecuniary means and a
liberal disposition combine to promote such researches.
In a separate work* I have endeavoured to express how
much we are indebted to Mr. Eolfe and a few other
friends, for defraying the charges incurred in laying oj)en
an amphitheatre at Eichborough, For the same work I
have also made use of novel information respecting the
remains of the castrum at Lymne, acquired by sub-
scriptions placed at the disposal of myself and Mr. James
Elliot, in consequence of an appeal, which I considered
myself warranted in making, after an application to the
Government for a grant of money for excavations had
failed. An appendix to this volume contains a list of
the subscribers and other particulars, and a separate and
fuller report on the discoveries made is preparing for
publication. The sum supplied was considerable, and
it may be observed, it was wholly contributed hy the
sympathy and good-will of private persons, unassisted by
any public body founded for “ encouraging individuals or
associations in making researches and excavations, and
affording them suggestions and co-operation.”
In the notes on the Eoman Wall I have hardly laid
sufficient stress on the public spirit shown hy Mr. John
Clayton, in preserving so much of the remains of that
nohle monument of our country’s early history. Too much
The Antiquities of Eichborough, Reculver, and Lymne,
1850.
PREFACE.
Vll
praise cannot be accorded to sucb enlightened liberality,
dictated by pure devotion to historical science for the
general good. The excavations made at Birdoswald, in
the same district, by Mr. H. Norman, Mr. W. S. Potter,
and Mr. H. G. Potter, were undertaken from a like zealous
and worthy impulse, and, together with those under the
direction of Mr. Clayton, are still in progress. At Burgh
Castle, one of the stations on the Littus Saxonicum, Sir
John Boileau has made excavations under the direction
of Mr. Harrod, the result of which we may expect will
be shortly published.
The exhumation of some interesting Roman tessellated
pavements, discovered by accident at Cirencester, is due
to the good taste of Earl Bathurst, and it is to be hoped
that the same regard, which, on former occasions, has
been shown by his lordship to similar works of ancient art,
will ensure their permanent preservation. Professor
Buckman, and Mr. C. Newmarch, who have engraved
and published these pavements, have declared their in-
tention to explore the valuable Roman remains, which, it
is well known, lie buried in and about Cirencester. An
account of a Roman villa at Stanscombe, excavated by
order of Mr. P. B. Purnell, it is understood will shortly
be published by that gentleman. Mr. W. M. Wylie, F.S.A.,
also, at his own expense, has examined some Anglo-Saxon
graves at Fairford, in the same county, and published a
detailed illustrated account of the discoveries. In the
autumn of last year the Hon. R. C. Neville, F.S.A., con-
tributed to our knowledge of the funeral customs of the
early Anglo-Saxons, in excavating an extensive cemetery
at Little Wilbraham, in Cambridgeshire. It is to re-
searches such as these, carefully conducted and registered,
that the archa3ologist must refer for his most valuable
materials.
PIIEFACE.
viii
The above-mentioned comprise the chief antiquarian
researches carried on during the last t^vvo or three years.
They have been instituted entirely by individual enter-
prise, and accomplished at the cost of the parties who
originated and conducted them, with the exception of the
excavations at Lymne, which, as before observed, were
paid for by subscription. In reference to these, as well as
to some others of a more restricted extent, it is useful to
reflect on the sources whence sprung the means for de-
fraying the pecuniary expenses. At the same time a
review should be taken of the proceedings of associated
bodies emanating from the great archaeological movement
of 1843-4, in order to ascertain what share has been taken
by them in contributing assistance, as well as to ascertain
what measures they themselves have originated in pursu-
ance of the declarations under which for full seven years
they have j)i’ofessed to be acting. It will be seen that
the researches referred to above, as well as many others,
if we embrace a little wider range of time, have been
carried out solely by isolated individuals, and in no way
from pecuniary or other assistance supplied by societies,
one of the fundamental canons of which is the encourage-
ment of individuals in making researches, and affording
them suggestions and co-operation.” It may be true that
some liberal and wealthy persons do not require such en-
couragement ; but it is no less true that others who have
needed have never received it. Moreover, if we consult
the printed proceedings of these societies, it will be obvious,
that although very large sums of money have been annually
collected and expended, the amount of what has been
devoted to antiquarian researches is truly insignifleant,
and that in no instance has any archaeological investigation
of magnitude or importance been instituted by any of
ihem. The cause alleged is that they have no funds at
PREFACE,
IX
their disposal for such purposes, and taking them upon
this plea it must he at once admitted that they have signally
failed in realizing one of the chief objects for which they
were avowedly organized. It would be as easy to prove
that they have not been able to fulfil either of the promises
by which they proposed to effect their object, unless it be
that of establishing Journals of limited circulation and of
fluctuating literary value. The Congresses also, which
grew out of these societies, while they have annually cost
very large sums of money, have produced results by no
means commensurate with the outlay (unless we except,
perhaps, the first two of these meetings), while the in-
fluence they have exercised towards the preservation of
ancient national monuments, has been most inefficient, if,
indeed, its good results are anywhere to be discerned. At
the same time, the assiduous supplications made to the nobi-
lity and gentry of the localities in which these Congresses
are held, the canvassings for subscriptions, the parade of
imposing names, are measures somewhat humiliating for
men dignified by science and literature to adopt, especially
when no useful application of the money raised is any-
where palpable. Rule 1, which sets forth an intention of
holding direct intercourse with the Comite des Arts et
Monuments of the ministry of Public Instruction in
France, and with continental Antiquarian Societies, has
remained a dead letter, for co-operation with foreign in-
stitutions is merely nominal ; the failure of this good in-
tention has been complete. In reference to this desirable
object, all sincere well-wishers to the prosperity and to
the more active distribution of the resources of the Society
of Antiquaries of London, must, upon reflection, lament
the recent sale of the stock of the back volumes of the
Archceologia and Vetusta Monumenta, and, what is still
more to be regretted, the sale of the copper-plates of these
X
PllEFACE.
valuable works^ the heir-looms of the society. We are
bound to give the Council credit for good reasons for
taking this course, although they are not ajjparent, even
if the sale realized a large sum. The Council of the Percy
Society have recently acted in a manner which appears to
me more judicious, and under circumstances which ren-
dered the sale of their books at any rate an open question.
They resolved that the entire stock should be divided
among the members, to avoid the depreciation, by public
sale, of the subscribers’ sets.
In the ajDpendix, mention is made of a work printed at
the exj)ense of Government. Heavy as has been the cost,
the outlay would not have been regarded, had the distri-
bution of the work been more liberal. But instead of
its being freely given where it could have been usefully ap-
j)lied, only a few coj)ies were presented to some favoured
institutions, and it was put up for sale at the price of five
guineas. A sufficient number of purchasers could not be
found, and the price was lowered to two guineas ; but
whether the difference was returned to the early buyers
need scarcely be asked ; neither is it of much use to in-
quire how many copies at the present moment remain
unsold. It is the trading and money-calculating spirit
with which the costly volume has been put forth that calls
for condemnation ; for of what use to the Government can
the small receipts be ? Surely, if the work were called
for at the expense of some ten thousand pounds of the.
public money, it should be applied strictly to the use of
the public, by being deposited, free of further cost, in
all the public libraries in the United Kingdom. But it
is believed that the same false economy was exercised in
the production of at least a portion of the work, and the
fact that the plates arc so badly engraved maybe ascribed
to this cause. In that devoted to the British coins, numer-
niEl-’ACE.
XI
ous types have been omitted.* d'lie artful and improjjer
manner in which some of the Romano-British coins were
obtained for this work, shews that the trustees of the
British Museum, as a body, have no very keen perception
of the rights of private property and the obligations of
good faith ; or, that they are negligent in discharging
their duties and incompetent for the responsible situation
to which they are elected.
In fact, it cannot be disguised, that genuine archaeology
* “The coins which have been so unjustly excluded from the
Monumenta Historica Britannica" , Archccologia, vol. xxxiii, p.
136; and again, in p. 184, “the coins — are omitted !"
What faith can be placed in a work amenable to such a charge ?
or in the selection of the coins engraved, when we read in the
Numismatic Chronicle the following assertion? — “I see Mr.
Birch has referred to the plates of coins in the Monumenta
Historica Britannica. May I take this opportunity of warning
numismatists against the coin engraved as No. 50 of the first
plate, which is decidedly a modern fabrication B Mr. John Evans
in the Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xiv, p. 82. Charges such as
these would be discreditable to individuals, but how much more
so are they to a Government with resources of every kind at its
command! The entire literary portion of this Act-of-Parliament
production, let us hope, is not quite so bad as one of our most
accomplished linguists states the Anglo-Norman chronicle of
Gaimar to be. Mr. Wright, in the preface to his own edition
of this work, printed for the Caxton Society (1850), referring to
the Monumenta Historica Britannica, delivers his opinion in the
following unqualified terms : “ Petrie’s edition is taken from
the better text of the Museum manuscript, but it has been
edited by one very little acquainted with the grammatical forms
and construction of the language, and, though at first collated
on the original manuscript with some care, the greater part of it
is edited so incorrectly, that every two or three lines presents an
error, often a grave one.” Gaimar contains 6532 lines!!
Xll
PREFACE.
has in no way been promoted eitlier by the Government
or by societies. A positive evil has arisen from the spread
of the latter, and the consequent popular favour in which
archseology is supposed to be held. It is not true science
that seeks display and drawing-room patronage ; or pur-
sues its researches in crowds ; but it is evident that parade
and show pass with the world for knowledge and zeal ;
and the Government, when pressed to take the national
antiquities under its own care, appeals at once to the
existence of societies as an excuse for its own indiffer-
ence. The influence of the new societies induced the
most apathetic to assume some little regard for what they
had hitherto despised, or had been perhaps perfectly igno-
rant of. In vol. i, p. 138, I referred to the bold assertion
made on behalf of the Corporation of London, at a meet-
ing of the Institute of British Architects in 1845, ‘‘ that
there were many in the city who were most anxious to
keep together such ancient remains as were found,” but
that their views were interfered with, etc. The statements
put forth with a view to give the city authorities” a
credit they themselves had not even sought for or under-
stood the advantage of, were totally at variance with truth,
and their fallacy was completely exposed in the Builder.
But since then a remarkable opportunity has occurred of
showing that the Corporation retain the same insensibility
as of old, and that it is useless for their friends to set them
up as being most anxious”, when they show themselves
not the least so. It is well known that Mr. John Newman
possessed a very fine collection of antiquities found in the
city. For some reasons he felt himself compelled to give
it up, but, with commendable consideration, he first
offered it to the Corporation at an extremely moderate or
rather at a nominal sum. The liberal offer was declined,
and the collection in consequence was sold by public
PREFACE.
xm
auction, realizing a far greater amount than that demanded
of the “most anxious” Corporation of the city of London.
The foregoing remarks on the present state of archaeo-
logy in England are penned, not in a querulous spirit, or
for the sake of finding fault, but with a conviction that the
cause of science is best served by speaking the plain truth,
and not by disguising or withholding our opinions on fit
and proper occasions. A remedy for the evils complained
of, I feel convinced, is only to be obtained from an en-
lightened Government, a notion embodied in one of
the declarations put forth by two of the chief societies
before alluded to, which professes to bind them to take
“ every occasion which may present itself to solicit the
attention of the Government to the conservation of our
national monuments,” hut which it does not appear has ever
been acted on. It is, in short, a Government commission
that is required, composed of men of intelligence and of
unblemished character ; who shall be perfectly free from
the influence of rival societies, of their jealousies and par-
tizanships, and free also from the influence of all existing
institutions. Such a committee was moved for a few years
ago by Mr. Wyse, and warmly supported by Messrs.
Bernal, Ewart, and Hume ; and let us hope that Her
Majesty’s present advisers will not omit to take advantage
of the opportunity afibrded them by the apathy of their
predecessors.
The statistics of our national antiquities should he one
of the first objects of a Parliamentary commission ; for we
must first know what we really possess, before we can tell
what should be preserved. A good and complete register
of the various classes of ancient remains extant throughout
the country, would at once secure the safe custody of many
which are in daily peril, because it is known that if they
pilfered or destroyed they will not be missed. To
h
are
XIV
PREFACE.
complete a measure so extensive and affecting private
interests, an act of Parliament would be required, and
nothing short of legislative enactment can be conceived
adequate to meet the emergency. One of the necessary
consequences would be a museum, in the several rooms of
which would be brought together, not a heterogeneous mass
of objects of all ages and countries, collected without judg-
ment and without any definite end, but national antiqui-
ties and those of neighbouring countries which are either
identical or which serve to illustrate and explain them.
They should be arranged by a system of double classifica-
tion, to show at a glance their epoch and parentage, and
also the localities where they were discovered. Copious
entries should be made of the particulars connected with
the discoveries. Such an institution, under the control
and guidance of a Parliamentary commission, and per-
fectly free and independent of all existing societies and
establishments and their influences, might be made truly
worthy the country and subservient to the best purposes
of good education.
The feudal law of treasure-trove has been most per-
nicious to the science of antiquity.* This law of a semi-
barbarous state of society in no way regards the works of
ancient art which are from time to time brought to light
out of the earth as public property. It assigns them to
the lord of the manor, to be by him transferred to the
melting-pot, or to be applied in any other manner for his
A zealous antiquary brought the matter before an archgeo-
logical congress held at Oxford, and some talk was made about
it. But the real business of the congress (recruiting the ex-
hausted treasury of the society) being over, an ingenious plan
for getting rid of the treasure-trove question was adopted. It
was referred to the councils of “kindred bodies”!
PREFACE.
XV
own and sole benefit. The poor delver of the soil who
finds a hoard of ancient coins or other antiquities, con-
siders he has a greater moral right than the lord of the
manor to take them to the melting-pot, or otherwise dis-
pose of them, and apply the proceeds to relieve his own
and family’s necessities. Thus there is a contest between
the two ; the one secretes for himself ; the other prose-
cutes by action-at-law and imprisons ; but the struggle
in both cases is entirely for selfish ends, and applica-
tion of the contested treasure to the purposes of science is
never thought of. Let Parliament repeal this absurd and
unjust law ; let the lord of the manor and the actual
finder be both remunerated ; but at the same time let it
be imperative that, under all circumstances, the objects
discovered be surrendered to the Government.
To the following friends I am indebted for etchings :
Messrs. W. H. Brooke, A. H. Burkitt, T. C. Croker,
J. G. DeWilde, F. W. Fairholt, LI. Jewitt, H. W. King,
H. C. Pidgeon, E. Pretty, E. B. Price, H. W. Eolfe,
R. Windle ; to Mr. J. G. Waller for some drawings ; to
Mr. Bateman for the loan of some wood-cuts ; and to the
Rev. J. C. Bruce, the Rev. H. Jenkins, Lord Londes-
borough, and Mr. Humphrey Wickham for contributions
in aid of illustrations.
ERKATA.
39, for “ King’s Hill,” read “ King’s Mill.”
IIG, for “ Arbores,” read “ Arboreos.”
142, for “ Minerva,” read “ Minervia.”
200, for “ Belatucardo,” read “ Belatucadi’o.”
211, for “ bell,” read “ bee.”
228, for “ Marton,” read “ Marston.”
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
PLATES I TO IX.
The Roman villas which have been discovered in our
country comprise a series alike numerous, varied, and in-
teresting ; for under the term villa it has been usual to
include all buildings of a domestic character, whether
adapted by their extent and magnificence for the residence
of governors of the province of Britain and its sub-
divisions, or whether their more limited bounds and
humbler appointments indicate connexion with the middle
and lower classes of society. Scarcely a year passes but
the plough or spade discloses the remains of w'alls and
floors of Roman dwelling houses, often in unsuspected
localities remote from modern abodes, under ground which
for many centuries has been tilled by the husbandman,
beneath pastures on which countless generations have
grazed their herds and flocks, and even in the midst of
woods which, time out of mind, have stolen upon and
flourished over the deserted sites of the habitations of man.
The peasant wonders at the unlooked-for discovery, and
the scientific inquirer is often perplexed to account for the
changes which have thus taken place in the surface of the
earth, until he considers and reflects how the silent and
slow operations of nature through successive ages, uncon-
trolled by the hand of man, entomb the works of art, and
cover their ruins with rich corn fields and fertile pasturage.
B
2
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
Having comprehended the processes by which nature in
her vast laboratory works these changes, we are led to
reflect on the causes which induced the destruction of the
buildings and the abandonment of their sites, the epoch to
which we may refer them, while, at the same time, we
survey the numerous peculiarities of the remains which
have survived the shocks of time, and in them read instruc-
tion in the arts, habits and customs of those who, so long
before we were called into being, possessed the soil of
which we in our turn hold fleeting tenure. Such are
among the highest ends and aims of the study of antiquity.
Thus applied, the pursuit is not merely a harmless amuse-
ment, or an agreeable recreation ; it assumes the ennobling
character of a science, which expands and elevates the
mind, weans us from a too intense devotion to the con-
cerns of the time present, and by bringing forcibly before
our perception and understanding the various works of the
past, enables us to form a more correct estimate of our-
selves, of our advancement or retrogression ; we study
history by the aid of a new light; and by the contempla-
tion and analysis of objects through the slow but sure process
of comparison, are often enabled to test the authenticity of
ancient writers, and confirm or disprove, as it may be,
their statements and opinions. It is not however always
that the antiquary can immediately render the results of
his researches available to science ; his search after truth is
beset with difficulties of all kinds ; the facts he collects do
not often come to hand clear and palpable, but are usually
gathered with labour, isolated, or mingled with anomalies
which experience alone will teach him how to understand
and explain, and he must possess a certain intuitive power
of perception and classification, to discern and arrange
objects with all the circumstances under which they are
presented to him. From the accumulation of facts, each
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
3
perhaps in itself of trivial import, the antiquary forms his
chain of evidence, and deduces conclusions which reveal to
him various phases of society in past times, recalling men
and manners in a true picture as they really were ; he
reads them, in the works of their hands, as he peruses their
acts written by the pen of history, the one illustrating the
other ; and thus he obtains a clearer insight into former
ages, viewed through the double medium of tangible monu-
ments and the recorded narratives of the historian.
The above remarks are unnecessary and superfluous to
those who have consulted these pages for the records they
contain of stray facts ; they are addressed to those who
have been or may be led listlessly to inquire, what is the
use of archmology ?” — to those who have gone with archae-
ologists without being of them ; — to those who are excited
at certain seasons to tolerate and participate in the field-
diversions part of the pursuit ; — or who, at meetings and
periodical festivities, countenance archaeology relaxed from
its daily servitude and dressed in a gay, fashionable holiday
garb, but who have not fully considered its proper end and
objects, nor yet learned to know the true and pure sources
of enthusiasm which cheer and inspire its followers more
fervently in the solitude of the closet, unnoticed by the
world, than the capricious and affected sympathy which
must largely exist in popular assemblies.
Dane’s Field Is situated about half a mile to the n.w.
of the village of Hartlip, which lies on the London and
Canterbury road between Lainham and Sittingbourne, in
a well-wooded and fertile district. The field slopes consi-
derably towards the n,e., and is there bounded by a cart-
road leading to Hartlip and the London road. In order
to form a level area, it appears that the Roman colonists
had dug across the field in the line of the trees indicated
4 ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
in the accompanying plan, and carried the earth forward
into thelow-
er part of
the field,
thus form-
ing a bank
adjoining
which was
built a row
of rooms, m
in the plan,
the second
of which is
exhibited in the annexed cut.*
When the building had been deserted, the soil from the
upper part of the field had, from agricultural operations,
drifted into the rooms, and in the course of time thej”^ had
become filled and overgrown with brushwood and trees,
and were so concealed that not a trace of masonry was to
be distinguished, and the line of walls and foundations
was completely hidden in what appeared to be a bank
covered wdth trees. In the autumn of 1845, Mr. Bland
opened this and the two adjoining rooms, as well as various
other parts of the building (marked l and m). The room
shown in the above cut is 13 feet in length, by 7, and the
wall built against the bank is 7 feet high. The walls are
about 2 ft. 3 in. thick, and are composed of flints and rubble,
with layers of red tiles, which are increased in number at
the angles and in the entrance to the room on the left.
A similar arrangement was observed throughout the villa.
The room to the left, the entrance to which is shown
in the above cut, is of about the same dimensions : in
* 1 am indebted to the Council of the British Archaeological
Association for the loan of this woodcut and for the plan on p. 6.
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KE^T.
5
the side opposite to the doorway, is a kind of settle or
bench formed from the wall ; it has been stuccoed over ;
the upper parts of the walls of this apartment were in a
very indifferent state of preservation, suggesting the pro-
bability of a reparation or addition by inferior workmen.
In the outer angle of the wall, tiles of a pale yellow colour
were substituted for the red. The floors of these rooms
were cemented with a composition of lime stones and
pounded tile ; the walls had originally been stuccoed and
painted, chiefly in red, with borders of various colours.
The superiority of the ancient over the modern colours, or
rather the mode of their application, was strikingly shown
in a fragment which still adhered to the uppermost part of
the wall of the room shown in the above cut ; although
this portion of the plaister coating of these walls must
have retained its original situation at least fourteen hun-
dred years, and must also for a long time have been ex-
posed to the frosts and rains of our uncongenial climate,
it still retained its compactness and the colour was still
bright and good.
On this occasion was laid open part of a subterranean
apartment about 40 feet to the right of the rooms referred
to above, being a portion of the villa which had been for-
merly discovered and which is described by Hasted ;* to
this point we shall return, first proceeding to the n.e. of
the field, to describe the remains there laid open in the
autumn of 1848.
The subjoined cut shews the foundations of a compact
set of rooms, which, it will be seen by reference to the
general plan, intersect at an angle the walls of a building
of much more extensive dimensions. The enlarged plan
before us, on a scale of fifteen feet to the inch, may be
thus described : a and b show the substructures of two
* “ Histoxy of the County of Kent,” folio ed. vol. ii. p. 540.
6
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
apartments, oomposeu of oblong hollow tiles, which were
HA B
filled with earth and mortar and served as pillars for the
support of floors of which scarcely any traces remained.
These rooms were heated by furnaces at c and d. The
details will be well understood by plates i and ii, executed
from sketches taken from the n. and s. sides. Opposite to
a semicircular recess in room b is a strong foundation of
large tiles, which apparently supported a cistern for heated
water, or a small warm bath. The adaptation of the
hollow tiles, originally intended for flues to carry the
heated air from the hypocaust up the walls, as supports
for the floors, is of rather common occurrence. They have
been found in London and at other places, used for similar
purpose, but in villas of a higher class solid flat or round
tiles were generally used, and upon these w^ere placed
larger tiles, then a thick stratum of concrete, and above,
in a fine kind of mortar, were set with great systematic
precision the small tesserae of tile, coloured clay, slate,
marble, and glass, to form those elegant pavements well
known by the term tessellated, and examples of which
have been given in the former volume of this work. In
the Hartlip villa, these pavements had been entirely re-
moved, and no vestiges of their materials, except a few
coarse red tesserae, were left to enable us to judge of their
J'rom diey Sofj./Jiy St f/r
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
7
character. In the s. wall, at g in the plan, is a long circular
hollow tile passing through the wall, to create a draught
of air from the furnace. See also plates i and ii.
This portion of the villa, as before observed, is fully
shown by the two views in plates i and ii, and its relation
to other buildings is exhibited in the general plan. The
arrangement of the hypocaust of the furnaces and the
baths forms an interesting addition to our knowledge of
Romano-British domestic architecture. It has long been
the custom to call all rooms in Roman villas which exhi-
bited any vestiges of a hypocaust, baths ; and instances
might be cited of very recent adoption of this palpable
error, not only by individuals but also by associated bodies
of antiquaries. The heated air introduced from the furnaces
was not for the baths but for the dwelling rooms. The
relative position of these at Hartlip is shown in the above
plan and in the plates. In the recess in the wall of room
B, as before observed, probably stood a cistern for warm
water, but there was no pipe or channel of any kind for
conducting water to either of the baths, so that both hot
and cold water must have
been brought in buckets
or other vessels as want-
ed. Leaden pipes con-
ducted the water from
the baths through the
external wall e f, and
these were both in perfect
preservation. The an-
nexed cut exhibits the
bath, F in the plan ; it is
about 2 ft. deep ; on one
side is a seat 6^ in. wide;
a mouldinor of T)laister : length, 3 ft. 6 in. ; width, at upper
cl oi picUblCr J 2 g bottom,
2 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. ; width of seat,0J in.
8
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
runs round the floor and up the angles, and the interior
was originally entirely covered with stucco, and painted
of a pink or red colour, portions of which remained, as
shewn in the cut. This bath was sufficiently capacious
for the immersion of children and young persons at full
length, and it was equally adapted for a partial ablution of
adults. The other bath, e in the plan, was calculated for the
Dimensions : length, G ft. 2 in. by 4 ft. ; depth, 14 inches.
total immersion of grown persons. It was also provided
with a seat extending the entire length of the inner side,
which was composed of hollow tiles, placed lengthways,
and coated over with a thick layer of cement ; the sides.,
as well as the floor, being also plaistered and coloured.
It is very probable that both these baths were originally
of greater depth, as, it must be considered, only the lower
portions of the walls remained, and nearly two feet must
be allowed for the flooring of the rooms.* In examining
the foundations of Roman villas found in this country, we
are surprised at the confined dimensions of most of the
* The cuts of these baths have been kindly presented to me
by Mr. Llewellynn Jevvitt, “as a memento,” to use his own
words, “ of the recent delightful excursion we made together
to the villa.”
Back of
Foldout
Not Imaged
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
9
rooms, and are often puzzled to account for the disposition
of the numerous internal walls. There can be but little
doubt that many of the latter were merely divisions between
the apartments; often separating, from the more com-
modious sitting rooms, small sleeping chambers, by means
of curtains, and it is obvious some such contrivance must
have existed in this part of the Hartlip villa.
The extensive building, 70 feet by 50, annexed to the
rooms just described and marked k in the general plan,
appears to have been destined for some public purpose,
and may have been a temple, or, more probably, a basilica;
the bases for columns remained, but no vestige of the
columns themselves or of any part of the superstructure
was found. The plan of this edifice may be compared
with that of the building at Ickleton, excavated by Mr.
Neville, the dimensions and general arrangement of the
two being much the same.*
On surveying the general plan, it will be seen that a
very considerable portion of the building must at some
remote time have been destroyed, and that it is now im-
possible to determine whether the remains are those of one
very extensive villa, or whether there were several distinct
small ones. It is not at all improbable that the entire
buildings may have constituted an establishment for the
public service.
We return now to the upper part of the field, near the
bank mentioned in p. 4, to speak of the excavations
recently made by Mr. Bland, of some subterranean apart-
ments discovered many years since, and very imperfectly
described by Hasted. Their position is indicated by the
letter l in the general plan, from which it will be seen
* “ Journal of the British Archseological Association,” vol.
iv, p. 365.
10
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
they are connected with the rooms described in p. 4,
forming part of an extensive series of buildings, the
foundations of most of which had been removed before the
property came into the possession of Mr. Bland. Plate
HI represents the subterranean part, taken from two points
of view. These rooms had been formed in the chalk soil,
and walled with flints and tiles; in the lower room, the native
hard chalk had been adapted as a mural fence, to the
height of about four feet, the crevices being filled up with
broken tile, the whole stuccoed and coloured red ; in the
steps conducting to the lowerroom,curve-edged tiles are used.
The walls of the passage had been well stuccoed and painted
white, and it is to be remarked that this covering appears
to have been of almost universal application, both in the
interior and exterior of the Boman buildings, concealing
also the neat appearance of the red and yellow tiles at the
angles and entrances of the rooms, Avhich would else have
led us to suppose they had been thus arranged as a sightly
ornament. At Pompeii, nearly the whole of the houses,
as well as the gates of the town, appear to have been thus
coated, and the cement was frequently tinted in bright
colours, — red, yellow, and blue predominating.
The steps leading down to these chambers are in an
excellent state of preservation. The first flight is composed
of eight, each having three rows of tiles, the upper of which
is formed of three large tiles, the second and third of six
smaller ones each. Nothing whatever was found in re-
excavating these subterranean chambers, and on the former
occasion, before referred to, the following brief notice is all
that has been recorded by Hasted. He states that “ several
bushels of wheat were found in the room at the western
part of this building, which seemed, some of it, parched
and scorched by the fire, and some of it was turned entirely
into black ashes ; and there were some tares likewise, but
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
11
not so large a quantity. Nothing else, whatevei’, was
found among the earth with which it was filled.”
It will be perceived by the plan, that foundations of
other buildings, n, o, and p, were excavated. The walls
of all of them were of flints, and about two feet thick ;
the purposes to which they had been destined, or applied,
could not be ascertained; as, with the exception of p,
nothing remained to confirm, or even to suggest conjecture.
The walls, at p, Mr. Bland considered belonged to stables
and outhouses ; they seem to have been somewhat isolated,
and the earth, in and about them, was densely impregnated
with animal and vegetable matter.
It often happens that Roman villas furnish more
curious and instructive information in the fragments of
art scattered about their sites, than in the architectural
details, which are only seen here and there, more or less
injured and imperfect. Many objects which in their day
were among the most common and disregarded, survive the
wreck of the buildings in which they occupied the humblest
place ; or, it may have been, that the remains we now
collect and study with so much avidity had been dismissed
to the recejitacle of refuse long before the destruction of
the villas in which they had done service. In and about
the Hartlip villa, some very remarkable remains were dis-
covered during the progress of the excavations. The most
numerous were collected along the line of what must have
been a ditch or vallum of considerable depth and extent
(see plan). In this ditch were found most of the objects
about to be enumerated, with an immense quantity of
broken pottery, oyster shells, and the bones of animals.
The pottery, being the most conspicuous and abundant
of the remains, may be the first noticed. It was as remark-
able for the plainness and simplicity, as for the variety of
form and the absence of ornamentation which in the ancient
12 ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
earthenware discovered under similar circumstances often
prevails. In the fictile vessels collected by the Hon. K,. C.
Neville from the sites of the Roman villas at Ickleton and
Chesterford,* the forms were more complex and the designs
more decorated, and the practised eye could readily reco-
gnize peculiar types, such as, some years since, were dis-
covered by the late Mr. Artis to have been manufactured
in potteries established by the Romans along the banks of
the Nen, in Northamptonshire. The inhabitants of the
settlement at Hartlip were as clearly supplied with their
general stock of earthen vessels from a source nearer home ;
for in the fragments we distinguish the character, so well
known, which marks the pottery manufactured on the
bank of the Medway, below Upchurch. t This locality, it
may be observed, is situated only a short distance from
Hartlip. Among these fragments, however, were sparingly
interspersed some of continental fabrication, now rendered
familiar to the antiquary by the term Samian, and described
at some length in the first volume of the Collectanea. One
of these is so remarkable that it claims particular notice,
and has therefore been engraved, half the original size, on
the opposite page.
The material of this vase is of the usual red well-tem-
pered clay which distinguishes the vessels of this class, and
it is, like them, coated with a coral-coloured glaze. But
on comparing it with others, an inferiority in workmanship
may be detected ; it has not been turned on the wheel
and finished m that faultless and careful style which is so
uniformly characteristic of these elegant vessels. The
designs which decorate it betray still more a decadence in
* See “Journal of the British Archaeological Association”,
vol. iv, p. 356, which may be consulted also for general compa-
rison of the villas with that of Hartlip.
t See vol. ii, p. 136 of this Journal.
ROMAN villa at HARTLIP, KENT.
15
taste as well as In the usual skilful manipulation. The vari-
ous compartments of these embossed vases were impressed
into the moulds from separate dies or stamps, and these
were varied in all sorts of ways, and usually in good taste.
In the specimen before us, the designs for at least two
vessels have been united, and therefore the entire work
shows a want of unison and harmony of design. The
lower part, having a foliage pattern and the maker’s name,
appears to have been taken from a separate mould origin-
ally complete in itself, and used for moulding basin-shaped
vases such as we have many examples of, in pattern iden-
tical with this on the Hartlip vase. A festoon and tassel
border, such as appears in its usual place upon the lower
portion, has been reversed and applied below the central
band of figures, to give relief to the other border and to
make the different designs harmonize together. It had
previously been ascertained that the ornamentation of the
Samian vases was made up of figures separately engraved
and differently combined according to the form or the cha-
racter of the vessel ; but the example before us is a novel
Instance of this process used on so large a scale ; accounted
for, it would appear, from the late date of fabrication the
consequent degradation of taste, and probably the inferior
manipulating skill employed. The figures represent Victory,
holding a palm-branch and crowning with a wreath a person-
age wearing thQ paludamentum over a tunic. The costume of
these figures cannot well be referred to a period prior to
the fifth century, when we know the Romans were with-
drawn from Britain, and when it is usually supposed inter-
course with the continent had ceased. There is just
enough of character left to bring the manufacture of the
vase possibly within the verge of the Roman domination
in Britain. But, exclusive of the style of the two figures,
there are peculiarities which more resemble the Byzantine
16
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
works of the sixth and seventh centuries than those of the
fifth. The feather, if such it be, in the head-dress of the
male figure, is probably a careless copy of the plume of a
helmet. The other designs upon this vase are of a purer
style and taste, and, though still comparatively late, must
be referred to an earlier date than that to which we assign
the curious central compartment. Some of the figures
on the Samian vases, as others on Greek and Roman coins
and medals, are unquestionably copies from celebrated
statues and paintings. The group of Jupiter and Leda
upon the Hartlip fragment Mr. Waller immediately re-
cognized as being identical in design with an ancient piece
of sculpture engraved in the well-known work Bischop's
Ancient Statues.
The next cut represents a fragment of a cup in green
glass, of the actual size, the form when the vessel was
entire being indicated by lines of dots. As a work of
ancient art it is among the most rare and interesting. No
specimen of the kind, it is believed, is preserved in the
collection of the Boulogne Museum, which furnished exam-
ples given in the first two plates in our former volume, or in
any public, museum in this country ; neither are vessels of
this description mentioned in Mr. Apsley Pellatt’s valuable
work. The Curiosities of Glass-making. In my private collec -
tion of Roman antiquities found in London are, however,
two fragments, one of which is identical with that before us,
and appears to be from the same mould ; the other is from
a vase of a different shape, with a quadriga in bas-relief.
The figures upon the Hartlip fragment are somewhat in-
distinct, and the letters are so faint that it is questionable
if they are all correctly given in the cut, but they are
given as well as they could be deciphered. The designs
represent sports of the circus, chariot -racing, and gladiato-
rial combats ; the names are those of the charioteers and
ROMAN VILLA AT IIARTLIP, KENT.
17
<of the combatants. As an illustration of the antiquity of
glass-making, and of the perfection to which it attained,
this fragment is valuable. The Portland and Naples
vases, fragments and entire vessels from Thebes, Pomi)eii,
Rome, France, and England, to which scientific attention
has only been directed within the last few years, prove that
the ancients were perfectly familiar with the various processes
of the art, — with glass mosaic work, glass cameo engraving,
and with the mode of working the materials which enter
into the composition of the varieties of coloured glass. One
of the greatest modern improvements in glass-making,
Mr. Pellatt states, is pillar-moulding. Such was the general
ignorance on the state of the art among the ancients, that
one of our most intelligent glass-manufacturers introduced
D
18
ROMAN Vll.LA AT HARTLIP, KKNT.
the pillar moulding as a new invention and obtained a
patent for it. Numerous specimens of Roman bowls, with
projecting pillars or ribs in glass of different colours, have
been found at London, Richborough, and other places.
These are precisely the same in principle and in the mode
of manipulation as the modern.* A similar error pre-
vailed respecting the use of window-glass. It has been
frequently found in England on the site of Roman villas,
and a fragment from that at Hartlip is given in plate ix,
fig. III.
The games in the circus were among the chief amusements
of the Roman populace, and are consequently the subject of
numerous designs in painting and in sculpture ; also from
ancient writers and inscriptions copious information is
obtained on the most minute details. While on some im-
portant matters of antiquity not a scrap of authentic in-
formation has been preserved, the arrangements of the
circus are fully described, and long lists of the names of
horses, their colours, and their riders, with other particulars,
are given, with the technical phraseology and self-import-
ance of a modern jockey club. Panvinius has brought
together a vast mass of notices on the subject from early
writers, and to his valuable volume the confined limits of
these pages must direct reference.! These games, which
have a close parallel in the modern bull-fights, horse-
racing, and prize-fighting, were the leading object of ex-
istence with a vast mass of the Roman populace ; to
the gratification of these unmanly and mind-degrading
sports every noble and generous feeling was sacrificed ;
* Tlie late Mr. Morden was astonished to find in my museum
ancient specimens of keys which he imagined he had been the
first to invent.
t Onuphrii Panvinii Veronensis de I.udis Circensibus, Pa-
tavii, MDCXLii.
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
19
and love of country and of kind became extinguished in
the all-absorbing devotion to these irrational and selfish
pleasures. When Rome was in her death throes, the
public games were sustained with undiminished liberality
and patronage ; and, in the fifth century, after Treves had
been three times sacked and burned, Salvianus, reproaching
the citizens with still longing and petitioning for the games
of the circus, asks where they would have them exhibited ?
Whether upon the graves and in the midst of blood and
mangled corpses? In every house, he says, may be heard
the groans of captives; every face is stamped with the image
of death ; but the cry is still for the games of the circus I
W e affect horror at such a picture, and yet the same scene,
with a slight variation of time and persons, is enacted before
our faces. No national distress or calamity is ever allowed
to close the doors of our theatres, or to damp the ardour
of the thoughtless and dissipated multitudes which crowd
the race- course ; and in the midst of the atrocities lately
perpetrated at Paris and Vienna, theatrical representations
were as frequented as ever, though the road to them was
over the corpses of murdered men, and moist with human
blood.
The next object which demands our attention is a dimi-
nutive kind of lihra or balance, in bronze, shown in the
annexed cut, in two views, of the size of the original. It
is well adapted for portability, and folding up by means of
20
ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
hinges could easily be carried about the person. At the
one end is a concave receptacle for the articles to be
weighed, the weights being sus[)ended on the point at the
Other extremity ; the lower cut shows the balance extended
for weighing, and equipoised upon the middle joint; the
upper cut exhibits it reversed. It is obvious that it could
only be used for testing the correct weight of known quan-
tities, such as coins and jewellery. Here again we perceive
the antiquity of the principle of another modern invention,
that of the scales for weighing letters sent through the
post-office.
Plate IV, exhibits a fragment in thin bronze, of the size
of the original ; the design upon it, representing a sea-
nymph holding garlands, is stamped in relief, and has been
repeated; it is quite impossible to say to what purjiose
this object was intended ; whether it may have been the
border of a shield, or a portion of body armour, or an
ornament attached to some piece of horse furniture.
Plate V, fig. 1, carpick and tweezers in bronze; fig. 2,
bronze fibula ; fig. 3, pin in bronze ; fig. 4, pin in bone ;
fig. 5, bone spoon ; fig. 6, bronze hasp of a lock ; fig. 7,
bone; fig. 9, key in iron; fig. 10, bone; fig. 11, fibula in
speculum metal; fig. 12, small case, possibly for paint, in
bronze. All of these are etched of the actual size.
Plate VI, figs. 1 to 8, are in iron, half the size of the
originals. It is impossible to appropriate some of these;
figs 2 and 3, in shape, resemble reaping hooks, but which
they are certainly not, as the lower edges are blur.t and
somewhat rounded ; fig. 5, is a knife ; fig. 7, an adze ;
fig. 9, a spoon, (ligula)^ of elegant shape, ornamented with
spiral silver wire.
Plate VII, fig. 1, in bronze ; figs. 2 and 4, keys in iron ;
figs. 3 and 6, knives ; fig. 5, a stylus in iron.
The objects in these plates, calling for especial notice.
■//roy ■ 2^ P S IT O
Vlf/
ROMAN VILLA AT IIARTLIP, KENT.
21
are tlie keys, in plates v and vi, and the fibula, fig. 11,
})late v; similar examples have been found at other
places in this country, both on the site of villas and in
Roiuan burial grounds. Mr. Rich, in his Illustrated
Companion to the Latin Dictionary, under the head of
Claris laconica, gives a specimen, somewhat analogous to
fig. 9, plate V, preserved in tlie British Museum, and
stated to be Egyptian. It was applied, he considers, to
the inside of the door, by a person standing without, who
put his arm through a hole in the door, made expressly for
the purpose. This interpretation, howmver, he adds,
mainly relies for its authority upon a passage in Plautus,
{Most, ii, 1. 57), and he admits, the whole subject is still
very obscure and doubtful. The circular fibula, with a cross
in the centre, appears, both from its form and material, to
be early Saxon, rather than Roman.
Plate VIII, figs. 1 and 2, fragments of ornamented flue
tiles ; fig. 3, one of the tiles shewn in plates i and ii, used
as pillars for supporting the floors ; figs. 4 and 5, fragments
of wall paintings ; fig. 6, one of the tiles of which the four
columns of the hypocaust, on the south-east side of the
villa, as shewn in plate i, and between b and d, in the plan
on page 5.
Plate IX, figs. 1 and 5, fragments of bronze ornaments ;
fig. 2, fragments of an earthen vessel, remarkable for a
yellowish green glaze ; fig. 3, fragment of window glass ;
fig. 4, knife in iron, with a portion of the bone handle
attached; figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5, the size of the originals;
fig. 6, half size.
The cut, on the side of the next page, represents a lady’s
hair [)in and a bodkin, or needle, both in bronze, but the
former silvered. The mode of wearing the hair pin, is
shewn in the Journal of the ArcJmological Association,
vol. Iv, p. 47 ; the eye, in this novel example, was,
22 ROMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
probably, to admit a ribbon to tie the hair ; the fashion
is retained to the present day in
Italy and in Germany.
The coins discovered on the site
of the villa are not very numerous,
and call for no remark as to rarity
of type. They are of Claudius,
Nero, Vespasian, Hadrian, Pius,
Geliiernus, Tetricus, Carausius,
Allectus, the Constantine family,
Valens, and Honorius. Of the
earlier emperors there are only one
or two S23ecimens of each ; but there
are several of those of the lower
empire. They shew that the build-
ings were occupied ujj to the latest
period of the Roman rule in Britain.
As before observed, most of the
remains described in the above
pages, were found in the ditch
marked in the general plan. In a
deep j)lt, towards the south-west ^
extremity, was a large quantityof
animal bones, among which. Dr.
Plomley, of Maidstone, recognized
those of the sheep, hog, horse, and
ox, the last of which he ascertained ^
were of the bos longifroois, a species of ox now extinct, but
which, in the time of the Romans, this and other discoveries
shew, must have been very plentiful.
In reference to the position of the villa at Hartlip, in
relation to the neighbouring sites of Roman settlements
and Roman roads, I must refer the readers of this report
to a paper on the subject, of much tojmgrajdiical interest.
HOMAN VILLA AT HARTLIP, KENT.
23
communicated by the Rev. Beale Poste, to the British
Archmological Association, and published in the fifth
volume of its Journal. Mr. Poste, after directing atten-
tion to the vicinity of the main Roman road leading from
Canterbury to Rochester ; to Keycol-hill and the Roman
cemetery of Crock-field in the parish of Newington ; points
out a Roman road leading from Detling to Upchurch, and
skirting some of the westernmost buildings of the Hartlip
villa. It seems, he considers, to have communicated with
the centre of the county, and crossing near Weavering-
street, ascended the chalk range of hills at Detling, and
passed over Queen’s Down Warren by Hartlip to Up-
church, where it throws off branches on either hand, to
Otterham, the site of the potteries, and to Lower Halstow,
which abounds in Roman remains.
In conclusion, it is* my duty, on the part of myself and
friends who visited the Hartlip villa, to express our grate-
ful sense of the uniform kind and hospitable attention
shown us by Mr. and Mrs. Bland ; and in this expression
of our feelings I am sure we are cordially joined by all
who availed themselves of the unlimited privilege afforded
for inspecting the excavations and the objects brought to
light. By thus affording facilities for examination and
research, the thanks of the antiquarian public are due to
Mr. Bland, not merely for the liberal and effectual manner
in which he conducted his praiseworthy labours, but also
for setting an example to others who possess the means and
opportunities of investigating similar remains which still
lie buried in many parts of this kingdom. A general
acknowledgment of gratitude must also be awarded to Mr.
John Andrews, the tenant of the property, for the uncon-
troulled permission given to Mr. Bland to excavate, and for
cooperation afforded during the progress of the work ; and
this tribute will be the more readily conceded, when it is
understood that the land is arable, and that agricultural
operations were much impeded by the researches. The
chief portions of the villa are now carefully filled in,
covered with earth, and preserved uninjured.
For contributions of plates, I am indebted to my friends,
Mr. W. H. Brooke, Mr. J. E. Lee, Mr. R. Windle, Mr. E.
B. Price ; and to Mr. E. Stevens, of Hartlip, for the plan.
ROMAN REMAINS FOUND AT MOUNT
BURES NEAR COLCHESTER.
PLATES ‘X, XI, XI Us, XII.
The parish of Mount Bures is situated on the southern
or Essex side of the river Stour, about midway between
Colchester and Sudbury, It takes its characteristic name
of “ Mount” from a vast circular tumulus near the church,
and is thereby distinguished from the parish opposite to it,
on the northern or Suffolk side of the river, called Bures
St. Mary. The apex of this artificial mount rises at present
to the height of eighty feet, and has been originally much
liigher. Its base covers an acre and a half of ground.
The remains, of which sketches by Mr. Paris are kindly
supplied, were discovered about a quarter of a mile south-
east of the mount, and close to the Stour Valley, Colchester
and Sudbury Railway, which passes through the parish.
Mr. Jackson, the contractor of the works, has favoured me
with the following account of the manner in which they
were found : —
“ On January 24th, 1849, 1 had men employed in deep-
ening a ditch ; and at eighteen inches below the surfxce,
they disclosed two brass knobs attached to two pieces of
iron. Struck with the sight, they dug deeper, and brought
to light an iron frame or stand (fig. 1, plate x), surmounted
on its two sides by an ox’s head, with brass knobs on the
tip of each horn. In digging down, to clear the earth from
the iron frame, they met with three amphorm, lying appa-
E
26
ROMAN REMAINS
rently against it, as shown in the upper corner of the plan.
The men, with great care, succeeded in getting out one
Plan of the excavation at Mount Bures, shewing the relative position of the remains.
amphora quite perfect, and another nearly so, but the third
had been completely crushed to pieces. In tlie evening,
the men brought these antiquities to my office, together
with a thick iron bar, twenty-three inches in length, but
imperfect or broken off at one end ; and also the bottom
and upper part of an iron staff, the middle or connecting
part of the two ends being wanting (fig. 2). The work-
men brought these ancient remains to me on the same
evening, and informed me where they had found them.
On the following morning I inspected the spot, and con-
tinued the excavation as far as the outside of the railway
company’s boundary fence. I then obtained permission of
FOUND AT MOUNT BURES.
27
Mr. William Pettit, the occupier of Mount’s Hall Farm,
to excavate into his field. I could easily discern the course
to take, by the different colour of the earth ; as that with
which the relics had been covered, was mixed with the
original surface soil, and was much darker than the sur-
rounding stratum of yellow clay.
“ The workmen, after removing about seven or eight
inches of the soil, came upon the brass knobs and horns of
Amphora; found at Mount Buies.
another iron stand (fig. 3), similar to the former ; and in
extricating it, they met with three other amphorm lying as
before, apparently against the stand. One of these am-
phorae was taken out nearly perfect, as was also the iron
frame. But, notwithstanding every precaution, the other
two amphorae fell to pieces.
“ At the depth of four feet from the surface, the work-
men came to the first layer of plates, as shown in the plan.
They were quite perfect when laid bare, and although
28
ROMAN REMAINS
extreme care was taken in removing them off the soil, they
were so decomposed, as to fall to pieces in a few minutes
after they had been exposed to the atmosphere. Some of
the plates were in two layers, and some in three. The
lowest layer of them was about 4 feet 9 inches from the
surface.
“ In one part of the pit, four feet and a half deep, was
found a very elegant glass bottle of variegated colours in-
laid in the glass, and also an octagon shaped bead of opaque
green glass, and some brass handles, hinges, &c. (plate xii).
These were embedded in what appeared to be the remain-
ing substance of a box, the wood of which was so decayed,
except one small piece, as only to be known from the sur-
rounding soil by the darkness of its colour.
“ The excavation itself was triangular, each side being a
little more than seven feet in length. The two iron frames
were nearly of the same height, three feet and a half from
the bottom of the stand to the tip of the brass knob ; and
the exterior breadth from side to side, was two feet two
inches. The amphorae were also very similar in size, and
the two perfect ones are thirty-two inches in height. The
land on which the antiquities were found is the property of
Major-General Bowchier, and is in the occupation of Mr.
Pettit.”
In juxtaposition with the foregoing statement of facts
relating to a very remarkable sepulchral interment, it seems
desirable, for the sake of comparison, to place details of a
discovery of an analogous kind, made some years since at
Stanford Bury, in Bedfordshire. The account which here
follows, is taken from the Graphic Illustrator ;* the illus-
trative etching (plate xi) is copied from an engraving
which accompanies a paper by Sir Henry Dry den, pub-
* Edited by E. W. Brayley, F.S.A. London, 1834.
STANFORD BURY BFDf-ORDSHI RF
FOUND AT MOUNT BURES.
29
lislied in the transactions of the Cambridge Antiquarian
So»ciety.
“ In the spring of 1832, Mr. Hale, a farmer in the
neighbourhood of Shefford, whilst looking at his labourers
making a hollow drain in his field, observed the spade of
one strike (what he thought must be) a piece of iron, and
deisirlng the man to take it up, he attempted to do so, but
foTuiid it descend much deeper into the earth than was ex-
pe cted ; it was set in perpendicularly, and it was not until
having dug four feet downwards, that the relic could be
brought to light. When taken from the ground, it was
found to be an iron camp tripod, consisting of three curved
legs turning on a swivel at the top, on which was fixed a
massive iron ring (fig. 2). Mr. Hale, conjecturing its use,
had the laudable curiosity to make the workmen dig deeper,
when they found a chain and pot-hooks, which being at-
tached to the ring at the top of the tripod, plainly indicated
its purpose. Mr. Inskip, of Shefford, then took up the in-
vestigation and reported as follows : ‘ Feeling assured that
the tripod could not be a solitary deposit, I employed two
men, in the autumn, to dig in the same spot; and my con-
jectures were soon confirmed, for on the site and adjoining
to the same place, was quickly found an iron fire-dog of sim-
ple construction (fig. 5), and doubtless used by the Roman
soldiers, like the tripod, for cooking their victuals in the
neighbouring encampment. After this we met with a stout
iron bar, one end of which was curved somewhat like a pump-
sweep or handle, having a hole through it at the ends (fig. 3);
for this I could at first assign no apparent use; I dug further,
and found a second fire-dog, a duplicate of the former one ;
they were both, in a small degree, mutilated, yet I was led
to admire the grace and spirit with which all articles of
Roman manufacture (at least all those which I had seen)
were executed. Their designs are still more striking ; and,
30
ROMAN REMAINS
even m these homely utensils, the imitations of nature are
of the boldest order ; the graceful turn of the stag’s neck,
and the outline of the head, which form the ornamental
part of each end, are singularly effective ; and it is a mat-
ter of admiration, the simplicity of contrivance in these
fire-dogs for cooking the greatest quantity of victuals at
one and the same fire. To effect this, the bar before
alluded to was laid longitudinally on one side of the stag’s
head ; betwixt that and one of his horns, another bar lay
parallel, on the opposite side ; from both of which de-
scended two rows of hooks, to supply the means of boiling
or roasting, the curved ends of the bars having holes through
each of them, into which might be thrust pivots of iron,
so contrived that, upon necessitous occasions, they would
form four bars, and thus multiply the means of making the
most of one fire ; the end of each bar also turned up grace-
fully, as a hook, from which might depend additional pots
and kettles.
“ Not far from these was found a considerable quantity
of paterae, black and red, of great variety of patterns. I
preserved two or three with the maker’s name across them,
viz., siLVvs and of.coe, safe from the wreck that attended
the rest in the excavation.
“Nearly adjoining were found six immense-sized urns,
but all of them mutilated ; the one least so, and of the
most elegant pattern, I had great success in arranging and
cementing together. Its shape is nearly cylindrical, except-
ing its neck and foot ; it is two feet eight inches in height,
and would contain several gallons (fig. 1). These six urns
were lying contiguous, and were of various colours ; the
necks and handles are of enormous size. In exploring
further, I found the remaining curved ends of the fire-bars,
also the remains of a large brass pan ; and, almost adjoin-
ing, two brass saucepans, one contained within the other
Pl. XII.
MOUNT BURES, COLCHESTER.
FOUND AT MOUNT BURES.
31
(fig. 4). The vault in which these precious relics were
discovered, was paved at the bottom with Roman bricks.”
The fire-dogs measured 2 feet 7f inches from the top of
the horns to the ground ; the bars (fig. 3), 3 feet inch ;
the tripod, 4 feet 3 inches ; the saucepan (fig. 4), 10^ inches
in diameter, and 7^ inches in depth.
In addition to the remains described above, there were
other objects, which it is needless on this occasion to de-
iscribe. But, in 1834, about the distance of thirty feet
from this vault, another, of similar dimensions, was disco-
vered. It contained the fragments of a small oak box,
covered with a thin brass casing stamped with scrolls of
foliage of an elegant design ; beads, a pair of silver tweezers,
;a second brass imperial coin, apparently of Titus, fragments
tof a glass violet-coloured urn, a bottle of blue glass, a pale
Igreen transparent glass bowl, ribbed on the outside, two
iron bars, each one foot five inches long, an armlet, two
;amphorsB, some Samian pottery, two silver buckles, etc.*
The extraordinary interments at Mount Bures and at
Stanford Bury, it will be perceived, bear a close resem-
blance to each other ; and it is very probable, had circum-
f stances permitted Mr. Jackson to make further researches,
the analogy would have been rendered more striking and
imore complete. The vault or grave at Mount Bures was
mot fully explored, as the plan of the excavation (page 26)
«of itself decides ; and it is very probable the immediate
wicinity of the spot may contain other remains.
That these interments are sepulchral, there can be no
(doubt ; although it does not appear that either at Stanford
IBury or at Mount Bures, any human remains were noticed,
^lost of the objects deposited are such as have been fre-
* See Sir Henry Dryden’s paper in the 'Transactions of the
(Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
82
ROMAN REMAINS
quently brought to light in Roman burial-places ; as, for
instance, the fragments of boxes or caskets, glass and
earthen vessels ; amphoras also are not of unusual occur-
rence ; but the appearance of andirons, and of the other
kitchen implements and utensils, among the funereal para-
phernalia, are peculiarities as novel as remarkable ; and
there seems some little difficulty in understanding why
these objects should have been included among the articles
usually selected for sepulchral uses. If, however, we
examine the contents of some other interments, an expla-
nation will perhaps be satisfactorily suggested by the fact,
that, with the indispensable earthen and glass vessels, were
occasionally burled things which bore some close connexion
to the deceased when living, either in relation to occupa-
tion or profession, to social and domestic life, as well as to
the person itself ; and that it was the practice to inter with
the body objects, of whatever kind they might be, which, in
the eyes of the survivors, had become associated with the
departed. Thus personal ornaments, dress, and things per-
taining to the toilette, are constantly found among funeral
deposits; the vessels which daily stood on the domestic board
were taken to serve at the last solemn ceremony, and con-
signed to the grave with the remains of their owner. Other
domestic objects were, under particular circumstances (but
which it is impossible for us to define), added. In the
sepulchre in the Great Hill at Bartlow, were found, wdth
vessels of common occurrence in Roman burial-places, a
bronze chair, a pair of strigils, and a bronze culinary pan,
not unlike one from the vault at Stanford Bury. In a tomb
discovered at Saint-Medard-des-Pres (Vendee) were six
amphorm, twenty-four glass vases, a mortar and pestle, and
a box of colours (supposed to have belonged to a female
Romano-Gaulish artist, around whose skeleton they lay),
arranged much in the same manner as the contents of tlie
POMPPII ,
FOUND AT MOUNT BURES.
33
two vaults above mentioned. At leklingham, in Suffolk,
Mr. Acton discovered a considerable quantity of Roman
kitchen utensils, and among them was a gridiron.* I am not,
however, certain that they formed part of a funeral deposit.
To return to the most remarkable objects among the
remains found at Mount Bures, — the andirons. It does
not appear that examples at all resembling ours are pre-
served in any of the Continental museums, Mr. Rich, in
his valuable Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionry
and Greek Lexicon,] supplies only one specimen, which is
in iron, and was found in a tomb at Paestum. It is com-
posed of a straight bar, the ends of which are slightly
curved in opposite directions, and resting upon two stands,
to which it is fixed by a ring ; it has no upright limbs, and
is altogether of a very simple form, and without ornament.
Two of a smaller description, found at Pompeii, have
been figured in the Real Museo Borhonico,% from which
work they are here introduced for comparison with those
under consideration, — figs. 1 and 2, plate xi his. They
can barely be said to be analogous, being only a palm in
length ; and, like that from PEestum, without the upright
bars. They are ornamented in the front with bulls’ heads ;
one having also, at the other extremity, the head of a griffin;
the cylindrical bars are each surrounded by three rings.
The antiquaries of Naples consider these little andirons
were not intended for a fire-place to sustain wood for burn-
ing, but that they were used as gridirons for cooking meat,
by the application of cross-bars ; and from indications of
fastenings, the feet, it is conjectured, were attached to the
stove by hinges. The term by which the ancients desig-
nated these implements, has not been satisfactorily ascer-
* They are now deposited in the British Museum,
t 8vo., London, Longman, 1849. | Vol.x, pi. 64, Naples, 1834.
F
34
ROMAN REMAINS
tained; the word “andiron” is here used, because it is
well understood ; and the ancient cooking utensils from
Mount Bures and at Stanford Bury bear a close resem-
blance to this well-known appendage to the hearth in the
middle ages,* and were probably applied to support the
fuel, as andirons, as well as for cooking, for which they are
more decidedly adapted.
Plate XII exhibits the objects described in Mr. Jackson’s
report (see p. 28 ante). Of these, the glass bottle in varie-
gated colours is particularly interesting, as a rare example
of the perfection to which the art of glass-making had
attained among the Romans ;f and the careful drawing
made by Mr. Paris has enabled me to preserve a represen-
tation of this valuable relic, which was unfortunately
broken to pieces and destroyed soon after its discovery.
The novelty and interest of this discovery are not ex-
hausted by the foregoing details. It remains to direct
attention to the fictile paterae (see plan, and p. 27 ante).
Mr. Jackson has described them as being so extremely
fragile, that they fell to pieces on exposure to the atmos-
phere. By the kind assistance of Mr. LI. Jewitt, I am here
able to give a representation of the prevailing form of these
dishes, and a diagram of a section.
* For references to the presumed etymology of the word
“ andiron,” and to notices of the implement in the middle ages,
consult Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words,
and the Promptorium Parvulorum, published by the Camden
Society. For examples of the objects themselves, see the illus-
trations to Mr. M. A. Lower’s elaborate paper on the iron works
of the county of Sussex, published by the Sussex Archaeological
Society in vol. ii of their collections.
f Mr. Apsley Pellatt, in his Curiosities of Glass Making, has
given numerous examples of ancient coloured glass, with details
of various processes of ancient ornamental glass manufacture.
FOUND AT MOUNT BURES.
35
Section of patera from Mount Bures. Patera found at Mount Bures ; diameter, in.
To those who are acquainted with the red Eoman, or
Ro mano-Gaulish pottery, commonly called ‘ Samian’,* res-
pecting which so much has been w^ritten, the form of these
patera! will instantly recall a well-known and common pat-
tern of the Samian (see fig. 16, plate xiii). The resem-
blance does not cease with the form ; it is also as identical
in an ornamental circular band on the interior, and, still
more remarkably, in the label in the centre containing the
potter’s name. In these particu-
lars, the paterae from Mount Bures
perfectly agree with the Samian,
which, though found throughout
the kingdom, I have on former
occasions shewn, was manufac-
tured in Gaul and imported into
Britain. But the material is very
difierent ; the Samian is firm and
not affected by air or moisture,
and is uniformly of a bright red
colour: the clay of which the paterae under consideration are
made, is imperfectly tempered, of a whitish hue, with a thin
coating of black, imparted by carbonaceous matter ; and
in consequence of the softness of the texture, the potters’
names have become illegible. From these facts I deduce
* See vol. I of the Collectanea Antiqua, and vol. iv of the
Journal of the Archceological Association.
Fragment of patera.
36
ROMAN REMAINS AT MOUNT BURES.
reatsons for aBsigniDg to these vessels a local manufac-
ture, probably in the immediate neighbourhood of Col-
chester, where, it will be presently shewn, the remains of a
potter’s kiln were discovered some years since. The paterae
are clearly imitations of those in the red ware, by the pro-
vincial potters, who seem to have perfectly succeeded, with
the exception of the material, — the tempering, colouring,
and glazing of which, were effected by processes not gene-
rally known or practised. Since the discovery made at
Mount Bures, Mr. Acton, of Grundisburgh, has placed in
my hands three fragments of similar paterae, found a few
years since at Colchester, all of which bear potters’ names ;
one, which is stamped across the centre, appears to read
momi.m; the others are ivlios and andorn or andorv.
stamped within the dishes, but not in the centre, — a peculi-
arity worthy of note, as it never, as far as I recollect, occurs
in the Samian paterae. Mr. Wire has since informed me that
he has noticed several fragments of pottery resembling those
from Mount Bures, among the various kinds found at Col-
chester ; and that he has a specimen now in his possession.
In closing my notice of the interesting discovery at
Mount Bures, which has contributed much novel informa-
tion, I have to express the obligation we must all feel to
Messrs. Jackson and Paris, for the prompt manner in which
they exerted themselves, at considerable labour and ex-
pense, to rescue these remains from destruction. To Mr.
Jackson are also due my especial thanks for the liberal
manner in which he has communicated the account of the
discovery, and to Mr. Paris for obligingly supplying the
illustrative sketches. When so many discoveries of anti-
quities occur, which either from ignorance, apathy, or
jealousy, are never made public, too much praise cannot be
awarded to those who, in the true spirit of intelligence,
freely communicate information to others. The etchings
have been presented by Mr. Windle and Mr. Chaffers.
lllXld
C0LCHE5TER
ROMAN URNS, VASES, ETC., FOUND AT
COLCHESTER.
PLATES XIII, XIV, AND XV.
Plate xiii. The pottery figured in this plate, is a
selection from the valuable department of Colchester anti-
quities preserved in the museum of the Society of Antiqua-
ries of Scotland by the bequest of Mr. E. W. Auriol
Drummond Hay.^ The following description is taken from
the ‘ Synopsis’ of the Museum, and notes kindly furnished
me by its compiler, Mr. Daniel Wilson, Secretary of the
Society, to whom I am also indebted for the drawings.
Fig. 1. Thus described in one of Mr. Hay’s notes: —
“ A vase of very coarse reddish-brown earth and of mishapen
form, having been apparently a rejected production of the
Roman Pottery at Colchester, on the left side of the road
thence to Lexden, near to the furnace of which it was, I
* Author of A Letter to the Committee of the Essex and Col-
chester General Hospital, upon the recent discovery, at that place,
of a beautiful monument of Roman sculpture, representing the
Theban Sphinx: 8vo., Colchester, 1821. Mr. Hay was for
some years Her Majesty’s Consul General to the Barbary States,
and subsequently Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, to whom he left the whole of his valuable collection of
antiquities. It is unfortunate he did not place on record the
full results of his observations on the general antiquities found
at Colchester during his residence there, as, at that period, a
vast quantity was discovered, now irrecoverably lost.
38
ROMAN URNS, VASES, ETC.
think, found, with many broken vessels, when the remains
of that ancient work were discovered in 1819”. Height,
inches. Figs. 5 and 9 are vases which were taken from
this furnace, the former being 8| inches high, the latter, of
coarse bluish clay, 8 inches. They are thus referred to in
Mr. Hay’s notes, which, at the same time, give further in-
formation respecting the kiln Portion of one of the
sun-dried bricks of which I found the furnace composed,
whereon was discovered at Colchester in 1819, the vases
Nos. 5 and 6 of my cabinet (figs. 5 and 9 of this plate),
with, I think, about thirty others. This portion of a brick
is 7^ inches long, 5 inches wide, and 2^ thick. The
vases were found (I myself was present at the discovery)
standing on circular vents above the hollow chambers,
through which the heat was conveyed to them. Some of
the vases, all of which were of the same coarse material
and nearly of the same form and size, were less baked than
the rest, and broke when handled without much care.”
Fig. 2, of red earth, inches high ; figs. 3 and 8, 5
inches high, and of red clay; in these two elegant cups
will be recognised varieties of the peculiar class which may
not inaptly be termed ‘ Durobrivian’, as it forms a promi-
nent feature in the late Mr. Artis’s Durolrivw Identified,
having been extensively manufactured in the potteries dis-
covered in the vicinity of Castor, in Northamptonshire.
Fig. 4, large cinerary urn, discovered in 1819, full of bones;
fig. 6, of yellowish- brown clay, inches high ; fig. 7, of
bluish clay, 10^ inches high, nearly full of human bones
when found, in 1819, on the right hand of the Lexden
road, going from Colchester, about a quarter of a mile
from the town. Fig. 10, of red clay, 5^ inches high; fig.
11, in black clay, 4f inches high; fig. 12, of red clay, 2-^
inches high ; fig. 13, a vase ornamented with white circles
on a black ground; fig. 14, of reddish-brown earth,
inches high, found during excavations fqr the foundation
PL. XIV.
FOUND AT COLCHESTER.
89
of the hospital, in April 1819 ; fig. 15, a lamp, found in a
field belonging to Mr. Patmore, on the north side of the
Colne river, near King’s Hill, Colchester; fig. 16, paterm
of red clay ( Samian ), 7^ inches in diameter; the potter’s
stamp across the centre, is maroni.m; figs. 17 and 18, as well
as the small earthen bottle placed in fig. 1 6, Mr. Wilson
states, he believes, were found in the same neighbourhood.
Plate xiv. Pigs. 1, 2, 3, represent two small earthen vases
and an urn, dug up in the grounds of Mr. Taylor, at West
Lodge, on the site of a Roman burial-place, in the Spring
of 1849.* Figs. 1 and 3, in pale or straw-coloured clay, from
3 to 4 in. high, and fig. 2, of a dark colour, are remark-
able for their ornamentation. Fig. 4, 11 in. high, from the
same place, is also of rather peculiar pattern and ornament,
as is fig. 5, preserved at Clare Hall, Cambridge. The latter
contains human calcined bones, and was found at Colchester
some years since. All these five vases, it is not improbable,
were manufactured at Colchester, as several have been found
in the vicinity resembling them, and in some respects they
all seem to bear the stamp of local art. Fig. 6 is a very
elegant glass jug, in the possession of Dr. G. A. Mantell.
It is 5 1 inches high, of a pale green colour, very thin, and
was discovered in digging the foundation of the hospital.
Plate xv. Pigs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, are lamps in terra cotta.
Figs. 1 and 2 were found at W est Lodge ; the designs upon
thena represent a fuller at work, and a centaur carrying an
amphora; that of fig. 3, formerly in the possession of Mr.
Wire, a Victory, with a wreath and palm branch, standing
upon a globe ; fig. 4 is in the Edinburgh collection, as is
fig. 6, a pig roughly but spiritedly modeled in red clay ; it
is 4;| inches in length, and 3^ inches in height ; figs. 6, are
keys in bronze, of the actual size.
* In vol. V of the Journal of the Archeological Association is pub-
lished an illustrated account of discoveries made at West Lodge.
40
ROMAN URNS, VASES, ETC
In a future part of this volume, etchings will be given of
other interesting and unpublished antiquities discovered at
Colchester. On the present occasion, by the kindness of
Mr, Acton, I am enabled to give a list of potters’ stamps
in his possession, which have been found at Colchester.
They will be found particularly interesting for comparison
with the list of those found in London given in the pre-
ceding volume.
potters’
STAMPS FOUND AT
COLCHESTER.
OF.ACIRAP.
IVLIA. PATR.
PRIMI
ACRIS.O.
OF.IVL.PAT.
PRIMIS
AELIANI.M.
O.IVVENAL
PROTVLI
AMIIEDV.
O.L*AE
REDITI.M
AQVIT.
LITVGAMVS
REGENVS
OF.AVRAP
OF.LOVIRILO
REGENVS.F.
BOLDVS-
M.LVCCA
REGVLINVS
BORILLI.OF.
OF.LVCCEI
RVFFI.M.
OF.CAIVI.
MACCALI.M
RUFINI.M
C'ANPATR
MACRINVS
OF.RVFIN.
CARVS.F.
MAIOR.I.
SACERI.OF
O.CARO.
MAIORIS.F
SECVNDVS.F.
M.CENI.
MARCVS.FEC.
SENICA.M.
OF.CEN
OF.MARO
SENILA.M
COCVRO.F
MARTIALIS.M.
SEXTVS.F
COSRV.F
MAXI MI
SIIXTILI.F
CRAOSNA.F
OF.MEM.
SILVI.OF
CVTAI.
MISCIO.F
SILVI.PATER
DECVMNI.M.
OF. MODEST
SINONA.M.
BONNA.OF.
OF. MONO
SOIIILLI.M.?
ECVESER.
OF.MONTI
SOLIMI.OFI.
O.FABIN.
OF.MONTECI
. SOLLEMNI.OF.
M.FVCA
OF.MONTEI
SVLPICIANl
OFF.FVS
OF.MONTO
TASCILLI.M
GERMANI.
MVISVS F
TERTI.MA.
GERTAL.M.
OF'.MVRRA
C.VALAB
HABITIS.F
NAMILIANI
VERECV
lACOMIO.F
OF.NARIS
VENI.M.
ILLIOMEN.
NASSO.F.
VINN.
ILLIOMRIN.
OF. PARI.
VIRTV..
lOENALIS
PATERATI.OF
OF. VITA
ISTVRONIS
PATERNI.
OF. VITAL
IVLIA
PERECRILI
VITALI.OF.
OF.IVLIA
f
COLCHESTER.
ROMAN VILLA AT GOSBACK, NEAR
STANWAT, ESSEX.
In a field called Cheshunt, on the farm of Gosback, in the
parish of Stan way, agricultural operations, in 1842, brought
to light the foundations of what had been a very extensive
building. They were excavated under the directions, and
at the expense of, the Kev. Henry Jenkins. It appeared
that the building (probably, centuries ago) had been inten-
tionally broken up ; but some idea of its original state
may be formed from the plan here annexed.* The exterior
walls forming the quadrangle, were 288 feet in length ;
the four interior walls were fourteen feet distant from the
outer ones, throughout their entire extent ; thus forming
a corridor, on each side of the square, fourteen feet in
breadth. These walls were three feet thick, and were
composed of septaria and Kentish rag. On the east and
west sides, there were traces of rooms adjoining the walls ;
and in the centre of the square were foundations, four feet
thick, strongly built, and, like the rest, of septaria and
Kentish rag. Connected with these walls had been rooms,
of which only the vestiges remained ; the earth, opened to
the depth of ten feet, was entirely composed of the debris
of the building; tiles, which had formed flues, and sup-
ports of a hypocaust ; large quantities of stucco painted in
* Prepared by Mr. George Gilbert, of Colchester.
G
42
ROMAN VILLA AT GOSBACK.
various colours, the red predominating. Alongside were
numerous tessellse, chiefly red, white, and black, which had
belonged to pavements, so utterly destroyed, that scarcely
two of these small cubes were found attached to each
other ; they were in single pieces, and strewed about in all
directions.
On the south-west side, and along the southern exterior
wall, to the extent of sixty feet, and at the distance of
twelve feet, was the foundation of a wall two feet wide,
and composed of the chippings of Kentish rag-stone, laid
in alternate layers, with concrete or coarse grouted mortar.
In the same field, and almost parallel with the eastern
side of the villa, but at the distance of 170 feet from it,
was the foundation of a long wall, from two to three feet
thick, with a return wall, as indicated in the plan. In two
spots near this wall, and in two other parts of the field, on
the opposite side, where probably ran the return wall, large
quantities of oyster-shells, boars’ tusks, and broken pottery,
were found in pits or cesspools, which descended a consi-
derable depth.
There were about thirty coins, in brass, found during
the excavations: they are chiefly of Vespasian, Tctricus,
Carausius, and the Constantine family ; among them was
a second brass coin of Titus, with the reverse of “ Judsea
capta”; and a third brass of Carausius, — reverse, “Pax
Auggg.” The others afforded nothing remarkable as to
type.
PL.XVI.
PILGRIMS’ SIGNS.
PLATES XVI, XVII, AND XVIII.
In the former volume of the Collectanea, 1 introduced a
considerable number of examples of signs or tokens in
lead, which, in the middle ages, were worn by pilgrims on
their return from the shrines of saints and martyrs. They
were the first of a series of objects almost, or quite, new
to the archaeologist, and exceedingly curious, as illustrating
a very popular belief, and some of the customs resulting
from it, through several centuries. Since the publication of
these religious insignia, several other specimens have come
into my hands, from which, for the present occasion, a
selection has been made.
Plate xvi, fig. 1, is a sign, or sigillum as in this instance
the badge is termed, of St. Fiacre. It is inscribed Hoc
est sigillum heati Fiacrie. According to the legend, St.
Fiacre was born in Ireland; but looking upon all worldly
comforts as evils, he left his country and friends, and sailed
over to France in search of solitude. Divine Providence
(as the story has it), which was pleased to honour the
diocese of Meaux with the happiness of furnishing a re-
treat to the holy man, conducted him to St. Faro, the
bishop of that city. The bishop gave him a lonely dwell-
ing in a forest called Breiiil, in the province of Brie, two
leagues from Meaux. In this place the anchoret cleared
the ground of trees and briars, made himself a cell, with a
44
pilgrims’ signs.
saiall garden, and built an oratory in honour of the Virgin.
At some distance from his cell, he also built a kind of hos-
pital for strangers and pilgrims; there he entertained the
poor, and miraculously restored the sick to health. But he
never suffered any woman to enter the enclosure of his
hermitage ; and it is said that those who attempted to vio-
late this law were punished with judgments from heaven.
St. Fiacre had a sister named Syra, who died in the diocese
of Meaux, and is there honoured among the holy virgins.
Fiacre is said to have died about a.d. 670. His shrine became
famous for miracles, and was resorted to from all parts of
France by crowds of pilgrims. The relics of the saint
were translated to the cathedral of Meaux in 1568, though
a part was left at Breiiil. — See Butler’s “ Lims of the
Fathers, Martyrs, and Saints.’’’’
The sign represents St. Fiacre clearing the ground for
his hermitage, or at work in his garden ; in the centre of
the group is the bishop, and on his right a lady crowned,
in whom we may probably recognize Syra, the sister of
Fiacre. Mr. George Isaacs (who procured this interesting
specimen in France, and very kindly deposited it in my
cabinet) observes, in reference to the female figure, that
St. Fiacre has been by some supposed to be the eldest son
of a king of Scotland, in the time of Clotaire II, and
therefore that Syra, though a recluse, might have received
the honours of a princess.
This sign is well executed, and may be referred to the
fourteenth century.
* It is said that the name fiacre was first given to hackney
coaches, because hired coaches were first made use of for the
convenience of pilgrims who went from Paris to visit the shrine
of their saint ; and because the inn where their coaches were
hired, was known by the sign of “ St. Fiaker.” — Du Plessis,
note 29, t. i, p. 683.
pilgrims’ signs.
45
Fig. 2 is a sign of the head of St. John the Baptist, at
Amiens, rudely engraved, and probably of the sixteenth
century. The design is intended to represent an eccle-
siastic exhibiting the head of the Baptist and attended by
two acolytes bearing lighted candles ; above are some
letters, which were possibly intended to express the words
Saint Jehan. It is in the possession of Mr. A. Stubbs, of
Boulogne.
Fig. 4 is also one of the same kind, with the full face of
St. John, and inscribed Sain Jehan Baddider d'' Amies; on
the reverse a pair of scales, a well-known typical device.
Fig. 5, another sign of St. John, reading Sancte Jo-
hannes Baidista. Fig. 6 also appears to belong to the
same class. Figs. 4, 5, and 6, together with the specimen
represented in the wood-cut, were found in the Somme at
Abbeville, and were presented to me with some others, by
my friend Monsieur J. Boucher de Perthes.
A further example, here added, was procured for me at
the sale of the late Mr. W. Benson, of Bury, in Lan-
cashire; but nothing more is known of its history. It
resembles fig. 1, plate xxx, vol. i ; but the inscription is
H
46
PILGRIMS SIGNS.
somewhat difTereiit. The other commences, Ecce singum ;
this reads, Hie est signum faciei heati Johannis Baptiste
Ami. This is the sign of the face of St. John the Baptist at
Amiens.
Fig. 3 is another variety of the numerous signs of Thomas
Becket. Fig. 7 is meant to represent the Virgin and
child within the moon, a device of frequent occurrence in
medieval religious symbolism, intended to signify that the
Virgin ranks the highest among saints, as, in earlier times,
the common application of the figure of the moon to the
busts of empresses denoted their high position in the slate.
This sign was probably in common use at the various
shrines of the Virgin. Fig. 8 is probably also a sign of
the Virgin.
Fig. 9 is preserved in the museum of Lynn in Norfolk,
and was found in dredging the river near the old ferry to
West Lynn. It appears to be designed for a representa-
tion of a monstrance, the receptacle for the exhibition of the
holy wafer.*
All these signs are etched the size of the originals.
Plate XVII, fig. 3, is a remarkably fine specimen of the
signs of Becket, from the bed of the Thames. The etching
is the size of the original. From the superior workman-
ship and magnitude of this relic, it is probable we may con-
sider the portrait to bear at least some resemblance to the
turbulent archbishop, and to have been copied from a picture
or statue such as that mentioned by Erasmus, w’hlch in
his time was preserved in the cathedral of Canterbury. t
* I am indebted to Mr. J. W. Lukis, of Guernsey, for a
drawing of this sign. There are several others in the museum
of Lynn, which remain unpublished.
f Fig. 1 is ill the possession of Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford;
figs. 2 and 3 are in my own collection.
PII.GRIMS SIGNS.
47
Figs. 1 and 2, belong to a class of pilgrims’ signs,
of which none hitherto have been published. In page 84,
vol. i, 1 quoted “ Piers Ploughman’s Vision”, for a descrip-
tion of a pilgrim and his costume. Among other charac-
teristics—
A bolle and a bagge
He bar by his syde,
And hundred of ampulles,
On his hat seten.
Of these ampulles, although it seemed obvious enough
what they were, not a single example was known to be
preserved. As other signs were representations of saints
and sacred objects, the leaden or pewter ampulla here
spoken of as sewn round the hat of the pilgrim, was in-
tended for a copy of the sacred vessel which held the
chrism or balsamic oil consecrated for baptism, extreme
unction, and other church ceremonies. The form of the
medieval sacred ampulla, as appears from examples which
are extant, and from pictorial representations, was much the
same as those of the little vessels here engraved. In an
ivory carving of the tenth century, published by Dr.
Rigollot,* two scenes are represented in which the ampulla
is conspicuous. The one relates to the baptism of a sick
person, in which, at the prayer of St. Remy, the holy oil
is poured from a hand in the sky, into two ampullas placed
upon an altar. In the other, which exhibits the baptism
of Clovis, the ampulla is held over the head of the king
by a dove. In reference to the miracle of the holy oil
descending from heaven, at the intercession of St. Remy,
to cure the sick person. Dr. Rigollot observes, that the
story is given in full by Hincmar, and also by Flodoard ;
* Notice sur une feuille de diptyque d’ivoire. Par M. J.
R , Amiens, 1832.
pilgrims’ signs.
and to shew that it was known before those v/riters, he
quotes Pluche {Lettre sur la sainte ampoule, 1719) who
cites the preface of a mass of St. Remy, anterior to
Charlemagne, as follows : Dum autem cuidam cegwto hap-
tisando chrisma quoereretur et nihil inveniretur, sic ^impullas
vacuas super altare jussit mitti, et ipse se interim in oratione
prosterneret, turn ccelesti rore chrismatis henedictio projunditur .
“ The pilgrims’ ^ampulles’,’’ Mr. J. G. Nichols remarks,*
“ were probably brought from Rheims, where the kings of
France were usually crowned and anointed from the sainte
ampoulle there preserved.” Philip de Commines, speaking
of the deathbed of Louis XI, says, that “ the holy vial of 1
Rheims, which had never been removed before, was brought \
to his chamber at Plessis, and stood when he died ipon the •
head of his cupboard : for he intended to be anointed with •
it again, as he had been at his coronation. Some were I
of opinion,” adds Commines, “ that he intended to have
anointed himself all over ; but that was not likely, for the
vial was but small, and no great store of oil in it I saw
it myself at the time I speak of.”
Plate XVIII. A third variety of the pilgrim’s ampulla is
here represented, in two views, the size of the original in
the York museum.
Nearly, if not all, the signs with which we are acc[ualnted,
have been found in rivers, near large cities : namely, i
Canterbury, London, Abbeville, Paris, and Lynn. Con- |
sidering this fact, I was induced to apply to n:y friend i
the Rev. 0. Wellbeloved, to know if the museum of York
contained any specimens. The result of my application
was the immediate communication of this ampulla, which
has been kindly etched for me by Mr. 0. Baily. Al- 1
pilgrims’ signs.
49
though Mr. Wellbeloved states that it is not known
where it was found, it is very probable, from its good state
of preservation and the circumstance mentioned above, that
it was dredged from the river at York.
On the obverse, Becket is represented wearing his mitre
and robes, and holding before him the episcopal staflP ; the
head appears to be nimbed, and the entire figure to be sur-
rounded by an ornamented aureole and standing beneath a
canopy ; attached to the ampulla is a thin band inscribed :
OPTIMUS EGRORUM MEDICVS FIT THOMA BONORVM: “ThomaS
is made the best physician for virtuous sick people.”
On the reverse, are represented two priests, attending a
sick person in bed. The date of the relic may be assigned
to the first half of the thirteenth century.
From the numerous ex-
amples of pilgrims’ signs
given in these volumes, as
well as from others in my
collection, it is very clear
that these tokens com-
prised a very extensive
range of images of saints
and their emblems, and
also of objects connected
withsacred rites and cere-
monies ; and that they
were all given or sold as
tokens, either to pilgrims
who h ad visited the sh rines
of the saints whose effigies
or emblems they repre-
sent, or on particular
occasions to persons who
had assisted at certain church services and ceremonies.
50
pilgrims’ signs.
In the latter class must be included the Lynn mon-
strance and analogous signs, such as that shewn in the
annexed cut, which represents a cast taken by Mr. R.
Fitch, from a mould in hard limestone, which was dug
up in the churchyard at Dunston, near Norwich. The
mould has evidently been made for casting in lead figures
of the sacred chalice or communion cup used at the
sacrament of the eucharist, at about the latter part of
the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century.
On the bowl of the chalice is inscribed Hie est calix ; on
the foot, ihc ; the consecrated bread is also marked in
monogram, and is surrounded with a glory and nimbus.
The engraving is two-thirds of the size of the original.
COVER OF A RELIQUARY.
Plate XIX.
Tins relic is also in lead, and was presented to me
by Monsieur Boucher de Perthes, the liberal donor of
many of the curious objects figured in preceding plates.
It was found in the Somme at Abbeville. The etching
exhibits it of the actual size. Much more cannot be said
of it, than that it appears to have been the cover of a box for
holding some sacred object connected with the popular super-
stitions founded on the magi, or three kings of Cologne,
noticed in the first volume of the Collectanea, in Plate xxx of
which a, somewhat similar cover, found in the Thames, is
engraved.
For this plate I am indebted to Mr. H. C. Pidgeon ; for
plates xiii and xvi, to Mr. LI. Jewitt; for plate xiv, to
Mr. Burkitt ; for plate xv, to Mr. J. E. Lee ; and for
plate xvii, to Mr. Chaffers.
■ ■ ^
Back of
Foldout
Not Imaged
PL. XX
m
SCALE Two Inches to One Foot
John Moore del
FRAGMENT OF A TESSELLATED PAVEMENT in a ROMAN VILLA at EAST COKER, SOMERbET.
l.LITH
HICM HOL90AN. LUNDCN
51
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
Plates XX, XXI, xxii, and xxiii.
The first of these represents a fragment from one
of the rooms of a Roman villa at East Coker, Somerset,
discovered in 1820. To Mr. John Moore, of West
Coker, is due the credit of preserving this valuable
record of one of the most interesting examples of this
class of our national antiquities. The accidental cir-
cumstances under which it was brought to light, are
described in the foliowin<>: note furnished bv Mr. Moore.
The fortunate incident of the presence of that gentle-
man when the discovery was made, affords another
instance of how much is owing to mere chance that records
are preserved of the numerous similar remains continually
being discovered under like circumstances.
Mr. Moore states : — “ About thirty years ago, I was
riding from Yeovil to East Coker; a mile and a quarter
south-west of Yeovil, in a field called Chessels, in the
parish of East Coker, I saw a crowd of people inspecting
the fragment in question. It formed part of a pavement
which had been laid down in a concrete of lime, sand, and
powdered brick, about eight inches thick, and beneath
this was some masonry of the herring-bone construction,
containing flues. After some opposition, I succeeded in
making a drawing of it. The labourers who found the
pavement were in the employ of the proprietor of the field,
quarrying the stone foundations of the Roman villa, of which
the pavement formed part, for some farm buildings, and
had destroyed much. I found it was intended to remove
the fragment by sawing it off about an inch below its
surface. Of course it fell to pieces. It was tolerably well
52
ROMAN TESSELLA^TED PAVEMENTS.
put together again, but is now gone to decay. It was
therefore fortunate I made the drawing before it was re-
moved. The colours and accuracy of the drawing I can
vouch for ; nothing is added, nothing omitted. There
were other fragments of pavements close by, but shattered
to pieces ; and one quite entire, but which was composed
of large tesserae of blue lias of no interesting pattern. The
room in which the hunting-scene pavement was found had
been painted ; the pieces of plaister which remained were
coloured in white, blue, and red stripes. I saw coins,
picked up on the pavements ; they were of Faustina (much
worn), Constantine, Crispus, Constantins, Julian, and
Valens.”
In Collinson’s “ History and Antiquities of the County
of Somerset,”* mention is made of a Roman villa and
pavements at East Coker. The author states : “ This
parish (East Coker), although at a considerable distance
from the old fosse-road, abounds with vestiges of Roman
antiquity. In the year 1753, in ditching in afield belong-
ing to Mr. Forbes (a great collector of curiosities) the
foundations of a Roman dwelling-house were discovered,
consisting of several rooms, one of which was floored with
a most beautiful tessellated pavement, representing in
strong colours a variety of figures, among which was a
female lying on a couch in full proportion, with an hour-
glass under her elbow, and a cornucopia in her hand ; over
her head a hare flying from a greyhound, just catching her
in his mouth ; and at her feet a bloodhound in pursuit of
a doe just before him. Another female appeared dressed
in her Roman stola with the purple laticlave ; and a third,
much damaged, helping to affix a robe round a naked
person on a couch. Under this pavement was a hypo-
* Bath, 4to, 1791. Yol. ii, p. 340.
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
53
caust ; and a great quantity of bricks, burnt bones, and
corroded pieces of iron were found in other apartments.
Not a piece of this pavement is now left, the whole of the
field wherein it was found having been ploughed up, and
the antique fragments dispersed among curious visitors.”
The fragment of which Mr. Moore’s good taste and
prompt energy have secured us so faithful a copy, is pro-
bably one of those referred to in the above account, which
escaped being “dispersed among curious visitors”. The
pavement appears, when entire, to have been of a very
interesting description, and different from any I am ac-
quainted with. The “hour-glass”, it need scarcely be
observed, was probably nothing more than an ornamental
part of the couch on which the female figure, a personifica-
tion of abundance, reclined. The fragment represented in
our plate would appear to have followed, to complete the
picture of the hunting-scene, — the dog chasing the doe.
The group is altogether well designed, and, allowing for
some defects in the drawing, spirited and characteristic.
From the costume of the hunters, its execution may be
ascribed to a period as late as the fourth century. Hunting
subjects are of unusual occurrence in tessellated pavements
found in this country, unless we except that of Actaeon
and his dogs. Almost the only one that occurs to me is
that of the Frampton pavement, published by Lysons, in
which a man with a spear is pursuing a stag and some
other animal.
A group almost precisely similar to that at East Coker,
occurs in a large pavement discovered at Carthage in 1844,
and recently published in the Revue Archeologique (August
1 850) ; a fac-slmile of a portion of the engraving in the
Revue, is given for comparison in plate xxiii. The reduced
scale does not admit of details, but it will be perceived that
the treatment of the subject is in both pavements the same.
I
54
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
M. Rousseau, of the French consulate at Tunis, who com-
municates an account of this pavement, considers it
to have belonged to a Byzantine edifice, or rather to
one of the latest Carthaginian epoch, constructed upon
the ruins of a building of a far anterior date. The pave-
ment has been carefully removed and preserved at the
expense of the French Government.
Plates XXI and xxii represent the pavements of two
apartments in the Roman villa at Bramdean, near Alres-
ford, Hants. They are of great interest, although but
comparatively little known ; and, unlike most of such
works discovered in this country, have been preserved by
the good feeling and taste of the owners of the land, the
late W^illlam Greenwood, Esq. and his family. No. 1,
plate xxi, is a ground plan of the villa as far as it has been
traced, extending about two hundred and forty-four feet
from north to south, by about one hundred and twenty-six
feet from east to west, the portion preserved, by being
walled and roofed in, is shewn in the left of the plate ; it
is about eighty-six feet in length. On this jdan the posi-
tions of the two pavements. No. 2, plate xxi, and No. 3.
(plate xxii), are indicated, the upper being what is termed
the Medusa room ; the lower that called the Hercules and
Antaeus room.*
Before proceeding to rectify a misappropriation of two
of the busts in the Medusa room, by the late Mr. Duthy,
in his “ Sketches of Hampshire”, it will not be amiss, in
order to give a notion of the arrangement of the colours of
the pavements and of the details of the villa, to transcribe
* These plates have been obligingly lent me by Messrs. Jacob
and Johnson, of Winchester, the publishers of Duthy’s “ Sketches
of Hampshire,” of which excellent topographical work they
formed part of the illustrations.
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
55
his description nearly in full; especially as its general cor-
rectness has been verified, and recent discoveries of Roman
villas in other parts of the kingdom have furnished some
particulars for comparison.
“ On this estate (Brookwood), at the distance of a field
or two northward of the mansion-house, the remains of a
Roman villa were discovered in 1823. The public are in-
debted for a knowledge of these vestiges of antiquity, to
the research of some of Mr. Greenwood’s family, who,
having heard that the foundations of old walls, or some
obstacles of a similar nature, under the surface of a par-
ticular field, often obstructed the labours of the shepherd
when plunging his iron bar into the ground in the opera-
tion of setting up his sheep-fold, commenced an investiga-
tion of the spot in question. They soon discovered traces
of buildings, which encouraged them to proceed ; and, by
their exertions, the foundations and area of a considerable
Roman villa were laid bare, and some rich tessellated pave-
ments displayed, over which the judicious liberality of Mr.
Greenwood has erected a substantial building. Its walls
seem to have enclosed an oblong area of about two hundred
and forty-four feet from north to south, by about onehundred
and twenty -six from east to west; or, possibly the eourt may
have been wider in the latter direction. The building which
has been erected for preserving the tessellated pavements
is constructed on the old foundations, and measures, ex-
ternally, eighty-six feet in length. On entering at the
east end of this modern superstructure, is seen an oblong
area, subdivided into several apartments by walls of sepa-
ration, whose foundations are still conspicuous. What
appears to be the first compartment seems to be like
one room, of twenty feet by twenty-four ; but, on ex-
amination, the remains of a cross wall, worn down even
56
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
with the floor, are discernible at about two-thirds of the
distance from the door ; and this again has been crossed
by a transverse division now nearly obliterated ; so that
the farther part of this open space has been disposed of in
two very small rooms. The whole of these apartments
have been paved with coarse red tesserae, of which the
greater part still remains undisturbed. The next com-
partment, as indeed are all the rest, is clearly marked out
by its foundation walls, standing above the level of the
ground. It is about twenty feet by sixteen, and contains
a floor of rich mosaic work (plate xxi). There is an outer
border, adjoining the walls, of common red tesserae, within
which commences the more minute and decorated part of
the pattern. This begins by a narrow stripe of small white
tesserae, immediately within which is a broad triple braid,
each list whereof is composed of three colours, red, blue,
and white, so disposed as to produce a sort of shading, and
forming a square, within which is an octagon, divided into
eight compartments, converging towards the centre. The
outlines of these compartments represent the cable orna-
ment, not unusual in Roman decorations, and in those of
their imitators, the Saxons and Normans.* Before these
compartments meet in a centre, they terminate in a circular
ring of the same pattern, within which are two intei'lacing
squares, one of red, the other of black tessellaB. In the
centre of the whole is the head of Medusa with her snaky
locks, surrounded by an octangular frame of black. The
angles of the outer square are cut off internally by a cord
of mosaic work, similar to the others, except that it is
* The complex interlacing pattern, so common on early Saxon
works of art, was unquestionably borrowed from the guilloches
of Roman pavements; and other ornaments of this and subse-
quent periods may be traced to the same source.
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
57
broader ; and in the triangular spaces formed thereby vases
are represented. In each of the eight compartments of
the octagon has been wrought the bust of a heathen deity :
two of these figures have been obliterated ; four others are
nearly perfect, and display the figures of Venus with her
looking-glass, Neptune with his trident, Mercury with his
caduceus, and Mars with his lance and helmet. Of the next,
although much mutilated, enough remains to indicate Diana
with the crescent on her brow ; and the last, though nearly
destroyed, still exhibits part of a figure carrying a wand
entwined by a serpent, the usual emblem of ^sculapius.
“ The whole is correctly designed and executed with deli-
cacy as well as spirit. Beyond this, which may be called
the Medusa room, is a narrow one of nine feet only in
width, but of the same length as the others. Next comes
a larger apartment, about twenty feet by seventeen and a
half; both of these are paved with coarse red tesserse. The
last room in this range is, like all the others, about twenty
feet in one direction, but little more than eight feet across.
Its floor has now no pavement of any sort. The adjoining
room, which is situated to the south of the other, is nine-
teen feet square : It has a rich pavement of mosaic work
supported on piers. In its walls are inserted, at intervals,
hollow bricks, placed vertically on each other, and con-
nected by cement, forming tubes, or flues, which descend
into the vault beneath, evidently for the purpose of con-
veying warm air to the apartment above. The pavement
of this room, like that of the one before described, has a
wide border of coarse red tesserse extending all round it
next to the walls. Within this commences the ornamented
part of the pavement (plate xxii), forming a square of about
fourteen feet ; the outer part of this is a narrow white
border, succeeded by a wider one wrought into a kind of
arabesque pattern, with tessellae of black, white, grey, and
58
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
red. The interior is divided into four principal compart-
ments, composed of a series of squares placed obliquely
with respect to the sides of the exterior square, and inter-
laced with each other so as to form an octagon by their
projecting angles in the centre of the whole. The two
outside squares of each compartment contain two other
similar ones, whose sides produce an octagonal central
division, each embellished with a bust of a man larger
than life, apparently arrayed in the Roman garb.
There is some difference in the colours and countenance of
these figures, but they seem all to correspond to each other
in general design and arrangement. The central compart-
ment of the whole contains a representation of the combat
of Hercules and Antaeus, wrought in coloured tessellae, on
a white ground. At the centre of each of the sides of the
exterior square, a half octagon is formed by the boundary
lines of the four compartments, within which Is a red semi-
circle, containing vases and dolphins alternately disposed.
The spaces at the angles of the square are decorated in
like manner ; two of them with vases, and the other two
with a pair of hearts conjoined at their bases. The out-
lines of the squares which form the four compartments,
represent a cord or double braid; and the rhombs and
triangles, produced by their intersections, are decorated ;
two with the double heart-like ornament before described;
two with a shuttle-formed pattern, with interlacing links
in the middle; and the other with lozenges of various
colours contained within each other. The style of the
whole is bold and spirited, and the execution neat and cor-
rect. There Is a prevailing correspondence in the design of
the several compartments and ornaments, although there is
occasionally a difference in the arrangement of the colours.”
The engravings which illustrate Mr. Duthy’s descrip-
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
59
tion are well executed, and convey a very good notion of
these beautiful pavements. As before mentioned, one of
my principal objects in reproducing them on the present
occasion is to draw attention to that in the apartment
termed the Medusa room. The bust of the deity which
has been called ^sculapius, is in reality that of Apollo or
the Sun, and the object supposed to be a wand entwined
with a serpent, is a whip, a constant accompaniment of
most personifications of the Sun from about the time of
Commodus* down to a late period. The entire group
represented the planetary deities presiding over the days
of the week ; and, this interpretation being accepted, the
figure called Neptune with his trident must be considered
as Jupiter with his sceptre. We have then remaining, the
Sun for the dies Solis or Dominica, Sunday ; Luna, for
dies Lunw or Monday ; Martis, for dies Martis or Tuesday;
Mercury, for dies Mercurii or Wednesday ; Jupiter, for
dies Jovis or Thursday; and Venus, for dies Veneris or
Friday. In one of the other two compartments was doubtless
a bust of Saturn, and in the eighth possibly Juno, Cybele,
or Ceres ; the entire design being an arrangement of the
planets in the precise order in which they presided over
the days of the week, — an eighth compartment being intro-
duced to complete the division prescribed by the ancient
calendar. This is aptly illustrated by the eclogue of
Ausonius, entitled “ De nominibus sepiem dierum^''
* On coins of this period the sun is usually represented in a
quadriga, with radiated head and holding a whip ; on coins of
Diocletian and subsequent emperors, particularly Constantine,
the sun is usually personified as a juvenile figure with radiated
head, standing, and holding a whip. The sun with a whip is
also a favourite subject on the semi-christian amulets called
abraxas.
60
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
“ Nomina^ quce septem vertentibm apta diehus
Annus habet^ totidem errantes fecere planetw.
Quos indefessa volvens mrtigine mundus^
Signorum ohliqua jubet in statione vagari.
Primum^ supremumque diem, radiatus habet Sol.
Proxima fraternce succedit Luna coronce.
Tertius assequitur Titania lumina Mavors.
Mercurius quarti sibi xindicat astra diei.
Inlustrani quintam Jovis aurea sidera Zonam.
Sexta salutigerum sequitur Venus alma parentem
Cuncta supergrediens Saturni septima lux es%
Octaxum instaurat revolubilis orbita Solem.'^
The bronze forceps found in the bed of the Thames,
and engraved by the Society of Antiquaries of London,*
may be referred to as an interesting example of a repre-
sentation of the planets, arranged on the two parallel
shanks of the forceps in corresponding order with the days
of the week. They commence at the bottom of the left
side, with Saturn, and conclude at the bottom of the oppo-
site side, where a bust of a female divinity, probably Ceres,
has been introduced to corresjDond with Saturn, and equal-
ize the number on each side. This curious instrument is
surmounted by busts of Juno, and Cybele, and horses
heads ; on the lower part of the shafts are beads of bulls
and lions.
In the museum at Mayence, is a votive altar, found at
Castel on the opposite side of the Ehine, which belongs to
the same class of mythic representations as those on the
Bramdean pavement and the forceps. This monument is
about three feet and a half high, and is divided into two
parts, the lower of which is quadrilateral; the upper, of
* Archceologia, vol. xxx, pi. xxiv, p. 548.
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
61
smaller dimensions, octagonal. On the former are sculp-
tured the full-length figures of Mercury, Hercules, Minerva,
and J uno ;* the latter contains busts of Saturn, Sol, Luna,
Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus; the eighth compart-
ment is inscribed in. h. d.d. In honorem domm dimnce.
Over the left shoulder of Saturn, is a sickle in form of our
modern bill-hook ; Sol wears a radiated crown ; Luna, a
crescent ; Mars is helmeted and carries a shield ; the head
of Mercury is winged ; the bust of Jupiter has been in-
jured, and his emblems are not clearly to be recognized ;
Venus carries a mirror.
Other museums in Germany, I am informed, contain
sculptures of the planets similarly arranged. Montfaucon
has published an engraving of the seven busts, in a boat,
or more probably a half moon, in bronze, f In all the
examples cited above in illustration of the Bramdean pave-
ment, Saturn stands first in the group, contrary to the
order in which Ausonius places the days of the week, who
in his eclogue, commences with Sol, the representative of
the dies Dominica, the first day of the Christian week ; but
he still recognizes the number eight in reference to the old
Homan week, from which has obviously been derived the
French form of expression huit jours, and the German
acht tage. In our own country sculptures of the seven
planets have not hitherto, I believe, been noticed. In the
British Museum is a fragment, found many years since at
Chesterford, in Essex, which appears to be the half of one
of these octagonal monuments. The four remaining sides
* In my note-book, the last of these is described as “a figure
sacrificing”; but the museum catalogue, which appears to be
carefully drawn up, calls it Juno. Some of the figures are a
good deal mutilated.
t Antiq. Expliq. Suppl., tom. i, pi. xvii.
K
62
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
contain busts of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus,
much mutilated, but still to be recognized by their attri-
butes. The stone is hollow, and it is known that for
some time it served as a cistern for cooling a blacksmith’s
irons, and may probably have been cut and hollowed for
this very purpose.*
Representations of the planets were among the popular
subjects chosen by the Romans for the decoration of their
villas. Petronius x\rbiter, who lived in the time of Nero,
in his curious description of the house of Trimalchlo, men-
tions, among other mural paintings, one, the subject of
which was the course of the moon, and pictures of the
seven stars; Sub eodem titulo etiam lucerna bilychnis de
camara pendebati et duoe tabulce in utroque paste defixw;
quarum altera^ si bene memini, hoc habebat inscriptum :
III. ET. PRIDIE. KAL. IAN. G. NOSTER. FORAS. COENAT., altera
Lunoe cursum stellarumque septem imagines pictas, et qui
dies bon% quique incommodie ssent, distinguente bulla nota-
bantur.\ In the Pitture Antiche d'‘ Ercolanoy tom. iii, tav. 1,
is engraved a very beautiful set of fresco paintings of the
seven planets in medallions, which are particularly inter-
esting as being comparatively early examples of the mode
in which these deities were represented. They commence
at the left with Saturn. The head of the Sun is radiated,
and he holds a whip ; the head of Luna is nlmbed ; Venus
does not hold a looking-glass, but at her shoulder is a winged
Cupid. These paintings belong to a higher and earlier
class of art than the pavements at Bramdean, which,
although good of their kind, are certainly of a late period.
The calendar discovered at the baths of Titus in Rome,
* An engraving of it will be found in vol. iv, p. 64, of the
Journal of the British Archaeological Association,
f Satyricon, cap. 30.
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVE3IENTS.
63
in 1812, on a wall belonging to a chapel of St. Febreita, I
have not yet seen a drawing or engraving of. In it the
days of the week are represented in the same manner as on
the pavement, except that the calendar finishes with Venus.
It is said that this calendar was painted over earlier sacred
pictures, so that it is probably of a very late date.*
The other pavement demands only a few remarks in
addition to the description by Mr. Duthy. The story of
the combat of Hercules and Ant«eus is well known. It
was often chosen by ancient artists, as is proved by works
yet extant, among which the celebrated sculpture at
Florence ranks the highest ; and it formed the subject of
one of the groups illustrative of the labours of Hercules,
sculptured by Praxiteles for the temple, of the hero at
Thebes. Hercules strangling Antaeus forms the reverse of
a gold coin of Postumus, with the legend Herculi Lyhico,
Like many of the finer examples of tessellated work, the
execution of this design on the Bramdean pavement is
managed with considerable skill and effect. The contortions
of the limbs of the Lybian giant, the posture of Hercules,
and the expression of his countenance, are particularly
good, while a dark line on one side of the figures gives
shade and relief to the picture. Lucan + describes the
conflict at considerable length. For a long time the giant,
renovated by his mother. Earth, when thrown upon the
ground, eludes his antagonist: —
“ Ut tandem auxilium tactce prodessi^ parentis
Alcides sensit: standum est tihi, dixit, et ultra
Non credere solo, sternique vetahere terra.
Hcerehis pressis intra mea pectora membris :
Hue, Antoee, cades. Sic fatus, sustulit alte
* ArcluBologia, vol. xxx, p. 550. f Pharsalia, lib. iv, 1. 645.
64
ROMAN TESSELLATED PAVEMENTS.
Nitentem in terras juvenem ; morientis in artus
Non potuit nati Tellus permitiere mres.
Alcides medium tenuit; jam pectora pigro
iStricta gelu, terrisque diu non credidit liostemP
The artist has introduced in the scene a third personage.
This is Minerva, the protector and counsellor of Hercules.
In a painting discovered in a sepulchre of the Naso family,*
Hercules and Antaeus are represented in an attitude pre-
cisely similar to that in which they are depicted in the
Bramdean pavement. On the right is Minerva, advancing
with outstretched arm encouraging her favourite ; on the
left is Tellus, drawing back in despair at the approaching
doom of her son.
In a future number of this work, I purpose to give a list
of all the Roman tessellated pavements discovered in this
country. In order to render it as complete as possible, I
shall feel obliged by the communication of unpublished
examples, and of such as are not generally known.
* Montfaucon Supplement, tom. i, part ii, pi. cxxx.
M03AIC FOUND AT. CATITHAOE ,
LYMNE. PART OF THE NORTH WALL.
APPENDIX.
ANTIQUARIAN EXCAVATIONS
ox THE
SITE OP THE ROMAN STATION AT LYMNE, IN KENT.
The owners and tenants of the Roman castrum at Lymne,
called Studfall Castle, having granted permission to Mr.
James Elliott, of Dymchurch, to excavate the area, that
gentleman, with the assistance of Mr. C. Roach Smith,
and aided by a few friends, is at the present moment
engaged in laying open the foundations of the walls, pre-
vious to making excavations in the interior of the sta-
tion. It is believed, when the interest which attaches
itself to the investigation is pointed out, he will be further
supported and enabled to accomplish fully his laudable
undertaking. The walls of the castrum enclose about ten
acres. The soil has accumulated, to the depth of from
three to four feet, over the Roman level, which, added to
the extensive circuit of the w^alls, and the shattered and
dislocated condition of the foundations, will demand a con-
siderable outlay of money to defray the expense of labour.
Up to the present day, the foundations of about nine round
towers and two postern entrances have been laid open.
Although not half of the circuit of the walls has yet been
excavated, the progress of the workmen is very satisfac-
tory ; great obstacles have been overcome, and the plan of
the castrum, hitherto perfectly conjectural, is becoming
daily more fully developed, and there is every reason to
believe that the architectural peculiarities which are being
disclosed, will afford much novel information on Roman
castrametation in Britain. From the variety of curious and
interesting antiquities still found on the sites of Roman
stations, which have been for centuries ploughed and worked
for other agricultural operations, it may be calculated that
Studfall, which is meadow-land, and appears never to have
been subjected to excavations, encloses a vast quantity of
miscellaneous objects of ancient art, now sought to be dis-
covered and rendered accessible to all.
In making this appeal for aid to those few who support
antiquarian researches, the emergency and the importance
of the case must be the apology. At another time, per-
mission may not be given to excavate; or it may be diffi-
cult to secure intelligent and disinterested superintendence.
The day is not yet arrived when an enlightened English
Ministry, following in the wake of every other Euro-
pean government, shall prove their sense of the value of
the institutions of the country, by preserving, instead of
neo’lectino-, the monuments which illustrate those insti-
tutions, and thus practically evince the sincerity of declar-
ations which every member of the most utilitarian go-
vernment finds it convenient to utter occasionally, when,
for instance, he is fired with patriotism at a civic feast, or,
in his place in the senate, has to denounce some proposed
measure involving innovation ; but, on the following day,
should he be implored to hold out his hand to save a church
from desecration, or some time-hallowed monument from
destruction, will turn aside, as from a beggar in the
street, with a conventional “I’ve nothing for you.”* We
may contrast with this evasion the liberal practice of other
governments. That of France, under the republic, as it
did under the monarchy, honours the national antiquities,
* One of the most recent fatal instances of the refusal of our govern-
ment to interfere in the preservation of ancient national monuments,
is the destruction of the remains of the interesting Roman theatre,
discovered at V erulam. Timely intervention might have secured this
interesting and (in England) unique relic, which closely resembled in
extent and plan the Roman theatre at Valognes, in Normandy, exca-
vated and preserved by the French government.
3
provides for their preservation, and liberally encourages
archasological researches. The annual provision, in France,
for such purposes, is made on the most liberal scale, and
no reasonable appeal to the government, from the most
humble individual, is disregarded. It is much the same
with Prussia and Austria; while Denmark, comparatively
poor, is munificent in protecting her national antiquities,
and in promoting investigations which illustrate them.
The Society of Antiquaries does not devote any portion
of its income to such objects as that for which this appeal
is made ;* and all other societies, of an antiquarian charac-
ter, are far too poor to afford grants of money, equivalent
to demands such as are requisite for the excavations at
Lyrane ; while, unfortunately, the government seizes upon
the fact of the existence of so many societies, as another
excuse for not giving pecuniary aid in cases immediately
recognized by the governments of other countries in which
Archseological Societies also abound.
The following is a copy of a Memorial presented to the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, on the 29th
ult. : —
5, Liverpool Street, City,
April 29, 1850.
To the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.
The Memorial of Charles Roach Smith, Fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries of London., Honorary
Secretary of the Numismatic Society of London, a.nd
of the British Archceological Association., respectfully
showeth,
That your Memorialist is at the present moment
conducting an excavation of the remains of the Roman
* The true interests of the Society, it is believed, would he better
consulted, were the funds made available in advancing antiquarian
pursuits, instead of being locked up, and were the annual income spent,
instead of being boarded.
4
station, the Portus Lemanis, now called Studfall
Castle, near Hythe in Kent, and being restricted in
funds for fully carrying out his researches, ventures
to solicit your Lordships’ assistance upon the follow-
ing grounds, namely : —
Firstly. The admitted national importance of col-
lecting and preserving monuments bearing on and
illustrating the early history of our country ; and,
Secondly. The inadequacy of public or private
Societies to furnish money for such purposes, and the
great uncertainty that attends the supply of money
from the resources of private individuals.
Your Memorialist submits to your Lordships’ con-
sideration, the evidence on these points atforded by
the recent publication (by Her Majesty’s command),
of the Monumenta Historica Britannica^"' in which
work have been gathered together all the written
documents and all the discovered inscriptions calcu-
lated to throw any light on the history and state of
Britain during the Roman and Saxon epochs. In
this work it is clearly shown, that these materials are
scanty and meagre, though still highly valuable as
being almost the only authentic records of a literary
nature, extant relatively to Britain during several
centuries. That the written historical accounts and
allusions are exceedingly disconnected and uncircum-
stantial. That the inscriptions are rather numerous,
and, for the facts they record, are worthy of much
greater attention than hitherto has been bestowed on
them ; particularly when it is considered that it is
scarcely to be expected the lost works, by ancient
annalists relating to Britain, can ever be recovered.
* This work, it appears, has been printed at an expense to the
government of nearly £‘10,000, although it forms but one volume in
folio.
5
Your Memorialist would Impress upon your Lord-
ships’ consideration, that these inscriptions have been
chiefly discovered on the sites of Roman towns and
stations, at uncertain intervals, and often under the
most accidental circumstances ; and it can be proved
that a much greater number than those preserved
have been ignorantly destroyed, or cut up, and used
as building materials.
That these inscriptions have chiefly been collected
from the north, the west, and the south-west of
England ; but that the east and the south parts (with
the exception of Chichester and Bittern), have
scarcely contributed a single example ; and not one has
been discovered, as far as your Memorialist can ascer-
tain, at either of the nine great military stations
which comprised the chief defences of the Saxon
Shore, which extended from Portchester in Hampshire,
to Brancaster in Norfolk.
Your Memorialist has reason to believe that inscrip-
tions have been found at most of those places in past
times, and from general indifference to such objects,
have been destroyed ; and he also believes that others
may yet remain buried beneath the soil ; and he draws
your Lordships’ attention to the fact, that the site of
the Portus Lemanis, which he is now attempting to ex-
cavate, has never yet been explored ; that the line of
the circumvallation and the character of the castrame-
tation, up to the present day, have never been made
out, and that the site promises to divulge matter of
considerable interest to the antiquary and to the
general historian, provided the researches your Me-
morialist has entered upon can be fully carried out.
That under any circumstances, the excavations
would be almost certain to afford contributions of ma-
6
terlals, illustrating social and domestic life in Roman
Britain, and the state of arts and manufactures, in
monuments which have not been referred to in the
valuable work before mentioned. That the results
will be of a public and national benefit ; and your
Memorialist earnestly trusts, that this his application
may be favourably entertained by your Lordships,
and should a small or large sum of money be awarded
for the object in view, your Memorialist will cheer-
fully consent to its being entrusted, in order to ensure
the perfect satisfaction of your Lordships as to its
prudent and proper application, to any persons your
Lordships may think fit to appoint for that purpose.
Your Memorialist moreover hopes that if his appli-
cation be not directly granted, that further inquiry
may be made by your Lordships, before it be dismiss-
ed, and he would suggest that, for instance, Sir R.
H. Inglis, and Mr. Hume, or other competent and
trustworthy persons, be in that case consulted on the
subject by your Lordships.
Charles Roach Smith.
The reply was as follows: —
Treasury Chambers, 3rd May, 1850.
Sir, — The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s
Treasury, have had before them your Memorial of
the 29th ult., praying for pecuniary assistance towards
enabling you to carry out your Antiquarian researches
at the remains of the Roman Station, “ the Portus
Lemanis”, near Hy the, in Kent ; and their Lordships
have directed me to acquaint you that they have no
funds available for the purposes in question.
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
W. G. Hayter.
CuAKLES Roach Smith, Esq., P.S.A.,
0, Liverpool Street, City.
7
Hitherto the excavations have been carried on, as already
stated, with funds supplied by the contributions of a few
friends. These are now nearly exhausted ; and from the
apathy of the government, it appears that we must still
depend on voluntary contributions, which may be sent to
Mr. Charles Roach Smith, 5, Liverpool Street, City.
The subscribers to these excavations will be presented
with a report on the discoveries, to which their names
will be appended.
Charles Roach Smith.
London, May 13th, 1850.
Subscriptions received for the Excavations at Lymne.
£. s.
The Lord Londesborough, K.C.H., F.S.A. ... ... £5 0
The Viscount Mahon, Pres. S.A., M.P., &c. ... 11
William Henry Rolfe, Esq., Sandwich ... ... 5 0
Joseph Mayer, Esq., P.S. A., Liverpool ... ... 2 0
The Rev. Beale Poste, Maidstone ... ... 11
Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Bart., Y.P.S.A., London ... 10
Alfred White, Esq., London ... ... ... 10
P. W. Fairholt, Esq., F.S.A., Broinpton ... ... 1 0
Charles Warne, Esq., Blandford, Dorset ... ... 1 0
William Bland, Esq., Hartlip, Kent. ... ... 10
James Elliott, Esq., Dymchurch ... ... 5 0
C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., London ... ... ... 5 0
Edward Pretty, Esq., Northampton ... ... 0 10
Edwin Keat, Esq., London ... ... ... 0 10
Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., Brompton ... ... 2 0
E. Bedford Price, Esq., London ... ... ... 0 10
The Rev. J. Bathurst Deane, F.S.A., London ... 0 10
Arthur Taylor, Esq., F.S.A., London ... ... 2 0
The Rev. A. Hume, LL.D., F.S.A., Liverpool ... 0 10
Charles Harwood, Esq., P.S.A., Judge of the County
Court of Kent, Folkstone ... ... ... 11
Joseph ArJen, Esq., F.S.A., London ... ... 1 0
d.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
Charles Candys, Esq., F.S.A., Canterbury ...
W. S. Wright Vaux, Esq., F.S.A., London
James Dearden, Esq., P.S.A., Rochdale ... ...
Sir W. Lawson, Bart., F.S.A., Brough Hall, Yorkshire
G. W. Lydekker, Esq., Hon. Sec. St. Alban’s Arch. Assoc.
R. Grove Lowe, Esq., St. Albans ...
John Evans, Esq., Hemel Hempstead
James Heywood, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., F.S.A., Manchester
Major Edmund Sheppard, Parson’s Green, Fulham ...
W. P. Griffith, Esq., F.S.A., St. John’s Square
W. H. Black, Esq., Rolls House ...
Andrew Lawson, Esq., Boroughbridge, Yorkshire
The Rev. Richard Edward Kerrich, F.S.A., Cambridge
The Rev. William Bennett, M.A., Canterbury
The Hon. Col. M. E. Onslow, Guildford
Sir Edward S. Walker, Chester ...
S. R. Solly, Esq , F.R.S., F.S.A., Serge Hill, Herts ...
Sir J. P. Boileau, Bart., Norwich
George Norman, Esq., Bromley
S. W. Stevenson, Esq., F.S.A., Norwich
John Bruce, Esq., F.S.A., London
John Brumell, Esq., Turnham Green
Llewellynn Jewitt, Esq., Plymouth ...
Nathaniel Gould, Esq., F.S.A., London
Henry Durden, Esq., Blandford ...
Edward Laing, Esq., St. Albans
H. B. Macheson, Esq., F.G.S., Hythe
E. Watts, Esq., Hythe ...
W. D. Saull, Esq., F.S.A., London
T. Purland, Esq., London
Joseph Durham, Esq., London ... ...
Charles Hoare, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., Luscombe, Devon
William Chaffers, Esq., Jun., P.S.A. London
Dawson Turner, Esq., P.R.S., F.S.A., Yarmouth
G. B. Wollaston, Esq., Eltham
Mrs. Wollaston
J. Y. Akerman, Esq., Sec. Soc. Ant. Lon. ...
June 1st, 1850.
£. s. d.
1 1 0
0 10 0
2 0 0
10 0
0 10 0
1 1 0
0 10 0
2 0 0
10 0
1 1 0
0 10 0
1 0 0
10 0
1 1 0
5 0 0
2 0 0
110
1 0 0
2 0 0
1 0 0
1 0 0
2 0 0
0 10 0
1 1 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
110
1 1 0
1 0 0
1 0 0
1 1 0
5 0 0
10 0
1 1 0
10 0
0 10 0
1 0 0
9
William Newton, Esq., London ...
Thomas Richards, Esq., London ...
G. J. Re Wilde, Esq., Northampton
The Rev. G. M. Nelson, Bodicote Grange, Banbury ...
James Yates, Esq., M.A., Highgate
Augustus W. Franks, Esq., London
John Brown, Esq., F.G.S., Stanway, Essex
Patrick Chalmers, Esq., F.S.A., Aulbar, Brechin
Robert Cole, Esq., London
The Rev. W. Vallence, M. A., Maidstone
The Rev. T. Jessop, D.D., York ...
Thomas Charles, Esq., Maidstone ...
Joseph Messenger, Esq, Folkstone
B. D. Brockman, Esq., M.P., Hythe
Thomas Thurston, Esq., Ashford
Charles Mercer, Esq., Ashford
G. E. Jemmett, Esq., Sandgate
G. R. Corner, Esq., F.S.A., Eltham
The Rev. Dr. Nicholson, St, Albans
W. P. Burra, Esq., Ashford
John Flowers, Esq., Leicester
The Venerable Archdeacon Burney, F.R.S., F.S.A.,
Witham, Essex ...
Daniel Wilson, Esq., Sec. Soc. Ant. Scot., Edinburgh..
J. J. Landale, Esq., Sandgate
Beriah Botfield, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., Norton-hall,
Northampton
W. Herrick, Esq., Leicester
Thomas Brown, Esq., Paternoster Row
J. Mayer, Esq., F.S.A., Liverpool ( second donation ) . .
Cavendish Wall, Esq., Folkstone ... ... ...
Henry Laws Long, Esq, Farnham Lodge, Surrey
C. Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P., Leeds Castle, Kent . .
The Rev. W. H. Massie, Chester ...
John Jones, Esq., 6, Regent Street
Viscount Strangford, F.R.S., F.S.A.
Walter Hawkins, Esq., F.S.A., Kennington
Dr. Plomley, Maidstone
£. s. d.
0 10 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
1 0 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
10 0
0 10 0
10 0
10 0
10 0
110
110
10 0
2 2 0
110
110
0 10 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
1 1 0
0 10 6
110
5 0 0
1 1 0
10 0
2 0 0
0 10 6
0 10 6
2 0 0
0 6 0
110
110
110
0 10 0
c
10
£.
s.
d.
A. J. Dunkin, Esq., bartford
...
1
0
0
Colonel and Mrs. W. Martin Leake, London
6
0
0
Major Hammond, Dover
0
10
0
W. P. Listed, Esq., Dover
0
10
6
Charles Fagg, Esq., Hythe
1
0
0
Henry Brown, Esq., Marden, Kent
2
2
0
William Stringer, Esq., New Romney
0
10
6
Thomas Giles, Esq., Ivy Church ...
0
2
6
Miss Blake, Dymchurch
0
2
G
William Fennell, Esq., Wakefield
0
10
0
The foregoing list includes all the subscriptions to the
20th of September, on which day a Meeting of the
Subscribers was held at the castrum and at Hythe. It
is a pleasing duty to add to the names of donors to the
Excavation Funds, the Directors of the South-Eastern
Railway Company, who have kindly presented me a free
pass ticket during the continuance of the researches, —
presented, through their Secretary, Mr. G. H. Herbert,
with so much goodwill and courtesy, as to enhance the
value of this liberal contribution.
To the Rev. Edwin Biron, of Lymne; Thomas Mount,
Esq., of Saltwood ; and Mr. Post, of Stutfall, tenants of
the land, we are under obligations for permission to
excavate.
Our researches have been carried on, with brief inter-
missions, for almost six months. The result up to the present
time has been the development of the remains of the walls of
the castrum, several towers, the decuman gate and postern
entrances. In the area towards the north, foundations of
apparently some public building have been traced ; and
towards the south-eastern side, a villa is being completely
excavated. Among minor discoveries are, tiles inscribed
CL.BR. ; fragments of querns or hand-mills; pottery and
11
glass ; an intaglio in amethyst ; and about one hundred
and fifty coins. As previously promised, it is intended,
at the close of the excavations, to present a printed and
illustrated report to each of the Subscribers.
The labour of excavating the walls proved difficult and
tedious, and unlooked-for impediments had to be sur-
mounted. It has been ascertained that the walls have
been separated and broken by land-slips, which have
propelled large masses of masonry, in different directions,
to a considerable distance from their original positions,
and, in many places, caused a considerable accumulation
of earth, the excavation of which was not always attended
with profitable discoveries. Altogether, however, it is
hoped that the report will prove that the undertaking has
been highly successful, both archjeologically and geolo-
gically,— and that the funds subscribed have been well
and economically applied.
C. E. S.
5, Liverpool Street, City.
Sept. 30^4, 1850.
18
Subscriptions towards the Excavations at I^ymne.
Receipts.
Amount to September 30th, 1850, brought forward £. ,9. d.
from page 10, Appendix . . . . 131 9 G
Received subsequently as follows :
Charles Willis, Esq., Cranbrook, Kent . .200
Edward Hughes, Esq., Smeeth Hill, Kent . .10 0
Benjamin Ferry, Esq., London . . . 0 10 0
John Haddock Lardner, Esq., Rye. . . 10 0
The Rev. John Louis Petit, M.A., F.S.A., London 2 2 0
£138 1 G
£. s. d.
102 3 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
15 18 G
£138 1 G
The above will, it is trusted, prove to the subscribers,
when the Report is before them, that their confidence has
not been misplaced, and the results obtained by the exca-
vations have been important. The Report will be illus-
trated with etchings and woodcuts as far as the surplus of
the funds will warrant, and "will be delivered to the sub-
scribers to the excavations, gratis.
It is gratifying to me and my colleague to receive ex-
pressions of satisfaction from many of the subscribers and
their friends who visited the works during their progress.
Expenditure.
Labour, from April to September in-
clusive
To Mr. Post, for permission to excavate
his portion of the land
Incidental expenses
Balance in hand, October 1850
14
Bui Ave are particularly pleased in knoAving tliat an emi-
nent surveyor, Mr. Thurston, of Ashford, Avho carefully
examined the excavations and planned the area of the
castrum, estimated the expenses at a sum very far beyond
the actual cost. To the experience and assiduous at-
tention of Mr. Elliott Ave are indebted for this prudent
economy of the funds, in addition to his other services.
To the list of OAvners of the land who granted us leave
to excavate, we have to add the name of Charles Willis,
Esq., of Cranbrook. The liberality of the Directors of
the South-Eastern Railway Company has already been
recorded ; it Avas extended fully to the close of the ex-
cavations.
C. Roach Smith.
C), LiA^erpool Street, City,
March 31st, 1852.
NOTES ON SOME OF THE ANTIQUITIES
OF TREVES, MAYENCE,
AND OTHER PLACES ON THE MOSELLE AND RHINE.
PLATES XXIV TO XXXV.
Mr. Dawson Turner, in the preface to his translation of
Vv^yttenbach s Ronfian Antiq^uities of Treves, observes that}
“the greater number of those who are well acquainted
with the beauties of the Rhine itself^ and its thermal dis-
tricts, and Frankfort and Heidelberg, are far from being
aware, that, at a distance little greater than those from its
banks, there lies, on the opposite side, a city abounding in
objects of so deep interest as Treves and he adds, — “ in
five days’ easy travelling they may pass from the shores of
the Thames to a spot where they may have the opportunity
of at once satisfying their curiosity, and gaining instruc-
tion, by the contemplation of specimens of Roman work-
manship, so grand in character, so varied in object, and so
perfect in condition, as probably no other locality beyond
the Alps would be able to exhibit ; specimens which also
convey a full idea of the features distinguishing the monu-
ments that adorn the ancient capital of the world.”
These observations were published in 1839. The railway
from Ostend to Cologne, to which at Malines is united the
French line from Calais, has now lessened the time of
transit from England to three, or even to two, days ; and
yet it is doubtful if this noble old city has in consequence
become much better known, even to the few who by educa-
L
66
NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
tion or taste are disposed to deviate from the weli-beaten
roads and more popular places, to seek, at the expense of
trifling personal toil, the works of ancient art. Of the thou-
sands who weekly sail up and down the Rhine, only a small
number turn aside at Coblentz* to see the beauties of the
* Those who have time to spare, and can walk from twelve
to fifteen miles a-day, may take the road from Aix-la-Chapelle
to Treves (a distance of about ninety-three miles), and pass
through a country of peculiar interest, but little visited by
travellers. The towns on this road are, Montjoie, Priim, and
Bitburg ; there are also several villages ; and although the
accommodation they afford is somewhat rude, the pedestrian
English antiquary may trust himself to it with pleasure and
safety. The novelty of the scenery, and of every thing around
him, will supply him with continual and varied objects of attrac-
tion, which will more than compensate, in mental excitement,
the temporary absence of some physical comforts and home
indulgencies. The neighbourhood of Bitburg — the Beda Ficus
of Antoninus, the first station in the route from Treveris to
Agrippina (Cologne) — is full of Roman remains. At Fliessem,
about three miles from Bitburg, a villa was discovered in 1833,
an account of which is published by Herr Schmidt. It contains
many tessellated pavements of rich and chaste designs, and the
walls of several apartments had been ornamented with paintings
and with thin slabs of marble. Fragments of statues and bas-
reliefs, shafts, vases, and capitals of columns in stone and in
marble, were also found. Villas, equally interesting, have also
been discovered at Pickliessem, at Ackerburg, and at other
places around Bitburg.
Treves may be visited from Bonn or Remagen, through the
Eifel, to Arhweiler, Altenahr, Adenau, Kelberg, and Daun.
From the last of these places, the Treves and Coblentz road can
be gained either at Liitzerath or at Witlich. This route, like
the formei’, is through a wild country, of volcanic formation.
TREVES, MAYENCE, ETC.
67
Moselle ; and of these only a small fraction stay longer at
Treves than is necessary to secure their passage by the
return of the steamboat, contenting themselves with visit-
ing some of the more striking ancient monuments, or
probably in passing them by altogether. Much more
perhaps is not to be expected from the great body of
tourists who travel for fashion's sake, for relaxation from
business, or to kill time and ennui. But it is rather re-
markable that antiquaries themselves should not have
become better acquainted with the ancient remains of
Treves and its neighbourhood, and have sought to open a
communication with literary societies, or with individuals
of the country devoted to the study of national antiquities.
Yet so little of scientific intercourse between the two
countries has existed, that in the extensive library of
Treves not a cofiy of the Archceologia Is to be found, and
this our largest antiquarian work is also unknown in the
libraries of other large cities in Germany.* * As the Treves
peculiarly attractive to the geologist and naturalist, but it can
only be recommended to the pedestrian who has time at his
command.
The usual mode by which travellers reach Treves is from
Coblentz by the Schnellpost, which leaves daily at an early hour,
and arrives in the evening ; or by steamer up the Moselle, — a
voyage which requires two days, but which from Treves to
Coblentz is accomplished in one.
* There is, unfortunately, a general indifference in the anti-
quarian societies, both in England and on the Continent, to
creating or sustaining friendly intercourse; and this fact is
proved by the defective state of their respective libraries. Had
the Society of Antiquaries, before selling their stock of the
ArchcBologia, presented copies (as far as they could have been
made complete) to the continental societies, we should, without
feeling the cost, have conferred an inestimable benefit on foreign
08
NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
library contains a considerable number of duplicate volumes
for exchange, this lamentable example of the absence of
friendly communication between the antiquaries of England
and this important city should not be suffered to exist
longer. The French, who generally in matters of science
are in advance of us, have not overlooked Treves. In 1846
an archaeological congress was held there by the Societe
pour la conservation des monuments nationaux^ a report on
which is published by M. de Caumont in his Bulletins
Monumentals. But a city of an extent so vast, with suburbs
filled with remains not yet half explored, requires a long
residence, and patient and quiet investigation, to unravel
the obscured vestiges of antiquity, and to explain the many
anomalies which exist in architecture of various epochs
blended together.*
antiquaries, and secured for ourselves their goodwill and coope-
ration. At present the whole system of so-called foreign inter-
course and foreign honorary membership is of little or no value,
although the Society of Antiquaries have a list of nearly fifty
honorary fellows. It would be difficult to justify the election of
many of these gentlemen, or at least their being allowed to
remain on the list year after year, without corresponding, or in
any way shewing any sympathy with the objects of the Society
which has paid them this honourable compliment. There are
no doubt men of the highest literary and antiquarian qualifica-
tions, who would do credit to their election into the Society of
Antiquaries, and who would not consider it a sinecure. I be-
lieve, of these fifty foreign associates not more than one or two
have made communications to the Society. Dr. Conrad Lee-
mans, of Leyden, is one exception ; but I cannot, upon recollec-
tion, mention a second.
* An architect of the city, Herr Schmidt, is at the present
moment engaged in publishing a work on the more important
buildings.
TREVES, MAYENCE, ETC.
69
The present walls of Treves, like those of many towns
of Roman origin on the Rhine, exhibit a mixed style of
architecture, consequent on successive reparations at various
periods. There are reasons for supposing that they were,
in part at least, dismantled in the Roman times by the
barbarian invaders ; and, in the middle ages, they seem to
have suffered still more severely. As we now see them, it
is only here and there that portions may be detected of pure
Roman construction ; but it is very probable that the line
of circumvallation has been but little altered, and that even
the towers still mark the sites of those of the Roman period,
although it has been supposed by some, that the walls of
ancient Treveris extended m.uch beyond those of modern
Treves, in the direction of the church of St. Matthias, beyond
the bridge. This does not, for many reasons, seem probable ;
at the same time there must have existed, or possibly still
exist, in that district, foundations of buildings, to give rise
to the notion that the city walls extended thus far. From
inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and other antiquities (now in the
museum of the Porta Nigra, and in the library), discovered
along the sides of the road to St. Matthias, it is very evi-
dent that many spacious and rich villas covered this quarter
of the suburbs of Treveris. The banks of the footpath
leading along the side of the river to St. Matthias are
almost composed of the debris of Roman buildings, and the
path itself is chiefly made of the old materials. About
midway there appears to have been a pottery, indicated by
layers of fragments of earthen vessels of various kinds.
Matthew Merian, in his view of Treves,* on this side of
the city places two stupendous fragments of architecture,
which must, to all appearance, have been portions of an
* Topographia Archiepiscopatuum Moguntiiiensis, Treverensis
et Coloniensis ; fob, 1646.
70
NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
edifice equal to some yet remaining within the walls, which,
for their preservation and extent, are unsurpassed by any
Roman provincial works. This view is well executed, and
gives an excellent idea of the city and its chief buildings,
as well as the bridge, the churches of St. Barbara and St.
Matthias on the one side of the city, and those of St
Maximin and St. Simeon on the other ; also the large mill
upon the river, and other buildings which will be easily
recognized. The walls entirely surrounded the city when
this view Avas taken, tw’^o centuries ago ; but at the present
day only parts of that on the side of the river remain.
But we are more indebted to the Annah of Treves A' by
Brower, with notes by Masenlus, for preserving notices of
antiquities, of which, at the present day, there is no trace
whatever. Some of the plates are rudely executed ; but
others, such as the church of St. Simeon (the Porta Nigra),
and the monument at Igel, are good works of art. To this
work, Wyttenbach has made constant reference ; and,
indeed, it may be said to have afforded the groundwork of
his excellent Guide. The most important buildings, now
destroyed, which are to be found in Brower, are that of a
supposed triumphal arch of Valentinlan and Gratian,
without the walls of the city, near the bridge, between
that and the church of St. Barbara ; sculptures, found in
the amphitheatre ; a richly-sculptured sarcophagus, found
in the church of St. Maximin ; a hypocaust, at the sup-
posed palace near the bridge ; the w’estern side of a tower
near the bridge, and the bridge itself ; the Porta Nigra,
transformed into the church of St. Simeon ; the electoral
palace, now commonly called the palace of Constantine;
a stone, found in the castrum at Neumagen, representing
* Antiquitatum et Annalium Trevirensium, auctoribus P. C.
Browero et P. J. Masenio. Leodii, m.dc.lxx. 2 vols. folio.
TREVES, MAYENCE, ETC
71
a tahellarium, or rolls of manuscripts in a library ; and a
view of the castrum at Neuinagen(iV()momayMs). Wytten-
bach states that the Luxemburgum Romanum of Wiltheim*
(a considerable portion of which is devoted to the Roman
history of Treves), independently of ancient inscriptions,
contains three hundred and twenty figures of different
objects of antiquity, the greater part of which have now
disappeared, and of some we do not know even what they
were !
With these and other witnesses to the destruction of
the architectural antiquities of Treves, comparatively
within a few years, we have the evidence of the city Itself
In its present state, and of its museums, to corroborate the
statements of the historian, and to testify to the ancient
grandeur of the place. To convey to the stranger any
correct notion of the remains which are yet extant, would
be impossible within the compass and means of these notes ;
and my efforts must therefore be directed solely to draw
attention to some particular monuments, and to give, from
my note-book, a few of the remarks with which it is stored
from two brief visits made within the last four years,
assisted by etchings and woodcuts from sketches made by
friends and by myself ; my object being to assist in point-
ing out a fertile district for archaeological research but
little known to my countrymen, although by no means
distant or inaccessible.
The entrance to Treves from theCoblentz road, is throuo'h
* It was then in MS., but has since been published under
the title of “ Luciliburgensia sive Luxemburgum Romanum, a
R. P. Alex. Wiltheim, Luxemburgensi Soc. Jesu sacerdote,
opus postumum a med. doctore Neyen, nunc primum in lucem
editum; 2 vols. in 4to. Luxemburgi, 1842.” Wiltheim was
born in 1604, and died in 1682.
72 NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
the Porta Nigra, — a colossal Roman structure, facing tlie
street which leads to the market-place and the inn called
“Rdthe Hans'”, formerly the town hall. The Porta Nigra,
or Porta Martis, seen from a distance on this road, and
gradually approached, strikes the traveller with surprise
and admiration. Its towering height, vast and classic
proportions, and dark colour, bespeak at once its origin
and character, and the architectural genius of the people
whose edifices seem built for eternity. For nearly eight
hundred years this gate was destined to the purposes of a
Christian church. In one of its towers, a Greek monk, in
the early part of the eleventh century, secluded himself
from the world, and earned the posthumous honour of
saintship. To him, under the title of St. Simeon, the
building was dedicated. The entrance, on either side, was
covered up with earth ; and to the eastern side was added
a choir, which is still standing. It was only in 1817 that
the Prussian government removed the church, which had
suffered from the French revolution, and cleared away the
accumulated dirt and extraneous buildings, so as to leave
the Roman gate, as we now view it, almost as fresh and
perfect as it stood fifteen centuries ago. The building is
oblong, flanked by two wings also oblong, and terminated
on the side looking towards the country by semicircular
towers. The ground-floor, on both sides, is double-
arched, each arch being fourteen feet wide, and about
twenty-three high, including several feet buried by the
raising of the level of the street.
In the exterior arcades, the grooves in which the port-
cullis worked are still apparent. The two wings had each
a postern entrance. The basement is surmounted by two
rows of semicircular windows in the central part of the
building, and by three rows in the right wing ; the third
stajie is wanting in the left wing. Each window is about
TREVES, MAYENCE, ETC.
73
three feet wide, and six feet in height. The height of the
building in the central part is about seventy feet ; that of
the right wing about ninety-four feet ; the entire length
being a hundred and fifteen feet. The exterior of each
story is surrounded by columns of the Doric order ; in the
interior, and on the sides of the wings, plain pilasters are
substituted. The walls of the towers are nearly six feet
in thickness at the base, decreasing in proportion to the
elevation. They are formed of blocks of grey sandstone,
varying from four to nine feet in length, by from two to
three in width, placed upon each other without mortar,
and cramped on the inside with iron. Many of these
fastenings have been industriously extracted, for the sake
of the metal. The left wing still exhibits where it was
connected with the city wall, constructed of the same
materials as the gate. The marks of the masons are visible
throughout, as sharp as ever ; they are, ace ; sec ; and mar.
From the plan and dimensions of this grand structure,
it is very evident it was intended for other purposes than
that of a gate solely. It was constituted probably to serve
as a fortress or propugnaculum and armoury, while in time
of peace its spacious rooms may have been adapted to
various public services. The date of its erection is one of
those questions which admit of wide speculation, without
any decisive evidence, either historical or monumental, to
determine it. The inquiry has taken an extensive range ;
on the one hand, it has been assigned to a period anterior
to the Christian mra ; on the other, to the sixth century.
We shall certainly less err in placing the period of its con-
struction somewhere midway between these extremes.
Wyttenbach refers it, with some show of probability, to
the time of Constantine ; but the testimony of Euraenius,
on which he mainly rests, is by no means conclusive, and
we are left to regret the absence of inscriptions, or of any
M
74
NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
marked peculiarity in the architecture, such as would point
with unerring hand to the precise period of its origin. In
northern Europe, perhaps, the Porta Nigra is the finest
work of its kind extant. The two gates of Autun in
France, the Porte PArroux and the Porte St. Andre, are
the only similar works which merit to be compared with
it. In solidity and mode of construction there is consider-
able analogy ; but the details are different, and besides two
main arcades for carriages, these gates have two others for
foot-passengers, which are wanting in the Porta Nigra.
In our own country, the only examples of Poman architec-
ture which can be compared in some respects with this at
Treves, are those yet remaining in the walls of Chester.
The spacious rooms in the Porta Nigra are now adapted
for a museum of local antiquities. The objects collected,
comparatively within the last few years, comprise, among
a miscellaneous variety of works of Poman art of different
eras, and, as may be supposed, exhibiting styles of design
and workmanship of various degrees of excellence, some
fragments of sculpture which, though mutilated, bespeak
the chisel and hand of a master. The chief of these are
large square blocks of travertine, which, Wyttenbach states,
“ were dug up in 1825, with many other gigantic architec-
tural fragments, within the circuit of the walls of the town.
They were found lying dispersed with regularity, one upon
another, about twenty feet below the surface of the soil,
not far from the bridge over the Moselle.” One of these,
from a sketch by Mr. Fairholt, is figured in the annexed
cut, and will give a fair notion of the state of art in Poman
Treves, in the first or second century. The beauty of
design, spirited character, and good workmanship of this
fine piece of sculpture, will place it among the best works
of the best period of Roman art, and the composition
indicates the conception of one who had well studied the
TREVES, MAYENCE, ETC.
75
choicest productions of the Greek school. It appears to
have formed part of a frieze round some buildino- of im-
* O
A mai-ble bas-relief in the Porta Nigra. It is about three feet in heiglit, and five in length.
portance. The circumstances attending the discovery of
these blocks of stone are interesting, as shewing that at a
comparatively early period the city of Treves must have
severely suffered by hostile invasion. The museum of
Treves is sadly deficient in what should be of primary
consideration in any public collection of antiquities,
namely, a brief index to the history of the various objects ;
even a label upon each, telling when and where it was
discovered, wmuld be sufficient ; but unfortunately no in-
formation is given, and it is only by means of published
works, seldom at hand when wanted, that we are enabled
to trace out and identify some of the more striking objects.
Plate XXIV represents other fragments of sculpture in the
museum at the Porta Nigra, one of which is the piece of
76
NOTES ON SOME ANTIQUITIES OF
sandstone mentioned by Wyttenbach as covered with figures
of mariners and boys, and dug up in the deep excavations
made in 1825, on the site of the abbey of St. Mary, near
Treves. It is very probable both belonged, together with
others found at Treves, to monuments such as that at Igel,
which I am about to notice.
There are also preserved two milliary columns, disco-
vered in 1823, between Priim and Bitburg, which had been
erected on the great road through the Eifel to Cologne, in
the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius ; some terminal
busts and numerous inscriptions, of which the early Chris-
tian series is perhaps the most curious and important;
urns, figures in terra-cotta, inscribed tiles, etc. To the
Christian inscriptions found at Treves and at Mayence,
further reference will be made hereafter.
It is extremely probable that many valuable remains of
antiquity might be discovered at Treves, in the possession
of private individuals. The fine fragment given in the
lower cut on the opposite page, we found, with other objects,
in the courtyard of the house of Comte Kesselstadt. The
figure represents a German holding what may probably be
meant for a basket of fruit or provisions. It is of good
■work, and has evidently formed part of the architectural
decorations of some important edifice.
The riches of antiquity are not confined to the city of
Treves ; the neighbourhood abounds in remains worthy
the splendour of Belgic Rome. Foremost among them
stands the mausoleum of the family of the Secundini at
Igel, a village situate on the Roman road which led from
Treves into the interior of Gaul, at the distance of about
six miles. The journey should be performed on foot, to
command quietly and leisurely every point of the beautiful
scenery. The road lies over the Roman bridge at the
upper part of the city. This fine piece of architecture
presents the same features of solidity and grandeur of
dimensions which strike us at the Porta Nigra. Spared by
the invasions of Vandals and other nations designated
“ barbarian”, this noble relic was fated to be blown up by
the French in 1689. Gunpowder did its worst; but the
huge foundation-stones of the lower parts of the piers,
cramped with bronze, resisted the force of this engine of
war, and the work of destruction was happily not com-
pleted ; the upper part of the bridge alone was ruined.
The blocks of basalt, composing the piers, are from six to
nine feet in length, and about three in width and in height.
From discoveries made in the river, there is every reason
to believe the parapets were ornamented with bas-reliefs.
Wyttenbach detected a passage in the original manuscript
of the Annals of Brower, omitted in the printed copies,
which states that the tops of the piers were surmounted
by statues. There Is no reason to doubt the correctness
of this opinion, which is adopted by a contemporary writer,
and is perfectly consistent with architectural propriety.
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
79
When we come to discuss the epoch of its construction,
we are left in uncertainty, both by historians and monu-
ments. Like the other grand vestiges of antiquity, which
have already been noticed, no evidence has yet been dis-
covered which will positively settle their date. Tacitus
speaks of a bridge in connexion with the revolt of the
Batavi in the first century ; but it is possible this may
have been built of wood : others think it is as late as the
reign of Constantine, relying chiefly on the adulatory
oration of the panygerist Eumenius, who alludes to several
public buildings, as built or restored by that emperor. N o
doubt that prince earned the title of conservator urhis at
Treves ; but at the same time, it must be recollected that
from numerous fragments of sculpture, and other remains,
Treves must have abounded in works of architectural mag-
nificence long anterior to the time of Constantine ; and to
Hadrian or the Antonines, may, with at least equal show
of probability, be transferred some share of the credit too
generally bestowed on the later emperor.
If the ancient buildings of Treves have not been so dis-
tinctly alluded to by historians as for archaeological pur-
poses could have been wished, the Moselle is especially
honoured by Ausonius, who, in a poem of no less than
four hundred and eighty -three lines, has given us a vivid
picture of the beauties and riches of this lovely river.
Unlike the works of art which come down to us mutilated
and fragmentary, nature’s gifts are not subject to the de-
structive hand of ignorance, barbarous or civilized. The
river rolls on with its low murmuring in its deep and placid
course, as when ages ago it inspired the poet on its banks.
The husbandman tills his little fields on either side with
his yoken oxen ; boats glide up and down ; and barges,
towed by men and cattle, move slowly against the stream ;
the fishermen toil daily with their nets, and the angler
80
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
betrays the fishes with his baited hook ; the song of the
vinedressers may be heard, as they return in the evening
to their homes ; here are the grassy pastures and rich
corn-fields ; there the hills covered with vines and trees,
from among which villas peep out, and farm-houses and
cottages. We miss indeed the dryads and water-nymphs,
and the satyrs and fauns ; but other forms, as lovely and
graceful as the one, and as strange as the other, still meet
the wanderer in the glades and bye-paths of the Moselle,
if he be not too matter-of-fact and sceptical. He must, in
truth, see the Moselle scenery much as it was when de-
scribed by Ausonius ; some of the details are changed, but
in general character and effect there can be but little alter-
ation. Who that has walked over the desolate tracts of
soil on either side of the Moselle —
“ Et nulla human! spectans vestigia cultus”,*
and on gaining the green vine-clad slopes, and the luxuriant
valleys which the river separates, does not feel he breathes
another atmosphere, and may not exclaim with the poet :
“ Salve aranis, laudate agris, laudate colonis,
Dignata imperio debent cui mcenia Belgae :
Amnis odorifero juga vitea consite Baccho,
Consite graraineas amnis viridissime ripas :
Naviger, et pelagus ; devexas pronus in undas,
Ut fluvius ; vitreoque lacus imitate profundo ;
Et rivos trepido potis aequiparare meatu,
Et liquido gelidos fontes praecellere potu,
Omnia solus habes, quas fons, quK rivus, et amnis,
Et lacus, et bivio refluus manamine pontus.” I
With the various kinds of fish for which the Moselle is
famous, their habits, haunts, and culinary worth, Ausonius
*■ Moselle, 1. 6.
t Ibid. 1. 23.
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
81
was well acquainted. The traveller will often find some
of them at his table d’'h6te at Treves, and at other inns on
the Moselle and Rhine ; and if he be an Englishman, will
miss the sauces and condiments which correct the insipidity
of such dishes: the barbel, caught at the junction of the
Sahr, melior pejore cevo, — those we tasted were flavourless
and bony ; pike and tench, restricted to the tables of the
Roman lower orders ; trout and perch, which the poet says
Avere equal in taste to the delicate red mullet. What the
alburni were, I am not naturalist enough to determine, —
probably a kind of minnow, prcedam pmrilihus hamis. At
Ahrweiler (on our road to Treves) we were served, at the
inn, with a dish of small white fish which had undergone
some process in cooking ; but in appearance raw, and
in an incipient stage of decomposition. They were of
most uninviting aspect, but are said to be prized as a
dainty. At Cologne the same dish appeared, but inter-
spersed among the minnows were loaches, which were not
detected by the company at the table dliSte ; so that pro-
bably the flavour, whatever it may be, depends more on
the mode of preparation than on the fish itself.
The distance to Igel is considerably increased by follow-
ing the course of the river. The high road may therefore
• be recommended as preferable, and a boat may be hired
near the village, on returning, for the sake of the river
scenery. The road on either side, for some miles, is fringed
with three or four rows of fruit and other trees, from
beneath which the prospect on the left extends over a wide
expanse of small fields, without hedges, variegated Avith
all kinds of vegetables and corn, evidently the property of
numerous tenants ; Avho, with their families and a yoke of
oxen, roughly till a soil Avhich nature has made so exuber-
antly fertile as partly to compensate the unscientific labour
bestowed upon it. There is a primitive rudeness about
N
82
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
the implements of agriculture, about the carts and wag-
gons, the mode of harnessing the oxen and horses, which,
while it would shock the eye of an English farmer, har-
monizes with the classic character of the country, and
helps to connect the present with the past. Men drive the
carts and hold the ploughs, but the weaker sex (the term
hardly applies here) may be seen, in disproportionate
numbers, either toiling in their fields, or walking cheerfully
in groups to market, heavily laden with the produce of
the soil, which has been worked and cultivated chiefly by
themselves. Now the Landwehr is out on military ser-
vice, the hard lot of the German peasant women must be
still more deplorable ;* these are a few of the evils of a
national passion for war.
On the right, a less extended tract of corn fields is
bounded by a range of finely-wooded hills, and a few small
villages picturesquely grouped below. Here and there by
the road-side, as is the case everywhere else in Germany,
are small shrines or chapels ; some of such antique con-
struction, that it is impossible not to see they have replaced
the similar sacred edifices of the pagan times. After pass-
ing through a long avenue of tall poplars, we reach the
village of Igel; and discern, towering above the houses,
the top of the Roman monument. A few more paces
bring us in front of it, as shewn in the plate, drawn and
kindly etched by Mr. Fairholt, to illustrate these notes.
The view is taken from the high road. The bank beneath
which the structure stands, has been cut away to make
room for it ; a flight of steps leads up to an orchard, from
which the back part and sides are best seen. On the sum-
* “ In thousands of cases, a family, robbed of its head, is left
starving at home, for the legal provision for them is of the most
miserable kind.” — Times, Dec. 10, 1850.
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
83
mit stands the village church. From this elevated spot a
view is obtained of the confluence of the Sahr with the
Moselle, near the village of Conz, where are still to be
seen the remains of a large Roman edifice, said to have
been a summer-palace of the emperors.
It would be strange indeed, if a monument so remark-
able had not excited much attention, and engaged the
learning and judgment of German antiquaries especially.
Accordingly, notices and essays — some exceedingly wild
and fanciful, others sound and conclusive — have appeared
in abundance.* The inscription, however, parts of which
are still sufficiently legible to be understood, leaves no
doubt as to the nature and object of the building ; but, at
the same time, it is not now perfect enough to be com-
pletely read. The copy left us by Brower, who is the
earliest transcriber, is important, for it must have been
more complete in his time ; and his explanation seems, in
almost every respect, to be justified by what yet remains,
and by the formulce commonly used for such inscriptions.
* Wyttenbach gives the following list : “ First in order is
Frederick Swartz, in an unpublished MS. of the fourteenth
century. He is giving the history of different holy relics, and
he suddenly diverges to the Igel monument, ‘ because he would
be sorry to lose the opportunity of speaking of St. Helena’! To
him succeed Ortelius, Apianus, Pyrckheimer, Braun, Herold,
Campius, Brower, Freher, Mercator, the two Wiltheims, Bertel,
Bertholet, Gruter, Muratori, Lorent, Hontheim, Neller, Pocock,
Conrad, Pars, Peyre, Hetzrodt, Storck, Quednow, Haupt, Gothe,
Raymond, Muller, Neurohr, Boos, and Osterwald. I, too, have
ventured to bring forward my opinions upon the inscription and
the sculpture, in my history of our city, published in the Treves
Chronicle for 1821, and in the text written to accompany the
large plates of Ramboux.” — E. Turner's Translation, p. 116.
84
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
I give the letters precisely as they stand in my own note-
book, as follows :
ni CV CA • M
NC CVND
CA CONIVGl SECVNDIN ENTINI ET ' L ' SAC
CIO MODESTO ET MODESTIO MACEDONI . FILIO El
SECVNDIN AVENTINVS • ET ' SECVNDI
NVS ECVRVS PAR VNCTIS * ET
VIVI . FA RVNT
Brower’s copy runs thus :
D M
T • s'KCYndino Securo et Secundino Aventii^io
et Jillis * SECVNDINI SECVRI • ET ' PVBLLE ‘ PA
GAT^ CONIVGl SECVNDINI AVENTINI ’ ET L * SAC
CIO MODESTO ET MODESTIO MACEDONI * FILIO ^jus
IVL • SECVNDINVS AVENTINVS ET SECVNDI
nUS SECVRVS PARENTIBVS DEFVNCTIS ET
sibi vivi hjEKKdes posumw^iT.
\_To Secundinus Securus^ and to Secundinus Avenlinus,
and to the children of Secundinus Securus and of Publia
Pacata, the wife of Secundinus Aventinus ; and to Lucius
Saccius Modestus, and to Modestius Macedonius his son, —
Julius Secundinus Aventinus and Secundinus Securus, their
heirs, erected {this monument') to their deceased parents and
themselves.']
The total elevation of the monument is about seventy-
two feet; the width at the base, on two sides, is fifteen
feet ; on the other two, twelve feet. It is formed of blocks
of red sandstone from the immediate neighbourhood.
The four sides, in their several divisions, from the base to
the pediment, are profusely adorned with sculptures. In
the main division, which faces the high road, are three
male figures, of colossal size, in the costume of civilians,
and apparently joining hands ; above them are three busts,
one of which appears to be that of a female, — the whole
being obviously intended to represent the persons men-
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
85
tioned in the inscription. The pilasters on the sides are
decorated with figures of genii, four in each, one above
the other. It is to this part of the monument the frag-
ment of sculpture (fig. 2, in pi. xxiv) may be compared,
and which there seems every reason to believe has formed
part of some edifice analogous to this at Igel. On each of
the capitals of the pilasters is a head, and on each base a
bird and a globe. On the eastern and western sides of
this compartment the figures are too much defaced to be
described with any certainty. The north side, fronting
the rising ground, is better preserved. Here, in the chief
division, is represented, within the signs of the zodiac,
Hercules, in a car drawn by horses, ascending to Olympus,
and received by his protectress, the goddess Minerva.
The angles of this compartment are filled by four heads of
large size, representations of the four winds. The pilasters
on this side are filled with genii armed with spears and
shields ; but the bird and globe are placed below, as on
the other quarters.
On the southern side (that shewn in the plate), the
pedestal below the principal division is devoted to a repre-
sentation of an apartment fitted with curtains, and filled
with persons, who appear to be waiting on, or receiving
instructions from, a personage seated at a table, who seems
to be reading from a roll lying before him. On the nor-
thern side, in the centre of the base, is shewn the convey-
ance of merchandize upon a river. The blocks of stone
are much worn, but still the subject can be easily under-
stood. Two men are towing a barge laden with bales of
goods; the god of the river (which, most likely, is the
Moselle itself) extends his right arm, and holds in it
some object, — probably a bull-rush. When I made the
sketch it looked somewhat like drapery ; in the woodcut
it assumes the shape of an eel. At every hour of the day
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
87
a very similar scene may be observed on the Moselle, which
is within view ; and, whether we take the ancient or the
modern picture, the lines of Ausonius, addressed to this
river, are equally applicable :
“ Tu duplices sortite vias, et quum amne secundo
Defluis, ut celeres feriant vada concita remi :
Et quum per ripas nusquam cessante remulco
Intendunt collo malorum vinculae nautae.” *
This subject is continued on the western side, and above
and below are Tritons, water-nymphs, and other fabled
inhabitants of the deep.
Another series of sculptures is allotted to the illustra-
tion of various modes of travelling by land, and the trans-
mission of merchandize by the public roads. On the
western side, a vehicle, drawn by mules, is proceeding
through a city gate into the country, indicated by a tree.
The baggage is piled up high, and corded, precisely as at
the present day ; while the cart, with its open sides of
rails, the mode of harnessing the mules, and the bells round
their necks, might also seem to have been copied from
modern examples passing by in the road adjoining the
monument. The lower cut on the previous page repre-
sents the frieze on the north side, below the cornice, and
above the principal section. This sculpture has reference
also to the land service, and it shows, as well as the con-
fined space and material would admit, the going out from
one station, or mutatio, to another. The hilly nature of
the country is shewn well by the rugged outlines in the
centre, and by the attitude of the mules. The other three
sides of the frieze are filled with domestic in-door scenes,
preparations for a banquet, and the banquet itself ; in the
room in which it is held, a sideboard, with various vessels,
is conspicuous.
* Moselle, 1. 39.
88
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
The uppermost section beneath the pediment may be
described as follows. On the south side (that shewn in
the plate) is a group of figures, engaged, apparently, in
examining some kind of manufacture, while one seems
engaged in writing instructions ; on the west is a two-
wheeled open car, drawn by a pair of horses, with two men
in it, one of whom is driving. Wyttenbach states that a
milestone, inscribed liii, is here introduced. On the east
side are several persons in a chamber, one of whom is
seated. The subject on the north is that of a youthful
male figure, standing between two griffins, and grasping
them by the neck. The pediment is also covered with
sculptures on the four sides, the best preserved of which
are, the Sun in a quadriga, and Bacchus with two nymphs.
The roof, of a pyramidal form, is composed of stones
cut so as to resemble roof-tiles, such as are frequently
found on the site of Roman villas. It terminates in a
capital surmounted by heads supporting a solid globe in
stone, upon which is a broken figure, usually supposed to
be that of an eagle, but which is, without much doubt, the
lower portion of a winged genius. Victory. In most
engravings it certainly appears to be an eagle, and this
was, for a long time, the received opinion ; when, however,
we inspected the monument, on two occasions, we con-
curred in concluding the figure to be a Victory. The two
subjoined cuts of it are from sketches made by Mr. Fair-
holt.* The first is a side view on approaching from Treves;
* Mr. J. G. Waller also considers it to have been a Victory.
I notice that, in the Histoire de V Architecture en Belgique, par
A. G. B. Schayes, recently published, the author observes :
“ Ces bustes a leur tour soutiennent un globe portant en amor-
tissement un aigle, contre la poitrine duquel 6tait place une figure
juvenile, representant probablement Ganymede.”
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
89
the second, as seen in front. The cuts, it must be acknow-
ledged, represent the leg, or what appears to he the leg,
rather more defined than it actually is ; but it will be seen,
even from the slight description here given of some of the
details of this interesting monument, that to be properly
understood it would require a study of some days at least,
and on account of its height, and the decayed state of
many parts, it is requisite that the weather be clear and
unclouded.
The nature of this remarkable monument, as before
remarked, is obvious from the inscription. The period of
its erection, and the precise position of the Secundlni, are
questions open to speculation. There is nothing in the
inscription itself to satisfy inquiry on these points, nor in
others found in the neighbourhood, which simply mention
individuals of the same name. Neither is there any obvious
link to be found in the style or character of the sculptures
to guide to a date. But the grandeur of the monument,
the masterly manner in which many of the figures are
sculptured, the completeness of design, and the propriety
and fitness of the elaborate details, indicate a period when
art had not sensibly declined, and suggest a date at least
Side view.
Front view.
0
90
SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT IGEL.
as early as tliat of the time of Hadrian and the Antonines.
The magnitude, richness, and consequent expense of the
work, decide that it could only have been undertaken by
persons of wealth, possessing some peculiar and extraordi-
nary position in the immediate locality ; and this palpable
conclusion is confirmed by the allusions evidently intended
to be conveyed by some of the sculptured scenes. They
may be divided into two classes, mythological or allegorical,
and civil or social. The latter appears to have direct allu-
sion to the every-day concerns of the Secundini : some of
the former may have been devised to refer to the guardian
deities of the family, the protectors of their property and
persons, while others were probably introduced conven-
tionally, to balance the general scheme and give it har-
mony and effect.
In the Roman provincial organization, the care and super-
intendence of the great roads, the regulations of the posts,
and the subordinate stations between large towns, called
mansiones and mutationes, for resting and provisioning the
troops and messengers, were primary considerations ; and
the administration of these important duties was necessarily
confided to persons of wealth, if not always of probity.
Such were doubtless the Secundini of Treves; and the
sculptures upon their mausoleum can only be understood
as referring to them in the capacity of general managers
of the traffic upon the rivers and roads of the district, —
agentes in rebus, — acting also, very probably, as magistrates
and collectors of the taxes.
The buildings at Treves, commonly called the Palace of
Constantine, and the Thermae, next demand consideration.
They are both situated on the south-east side of the city, in
an open quarter, at no great distance from each other, and
near the walls, — the Thermae, indeed, forming an angle of
the ancient fortification. The palace of Constantine was
TREVES.
91
turned into a barrack by the French ; and, until very
recently, it has been used for that unworthy purpose since
their occupation of Treves. Previously it served for the
archiepiscopal palace, and in anterior times it appears to
have been occupied by some of the Frankish kings. In
Brower’s Annals is a plate giving a bird’s-eye view of the
building as it stood two centuries ago, when it formed one
side of a square edifice, open in the centre. It is now ^
being renovated by order of the Prussian government,
and, it is reported, will ultimately be converted into a
church.
This building, which, without any authority, has been
called the Palace of Constantine, seems to have been
originally a basilica, and is certainly one of the finest and
most perfect examples extant. Above ground it is com-
posed entirely of square red tiles, fifteen inches in diameter,
and one inch and a quarter thick, with layers of mortar
equal in thickness to the tiles. The entire elevation is
nearly 100 feet, and its length is about 225 feet. In form
it is an oblong square, terminating in an apse, which is
separated from the nave by a grand arch, of a span of sixty
feet, formed of three rows of tiles laid edgeways, the rows
being separated by a band of tiles laid in a contrary direc-
tion ; the arch is eight feet thick. The sides and apse
contain two rows of semicircular -headed, open arches,
the upper being ornamented with three concentric rows of
tiles, the lower with two. The pavement is said to have
been of marble, supported upon a hypocaust, and the walls
of the interior are also reported to have been covered with
marble and paintings. The substruction is composed of
large blocks of sandstone. During the two visits we paid
Treves, we were unable to obtain more than a stolen
glance at the interior of this building. It is to be hoped
that the reparations now being made are under the suj)er-
92
TREVES.
intendence of Kerr Schmidt, or some other architectural
antiquary competent to take advantage of the discoveries
which must necessarily be made during the progress of the
works, and apply them to the further development of the
details of the eonstructlon of this magnificent building,
and, possibly, of its early history.
Crossing the parade, we arrive at the so-called Thermoei
^ to the interior of which a fee obtains ready admission at
all times of the day. It would be almost entirely fruitless
to attempt to give any person a notion of the interest of
tills vast and complex edifice without the aid of drawings
and plans on a large scale. As fiir as can be determined
by the excavations made in 1816, and since, it presents
the form of a parallelogram of about 400 feet in length,
and 350 in width, terminating, towards the country, in a
semicircle, with an apse on either side : the walls, from
sixty to seventy feet high, are composed of squared stones
and tiles, the latter of which are increased in number at
the angles, and in the windows and arches, which are
numerous throughont. The facade is no longer standing,
but the foundations remain, and the plan of the entire
edifice can be tolerably wmll comprehended by the visitor.
The external walls are pierced with two rows of semicir-
cular windows, encircled with triple rows of tiles, and tiles
in double and triple rows alternate throughout with the
squared stones ; some of the large arches are turned with
wedge-shaped stones and tiles. The rooms on the ground-
floor must have been at least from twenty to thirty in
number, and many of them are still almost perfect. A
grand hall, supported by two rows of columns, and termin-
ating inwards with an apse, is one of the portions of which
the upper parts have been dismantled. Plate xxvi is from
a sketch made in the centre of the building, looking down
towards the side which is now the most dilapidated. It
1
TREVES.
93
shews a part of the roof still standing, and pierced with
hollow circular and square tiles. On the opposite side of
the edifice, which is comparatively well preserved, a stair-
case, leading to the top of one of the towers, from Avhicli
is obtained an extensive view of the city and surrounding
country, is yet almost as perfect as ever.
The term Thermce seems to have been given to this /
edifice in consequence of the hypocausts discovered, and
for no other reason. By a strange mistake, it was usual
to associate the hypocaust in all cases, with baths, with
which, at least in the north of Europe, they seldom had
any connexion. The spacious dimensions of this building,
the number and variety of the apartments, and the archi-
tectural elegance, may sanction our transferring to it the
appellation of “ Palace”, heretofore applied to the Basilica
noticed above. In some of the rooms, it may be remarked,
were found vestiges of tessellated pavements; and the
walls, in a few instances, appear to have been covered, to
a certain height, with foreign marbles, and above, with
frescoes in wide parallel bands of different colours, upon a
red ground. It was at Treves, in the triclinium of ^olus,
where Ausonius saw the beautiful fresco painting of Cupid
crucified by the nymphs, which excited his admiration
and suggested the theme of one of his poems. This is
only one of numerous allusions, in ancient writers, which
might be quoted in evidence of the beauty and grandeur
of buildings which formerly existed at Treves, some of
which, we can suppose, may be traced in the remains yet
standing.
In the vicinity of Treves, at about a quarter of a mile
from the building mentioned above, is situated the amphi-
theatre. The high road conducts to one entrance, a path
across gardens and fields to the other. It has been exca-
vated out of a small hill, the sides of which, now covered
94
TREVES.
with vines, were thus made to serve the purpose of arti-
ficial walls. The approaches, on both sides, were adapted
both for carriages and foot passengers, with vaulted pass-
ages— a large one, and two of narrow width leading to
the seats ; and to these entrances semicircular towers
were attached, of which, on the south side, considerable
portions are yet standing. The entrances are opposite to
each other, at the distance of about 220 feet, which is also
that of the greater axis of the ellipsis of the amphitheatre,
the smaller being 155 feet. The walls which surrounded
the area and fenced in the spectators, and the cells allotted
to the regulators of the sports, are still well preserved ;
and a hollow, walled cave, to which is an opening through
the hill, on the city side, indicates the avenue by which
the combatants were conducted to the arena. The concave
sides of the hills shew where rows of seats rose one above
another ; but no traces of them, or very few, are now to
be distinguished. The area is well paved with slate, and
a water-course runs below round the edge. This channel
is conducted beneath the south entrance and the high
road, and empties itself, through an exceedingly perfect
stone arch, into a valley. Though inferior to amphitheatres
in the south of France and in Italy, in architectural features,
it must still be regarded as a work of grand design, and
when in perfect condition, which now we can only well
comprehend from restored views, must have presented an
imposing appearance, vast and peculiar, and not devoid of
elegance, if we consider the decorations, of which some
examples are preserved in the Porta Nigra. Its construc-
tion was admirably adapted for hearing, as, at the present
day, in its dilapidated condition, a voice pitched to an
ordinary conversation tone, can be distinctly heard across
the longest part of the area : a fact suggestive of no
pleasing ideas, recalling to the imagination no strains of
trp:ves.
95
melody or harmony delighting a refined and humane audi-
ence, but shocking the mind with the discordant sounds of
misery, appropriate to this place of cruelty and death.
The JRoman men and women, who, by thousands, enjoyed
the bloody spectacles of the amphitheatre, must have
enjoyed with their ears, as well as with their eyes, the
details of scenes which we shudder to think upon, and to
which even the bull-fights, the prize-fights, and the horse-
races of modern times, present no parallel. No cry of
despair, no groan of the dying, no shriek of the lacerated,
could have escaped unheard by the remotest spectator ;
and when the ferocious Constantine turned such numbers
of his helpless Frankish prisoners loose into the arena, that
the beasts stood still, satiated with slaughter, the audience
doubtless returned home, if not with perfect satisfaction,
at least with but few qualms of conscience. The court
sycophants and panegyrists of the day lauded these atrocities
as noble and famous acts ; but no age ever j^et produced a
tyrant, without begetting also men to praise him.
Some little light is thrown on the approximate date of
the amphitheatre, from a votive altar, found upon the spot,
dedicated to Jupiter and Juno, for the health of Trajan,
by a centurion of the sixth legion. But although this
inscription shews the building was standing in the time of
Trajan, it does not prove its non-existence anterior to his
reign. Like most of the other great edifices at Treves, its
erection has been attributed to the time of Constantine ;
but more importance is to be attached to the testimony of
the stone which the honest soldier set up for the health of
Trajan, than to the hyperboles of Eumenius, who sought
more to flatter his patron than to write unexaggerated
facts.
In 1211, the Archbishop of Treves gave the Roman
amphitheatre to some monks for building materials. The
96
TRKVES.
argument of the archbishop was, that the ruins were of
little or no account to the state, and that they had, for
many ages, been useless.* In the deed of gift he speaks
of them in the profoundest ignorance of their origin,
although at that time, before the monks began to despoliate,
the ruins must have preserved many of their finest features,
and the seats were probably perfect. The prelate’s mode
of reasoning on the utility of ancient monuments, was, in
1211, much the same as that of the Corporation of London
in 1843, when they gave up the remains of old London
wall, on Tower Hill, to be pulled down. Both were ruins ;
and, in the eyes of the owners, were merely useless rub-
bish. The nations who scourged the tyranny and the
misguided government of the Romans, doubtless, in the
intemperance of invasion and conquest, injured and dis-
mantled public and private buildings ; but, possession
obtained, it is difficult to conceive the object of the indis-
criminate destruction commonly laid to their charge. It
is to acts such as those referred to above, done in times of
quietude and peace, that the extermination of the works
of ancient art should be attributed. We cannot under-
stand why the Franks and Saxons should, for no obvious
reason, wage war against their own property, but we have
abundant evidence in historical records, and in recent
events, to enable us to comprehend why prelates and
corporations should order the destruction of what they
considered useless.
To the grand edifices of the Roman epoch yet extant at
Treves, must be added the cathedral. It will hardly be
* “ Nos itaque considerantes, quod per illos muros parum vel
nihil utilitatis in posterum universitati possit accedere, sicut a
multis retro saeculis inutiles fuisse constabat,” etc. — Annul.
Trev., tom. ii, p. 110.
TREVES.
97
allowed that this sacred edifice was, as has been supposed,
a Christian church, built by order of Constantine. The
man who could lead out his captive Frankish princes and
his other prisoners, to the beasts of the arena, was not
likely to be so much influenced by the doctrines of Chris-
tianity, to which his deeds and his monuments shew he
paid but little, if any, respect. Neither is it certain that
the building is of the age of Constantine, although it is
unquestionably of Roman origin. The adaptation of some
important pagan edifice, whether it were a palace, a temple,
or a basilica, to a Christian church, is immediately appa-
rent, while the internal arrangements, and parts of the
fa9ade, may be assigned to the eleventh and subsequent
centuries ; and nowhere, perhaps, on this side the Alps,
can there be found so fine and interesting an example of
the kind. The north and south walls, pierced with win-
dows, are entirely Roman. They are composed of squared
stones and tiles, in alternate layers : those of the tiles
having two rows ; the stones, in rows of three and four.
In certain parts, however, this arrangement is modified, and
the corners are turned wholly with tiles ; these walls are
about one hundred and thirty feet in length, and five feet
thick. The interior is divided into three divisions by four
Corinthian columns, forty-six feet high, and four and a
half feet in diameter. Opposite to these, on the walls, are
pilasters. The columns have all been encased in masonry,
but parts of the capitals protrude, indicating at once what
is concealed beneath. It is probable also, that in the fa9ade
a good deal of Roman work may be found : in the tower
we noticed arches, one of which is of large span, and four
feet thick. On the north side of the cathedral, some inter-
esting Roman substructions have been recently exposed.
They consist of the remains of a hypocaust, and the bases
of columns, which seem to indicate some lateral append-
p
98
TUEVES.
aoes to the oriu’hjal Roman edifice ; but to decide whether
they are contemporaneous with it, or subsequent, I must
refer to the valuable architectural work of Herr Schmidt,
now in course of publication.*
In the precincts of the cathedral, a museum of medieval
ecclesiastical antiquities is being formed under the auspices
of some of the clergy. This we did not see. But our
time enabled us to take a glance at some mural paintings
discovered in a chapel of the cathedral a short time since
during some reparations. The costume of some of the
figures fixes its date to be the latter part of the fifteenth
or of the early part of the sixteenth century. As a work
of art, its pretensions are very humble ; as a curious ex-
ample of the state of religious feelings at this period, and
of a mode of popular education, it is worthy of preserva-
tion. The subject is the Judgment Day, and it is treated
in the boldest and most familiar manner, to awaken the
fears of evil-doers, and rouse them to virtue by the picture
of future terrors. Hell mouth, represented as that of a
monster, is open, and between its extended jaws and
pointed teeth, are troops of the wicked chained and dragged
by demons into flames. The tormentors are let loose to
catch the vicious of all degrees. The mitre protects no
longer the bad bishop, nor his ermine and coronet the
sinful lord ; neither sex nor age, neither wealth nor beauty,
can longer avail their possessors ; monstrous figures chain
* This publication I have not yet been able to examine.
From the known ability of the author, who is an architect by
profession, and who resides at Treves, it will be indispensable
to all who wish to become acquainted with the details of the
Roman and medieval buildings at Treves. I may here speak of
the civility and attention we experienced from Herr Wortmann,
the sacristan of the cathedral.
TREVES.
99
their captives, and haul them along “ to sulphurous and
tormenting flames”. The devils revel at their work. One
of large proportions, winged and horned, with a meaning,
bestial face, sits astride the snout of Hell, blowing a large
horn, across which sits a smaller-sized devil, spurred, and
playing the bagpipes. Out of the horn issue little fiends
anxious for their prey. The devil blowing his horn was
one of the chief of the dramatis persona of the Judgment
Day, as pictured for the popular imagination in the middle
ages. Hearne’s print of the descent into hell is well known
to the readers of “ Hone’s Ancient Mysteries’’. In this
the devil is introduced as blowing a horn, and holding a
flesh-hook. In Gascoigne’s “ Drum of Domesday”, 4to.
1576, there is a cut of the devil in the act of blowino; his
horn. In the church of Campsal, in Yorkshire, is the fol-
lowing inscription, cut upon the oak screen between the
nave and the chancel :*
“ Let fal downe thy ne, and lift up thy hart ;
Behold thy Maker on yond cros al to torn ;
Remember his wondis that for the did smart ;
Gotten without syn, and on a virgin born :
Al his hed percid with a crown of thorn.
Alas, man, thy hart ought to brest in too.
Bewar of the devyl when he blawis his horn,
And pray thy gode aungel convey the.”
Mr. Hunter refers to a poem in the Shepherd's Kalendar^
one of the earliest productions of the English press, entitled
“ How every man and woman ought to cease of their sins
at the sounding of a dreadful horn”, which is a warning
address delivered by the devil in person. It begins thus :
* History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster,
vol. ii, p. 468. By the Rev. Joseph Hunter. Fob, 1831.
100
TREVES.
“ HO; bo, you blind folk, darkned in the cloud
Of ignorant fumes, thick and mystical.
Take heed of my horn, toting all aloud
With boystrous sounds, and blasts boreal.
Giving you warning of the judgment final,” etc.
Mr. Hunter assigns the poem and the inscription to the
latter part of the reign of Edward IV.
The criminals in the Treves painting are dej)icted as fully
sensible of their fate ; with one exception. It is that of
the rich man. While the multitude of condemned sinners
are struggling in despair, he alone is unmoved by the ter-
rors of hell ; his legs are bound, and a demon is dragging
him on ; it is true he is wretched, and he tears his hair in
agony ; but he cares not for the fire and torments that
await him ; he thinks only of his money, to which he had
clung in life, but which now falls out of his hand while he
clutches the empty and worthless purse. The rich man,
the painter intended to intimate, w'ould have been con-
tented and comfortable even in hell itself, if he could have
carried his full money-bag with him.
Treves possesses some remarkable examples of arcliitec-
P L . XX V 1 1 .
C.R.S.<(«6
L.U. sc
TREVES.
101
ture of the period immediately following the Roman,
which in our country is termed Saxon, but which the
French term roman or romanesque, in contradistinction to
romain, or the primitive Roman. Plate xxvii represents
the street view of a building in the Dietrichstrasse, com-
monly known under the misnomer of propugnaculum.
We here see the street end of this house, and also an
enlarged representation of the masonry, which, it will
be perceived, is constructed entirely more Romano, with
squared stones and tiles. The upper part of the house
has been altered from its original state, and fitted with a
sloping roof. The other figures in this plate shew the
form of the columns in the open windows, and a window
in one of the longest sides, sketched from a court in the
street. The semicircular arch is turned with stones and
tiles, precisely as arranged, in several instances, in arches
of pure Roman origin at Treves ; and, in the filling up, a
portion of a sepulchral monument has been used, which, if
we may judge from the form of the letters, appears to be of
early date. This building may be assigned, with safety,
to the ninth or tenth century ; but there seems no reason
why it may not be of still earlier date, unless it be, that,
in a place like Treves, where so many Roman buildings
must have been standing until a comparatively late time,
the peculiar modes of their construction w'ould be unques-
tionably copied, more or less faithfully, for several cen-
turies. This local influence may be noticed in our country,
in some few places, as, for instance, at Colchester, where
both the Saxon and Norman architects have closely fol-
lowed the Roman models before their eyes. We were
unable, for want of time, to get access to the interior of
this building at Treves, which is well worthy a close and
careful examination throughout.
There is another class of monuments at Treves, of the
102
TREVES.
highest interest to the antiquary. It is that of the grave-
stones of early Christians, which have been discovered
chiefly in the neighbourhood of the churches of St. Maxi-
min, St. Paulinus, and St. Mathias. A considerable number
have been published by Brower, and many more are the
result of discoveries made in the present century. The
inscriptions are remarkable for their orthography, simpli-
city of style, and other peculiarities which throw a certain
light on the usages and religious feelings of the converts
to the new religion ; while the dates of most of them
can be pretty accurately inferred. Moreover, they shew
that, at a comparatively early period, Christianity had
taken deep root at Treves, when, from the total absence of
such inscriptions in England, it must be supposed that
paganism still prevailed throughout Britain. The import-
ance of monuments such as these, as evidence of the pro-
gress of Christianity towards the north, has been but little,
if at all, known or insisted on ; and therefore, it Is pre-
sumed, some examples of the varieties found at Treves will
not be found unacceptable :
1.
me QVIESCET DAR
DANIVS • QVI VIXIT
AN • XXXV • APRONI
VS PRATER TITVLVM
POSVIT IN PACE.
The monogram of Christ, as
upon the coins of Magnentius and
Constantins, with the letters alfha
and omega.*
2.
me QVIESCIT TRSATIVS VSTLA
RIVS QVI VIXIT AN 'LXvll CVI ESV
PERIVS VSILLIVS TITVLVM POSVIT.
The monogram of Christ.
3.
me QVIESCET ARCADIOLA
QVE VIXIT ANN ‘ DI ' MEN ’ XXXIIII.
SVIVRSVIVS • ET
MAVRVS ET HETLEA
TETVLVM POSVE
RVNT IN PACE.
The monogram of Christ be-
tween two doves.
4.
QVIESCET IN PACE YPSICHIVS QV^
VIXIT IN SA3CVLO ANNOS XXVIII
MENSES IIII • ARCHONTVS CONIVGI
CARISSIME TITVLVM POSVIT.
The monogram of Christ be-
tween two doves.
* (1). Quiescet for quiescit. (2). Esuperiiis for Exuperius.
(3). Quiescet, in No. \ , ?ov quiescit. Di.men, possibly for
TREVES.
103
5.
HIC lACET EVSEBIVS
QUI VIXIT ANNVM
VNVM ET MENSES SEX
MENVS DIES V ‘ TITVLVM
POSVIT DVLCISSIMO
FILIO SVO VITA
MATER.
The monogram of Christ be-
tween two doves.
6.
HIC • lA • CET • INPA ' CB • INFAS
DVL . CIS • SI • MA • FI • LI • AARABLI
QVE VIXIT ANNOS VII ET ’
...T • DIES • X • TI • TV
OSIDONIVS
TER EN PACE.
In the centre the monogram of
Christ, with alpha and omega be-
tween two doves.
7.
DOXATES HIC SEPVLTVS
lACET QVI VIXIT PLVS MINVS
ANNIS XXV • IN PACE.
The monogram and symbolic
doves, as before.
8.
SEDATVS ET PAULINA
PATRES DVLCISSIMAE FILIA!
DVNAMIOLiE TITVLVM POSV
ERVNT QVjE VIXIT
ANNOS TRES ET MENSES QVINQVE
ET DIES VIGINTI.
The monogram of Christ and the
letters alpha and omega within a
wreath.
9.
HIC PAVSAT IN PACE INGENVA
CHRISTIANA FIDELIS VRSACIVS
CVRSOR DOMINICVS PIENTISSB
T • OCTAVM DECEM KALENDAS PE
BARPIAS, QVI VIXIT ANOS XXVIII
TITVLVM POSVIT DVLCESI
ME SVE MATRVNAa
IN CHRISTO.
Monogram and doves.
10.
T
HIC ...QVIES...
AMVLRICV •
LEVTA • ET MONA
CHS • OBIIT IIII
NON • MARC.
11.
HIC SARRACINA QVIESCIT IN PA
CE QVAIXIT ANNOS PLM XXXI
PH FILIl TITV(^Wm) POSVERVNT.
Two trees, and the concluding
part of the last word, beneath
arches,
12.
HIC lACET VRSA QVAE VIX
ANN • VII • ET • MENS ‘ X ‘ VRSO
LVS • ET ROMVLA PATRES
TETOLVM POSVERVNT
IN PACEN • DE PDS ’ AGV ’ S.
The monogram of Christ, and
the alpha and omega between two
trees.
dies minus. Tetulum, for titulum, occurs frequently in these
inscriptions. (5). Menus, for minus. (6). Hie jacet in pace
infas dulcissima jilia Arabli, quae vixit annos septem et (nienses
...) et dies decern, Titu{lum posuit P)osidonius {palter in pace.
(10). Hie (re)quies{cit) Arnulricus lev{i)ta et monachus ; ohiit
quartum nonas Marcias. (11). Quoixit, quee vixit; plm., plus
minus ; Pii Filii, as it appears in my note-book, is read by Dr.
Lersch, iiii filii, quatuor filii.
104
TREVES.
13.
HIC REQVIES DATA HLODERICI MEMBRA SEPW(lto)
Q,VI CARVS IN NOMERO VICARII NOMINE SVN(pfo)
FVIT IN PVPVLO GRATVS ET IN SVO GENERE VP.{imUs)
CVI VXOR NOBILIS PRO AMORE TITOLVM FIE(ci7)
QVI VIXIT IN SAECVLO ANNVS PLVS MENVS (xXX) ?
CVI DEPOSiTio FVIT IN SAECVLO VII KA{lendas).
Beneath, two fish and a bird.
14.
VRSINIANO SVBDIACONO SVB HOC TVMVLO OSSA QVIESCVNT
Q,VI MERVIT SANCTORVM SOCIARI SEPVLCRO
Q,VEM NEC TARTARVS FVRENS NEC POENA SAEVA NOCEBIT
HVNC TITVLVM POSVIT LVDVLA DVLCISSIMA CONIVX
' R • V • K • D • * VIXIT • ANNIS • XXIII.
15.
EN0A KEHE EYCEBIA EN EIP
INI OYCAIEPOOKMHTI AHll K
£2MHC AAAANUN ZHCAC
MIKPO nPOC ETON IE Yin AT
lA ONIIPIOY O H KAI KliCTIONI
NOY TO A MOINI nANHMOY
IB HMEPA KI B EN EIPINH •
16.
EN0AAE KITE EN
HNE KACCIANOC API
BEACIMIOY APO ITOM.
AA AANHN ZHCA
ACN KPOn AOYCETIH KB
* (14). R ’ V • K • D., requiescif quintam kalendas Decemhres,
(15). Hie jacet Eusehia in pace sepulta, Hierocomitis (?) ex
Addanorum vico, quee brevis cevi prope vixit annos xv. Honorio
vii. et Constantine i. coss. mense Julio die xii. Quescit in pace.
(16.) Hie jacet in pace Cassiamts Ari. Bedsimii ex Addanorum
vico, qui vixit annos Iviii. Several of the foregoing in-
scriptions, taken from Brower, are given precisely as they stand
in the Annal. Trev. They have numerous errors ; but as it is
impossible to say whether they have arisen from the ignorance
or carelessness of the sculptor, or in transcribing, and as most
of the inscriptions given by Brower are now lost, it has seemed
to me best to let them remain as they have been handed down
to us.
TREVES.
105
The numerous early Christian inscriptions found in the
catacombs at Rome, frequently possess a chronological
value, in the introduction of the names of the consuls for
the years in which they were erected. They are chiefly
of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, those of the fifth
being most numerous. Only one of the Treves’ series
given in the foregoing pages is in this respect analogous
to them. It is that marked No. 15 in our list. The Con-
stantine mentioned therein as colleague in the consulate
with Honorius, is the usurper who, in the reign of that
emperor, a.d. 407, was proclaimed Aiigustus by the sol-
diers in Britain and Gaul, and for about four years held
imperial rule in those provinces. It may be inferred that
he proclaimed himself consul, to give a show of being
sanctioned by Honorius, in like manner as he associated
himself with that emperor and Theodosius the younger in
the title of Augustus, as appears by his coins, many of
which are inscribed Victoria Auggg ; and frequently bear
the mint mark of Treves, one of the most considerable
provincial places of mintage. The Vicus Addanorum of
this and the following inscription, was probably Adenau,*
in the Eifel.
The formulae of the Treves inscriptions present several
peculiarities, which must be attributed to local influence
and to the changes which, in the fifth and sixth centuries,
were affecting materially the orthography of the Latin
language. Thus we find the e used for i, as in menus for
minus, and in tetulum for titulum; the i for e in other
cases, as in quiescet for quiescit. The formula titulum
Adenau, a small irregularly-built town, bearing the appear-
ance of high antiquity, is picturesquely situated on the banks of
one of the tributaries of the Ahr.
106
TREVES.
posuii seems almost peculiar to Treves ; hie pans at is also
not of frequent occurrence. Nos. 13 and 14 are the latest
in date of the examples cited.
The neighbourhood of the church of St. Matthias has
furnished a considerable number of these early Christian
monuments, and they are still continually being discovered
in that locality. The annexed cut affords a view of a vault
in the church-yard of St. Matthias, which is filled with
sarcophagi, evidently of very early date, but uninscribed
and very roughly cut. If I remember correctly, I counted
at least a dozen in this vault, and we were told that
there were other vaults in the church-yard, two being
similar in character to this, but which could not be
seen without special leave, as they are private pro-
perty and still used for sepulture. The fioor is ten or
twelve feet below the surface of the ground, and it is
walled at the sides ; but the walls seem to have been added
at a later period. To me the appearance of the vault
seemed to convey a notion that the entire cemetery is filled
TREVES.
107
with such subterranean monuments, and the fact of the side
walls of the vault being built upon some of them (which
are therefore only half visible), seems to prove, that for some
purpose or other, it had been judged fit to arch over these
particular coffins. Although there are no inscriptions upon
the sarcophagi, it is probable that originally epitaphs
appertained to them, such as those on thin slabs of stone
of which so many yet remain at Treves.*
* In the absence of any guide to the antiquities of the neigh-
bourhood of Treves, the following notes may possibly be of use
to some English antiquary who may have time at his command.
They are abridged from a paper by Dr. Schneider, in the Journal
of the Verein von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande^ tom. iii,
184;3, Bonn, — a valuable work, as little known in England as the
society from which it emanates, although the latter can boast of
some of the most distinguished antiquaries in Germany. No sym-
pathy whatever exists between the English and the continental
institutions ; they are, in truth, totally unknown to each other,
and they seem resolved to remain so.
THE PEUM DISTRICT.
I. On the right bank of the rivulet Priim, near the village of
Manderschid, foundations of a Roman villa.
II. Half a league distant, near the village of Wachsweiler,
similar remains.
III. Half a league from Wachsweiler, near Niederpierscheid,
Roman masonry.
IV. By the river Kyll, in the vicinity of Daun, near the iron-
works of Junkerath, is a circular wall about ten feet high, and
eighteen broad, encircling a space of about three hundred paces in
diameter. There are many strange opinions as to its original de-
stination. The earliest and most complete account of it is given
by J. E. Rau, in his “ Monumenta Vetustatis Germaniee.” On its
construction he says : “ In the centre of an area are the remains
of a trilateral building, concealed by rubbish and brambles, built
108
TREVES.
In reviewing the vast and varied monuments of ancient
days which this remarkable city presents, the visitor who
of squared stones, of a large size, the material being such as
is not found in the neighbouring mountains.” Dr. Schneider
suggests the probability of its having been the base of a pyramid
analogous to that of Igel.
VICINITY OF DAIJN.
V. Near the village of Waldkonigen, on a stream which, not
far from its junction with the Leisser, has the name of Piitz-
hornhach, sepulchral remains were found, including ornaments
and weapons.
VI. Near the village of Birgel, close to Aachen - Mainzer-
Strasse, is a wall of Roman masonry, which, from its contiguity
to the Kunststrasse, has been known for many years. At that
place were also found, a beautiful tessellated pavement, portions
of fresco paintings, and abundance of tiles of various kinds.
Near the church of Lissingen Roman tiles are found.
VICINITY or AVITTXICH.
VII. In the district of the extinct volcano Mosenherg, by the
village of Bettenfeld, the foundations of Roman dwelling-houses
were dug into. Adjacent to them is a tumulus, in which was
found a sarcophagus of sandstone, containing a glass vessel filled
with ashes and covered with a heavy stone cover. Hr. Pastor
Max of Bettenfeld, has many Roman coins and other antiquities,
found from time to time in the neighbourhood.
VICINITY OF BITBURG.
VIII. Very spacious and well-preserved remains of a Roman
villa are to he seen on the so-called Ackerburg, situate twenty
minutes from the river Nims, upon an elevated spot on the right
hank. A little hut marks the place, called Ackerburg from time
immemorial, and reputed the nightly resort of goblins and spirits.
The Roman remains are close by, in a plain of about seven acres,
partly exposed to view. They consist of stones and tiles, frag-
ments of columns of sandstone, capitals and shafts ; painted
stucco, tessellated pavements, hypocausts and wood ashes j there
TKEVES.
109
has entered its walls in the spirit of antiquarian inquiry,
cannot fail of being impressed with a mournful conviction
also have been found coins, fragments of urns and glass vessels,
and urns filled with ashes, bones, etc.
IX. Half a league south of Ackerburg, between the villages
of Ehlenz and Liessem, remains of Roman buildings not ex-
cavated.
X. Three quarters of a league west of Bitburg, some paces to
the right of the Bezirksstrasse, at the edge of a wood, are
spacious foundations of a Roman building ; and, a little further
on, those of a small one, which have never been uncovered.
XI. Three quarters of a league to the south, a few minutes’
walk from the village of Masholder, upon an eminence on the
left bank of the Nims, a Roman building unexcavated. It is
called by the country people Mauskopfchen. At the distance of
another half league, also upon the high ground on that left
bank, is another Roman building.
XII. A league and a half north of Bitburg, opposite the place
where two Roman milestones were found, are ruins which seem
to be those of a dwelling-house.
XIII. Roman tiles cover the field on the east side of the Aix-
la-Chapelle Roman road, opposite Masholder.
XIV. Near Schaafbillig, a short half league east of the Roman
road (Romerstrasse), there are subterranean chambers, with
small stone steps leading to them ; the fields in the neighbour-
hood are strewn with Roman tiles.
XV. Opposite Meilbriick, on the west of the Romerstrasse,
Roman masonry.
XVI. The village of Meckel, a quarter of a league west of this
Roman road, is built upon a Roman site. Also, throughout the
extent of the river Kyll, are remains of Roman buildings.
XVII. About twenty minutes north of the village of Rohl, on
its right bank, the ruins of a building were laid open some years
since.
XVIII. Ten minutes’ walk north-west of the village of Her-
110
TREVES.
that the destruction of the great works of ancient art,
which once so profusely covered the soil, has been effected
forst, on the slope of a hill, several Roman graves were found,
in each of which were an urn and a shallow vessel ; coins and
ornaments were also found. A quarter of a league further the
ruins of the Long Wall (Langmauer) stretch over the hill, and
here was foimd a stone inscribed : —
PEDATVRA i^ELICITER
FINIT PRIM^NORVM
D. P.
It refers to the termination of a work done by the soldiers, called
Primani.
TOWN AND VICINITY OE TREVES.
XIX. In digging the foundation of a house in Bridge Street
(Briickenstrasse) in Treves, in 1843, the workmen came upon a
vaulted passage several feet under the ground, high enough to
stand upright in. It runs in the direction of the so-called
Roman baths, and appears again a hundred paces further in
another house. At the said baths there is also an underground
passage, which may he followed a considerable way under the
Pallastplatze.
XX. In 1843, by the partial digging up of a vineyard at
Marxherg, near Treves, very extensive remains of buildings
were discovered. At the south-east side of the vineyard, there
is a wall about one hundred and seventy feet long and four feet
thick, and four by six feet high. It is supported by buttresses,
twelve feet apart. At the north-east end of this wall, at right-
angles, runs another wall towards the vineyard, also with but-
tresses. From the third enclosing wall, which joins the second
at almost a right-angle, several inner walls of cut stone and tiles
proceed. Coins, pottery, and fragments of painted wall were
found.
XXI. At about one hundred paces from these remains, another
building of undoubted Roman construction shews itself. It is
semicircular, and from five to six feet in height, the masomy of
TREVES.
Ill
by the slow and callous hands of ignorance and indiffer-
ence,— engines more pernicious than the effects of time
a network pattern. Several sandstone blocks of from six to
eight feet thick have been found, one of which has on its upper
surface a round hollow, as if for the support of a column. These
ruins are the most extensive in the neighbourhood of Treves,
hut they remain unexplored on any systematic and compre-
hensive scale.
XXII. Close to the west side of the Roman road from
Treves to Cologne, opposite to the Posthause, Helenenberg,
were discovered, many years ago, the foundations of a building.
On this occasion, many horse-shoes of unusual shape were
found, which gave rise to a conjecture that the site may have
been that of one of the mutationes.
XXIII. In the village of Welschbillig, subterranean chambers,
with stone steps, coins, etc.
XXIV. About midway between the villages of Oik and Kerscht,
a quarter of a league from the Roman road on the heights, are
the remains of a Roman building, from which many tiles, hewn
paving stones, and coins, have been dug out from time to
time.
XXV. In the village of Kerscht, some years since, subter-
ranean chambers, in which were urns; also, a hundred paces
westward from the village, on the slope of the hill, urns filled
with ashes.
XXVI. Near the village of Wintersdorf on the Sauer, two
leagues north-west of Treves, is the site of an extensive Roman
settlement. The village lies on a declivity on the left hank of
the Sauer, and is without doubt partly built upon Roman founda-
tions. Some years ago, the foundations of nine rooms were laid
open, when wall-plaster, iron utensils, and copper coins, were
found ; also, an ancient paved way, many feet below the present
surface of the ground, was excavated. In the gardens, on the
road leading from the north into the village, is a well-formed
pavement. Throughout the village are found Roman remains
112
TREVES.
or the revolutions of nations. A feeling of veneration for
the monuments of antiquity was in the middle ages so
of various kinds, pavements, fragments of columns, etc. Five
minutes’ walk from the village, near the Sauer, is the site of the
burial-place of the settlement, where more than twenty stone
coffins have been dug up. They were of different sizes, and
contained bones, urns, and vases, copper and silver coins, and
also arms of various kinds.
XXVII. Near the village of Novel, where the Roman road
from Pfalzel joins the great Roman military way (from Treves
to Cologne), there appears to have stood several Roman build-
ings. Fragments of columns may still be seen lying about in
the village, and others have been used as building materials.
XXVIII. Ten minutes’ walk south-east of Novel, close to the
Roman road from Pfalzel, were discovered (in 1843) the founda-
tions of an extensive villa, with hypocausts, bath rooms, fresco
paintings, etc. Some paces distant was a second building, in
which was a well-preserved column of sandstone, eight feet in
length, etc.
XXIX. Ten minutes’ walk from this place, on the same side
of the Roman road, the vestiges of a Roman building.
XXX. About midway between the villages of Aach and Novel,
on the right side of a small stream, foundations of a dwelling-
house.
XXXI. On the right side of the brook Besselicher, near the
great sandstone bridge, Roman tiles may be noticed in abund-
ance in the fields. According to tradition, a building called
Mennig stood here in former times, from which the bridge de-
rives its name of Menniger Steinbriiche.
XXXII. A hundred paces south of the inn Hohesonne, situate
on the Aachener Strasse, on the east side of the Roman way,
Roman masonry was discovered (in 1843), together with iron
utensils and Roman coins.
XXXIII. Close to these ruins passes a small water-ditch, and.
TREVES.
115
uncommon, that we fail to discern a trace of it. It is
therefore a pleasing tribute to quote an exception in the
on the other side, on the declivity of the hill, Roman walls and
iron utensils were found.
XXXIV. Between these ruins and the long wall running over
the high ground a little way off, on the declivity, large sepul-
chral urns of black pottery filled with bones have been, from
time to time, dug up.
XXXV. Near the inn Neuhaus, on the Aachener Strasse, on
the east side of the Roman way, many years ago, the remains of
a Roman building were discovered, with an immense quantity
of wood ashes, fragments of columns, coins, and some silver
utensils.
XXXVI. Three quarters of a league north-west of Treves, close
to the east side of the Roman road, a small Roman building
was found.
XXXVII. In the village of Igel, a well-preserv'ed tessellated
pavement, of beautiful workmanship, was discovered by a coun-
tryman digging in his garden. This pavement runs close to the
Moselle, and appears to be of considerable extent. Near the
monument of the Secundini, Roman cofiins with bones have
been dug up ; also, a well-executed foot in bronze, fragments of
columns, and coins. The high ground at the back of the monu-
ment, near the church, popular tradition assigns as the site of
the villa of a Roman of high rank.
XXXVIII. In the village of Euren, half a league south-west
from Treves, are several places, especially near the church,
where Roman remains are found.
XXXIX. Three quarters of a league south-east of Treves, on
a height on the left bank of the Kandelbaches, foundations of a
villa, with hypocausts, bath rooms with water pipes, wall stucco
painted blue and red, coins, etc.
XL. At Marxberg, near Treves, where the chapel of St. Mark
stands, on the declivity of the hill, Roman tiles are from time
R
114
TREVES.
lamentation of a poet of the fifteenth century,* and espe-
cially since it was penned over the ruins of Treves.
to time washed down by the rain, denoting that a Roman build-
ing probably occupied the site.
XLi. A few minutes’ walk from the village of Wasserbillig,
three leagues from Treves, on the boundary of the Grand Duchy
of Luxemburg, at from thirty to forty paces from the high road,
there is a strong wall, in stalagmite (bruchstein), close to the
left bank of the Moselle. This wall extends along the river
three hundred paces ; it is still in some places from eight to ten
feet high, and, in some parts, four feet thick. It is very re-
markable, that at certain distances it has vaulted openings, from
seven to eight feet high and from five to six feet wide, which
seem to be the entrances to subterraneous passages. A passage
of smaller dimensions has the appearance of a canal, and has no
doubt given rise to the story of the Ubischtrierischen aqueduct,
which is said to flow into the Moselle at Wasserbillig. Through-
out the course of the wall are found tiles of various kinds,
pottery, and heathens' heads, as the country people call the
Roman coins.
On these details of Roman remains in the neighbourhood of
Treves and in the Eifel, Dr. Schneider remarks, in the first
place, that the number of places in which the vestiges of build-
ings are found is almost beyond calculation ; and that they must
have been much more numerous in the time of the Romans, for
of many every trace has vanished, while many are still undis-
covered. The ruins of buildings spread over plains now quite
desert and unpeopled, in woods and upon hills, not only prove
that a numerous population once existed in these now sterile
tracts, but they shew also in their peculiar situations an evident
arrangement on a comprehensive and well ordered plan. They
are almost all found upon the banks of streams and rivers and
Conrad Celtes, quoted by Brower, Antiq. et Ann. Trev.,
tom. i, p. 49.
TKEVES.
115
“ 0 quanta vestris mcenibus inclytis
Obliterata est gloria principum,
Viri Treverenses, Moselle
Qui gelidum hibitis liquorem.
along the military roads, and are moreover placed at certain
similar distances apart ; many of them were villce rustics, farm-
houses for the purposes of agriculture, rearing of cattle, and
the chase. Some still believe that the Eifel, a country less
neglected by nature than by man, was, in the time of the
Romans, scarcely cultivated or inhabited, and that only near the
great military way and in the neighbourhood of the Rhine, were
there any dwelling-houses. But the vast number of Roman
remains prove the contrary. Besides the great military road
from Treves to Cologne, many other roads led through this dis-
trict, serving as a communication betAveen the various military
stations and the towns. The roads, in so woody and mountain-
ous a region, would not have been constructed without houses
and military protection for the security of travellers. Thus we
find, that not only on the great military routes, where the
mutationes were placed at short distances, but also on the vicinal
roads, there are ruins of Roman buildings at every one or two
leagues. They are almost uniformly situated at about one hun-
dred paces from the road. On the rivers, at every three leagues,
we find the remains of a large building, which was often con-
nected with a station, as was the case with the mansiones on the
military roads. These large houses and camps must have been
in connexion one with another, as well as with the chief toAvn,
for military, commercial, and fiscal purposes. Between the re-
mains of greater extent, on the rivers and roads, at intervals
varying from two to three quarters of a league, are the ruins of
farm-houses. These are particularly worth attention. From
the regularity with which they are placed, it is obvious they
were not huilt imder fortuitous circumstances, but according to
a systematic arrangement. Constantly, at from thirty to forty
paces from the principal building, we come upon a smaller one.
116
TREVES.
Rot'iiain videhar cernere corrutam
Prorsus ruind ; dum feror impiger
Per portions, portas et aulas ;
Perque Palatia prison Regum,
Passim per agros, quce modd oonoidunt,
Feruntque oelsis oulminibus suis,
Tholisque summis atriorum
Arbor es, frutioes, et herbas.
Idola divdm vidimus inolyta,
Insoripta saoris sub titulis suis.
In plateis, heu! nullo honore,
Marmoreis reoubare saxis.
Sepulohra Greeds vidi epifaphiis
Insoripta, busta et stare sub hortulis;
Et manibus saorata funotis,
Urna suprema reperta hi agro est.
Avara quid non tempora devorant ?
I'ulere metas Heroulis ceneas :
Nos nostraque involvunt minis,
Perpetuo rapiente ooelo."
which served as a storehouse. Dr. Schneider conjectures, that
most of the buildings were of one stoiy, and that the upper part
Avas made of Avood, as the heaps of debris do not contain re-
mains proportionate to the extent of the foundation, whilst the
heaps of Avoodashes are enormously large. For the cultivation
of the Eifel, as well as other parts of the district round Treves,
Dr. Schneider, from historical authorities, considers that the
captured Franks were introduced by the Romans. (It Avould
he ver}»^ desirable to know how far the sepulchral remains Avill
support the historical evidence.) He concludes his remarks
Avith observing, how advantageous to history a more minute
acquaintance Avould be of the Avide-spread traces of Roman
dwelling-places in the regions of the Rhine and Moselle ; and
he calls upon the German antiquaries to cooperate Avith a view
to accumulate archaeological statistics.
TREVES,
117
Mr. J. W. Burgon* has happily transferred the senti-
ment of this beautiful elegy to his English version : —
“ Hoav much of power — how much of pride
And beauty, which should longer brave
The might of Time’s resistless tide,
Lies wreck’d around you, men of Treves,
Who live beside the blue Moselle,
And quaff the stream ye love so well.
When gazing on your fallen state,
Methought I gazed on mighty Rome :
The tottering wall — the ruined gate —
The Avreck of many a regal dome —
All that at Rome I sigh’d to see
I saAv again, old Treves, in thee.
I spied amid thy yellow corn
A thousand signs of sure decay;
The shrub had sprung, where, bleak and worn
Still proudly rose thy turrets grey ;
And flowers of sweetest breath and hue
Along thy broken arches grew.
The statues of thy gods lay there.
Profan’d, and prostrate at my feet;
While here an altar, there a prayer.
Or votive sculpture, strew’d the street.
Spreading its shining fragments o’er
The soil it sanctified before.
And there were tombs, unknoAvn to fame.
Their classic epitaphs defaced ;
And gravestones, breathing still the name
Which Love’s own faithful hand had traced;
Now lying in some desert spot.
Half hid, uncared for, and forgot.
Communicated to Mr. DaAvson Turner.
118
MAYENCE.
What may withstand the stream of Time ?
It laid those giant columns low,
Which Hercules once rear’d sublime
That earth and sea their hounds might know ;
And shall we alter Time’s decrees
For relics fair and frail as these ?
MAYENCE.
Mayence, unlike Treves, is well known to English
tourists. It is a large town, of inaposing appearance,
situated on the left bank of the Rhine near the junction
of the Maine.* It occupies the site of the Maguntiacum
of the Romans, one of the most important of their stations
on the Rhine, and the scene of many bloody contests
under the Roman domination, as well as in the middle
ages and down to our own times. The history of Mayence
is a long story of invasions and massacres, war and rapine.
At the present day the town is so strongly garrisoned,
that it is difficult, when in it, to believe that you are not in
some condemned place, under military surveillance ; sol-
diers meet you everywhere, in-doors and out, and you
* Mayence is usually approached by the Rhine, the steamers
which daily ply to and from Cologne affording a quick and easy
mode of transit ; while, at the same time, the river scenery af-
fords an incessant succession of views, which keep the voyager
excited with wonder and delight. A day would be expended in
reaching Coblenz from Treves, either by the Moselle or by land.
Should the traveller, however, be inclined to visit Mayence
from Treves by land, he may accomplish the journey easily in
two days. The route would be by Birkenfeld and Kreutznach.
MAYENCE.
119
may walk for miles before you feel free from guardrooms
and outposts. All the great monuments of antiquity have
been swept away, or, what bombshells and fire have
spared, peaceful selfishness and ignorance have seized
upon ; so that, between these calamitous scourges, Mayence
has none of the grander monuments of ancient days, such
as we see at Treves, left, to give a notion of her former
grandeur. In the citadel is a mass of masonry, called the
Tower of Drusus (which we did not see, as strangers are
not admitted), and at Zahlbach, about a mile from the
town, are the remains of an aqueduct ; and these are all
the Roman antiquities that meet the eye. It is in the
public museum we must look for the ancient monuments
of the city.
There, some idea may be formed of the importance of
Maguntiacum ; for although the museum is comparatively
of recent foundation, its spacious rooms are filled with
local antiquities, such as we can form no conception of
from any museum in our ovui country. In the Mayence
collections one does not see the monuments of Egypt and
of Nineveh, or reliques of art of all ages and countries
in friendly alliance with each other ] but the antiquary
views instead the antiquities of Mayence.*
While most of the remains of ancient Treves indicate
the refinements of peace and the fiourishing condition of
a great city abounding in the luxuries of life, the monu-
ments of Mayence, on the contrary, partake largely of the
military character of the place. The number of sepulchral
inscriptions relating to soldiers of various legions and
cohorts stationed at Maguntiacum, is very considerable.
In our British Museum at London, there is not one room,
nor, I believe, a portion of a room, devoted to the antiquities of
London !
120
MAYENCE.
They are chiefly of the fourth legion, surnamed Mace-
donica ; the fourteenth, surnamed Gemina, Martia,
Victrix ; the sixteenth and the twenty-second, surnamed
Primigenia. The first and the last of these are by far
the most numerous. One formula seems to have been
closely adhered to in these epitaphs. It comprises the
name, parentage, and family of the deceased, the native
town and country, the name of the legion or of the aux-
iliary body to which he belonged, his age, and the term
of his military servitude ; concluding, usually, with the
expression heres posuit, or heredes posuerunt, or some
analogous expression, as frater posuit, or, simply, hie
situs est. Many of these were discovered at Zahlbach,
now a small village near Mayence, on the sides of the
high road, and upwards of a dozen have been set up
near the spot where they were disinterred. The letters
are well cut, and the upper part of the stones, which ap-
pear to be of volcanic origin, is generally pointed and
ornamented, as shewn in pi. xxix. They are chiefly from
three to four feet in height. The first four of the fol-
lowing are examples from the monuments left standing
at Zahlbach, taken from rubbings kindly made for me
by Mr. W. Fennell, of Wakefield ; the others are from
the museum list. The perpendicular divisions shew the
lines as they oeexu* on the stones.
1.
li'EICINIVS I ETANWERV | S ' FORO ' IVLI | MIR ’ REG ’ IIII [
MAC -AN -XXV I STIP'VIII' | H’S'E-
2.
Q’AXIVS'Q'B’? I CAR'QVIETVS’ | DOMO ' XERT | OBRIGA ' MIR *
REG- I IIII-MAC.AN'XRV | STI ‘ X ' ‘ ' EN ’ | EX'S C.
3.
G-MINVCIVS-GT* | STERATIAN-ASPER | AVGVTA (s*c) TAVRIX |
ORVMIR-REG | IIII • MAC ' AXX ’ ‘ ? | STIP ' XXV ' H 'S ‘ E '
MAYENCE.
121
4.
C • VALERIYS I E • E • POLE ' TE ( RTIVS ' HAS | TA • MIL ' LEG ' (
IIII-MAC-AN- I XXX-STIP-X Ih'S'E- H P-C'
5.
C-ANNIVS I CT-ANI- | SAEVTVS | VERCEEEIS | MIE-EEG'XXII |
PEI -AN- XXXIII* I STI*XI*H*S*E* | HT*C*
6.
EEBVREVS • CO | ROTVEETIS * E * MIL * | CHO * I * EVCENSIV * |
HISPANOEVM I AN'IIIL*STI*XXIIII* | H*S*E*H*EX*T*E*C*
7.
EREIOYEEVS* | VERANSATI * E * | GIVES * TVNG * EQ * EX * | COH*I*
ASTVR’AN* I XE*ST*XXII*H*S*E* | T*E*I*H*E*C*
8.
C • EOMANIVS I EQ-AEAE* NOEICO* | CLAVE * CAPITO * [ CEEEIA*
AN*XE*STIP*XIX* I H*S*E*H*EX*T*E*C*
9.
C • VIBVEIVS • C • E • I OEEEX • VALENTIN | VS'MEEIOEA* | MIE-
EEG'XXII* I AN'XXXVIII *STIP -XVIII *H*S*P*
The localities mentioned in the above inscriptions ■will
be easily recognized. The Forum Juliense (1) was in
Gallia Narhonensis ;* Nertobriga (2), in Spain; Augusta
Taurinorum (3), in Italia Transpadana ; Vercellce (5), in
the same region; Celeia (8), a town of ISToricum; and
Mediolanum (9), in Italy, Another of the Zahlbach stones
is inscribed to a soldier of the twenty-second legion, a
native of Lande, a town near to Mediolanum.
Plate xxviii represents the mon'ament bearing the inscrip-
tion No. 8 of the above examples. It is to the memory
of a horseman of an ala or wing of the Norici, who is
figured as about to transfix with liis spear a prostrate foe.
The workmanship is by no means bad ; but the chief in-
terest of such sculptures lies in the pictures they give of
the costume and equipments of the auxiliaries, who com-
posed so large a part of the Roman forces in Germany
Archceologia, vol. xxvii.
s
122
MAYENCE.
and Britain. In tliis example, the long heavy sword is
perhaps the most remarkable object, resembling, as it does,
the early Saxon and Frankish swords. The ephippmm,
or saddle, is also indicated, and the other parts of the
horse furniture clearly made out. The design is common
to the monuments of Roman horse soldiers. Suetonius
tells us that Nero, on returning to Rome from Naples,
alarmed at the news of an insurrection in Gaul, noticed
by the road side a monument of a Roman knight over-
coming a Gaulish soldier, and frivolously interpreted
the circumstances as a fortunate omen.* Tavo sepulchral
monuments, found at Watermore, near Cirencester, and
one near Gloucester,! closely resemble that at Mayence.
From such representations it is very probable that many
of the medieval legends of saints and martyrs took their
origin or borrowed a character which has served to popu-
larize them. Thus the intaglioj in the annexed cut,
which is clearly of early Christian
workmanship, seems a copy of the con-
ventional Roman horseman spearing a
fallen foe, adapted to represent some
Christian legend. At a later period
it might easily become converted into
St. George overcoming the evil principle.
The museum possesses another monument of this class,
which is worthy of mention. It is that of the aq^uilifev,
or eagle-bearer, of the fourteenth legion. The figure is
decorated with two torques and with nine phalarcB in
Nero Claud. Csesar, cap. xli.
f Archeeologia, vol. xxvii, and Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc.,
vol. i, p. 237.
I It is in jasper, and Avas given me by Mr. W. S. Fitch, who
believes it came from the east.
PL. XXIX.
3
OrEf^;VALElsnN
XS'EJEE)'I,4lA
MI ELEC XX 1 1
■;N-XXXVilI:STlP
• H-S-P
EBP
MAYENCE.
123
triple rows, suspended upon the breast from the neck :
from a broad belt, buckled in front, hangs a short sword
or dagger, the handle only of which is shown in the sculp-
ture ; the right hand holds a standard surmounted by an
eagle, and the left rests upon an oval shield; upon the
right wrist is a spiral bracelet, and the feet are covered
with caligce. The figure stands beneath a decorated
canopy supported by two columns of the composite order.
The monument is six feet and a half in height.
Plate xxix exhibits the stone the inscription on which
is given in the foregoing list (No. 9). It is two feet and
a half high, and may be referred to as an example of the
general character of those of Zahlbach and of many in the
museum, except that it has additional ornaments, in the
birds and vase, and the armour on the sides.
There are numerous votive inscriptions to Jupiter and
Juno ; one to Jupiter and the Dese Matres ; one to Luna ;
three to Mercury, in one of which he is styled Domesticus,
in another Felix; two to Bellona ; two to Fortune ; one
to the Nymphs ; three to Genii, etc. Those of which
the dates can be ascertained from the consulates, are of
the third century. Some are of considerable local inter-
est, as referring to the building and renovations of temples
and altars. That to the Nymphs records the dedication
of images and an altar by prcefectus aquce, a title which
probably specially refers to the superintendance of the
great aqueduct, the remains of which at Zahlbach are still
considerable. One to Bellona ( Virtuti Bellonce) comme-
morates the restoration of a temple called Mons Vaticanus
(after the temple of Mars on the Vatican hill at Borne),
in the reign of Maximinus (a.d. 236), by the hastiferi of
the Mattiaci, whose names, nineteen in number, are ap-
pended. It was found at Castel, opposite to Mayence.
There is a dedication to the Bivii, Trivii, and Quadricii,
124
MAYENCE.
by a centurion of the twenty-second legion, and one to the
Genius of the Devii. These were deities which presided
over the roads and streets, their altars being set up re-
spectively where two, three, or four roads converged. The
Genius of the Devii presided over the bye-ways, or such
as swerved from the right line.
The altar bearing the effigies of the planetary deities, I
have alluded to in the account of the Bramdean tessellated
pavement. It is inscribed in . h . d . d . (in honor em domus
divince'). The lower part is quadrilateral ; in this division
are Juno, Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury \ the upper
portion is octagonal, and on seven sides are busts of
Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus,
with their emblems, the eighth being occupied by the in-
scription.
The monuments to civilians are but few. The most
interesting is shewn in pi. xxx. It is a stone, five feet by
three, sculptured on both sides. They are here placed in
juxtaposition :
BLVSSVS'AIVS
AN • LXXV • H • S • E • ME . . .
NIST* AN' VXSO...
SATTO • VEKN . . .
E • PABENTIBUS ' P . .
BLVSSVS • ATVSIRI ' E '
NAVTA • AN • EXXV ‘ H ’ S ' E '
MENIMANII-BK.IGIONIS-F-AN '
VXSOE-VIVA-SIBI'EECIT-PKIMVS-E-
PARENXIBVS'PKO ' PIETATE ' POSIT'
Blussus, Atusiri films, nauta, annorum septuaginta
quinque, hie situs est. Menimane Brigionis filia, anno-
rum , uxor viva sibi fecit ; Primus filius parentibus
pro pietate posuit / that is to say, “ Blussus, the son of
Atusirus, a sailor, aged seventy -five years, is buried here.
Menimane, his wife, the daughter of Brigio, aged — ,
surviving him, erected this monument for themselves.
Primus, their son, in filial piety placed the stone.”
MAYENCE.
125
The second inscription seems to be an exact copy of the
first, with the exception of the omission of the satto’
VERNa in the fourth line, with probably some such word
as cur amt ; signifying that Satto, a bond-slave, shared in
paying the duties of afifection to her deceased master. It
is useless to speculate on the cause of this omission, as
well as on the reason for the double inscription ; whether
the first became injured soon after the stone was set up,
or whether the first stone, being erected in some particular
place, the second epitaph was added to attract more effec-
tually the attention of the passers by. Whatever may have
dictated this departure from the usual custom, it is evident
it was done during the lifetime of the widow. A space
was left for the future insertion of her age, but this seems
to have been done inadvertently ; for it would have been
obviously incompatible with the statement in the follow-
ing line ; and this error seems to have been detected, for
the space was never filled up.
Blussus, his wife Menimane, and son Primus, are all
represented ; the first two seated, the last standing behind
them. Blussus is clothed in the pcenula, a long close-
fitting cloak, resembling the ancient chasuble, with a hood
or cowl ; in his left hand he holds a purse, indicating his
wealthy position in life, and upon the little finger is a
ring. The costume of the lady is particularly interesting.
Probably many years his junior, she seems to have tem-
pered her grief with judgment, and to have taken advan-
tage of the mournful event to set herself forth to the
world in her gayest costume. She had evidently dressed
carefully for the portrait. She wears a vest, fitting closely
to the arms and bust, and at the neck gathered to a frill,
which is enclosed by a torques ; the cuffs turn back like
the modern gauntlet-cuffs. Over this hangs a garment.
126
MAYENCE.
which fails gracefully down in front, and is crossed at
the breast over the left arm. The jewelry of the widow
is of no common description, nor niggardly bestowed.
Upon the breast, below the torques, is a rose-shaped orna-
ment or brooch, and beneath that a couple of fibulae ;
two more, of a similar pattern, fasten the upper gar-
ment near the right shoulder, and upon the left arm just
above the left elbow ; an armlet encircles the right arm,
and bracelets the wrist. The personal decorations com-
pleted, the sculptor has typified some of the lady’s
domestic virtues, by the implements of weaving held in
her hand, and the pet dog in her lap. The son stands
behind his parents. It is not clear if the object behind
his hand be intended for a hulla suspended from the neck,
or for a ball. The picture on the opposite side of the
stone refers to the occupation of Blussus as an owner of
trading vessels on the
Rhine. The boat or
barge is very like those
still used on that river,
and the oars or paddles
particularly so, as may
be seen in the annexed
cut, which represents an
example of those in com-
mon use at the present
day.
A block of red sandstone, four feet in length, is inscribed
LEG • XXII ', between the figures of a bull and a sea-goat ;
another bears a similar inscription, with two seated
nymphs, probably personifications of the Rhine and
Moselle, leaning upon urns and each holding an aquatic
plant ; the latter of these is of good workmanship.
PL.XXXI,
MAYENCE.
m
Height, about 21 inches.
The fragment of a sepulchral
monument of a Roman mason
must not be passed by unnoticed.
Although hut few letters of the
inscription remain, the emblems
of trade show the calling of the
subject of the memorial, who was
probably attached to one of the
legions or cohorts mentioned in
other inscriptions found at
Mayence in somewhat later
times.*
A few fragments of sculpture remain to be mentioned.
They exhibit scenes in domestic life, and in character and
good workmanship resemble some at Treves. It is most
probable they have belonged to a monument very similar
to that at Igel. That shewn in Plate xxxi is a repre-
sentation of two men preparing corn for the mill. One
of them is winnowing or fanning the grain in a fan of
wicker-work, precisely like those stdl employed for similar
processes, while his companion is carrying away a basket-
ful upon his shoulders. It measures six and a quarter
feet by three feet. On the side is a draped figure standing.
Other fragments, which belonged to the same or to some
analogous work, exhibit a male figure seated in a chair ;
men carrying animals, apparently from a vessel, and others
rolling casks up an inclined plane. A bas-relief, very simi-
lar to the last, was discovered at Augsburg in 1601. It
has been engraved by Mr. Richf in illustration of the cella
Compare this with the example figured in Arin-ghi’s Roma
Suhterranea,” p. 119.
f Illustrated Companion to the Latin and Greek Lexicon,
p. 141,
128
MAYENCE.
vinaria, and the mode of stowing away wine in wooden
barrels in climates less genial than the Italian.
The department allotted to minor miscellaneous objects
of Roman art, is filled with curious and interesting speci-
mens, of which no notion can be conveyed by mere de-
scription. Among the bronzes is a fine head of Apollo,
eleven inches in height, and a charioteer in a biga. There
are numerous fibulae, some of which are tastefully worked
and enamelled (see pi. xxxii, figs. 1 to 4).* The terra-cotta
lamps are also worthy of notice for number, form, and the
variety of designs with which they are ornamented. The
red fictile vessels, commonly called Samian, and found
throughout Germany, as heretofore remarked,t strikingly
resemble, in patterns and in the potters’ names, those found
in England. Further comparison of these names with
our London list, will contribute to prove their com-
mon parentage. Those which I had time to note at
Mayence are, cracvnd ; meddici ; maetialis ; secvndi ;
— MICCITEC-; and cintvgnatv. All these, except the
second, have been found in London ; some with a slight
variation in the spelling, as Cracuna F.; Miccio and
Miccionis M.; and Cintugent.%
The sword of Tiberius, as it is called, discovered at
Castel, and now in the possession of Mr. Joseph Gold, a
* Fig. 5 of this plate is a small enamelled object in form of a
stool ; one very similar was found by Mr. M. F. Tapper, at Farley
Heath.
f Collectanea Antiqua, vol. I.
X Several of the embossed bowls, as well as varieties of the plain
kind in the Mayence museum, are figured in the “ Zeitschrift des
Vereins zur Erforschung der rheinischen Geschichte u. Alther-
thiimer in Mainz;” 8vo., Mainz, 1846. One, of a rare class, is
shewn in pi. xxxii, fig. 6. It is about ten inches in diameter.
i
MAYENCE.
129
dealer in antiquities, is one of the most interesting and
remarkable objects discovered in this fertile antiquarian
locality, and is valuable for its elegant workmanship and
the historical designs with which it is decorated. It is
engraved in the J anuary number of the Gentleman’s
Magazine” for the present year (1851),
The treasures of the Mayence museum do not cease
with the Roman epoch. The Frankish sepulchral remains
discovered near Selzen by the brothers W. and L. Linden-
schmidt, have fortunately been deposited by the side of
the remains of the preceding ages, with which they are
closely connected, and thus they mutually illustrate each
other. These Frankish antiquities are to the Germans what
our early Anglo-Saxon remains are to us. They present, as
might be expected, numerous points of resemblance. The
long iron swords, the iron umboes of shields, the iron
knives, the earthen and glass vessels, and the personal
ornaments, found in the Selzen graves, are almost identical
in forms and patterns with similar objects discovered in
the Saxon burial-places in Kent and in many other parts
of England. A coin of Justinian, which had apparently
been suspended round the neck of one of the skeletons,
gives an approximate date to the Selzen graves. One of
the most striking points of difference between the remains
found in the Frankish graves on the Rhine and those in
England is, that adzes or hatchets are often noticed among
the former, but never, as far as I am aware, among the latter.
The Mayence museum possesses no early Christian
sepulchral inscriptions such as abound at Treves. Plate
xxxiii represents an inscribed slab of about four feet by
two. It may be assigned to the sixth or seventh century,
and commemorates two persons, Bertis and Randaalpis.
IN • HVNC • TITOLO ' REQVIISCIT * BONE ' MEMORIAE’ BERTIS*
IN • BISONI • VIXXIT ■ ANVS ’ XX ' RANDAALPVS ’ QVI ' VIXXIT ’
T
130
MAYENCE.
AN... — Tlie termination of the third line seems to refer
to the hisomum, which signifies a place for the burial of
two bodies, and occurs not unfrequently in inscriptions
found in the early Christian catacombs at Rome.*
An Archaeological Society was established a few years
ago, at Mayence. To the present year it has published
two hundred and thirty-eight pages octavo, and thirty-
three pages quarto, with some well-executed engravings.
The chief contributors are Dr. Emele, Herrn Kehrein,
Hennes, Klein, Kulb, W. and L. Lindenschmidt, Becker,
Barfus, Kaufmann, and Dr. Keuscher : and the papers
are chiefiy confined to the Roman and Frankish antiqui-
ties of Mayence and its vicinity.
Opposite Mayence, and connected with it by a bridge
of boats, is Castel, the site of a Roman castellum, round
which appears to have grown up a town of some extent ;
for altars and inscriptions referring to temples and build-
ings have been found there, as well as an immense quan-
tity of miscellaneous antiquities, some of which have found
their way into the museums of Mayence, M^iesbaden, and
* The barbarous latinity, and rude execution of monuments
of this period, coupled, perhaps, with a bad state of preservation,
frequently render them difficult to be read. In the present in-
stance I may observe, that in the Mayence museum catalogue
this inscription stands thus: — iN'HVNCTiTOLO'BECiViisciT'
BONE • MEMOBIAE ' BEBTISINDIS ' QVI ‘ VIXXIT ‘ ANVS * XX ‘
BANPOALDVs-QUi -vixxiT- AN . . . . s-E-TEB. This is more in
accordance with the usual style of this class of epitaphs ; but as
I have no present means of comparing my transcript with the
original I have allowed it to stand unaltered. The catalogue
gives another, which I did not notice : — f ‘ in • hvnc • titoeo’ |
BEQVIISCIT* AV | DOEENDIS ’ QVI ’ f VIXIT ' IN ’ PACE’ | ANNVS*
III - f • I EELICIIEB.
WIESBADEN.
131
Berlin, but others have been caught up and carried off
by dealers and curiosity hunters. A railway connects
Castel with Wiesbaden, which can thus be visited with-
out loss of time ; and under any circumstances, the anti-
quary should inspect the museum, as it contains many
objects found at Mayence and in its viciitity. The name
of Wiesbaden is so commonly associated with pursuits so
far removed from the sphere of science, that of all places
it will be the last to be suspected of supporting a museum
of antiquities rivalling that of Mayence itself. The town
is the Cheltenham or Leamington of the Rhine, and has
much of the aspect of those places ; dull and languid, with
the set forms and gyrations of fashion, and an under-cur-
rent of gambling and other vicious pleasures, upon which
the idle and profligate contrive to exist. The museum
seems but little known to, and is certainly not appreciated
by, the people of the place. We tried at all the book-
sellers’ shoj)s to obtain some catalogue of its contents, or
some work to direct us to the local antiquities of the place,
but in vain. Neither did we succeed better at the insti-
tution. It is true the objects in the different rooms are
labelled, but the writing is frequently illegible and always
too brief, except for the loungers of the place who saunter
through the apartments to wile away the time. The anti-
quary of France or England should not attempt to visit the
Wiesbaden museum, without flrst calling upon the liberal
and intelligent director, Herr Habel, of Schierstein, near
Biberich, to whose muniflcent disposition, I have been
informed, we are indebted for the establishment of the
museum. Too much praise cannot be awarded to the
system of classification adopted in this institution. All
that is wanted by the foreigner is some catalogue to which
he could refer for the history of the various objects, to
know if an account has been published, and if so, where.
132
WIESBADEN.
One of th.e largest and most striking monuments is the
bas-relief of Mithraic groups found at Haddernheim, near
Frankfort. Exclusive of the usual representations of
Mithras and his symbols, it contains several subsidiary
figures not commonly met with. The stone is elaborately
sculptured on both sides, and is in fair preservation. It
may be compared with the analogous remains found
on the site of the Roman station at Housesteads, on the
Roman wall extending from the Tyne to the Solway.* A
bronze door or gate, dug up a short time since at Mayence,
claims notice. It is of large size and ornamented with a
trellis pattern, but unfortunately it was broken up by the
excavators and sold for old metal. f The museum con-
tains a considerable number of inscriptions, and numerous
stamps upon tiles of the twenty-second legion, stamped in
various patterns. Sometimes a maker’s name is added to
that of the legion, as :
LEG- XXII -PK-P'F- LEG -XXII- PR -p-
SEMPRTRONI- C ' C ’ SECVND • E ’
The vessels in glass include many very elegant forms,
which the modern manufacturer might copy with ad-
vantage. One small drinking-cup of green glass is orna-
mented with figures of gladiators fighting. The red pot-
tery is also abundant, and remarkable for some peculiar
varieties of bowls, such as fig. 6, pi. xxxii. Two speci-
mens are of a pale-yellow or straw colour, unglazed, plain
on the outside, but stamped within in patterns common to
the red embossed bowls, incuse.
* See Hodgson’s “Roman Wall and South Tindale”, p. 190,
and Bruce’s “ Roman Wall,” p. 404.
f Mr. J. G. Waller has made a careful drawing of this gate,
which, it is to be hoped, he will publish.
NIEDERBIEBER.
133
The weapons of the Roman and Frankish periods are
particularly worthy the at-
tention of the antiquary; hut
on the present occasion this
mere allusion to them must
suffice. The annexed cut is
from a drawing made by Mr.
J. G. Waller, of the metal
sheath of a short sword, 16
in. in length, and 3J in. in
width. It is probably of about
the fifth century.
In the Wiesbaden and
Mayence museums, the ob-
jects are very properly kept
together as discovered, and
in many instances they are
enclosed in glazed frames,
and suspended from the
walls.
NIEDERBIEBER.
At about three hours’ dis-
tance from Biberich, on the
right bank of the Rhine, is
the small town of Neuwied.
It is of modern date, but calls
for notice as possessing one
of those extraordinary pri-
vate collections of local anti-
quities which are not unff e-
quently to be found in unsus-
pected places. Some years
since excavations were made
134
NIEDERBIEBER.
at Niederbieber, about two miles north of Neuwied, on the
site of a Roman military station, and the discovery of a
large quantity of interesting remains was the result. Most
of them luckily found a resting-place in the palace at
Neuwied, where they are yet preserved, and liberally
allowed to be inspected. The collection would require a
volume to do justice to its various claims. Passing over,
for the present, the numerous works of art of the Roman
and Frankish periods, I must content myself chiefly with
drawing attention to some inscriptions of historical inte-
rest, especially to two which I believe have not been
hitherto noticed by English antiquaries, although they are
connected with Romano-British history.
The first of these, surmounted by the flgure of a genius,
holding a cornucopia and patera, is as follows : —
inVSOCTOBGIINIO
HOKNBKITTONVM
A ■ IBKIOMABIVSOPFI
VS • POSIT • TVMQVINTA
NIISIS POSNTVHM
Idus Octohris. Genio Horestorum Numeri Brittonum.
A Ihlciomarus Ohfius posuit. titulum Quintanenses posue-
runt, totum hoc monimentum.
If this reading be accepted, it appears that a numerus, or
company of the tribe of north Britons, called Horesti, was
stationed in this castrurn, and to their tutelary genius this
votive oflering was dedicated by Opflus Ibkiomarius, in
conjunction with the Quintanenses, the people probably
of the locality. The Horesti are mentioned by Tacitus as
receiving the Romans into their territories, and delivering
up hostages, immediately after the defeat of the Cale-
donians under Galgacus.* Richard of Cirencester places
them beyond the Friths of Forth and Clyde, as far as the
* “ In fines Horestorum exercitum deducit. Ibi acceptis ob-
sidibus, etc.” — Vita Agricolce, c. xxxviii.
NIEDERBIEBER.
135
Tay.* There is no direct evidence to shew the date of
this inscription ; but others which I now cite as equal in
importance, supply, inferentially, this desideratum.
INHDDBAIOLI
EX VEXILEARI COE
EEGIO VICTORIEN
SIVM SIGNIFER
OEVM GENIUMD
ESVO FECERVNT
VIII KAE OCTOBR
PRESENTE ET AEBINO
COS
On the sides :
PATEBNVS
PRVDENS
MARIANVS
DAGOVASSVS
CERIAEIS
ATVRO
VICTOR
SATVEEVS
SATTARA
MACRINVS
lAETVS
APOEEINARIS
SECVNDANVS
VRSVS.
H.XIII.D.8.R.
In honorem domus divince, Bajoli et Vexillarn collegia
Victoriensium Signiferorum , Genium de suo fecerunt, viii
Kal. Octohris, Presente et Albino consulihus, Heredes xiv
de suo restituerunt.
This inscription commemorates the restoration of the
monument (by the persons whose names appear on the
sides), which originally had been erected by the porters
(bajuli), the vexillarii, and the standard-bearers of the
Victorienses, in honour of the divine house, during the
consulship of Presens and Albinus (a.d. 239). It has
been supposed that the Victorienses mentioned in this
inscription were natives of the locality, and that, conse-
quently, the name of the station was Victoria. There
appears to be no other reason for the application of this
name to the castrum at Niederbieber, and it is a very insuf-
ficient one. In the list of towns and stations in Britain,
Nationes vero, Romanis hie subjects, ordine jam sequentur.
Ultra isthmum, usque ad Tavum, gens erant Horestii, quorum
urbes, post prmtenturam quidem extructam, prius enim Damniis
accensebantur, fuerunt Alauna, Lindum, et, re non minus quam
nomine reliquis gloriosior, Victoria, ab Agricola ad flumen
Tavum xx. milliaria ab ejusdem in mare exitu, aedificata, me-
morise proditum dicunt. — Lib. 1, cap. vi.
136
NIEDEKBIEBER.
given by the anonymous cborograpber of Ravenna, Vic-
toria occurs among those of Scotland. Ptolemy also names
it as one of the towns of the Damnii, a people of North
Britain ; and the notice of it by Richard of Cirencester
has already been referred to. It also occurs in his ninth
iter, and in the tenth. The site is given by Hatcher, the
translator of Richard, to Dealgin Ross. To this Victoria
therefore we must assign the Victorienses of the inscrip-
tion. It is seldom, if ever, we find traces of the Roman
auxiliary forces employed in guarding the towns andcastraof
their native districts. The Notitia gives us a very clear
insight into the system which regulated the distribution of
troops raised in the provinces. They were carefully re-
moved to a distance from home and the influence of kin-
dred, friends, and birthplace. Along the line of the great
wall in Britain were stationed cohorts of auxiliaries, drawn
from various parts of the continent, who could have but
little sympathy with the natives of Britain, and who, at
the same time, were not likely, from ties of country and
relationship, to combine in insurrection against the Roman
government. Most of the troops raised in Britain were,
in accordance with this policy, sent to other provinces ;
and by the Notitia and by inscriptions, we trace them in
Gaul, in Spain, in Germany, and even in the East. This
military expatriation seems, however, to have been attended
with regulations, which, though they were probably merely
a part of the same stern system, must have in some respects
alleviated the pain of long absence from native country
and home. From inscriptions we ascertain that particular
bodies of auxiliary soldiers, as well as legions, were often
quartered at towns and stations over a very long period of
time, being recruited by levies raised in their own countries,
from among their own families and countrymen. Inscrip-
tions in this instance do not show how long the Cale-
NIEDERBIEBER.
137
donians were at the Niederbieber station ; they merely
prove the fact of their presence in this castrum in the time
of the Emperor Gordian ; but it may be inferred they had
been stationed there during a considerable period of time.
Inscriptions to genii are exceedingly common. These
guardian deities are usually represented as youthful male
figures, holding a cornucopia, and sacrificing at an altar.
The genius referred to in the latter of the foregoing in-
scriptions (here shewn in reduced size), differs somewhat
from the more conventional
form, in wearing a mural
crown made to resemble a
castrum, indicative of the
military station at Nieder-
bieber, which was placed
under his especial protec-
tion. Four inscriptions to
genii have been found here.
One, that of the Horesti, has
already been mentioned.
The others are of the Vexil-
larii and image-bearers, and
of the Tabularius, or keeper
of the public registers and
documents. They are all
surmounted with figures.
The Rev. J. C. Bruce, in
his recently published work
on the Roman wall,* has
engraved a piece of sculpture found at Netherby, which
* The Roman Wall : a historical, topographical, and descrip-
tive account of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extending
from the Tyne to the Solway. London and Newcastle. 8vo.
1851. u
138
NIEDERBIEBER.
wmm
represents a genius wearing a mural crown.
It was doubt-
NIEDERBIEBER.
139
Mr, Bruce remarks that “ from the grooves which are cut
in the lower part of the stone, we may actually conclude
that the figure had been formerly set in masonry, perhaps to
adorn the approach to some temple”. I am indebted to
Mr. Bruce for the loan of the cut which is here inserted.
As one, if not both, of the other two inscriptions re-
ferred to, is connected with the British troops, I transcribe
them also :
INHDDGENIOVEXILLAR ’ ET
IMAGINE • ATTIANUS ‘ CORESI ‘ VEX
FORTIONIVSCONSTITVTVS
IMAG • SIGNVM ‘ CVM ‘ EUICEA
ET • TABE • MARMOREAM ‘ ‘ D 'D
IMP ■ DNGORDINO AVG ‘ ET’AVIOEACOS’
In honorem domus divine, Genio Vexil-
lariorum et Imaginiferorum, Attianus
Coresius vexillarius {et) Fortionius Con-
stitutus imaginifer, signum cum (xdicula
et tabulam marmoream, dodo dant dedi-
cant, Imperatore Domino nostro Gordiano
Augusto et Aviola Considibus.
GENIO
TABVEARI
I ‘ B A • VIB •
MERCVRI
AES • EBRA
V • S • E ■ E • M •
Genio Tabularii
Publici (?) A.
Vibius Mercuri-
alis librarius vo-
tum solvit Icetus
lubens merito.
The Vexillarii of the first of these dedications are
without much doubt those from Victoria before noticed, as
the two inscriptions bear nearly the same date. In the
former, the Signiferi are mentioned ; in this, the Imaginiferi.
The first of these is a more general term, including the
bearers of standards of various kinds ; the latter has special
reference to the images of the emperor introduced among the
devices of the ensigns. The dedication is curious, as con-
tributing to our knowledge of the internal arrangements of
the Roman military stations. It informs us that a vexilla-
rius and an imaginifer erected a statue, with a shrine and
marble tablet, to the genius of their respective corps. The
second is a dedication to the genius of the Tahularius, or
chief keeper of the record-office of the station, by one of
the clerks or under-keepers. In Brower’s Annals of Treves
140
NIEDERBIEBER.
is an engraving of a fine bas-relief, discovered on the site of
Novioinagus, on the Moselle, which represents a Ubrarius
arranging the registers of the tahularium (vol. i, p. 105).
The tiles found at Niederbieher are stamped coh’iiii"
VIND. LEGIO VIII. LEG’VIII'AVG. AR’ FE. LEG'XXII*
PRI. The Potters’ names are, bennicci • f. — comicvs —
COMISILVS* CRICIRO. GENEORINV. lOCCA ’ F. MEDDVI *
F. QVINTVS • F. VITRIQ * FE. VOLVNIOSSVS.
A notion may be formed of the extent of this collec-
tion, or rather of the objects excavated at Niederbieber,
when it is stated, that some time since a friend gave me
twenty-nine plates, in folio, of the remains. They are
without text, and probably incomplete in themselves. It
is from these plates I have taken the inscriptions and the
sketch of the Genius. f The condition of this interesting
collection of Niederbieber antiquities might be improved.
It is evidently not appreciated by its present owner as it
deserves to be ; and some of the objects, we heard, have
been given to the Berlin Museum.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
At Bonn, the collections of local antiquities are of a
highly important description. The most valuable series is
that of the inscriptions, which, like those of Mayence, are
chiefly military. The cenotaph of M. Caelius, found at
Zanten, is one of the most interesting. The inscription
informs us that Cselius perished with the unfortunate
^ Upon the exterior of the vessel, with this mark, is scratched
Beritonus.
I They were probably published at Bonn. The plates are
marked as lithographed by C. F. Muller, in Carlsruhe, from
drawings chiefly by B. Hundeshagen.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
141
Varus and the three legions which were totally destroyed
by Arminius, in the time of Augustus ; a calamity which,
Suetonius states, the emperor felt so keenly that he let his
hair and beard grow for several months, and in despair
would strike his head against the door, crying out, Quintius
Varus, restore me my legions ! and yearly kept the day
on which the calamity occurred, as one of sorrow and
mourning. Paterculus mentions (lib. ii, cap. cxx) a Caldus
Caelius connected with this tragic event; but he can
scarcely, as some have supposed, be identified with the
M. Caelius of this monument. The figure of Caelius, as
sho’svn in the cut, stands beneath a decorated pediment
142
BONN AND COLOGNE,
supported by two columns, and between two pedestals^
each surmounted by a naked male bust, one inscribed
M • CAELTVS • M • L • PRIVATVS., the Other M • CAELIVS ' M ' 1/
THiAMivs. He wears a civic crown ; upon his wrists are
armillce ; and over his military dress are suspended torques
and phalerce, the details of which and the mode of fasten-
ing being clearly depicted. Beneath is inscribed :
M • CAELIO • T • F • EEM ’ BON.
• •O-EEG-XIIX’ANN-EIII-s.
• • CiniT • BELLO • VARIANO ' OSSA.
• NFERRE • LICEBIT • F ‘ CAELIVS ’ T ‘ F.
LEM • FRATER ' FECIT.
M. Caelio, Titi Filio, Lemonia, Bononia, legionis xviii,
annorum liii semis ; cecidit hello Variano ; ossa inferre
licehit. P. Caelius, Titi Jilius, Lemonia, f rater fecit.
Other monuments discovered near Zanten are now pre-
served in the Bonn museum. Among these may be men-
tioned an altar dedicated to Jupiter by a soldier of the
thirtieth legion, surnamed XJlpia Victrix, during the con-
sulate of Lupus and Maximus, a.d. 236, The altar is
richly sculptured with a figure of Jupiter, standing be-
neath an ornamented canopy, and on the sides figures of
two youths, one of whom holds the acerra, or incense-box,
the other a hog. There is one, by a signifer of the same
legion, to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, bearing the con-
sulate of Gordian and Aviola, a.d. 239, with figures of the
three deities, and sculptured on the sides as the preceding
monument. There are others of this legion, and also of
the first, surnamed Minerva. It may be just worth while
noticing here that these legions, among others, occur on
the coins of Carausius, A warrantable question has been
raised as to the degree of faith to be reposed in these coins as
evidence of the presence of such legions in Britian during
the reign of Carausius. From inscriptions such as these, it
BONN AND COLOGNE.
143
is proved that they were in Germany at a period not far re-
mote from that of the defection of the Roman admiral ; and
it is not improbable, that if the body of the legions remained
faithful, some of the auxiliary cohorts may have detached
themselves and followed the standard of Carausius.
The sepulchral monument of a standard bearer (signifer)
of the fourth cohort of the Asturi, a people of Spain, is,
like others before mentioned, particularly interesting. The
defunct soldier is represented holding in his right hand a
standard, the ornaments and details of which are clearly
delineated ; the other hand rests upon the pommel of a
sword on his side ; a shorter sword or dagger hangs upon
the right side in front, attached to a double belt richly
ornamented ; his head and shoulders are covered with the
skin of an animal, the fore legs and claws of which are
crossed over the breast. The costume resembles that of
the standard bearers on Trajan’s column, and more par-
ticularly that of the statuette found at Cologne (pi. xxxiv),
which represents one of this class of soldiers. This
little bronze figure, shewn in two views, of the actual
size, is now in the collection of Mr. Crofton Croker, who
has kindly presented the plate, etched by his own hand.*
Inscriptions to the topical divinities, the Dece Matres,
are numerous in the museums of Bonn and Cologne.
They have been already referred to in the Collectanea^
and in the Journal of the British Archseological Associa-
For other etchings presented in illustration of these notes,
I am indebted to the kindness of my friends, Mr. Fairholt, Mr.
W. H. Brooke, Mr. LI. Jewitt, Mr. E. B. Price, Mr. H. Burkitt,
Mr. E. Pretty, and Mr. G. De Wilde. The Rev. B. Poste I
have also to thank for translations from the German, from which
the notes under the head of Treves were compiled,
f Vol. I, pp. 136-7.
144
BONN AND COLOGNE.
tion, vol. ii. Papers on this and other subjects relating to
the Roman antiquities of the Rhine, have been published
in the Jahrhucher des Vereins von Alter thumsfreunden im
Rheinlande, a valuable j)eriodical, published at Bonn, but
scarcely known, even by name, in England.
Cologne, the Colonia Agrippina of the Romans, pos-
sesses an infinite number of objects of great antiquarian
interest. Many of these, such as the celebrated cathedral
and some of the fine old churches, are comparatively well
known ; the antiquary visits them, and even the general
tourist contrives to find time to Avalk into the cathedral,
and possibly may also glance at the churches of St. Ursula,
St. Mary on the Capitol, and some others of those early
religious edifices, so rich in their Romanesque architecture,
their shrines, paintings, and legends. But there are more
ancient and rarer remains scattered about this vast city,
which are only known to the local antiquary, and about
which visitors seldom think of inquiring. Like other
cities in Germany, Cologne has suffered the usual penalty
of the universal passion for war. Many of the ancient
public buildings have, in past times, been destroyed, and
those which were spared have been more or less damaged.
The ancient Roman Avails have been levelled in many
parts, and their site is only to be traced here and there.
Notwithstanding, however, the barbarism of ages, the vice
of war on one hand, and the sordid ignorance of civic
rulers on the other, portions of the original Roman wall
are yet to be discovered, most usually encased with ma-
sonry of subsequent periods, as in the gate tlirough which
the Bonn and Cologne railway passes, the gate of St.
Severinus, and on the river side, where the water-gate
will be admired for its massive solidity. The antiquary
who has solely formed his notions of Roman architecture
from the examples remaining in England, will be puzzled
in detecting the most ancient parts of the walls of Cologne.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
145
Layers of tiles, which are almost universally characteristic
of Eomaii masonry in England, are nowhere to be noticed
in the walls of Cologne. In this respect they resemble
the Roman architecture in the town walls of Chester, and
that town affords a further comparison in an arch in the
Julian tower, which is turned with wedge-shaped stones
like those of the water-gate at Cologne, which is almost
entirely Roman work. In the gate through which the
Bonn railway passes Roman masonry shews itself, and
also to a greater extent in the exterior of the gate of
St. Severinus, one of the most interesting parts of the old
mural defences of Cologne,
Tessellated pavem.ents, of which some fine fragments
are preserved in the museum, have been frequently dis-
covered in various parts of the city. The most interesting
is that with busts of Socrates, Diogenes, Cleohulus, and
Sophocles, with the names worked in greek letters. Frag-
ments of other pavements have representations of aquatic
birds, flowers, and geometrical designs.
The museum of local antiquities, though inferior to those
of Bonn, Mayence and Wiesbaden, is well worthy con-
sideration. In minor objects of art it certainly cannot be
compared with the rich and numerous collections before
referred to ; but it possesses a valuable collection of in-
scriptions, some fine fragments of tessellated pavements,
and sculptures. Many of the last are, it is true, frag-
mentary and mutilated, but they will convey a notion of
the importance of the public buildings which must have
adorned the Roman city. Among the votive dedications
are at least seven to the Matronce of various localities ;
one to the goddess Epona ; one to Honos and Favor
( Honori et Vavori ) ; one to Serapis ( Soli Serapi cum
sua dine) ; and one to Semele and her sister goddesses.
Of the inscriptions found at Cologne, one of the most
X
146
BONN AND COLOGNE.
TV 01 thy of notice is that which refers to the restoration
of some building by Arbogastes, the celebrated Frank,
who, towards the close of the fourth century, set up
Eugenius with the title of Augustus, after the death of
Valentinian the younger. In this inscription, which is
unfortunately imperfect, the names of Arcadius and
Eugenius are preserved, together with parts of those of
Theodosius and Arbogastes.* Many of the inscriptions
are connected with the legions stationed at Colonia. A
sepulchral monument to Albanius Vitalis, a horseman of
the Indian wing of the troop of Barbus, a citizen of
Treves, found at Woringen, near Cologne, has been re-
ferred to by Dr. Conrad Leemansf in illustration of one
of the Cirencester monuments to a horseman of the same
body of auxiliary troops. From other inscriptions it ap-
pears that the Ala Indiana had been stationed in Gaul
over a considerable period of time, and from that found at
Cirencester it is probable on some occasion it had been or-
dered into Britain.^ Another commemorates an Egyptian,
Horus, the son of Pabecus, an Alexandrian pilot : —
HOKVS • PABEC
I • F • PUORETA • AL
EXSANDRIN
VS'EXCLASSE
AN'LX-MILIT
AVIT'AN
The early Christian inscriptions are not very numerous.
* For this and other inscriptions consult Dr. Lersch’s “ Cen-
tralmuseum Rheinlandischer Inschriften.” Bonn, 8vo., 1839.
f Archseologia, vol. xxvii, p. 213.
J Captain Shortt suggests that the rude inscription found at
Caerleon, and published by Mr. J. E. Lee, fig. 2, pi. xxi, of his
“Delineations of Roman Antiquities found at Caerleon”, may
be read as referring to the Ala Indiana.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
147
They generally commence with the words Hie jacet; as
Hie jacet Artemia duleis aptissimus (sie) infans, ete.; —
Hiejaeet Emeterius eenturio ex numero gentilium, ete.; —
Hie jaeet puer nomene {sie') Valentiniano, ete. One reads
thus, supplying a few letters : — Si quis dignatur reseire
meo nomen Ru..u..ma dieo ; vixi annis quatuor et men-
sibus undeeim. The Christian character of most of these
is decided by the monogram of Christ and the symbolical
doves.
Large quantities of Roman antiquities of various kinds
are continually being dug up in Cologne and the sur-
rounding districts. Of these only a small portion has
passed into the public museum. There are, I am told,
several extensive private collections. I had not time to
visit any of these, hut I took a cursory glance at some
dealers’ stores, which would have filled a good sized room
if arranged. Fictile vases and glass vessels appear to be
very abundant, and some of them were of rare and inter-
esting forms and patterns. In plate xxxv are represented
some Frankish remains, which were stated to have been
recently found with a human skeleton on the outside of
the gate of St. Severinus. They are of the highest interest,
and I am happy to add, are now preserved in the museum
of Lord Londesborough. They merit a detailed descrip-
tion. Fig. 1 is an urn in slate-coloured clay, ornamented
with circular stamps, one of which, fig, 2, is given of the
actual size. Fig. 3 is a glass goblet. Figs. 4 and 6 are bronze
fibulae in the shape of bu’ds, ornamented with red glass ;
fig. 5 shews the under side of one of them, the pin, which
was of iron, having perished. Fig. 7 is a ring or pendent
ornament, in bronze ; fig. 8, part of a jet ornament. Fig. 9
is a brass coin of the emperor Tacitus, with two glass beads
strung upon a wire. Fig. 10, a fragment of chain armour.
Figs. 11 and 12, glass beads. Fig. 13 is an ornament of
148
BONN AND COLOGNE.
the girdle, composed of bronze and gold with coloured
glass or garnets and vitreous pastes laid upon gold leaf,
the pattern of which, magnified, is shewn in fig. 14. All
these objects are etched of the actual size, with the excep-
tion of the urn and glass goblet, figs. 1 and 3 ; the former
of these is about six inches in height, the latter one inch
and three quarters in height and four and a half inches
across the top.
In a preceding page, I have briefly alluded to the
Frankish remains discovered at Selzen, near Mayence,
and to their general resemblance to those of the Anglo-
Saxons. The group in the plate will illustrate this remark
to those who are familiar with the objects taken from
Saxon graves in various parts of England. The fibulae in
the shape of birds may be compared with examples found
in the Isle of Wight,* at Envermeu, near Dieppe,! at
Longavene, in Picardy, and at Nordendorf, in Bavaria;!
and also at Selzen. The glass goblet is almost precisely
similar to some specimens recently found with skeletons
at Otterham Creek, near Upchurch, in Kent.§ In the
coins worn as ornaments, we recognize evidence of a very
common custom with the Franks and Saxons, of which
numerous instances have been brought to light in our
recent researches, as at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, at
Stowe Heath, in Sufiblk, and in Kent. The beautiful girdle
buckle, fig. 13, resembles, in its mode of construction, the
* Transactions of the British Archteological Association at
Winchester, plate iii, fig. 2.
f Fouilles d’Envermeu en 1850, par M. I’Abhe Cochet.
Revue de Rouen et de Normandie”, Juillet 1850.
! Dr. Rigollot, in the “ Memoires de la Societe des Anti-
quaires de Picardie”, tom. x, p. 199.
I In the possession of Mr. Bland and the Rev. J. Woodruffe.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
149
fibulse and buckles found in Kent and other counties, in most
of which the compartments are filled with coloured glass
and vitreous pastes upon gold foil ; the beads are of almost
universal occurrence among the sepulchral remains of all
epochs of antiquity. The urn partakes of the peculiarity
which distinguishes the productions of the fifth and fol-
lowing centuries ; the form is Roman, but the ornamenta-
tion belongs to a period when Roman models were copied
without a tasteful perception of elegance or propriety of
design. In no works of art does this change manifest
itself more strikingly than in fictile manufactures. Those
of the Saxon and Frankish times, in many respects closely
resembling each other, can be immediately distinguished
from the Roman by any one who has noticed the types of
specimens authenticated as discovered in burial places,
although those types are exceedingly numerous. The
peculiar pattern on the Frankish urn in our plate may
be compared, for instance, with that on the fragment
of an earthen vessel found with other Saxon remains
near Gravesend, and figured
in volume iii, page 236, of
the “ Journal of the British
Archaeological Association”;
and with varieties found at
Selzen,* at Londinieres and
En vermeu.f In vol. i of the
‘‘ Collectanea Antiqua”, pp.
41 and 44, are examples of
Anglo-Saxon pottery. The
annexed cut represents one
Das Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen, Nos. 3 and 9.
f Fouilles de Londinieres en 1847, and Fouilles d’Envernieu
en 1850. “Revue de Rouen”.
Height, four inches ; slate colour.
150
BONN AND COLOGNE.
of the urns from the cemetery at Envermeu, which has
been kindly presented to me by the Abbe Cochet. The
bronze ornament, fig. 7, is quite novel to me. In refer-
ring to the ring-mail, fig. 13, 1 must state that there may be
reason to question the fact of its discovery with the other ob-
jects, and here is a case showing the importance of obtain-
ing good evidence on such discoveries before we attempt
to reason on them, or deduce conclusions, or raise theories.
I saw no cause to suspect the truth of the statement that the
whole of the objects given in the plate, together with a few
more beads and another perforated coin (of Postumus), were
found with a skeleton beyond the gate of St. Severinus.
The combination of the different objects confirmed the
statement, with the exception of the interlaced rings, the
only known examples similar to which are of a much
later date. At the same time it must be taken into con-
sideration, that we know little or nothing of the mode of
construction of the armour of the cataphracti of the later
Roman times, and that there is no other reason than the
want of detailed information or of authenticated examples
of the armour itself, for suspending our judgment on the
early antiquity of the fragment under consideration. There
is a remarkable entry in the Minutes of the Society of
Antiquaries,* which may be referred to as bearing upon
the question. It appears that in 1768, Bishop Lyttelton
exhibited what is described as a piece of network, com-
posed of ringlets of iron, scarcely four-tenths of an inch in
diameter, which is stated to have been found in a barrow
in Dorsetshire. Unfortunately, however, no particulars
of the discovery are recorded, an omission which invali-
dates the testimony, unsupported as it is by other similar
Lib. X, p. 56G.
BONN AND COLOGNE.
151
authenticated facts. The question, then, of the antiquity
of the piece of ring-armour asserted to have been found
with the Frankish remains at Cologne, can only be settled
by further evidence of a more positive kind.
In addition to the various works referred to in the preceding
pages, the following may be consulted with advantage by those
who may desire to study, more fully, the antiquities of the
Rhine : —
Annalen des Vereins fur Nassauische Alterthumskunde
und Geschichtsforschung. 8vo. 1830 to 1850 : Wiesbaden.
Abbildungen von Alterthiimern des Mainzer Museums. Mit
Erklarungen herausgegeben von dem Verein zur Erforschung
der rheinischen Geschichte und Alterthumer. 4to. 1848 to
1851 ; 3 Parts : Mayence.
Notitia Dignitatum et Administrationum omnium tarn civilium
quam militarium in partibus Orientis et Occidentis. Ad Codd.
MSS. editorumque fidem recensuit commentariisque illustravit
Edvardus Rocking. 2 vols. 8vo.; Bonn, 1850.
L’Art et I’Archeologie sur les bords du Rhin, par Auguste
152
BONN AND COLOGNE.
Reichensperger, conseiller a la cour d’appel de Cologne, etc.
4to. 1849: Paris. From the “ Annales Archeologiques” of
M. Didron.
NEW AND UNPUBLISHED TYPE OF THE
COINS OF CAKAUSIUS.
/
The coin, here represented, is a new and important
addition to numismatic science, and may be regarded with
the highest interest, as being one of the most remarkable
of a series which is justly esteemed the most precious
illustration of the history of our native country. It forms
the unique example of a novel class, having a full-faced
portrait of Carausius.
For this valuable increase to my collection I am indebted
to the kindness of the Rev. Edward Egremont of Wroxeter,
near Shrewsbury, a village which occupies the site of
Urioconium or Viroconium, one of the chief towns of
Roman Britain, within the precincts of which the coin
was found.
It is the portrait which gives value to this remarkable
piece. The gold, silver, and brass coins of this emperor
have uniformly a profile, and in no instance, save in this
specimen, is the head bare. It is either laureated, or
helmeted, or radiated. Upon contemporary coins, more-
over, it was not the practice to give a front face. This
fact, coupled with that of the superior workmanship of
our new specimen, suggests the belief that the portrait is
Y
154
COINS OF CARAUSIUS.
the result of a careful and successful attempt by the artist
to produce a likeness. As such, we may contemplate the
coin with additional interest. Those who are familiar
with the profile of Carausius, in the better executed
specimens, will recognize in the front face the peculiar
character of the former, with an expression of countenance
indicative of decision and benignity, which the side face
does not always convey.
The portraits of historical personages are always in-
teresting. This coin, which reveals to us in pleasing-
features what may probably be regarded as the most com-
plete likeness we possess of so remarkable a man as
Carausius, will be appreciated by all who have reflected
on the conspicuous part he acted in the history of our
country.*
The reverse of the coin, it may be observed, calls for no
particular remark, as it differs only very slightly from
published examples.
* For a long time I have contemplated publishing a series of
plates of the coins of Carausius and Allectus. Circumstances
have retarded without causing me to abandon my intention.
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS
rx)CNJ> IX
KENT, SUFFOLK, AND LEICESTERSHIRE.
PLATES XXXVI TO XLIV.
One of tie best signs of the sound spirit in which
archaeological researches are conducted at the present day,
is the attention generally paid to classification, and to
recording facts which justify the arrangement of objects
under special heads. It is the want of system in authenti-
cation which renders so many of the antiquarian publi-
cations of former times of comparatively little value, and
it is to the same kind of neglect we must attribute the
almost utter uselessness of the antiquities collected to-
gether in many of our public and private museums. To
what scientific purpose can entire cases or rooms full of
works of ancient art be applied, if the collectors cared
nothing for recording where they came from, how, and under
what particular circumstances they were found ? In the
plain-spoken language of old Hutton, “the antiquary values
a piece according to its authenticity. A piece of coin, not
worth a shilling, will bring many times its intrinsic worth
when its history is known. But, if its antiquity be ever
so great, if the history be dark, the value is no more than
its weight.”* Douglas, in his Nenia Britannica, was one
The History of the Roman Wall,” p. xxv, 8vo. Loudon,
1813.
156
ANGLO-SAXON KEMAlNS.
of tlie first to substitute details, a clear description, and
ample illustrations, for vague generalities and theories
sparingly supported by facts, and still more sparingly
accompanied by drawings of the objects commented on.
In consequence, his book is one of the most useful, and
has, in the department to which it is more specially de-
voted, been more serviceable, as a work of reference, than
any other we possess.
Anglo-Saxon antiquities are among the most interesting
of our early national remains. Their value, however,
appreciated only by the antiquary and the historian, is
unestimated by the country at large.
Parliament, which yearly votes large sums of money for
the purchase of foreign antiquities, leaves those of
England uncared for. Among the latter, the Anglo-
Saxon are some of the most valuable. But when we
daily see the vast works of peoples and nations, who, in
long past times, have successively called our island their
own, overturned and destroyed, can we wonder that minor
objects, of a frail and perishable nature, should also have
vanished ? The Celtic cromlechs have been pulled
down ; the barrows have been levelled ; for the space of
nineteen miles the government high-road is paved with
the lowest layer of the great Roman wall; the ruins of
Roman towns and cities have been the prey of corporations
and landowners ; and our rulers say it is no business of
theirs. It is not surprising then that so few of the re-
mains of our Saxon forefathers, ploughed or dug up from
their graves, should now be found preserved. For ages
these misnamed resting-places were rifled by treasure-
seekers. Down to our own days the gold and silver
ornaments have been saved only for the melting-pot ; the
weapons of war and military accoutrements have been
hastened to annihilation by useless discovery, and too
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
157
frequently the misdirected researches of archaeologists
have contributed to the general destruction. Thus it is,
that while in France and in Germany there are numerous
excellent collections of Frankish and Merovingian an-
tiquities, corresponding in date and character with our
Saxon, in England, owing to the miserable ohtuseness of
the parliament and its ignorance or insincerity, no pro-
vision is made for preserving our ancient national remains ;
and while it is the fashion at set times and places to hear
appeals made to the wisdom of Saxon forefathers, to their
laws and institutions,* the foreigner asks in vain to be
shown a relic of one of their monuments. Fie may be
fortunate, in some private collection, to sec a few fibula)
or other ornaments, but the nation has nothing of the sort
to show him, and he turns aside, feeling that Englishmen,
though on special occasions they boast of their ancestors,
in reality care nothing about them, and despise their
works.
It is with a view to aid in counteracting the disastrous
effects of the national neglect, that this publication was
established ; in which, free from control and the in-
adequate assistance rendered by antiquarian societies, I
can, from time to time, as circumstances permit, record
discoveries which would else soon be forgotten, and de-
Ex.gr. One of the last appears in the Times of July 17th,
in a report of a Meeting of the Court of Aldermen of the City of
London on the 1 5th. On that occasion a member of the Court
gave notice of a motion, in which it is admitted that only a mere
fraction of the inhabitants have any share in constituting the
present defective civic government, and the motion states —
“ this state of the municipal constituency, representing the most
ancient and wealthiest community in Her Majesty’s dominions,
is highly unsatisfactory, and is fraught with danger to the due
maintenance of our Saxon inslitulions, etc.”
158
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
lineate objects which, in many cases, are probably doomed
to speedy dispersion and loss. In the plates now pre-
sented, 1 have gathered together various Anglo-Saxon
antiquities, which are either in themselves curious and
interesting as works of art, or which serve as materials
towards a more perfect knowledge of the general habits
and customs of the early Saxon settlers in Britain.
Plate xxvi. In the spring of the present year, some
excavators of brick-earth, at Strood, dug up the contents
of a grave in land contiguous to the site of the Homan
cemetery described in vol i. They consisted of a human
skeleton ; a sword (fig. 2) ; a spear-head (fig. 3) ; a knife
(fig. 4) ; an umbo (fig. 5) ; and other appendages to a
shield (figs. 6 and 8), in iron ; fig. 7 in bronze, together
with a bronze buckle shown
in the adjoining cut. The
blade of the sword measures
two feet seven inches in length,
the handle four inches and a
half. The interior of the scab-
bard was of wood, portions of
which still remain, together
with part of its outer covering,
which resembles shagreen ; it is indicated in the etching
near the handle. The spear-head, including the shaft,
measures ten inches and a half ; the knife six inches and
a half ; the umbo six inches across at the bottom, in height
three inches. Fig. 6 is a piece of iron which strengthened
the handle of the shield or buckler immediately beneath
the umbo ; in its entire length it measured about five
inches ; fig. 8 is about the same length ; fig. 7 is the size
of the original ; it appears to have been an ornamental
nail or rivet of the girdle.
The most remarkable object in this sepulchre remains to
Irl. XXXVI
AM(^lL(n)- Sj<^XON REMAINoS*
DISCOVERED AT
in KEJNTT
■4
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS,
159
be described. It is a small bronze coffer or box, (fig. 1)
made of two thin plates of bronze riveted together and
bound round at the lower part with a narrow band of the
same metal. The cover and bottom of the box are lost.
On one side a ring is attached, from which it would seem
that the box had been carried about the person and
suspended for security to the girdle or some part of the
dress. Round the outer plate is stamped, in low relief, a
group of three figures, six times repeated. It consists of
three personages, the middle seated and nimbed, the
others standing, one on each side, with their arms crossed
upon the breast above the head of one is a cross, and
over the other a bird carrying a wreath. Below is a
border of foliage and birds, partially concealed by the
band.
The Christian character of the design will be at once
recognized, but the subject intended to be represented is
not so apparent. It seems to be a copy of one of the
numerous representations of incidents in Scripture history
common in the fourth and fifth centuries, of which many
good examples are extant at Rome in sculptures procured
from the catacombs ; such as Christ seated teaching in
the temple, or Christ with the apostles Peter and Paul.
The fabrication of the coffer may be assigned to the fifth
or sixth century, and it was, doubtless, imported into
Britain from Gaul or Italy. The pagan Saxons were
accustomed to inter with their dead not only weapons,
personal ornaments, and drinking cups, but also a variety
of objects which, in some way or other, had been as-
From the faint manner in which the design has been
stamped, the uniform crossing of the arms is not readily seen on
the smaller figures. Upon a very close inspection, however,
that attitude is apparent in both.
1()0
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
sociated with the deceased when living, precisely after the
manner of the Romans before them. Small metal boxes,
containing articles of the toilet, have been found in the
graves of females both in England and in Germany.*
It is very desirable to make further comparisons be-
tween the sepulchral remains of the Saxons in our own
country, and those of the Franks in Germany and in
France. The general analogy is very striking, but at the
same time there seem to be some peculiarities in each,
the extent of which can only be decided by more complete
collections of materials for comparison. In various parts
of England it is not unusual to meet with thin metal bowls
in Saxon graves. They have been found in Kentf and in
Essex. J In the burial-place at Eairford, in Gloucester-
shire, recently excavated, under the superintendance and
at the expense of Mr. W. M. Wylie, a thin copper vessel,
with an iron handle, was
found. It precisely re-
sembles one dug up in
Queneborowfield, Leices-
tershire. § These examples
are somewhat different in
form to those referred to
Teti IncliPs and a half in width, thirty-one aboVC, whlch are USUally
inches in circumference. shallow and basin-shapcd,
sometimes without handles and sometimes with moveable
handles soldered on below the rim.
Equally common in our Saxon graves are the remains
of wooden pails or buckets, banded with brass hoops and
occasionally ornamented with triangular pieces of metal.
See Douglas’s Nenia, pi. xviii, fig. 1.
f ArchcBologia, vol. xxx, p. 133. | Ibid. vol. xvi, p. 364.
§ Nichols’s Leicestershire, vol. i. Part ii, p. 136.
PLXXXVIi.
L
CR,Smxth .3d ^ ~ T:W.Tair'holt.Sc.
AbIGLO-SAXON T^el J\/V.AI1VS;
FOUND TN KENT',
ANGLO-SAXON R K A [ A I N S .
161
One found in a grave at Ash, in Kent, is in Mr. Rolfe’s col-
lection ;* another was lately dug up at Fairford, and a third
example, shown in
the annexed cut,
was discovered at
Streetway Hill,
Wilbraham, Cam-
bridgeshire, with
iron weapons, beads,
perforated Roman
coins, and other ob-
jects, t A similar
pail, found in a
barrow near Marl-
borough, IS Orna- Height, S inches; diameter, from S to lOluobes.
mented with metal hoops, embossed or stamped with
figures of animals.J In the British Museum are some
fragments of a pail, stated to have been
found between Sandgate and Dover, but
without any reference to particulars.
They are here represented ; a is a bronze
ornament attached to the wood, and b, a
part of the bronze rim or border.
Plate xxxvii. In this plate are brought
together some of the richer kinds of early
Saxon ornaments, for which the county
of Kent is more remarkable than any
part of England. Fig. 1 is a fibula, found
with a human skeleton, in the spring of
the present year by diggers of gravel at Otterham Creek,
^ It is figured in Boys’s Sandwich, p. 868.
t It has been presented to the British Museum by Mr. Deck,
of Cambridge.
I Hoare’s Ancient Wiltshire, vol. ii, pi. vi.
162
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
near Upclmrcli. It is in silver gilt, and set with glass,
ruby and blue ; the circular compartments seem to have
been filled with some more perishable substance, possibly
mother-of-pearl, or a siliceous paste. The gold filigree-
work is exquisitely- finished, and laid in with the greatest
care. It was fastened at the back with a pin, which has
perished or fallen out. With the fibula were found some
oblong amethystine beads, a
bottle-shaped darkish clay
vessel, a Roman red glazed
patera, inscribed tittivs.f,
and a glass vessel of a light
green colour, shewn in the
annexed cut. These remains
are in the collection of the Rev. J. W^oodruff of
Upchurch. Two glass vessels, of a different shape,
were found a few years since at
the same place. They are in
the possession of Mr. Bland, of
Hartlip. (See cut in p. 347,
vol. ii, of the Journal of the
Archceological Association.')
The glass vessels from the Saxon
graves in Kent are of a great
variety of form, and of very
marked character. Examples
will be found in Douglas’s
Nenia, in the Archceologia, and
in the above mentioned Journal J Height, 5 inches.
One somewhat different from these is introduced above. It
is in dark green glass, and is stated to have been found in
^ For ready reference, Akerman’s Archaeological Index will
be found useful for types of Anglo-Saxon antiquities.
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
163
a gravel-pit at Mill Bank, in the parish of Hoth, near
Reculver, about the year 1772, with human bones and
another bottle, which was broken.* The most remark-
able example of Saxon glass is a cup preserved in the
Canterbury Museum, said to have been found at Reculyer.
It is of an olive green colour, and is covered with
hollow protuberances. One very similar has recently
been found at Fairford, and an example occurs also
among the Frankish remains from the graves at Selzen.f
The former has been engraved in the Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries, vol. ii, p. 132. Another of the
same kind is engraved in the Archceologia, vol. xv, pi.
XXXVII, fig. 1. The account given with the latter is, that
it was found at Castle-Eden, in Durham, with a human
skeleton ; that it is of a light greenish colour like that of
Florence flasks ; the rough edges of blue glass, more
opaque than the other parts, and the projections hollow.
The Fairford cup was examined by Mr. Apsley Pellatt,
who, from its close resemblance to medieval Italian manu-
facture, thought it much less ancient than it really is.J
The other figures in plate xxxvii are selected from
numerous Saxon remains preserved in the museum of
Canterbury, Unfortunately, no particulars respecting
their discovery are attached to them ; so that all that can
be said at present on the subject is, that figs. 2, 6, and
7, appear to have been found at Mersham; fig. 5 at
Belmont, and fig. 4 at one of those places, or at Crundale,
all of Avhich localities having contributed Saxon antiquities
* From a paper deposited with it in the British Museum.
I Das Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen, von W. und L.
Lindenschmit, p. 6.
X It is to be regretted the Council of the Society of Antiquaries
did not order this interesting and rare example of Saxon glass
to be engraved the full size, and coloured.
164
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
to the county museum. The beautiful hair-pin, fig. 3,
was dug up many years ago by Mr. Kingsford, from a
grave at Gilton, and was presented by Mr. John Brent,
Jun. It is of bronze gilt, and is probably of late Roman
workmanship. Figs. 6 and 7 are two views of the same
buckle, in bronze ; fig. 8 is another buckle in bronze ;
fig. 9, of mixed metal, partially gilt, has been riveted to
something, probably a belt; the last two objects are not
labelled, but they appear to be the same as are engraved
in Boys’s Sandwich, in the plates of the antiquities found
at Ash.
All the figures in this plate are of the size of the originals,
except figs. 8 and 9, which are reduced one third.
Plate XXXVIII. For the drawing from which thi§
plate was etched, I am indebted to Mr. Thomas Frye
of Saffron Walden. The objects represented are in
the possession of Mr. W. W. Boreham of Haverhill,
Suffolk, who obtained them from a barrow at Coombe,
in Kent, about three years ago. At a meeting of
the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute, held
September 14, 1848, Mr. Boreham gave an account of
the discovery, of which the substance is as follows. Six
feet below an artificial surface, of a kind of clay, about
twenty yards diameter, was a grave, in which were found
a copper bowl or basin with short legs and with handles,
containing some burnt human bones. By the side of the
bowl were two swords and a spear -head in iron, some
glass and amber beads, and part of an ornament set with
garnet or coloured glass. The swords, Mr. Boreham ob-
served, were said to have been wrapped in cloth, and a
veil of cloth appears to have been laid over the bowl,
portions of which are still adhering to its edges. The
construction of the copper bowl is remarkable ; the two
handles, which are in good preservation, have been
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
165
soldered on, not riveted ; the same may be said of the feet
or support ; the bowl itself being soldered on a circular
rim of copper which had three rude feet.* Fig. 1 repre-
sents the handle and part of one of the swords, of
the lull size, the entire length being about thirty inches.
The ornamented parts of the handle are of bronze gilt. It
very closely resembles a specimen in the collection of Mr.
Holfe, found at Gilton, in the same parish as Coombe, and
engraved in the Archceologia, vol. xxx, pi. xi. Fig. 2 is in
bronze, very thickly gilt ; fig. 3, a fragment of a bronze
fibula, set with ruby-coloured glass ; fig. 4, a brass stud ;
fig. 5, beads in amber, terra-cotta, and glass.
Mr. Clarke has very kindly supplied me with the
description of these interesting remains, which I have not
had an opportunity of examining.
Plates XXXIX, xl, and xli, are devoted to miscellaneous
objects in the possession of Mr. Joseph Warren, of
Ixworth, in SulFolk.
They were found in 1849, at Stowe Heath,f during the
digging of stone, together with skeletons, numerous urns,
spear -heads, and bosses of shields.
Plate xxxix. Figs. 1 and 2 are two bronze implements,
the use of which cannot be determined until an oppor-
tunity has been afiforded of observing the position in which
other examples may be discovered in graves carefully laid
open. Mr. Deck, of Cambridge, possesses one very
similar to these, found with Saxon remains at Wilbraham,
and Mr. Lawson, of Aldborough, has another, slightly
different, found with a skeleton near that village, which
Extracted from the Proceedings of the Bury and West
Suffolk Archseological Institute, No. 1, p. 27.
t Stowe Heath joins the parish of Icklingham, where many
Roman antiquities have been found.
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
1()6
occupies the site of the Roman Isurium. Other' speci-
mens, found in Leicestershire, are given in plate xlii.
Some of them bear traces of iron at the narrow extremity,
and it is not improbable they may have been fixed to pails,
such as that in p. 161. Fig. 3 is in bronze, the reverse
side plain. Figs. 4 are perforated Roman coins of the
fourth century, used as ornaments ; they are worn almost
smooth apparently from long circulation ; figs. 5 are beads
chiefly in coloured glass and clay; a large quantity in
amber were also found. All the objects in this plate are
etched the actual size.
Plate XL. Fibulae in bronze, half the size of the
originals ; the pins, which were of iron, have perished.
Fibulae of this peculiar class have been frequently found
in Suffolk and Norfolk, and also in Essex, Northampton-
shire, Warwickshire,* Leicestershire, and Yorkshire. In
a barrow near Driffield, opened by Mr. W. Bowman, in
1849, for the York Antiquarian Club, two such fibulae
were found with the skeleton of a female, one upon each
breast. Mr. Bowman informs me that the body had
evidently been buried in a linen garment, as a large
quantity was distinctly visible when the grave was opened,
and a portion still adhered to one of the fibulae. On
each shoulder of another skeleton, found in the same
barrow, was a circular fibula, saucer-shaped, and enamelled.
Plate XLi. Fibulae and clasps in bronze ; etched of the
actual size.
While this sheet was passing through the press, I was
enabled to examine, through the kindness of Mr. Samuel
Tymms, of Bury St. Edmund’s, another collection of
Saxon antiquities from Stowe Heath, in the possession of
Mr. J. Gwilt, some of which I have represented in the
two following plates.
See Collectanea Antiqua, vol. i, plates xviii and xix.
PL-XXXIX.
PL.XLII.
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
16T
Plate XLi A, A bronze gilt fibula, etched the size of the
original. It resembles one found in Leicestershire, now
in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Plate XLI B. Pig. 1. A small clay cup, roughly made,
three inches in height, and four in diameter ; it is without
a stand, like the glass goblets ; fig. 2, a bronze ornament,
imperfect ; fig. 3, a bronze fibula ; it is remarkable for
the combination of the Poman form with the reptile
head pattern, so common in works of the Saxon jieriod ;
fig. 4 is another example of figs. 1 and 2 in pi. xxxix ; the
remains of some appendage in iron are very visible.
With the objects shewn in these two plates were, a
fibula resembling fig. 2, pi. x, vol. xxxiv of the Archceo-
logia ; three fibulae like those previously obtained from
Stowe Heath (see pi. xl) ; a variety of beads in amber,
glass, and clay ; an umbo of a shield, a spear -head, and
some rings in iron.
Plate XLI I. In this plate are a variety of Saxon re-
mains found in 1795 in the lordship of Great Wigston, in
digging gravel for the road leading from Leicester to
Welford, — a brief account of which was published in
Nichols’s valuable and rare History of Leicestershire,
vol. iv, part 1, p. 377 ; the illustrations which accom-
panied it are here reproduced for the sake of comparison.
Figs. 8 and 13 are evidently parts of one of the bronze
implements similar to those from Stowe Heath, and fig.
7 is another of the same kind; fig. 3 is a perfect gilt
copper fibula ; fig. 9, and the fragment, fig. 1, are similar
to those of plate xl; figs. 6, 10 and 11 are fragments
of fibulae ; fig. 4, pottery ; fig. 5, glass ; fig. 12, a bronze
ring ; fig. 14, pin of copper with wire ring ; fig. 2 is de-
scribed as a rim of a helmet. It is stated that these
remains were found within a square of ten yards, with
about twenty human skeletons and part of a skeleton of
168
ANCiLO-SAXOX RE]\[ATNS.
a horse. Some of the bodies appear to have been buried
together, within a rough stone enclosure, and covered with
a layer of stones ; but the report referred to is very
loosely put together, and we must be content with these
representations of some of the objects, and hope that
persons who profess themselves archeeologists will not in
future be satisfied in merely acquiring antiquities without
looking for their history.
Plate XLiii. A bronze fibula, of extraordinary size, but
not quite perfect, found at Ingersby, ten miles east of
Leicester, and now preserved in the Leicester museum.
The etching, from a drawing by Mr. John Flower, is the
size of the original.
Plate XLiv. Figs. 1 to 9, 13 and 14, are sceattas, of
which fig. 1, found near Marlborough, and fig. 2, found
near Oxford, are in the cabinet of Lord Londesborough ;
fig. 1 is unpublished, and fig. 2 is a good example of a
rare variety ; fig. 5 was found at Etaples, and is now in
the Boulogne museum. Figs. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, and 14
were found in the Thames, and are part of my London
collection. Of these, fig. 8 is the most interesting, and
perhaps the best executed specimen, yet discovered, of
the earlier Saxon silver coins. The obverse shews a close
imitation of the denarii of the lower empire. Its weight
also (20 grains), accords with that of many of the silver
Roman coins of the fourth and fifth centuries. The letters
appear to be sigcr, and suggest the possibility of their
being intended for Sigehriht, one of the West-Saxon
kings of the eighth century. This coin is believed to be
unpublished. Figs. 10, 11, and \2 are from intaglios
found with Roman remains near Amesbury. They are
obviously of Saxon workmanship. Fig. 12 is an enamelled
fibula, found at Roulogne-sur-Mer, remarkable as an
example of art, in its transition from the Roman to the
Saxon or Frankish epoch.
ANGLO-SAXON REAIAINS.
169
I had scarcely j^ublished the preceding remarks when I
obser\md, in the collection of Monsieur P. I. Feret, of
Dieppe, an object in metal (fig. 1, pi. xlv), in which I
immediately recognized the band of a wooden pail such
as that figured in p. 161, and at the same time found that a
portion of it explained figure 2 in pi. xli b, which we can now
positi\mly determine to have been affixed to the hooj) of a
pail. Having applied to Monsieur Feret for a sketch,
that gentleman immediately complied with my request,
and at the same time forwarded the following particulars.
On the inner side of the brass band or hoop, are traces of
some perished substance, which may have been Avooden
staves, but they are not sufficient to decide on positivelv.
On the upper and on the lower rim are what appear to be
the remains of small bands tinned or silvered. The nails
of bronze, of which the head of one is given of the actual
size in a side vierv (fig. 3), were sufficiently long to have
served to pass through and rivet very thin staves. A small
vessel of wood bound with brass was found in the same
field, which is situate on the new high road from Dieppe
to Paris by the valley of Eaulm, at a place call Douvrend,
about twelve miles east of Dieppe, in 1838. The person
from whom M. Feret procured this object called it a
coifiure. He probably got this notion from having found
it near the head of a skeleton. A small portion of the
metal of the band has been analyzed, and found to be
composed of tin, lead, and copper, the last being most
abundant.
Among the numerous discoveries of Frankish remains
in Germany and in France, I do not recollect any mention
of wooden pails or buckets, such as we so often find in
our Saxon cemeteries. This instance is therefore the more
remarkable, and at the present moment is especially
useful in illustrating the objects described in the fore-
A A
170
ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS.
going pages, while at the same time the examples referred
to will be of service in assisting our continental colleagues
in correctly appropriating the circular plate of bronze, and
any analogous remains which may be discovered.
On a future occasion, I hope to be able to refer to the
discoveries of Frankish remains by the Abbe Cochet, in
the neighbourhood of Dieppe, and to researches on the
same interesting subject by Dr. Rigollot of Amiens, and
by M. Feret of Dieppe, the latter of whom is engaged in
preparing for the press a work on the state of the arts
among the ancient Germans.
171
THE ROMAN WALL.
Whoever has ventured far into the more remote or into
the less frequented parts of England, with a view to ex-
amine and study their remains of antiquity, cannot hut feel
how imperfect a notion he had hitherto formed of those
remains, and how little in reality has been done to make
them properly understood and valued. As he extends
his inquiry, he will he more forcibly struck with the con-
viction both of the extent and importance of the objects
themselves, and of the neglect with which they have been
treated by the country that owns them. The subject of
the present chapter affords a good illustration of the fact.
The Roman Wall, by which term the great stone fortifi-
cation formerly extending from the Tyne to the Solway
is now generally understood, is the most stupendous of
our ancient architectural monuments, and at the same time
the least known and cared for. The general tourist passes
it by without probably any knowledge of its existence,
and the antiquary either is not much in advance of the
popular ignorance on the subject, or he flinches from the
exertion required to comprehend properly a work extend-
ing seventy miles. It is indeed but imperfectly under-
stood by some of our best historians, who, while they
dream not of the stores of information it affords, often
confound it with another great work of different character
and date, which lies further to the north, namely, the
barrier of Antoninus Pius. It has been still further
complicated by being called the Wall of Severus, as well
172
THE ROMAN WALL.
as the Wall of Hadrian, and in being taken, at other
times, for the lines of earthen fortifications which run
parallel on either side. In short, no great work of anti-
quity has ever been less clearly understood.
To the illustrious author of the Britannia Romana we
owe the first systematic examination of the wall and an
admirable explanation of the structure, its dejiendent sta-
tions, and their inscriptions. By some unaccountable
mishap, most of the engravings of his valuable volume are
so badly executed as to be almost worse than useless ; hut
the text is full of sound learning closely applied, without
discursiveness, to the illustration of existing remains.
Horsley received no remuneration or acknowledgment
from the country for his labours.* The Rev. John Hodg-
son, following nearly a century after Horsley, was enabled
to avail himself of many discoveries and other sources of
information not open to Horsley ; and with equal patience,
perseverance, and learning, he has produced a volume
worthy of being placed by the side of his great j)redecessor
in this field of research. He found but little sym-
pathy or encouragement. t The latest writer on the wall
it- a precise spot where his remains rest is unknown.
He whose lot it was to interpret, after the lapse of many cen-
turies, the throbbings of natural affection over departed relatives
in the heathen breast, had no one to erect over him, though a
Christian minister, a memorial that should outlive a single cen-
tury. Even the parish clerk, in his attachment to the altar and
the throne, denies him, in the sepulchral register, the title which
courtesy, at least, w'ould have accorded him.” — The Roman
Wall, p. 104.
f He lived to complete only a part of his projected design.
Ruined in health and in fortune by enthusiastic devotion to
studies which he directed to the lasting benefit of liis country,
he w'ritcs, “ I have lived to sec that w'orks of this kind are not
suited to the times 1 live in.” He died in 181G.
THE ROMAN WALL.
1»<r»
i O
and its antiquities is the E.ev. John Collingwood Bruce.
With a modesty which at once wins our confidence in his
honesty and our approbation of his candour, he states that
“ had not Horsley and Hodgson cleared the way before
him, he would never have adventured to write a book upon
the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus.”* But if these two
great pioneers have smoothed this self-imposed task, to
Mr. Bruce must he accorded the merit of making the
Homan Wall more generally known by means of an ac-
cessible volume, the works of his predecessors being by
far too expensive and rare for general ready reference ;
at the same time it is a useful supplement to those elaborate
productions, and by its simjile and clear a-rrangement in-
dispensable to all who would know, as from a panoramic
view, what the Homan Wall actually is.
It is with the view of helping to draw attention to
Mr. Bruce’s labours, and to the great object of them, that
I here record a few observations from notes made chiefly
during a visit to the 'Wall in the month of June last.f To
the liberality of Mr. Bruce I am indebted for the wood-
cuts, which he generously ordered to be prepared spe-
cially for my use.
There are some conflicting historical notices of the
Homan wall, which have given rise to the errors before
“The Roman Wall: a historical, topographical, and de-
scriptive Account of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extend-
ing from the Tyne to the Solway. Deduced from numerous
personal Surveys. London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 8vo.
1850.” I am happy to announce that the author is preparing
for publication a second edition.
f In the “ Gentleman’s Magazine” for October and Novem-
ber, I have given an account of my tour, which may contain
details here omitted. 1 also refer my readers to this periodical
for an illustrated review of Mr. Bruce’s book.
174
THE KOMAN WALL.
referred to respecting its origin and history. Fortunately,
the numerous inscriptions which have been discovered
along the line of this great fortification, furnish ample
evidence on the subject, which else might have remained
unsettled and questionable. The testimony of Spartianus
is fully supported by these monuments. This writer, in
his life of Hadrian, after stating that the Britons could
not be kept under the Roman authority, adds, that the
emperor came over into Britain, and after correcting
many things, first drew a wall, eighty miles in length, to
separate the barbarians from the Romans. The southern
parts of Britain had, since the operations of Claudius,
become so completely subjugated as to be considered
Roman, under which term the general population is in-
cluded. The barbarians, that is to say, the people of
the more remote north, are by Spartianus called Britons
( Britanni teneri sub Romana ditione non poterant) •, and
the natives south of the wall are included under the name
Romani -.-Britanniam petiit : in qua niulta correxit, mu-
rumque per octoginta milia passuum primus duxit, qui
harbaros Romanosque divider et. We are not informed
of the precise character of the disturbance ; but we may
assume it was confined to sudden incursions of the Cale-
donians, against which the province was but inadequately
provided. The presence of Hadrian soon supplied a
remedy, and to his energy and skill are to be assigned
the construction of this most admirable military defence,
which even at the present day cannot be surveyed in its
ruins without the deepest feelings of astonishment and
interest.
To construct this mighty work, the regular legions in
Britain, with their auxiliaries, were withdrawn from their
head quarters and concentrated along the line of demarca-
tion. The vast tract of land from sea to sea was sur-
veyed and measured, quarries v’ere opened, and every
THE ROMAN WALL.
175
soldier for the time became either a mason or a carpenter,
or both, perhaps, by turns. The British states, we may
assume from the inscriptions which mention their names,*
were laid under contribution ; and we may assume also,
that they retained at least a show of a certain political
independence. Hadrian himself, we have every reason
to believe, personally superintended the works, and ani-
mated his soldiers by sharing their toils and deprivations.
The rigid manner in which this emperor denied himself,
in his visits to remote parts of the empire, not only the
luxuries, but many of the common comforts of life, are
alluded to in some lines written to him by the poet
Florus : —
" Ego nolo Casar esse,
Ambulare per Britannos,
Scythicas pati pruinas
and there is an inscription which belongs to the wall-
series, which, though it has not been mentioned as refer-
ring to this emperor, seems especially to apply to him in
allusion to the strict military discipline he maintained.
It is DisciPVLiNAE AVG. [Disciplined Aug.), and occurs on
the gold and large brass coins of Hadrian, with a repre-
sentation of the emperor marching at the head of his
soldiers. This legend, I believe, is confined to the coins
of Hadrian and those of his successor, Pius, who seems
to have adopted it from respect to the memory of his pre-
decessor ; in like manner as on one of his coins with the
reverse of Britannia, he gave the portrait of Hadrian to
* They are, civitas dvmni,— civitas dvmnon ; civitate
CATVVELLAVNORVM — civiTAT ‘ BRicic. — Of these, the last
two, it may be remarked, have some other letters, the purport
of which is not clear, and the inscriptions themselves do not
appear to be now extant. The last, I presume, must be assigned
to the Brigantes.
176
THE ROMAN WALL.
the personified figure of the province.* The figure on
the reverse of the various coins of Hadrian relating to
Britain is, on some specimens, that of a female, and on
others that of a male. In either case, it may be pro-
nounced a personification of the province.
To picture to the mind a wall, constructed with stone
and mortar, extending nearly seventy English miles, re-
quires some effort of the imagination ; and we have to
picture a Roman wall, averaging eight feet in width and
eighteen or nineteen in height. It was supported on the
south side by seventeen great walled stations or castra,
varying in dimensions, and also by smaller walled forts
{castella), and, at intervals, by watch-towers. The castella
are commonly called mile-castles, being placed about a
mile apart from each other. It would be supposed that
such a line of defence, when garrisoned by troops, would
be impregnable ; but the barrier was not yet considered
complete. On the north of the stone wall is a fosse or
deep ditch, and on the south a vallum or earthen wall, a
fosse, and two ramparts of earth. The sections here given
will shew the entire fortifications, on a scale of seventy -
five feet to the inch.
The Works near the eighteenth mile-stone V'est of Newcastle.
The Works half-a-mile West of Carraw.
See Akerman’s “ Coins of the Romans relating to Britain,”
p. 33. It may be that the die, though used by Pius, was pre-
THE ROMAN WALL.
177
An investigation of the remains of these vast works is
a task worthy a little exertion on part of English antiqua-
ries, and Mr. Bruce’s hook has rendered the investigation
comparatively easy. But it must be clearly understood,
that it is only by walking that a perfect notion can he
obtained of the vast ruins, and of the original perfection
and unity of the great design. As may he supposed, the
ignorance and cupidity of thirteen centuries have not
passed without their usual fatal consequences. For this
long period the great Wall, and the walls of the stations
and watch towers, the houses and villas, have been resorted
to by the neighbouring population for building materials ;
and farm-houses innumerable, churches, and whole
villages, have grown out of their ruins. But the most
formidable enemy of the Wall was the government, by
whose orders it was levelled for nineteen or twenty miles
to make a public road. The condition of one of the
stations in the last century, may be shown as an example
of the state in which they were to be found at a compara-
tively recent period, and some notion may thus be formed
of the amount of destruction that must have taken place.
Stukeley, speaking of Borcovicus, writes thus : —
“ The next station we visited, about two miles from the
former, and by the wall, is deservedly called Housesteeds, from
the vestigia of the houses therein, which are as easy to be seen
and distinguished as if ruined but yesterday. Approaching the
farmer’s house there, I saw a mill or two, i.e., the recipient
stones of the hand-mills which the Roman soldiers used to grind
their corn with ; likewise some tops of altars : over the door of
the house a large carved stone, but defaced. Going a little
further, in a corner of a dry wall, is a large stone that has been
curiously cut, but now broken and much injured ; three figures
pared during the lifetime of Hadrian. The same remark may
be made on the legend discipUna of the coins of Pius.
B B
178
THE ROMAN WALL.
in it, in high relievo ; two with sacrificing cups in their hands :
I believe it has been in some temple, and means the genii of
three cities : it is in my learned friend Mr. Horsley’s twentieth
table, but poorly represented : they seem to stand before steps.
Near it, in the wall, is the bottom part of a very large altar, or
pedestal of a pillar, a yard square : near that a long carved
stone, somewhat like the shaft of our later crosses. Above
the house, upon the Piets’ wall, is an altar, the legend gone. As
for fragments of pillars, or rollers as they call them, they lie
scattered all over the place. A large part of a Doric capital
lies by the door, consisting of two thori, or swelled mouldings,
in architectonic language. But when we were led lower
down into the meadow, we were surprised with the august scene
of Romano-British antiquities in the most neglected condition ;
a dozen most beautiful and large altars, as many fine hasso
relievos, nearly as big as the life, all tumbled in a wet m.eadow,
by a wall side, or one on the top of another, to make up the
wall of the close ; the hasso relievos, some with their heads
down the hill ; particularly an admirable image of Victory, both
arms knocked off; one large soldier, a sepulchral stone, with
his short sword hanging at his right side, the man told us was
condemned to make a pig-trough on ; but some gentlemen, full
timely, with a small sum, for the present reprieved him ; many
soldiers with heads broke off ; mutilated by the middle ; three
ladies sitting close together, with globes in their hands ; their
heads all gone. Mr. Gale and I laboured hard at the inscrip-
tions, and made what we coidd of them, under all disadvantages.
Along the same wall, as we walked on further, we found more
altars and carved stones of various sorts ; but at length the
farmer carried us up to a knoll in the middle of the meadow,
called Chapel-Steed, where, undoubtedly, was the Roman
temple ; there we saw three or four most beautiful altars ; and
a little further, and on another wall, a pretty sepulchral carving
of an old soldier’s upper part, in a niche. At Chesters, an
admirably carved stone was dug up lately, very large ; the
tenant of the farm caused it to be planed and turned into a
THE HOMAN WALT;.
179
gravestone for himself; and it is now laid over him at the
parish church.”^'
From the above extract of a notice relating to one
station, some notion may be formed of the vast havoc
made of the Wall and its monuments in past times. The
destruction most to be regretted is that of the buildings
in and about the stations, and particularly the inscrip-
tions, the most important part of the materials from which
what we know of the history of the wall has been collected.
Even after the value of these records began to be felt,
they were subjected to the risk of being separated from
the localities in which they had been found. They were
often carried off to a considerable distance, tolerated for
awhile as curiosities, and then they were either lost or
dissociated from the circumstances under which they had
been found. The process by means of which they are now
so carefully analyzed and collated with others, and with
ancient authors, to elicit some point in general or in local
history, was almost unknown. It is chiefly by these in-
scriptions, and their authentication, as discovered in
particular places, that we are enabled to identify the
names of stations, learn something of their buildings, and
when and by whom they were erected, the troops by whom
they w'ere garrisoned, and the gods there worshipped. If
by lapse of time, or from negligence in making a prompt
record, the discovery of such inscriptions cannot be
verified, their interest and historical value become depre-
ciated, and frequently altogether destroyed.
The eastern terminus of the Wall is indicated in the
modern Wallscnd, and in the ramparts of earth, beneath
which are the foundations of the walls of a Homan station,
supposed to be Segedunum, the first of the Notitia
^ Itinerariurn Ciiriosum, vol. ii, p. 60.
180
THE KOMAN WALL,
stations per lineum valU. Its situation is not unlike tliat
of the Portus Lemanis (Lymne, in Kent), sloping down
to the bank of the river Tyne. There is yet a doubt
whether this station be Segedunum. Tested by the
criticism which has so happily identified other stations, by
inscriptions found upon their sites, we should rather
place Segedunum at Tynemouth, where the fine altar, now
in the cellar at Somerset House, was found. This altar
was dedicated to Jupiter by a prefect of the fourth cohort
of the Lingones. The Notitia reads, Trihunus cohortis
qiiartce Lergorum Segeduno. To reconcile the inscrip-
tion with the Notitia entry, we must suppose that the
transcriber of the latter wrote Lergorum for Lingonum ;
and to make the station at Wallsend Segedunum, we must
suppose that the Lingones Avere stationed both there and
at Tynemouth. The question is one which Avould pro-
bably be decided by excavations, which would most
likely bring to light some inscrij)tions bearing on the
point. From Wallsend to Newcastle, the course of the
fortifications is to be traced here and there, but the Wall
is entirely levelled, and, with the earth-works, made
to contribute to the physical wants of a dense population.
At Newcastle also, the site of the Pons yElii, no traces of
the wall or of the Roman town are to be seen. In vol. hi
of the Arehceologia NEliana is an engraving of a bird’s-eye
view of the town, from a drawing made in the latter part
of the sixteenth century, which may probably give some
notion of the line of the Roman mural fortification.
As before observed, the government has destroyed nearly
twenty miles of the walls, in order to construct the high
road from NeAvcastle to Carlisle. The injury this sweep-
ing and monstrous act of Vandalism infiicted on the
dependant stations, as well as on the earthworks, can
hardly be imagined. One must visit the wall before he
THE ROMAN WALL.
181
can form any notion of the mischief done by this ill-
advised proceeding. Now, it appears, parliament has
voted £10,000 for the compilation of a book called the
Monumenta Historica Britannica, which professes to
contain among others the inscriptions from the Roman
Wall, hut which, as far as I have been able to ascertain,
contains only those which were previously well-known
and accessible. With the wall have perished the two
great stations, Condercum, and Vindobala (Benwell, and
Rutchester), with their auxiliary castles and towers.
The traveller upon the government road will observe the
foundations of the wall beneath his feet, and perceive,
under his feet, on either side of him, the facing-stones
in their original position.
At Halton-Chesters, the third station from Newcastle,
and the Hunnum of the Notitia, I had the good fortune
to notice a very perfect bridge in a valley a little to the
west of the station. This interesting relic has luckily,
from its obscure position, escaped the notice of the
government engineers, or, no doubt, it would have shared
the fate of the Wall which passed over it.
Width of arch, 4 feet, depth, 4 feet.
182
THE ROMAN WALL.
The foundation of the wall is about twelve feet above
this bridge. The sides of the arch have been walled in a
substantial manner, and the bottom of the watercourse is
paved.
Horsley and Mr. Bruce* both notice the descent, or
hollow ground on the west of the station, which caused
the Eomans to deviate a little from the usual form of their
castra. On the north-west angle, Mr. Bruce tells us
that there was laid open on aqueduct of about three
quarters of a mile in length, which seems to have
conducted water from a spring or burn in the high
ground, north of the place. My informant, who traced
it for between two and three hundred yards, says, that it
was formed of stone, and was covered with ‘flags’.” It
appears that this must have been simply a drain for draw-
ing off the water from the castrum into the larger channel,
over which the substantial arch, described above, was
constructed. Mr. Bruce speaks also of a sewer or drain
crossing the station diagonally, towards the north-west
angle, the water from which was also, without doubt,
carried through the same outlet as the water from the
aqueduct.
Apj)roaching the North Tyne, fragments of the Wall
will be found here and there, and the remains become at
every footstep more and more interesting. Hitherto, the
traveller had seen the stones of the Wall composing whole
houses and villages ; then he would notice at intervals
altars and inscriptions immured in road-side houses, and
he would detect portions of the W all itself where the govern-
ment road had diverged a little to avoid some obstruction.
He has advanced, with gradually increasing hope and
interest, towards a district where the remains are more
perfect and continuous, and more marked in character.
The Roman Wall, p. 159.
lUttuSillllHiiii
PL. XLVll.
VIEW OF THE ROMAN WALL AT THE
C RACCS OF C AER VOR RAN FELLS.
NORTH ASPECT OF THE WALL NEAR WALLTOWN GRAGGS.
THE ROMAN WALL.
183
The station at Chesters, or, as Horsley calls it, Wal-
wick Chesters (Cilurnum), is one of the most interesting
of the entire series. It is flanked on the east by the
North Tyne, and was approached on that side by a
bridge. “ The remains of this bridge,” Mr. Bruce states,
“ may yet be seen when the water is low and the surface
smooth. There seem to have been three piers of con-
siderable size and solidity, set diagonally to the stream.
The stones composing them are large, regularly squared,
and fastened with metallic cramps. Luis-holes, indicating
the manner in which they have been lowered into their
bed, appear in several of them.” Between the station and
the river, and also on the south, are indications of
extensive buildings, which, with the station itself, are now
entirely within the park of Chesters. The mansion stands
upon the foundations of the great Wall, which forms the
northern boundary of the castrum, and makes its appear-
ance in the shrubbery on the west. The preservation of
the remains of Cilurnum is entirely owing to the good
taste of the family of Clayton, the proprietors of the
estate. To Mr. John Clayton, especially, the antiquarian
world is under deep obligation for the active exertions he
has made to protect not merely the ruins on the Chesters
estate, but also the equally interesting works at House-
steeds, and at other districts to the west of Chesters, now,
fortunately, his own property.
In the accompanying etching (pi. xlvi), by Mr. Pretty,
from a sketch taken during my visit in J une to this clas-
sical spot, a faint idea may be formed of some ex-
cavated buildings near the eastern gate of the station
within the walls. About ten rooms have been laid open,
some of which are of considerable dimensions, as, 24 feet
by 18, 21 feet by 12, 18 feet by 12. Most of the apart-
ments have been heated by the means of the hypocaust,
184
THE ROMAN WALL.
the position of which is indicated on the left of the upper
part of the view. The flooring of the large room on the
right was supported by pillars formed of tiles, and by
portions of columns which had apparently belonged to some
earlier building. Several of the rooms on the western side
are furnished with massive foundations for the pavements,
which are composed of stone slabs, measuring from feet
by 4 feet, to upwards of 7 feet by 3, and 4 to 5 inches
thick. One room has forty-eight supports for the pavement,
each about two feet square ; the substructure for the pave-
ment in another consists of twenty-four of these columns.
The annexed cut will shew this arrangement clearly.
In a building discovered many years since at Netherby,
ten miles north of Carlisle,* two of the rooms were supplied
with similar massive foundations for the pavements, while
the general plan resembles that at Chesters. In the villas
of the south, the props of the rooms connected with the
hypocaust are usually of tiles. In no instance have I
ever noticed columns of masonry such as these in the
houses at Chesters and at Netherby. They were ob-
viously constructed to insure great durability and warmth
— two very important requisites for the winter quarters of
soldiers drawn from warmer countries to brave a flcrce
and savage foe, and the equally formidable climate of the
north of Britain. Strength and appropriateness of con-
struction are the two great leading features of the buildings
(renileman’ s Mm/azine for 1750.
THE ROMAN WALL.
185
alono- the line of the Wall.* In one of the rooms was
O
found a recumbent figure of a river god, sculptured in
coarse stone, but possessing, as Mr. John Clayton ob-
serves, “ some gracefulness of attitude and proportions”.
It may have been intended for a personification of the
North Tyne, which bounds the station on the east. The
right arm of the figure is wanting ; the left hand rests upon
a large bearded head. At the next station, Procolitia, a
mutilated figure of Nej)tune was found ; and among
the inscriptions of the Wall is one reading, Neptuno
Saraho Sim, which
appears to be address-
mains. The feet, how-
ever, are preserved, attached to a pedestal, and two of
For further details of this building, I must refer to Mr.
Bruce’s volume, and to a papei', by Mr. John Clayton, in the
“ Archseologia Ailiana, vol. iii, p. 142.
The antiquities disco-
vered here and at other
localities on the Wall,
are carefully preserved
at the mansion. One
of the most interesting
of the sculptures, is a
mutilated figure of a
female, in sandstone, six
feet high, found many
years since. The figure
stands upon a bull, the
body of which only re-
ed to the god of the
Sarr, the chief of the
tributary rivers of the
Moselle.
cc
186
THE ROMAN WALT,.
tliciii arc reprcscrited as trampling’ upoii a serpent. From
the bull and the serpent, we may conjecture the group
belonged to a temple consecrated to Mithras, or, pos-
sibly, to Ceres or Cyhele, in connection with those
Mithraic rites and creeds which are so elaborately sym-
bolised in ancient sculptures. I am not aware, however,
of any representation precisely resembling this, and it
would be fortunate if the enlightened antiquary of Ches-
ters, in future excavations, should discover such of the
missing fragments as would explain the full meaning
of the group. The figure of the goddess is here in-
troduced more particularly for the costume, which is
pecidiar, and in its treatment not unlike that of the drapery
of one of the Dece Matres, which will be presently de-
scribed. Mr. Bruce has engraved a slab found at
Chester, and now at Alnwick Castle, on which is sculp-
tured a lion standing over a prostrate man, and a seated
figure, holding what appears to be a key, and in the
other a hasta pur a. Hodgson conjectures that the whole
relates to the Mithraic rites. Among the inscriptions is
the following to a soldier of Pannonia, named Dagvaldas ,
or Dagvaldus , and to Pusinna, probably his wife :
D. M
DAGVAEU.MI ’ ’
RAN .VIXIT.A’ ■ • •
•PVSINNA’ •
XIITVI
The second i) in the second line encloses a small a. I
give the inscription as I copied it ; but Mr. Clayton in-
forms me he reads the letters in the last line xtitvl, in
which case we must read “ Pusimia,^’ or “ Pusinnia, con-
jux titulum posuitP It was found in Cawfield mile-
castle. There are several small votive altars, one of which
is inscribed dea.rat., probably to be read Dece Ratis, or
RatcB, the tutelary divinity of Ratse, now Leicester. Some
of the names of these topical gods and goddesses are diffi-
THE ROMAN WALL.
187
cult to be understood ; they were often derived from locali-
ties which we cannot identify, and of such appears to he
that on the altar in the Chesters collection, in plate XLViii,
fig. 1. Several inscriptions have been found on the site of
the station, recording the second ala or wing of the Astures.
The most important is one mentioning the restoration of
a temple, in the consulate of Gratus and Seleucus ; the
name of Elagabalus, to whom it was inscribed, has been
intentionally erased, no doubt immediately after his death.
Procolitia, now Carrawburgh, has furnished inscriptions
which identify its position, and its occupation for a long
period of time by a cohort of Batavians ; but, like many
others of these ancient strongholds, its ruins lie far below
the green sward unexplored. Here the traveller parts
company with cultivated fields and the habitations of
man, and treads the heath of a wild mountainous district,
increasing at every footstep in its lonely but attractive
grandeur. He passes the dreary heights of Sewingshields,
the once-dreaded pass of Busy-gap, the Black Dike, and
Beggar-bog, on to Knag-burn, a rivulet forming the
eastern boundary of Housesteads, the modern name of
the site of Borcovicus before referred to. The southern
half of the station is on a slope ; the northern, bounded by
the wall, is upon the flat basaltic rock of an elevated ridge.
Stukeley, Gordon, and others have told us how, in their
time, the ground was strewn with sculptured stones, broken
columns, and statues. At the present day, what has been
saved of these remains is preserved in the collections
at Chesters .and at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, together with
the Mithraic sculptures and altars found in a cavern-
temple a little to the south of the station, the statue of
Victory upon a globe, and other remains more recently
brought to light.
In the forthcoming edition of Mr. Bruce’s volume, we
may expect the result of Mr. Clayton’s researches. In the
188
THE ROMAN WALL.
summer, excavations were being made at tire western
entrance of the station, which, it appeared, had originally
been double, but, for some reason, one at least had been
walled up. Each of the entrances had been provided
with two gates, and the walls are strengthened by massive
stones. The complete development of the gateways and
the internal arrangements of this interesting station, would
be a grand contribution to the history of the Wall, and we
may rest assured that the liberal proprietor will leave
nothing undone which zeal and devotion to archaeology
can accomplish.
Our stay at Housesteads was ol very brief duration, in
very inclement
weather, so that I
was only able to
make a few hasty
sketches, one of
which, however,
may not be un-
acceptable ; although, from the reason just assigned, I
am unable to accompany it with a plan or full details. It
exhibits a small Roman house,
on the eastern side of the inte-
rior of the station, which has
fortunately been preserved, while
temples and public edifices have
been destroyed, from the simple
fact of its having been found
useful as a sheep-fold. The
foundation of the walls of several
small rooms can yet be traced,
but its complete investigation I must leave to my friends
Mr. Bruce and Mr. Clayton. I annex a sketch of an
angle of one of the walls of this solitary and ancient little
building.
THE ROMAN WALL.
189
On leaving Housesteads, the antiquary finds a rapid
succession of interesting objects. He becomes now sensi-
ble of tbe importance of tbe great Wall, and is pretty w^ell
enabled to estimate tbe difficulties under wbicb it was
built ; and, following it step by step, climbing bills with
it and then descending into ravines and mountain passes,
be calculates tbe time and labour expended, and tbe hard-
ships endured by the soldier workmen, who constructed
a work to keep out nations and fence in a province. As
be toils up an almost precipitous acclivity, be pauses
again and again to measure with bis eye the nicely-
squared stones, so evenly adjusted and adapted, and he is
lost in astonishment at tbe perseverance with wbicb tbe
difficulties of nature were surmounted and conquered.
He finds, moreover, that tbe workmen, using tbe stone of
the immediate locality only for the core of tbe wall,
brought the facing-stones from quarries frequently a con-
siderable distance remote. Some of tbe most valuable
inscriptions have been found under accidental circum-
stances to tbe west of Housesteads, and tbe mile-castles
and the watch-towers, being better developed, increase
the interest of the journey. One of the most perfect of
the mile-castles, that of Cawfields, has been excavated by
order of Mr. Clayton. It measures, inside tbe walls,
sixty-three feet from east to west and forty-nine feet
from north to south, the great Wall forming the northern
boundary. It is built upon a sloping ground, and the
corners of the lower side are rounded off. It has two
gateways, one through the great wall, the other oppo-
site to it, on the south. The latter is shewn in the cut
on the following page.
The opening of each gatew^ay is ten feet. They appear
to have been closed by folding-doors, the pivot-holes of
which remain. “ The security of the northern gateway,”
Mr. Bruce remarks, did not depend upon the solidity of
190
THE ROMAN WALL.
its masonry, or the strength of its doors. It opens upon
a sort of cliff, and the road from it does not lead directly
away, hut runs for a little distance under the wall, so as
to give an opportunity of more readily acting against an
enemy.”
South Entrance of the Castellum at Cawflelds.
jEsica, now Great Chesters, is the next station imme-
diately on the line of the wall, although Vindolana (Little
Chesters), about a mile to the south, is reckoned as one in
the Notitia, and is equally worthy attention. .Esica,
among other remains, has contributed an inscription re-
cording the rebuilding of the granary of the castrum, by
the second cohort of the Astures, in the reign of Alex-
ander Severus, and a large mural tablet inscribed to
Hadrian. The watercourse discovered and surveyed by
Mr. Bruce, must be reckoned as one of the memorials of
the engineering skill of the Koman soldiers. Though in
a straight line the distance from its commencement is
only about two miles and a quarter, the nature of the
ground required that it should be conducted in a channel
six miles in length. The object for which this long and
laborious cutting was made is not apparent, as an abun-
dant supply of water could have been obtained at the
station at no very great depth.
Soon after leaving Esica, the crags, which for some
distance had disappeared, again occupy the foreground;
the Wall again surmounts them, and after passing numer-
THE ROMAN WALL.
191
ous ancient quarries, crosses a wide defile called Wall-
town Crags, to ascend one of the steepest elevations on
the line to the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall, as this broken
chain of mountain ground is called. The general aspect
of the scenery is well shewn in plate xlvii, etched by Mr.
Brooke, from drawings made during his visit to the Wall
a few years since.*
The wood-cut here introduced, is from a sketch I made
of one of the best preserved portions of the Wall on the
north side. Along the crags, for a considerable distance,
the comparative inaccessibility of its position has been
hitherto a partial safeguard ; but how long it will be so,
is a question I will not protend to answer. If it were in
Denmark instead of England, we might say it Avould
endure almost as long as the hills themselves.
Magna, the modern Caervoran, lies to the south of the
wall. This station has suffered severely from the tenants
of the farm on which it is situate. Numerous fragments
of sculpture, broken columns, and altars, found during the
The obligation I am under to my friend Mr. Brooke for
this plate, is increased by my knowledge of its having been
executed during an indisposition attended with much bodily
suffering.
192
THE ROMAN WALL.
last few years, lie about tlie garden and outhouses. Figs.
4 and 6, plate xlviii, are among them. The former is
inscribed to the god Belatucader ; the latter to Jupiter,
Helius, and Rome, is unpublished.
Amboglanna, now Birdoswald, comes next. This sta-
tion has furnished from thirty to forty inscriptions.
Of these, at least seventeen mention the cohors yElia
Dacorum ; in one of them it has the additional title
of Postumiana, from Postumus, who held sway in Gaul
and Britain from a.d. 258, to a.d. 267 ; and in another
Tetriciana, from Tetricus, a still more fortunate usurper,
from A.D. 267, to a.d. 272. Most of these are dedications
to Jupiter, in the formula of i.o.m. One is inscribed to
Mars, and two to the god Cocidius, who, from an altar
found at Lancaster, appears to have been identical with
Mars. The name is of local derivation, probably taken from
the same root as the Coccium of the tenth iter of Antoninus.
One particularly worthy of mention, is a dedication to Silva-
nus by the hunters of Banna, Deo Sancto Silvano Venatores
Banness. The authentication of such discoveries cannot be
too much insisted on ; and here is a striking instance of
its importance. Banna does not occur in the Notitia ;
but in the Bavenna Chorography it is placed between
A^jsica and Uxeludianum ; and on the Budge Cup, it is in
juxtaposition with Amboglanna. This inscription, then,
which was dug up on the site of Amboglanna, supports
the authorities just cited, and directs inquiry in the neigh-
bourhood of Birdoswald for the station called Banna.
Hodgson thinks it was at Bewcastle, direct north of Bird-
oswald, where Mr. Bruce traced a six-sided station,
enclosing about four acres, and where inscriptions have
been found mentioning the cohors ^lia Dacorum, and an
altar sancto Cocideo*
Hutchinson’s ‘‘ Cumberland,” vol. i, p. 94.
PL- XLVi,
CHE S TERS.
VIEW FROM THE SO U T H EASTERN SIDEOF THE ROMAN BUILDINGS.
THE ROMAN AVALL.
193
During our visit, I sketched a statue of one of the
DecB Matres, discovered by Mr. II. G. Potter, and pre-
served in the farm-house, and have since obtained a
drawing of the head, which is at Newcastle. I am thus
Entire height, 3 feet ~ inches; width, 1 foot ~ inches.
enabled to give a representation of the most complete figure
of one of these divinities ever discovered in this country.
In the museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne are three other
D D
194
THE ROMAN WALL.
figures of equal size, wnicfi, althougli separate, appear to
have been intended to be jolaced together, as they are
usually represented. (See vol. i, p. 136.)
The area of the station of Amboglanna contains from
five to six acres. The walls are tolerably perfect ; that on
the southern side shews eight courses of facing stones,
and the gateways are strongly marked. The annexed cut
represents the western entrance, as seen from the inside,
with the pivot-holes of the gates and the ruts worn by the
wheels of vehicles. “These ruts,” Mr. Bruce states, “ are
nearly four feet two inches apart, the precise guage of the
chariot marks in the east gateway at Housesteads. The
more perfect of the pivot-holes exhibits a sort of spiral
grooving, which seems to have been formed with a view of
rendering the gate self-closing. The aperture in the sill of
the doorway, near the lower jamb, has been made de-
signedly, as a similar vacuity occurs in the eastern portal.”
Mr. Potter has made researches at Birdoswald, the result
of which has been communicated to the Society of Anti-
THE ROMAN WALL.
195
qiiaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; but, unliappily, the
funds of that society have not warranted them in publish-
ing their proceedings
since 1846.* From the
“ Gentleman’s Maga-
zine”, however, I ga-
ther that Mr. Potter, in
addition to his former
discoveries, has lately
laid open the southern
gateway, which was
previously hid by the
ruins of the sarroand-
ing buildings. He
found the contiguous
walls standing as high
as the spring of the
arch, and a, guard-
chamber in a very per-
fect state.
The stations per
lineam mlli to the
west of Birdoswald,
though abounding in
interesting remains, have not been proved by inscriptions
(with one or two exceptions), like those to the east. This
will be shown by Hodgson’s table, which I have ap-
pended to these notes, to exhibit more clearly, and at
It does not say much for the progress of archaeology, to
see such an excellent work as the “ Archaeologia .didiana” sus-
pended for five years. Why do not the secretaries appeal
to the general body for subscriptions ? It would certainly be
prom])tly responded to.
196
THE ROMAN WALL.
one View, the remarkahle coincidence, in many instances,
between the Notitia stations and their garrisons and
existing remains. I have also added a brief index to
the mythology of the Wall, but the inscriptions are by
far too numerous and important to be comprised within
the limits of this 23Rper ; so I must content myself with
giving in plate XLViii a few which I believe are unpublished.
The wood-cut on the preceding page represents a sculp-
tured funereal stone in the collection of Mr. Senhouse of
Nether Hall, near Maryport. It is much weather-worn ;
but still exhibits traces of a spirited design, and of skill
in the foreshortening of the horse. On the cliffs near
Maryport, are the remains of a large walled station. The
eastern entrance, which appears to have been flanked with
towers, is well preserved, and the marks of the carriage
wheels upon the stones, five
feet ten inches apart, are very
visible. Camden supposed it
to be the Olenacum of the
Notitia, now more generally
believed to be Old Carlisle :
Hodgson considers it to be
Virosidum. Our last cut ex-
hibits a capital of a column
in the Nether Hall collection, Heiglit, 28 inches ; width, 15 inches,
found in the castrum on the cliff.
From our own shores we naturally turn to Germany,
anxious to learn something definite of the line of fortifica-
tion upon the Danube, asserted by Professor Buckner to
be in a better state of preservation than ours was three
hundred years ago. In the first volume of the “ Arclueo-
logia jFliana” (1822), the Rev. Hugh Salvin jmblishcd
the translation of an extract from a German pamphlet by
J. Andreas Buckner, called “ A Tour along the Devil’s
THE ROMAN WALL.
197
Wall.” It is there stated : — Our Nordgau woods exhi-
bit this great Roman work in an unbroken line of more
than one hundred and fifty Roman miles, from 5-6 feet
thick, in many places still 5 above and 3-4 under the
surface of the ground. With its one hundred and fifty
towers and upwards, it passes along over the steepest
mountains, over the most frightful abysses, through rivers
and lakes, through the thickest woods : fifteen hundred
years have not been able to efface the vestiges of these
towers, more than fifty of which still rise above the wall,
often to the height of twelve feet. On its inner side, upon
mountains, on the hanks of rivers, and the public roads, are
found large remains of castles and camps.” After stating
that the Germans call this boundary line Pfahl, or the
Stakes”, Professor Buckner describes its course to com-
mence a mile above Valentia, over the modern districts of
Altmanstein, Zandt, Kiipfenberg, to Lollenfeld (fifty-
eight miles), where it makes an angle to the south-west
towards Eyburgh and Denelohe to Hammerschmiede and
Kreithof, across the Bavarian frontier into the Wirtcm-
berg territory, to the sources of the Danube at Rottweil.
The wall, its castles and stations, all seem to bear a close
analogy with the British but, it must be owned, the
information we glean is not commensurate with the im-
portance of the subject. Dr. W. Bell, who has searched
our national library for some further particulars respect-
ing the German wall, informs me that the most recent,
and, apparently, the most accurate account, is in the
Transactions of the Royal Bavarian Academy” (class
philosophical-philological), vol. i, p. 7, where a second part
of the researches of Dr. F. Anton Mayer is published.
In a short preface to it by Professor F. Tiersch, allusion
is made to an earlier paper by Dr. JMayer, but Dr. Bell
was unsuccessful in finding it in the previous volumes of
198
THE ROMAN WALL.
the historical proceedings of that Academy. The report
referred to embraces only a portion of the wall, extend-
ing from Kipfenberg on the Altmiihl, to Oberdorff near
Ellingen, a distance of about twenty-one Roman miles.
It appears,” writes Dr. Bell, “ that Baron Von Gump-
penberg accompanied the surveyors with the special mission
from the Bavarian government of examining or noting every
object (a plan worthy of imitation in our own country),
and he vouches for the accuracy of every part of Dr.
Mayer’s survey. W e find that he meets with the first part
of the wall with watch-towers between Heinsheim and
Steinsacker, two villages somewhat to the westward of
Kelheim, and north of the Donau. We must express
our regret that a work like this, published under royal
patronage, should have been issued without the slightest
attempt at illustration.”*
The Wall in Germany, and the Wall in England, should
obviously be studied together ; and as in the case of the
one, the materials have been collected by the zeal and
generosity of a few individuals, unaided either by the
Government or by societies ; so, in the other, we must
expect the desired information from a similar source, and
hope that the person who furnishes it may gain some
sympathy and support, and be shielded from the fate to
which England resigned her Horsley and her Hodgson.
From a Paper read to the British Archseological Association.
TABLE SHOWING THE ACCORDANCE BETWEEN HISTORICAL NOTICES OP THE STATIONS ON THE LINE
OP THE WALL, AND INSCRIPTIONS POUND IN AND ABOUT THE STATIONS.
200
THE ROMAN WALL,
NAMES OE DEITIES OCCURRING IN DEDICATORY INSCRIPTIONS
FOUND ON THE LINE OF THE WALE, INCLUDING SOME
FROM THE ANTONINE WALL,
u^lsculapio.
Apollini Granise.
Deo Apollini,
Soli Apollini,
Astarte,
Belatucardo,
Bellonse,
Brigantise,
Campestribus,
Campestribus et Britannicis,
Ceres, on the Caervoran tablet,
Cocidio.
Sancto Cocideo,
Deabus Nymphis.
Deabus Omnibus,
Deabus Ma
Dea Bat ?
Deo.
Dianse,
Diis Deabusque.
(Dis,)
Dis Cultoribus.
Dis Mountibus.
Discipulinse Aug.
Eponse,
Fortunai,
Fortunse Conservatrici.
Fulgor Divom,
Genio Alae i, Hispanorum,
Genio Aur, Marti et Matro ?
Genio et Signis,
Genio Loci, Fortunse Reduci,
Romse ^ternse et Fato
Bono.
Genio Prsetorii.
Genio Terroe Britannicse.
Dese Hamise.
Dese Harimellse.
Dese Ricagm.
Herculi.
Herculi et Numini Aug.
Herculi Tyrio.
Heroi.
Jovi Augusto.
Jovi Optimo Maximo.
1 . 0 . M . Dolicheno.
1.0. M. ceterisque Diis.
I . o . M . et Genio Diisque Cus-
todibus.
1.0. M. Helio, Romse.
I.o.M. et Numinibus Augus-
torum.
I.o.M. Victorise Victrici.
I.o.M. et Vulkano.
Lamiis Tribus.
Deo Mapono ?
Marti,
Marti Belatucadro.
Marti Cocidio.
Marti Militari.
Marti Sancto.
Marti Victori.
Mater Divum.
Matribus.
Matribus Alatervis.
Matribus Campestribus.
Matribus Domesticis.
Matribus Omnium Gentium.
Matribus Tramarinis.
Matuno.
Mercuric.
Minervae.
Mithrse.
Deo Invicto Mithrse.
Magonti Cad.
Deo Mogti.
Mouno Cad.
Nymphse Brig.
Nymphis.
Nymphis Venerandis.
Neptuno Sarabo Sino.
Romse AEternse.
Setlocenise.
Silvano.
Deo Sancto Silvano.
Silvano Pantheo.
THE ROMAN WALL.
201
Deo Sango*
Signis et Genio.
Signis et Herculi.
Veterine.
Veterino.
Vitir.
Vetri Sancto.
Deae Viradesthi
Deo Veteri.
Virgo (the Caervoran tablet).
Victorise.
Victoriae Augustorum.
Diis Custodibus.
Soli.
Soli Invicto Mythrae.
Deo Soli Invicto.
Syriae (Deae).
Veteri.
Veteribus.
Veterubus.
On the foregoing list I must content myself for the
present in making a very few remarks. Several inscrip-
tions to Apollo Grannus have been found in Germany and
France ; but it is not certain from what locality the sur-
name of Grannus was given to this god, there being
several, from any one of which it is possible it may have
been derived. Astarte occurs in a Greek inscription on
an altar found at Corbridge^ Belatucadrus in at least
two inscriptions is called Mars Belatucadrus. Cocideus
or Cocidius is also in one inscription associated with Mars.
There seems to be a connection between this deity and
the station Fanocedi of Ravennas, which is placed next to
Maia, after the Roman stations on the line of the Wall.
The manuscript of the Paris library reads Fanocodi, and
that of the Vatican Fanococidi, literally the temple of Coci-
dius. Four altars to Cocidius have been found at Bankshead
and at Howgill, in the vicinity of which places we may
therefore reasonably seek for Fanococidi.f Epona or Hip-
pona, the goddess who presided over horses and stables, is
* Gentleman’s Magazine, September 1759.
f Since these remarks were penned, I perceive that Horsley
alludes to the coincidence between the inscriptions and the
name of this station. He does not, however, attach so much
value to the analogy as I think it deserves.
202
THE ROMAN WALL.
mentioned by Apuleius, Juvenal, and others. In inscrip-
tions sbe is sometimes associated with some of tlie greater
divinities, and with the field deities. In one found at So-
lothurn, she is styled Mater, and at Treves is a tablet ad-
dressed to her by the Belgian peasants. In the Itinerary
of Ortelius* is an engraving of a sculpture, which, I think,
may probably be a representation of this goddess. It
exhibits a female clothed in ample vestments from head
to foot, seated upon a mare which a colt is sucking, and
holding in her lap a basket of fruit resembling figs. Decs
Ricagm. occurs in an inscription found at Birrens, first
published by Dr. Wilson in his Archseology of Scotland.
The goddess appears to be a divinity of the Beda Pagus
in Germany. Decs Hammice ; Hodgson suggests that
this name m.ay have been derived from Hamah, on the
Orontes. In the Cologne museum is an inscription read-
ing Matronis HamaveMs, which Dr. Steiner refers to
Hamm, near J iilich, near which place it was found. The
Decs Harimellcs and the Dece Viradesthi were probably
German or Gaulish topical deities, but the names are not
satisfactorily identified.
The Budge cup, referred to in p. 190, is so called from
the place of its discovery. Budge, near Froxfield, six
miles from Marlborough. See Hoare’s ‘^Ancient Wilt-
shire”, vol. ii, p. 121.
The inscription, fig. 7, pi. xlviii, is incorrectly given
by Gordon, and Hodgson does not attempt to restore it.
Two lines seem wanting at the beginning, and one at the
end. What is left may probably be read thus : — . . .
fllAuS SERvn QVI NATM5 GALATIA DECWBVIT GALATIA
mXIT ANNOS . . MORITVrMS DESIDERa^5^7 jOa^RIS IN TUmtdo
sepeliri
* Itinerarium per nonnullas Galliee Belgicae partes, p. 45.
Antwerp, 1584.
PL.XLIX.
203
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH
REMAINS.
PLATES XLIX TO LYIII.
In the present chapter, I proceed to draw attention (as
promised in p. 170) to discoveries of Frankish sepulchral
remains in France and Germany, and at the same time to
point out some remarkable and hitherto unnoticed fea-
tures of resemblance between them and contemporaneous
antiquities found in England. It is necessary that these
remains should be studied together, for, belonging to the
same period, and to nations and tribes very closely
allied by origin and geographical position, they present
so close a similitude, that they mutually contribute to
illustrate and explain each other. They are of that dark
epoch which immediately followed the extinction of the
Roman power in Gaul and Britain, when great events
occurred, changing the government of these countries
and altering the entire face of society, without being
chronicled by historians in whose narratives we can re-
pose full confidence. The advent of Jutes, Angles, and
the other kindred tribes commonly known by the general
term Saxons, to Britain, and the irruption of the peoples
north of the Rhine, called Franks, into Gaul, come en-
tirely within the times of paganism ; and it is to its infiu-
ence we of the present day are enabled, from their
graves, to collect some facts which throw a light on
their habits and customs, and give a considerable insight
into the state of the arts, such as can be gained from
no other source of inquiry. In the contents of these
graves and their arrangement, a close adherence to the
Roman practices may be noticed ; so much alike are they
204
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS,
in many instances that they have frequently been ascribed
to that people, and, for less weighty reasons, as frequently
to the Celts. In the ornaments, in the weapons, in the
urns, and other objects regarded as artistic productions,
we can but recognize the result of no mean or contemptible
taste and skill. In nearly all of them there may be de-
tected an imitation of Roman types, combined with pecu-
liarities which give the impress of a nationality in design
and workmanship. When Christianity became established,
the hills and fields were no longer resorted to for burial-
places ; the dead were interred in churchyards, and the
custom of burying weapons, ornaments, and utensils with
the dead was gradually abandoned.
The period to which this interesting class of antiquities
is thus necessarily confined, extends from the fifth to the
middle of the seventh century ; that is to say, in England
and France, and, we may add, in Spain, although we
know at present but little or nothing of the remains of the
northern invaders discovered in that country. In Scandi-
navia paganism was not thoroughly extinguished until the
eleventh century, and therefore interments analogous to
those of the early Saxons and Franks may, in that part of
Europe, be of much later date. On the other hand, in the
countries from whence the Franks and Saxons emigrated,
we may expect to find interments very similar to those
under consideration but of earlier times. It would be
very useful if researches were made on an extended scale
in the countries north of the Rhine, with a view to collect
materials for comparison with the sepulchral remains of
the fifth to the seventh century in England, France, and
Germany. The late king of Denmark set an excellent
example to our government in commissioning Mr. Worsaae
to travel in Holland, England, and Ireland, for the express
purpose of obtaining information on the primeval antiqui-
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
205
ties of Denmark f and that gentleman is at this moment,
under the auspices of his present majesty, travelling in
France for the same object. With such zeal and intelli-
gence does the government of Denmark collect the re-
mains of antiquity which hear upon the history of the
country, that in the public museum of Copenhagen no
less than sixteen rooms are devoted to national antiqui-
ties. In our own country, so much more fertile in ancient
works of art, and so much richer in pecuniary resources, we
may search in vain for a single apartment, furnished at the
expense of the nation, worthy to be compared with either
of these sixteen rooms of the museum of Copenhagen.
As before observed, our Saxon antiquities formerly
attracted less attention than the Roman and British.
Douglas led the way to their scientific examination, but it
is only within the last few years that they have obtained
the general notice they so peculiarly deserve. They yet
remain to be examined in connexion with those on the
other side of the British channel ; and, although the
limits of this volume forbid a very comprehensive treat-
ment of the subject, or so detailed a comparison as might
else be made, I hope to be able to point out the advantage
to be derived by attending more to foreign discoveries,
and making them instrumental in explaining those made
at home. In the neighbourhood of Dieppe, the Abbe
Cochet, during the last few years, has met with, along the
valley of the Eulne, no less than three extensive ceme-
teries of the Merovingian period. The first is that of
The result of this enlightened patronage of archaeology is
already apparent in two works published by Mr. Worsaae, en-
titled, “The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark.” London:
1849, and “ An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in
England, Scotland, and Ireland.” London: 1852.
206 ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
Londinieres, opened in 1825 during the construction of
walls for a modern burial ground, and fully examined
in 1847 ; the second is that of Douvrend, discovered in
1838 in making a road from Dieppe to Beauvais ; the
third was found at Envermeu, in repairing the road from
Bolbec to Blangy, That of Douvrend contained a con-
siderable number of skeletons, many of which were found
placed one above another ; pieces of charcoal lay about
them, and urns were, in most cases, at the feet of the
skeletons. In the graves were lances and javelins, sahres
or long knives, hatchets, ornaments in glass, and a coin
of Claudius Gothicus pierced for suspension by means of
a wire. With one skeleton was a superb silver-gilt fibula
set with stones, a beautiful gold ring set with an engraved
stone, etc. Afterwards, similar interments were found on
the banks of the Parfondval, one of the tributary streams
of the Eulne.*
At Londinieres from seventy to eighty skeletons were
exhumed. It appeared that the bodies had not been
consigned to the graves invariably in a horizontal posi-
tion ; many seemed to have been buried in a sitting or
crouching posture, and with or without coffins or frames
of wood. Charcoal was usually found in the graves. At
the feet of the skeletons were placed urns, either empty
or filled with dirt or portions of charcoal ; they amounted
to fifty-five in number, all of clay, except two in glass,
shewn in the cut on the opposite page (figs. 1 and 4).
The goblet-shaped glass vessel, with a net-work pattern
in relief (fig. 4), in form resembles some found in this
country, and the ornament, which is novel, seems a direct
imitation from the Boman ; the bottle-shaped vessel (fig. 1)
^ The hatchets, vases, and lance-heads, which were dis-
covered here, are deposited in the public library of Neufchatel.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
207
is not familiar to us, but the spiral bands upon the neck
are a very common feature in the glass of the Saxon epoch.
Of the fictile vases thirty were of black clay, sixteen of
grey, six white, and two red. The clay of the black
was the finest, that of the grey the coarsest ; the black
vases were covered with a glaze of the same colour, which
almost always could be washed olF with water ; the colour-
ing matter appeared to be derived from plumbago. In
the subjoined cut examples of the vases are given (figs. 2
1. 4.
and 3), and the patterns on some others. All who are
familiar with the beautiful pottery of the Romans, will at
once perceive whence the ornamentation was derived, and
will trace in the degraded types some of the classical forms
perverted and disarranged. Of this we shall see further
instances in the course of our inquiry.
After the vases, next came the war -hatchet, placed upon
or by the side of the
legs. The handle of
wood, of which the
remains are still to be
seen in the socket,
pointed towards the
Length, inches.
208
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
head of the skeleton, and seemed to have been held in the
hand of the warrior. One preserved traces of the tissue
which covered the legs of the corpse upon which it re-
posed. The belt, M. Cochet observes, was the most
curious; it was upon its circle where they found the
swords, the knives, nails, rings, and buckles of iron, bronze
and silver.
There were but two swords (one of which is shaped
like the knives), and they were with skeletons accom-
panied by the war-hatchet. In the grave containing
the long sword were no other weapons, but solely a
knife. The knife seemed a necessary appendage to
the contents of the graves of males, and it was occa-
sionally found in those of females. The long sword,
figured by the abb^ Cochet, bore traces of a wooden
sheath, covered with leather. The sword was pointed,
but the sheath, like specimens found near Cheltenham*
and in Oxfordshire, was rounded, and strengthened by an
edging of bronze in the middle and at the extremities.
The buckles amounted to twenty-five ; ten in iron, five in
silver, and ten in bronze. Towards the skulls were found
the fibulas or brooches for the dress ; eleven were col-
lected. Of these, eight were round, and three elongated ;
some of the round kind had been enamelled, and others,
quite fiat, were ornamented with concentric circles or
circles placed cross-ways. Such are not unfrequently
found in England. E-ound the bones of the necks of two
skeletons were necklaces, the one of yellow amber, the
other of beads in coloured glass and in variegated paste ;
among the neck ornaments, as at Douvrend, was a small
brass Roman coin perforated. Examples of similar pierced
Notes on Cheltenham, Ancient and Medieval. By W. H.
Gomonde. 8vo. 1849.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
209
coins have been given in plates xxxv and xxxix. By the
side of the skulls lay the lance or spear-heads, eighteen
in number. There were also ear-rings, ten in bronze and
one in silver, composed of a single thread of metal with a
small hollow square for pastes. The contents of one grave
as an example may be specially described. It was that
of a young female. At her feet lay a red earthen vase ;
to her girdle a small knife in iron was attached by a
buckle, and an ornament studded with little pentagonal-
headed nails ; on her breast were two circular fibulas,
which had been enamelled ; a string of coloured beads
encircled the neck, and her ears had been decorated with
rings. Upon her breast reposed her infant, a child appa-
rently of four or five years.*
The Frankish cemetery at Envermeu is situated to the
north-east of the church, at the foot of a hill, in a field
called from time immemorial la Tombe, probably, as the
Abbe Cochet surmises, from the existence of a tumulus
long since levelled by agriculture. From sixty to seventy
graves were laid open, each of which contained at least
one skeleton, some two, and a few three. The direction
in which they lay was constantly, as at Douvrend and
Londinieres, the feet towards the east, the head towards
the west. Bound the graves was a kind of charcoal or
blackened wood, evidently the remains of the planks of a
coffin.
The vases, in shape and material like those before
noticed, were likewise placed at the feet ; they amounted
to about twenty-five. The swords, spear -heads, knives,
and ornaments, though varying in some details, in general
For a full account of this discovery, and some sensible
deductions drawn therefrom by the Abbe Cochet, see the
Revue de Rouen et de Normandie. Fevrier, 1848.
210
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
character resembled those found at the other cemeteries.
There were seven coins, three of the earlier emperors
and four of the lower empire. The antler of a stag, and
a shell of a species of the huccinum of eastern seas, may
be mentioned as objects of unusual occurrence in the
Frankish graves. There was also one umbo of a shield,
resembling that in plate xxxvi, found at Strood. The
most remarkable object is a silver hair-pin, found beneath
a skull, which seemed to be that of a female.* It is etched
in two views, the full size, in plate xlix. It is nearly
seven inches in length; the shank is round, but the upper
and ornamented portion is flat and has been gilt. It ter-
minates in a figure resembling the head of a bird, the eye
being of garnet or coloured glass. This peculiar design
resembles that of fibulae found at Cologne (see plate xxxv),
at Selzen, and in the Isle of Wight. f A Roman fibula,
not unlike these in form, but less rude, found at Aid-
borough, is in the collection of Mr. A. Lawson.
In the spring of last year the Abbe Cochet, aided by a
grant of money from the French government, resumed
his researches at Envermeu and made further disco-
veries. He found eighteen vases, nine spear-heads, and
five hatchets, one of which is described as terminating in
a club, armed with iron spikes as sharp as thorns {une
massue armee de pointes de fer, piquantes cormne des
epmes).% Among the ornaments was, it is stated, a gold
See Revue de Rouen et de Normandie. Juillet, 1850.
f See Transactions of the British Archeological Association
at Winchester, plate in, fig. 11.
f Vigie de Dieppe, Mar. 11, 1851. I have not seen this
singular weapon. If it he in the museum of Rouen, where most
of these remains are preserved, it escaped my notice, as also
did the coin and the bell-shaped ornament.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
211
coin (Merovingian?), pierced for suspension, and a fibula
in tbe form of a bell, stated to be precisely like those
found at Tournay in tbe tomb of Cbilderic. There was
also a girdle ornament in thin silver, with a design in low
relief, representing two peacocks pecking what appears to
be intended for a shrub, in a pot of a description like
those in common use throughout France at the present
day. This is represented, of the actual size, in pi. xlix, and
beneath, in the same plate, is a beautiful ornament from the
Envermeu cemetery, composed of coloured glass laid upon
silver. It is a very interesting and rare example of the genius
and skill of the ancients in the manufacture of glass gems.
The leaf, which appears to be meant for that of the vine,
is of a green colour, the fibres and borders being worked
in gold, and set in a body of blue or violet-coloured glass.
As this precious little ornament is quite perfect, it was
impossible for me to ascertain the precise mode of its
construction ; but from the fragment of a similar speci-
men engraved by Caylus,* it seems evident that the fillets
of gold must have been laid upon the blue ground when
in a state of fusion, that the green glass was then poured
in, and the whole subsequently polished. The example
figured by Caylus difiers from that of Envermeu in the
colours only, which he describes as blue upon a white
ground. Mr. Apsley Pellatt, in his “ Curiosities of Glass
Making,” plate in, fig. 7, has published a specimen in the
British Museum which seems a counterpart of those just
mentioned, except that no gold border is shown ; where it
came from is not stated.
The circular fibula in this plate, etched of the actual
size, was found at Parfondeval. The coins were found at
Lucy, near Neufchatel, in September last. They were
^ Recueil (V Antiquit h, tom. i, pi. xciv, fig. 3
212
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
deposited beneath a large bronze-silvered belt buckle, six
inches in length (very similar to some found in Normandy*
and Picardy t), which, with other objects, were in a grave
with a skeleton. They are of the gold series, well known
under the term Merovingian, such as have been occa-
sionally found in our Kentish Saxon graves (see vol. i of
the Collectanea, plate vi, figs. 7, 8, and 10). When coins
of various periods are found in graves, the inference to be
drawn therefrom is, that the burial was posterior to the
date of the most recent ; in the present case, these coins
decide the interment to have been made in the sixth or
seventh century.^
In the Memoires of the Society of Antiquaries of Picardy
(1850), Dr. Pigollot has published his historical researches
on the peoples of the Teutonic race who invaded Gaul in
the fifth century, and on the character of the arms, buckles,
and ornaments collected from their tombs, particularly in
Picardy. The learned antiquary has treated his subjeet
in a comprehensive and discriminating spirit, and pro-
duced an elaborate essay, which may be referred to as one
Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de Normandie,
vol. xviijfig. 1, pi. 1.
f Mem. de la Soc. des Antiq. de Picardde, tom. x, pi. vii,
fig. 4.
f The Abbe Cochet, who has kindly sent me drawings of the
coins, thus describes them : — “ On fig. 1, struck at Bordeaux,
we read, on the obverse, bvrdegala F^V. ; on the reverse,
BEREBADES, a well-known moneyer. Fig. 2 reads vatvnaco
It is unknown where Vatunacum was situated. On the
reverse of a similar piece M. Lelewel has found the letters
ALEMV ; on mine I read ndvs ; so that the entire word may
be read Alemundus. Fig. 3 ; ohv., xvronv. (Tours) ; rev.,
noMNiGisiLO.MO, Domnigisiliis Monetarius. The others are
illegible.”
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
213
of the most useful contributions to this branch of anti-
quarian science. On the present occasion, I must content
myself with noticing his account of a very interesting dis-
covery made, about ten years since, near Misery, a village
on the north of Marche-le-Pot, in the canton of Nesle.
It consisted of the following objects, which were found in a
grave with a skeleton. 1. A long two-edged sword, the
pommel and guard ofwhich are cased with copper gilt. It re-
sembles one in the collection of Mr. Rolfe, found at Gilton
(see Archceologia, vol. xxx, plate xi), and one in the pos-
session of Mr. Boreham, found at Coombe (see Col. Ant.,
vol. ii, plate xxxviii), both of which localities are remark-
able for having produced some of our richest Saxon
remains. It is not, however, so much ornamented as these
examples. 2. A knife, in iron, the blade of which ex-
hibits stamped upon it two small notched segments of a
circle inlaid with silver ; a ferrule, in silver, separates it
from the handle. 3. A lance-head, in iron. 4. An umbo of
a shield in iron, plated with silver-gilt. It appears to have
been attached to the shield by copper-headed nails. On
the border which surrounds the umbo, is a stamp affixed
by the maker, which represents a figure in the antique
costume holding in his right hand a patera, and an animal
standing at his feet ; below, are the letters mar. In the
engraving which illustrates this paper, the figure closely
resembles the well-known representation of Genius upon
Roman coins. Dr. Rigollot considers that this stamp
proves the shield to have been made by a Roman artificer,
and at a time when paganism still prevailed, since the
figure stamped upon it is that of an ancient divinity.
5. Besides these arms, there were found a buckle of a belt
or girdle, and a square metal plate of two leaves, intended
(it is supposed) to be attached to the other extremity of
the girdle ; both of these objects are in extraordinary
214
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
fine preservation, and of very remarkable workmanship.
They are covered with ornaments, formed of a kind of in-
crnstation in silver ; and in the centre, in copper-gilt,
are engraved incuse figures of animals ; a lion, a dog, or fox,
and a sort of dragon, apparently a degenerated offspring
of the Koman capricorn. The extremities of the half
circle which forms the buckle are terminated by the heads
of monsters with distended jaws; the two lateral append-
ages of the tongue terminate in birds’ heads, resembling
those of the fibulae in plate xxxv, and that of the hair-pin
in plate xlix ; the half circle of the buckle is covered with
a pattern composed of a succession of figures, not unlike
the medieval letter A. Dr. Rigollot points out the resem-
blance between the design and workmanship of these
animals and similar figures upon a circular plate engraved
by Buonarotti, described in my Antiquities of Richh or ough,
p. 25, in reference to the second and the twentieth legions
in Britain. This similarity, which is certainly very striking,
induces Dr. Bigollot to consider that the arms, and par-
ticularly the buckles found at Misery, were fabricated by
artists of the same time, and, perhaps, of the same country
as those who executed the plate published by Buonarotti ;
that this period ought to be the fourth century, and that,
perhaps, the arms in question belonged to some Frankish
chief who had served in Britain. That the Roman plate
is of the latter part of the fourth century can hardly be
disputed ; but I think the ornaments upon the buckles
bespeak a somewhat later date ; the animals, and the heads
of monsters, seem more bizarre, while in the various
patterns there is a peculiar neatness of design and work-
manship, which characterizes the artistic productions of
the fifth and following centuries. In the dragon-like
figure upon the buckle, I think we may recognize a modi-
fication of the Roman capricorn which also appears upon
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
215
the plate of Buonarotti, rudely executed, but somewhat
more like the well-known emblem of the twentieth legion.
The Frankish weapons and ornaments discovered
throughout Normandy, closely correspond with the ex-
amples published by Dr. Rigollot and the Abb4 Cochet. At
present I content myself in briefly referring to Monsieur
Edouard Lambert’s discoveries at Bayeux, published in
the Memoir es of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy,
vol. xvii, 1849. In the immediate vicinity of that town
was an extensive Homan cemetery, which was subse-
quently resorted to for purposes of sepulture by the Frank
population, and thus the remains of difierent periods and
races are there often found in juxtaposition. Some of
the bodies had been buried in stone coffins, one of which
had previously served for an inscription to Constantine
the Great. Some of these coffins are, probably, of a late
date, but others seem to be as early as the fifth and sixth
centuries. That which had been a Roman monument,
and which, from some objects found near it may be sup-
posed Frankish, resembles one very recently dug up in
the Saxon cemetery on Stowe Heath, in Sufiblk. They
are rather wider at the head than at the feet, and the
angles, at the former extremity, are cut off and somewhat
rounded, while at the lower end they are sharp. I direct
attention to this circumstance in pursuance of the object
of the present paper, which is to impress upon the con-
sideration of the archaeologist the propriety of gathering
facts for comparison wherever they may be found, abroad
as well as at home.
In page 129 of the present volume, I referred to the
sepulchral remains recently found near Selzen on the
Rhine, a hamlet not far from the small town of Nierstein,
above Mayence. The more interesting objects are pre-
served in the museum of Mayence, and an account of the
216
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
discoveries, admirably illustrated and written with great
care and good judgment, has been published by the
brothers W. and L. Lindenschmit.* From this work I
select a few from the many facts it contains, because they
bear so directly upon some of the same class and period in
our own country, and because, moreover, the well-informed
authors, who know so well the importance of comparison,
have altogether omitted to refer to the analogous dis-
coveries made in England. In this I impute no blame to
these zealous and sensible antiquaries ; the cause of their
silence on this point must be attributed to the indifference
with which our English societies regard the antiquities of
neighbouring countries, and the little or no pains they
take to cultivate a friendly relationship with foreign
bodies instituted for a common object.
The following abridged account relates to the first ex-
cavations, comprising six graves. Some of the skeletons
lay from south to north ; the others in opposite directions.
Of three, the skulls were wanting ; and, here and there,
parts of the skeletons. Ashes and traces of fire were
found in each grave. In the first grave laid open, an urn
stood in the middle of a headless skeleton ; on the sides
lay a sword, a spear, various buckles, and a broken iron
spur. The next contained a skeleton of a female, also
without the head ; close to it lay a row of amber beads
and numerous white glass beads joined together in threes
and fours, and among them were two blue and two green.
Das Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen in der Provinz
Rheinhessen, dargestellt und erlaiitert von den Gebriidern W.
und L. Lindenschmit, Mainz, 1848. I take this opportunity
of thanking my friend, Mens. Lejoindre, of Gravesend, for pre-
senting me with a MS. translation of this valuable work, which
is quite worthy of being printed in English.
PL.L
FRANKISH & SAXON REMAINS
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
217
in cut glass. Near a broken glass vessel were tbe frag-
ments of a flat knife-like instrument, in bronze, and a
small saucer in tbin bronze. A little further on were
several small iron knives, with a sharpening stone, and the
bones of a bird. A heavy silver armlet, which was pur-
loined by a travelling Jew, completed the contents of this
grave.
The next grave contained the skeleton of a warrior,
who must have been at least seven feet in height. Around
the line of the body were traces of a belt of linen, or
rather of strong tick, thickly covered with little white
metal nails ; this belt had been fastened by a silver clasp
setwith red glass. On the breast lay two bronze ornam^ented
flat hooks ; on the right side, a sword and a long spear ;
and on the left a strong iron knife with a wooden
handle covered with bronze inlaid with red and green
glass. This knife, which is twelve inches in length, in-
cluding the handle, is etched in pi. l (fig. 2), from a
sketch made in the Mayence Museum. Near this, and
probably in its scabbard, were a stylus in bone, and one
in bronze. On the left foot was a thin iron spur. On the
bones of the feet were portions of the white metallic
mountings of a small strap, and on each knee a small
buckle. In an earthen vessel were two bronze fibulae,
with projecting buttons, set with red glass (fig. 1, pi. l) ;
a comb of hard wood covered with thin bronze ; an orna-
ment of large and well made glass beads ; a pair of shears ;
flints and steel; and a bronze ring of uncommon form.
The urn, in which aU these objects were enclosed, was
placed at the feet of the skeleton with other vases. Among
them was a small Roman red clay cup, inscribed with the
maker’s name, vaivs, and a well-made dish of clay of the
country (also, apparently, Roman), and in it a jug of red tile
clay, scarcely burnt, of the same kind as those in use, in the
318 ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
present time, in tlie houses of country people (ng.7,pi.Lii).
In this jug, which is blackened by fire, were two hen’s feet.
Over these vases, as a covering, must have originally lain
the shield, for the large iron umbo, with its studs, lay upon
them, and around them was an oval mass of thick mould,
which, from its taste and smell, was ascertained to have
been leather. Here, as in subsequent cases, were no
traces of wood in the shield, except a few fibres in the
ornamented parts. Under this, and broken by the weight
of the earth after the mouldering of the shield, were the
fragments of a drinking cup in thin bronze, and again,
under this, a magnificent glass drinking vessel (fig. 3,
pi. Li). It is by far, the authors observe, the most artistic
of all the numerous cups found at Selzen, and, moreover,
the most remarkable glass vessel discovered in the province
of Rhein-Hesse, except the Roman. Near the human
skeleton lay that of a horse, without horse-shoes. Of the
harness nothing remained but a well-made snaffle of iron
and a few small bronze rings.
This is, perhaps, one of the most interesting discoveries
that have been made in the Selzen cemeterv; and it is
rendered of great importance by the careful manner in
which the Messrs. Linderschmit have stated the plain,
authenticated facts : an obviously indispensable requisite
in such narrations, but by no means always attended to or
understood, particularly by those who find nothing but mere
amusement in such researches, or the means of transitory
excitement to while away leisure time, or to feed an idle
curiosity. In plate l, I have given the knife with the
enamelled handle, and one of the fibulae found in this
grave. The knife is altogether unique. The fibula,
as will be perceived, closely resembles one found on
the Kentish coast, near Uolkestone, fig. 3 in the same
plate. Several fibulae of this peculiar description have been
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
219:
found in barrows in Kent, but they are by no means com-
mon to other parts of England. Four varieties of the type
were found in or near the site of the Roman castrum at
Niederbieber, near Neuwied, on the Rhine (see page 133
et seq^ ; the most curious of these is one of a rather large
size, with projecting knobs, terminating in birds’ beaks,
like the hair-pin in plate xlix, and the small brooches in
plate xxxix. The occurrence of Roman paterae in Saxon
graves was particularly noticed in the burial-place at
Osengal, in Thanet, explored in part by Mr. Rolfe a few
years since. The homely-looking jug, which, from its
modern appearance, evidently surprised the German
archceologists, also finds its counterpart in the barrows on
the coast of Kent, even to its contents, the hen’s feet.
The Selzen jug, with two of the same kind, are reproduced
in plate lii, figs. 7, 8, and 9, and, for the first time, some
similar earthen vessels from Kent are engraved, and, also
for the first time, appropriated to the early Saxon period.
Fig. 7 is that which contained the hen’s feet. A few years
since, while making a pedestrian tour along the Kentish
coast, I visited the earthworks upon the hill near
Folkestone, called Caesar’s camp. Examining some barrows
within the lines upon the apex, I noticed one from which
a portion of the side had been cut away, and looking more
closely, observed some small pieces of an earthen jug,
which must have been almost precisely similar to that
found at Selzen. With the fragments which I extricated
with my walking-stick was a fowl’s spur, and some portions
of bones of the foot.* On reaching Dover, I examined
the town museum, and there I observed a jug, (fig. 1,
plate lii) among the few scattered and undescribed an-
* I deposited these relics in the museum of my friend Mr.
Rolfe of Sandwich.
220
ANGLO-SAXON AND FE.ANKISH REMAINS.
tiquities, which, immediately struck me as being of the
same kind as that of which I had just found the remains.
I either saw a memorandum to the effect, or was told that
it had been found in a barrow near Dover. At present,
however, even that statement or tradition has become lost,
and the unattractive vessel has become consigned to an
inner part of the case, behind the more showy Etruscan
and other foreign vases.*' Another English example of
this class of Saxon and Frankish pottery is given in plate
Lii, fig. 4. It is in a bluish clay, and coarsely made ;
about eight inches in depth, and seven across the widest
part. It was found many years since at Woodnesborough,
in the sand pit at the back of the ‘‘ Oak” public house,
together with a beautiful circular fibula, richly enamelled,
and is now preserved in Mr. Eolfe’s valuable museum of
local antiquities. Fig. 5, of the same plate, is, I suspect,
of the same period. It is in the Canterbury Museum ; but,
like many other objects there, has no recorded history;
it is simply marked as coming from Barham Down,
a locality very fertile in Saxon remains. Fig. 9 was
found in a grave at Nierstein. Further examples of these
jugs may be found in M. F. Troyon’s account of the
graves at Bel- Air, near Lausanne. f
Lhe glass drinking vessel is shown in pi. li, fig. 3. In
juxtaposition is one from the Canterbury Museum,
which I had sketched for engraving in my Antiquities of
RicJiborough, JReculver, and Lymne, as it was stated to
have been found at Beculver. However, there were
no means for verifying this assertion, and as I then felt
some doubt as to the precise period to which it belonged,
* I am much indebted to the Rev. E. G. Boys for the trouble
he took in getting me a sketch of the jug.
t Published by the Society of Antiquaries of Zurich.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
221
I decided on excluding it from my book. Within a fort-
night after the volume was published, a visit to Mayence
brought before me the engraving of the Selzen specimen,
and removed all doubt as to the antiquity and parentage
of the English example. Subsequently I had the grati-
fication of introducing to the Society of Antiquaries of
London the researches of Mr. W. M. Wylie, at Fairford,
in Gloucestershire, who, among other interesting remains
of the Saxon period, discovered one of these remarkable
glass vessels (fig. 2, pi. Li).* It is 6i inches in height,
and 4| in circumference, and is of a light amber or yellow
colour. That in the Canterbury Museum is of a colour
varying from olive green to yellow, the projections being
of a dark green, with shades almost approaching a
black; it is about six inches in height. These beauti-
ful vessels are extremely well made ; on the upper and
lower parts they are ornamented with the fine threads or
circular bands so common to the Saxon glasses, and with
hollow claws, of a singular shape, neatly manipulated. It is
very probable that many of these glass vessels, which we may
suppose were drinking cups, have been dug up from time to
time, and, partly from ignorance of their value, have been
lost or destroyed. Mr. Rolfe informs me that one was
found, many years ago, in a barrow at Coombe. It got
into the possession of an old lady who long used it as a
sugar-basin, but whether it be yet extant is very doubtful.
See Archceologia, vol. xxxiv, p. 82. I take this opportunity
to draw the attention of all who are interested in this important
blranch of our national archaeology to Mr. Wylie’s detailed
account of his discoveries at Fairford (J. H. Parker, Oxford);
and to a series of engravings of Saxon remains proposed to be
published by subscription, in parts, by Mr. Akerman ( J. Russell
Smith, Soho Square).
22^ ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
Another was found, a few years since, at Weston, near
Winchester, with swords and other objects, none of which
seem to have excited any interest.* I have previously
noticed that found in the county of Durham (p. 163), so
that at present only one more example remains to be
referred to. This is engraved in that vast store of
antiquarian records, the Gentleman' s Magazine, March
1766. It was found near Charteris, in the Isle of Ely,
deposited, with a sword, a spear, and an urn, by the side
of a skeleton. Dr. Stukeley, who supplied the account,f
mistook these remains for British.
Returning to the Selzen graves, the next contained a
skeleton, a well-preserved iron axe, and a small cup of
common red clay. The fourth grave had a skeleton with-
out a skull, a sword, a knife, and a spear ; at the feet v/as
an urn, in which were two fibulae, a glass bead, and a small
glass. The fifth, a skeleton, measuring seven feet, and an
earthen jug, shown in pi. Lii, fig. 8. In another grave
was found the urn, fig. 6, which, for comparison, is placed
in our plate by the side of two of the same form ; fig. 2
from the Osengal cemetery, in the collection of Mr. Rolfe ;
and fig. 3 from a barrow on the Breach Downs, in that of
Lord Londesborough.
Some of the more common forms of urns found in the
Selzen burial-place are given in the following cut. They
* At the time of the Congress of the Archaeological Asso-
ciation at Winchester, some fragments of this glass were in the
possession of Mr. Dear of that town.
f Dr. Stukeley does not positively say there were hones in the
urn ; hut speaking of it, he observes, “ this, we suppose, held
the bones of his wife, burnt ; she dying before him, they were
kept to be interred with him ; this case I have often observed
at Stonehenge.” ’
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
are usually made of the clay of the neighbourhood, and
are generally lathe-turned. Drinking-cups of glass were
found in thirteen graves, in those of females as well as
1. 2. 3. 4.
of men ; they differed somewhat in form and size, but
all were rounded at the bottom, so that they could only
stand in an inverted position. Two of them are shown
in pi. LI, fig. 4. It is remarkable that almost all the
Frankish and Saxon drinking-cups, whatever their form
in other respects may be, are fashioned so that they could
only be placed upon the table when empty ; and as many
of them are very capacious, we can well imagine how
well they administered to the intemperate habits of our
Teutonic forefathers. From their peculiar proneness to
oscillate and fall, it is probable that they may have been
called tumblers, a word not literally applicable to the
modern so-called drinking-cups. In the annexed cut two
varieties are shown; that on. the left (from Douglas’s
Nenia ) was found in Minster churchyard, Thanet ; that
on the right is in the Museum of Bonn.
Height, 4 inches.
224
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
As in France and England, we find in the graves at
Selzen, and in those of other parts of Germany, the long
sword with double edge, the large knife, or dagger, of a
single edge (less frequently in England), and a great
variety of spears and javelins. In a paper published in
the Gentleman^ 3Iagazine for January 1851, I noticed
francisca or Frankish battle-axe, and observed how
comparatively seldom they are found in our English
harrows, while they abound in those of France and Ger-
many. One was found in a grave at Ash ;* a second was
brought to Mr. Eolfe when the railway from Eamsgate to
Deal was excavated at Osengal (fig. 8, pi. l) ; a third, of
very small size (fig. 6), was found in a Saxon burial-place
at Colchester ;f a fourth (fig. 5), which somewhat resem-
bles one figured by the Messrs. Lindenschmit (fig. 4), v/as
dug up, many years since, to the north of the Eoman
castrum at Eichborough the two last are the most un-
common ; fig. 10 is in the Canterbury Museum, with
Saxon remains, but unlabelled. An example very simi-
lar to that from Londinieres, found, with many Saxon
spear-heads, horseshoes, etc., at Pangbourne, in Berk-
shire,§ is in my own collection. Exclusive of these, I
believe very few franciscas could be cited as known to
be found in barrows in England. In the paper above-
mentioned, I referred to a representation, upon the sword
of Tiberius, of a female warrior armed with a spear and
the hipennis or double-edged axe; and remarked, that,
although I considered this figure may have been intended
See plate of antiquities found in a grave at Ash, inserted in
Boys’s Collections for an History of Sandwich, 4to., 1792.
f It is in the possession of Mr. Acton, of Grundisburgh.
f From Mr. Bolfe’s collection.
§ Presented to me by Mr. W. E. Rose.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
225
as a personification of Vindelicia or Rhsetia (the warriors
of these countries using the battle-axe) that, as far
as I knew, no example of the double axe had yet been
found in the graves of the countries north of the Rhine,
or in any part of Germany, France, or England. The
double axe, therefore, with which this female is armed, I
considered as conventional ; and I am supported in this
opinion by Dr. Rigollot, who, in the essay before referred
to, considers the word bipennis, applied to designate the
francisca, as improper. He observes, that the use of the
word by Sidonius Apollinaris must be taken as a poetical
expression, and that Gregory of ‘Tours, and the other
writers who have followed him in the use of this term, are
in error ; for nowhere in the Teutonic graves has any
double axe, like that of the Amazons, been discovered.
On this Mr .Akerman remarksf that, “ although Sidonius
Apollinaris used the word hipeniiis, and the Greek writers
the still less equivocal afx^lanofjio^, I do not think they fur-
nish us with direct proof that the francisca was in reality
double-edged. In the classical ages, bipennis was ob-
viously the name given to the double-edged axe of the
Asiatics ; and this term, originality used for the weapon
wielded in war, would, in all probability, in after times
be applied to any axe thus used, of whatsoever shape it
might happen to be. Our own language furnishes many
examples of the use of terms, long after they have ceased
to be applicable.” In questions of this kind, ancient
artistic productions are /ver valuable. In the engravings
* I must refer my readers to the Gerdleman' s Magazine for an
engraving of the remarkable sword referred to, and for the rea-
sons which led to this conclusion.
f “ On some of the weapons of the Celtic and Teutonic Races”.
Arehceologia, vol. xxxiv, p.
H
XNGLO-SAXON AJsl) FRAXlClSn REMAtXS.
S26
of the Roman and Franlcisli antiquities found at Nieder-
The coins found at 8elzen are of importance, as afford-
ing an approximate guide to the date of at least some of the
interments. The latest are of Justinian, from which it is
proved that this burial-place was in use at some period
not earlier than the middle of the first half of the sixth
century. One of the coins, bored for suspension, was of
Constantine; two, quinarii of Justinian. There was also
a small oblong piece of silver, supposed a part of a coin,
and a quarter of an imperial denarius, v/hich would appear
to have quartered in order to assimilate the iveight of
the silver to that of the quinarii, the common silver cur-
rent coin of the time. It is worthy of notice, also,
that these coins, in conformity with the Rom.an custom,
had been placed in the mouths of the shcletons.
The Messrs. Lindensclimit embody in their rejiort a
very careful comparison betw'ecn the contents of the Selzen
graves, and those recently excavated at Nordendorf, Jri-
dolfing, Sinsheim, Ebringen, Bel- Air, at Ascherade on the
Baltic,* and on the Lupfen, near Obcrflacht. In all of
* An illustrated account of these graves, entitled “ Die Grabcr
der Lieven” (Dresden, 1850b bas been published by Professor
J. K. Bahr. They belong to a much later period than the
bieber (see p. 110 ante), is a representa-
tion of a large circular metal plate, em-
bossed with a figure of an imperial per-
sonage (apparently one of the Constan-
V|ii| tine family), standing Avith his foot upon
a captive and a heap of arms, among
which are two battle-axes, shewn in the
annexed cut, which, allowung for artistic
\h /'■'
i; f: ■
latitude, are not very unlike the examples
figs. 4 and 5, in plate l.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FKANKISH EEMAINS. 227"
these there is a striking similarity between the weapons,
the ornaments, the pottery, the implements, and the same
occasional occurrence of horse -furniture, and the bones of
horses and other animals. They regret, however, the in-
sul&ciency of delineations in many of the otherwise well
executed reports on these discoveries. In an ethnological
point of view, this is a defect which is also apparent in
works published in our own country, and to which the
remark of the Messrs. Lindenschmit, on the omission of a
close examination of the crania, will apply with equal force
and truth. ‘‘All works,” they observe, “ have left this
subject nearly untouched, or dismissed with an inadequate
notice, such as stating that the skulls appeared evidently
Celtic, or evidently Sclavonic in form, an assertion proving
nothing but the predetermined opinion of the writer.”
Accordingly, these archaeologists have given a description
of the Selzen skulls, illustrated by engravings, from which
we gather that they consider them purely Germanic, -bear-
ing a conformity to the well organised modern German
skull. Conclusions deduced from crania can, however, be
depended upon only when the contents of the graves are
authenticated by the eye of the experienced antiquary.
An excellent opportunity has recently been afforded, in
the discovery of no less than one hundred and eighty-eight
skeletons at Little Wilbrahain, by the Hon. R. C. Neville ;
and as the professional skill of the honourable gentleman’s
colleague, Mr. Oldham, has been directed to the examina-
tion of the crania, we may expect his report embodied in
Frankish and Saxon, being as late as the tenth and eleventh
centuries. They present many points for comparison with Danish
antiquities, and, at the same time, are important in shewing the
prevalence of the old pagan customs, which in the more southern
countries had long since been abandoned.
228 ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
the detailed account uith Vv'liicli Mr. NcTille is about to
gratify the antiquarian world.
In the early portion of the first volume of Collectanea,
I made some remarks relative to the classification of
Saxon remains, and, in pp. 41 and 44, introduced two
examples of pottery as types of varieties of a class which
may be termed Anglo-Saxon. The course of a few years
has contributed abundance of materials towards a more
certain classification of many of the peculiar kinds of urns
and other earthen vessels found in Saxon burial-places,^
and, consequently, of placing under this head some which,
for want of connecting evidence, have been either incor-
rectly or doubtfully appro-
priated. The latter of the
two urns referred to above,
was found in the Saxon
cemetery on Mar ton Hill, in
Northamptonshire. In the
annexed cut is figured a spe-
cimen, almost its counter-
part, found near Holme
Pierrepoint, in Notting-
hamshire, with numerous
sepulchral remains,*
A few years since. Professor Henslow very kindly sup-
plied me with drawings of varieties of a large number of
urns dug up at Kingston, near Derby, in 1844 (See
* An account of this discovery was published by Mr. Bate-
man in vol. iii of the Journal of the Archceological Associa-
tion. To this gentleman (whose name was associated with the
Collectanea at an early period in its existence) I am indebted
for the loan of this and some other cuts in the following
pages.
a:nglo-saxon and frankish remains.
229
Plate Liii). They Avere found on the slope, and near the
summit, of a gentle eminence, and over the extent of
about half an acre. The workmen who found them, had
destroyed, it was calculated, about tw'o Imndred, before
the fact was made known to any one who thought of
preserving them. As the field, about sixty years before,
had been under the plough, most of the urns had been
broken. Professor Henslow states that nearly all con-
tained well-burnt bones ; that no weapons or coins were
found with them ; that a feAV lumps of glass, which had
evidently been beads, were among the ashes ; and that in
one urn were the fragments of a bronze ornament (fig. 3),
Avhich also showed the action of fire. One head, half
fused (fig. 5), was of porcelain. I give a description of
the urns in the Professor’s OAvn words. “ They are all
wrought by hand without the use of the lathe, out of a
dark-coloured clay, frequently mixed Avith fragments of
felspar ; they are very slightly baked, though some have
been so far as to have acquired a reddish tinge. The
majority are dark brown, passing either to black or a dark
green tint. Many are ornamented Avith a few lines, or
scratches arranged in different patterns ; and some are
more highly embellished by the addition of stamped
patterns, such as might readily be formed by notching
the end of a stick, or twisting a small piece of metal into
a spiral or zig-zag pattern. Several of the urns have pro-
jecting knobs or bosses. Most of these bosses have been
formed by merely pressing out the sides of the urn from
within, whilst it Avas in a soft state ; but in some cases they
were found of a solid lump of clay, which has been stuck
on the surface of the urn.”*
The measurements of the urns are as folloAvs : fig. 1
(plate mil), the tallest of this group, is 9 inches in height and
2oO ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS,
It Avill be observed; that the circumstances attending the
discovery of this cemetery were inauspicious; still the infor-
mation Professor HensloAV obtained is to be relied on, as
about thirty of the deposits Avere carefully taken up and ex-
amined. The total absence of Aveapons, and of skeletons, and
the extensive prevalence of the practice of cremation are,
it must be OAvned, exceptions to the usual indicia of Saxon
burial-places ; but, at the same time, there is an absence
of objects Avhich could hardly have been omitted had the
interments been made by a Roman population ; the re-
mains of the fibula sheAV it unquestionably to have been
Saxon, and the urns are not such as are found in Roman
cemeteries, but they are precisely such as do occur in
Saxon burial-places. It is not easy to explain — Avith our
comparatively limited acquaintance of the funeral customs
of the different tribes of the Saxons previous to their
settling in England — this apparent anomaly. It is very
probable that some tribes may have retained the old cus-
tom of cremation longer than others,, or that in this ease
local or other circumstances, from causes which it is now
irnjDossible to explain, possibly disposed the people of the
district to adhere to observances which had generally
been modified or changed altogether, Tacitus speaks
of burning the dead as a common practice Avith the
ancient Germans, and in the early Angle or Anglo-
Saxon poem of Beowulf, the corpse of the hero of the
poem is stated to have been burnt, and a barrow
to have been made upon the place of the funeral
pile : —
6^ inches in diameter ; the others, about 6 inches by 9 ; those
in group, fig. 2, are from 8 to 10 inches in diameter ; fig. 4, 7|
inches by 9| ; group, fig. 7, from 7 to 10 inches in diameter;
fig. 7, lOf inches in height and 13f in diameter.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS,
231
bsed p ge go-worhton
feter Moncs dae/clum
in bse'l-stede
beorli pone bean
micelne and mse'rnc. —
Ke bad that ye sbonld make,
according to tbe deeds of yotrr
friend,
on the place of tbe funeral pile,
tbe lofty barrow
large and famous. —
Beototdf, 1. 6183.
on-gunnon pa on beorge Tben began on tbe bill
bsel-fy'ra, mafst
wigend weccan :
wu[du-r]ic a-stab
sweart of swic-^5ole. —
tbe migbtiest of funeral fires,
the -svarriors to awake :
tbe Avood-smoke rose aloft,
dark from tbe fire. —
Beowulf, 1. 6280.
To identify tbe Derby urns as belonging to tbe Saxon
period, and at tbe same time to collect types which may
be referred to as belonging to tbe same class and period,
I proceed to '
furnish exam-
ples. The first
is one from a
number found
at Newark.*
Mr. George
Milner has
published the
following ac-
count of the
discovery: —
Several are deposited in the museum of the Hull Literary
and Philosophical Soc’ety. Mr. George Milner, F.S.A., has
very kindly lent me the cuts which illustrate his essay, entitled
Cemetery Burial ; or Sepulture, Ancient and Modern. IjOiidon
1847.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
The urns in question were found by the side of the
present Nottingham-road, formerly the old fosse-way of
the Romans. Some workmen were employed in excavating
foundations for a house, in 1836, on the premises of Mr.
R. Norton, situated at the extremity of the town, iii the
direction before stated. Urns to the amount of fifteen or
sixteen were taken out in a tolerable state of preservation,
but three or four times that number were broken and de-
stroyed in digging ; and many, I have no doubt, are still
remaining in the ground. Mr. Norton very politely gave
me every information in his power, and afterwards wrote
to me to this effect : — ‘ Since you were here, I have sunk
a saw-pit, about tAventy-four feet long, four feet wide, and
six feet deep : in digging out the earth and gravel, Ave
found majiyurns; they appear to have been placed in
regular order, so much so, that before avc had finished the
work, Ave could guess,
Avithin a fcAv inches,
AA'here avc should find
them.’ I was inform-
ed,” Mr. Milner adds,
“ that the whole of
them Avere placed in
an upright position in
the ground ; each con-
tained calcined human
bones ; one alone (of
Avhich a cut is here
given), contained, in
addition to the dust
and bones, a pair of
tAveezers of bronze, a
pair ot shears in iron, and a part of a bone comb.”
SAXON U R N S, &c. F ouND NEAR DERBY.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
2SS
There is a close resemblance in general character be-
tween the Derby and Newark remains, which the con-
tiguity of the localities to each other will explain. No
skeletons or weapons were noticed at either place. All
the urns are stated to have contained burnt bones ; and
they were very sparingly accompanied by ornaments or
implements.
Plate Liv exhibits further examples of Saxon urns from
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, in illustration of remarks
made in the preceding pages, on the characteristic forms
and patterns of the fictile ware made in this country
immediately after the Eomano-British epoch. Unfor-
tunately, I am not acquainted with the circumstances
under which they were found ; but I consider them all of
too marked a character in ornamentation and form to
admit of doubt as to the period and people to which they
should be assigned. Figs. 1 and 3, as well as fragments,
fig. 6, were said to have been found at Wilbraham (see
page 165), possibly on or near the site of Mr. Neville’s
researches. I have not had an opportunity of seeing
the urns recently excavated ; but I am informed by
Mr. Neville that they very much resemble those found
at Derby. Fig. 2 is preserved in the library of Clare
Hall, and is stated to have been found at Dunstable.
In the same library is another (said to have been found
at Caistor), elaborately ornamented with no less than a
dozen stamps arranged in rows, as shewn in fig. 5. Fig.
4, found at Kesgrave, is in the Ipswich museum.*
It would be easy to produce many examples from Nor-
The dimensions of the urns in this plate are as follows :
Fig. 1, 5 inches in height; fig. 2, 8j inches in height; fig. 3,
10| inches in height; fig. 4, 9 inches in diameter, and 8 inches
in height.
2S4
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
folk, which bear a close affinity to those in plates liii and
Liv. Not unlike are some in the collection of Sir Henry
Dryden, found at Souldern, in Oxfordshire ; three are
engraved in the Antiquities and History of Steeple Aston,
by W. Wing ; of these, fig. a resembles a rather elegant
and uncommon variety, found at Sandy, in Bedfordshire,
and engraved (with what object, is not very ajiparent) in
Battley’s Antiquitates Rutupince, tab. 10, fig. 2.
In plate xxxix were figured some remarkable objects in
bronze from Stowe Heath ; in plate xlii, are fragments of
similar implements from Leicestershire. I referred (page
165-6) to further examples, and observed that evidence
was wanting to sanction their satisfactory classification.
In the short space of a few months some additional speci-
mens have been produced, which, I think, will now allow
us to understand what they really were. By the kindness
of the Bev. H. Maclean and Mr. H. W. King, I am
enabled to exhibit an etching (plate lv) of a more perfect
example, found by the right thigh of a skeleton, at Searby,
near Caistor, in Lincolnshire. On the breast were two
bronze rings, to each of which an iron acus appears to
have been fixed; round the neck were from twenty to
thirty beads in amber and in glass ; and by the thigh, in
addition to the object engraved in plate lv, were two
iron hooks, some pieces of hone, and the blades of two
small knives (see plate lvii). From these articles it is
inferred the skeleton was that of a female. Fig. 2, plate
LVi, exhibits one of two shanks, which had evidently been
joined, like those in plate lv, found many years since in
a tumulus at Sporle, near S waif ham, in Norfolk.* Mr.
Goddard Johnson, who recorded the particulars of the
* It is now in the possession of Mr. T. Barton, of Threxton,
near Watton.
m
PL.LV
JdkiiL
SAXON GIRDLE ORNAMENT
PLLVI.
SAXON & FRANKISH GIRDLE ORNAMENTS.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH RFAIAINS.
236
discovery, informs me that the barrow, which was of large
size, contained several skeletons. By the side of one of
them, — eonjectured to be of females, from beads and the
absence of weapons, — lay these objects, and under them an
iron buckle, which, Mr. Johnson states, ‘‘ seems to have
been attached to something which had the appearance of a
girdle, on which is impressed the texture of the eloth.”
Here we obtain the very information that was wanted ;
and now, I think, we may pronounce these hitherto mys-
terious objects to have been pendent girdle-ornaments,
somewhat analogous to the modern chatelaine* For eom-
parison, I again turn to Germany, and direct attention to
figure^ 3 and 4, in plate i-vi. The former was found at
Sinsheim,t the latter near Selzen,J and both are considered
as having been appendages to the belt or girdle of females ;
on that from Selzen, the shank of which appears to be
broken off, are rings and chains. From the rings on the
Lineolnshire specimen, it is evident that something is
yet wanting to show us an example in its perfect state.
In Professor Biihr’s Grdber der Liven, before referred to,
are several examples of pendent ornaments, composed of
oval convex fibulae (for fastening to each shoulder), to
which triangular pieces of metal of open-work were
attaehed; and to the lower part of these were fastened
ehains, which met across the breast and hung down in
front. The triangular portions of these ornaments re-
semble fig. 2 ; but this was found with remains of a much
The Hon. R. C. Neville has discovered several at Little
Wilbraham, which, I understand, were found about the centre
of the skeletons.
f It is engraved in the Jahreshericht an die Mitglieder der
Sinsheimer Gesellschaft, von E.. Wilhelmi, 1838.
f Das Germanische Todterdager bei Sehen, p. 25.
236
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
earlier period than that to which any of these Livonian
antiquities can be assigned.* The Selzen specimen ap-
proaches nearer to the Anglo-Saxon, allowing for the
missing part of the shank.
Another variety of these curious objects has recently
been found in the Saxon cemetery at Stowe Heath, whence
those figured in pi. xxxix were obtained.! It consists of
two shanks, fig. 1, pi. lvi, which have obviously been
united at the top. They are both alike on the reverse
sides, one of which is also shewn in this plate. They
appear to have been originally much longer, and termi-
nated probably like fig. 2. All the figures in this plate
are etched of the actual size, except fig. 4, which ia seven
inches in length. In plate LVii, figs. 1 to 4, are given the
objects before mentioned, found with the girdle ornament
at Searby. Tigs. 1 and 3 are in iron; there were two of
each of these ; fig. 3 is a knife, but it is not clear what
fig. 1 may have been, but we may suppose it a double
key ; fig. 2 is one of the two bronze buckles, the pin of
which is wanting ; and the pieces of bone, which have been
cut to fit together, are shewn in fig. 4 ; fig. 5 is a bronze
buckle from the same locality, introduced for its peculiar
form. All of these are etched the size of the originals.
In the graves at Selzen it is stated (p. 218), that one of
the shields was ascertained to have been of leather, but
that scarcely any vestiges remained, except here and there
* Monsieur Charma has recently published a very analogous
ornament, which he considers Celtic, discovered at Notre-Dame-
de-Livoye, near Avranches. Memoires de la Soc. des Antiq.
de Normandie, t. xix, p. 312.
f The Rev. E. R. Benyon, the owner of the property, has
liberally presented most of these remains to the Bury Museum.
To Mr. Samuel Tymms I am indebted for obtaining me the loan
of the fragments engraved in pi. lvi.
ANGLO-SAXON ANT) FRANKISH REMAINS.
237
traces of wood, and the iron umbos. In the graves of
this country, the iron boss is also usually found without
anything beyond traces of some perishable material, such
as wood or the hide of beasts. Iron handles have been
occasionally met with, and Sir Henry Dryden found in the
Marston Hill cemetery a crossbar of iron, in the centre of
which was the handle. In form the shields appear to have
been round or slightly oval, and of no very large size. In
the tumulus at Sporle, Mr. Goddard Johnson noticed the
remains of shields with some of the skeletons. Enough
was preserved to shew the form to have been circular, and
laths of wood converged from the extremity to the umbo.
These laths were fastened to the body of the shield, pro-
bably of wood, with twine or packthread, so well preserved
that it could be unwound to the extent of a yard or more.
The appearance of the shield, as sketched for me by Mr.
Johnson, from memory, remarkably resembles that carried
by a soldier in an illumination in the Harleian MS., No. 603,
engraved by Mr. Fairholt in his Costume in England, p. 53.
Passages in early Saxon poems shew that the shield was
commonly made of wood. When Beowulf prepared to en-
counter the fire dragon, he provided himself with an iron
shield, because the wooden ones would not stand the fire : —
Heht him ]>k ge-wyrcean Then commanded to be made
for him
the refuge of warriors
all of iron,
the lord of earls,
a variegated shield :
he knew well enough
that him wood of the forest
could not help,
lindenwood opposed to fire :
Beowulf, 1. 4668.
Helmets or casques are of very rare occurrence in Saxon
wigendra hleo
eall irenne,
eorla dryhten,
wig-bord wrset-lic :
wisse he gearwe
him holt-wudu
he[lpan] ne meahte,
lind wi'S lige :
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS,
graves, and apparently still more so in the Frankish, as I
have not met with a single representation in any of the
works consulted. Mr. Gomonde found on Leckhainpton
Hill, near Cheltenham, on
the skull of a skeleton, what
appears to be the framework
of one. It is in thin bronze,
and represented in the an-
nexed cut. The knob at the
top finished in a ring, and a
complete chin chain, it is
said, was attached to the cir-
cular band at the base.
Under circumstances more confirmatory of its Saxon
origin, Mr. Bateman discovered the remains of a helmet in
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS, 2o9
a tumulus at Benty Grange, near Monyash, in Derbyshire.
It had been formed, Mr. Bateman states, “ of ribs of
iron radiating from the crown of the head, and coated
with narrow plates of horn, running in a diagonal di-
rection from the ribs, so as to form a herring-bone pat-
tern ; the ends were secured by strips of horn, radiating
in like manner as the iron ribs, to which they were riveted
at intervals of about an inch and a half : all the rivets had
ornamented heads of silver on the outside, and on the front
rib is a small cross of the same metal. Upon the top or
crown of the helmet, is an elongated oval brass plate, upon
which stands the figure of an animal, carved in iron, now
much rusted, but still a very good representation of a pig :
it has bronze eyes. There are also many smaller decora-
tions, abounding in rivets, all which have pertained to the
helmet, but which it is impossible to assign to their proper
places, as is also the case with some small iron buckles.”
With the helmet was a mass of chainwork, formed of “ a
large quantity of links, of two descriptions, attached to
each other by small rings (as shewn in the cut below), half
an inch in diameter ; one kind is fiat and lozenge-shaped,
about one inch and a half in length, those of the other sort
are all of one pattern, but of different lengths,
varying from four to ten inches ; they are simply
pieces of square rod iron, with perforated ends,
through which are passed the rings connecting
them with the diamond-shaped links. Along with
them was a six-pronged instrument, similar to a
hay-fork ; with the difference, that the fang, which
in a fork is inserted into the shaft, is in this in-
stance ffattened and folded over, so as to form a
small loop as for suspension. All the iron arti-
cles, except this and the helmet, were amalga-
mated together from the effects of rust ; they
240
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
also present traces of dotli over a great part of their sur-
face : it is therefore not improbable that they may have
originally constituted some kind of defensive armour, by
being sewn upon or within a doublet.” It is very fortu-
nate when researches such as these are conducted by
experienced persons. But for the great caution shewn by
Mr. Bateman, these fragile but interesting remains might
have been passed over and have perished for ever. In his
hands they have been preserved, and may be considered
among the most valuable of recent discoveries.
It will be observed that the framework of the helmet,
which is not unlike that discovered in Gloucestershire, is
ornamented by a cross and the figure of a boar or swine,
the one a Christian, the other a Pagan emblem. The hog
is a common adjunct to some of the Gaulish coins (see
% 1. pi. xxxix, vol. i) ; and Tacitus, speaking of the
habits and customs of the Germanic tribes on the right
shore of the Baltic, observes that they bore, as a charm
against the dangers of war, images of wild boars : — Matrem
deiim venerantur : insigne super stitionis, formas aprorum
gestant. Id pro armis omnique tuteld : securum dece cid-
torem etiam inter hostes prcestat*
This historian’s account is confirmed remarkably by
several passages in the poem of Beowulf. In a descrip-
tion of warriors it is stated that :
cofer-lic scionon They seemed a boar’s form
ofcr-hleor beran ; to bear over their cheeks ;
twisted with gold
variegated and hardened in the fire,
this kept the guard of life. — 1. 604.
ge-hroden golde
fah and fyr-heard,
ferh-wearde heold.
De Mor. Germ. cap. Lxv. Vestiges of this superstition
are to be found in Sweden at the present day. See Eckart De
Rebus Francice Orientalis, tom. i, p. 409.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
241
When Beowulf is prepared for encountering the mother
of Grendel, he is represented clothed in mail, and wearing
a helmet over the hood of mail : —
be-fongenfrea-wrasnum. Surrounded with lordly chains,
swa hine fyrn-daguni even as in days of yore
the weapon-swith had wrought it,
had wondrously furnished it,
had set it round with the shapes
of swine,
that never afterwards
brand or war -knife
might have power to bite it.
1. 2901.
In a funeral ceremony the figure of a swine is mentioned
as a conspicuous object : —
worhte weepna smi'^,
wundrum teode,
be-sette swin-Hcum,
f hine sy^j^an no
brond ne beado-mecas
bitan ne meahton :
set psem ade wses
e])-ge-syne
swat-fdh syrce
swyn eal-gylden,
eofer iren-heard ;
At the pile was
easy to be seen
the mail-shirt coloured with gore,
the hog of gold,
the boar hard as iron. — 1. 2213.
In a subsequent passage the helmet, surmounted by the
figure of a boar, is again spoken of : —
H^t ‘Sa in-beran Then commanded he to bring in
eafor heafod-segn, the boar, an ornament to the head,
hea)io-steapne helm, the helmet lofty in war,
the grey mail-coat,
the ready battle-sword.
1. 4299.
Nothing can be more satisfactory than the explanation of
the hog upon the Saxon helmet found in Derbyshire pre-
sented by these citations from Tacitus and Beowulf. Ves-
tiges of this superstition are said still to linger in Sweden,
where, in the month of February, sacred to Frea,the peasan-
try make little images of boars in dough or paste, which
[scjare-byrnan,
gu^-sweord geato-lic ;
K K
242
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
tlic-y apply to several purposes. The cross can hardly be
considered other than as an ornament, unindicative of any
religious motive in its application to the helmet. Others,
of different shape, appear to have been affixed to what is
supposed to have been a leather cup, found in the same
tumulus. As the dis-
covery is altogether of
an unusual kind, it
may be not unaccepta-
ble to those who are
interested in such re-
searches, to give the
full account in Mr.
Bateman’s own words.
The tumulus is of no
considerable elevation,
perhaps two feet at the
highest point, but is spread out over a pretty large area,
and is surrounded by a small trench. About the centre,
and upon the surface of the natural soil, was laid the only
body contained in the barrow, of which not a vestige could
be distinguished besides the hair of the head. Near the
place which, from the presence of hair, was judged to be
the situation of the head, was found a curious assemblage
of ornaments, which, from the peculiar nature of the soil,
it was impossible to remove with any degree of success.
Of these, the most remarkable (shewn in the cut above),
are portions of silver binding and ornaments from a leather
cup, about three inches in diameter at the mouth, which
was decorated by four wheel-shaped pieces, and two small
crosses of silver, affixed by pins, which were clenched on
the inside. The other articles found in the same situa-
tion, are principally personal ornaments of the same scroll-
pattern as those figured at p. 25 of the Vestiges of the
ANGLO-SAXON AND FKANKISH REMAINS.
US
Antiquities of Derby shire /* of these enamels, there were
two upon copper, with silver frames; the prevailing colour
is yellow. There
was also a knot of
fine wire, and a
quantity of what
may be termed
braiding, some ap-
parently of carved
bone, and some of a
friable composition :
this apparently was
attached to silk, or,
if not attached, had
lain in contact with ^ 5^ enamelled ornaments ; c and d, bone ornaments.
it, as the glossy fibre of silk was very evident at first.”
In plate lviii, I have thrown together examples of
Saxon and Frankish knives and short-swords of the knife
form, of which those found in England are nearly all
unpublished. It will be necessary, in the first place, to
state where they were found. Fig. 1 was dredged up
from the bed of the Thames, off Whitehall. It is 7|- inches
in length. Fig. 2 was found in Lad-lane, in the city,
during excavations for houses. Fig. 3 was discovered on the
site of the City of London School, Honey Lane Market,
with several coins of Ethelred II. Length, 13 inches.
Fig. 4 is in the Ipswich Museum, and was found at Oifton,
in Suffolk. Length, 14 inches. At the end of the blade,
towards the haft, are circular bands of bronze ; a similar
peculiarity may be noticed in the specimen from Misery,
fig. 12. Figs. 5, 6, and 7, were found in the Saxon
cemetery at Osengal, when it was cut through for making
the Ramsgate and Deal Railway. They are respectively
A very similar ornament, from a Saxon burial-place near
Oxford, is in the museum of Lord Londesborough.
244
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
11 inches, 12 inches, and 16 J inches in length, and are
now in the museum of Mr. Rolfe, of Sandwich. Figs. 8
and 9 were discovered at Courfaivre, near Delemont, in
Switzerland, with skeletons, buckles, beads, fibulse, etc.,
and are engraved in the Mittheilmigen der Antiqua-
rischen Gesellschaft in Zurich, 1847, taf. viii. The entire
length of fig. 9 is about 18 inches. Figs. 10 and 11 are
from sketches forwarded me by Monsieur Ch.Dufour, from
originals in the Museum of Amiens. Fig. \2 is the knife
found at Misery, described at p. 213 ante. Fig. 13 was
found by the Abbe Cochet at Londinieres. Fig. 14 is one of
several very similar examples discovered by M. F. Troyon
at Bel- Air, near Lausanne, and engraved in plate v of the
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Zurich, 1841.
The first three of the English specimens may probably
be considered as knives for domestic purposes. Fig. 3
closely resembles those frequently introduced in festive
scenes in early illuminated manuscripts. It is in good
preservation and is inlaid with bronze, which is very
neatly worked on both sides, on one in three longitudinal
rows, on the other in a single line. Nearly all the others
are from graves, and, possibly, with one or two excep-
tions, must be considered as war -knives. They vary
in length from about a foot to two feet. Most of them
have longitudinal grooves on the sides, which, in all the
specimens I have seen, are hollow ; but the details furnished
me respecting the foreign specimens are not sufficiendy
circumstantial for me to say what may be the present
condition of the weapons in regard to the grooves. From
the well-preserved knife (fig. 3), it would seem that bronze
or some other mixed metal had been originally let into the
channels as an ornament : this, however, is a question for
discussion. From a jiassage in Gregory of Tours, it appears
t was customary with the Franks to ornament with incised
figures the blades of their war-knives. Fredegonda, with
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS. 245
a view to murder King Childebert, ordered two
iron knives to be made. These knives she caused
to be very deeply incised [caraxari profundius),
and poison to be inserted, to destroy life more
quickly.*
The knives which we may consider as weapons
are those represented by figs. 4, 5, 6, and 9, to
14. Our colleagues on the other side of the chan-
nel often term them sabres or cutlasses, from a
certain resemblance they bear to the modern wea-
pons known by those names. Dr. Rigollot, with
good reason, considers them the cultri validi of
Gregory of Tours, which this historian states were
commonly called scramasaxi, and, he adds, they
were poisoned ;f but whether this were literally
true may be questioned, for the grooves which
are supposed to have been the receptacles for the
deadly ingredient, are not near the point or the
edge, and poison would hardly be needed to
hasten death after a deep wound from so formid-
able a weapon.
A most remarkable example of one of these
knife-shaped swords (shewn on the side of this
page), has recently come into my possession. It
is twenty-six inches in length, and when perfect
with the handle must have measured upwards of
thirty inches. It is doubly grooved on both sides.
^ “ Fredegundis duos cultros ferreos fieri preecepit:
quos etiam caraxari profundius, et veneno infra jus-
serat, scilicet si mortalis adsultus vitales non dissolveret
fibras, vel ipsa veneni infectio vitam posset velocius
extorquere.” — Hist. Franc., lib. viii, cap. xxix.
f “ Cum cultris validis, quos vulgo scramasaxos vo-
cant, infectis veneno.” — ITist, Franc., lib.iv, cap. lii.
i
246
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
and the steel towards the edge, which is still sharp, is
unusually well preserved. Another variety, more resem-
bling in form some of the foreign examples, especially
that found at Londinieres, is in my museum. It measures
nearly thirty-four inches without the handle, which is
wanting. Both of these were found in the bed of the
Thames, opposite London.
From the comparatively large number found in France
and Germany, they would seem to have been more gener-
ally used by the Franks than the Saxons ; indeed, the
only examples which I am aware have as yet been recorded
as found in Saxon graves, are those from Osengal, in
Kent, figs. 5 and 6. In this part of Kent, occupied by
the earliest Saxon settlers, the contents of the graves are
generally of a character much more military than those of
the eastern and central parts of England ; and it is most
likely that heretofore these large knives have been passed
over unnoticed. Respecting many hundreds of the Kentish
barrows which, in times past, have been opened and ran-
sacked, we possess not a scrap of information. At Wil-
braham, although one hundred and eighty-eight skeletons
were found, there were only four large swords, and not
one instance of the short knife-like sword.
The collection of this peculiar class of Saxon and
Frankish weapons brought together in plate lviii, will
afford a good notion of their general character. It will be
noticed that (with the exception of fig. 7) they are single-
edged. In ancient representations of the arms of the
Germans, swords slightly curved are almost always intro-
duced. It would be easy to cite numerous instances, but
the sculptures on Trajan’s column, of scenes in the Dacian
wars, and the coins of that emperor, afford types which,
allowing for a certain conventionality in the artistic treat-
ment, are not very unlike some of these knife-swords.
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS. 247
The Dacians on the column of Trajan are almost always
armed with this single-edged weapon which curves slightly
sometimes inwards and sometimes outwards, but in one
or two instances the weapon is straight and precisely like
some of the specimens under consideration. Until we
discover ancient swords which are curved, we must, as
in the case of the double axe and barbed javelins, con-
sider the representations referred to as having been influ-
enced by the fancy of the artist. From this source,
probably, sprang the notion that the Saxon weapon called
was curved like a scythe. It is very likely that
these long knives or daggers were called by the general
term sea:t^ y that the word mece may have been applied to
a larger species of these sharp-edged swords, such as that
shown on a preceding page, while the long, heavy, two-
edged weapon (see plate xxxvi) was then, as now, the
sweord. When Grendel’s mother and Beowulf were in
close contest grappling together, the former is represented
as drawing her seax, which is here evidently a knife or
dagger worn at the girdle : —
of-sset ])k |?one sele-gyst She beset then the hall-stranger,
and hyre seaxe ge-teah, and drew her seax,
brad brun ecg. broad, brown-edged.
Beowulf, 1. 3089.
The smaller knives which are so very generally found
in Saxon and Frankish graves, in those of females as well
as of males, were doubtless for general purposes, such as
the modern utensils which they much resemble are ap-
plied to. The custom of carrying a knife at the girdle
was universal, and continued until late in the middle ages.
Its necessity was obvious, especially when we consider
that it is comparatively a recent fashion for people to keep
knives for their guests at table, and that the visitors used
their own to eat with.
248
ANGLO-SAXON AND FRANKISH REMAINS.
In the foregoing pages I have attempted to shew the
close resemblance between the contents of the Frankish
and Saxon graves, and to present at the same time some
novel facts. The subject might have been continued, and
the affinity shewn to exist still more extensively. But,
for the present, the comparison must be suspended, to be
resumed, it may be, under more favourable circumstances.
In the early part of this volume I promised to introduce
further illustrations of antiquities found at Colchester.
Some of the etchings were prepared, but I find they must
be deferred for some future opportunity.
THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS.
At a recent Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries it was
stated that a member of an architectural society was striving to
induce his colleagues to petition the Government to consider the
ruinous and neglected state of the royal tombs in Westminster
Abbey. The announcement excited very little attention or
sympathy. Indeed, it seems that none of the numerous anti-
quarian, archaeological, and architectural societies have co-ope-
rated to remonstrate against the disgraceful state of the tombs
in question ; neither have they evinced the slightest interest
in the matter. But were they consistently active, zealous, and
united, it does not appear why the monuments in Westminster
Abbey should be singled out for the special protection of Par-
liament, when so many of various classes and of different epochs,
having equal claims to consideration, are even much more
exposed to decay and Vandalism. A Parliamentary investiga-
tion of the whole of our ancient national monuments is required,
not a partial protection, extorted for some which happen to be
more conspicious, and therefore more fashionably popular than
others. For some further remarks on the subject, see the
Prefaces to these volumes.
INDEX.
Acton, Mr. E., communication of
potters’ stamps by, 30, 40
Animal remains found at the Eoman
villa at Hartlip, 22
A5sica (Great Chesters), 190
Amhoglanna (Birdoswalcl), inscrip-
tions found at, 192 ; statue of a
Dea Mater at, 193 ; gateway at, 194
Amphorae found at Mount Bures, 26
Ampulles, pilgrims’, 47 ; one of large
size, of Becket, in the York mu-
seum, 48
Andirons, Eoman, found in Essex
and Bedfordshire, 25, et seq. ; at
Pompeii, 33
Archaeological Society of Mayence,
130
Axe, battle-, the Saxon and Frankish,
224
Balance, folding, found at Hartlip, 19
Bateman, Mr., Saxon helmet, etc.,
discovered at Monyash, account of
by, 239
Baths, in the Hartlip villa, 7, 8
Beads, Saxon, found at Coombe,
104 ; at Stow Heath, 165
Becket, Thomas, pilgrims’ sign of, 46
Beowulf, the poem of, quoted in re-
ference to the Saxon shield, 237 ;
the boar upon the helmet, 240 ;
the seax, 247
Bipennis, strict propriety of the term
as applied to the Frankish hattle-
axe questioned, 225
Birdoswald (Amhoglanna), remains
at, 192 ; sculptured female figure,
193
Boar, a figure of, attached to the
Saxon helmets, 240
Bonn, Eoman monuments in the
museum of, 140
Borcovicus (Housesteads), Stuke-
ley’s account of, 177 ; remains on
the site of, 187
Bramdean, Hants, Eoman tessel-
lated pavements found at, 54, 04
Caervoran (Magna), remains at, 191
Carausius, unique full-faced coin of,
153
Carthage, Eoman tessellated pave-
ment found at, 53
Castel, opposite Mayence, 130
Cawfields, castellum at, 189
Chesters (Cilurnum), remains at,
183-7
Christian, early inscriptions at
Treves, 102 ; at Mayence, 129 ; at
Cologne, 147
Clayton, Mr. John, his collection of
local antiquities at Chesters, 183
Coffer, bronze, found in a Saxon
grave at Strood, 158
Cochet, the Ahbe, his researches in
the neighbourhood of Dieppe, 205,
212
Cock, bones of, found in a Saxon
earthen jug in a barrow near Folk -
stone, and also in a similar jug <at
Selzen, 219
Coins, Eoman, 22 ; unique coin of
Carausius, 153; perforated, ICG;
Merovingian, 212 ; Saxon, 168
Colchester, Eoman pottery, etc.,
found at, 27
Cologne, Eoman remains at, 144, et
seq.
Comparison between Anglo-Saxon
and Frankish remains, 203, et seq.,
Conrad Celtes, his elegy on Treves,
115
Dunston, near Norwich, mould for
leaden figures of the sacred cha-
lice found at, 50
Danesfield, Hartlip, Eoman villa in, 1
11
INDEX.
Derby, Saxon urns discovered near,
228
East Coker, Yeovil, Koman tessel-
lated pavement found at, 51
blnvermeu, Frankish remains found
at, 209
Fanococidi, the Eoman station so
called, 201
Fihulffi, Saxon, IGl, 103, lQQ,etseq.;
Frankish, 211
Fire dogs, Eoman, found at Mount
Bures, Essex, and in Bedfordshire,
28, et seq. ; at Pompeii, 33
Francisca, or Frankish battle-axe,
207, 224
Frankish sepulchral remains disco-
vered at Cologne, 147 ; ura, 149 ;
atLondinicres, 200 ; atEnvermeu,
209; at Misery, 213; at Selzen,
210; Bel- Air, 244
Girdle-hanger, Saxon, 235 ; compar-
ed with the Frankish, 235
Glass, Eoman, figured, 17 ; window,
pi. IX; variegated, 28 ; ornamented
jug, 39 ; at Wiesbaden, 132 ; ena
. inelled ornament in, 211 ; Frank-
ish, 147, 207, 218 ; Saxon, 102,
220, 223
Gosback in Essex, Eoman villa found
at, 41
Habel, Herr, of Schierstein, director
of the museum of Wiesbaden, 131
Hair pin, Eoman, 22 ; Saxon, found
at Gilton, 104 ; Frankish, found
at Envemieu, 210
Halton-Chesters (Hunnuin), Eoman
culvert at, 181
Hartlip, Eoman villa at, 1 to 24
Hay, Mr. Drummond, account of dis-
coveries of Eoman pottery at Col-
chester by, 37
Helmet, Saxon, found in Derbyshire,
238 ; at Leckhampton near Chel-
tenham, 238
Henslow (Professor), sepulchral re-
mains found near Derby, account
of by, 229
Hercules and Anteeus, story of, re-
presented in a iiavement at Bram-
dean, 03
Housesteads (Borcovicus), remains
at, 188
Igel, Eoman monument at, 78, 90
Inscriptions, Eoman, at Treves, 102,
et seq. ; at Mayence, 120, et seq. ;
at Wiesbaden, 132; at Nieder-
bieber, 134, et seq. ; at Bonn, 142 ;
at Cologne, 145 ; on the line of the
Eoman Wall, 175, et seq. ; index to,
200
Implements in iron found at Hartlip,
pi. V to VIII
Jenkins, Eev. Henry, Eoman villa
near Stanway, Essex, discovered
by, 41
Johnson, Mr. Goddard, his account
of Saxon remains found in a bar-
row at Sporle near Swafi'ham, 234,
237
J ohn the Baptist, pilgrims’ signs of,
45
Kesgrave in Suffolk, Saxon urn found
at, 233
Keys, Eoman, found at Hartlip, 20 ;
at Colchester, 39
Knives, Eoman, pi. vii and vm ;
Saxon and Frankish, 243
Lamps, Eoman, found at Colchester,
39
Lindenschmit, Messrs., their work
on discoveries at Selzen, 210
Livonian sepulchral remains, 220,
235
Lucy, Merovingian coins found with
sepulchral remains at, 211
Lymne, excavations of the Eoman
castrum at. Appendix
Maryport and Nether Hall, Eoman
station near, 190
Mayence, antiquities at, 118, et seq.
Memorial to the Lords Commission-
ers of the Treasury, Appendix, 3 ;
reply, 0
Milner, Mr. G., F.S.A., urns, etc.,
found at Newark, account of, by,
231
Mithraic group in sculpture at Wies-
baden, 132
Monumenta Historica Britannica,
some particulars concerning the
book so named. Appendix and
Preface
Moore, Mr. John, his account of the
discovery of a Eoman tessellated
pavement at East Coker, 51
Mount Bures, Eoman remains found
at, 25
INDEX.
Ill
Mural paintings at Treves, t)8
Newark, Saxon remains at, 231
Niederbieber, antiquities of, 134, et
seq.
Numerus Brittonum Horestorum
in an inscription found at Nieder-
bieber, 134
Osengal, in Thanet, large knives
found in the Saxon cemetery at,
243
Offton, in Suffolk, Saxon knife or
dagger, found at, 243
Pail, Saxon, found at Wilbraham,
161 ; Frankish, found near Dieppe,
169
Palace of Constantine at Treves, 91
Parfondeval, circular enamelled fi-
bula, found at, 211
Pater.*, Eomano - British, stamped
with the potters’ names, 35-6
Pavements, Eoman tessellated,
found at East Coker, near Yeovil,
51 ; at Carthage, 53 ; at Bramdean,
Hants, 54, 64, ; at Cologne, 145 ;
Pilgrims’ signs in lead, 4^, 50
Planetary deities, on the pavement
at Bramdean, 59 ; on forceps found
in the Thames, 60 ; on an altar at
Mayence, 60, 124 ; in sculpture,
found at Chesterford, 60
Porta Nigra, at Treves, 72
Potters’ marks, on Eomano-British
paterae, 36 ; found at Colchester,
40 ; at Mayence, 128 ; at Neider-
biebor, 140
Pottery, Eoman, glazed, pi. ix; found
at Mont Bures, 25 ; Eomano-
British, 35, 37 to 40; Frankish,
207, 219, 223 ; Saxon, 219, 228, et
seq.
Eeliquary, leaden cover of, found in
the Somme, at Abbeville, 50
Eigollot, Dr., his essay on the peoples
of the Teutonic race who invaded
Gaul, 212
Eoads, Eoman, in Kent, 23; dedi-
cations to the deities presiding
over, 123
Eoman Wall, the, in England, 171,
196; table of stations, etc., on the
line of, 199 ; in Germany, 196
Saint Fiacre, pilgrims’ sign of, 43
Samian pottery, at Hartlip, 12 ; imi-
tations of, 35 ; at Mayence, 128 ;
at Niederbieber, 140
Sarcophagi at Treves, 106
Saxon remains, found at Amesbury,
168; Belmont, Kent, 163 ; Coombe,
164 ; Crundale, Kent, 163 ; Derby-
shire, 238 ; Driffield, 166 ; Fairford,
160, 221 ; Folkstone, 218, 219 ;
Great Wigton, 167 ; Gilton, 164 ;
Ingersby, 168 ; Kingston, near
Derby, 228 ; Marston HiU, 237 ;
Mersham, Kent, 163 ; Newark, 231 ;
Osengal, Kent, 243 ; Eeculver, 163 ;
Searby,234; Souldem,284; Sporle,
234 ; Stowe Heath, 165 ; Strood,
158 ; Upchurch, 162 ; Wilbraham,
161, 165 ; Woodnesborough, 220
Sceattas, rare and unpublished, 168
Sculptures, Eoman, at Treves, 74, et
seq. ; at Mayence, 121, et seq.
Searby, near Caistor, in Lincolnshire,
Saxon remains found at, 234
Seax, the weapon so called, 247
Secundini, mausoleum of, at Igel, 84
Segedunum, the station of, 179
Senhouse, Mr., of N ether Hall, sculp-
tures in his collection, 195-6
Sheffbrd, Beds, Eoman remains
found at, 29
Sigebriht, king of the West Saxons,
coin ascribed to, 168
SkuEs found in ancient graves, im-
portance of, 227
Sporle, near Swalfham, Norfolk,
Saxon remains found at, 234
Stowe Heath, near West Stowe, Suf-
folk, Saxon cemetery at, 165, 236
Subscribers to the excavations at
Lymne, list of. Appendix, 7
Sword, of Tiberius, so-called, 128,
224 ; in the Wiesbaden museum,
133 ; Saxon, 158, 164
Tabellarium, representation of, on
stone, found at Neumagen, 70;
Genio Tabularii, 139
Thiiiwall, Nine Nicks of, 191
Tiles, fiue and hypocaust, 21 ; with
names of legions, at Wiesbaden,
132 ; at Niederbieber, 140
Tomb of a female Eomano-Gauhsh
artist, 32
Treves, antiquities of, 67, 106 ; route
to, from Aix-la-Chapelle, 66 ; from
Bonn or Eemagen, 66 ; vicinity of,
107 ; library of. O'! ; porta nigra,
72 ; palace of Constantine at, 91 ;
therm*, 92 ; amphitheatre, 93 ;
IV
INDEX.
oatheurai, 90 ; earlj Christiiiii in-
scriptions, 102
Victoriensis, in an inscription found
at Niederbieber, 135
Virgin Mary, pilgrims’ signs of, 46
Wiesbaden, museum of antiquities
of, 181
'iVilbraham, Saxon remains found at,
101, 105, 233
York, museum of, leaden ampulla of
Thomas Becket preserved in the,
48
Zahlbach,near Mayence, inscriptions
at, 120 ; remains of aqueduct at,
123
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
John Yonge Akerman, Esq., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of
London, etc., Somerset House.
Charles C. Bahington, Esq., M.A., St. John’s College, Cambridge.
Charles Baily, Esq., E.S.A., Sec. Brit. Arch. Assoc., 72, Gracechurch-street.
Anthony St. John Baker, Esq., Tunbridge Wells.
John Adkins Barton, Esq., Barton Village, Newport, Isle of Wight.
'Thomas Barton, Esq., Threxton House, Watton, Norfolk.
Thomas Bateman, Esq., Yolgrave, Bakewell, Derbyshire. Two copies.
John Bell, Esq., Gateshead.
William Bell, Esq., Phil. Doc., 17, Gower place, Euston-square.
The Eev. William Bennett, M.A., Canterbury.
John Brodribb Bergne, Esq., F.S.A., Foreign Office, Downing-street.
William Bland, Esq., Hartlip-place, Sittingboume.
Benjamin Booth, Esq., Swinton, Manchester.
William Bo^vman, Esq., Wade-lane, Leeds.
Charles Bridger, Esq., 3, Keppel-street, Eussell-square.
WiUiam Henry Brooke, Esq., Bedford-place, Hastings.
The Eev. J. CoUingwood Bruce, M.A., Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Alexander Horace Burkitt, Esq., F.S.A., Bank of England.
Eobert Burnaby, Esq., 16, Clifford’s Inn.
.John Carline, Esq., Lincoln.
.James Carruthers, Esq., Glencregagh, Belfast.
William Chaffers, Jun., Esq., F.S.A., WatEng-street, City.
Patrick Chalmers, Esq., F.S.A., Auldbar, Brechin.
'Thomas Charles, Esq., Chillington House, Maidstone.
Edward Charlton, Esq., M.D., Sec. Soc. Ant. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Joseph Clarke, Esq., The Eoos, Saffron Walden.
John Clayton, Esq., Chesters, Northumberland.
The Eev. William T. Ceilings, B.A., Wells, Somerset.
William Addison Combs, Esq., 3, Portland Cottages, Downham-road,
Kingsland.
George Eichard Corner, Esq., F.S.A., Eltham, Kent.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
Jeremiah Grafter, Esq., Stamford-street, Blackfriars.
William Grafter, Esq., Gravesend.
Thomas Grofton Groker, Esq., F.S.A., M.K.I.A., 3, Gloucester roid. Old
Brompton.
James Dodsley Guff, Esq., F.S.A., Bank of England.
Robert Davies, Esq., F.S.A., York.
James Dearden, Esq., F.S.A., Rochdale.
J. G. Dewilde, Esq., Northampton.
Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., Ganons Ashhy, Daventry.
Mr. Dufour, Great George-street, Westminster.
Alfred John Dunkin, Esq., Dartford, Kent.
John Dunn, Esq., Paisley.
James Elliott, Esq., Dymchurch, Kent.
John Evans, Esq., Hemel-Hempstead.
Thomas Eveleigh, Esq., Bank of England.
Frederick William Fairholt, Esq., F.S.A., Montpellier-square, Bronpton.
Thomas Faulkener, Esq., Oakfield Villa, Birkenhead.
W. Stevenson Fitch, Esq., Ipswich.
W. Wynne Ffoulkes, Esq., M.A., 4, Middle Temple-lane.
W. H. Gomonde, Esq., Gheltenham.
Mrs. Gorham, Gakeham, West Wittering, Sussex.
William Petit Griffith, Esq., F.S.A., St. John’s Square, Glerkenwell
Edwin Guest, Esq., M.A., Temple.
Hudson Gurney, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., Keswick Hall, Norwich.
John Matthew Gutch, Esq., Gommon Hill, Worcester.
George Gwilt, Esq., F.S.A., Union-street, Southwark.
The Rev. Daniel Henry Haigh, Erdington.
Gharles Hall, Esq., Ansty, Blandford, Dorset.
J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., etc.. Avenue Lodge, Brixton Pill.
Walter Hawkins, Esq., F.S.A., 5, Leonard-place, Kensington.
John Henry Hearn, Esq., Newport, Isle of Wight.
The Rev. Professor Henslow, Hitcham, Hadleigh, Suffolk.
Gharles H. Hingeston, Esq., 1, Alfred-place, New-road, Gamberwel.
Edward Hoare, Esq., Audley-place, Gork.
Samuel Holehouse, Esq., 19, Golehrook-row, Islington.
D. Hopkins, Esq., Guildford.
John Huxtahle, Esq., South-villa, Alhion-road, Stoke Newington.
The Isle of Wight Literary Institution, Newport, Isle of Wight.
William Jacobs, Esq., Stamps and Taxes, Somerset House.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBEES.
The Rev. Henry Jenkins, Stanway, Essex.
The Rev. T. Jessop, D.D., Bilton Hall, York.
I Charles Moore Jessop, Esq., King’s College, London.
I Llewellynn Jewitt, Esq., Athenseum, Plymouth.
Goddard Johnson, Esq., Norwich.
Lieut.-Col. JoUiffe, R.M., Woolwich.
James Cove Jones, Esq., F.S.A., Hon. Secretary of the Numismatic Society
of London, 2, Harcourt Buildings, Temple.
Edwin Keets, Esq., Gloucester Road, Kensington.
H. W. King, Esq., Cottage Grove, Bow Road.
Jesse King, Esq., Rose Cottage, Appleford, Abingdon.
Andrew Lawson, Esq., Aldborough, Boroughbridge.
The Rev. James Layton, Sandwich.
John Lee, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., etc., Hartwell House, Aylesbury.
John Edward Leo, Esq., Caerleon, Monmouthshire.
John Lindsay, Esq., Maryville, Blackrock, Cork.
The Lord Londesborough, K.C.H., F.R.S., F.S.A., President of the
Numismatic Society of London, Grimston, Tadcaster.
Thomas Lott, Esq., F.SJl., Bow Lane, City.
Mark Antony Lower, Esq., Lewes.
Frederick C. Lukis, Esq., The Grange, St. Peter’s, Guernsey.
W. C. Maclean, Esq., Woodbridge, Suffolk.
The Rev. W. H. Massie, M.A., Chester.
Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A., Lord-street, Liverpool.
Mr. Molini, King William-street.
The Rev. G. M. Nelson, Bodicote Grange, Banbury.
The Hon. Richard Cornwallis Neville, F.S.A., Audley End.
John Lane Oldham, Esq., F.G.S., Audley End.
The Rev. John Papillon, P.S.A., Lexden, Essex.
Richard Percival, Esq., F.S.A., Highbury Park. Deceased.
Henry Clarke Pidgeon, Esq., 37, Berners -street. Oxford-street.
The Rev. Beale Poste, M.A., Bydew’s-place, Maidstone.
Edward Pretty, Esq., Market-square, Northampton.
Edward Bedford Price, Esq., F.S.A., Cowcross-street, West Smithfield.
I Alfred Pryer, Esq., HoUingbourne, Kent.
Theodosius Purland, Esq., Mortimer-street, Cavendish- square.
Purnell B. Purnell, Esq., Stanscombe Park, Dimsley, Gloucestershire.
I
Henry William Rolfe, Esq., Punderson Place, Bethnal Green.
\ William Henry Rolfe, Esq., Sandwich. Two copies.
i
LIST or SUBSCRIBEKS.
■i.
Charles Rooke, Esq., M.D., Scai’borough.
Richard Sainthill, Esq., Cork.
W. Devonshire Saull, Esq., F.S.A., F.G.S., Aldersgate-street..
The Scarborough Archaeological Society.
Samuel Shepherd, Esq., F.S.A., Marlhorough-square, Chelsea.
Major Edmund Sheppard, Parson’s-green, Fulham.
William Taylor Peter Shortt, Esq., Heavitree, Exeter.
Captain Henry Smith, R.M., Portsmouth.
Captain W. H. Smyth, R,N., K.S.F., D.C.L., Pres. Royal Geog. Society,
V.P. Soc. Ant. Lond., etc., St. John’s Lodge, Aylesbury.
Clement Taylor Smythe, Esq., Maidstone.
The Rev. J, Montgomery Traherne, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., Ccedriglan,
Cardiff.
John Taylor, Jun., Esq., Colchester.
The Rev. William Vallance, Maidstone.
Henry Vint, Esq., F.S.A., St. Mary’s Lodge, Colchester.
The Rev. Edward Gihhs Walford, Chipping Warden.
John Green Waller, Esq., Howland-street, Fitzroy- square.
Charles Wame, Esq., 68, Sloane-street.
Mr. Joseph Warren, Ixworth, Suffolk.
Albert Way, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Sec. Arch. Inst., 26, Suffolk-street.
The Rev. C. Wellbeloved, York.
William Whincopp, Esq., Woodhiidge, Suffolk.
Alfred White, Esq., 19, Tyndale-place, Islington.
Humphry Wickham, Esq., Strood, Kent.
John Wilkinson, Esq., Wellington-street, Strand.
Daniel Wilson, Esq., LL.D., Sec. Ant. Scot., Edinburgh.
John Windell, Esq., Blair’s Castle, Cork.
Richard Windle, Esq., Bank of England.
Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.xi., 24, Sydney-street, Broinpton.
William Michael Wylie, Esq., B.A., F.S.A., Blackwater, Hants.
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