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URICONIUM.
fTf
trirnniiini:
A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
OF THE
ANCIENT EOMAN CITY,
AND OF THE EXCAVATION'S MADE UPON ITS SITE
AT WEOXETEE, IN SHEOPSHIEE,
FOEMING A SKETCH OF THE CONDITION AND HISTOEY
OF THE WELSH BOEDEE DUEING THE
EOIVLAN PEEIOD.
BY
THOMAS WEIGHT, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. M.RS.L., &c.,
c0bresp0>t1ing member of the national institute of fttance,
(academie des inscriptions et belles LETTRES.)
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GEEEN, & Co, PATEENOSTEE EOW.
SHEEWSBUEY: J. 0. SANDFOED.
1873.
M
TO HEE GRACE
THE DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND,
THE L.U>Y OF THE TEEEITOEY ON WHICH THE ANCIENT CITY
OF THE EOJLtNS HAS LAIN BUEIED SO JIANY AGES,
THIS VOLUME, DESCEIPTB'E OF THE EXCAVATIONS IN SEAECH OF IT,
IS, WITH HEE GEACE'S KIND PEEMISSION,
VEEY EESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
BY
THE AUTHOE.
PREFACE.
It was on a Saturday, rather late in the summer of the
year 1858, that I received a note from my late friend
Beriah Botfield, Esq., then M.P. for Ludlow, stating that he
had just arrived in London, that he was staying at the
Clarendon Hotel in Bond Street, until Monday, and that
he should be much pleased if I would go and see him
on the followiag morning. Accordingly, I went to him,
found him quite alone, and remained in conversation
with him from two to three hours. Among a variety
of other subjects, Mr. Botfield told me that he had been
making some excavations on an ancient site in North-
amptonshire, that he had taken a taste for excavating, and
that he wished to consult with me as to where he could
undertake some work of this description with the proba-
bility of a good result. I at once recommended to him
the site of the Eoman city of Uriconium, at Wroxctcr, in
Shropshire.
U PREFACE.
I had myself visited "\Vroxeter, for the first time, about
two or perhaps three years previously, and had been
strongly impressed with the importance of a careful ex-
ploration of the ground. After some talk on the subject
with ]Mr. Botfield, he seemed to enter entirely into my feel-
ings, and declared his readiness to contribute the money for
excavations, on the condition that I would undertake to
direct them, and he ofiered to put down at once the sum
of a hundred and fifty pounds. I then explained to him
the mao-uitude of the undertakino-, and how little one man
could do unassisted towards it, and it was ao-reed that the
best 2:)lan to pursue would be to head a subscription. Mr.
Botfield was then president of the Natural History and
Antiquarian Society of Shrewsbury, and either then or very
shortly afterwards he told me that it had been privately
intimated to him that it was the wish of the Society to
re-elect him its president for the following year, and it
was then agreed between us that he woidd, i]i his quality
of president, ofler to contribute fifty guineas towards the
expense of commencing digging so soon as fifty other
gentlemen had given their names as subscribers of one
guinea each, and he assured me of his readiness to subscribe
fifty guineas more on the same conditions, so soon as the
first subscriptions had been exhausted. Such are the simple
facts of the origin of the AVroxeter excavations.
PREFACE.
Ill
The re-election of Mr. Botfield to the presidency took
place on the 11th of November, 1858. Previous to that time
permission to excavate had been obtained from the pro-
prietor of the land, his Grace the Duke of Cleveland, with
his consent that aU objects of antiquity found in the course
of the excavations should become the property of the Museum
of the Society in Shrewsbury. On the day of the election
immediately after that had taken place, it was proposed by
Mr. Botfield, as president, and seconded by the Earl of Powis,
that a subscription should be entered into for excavating at
Wroxeter by permission of his Grace the Duke of Cleveland,
and that the objects discovered in the course of the ex-
cavations should be placed in the Society's Museum at
Shrewsbury. A committee was at the same time appoiuted
to direct the excavations.'" A letter from the Duke was
at the same time communicated to the meeting, piving; his
Grace's consent and authority to excavate and ajipropriate
to the Museum the ol)jects which might be found. The
committee met first on the 18th of January, 1859, and at
this meeting it was resolved that the excavations should be
commenced forthwith.
* This first committee consisted of the following names, as they are entered in the
minute-book of the Society : —
The Et. Hon. the Earl of Powis.
E. A, Slaney, Esq., M.P.
Beriah Botfl'eld, Esq., M.P.
The Eev. E. W. Ej-ton.
Thomas WriRht, Esq., F.S.A.
Henry .Johnson, Esq., M.D.
The Rev. E. Efireniont.
Samuel Wood, Esq., FS.A.
IV PEEPACE.
Accordingly, on the 3rd of February, three men were set
to work. At this time the site of the Eoman city had been
very little examined, and it was principally known by a
mass of Eoman wall, called popularly " the Old Wall." It
was my feeling that we should begin digging at this spot,
not that I had at all formed any opinion as to the particu-
lar buildings we should find there, but it was about the
centre of the ancient town, and I thought that the first
knowledge we required was that of the depth of the Eoman
fioors under the present surface of the ground, and this
knowledge we were sure to obtain by sinking a pit by the
side of the wall itself until we came to its foundation. The
3'csults of this first excavation are told fully in the third
chapter of the present work.* It was found to be the parti-
tion wall between the two principal buildings of the
ancient town, the Basilica and the Thermre, or Public Baths
of Uriconium. We had partially excavated the Basilica,
when a misunderstanding arose with the farmer who occu-
pied the land, which brought an interruption to our progress,
and led to the filling up of the part already excavated.
We were obliged to appeal to the Duke of Cleveland, who
interfered at once in our favour, and not only confirmed all
that had been done before, but let us the groimd on which
• Scu x-i- 110 of the present volume.
PKEFAOE. V
Baths stood, at a small rent, to be kept permanently open.
It was, indeed, very desirable tliat tins interesting portion
of the ancient city of Uriconium should be kept in a
condition to be viewed and examined by visitors, just
as other ruins, such as mediaeval castles and abbeys, which
are so thickly scattered over our border. The ground,
therefore, on Avhich the Baths stood, which was reckoned
at four acres, was marked off and delivered up to us, entirely
independent of the tenant of the farm.""
From this time the excavations continued in different
parts of the site, for some time without interruption. The
first subscription, which amounted to a hundred and fifty
guineas, becoming exhausted, fiu:ther subscriptions were
obtained from time to time, for several years. But the
great extent and importance of our work evidently required
fax larger funds than any sum we could reckon upon from
subscriptions of this kind. I myself made an appeal to Sir
George Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the Exchequer,
for assistance from the government, but received for answer
that the treasury was not accustomed to give money for
such purposes. This was not strictly true, as money had
* These four acres did not include the site of the Basilica, the excavations
on which had been covered up, and which was left for future consideration. It was sub-
sequently found that a portion of the gi-ound let to us, amounting to about one acre,
contained nothing of sufficient importance to be liept open, and it was restored to the
farmer.
VI PREFACE.
been given for excavations on the site of Carthage, and in
several localities in the east, which were of far less interest
to our national history and antiquities than those of
Uriconium. I still live in the hope that we shall finally
obtain the assistance of the government in this work of
truly national importance.*
Under these circumstances the excavations at Wroxeter
have remained interrupted for several years. The only
interruption to this state of things arose from the liberality
of a friend, Avell known for his zeal in the cause of archaeo-
logical and historical science, Mr. Joseph Mayer, of Liverpool.
In the autumn of the year 1867, the British Archseological
Association held its annual cono-ress at Ludlow. In antici-
pation of that event, Mr. Mayer, with the object both of
giving an impulse to the excavations, and of clothing with
additional interest the visit of the Archaeological Associa-
tion to Wroxeter, generously presented the sum of fifty
pounds, to be employed in digging. This money was ex-
pended upon the excavations described in the eleventh
chapter of the present volume. These were the last exca-
vations that have been made on the site of Uriconium.
» Almost evei'y countiy in Europe fui'nishes examples of the readiness mth which
the national government comes forward to assist with the necessary funds the exploration
of an antiquarian site, though far less importaut in its character than that at Wroxeter.
It is qitite impossible to cai-ry out such a work to any efficient extent by funds raised
merely by private subscriptions.
PREFACE. Vll
No very long time after the commencement of the exca-
vations, the present volume was undertaken, as a means of
preserving, at least to a certain extent, the result of our
discoveries. We had commenced our researches in the very
middle of the ancient city, and our good fortune had
thrown us among the most important of its public build-
ings. We were on one side of the Forum, and we have
opened to a great extent the Basilica, or town-hall, the
Thermge, or pubhc baths, and at least a market place.
We have traced a few of the shops and manufactories,
and some of the streets, and the walls, and have explored
a considerable portion of the cemetery. I have endeavoured
in these following pages to give a circumstantial account
of the interest and value of our discoveries, which I
believe have been far greater than those made by one
series of excavations on any Roman site in our island.
My book has been put together under at times unfavour-
able circumstances. Long delays have occurred at times
in the works themselves. The author has been himself
occupied with other work which often prevented him from
givino- to it the time and attention he could have wished ;
and for these and other reasons he has to regret that
this volume has been delayed far longer than he ever
contemplated. He hopes, however, that it will be found.
Vlll PREFACE.
even by this imperfect work, that the excavation on the
site of Eoman Uriconium at Wroxeter have added consider-
ably to our knowledge of the history and condition of our
island at that early and interesting period ; and we look
forward to a period, not far remote, when the resump-
tion of these works, on a stiU more extensive scale, will
largely increase that knowledge. He cannot take leave
of his reader without expressing his gratitude to three
friends at least, whose intelligence and active assistance
have been tlu:oughout given with great activity, cheerful-
ness, and effective advantage. The Eev. Edward Egremont,
vicar of Wroxeter, Dr. Hemy Johnson, the excellent hon-
orary secretary of the Shropshire Natural History Society, and
Samuel Wood, Esq., F.S.A. The assistance rendered by the
latter gentleman has been unremitting, and always valuable ;
and beyond this the reader is indebted to him for his list
of Eoman coins found at Wroxeter, which forms one of
the Appendices to the present volume.
THOMAS WEIGHT. -
Sydney Street, Brompton, London,
February, 1872.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE I.
PAGE
General View of Shkopshike under the Eomans ... 1
CHAPTER II.
The City of Ueiconium — Its History, Walls, and Internal
Arrangements 65
CHAPTER III.
The Basilica and Public Baths 108
CHAPTER IV.
The Little Market Place ; Workshops, TRiUJES, and
Professions ; the Forum of Uriconium .... 150
CHAPTEE V.
The Houses, and General Distribution of the Town . 183
CHAPTER VI.
The Domestic Furniture of the Houses ; The Pottery,
FOR the Table and for the Kitcjien; Provisions;
Means of Lighting the House; Boxes and Coffers,
and Locks and Keys 220
CHAPTER VII.
The Ladies ; Objects of the Toilette, and Personal
Ornaments ; the Male Sex, Arms and Armour . 274
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE VIII. PAGE
Miscellaneous Objects found at Weoxetek 305
CHAPTEK IX.
Coins found at Weoxeter 327
CHAPTEE X.
The Cemetery of Ueiconium; The Sepulcheal Insceiptions 339
CHAPTEE XL
The most eecent Excavations at Weoxetee 363
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX No. I.
On the Date of the Desteugtion of Ueiconium and on
THE Poet Lltwaech Hen 371
APPENDIX No. II.
On some Sheopshiee Antiquities 397
APPENDIX No. III.
Eaely Eental of Weoxetee 401
APPENDIX No. IV.
List of Eoman Coins found at Weoxetee 406
U R I C N I U M.
CHAPTEE I.
GENERAL VIEW OF SHROPSHIRE UNDER THE ROMANS.
We find no allusion to that district of our island which
formed during the middle ages the marches, or borders, of
Wales, until the middle of the first century of the Christian
era. In the year 50, Ostorius Scapula was appointed pro-
praetor of Britain, and on his arrival in the island he fovmd
the countr)' in great disorder, and many of the tribes which
had submitted to the Romans in open insiu'rection. He
immediately marched against the insurgents and the unsub-
dued tribes of Biitons who had joined them, who were defeateil
without much difficulty, and they seem to have retreated
toward the Welsh border, as Tacitus states that Ostorius
established camps along the Severn and the Avon, to hold
them in check.'"
Our border was at this time occupied by three distinct
British tribes, the Cornavii, or Carnabii, to the north, the
Ordovices, and the Sdures. As the geographer Ptolemy places
both Deva, or Chester, and our Uriconium, in the territory of
the Comavii, it seems to have extended from the Mersey to
the Severn, which latter river was probably, in its course
• Cinctosqiie castris Antonam et Sabi-inam fluvios cohibere parat. Tacit. Annul.
xii., 31. No river bnt the Avon iitU apparently answer to Antona. Another reading, Aujona,
haa been proposed, but I believe it is only conjectural.
B
2 TJRICOKIXJM.
westwardly towards Bridgnorth, the boundary between the
Cornavii and the Ordovices. As Ptolemy mentions two Roman
towns in the territoiy of the Ordovices, Mcdiolanium and
Branuogenium, of which the former appears from the later Itin-
eraries to have stood within Wales, it is-believed on the banks
of the Tanat, in the north of Montgomeryshire, and the Bran-
nogenium of Ptolemy is supposed to be the same place which
is called Bravinium in the Itinerary of Antoninus, and which
appears to have been situated somewhere in the northern part
of Herefordshire, we may consider that the southern boundary
of the Ordovices, which divided them from the Silures, ran a
little to the northward of Hereford, and that their territory
extended a considerable distance into North Wales. The
Silures, who were a larger and more powerful tribe than either
of the others, extended on the south of Herefordshire, through
Monmouthshire, and over the Avhole southern pari; of South
Wales.
The strategic precautions of Ostorius excited the jealousy
or alarm of the Iceni, at whose instance a league was formed
between different British tribes, who assembled in arms, and
took up a strong position to resist the Roman invaders ; but
they were attacked, and entirely defeated. The disaster of the
Iceni, who took the lead on this occasion, discouraged the tribes
of the interior, who had hitherto hesitated, but now submitted
to the Romans, including probably the Cornavii and the
Ordovices ; for Ostorius next invaded and ravaged the territoiy
of a tribe called by Tacitus the Cangi, who evidently held
the maritime districts of North Wales, as the Roman army,
in advancing through their territory, had nearly reached " the
sea which looks towards the island of Ireland," when it was
called back by intelligence of serious disorders which had
broken out amono- the Brio-antes.
o o
After the suppression of this outbreak among the Bri-
gantes, Ostorius carried his arms into the country of the
SUures, who refused to submit. These, to use the Avords of
UEKJONIIIW. 3
Tacitus, " in addition to tlie native fierceness of tlieir tribe,
placed great trust in tlie valour of Caractacus, whom the
many changes and prosperous turns of fortune had advanced
to a pre-eminence over the rest of the British leaders. He,
skilfully availing himself of his knowledge of the country to
countervail his inferiority in numbers, transferred the war into
the country of the Ordo vices, and, being joined by those
who distrusted the peace subsisting between them, soon
brought matters to a decisive issue ; for he posted himself on
a spot to which the approaches were as advantageous to his
own party as they were embarrassing to us. He then threw
up on the more accessible parts of the steep hills a sort of
rampart of stone ; below and in front of which was a river
difficult to ford, and on the works were placed troops or
soldiers. The respective leaders also went round to animate
and inspirit them, in order to dispel their fears, whilst they
magnified their hopes, and urged every encouragement usual on
these occasions. Caractacus, rushing from one spot to another,
bade them consider that the result of that day would be the
beginning of new liberty to them, or of confirmed and lasting
slavery ; and he set before them the example of their ancestors,
who had driven Caesar the dictator out of Britain, and by
whose valour they had been hitherto preseiwed from taxes and
tributes, and their wives and children from dishonour. The
people received these animating addresses with loud acclama-
tions, engaging themselves by the most solemn rites, according
to the religion of their country, never to yield to weapons
or wounds. Their resolution astonished the Roman general,
and the river which ran before them, together with the
ramparts and the steeps which rose in their way, was every-
where formidable and covered with defenders. But the
soldiers were clam,orous for the attack, crying out that all
difficulties may be overcome by valour ; and the inferior
officers, inspiring the same sentiments, gave new courage to the
troops. Then Ostorius, after reconnoitering the ground to see
4 XJEICONIUM.
which parts were impenetrable and which accessible, led on
the eager soldiers, and without much difficulty crossed the
river. When they came to the rampart, while they fought only
with missiles, our soldiers suffered the most, and numbers
were slain ; but when they closed their ranks, and placed
their shields over them, they soon tore down the rough
irregular piles of stones, and, coming to close quarters on equal
ground, obliged the barbarians to fly to the liills. Thither
also both the light and heavy armed soldiers followed, the
former attacking with their spears, the latter in a dense
body, till the Britons, who had no armour or helmets to
shelter them, were thrown into disorder ; and, if they made
resistance to the auxiliaries, they were cut in pieces by the
swords and spears of the legionaries, against whom when
they turned, they Avere destroyed by the sabres and javelins
of the auxiliaries. The victory was a brilliant one ; the wife
and daughter of Caractacus were taken, and his brothers sub-
mitted to the conqueror."
This is the first historical event which is recorded to have
taken place mthin the limits or on the borders of what is
now the county of Salop, and much vain and useless labour has
been thrown away in the desire to fix the exact site of the
battle. The description of the locality given by the ancient
historian is far too vague to leave any chance of success in such
an inquiry ; for everybody well acquainted with the country
knows how easy it would be to point out twenty different
spots which would agree -nith the description given by Tacitus
in some particulars, and how difficult it would be to point out
a single place which presents similarities that might not be
found elsewhere. From the tenor of the narrative, it seems
probable that Caractacus had drawn the Eomans into the
difficult country in the western part of the territory of the
Ordovices, and perhaps more to the north than the district
in which antiquaries have hitherto sought the scene of his
last defeat.
UEICONIUM. 5
The defeat of Caractacus was the principal event of thiis
campaign, and was supposed to have bi'olien the spirit of the
natives and to have restored tranquihty, yet the Roman com-
mander in Britain with the mass of his force remained in tliis
part of the island during the ten following years. We learn
from Tacitus that during this period the Romans were con-
tinually engaged in a, sort of partizan warfare, the character of
which may be easily understood from the nature of the ground.
Enabled to assemble unobserved in the mountainous districts
of South Wales, the SUures, by their obstinate l^ravery, gave
most trouble to the conquerors, who, attacked suddenly and
unexpectedly, sustained some severe reverses, though the
advantage generally remained with the Romans. The historian
describes these " frequent combats " on our boi'der as taking
place among the woods and marshes, wherever chance or the
adventurous courage of the troops brought them on, as often
the result of accident as of design, sometimes caused by the
spirit of retaliation on either side, at others the result of
plundering expeditions, sometimes by the orders, and fre-
quently without the knoAvledge of the commanders.'"' This
state of things prevailed along the whole line of the borders of
Wales, and rendered the command of the Roman armies so
arduous a task, that the propraetor Ostorius Scapula sank beneath
it, and died probably on our border. Before the arrival of the
new propraetor, Avitus Didius Gallus, a Roman legion, com-
manded by Manlius Valens, had suffered a defeat from the
Silures, who, however, met with a severe chastisement in their
turTi. This attack appears to have been excited by one of the
great parties among the Brigantes, who were at that time
divided between their king Venusius and their queen Cartis-
mandua, and engaged in civil war. The Romans, who supported
the queen, were again conquerors, and the Silures and other
tribes, who had espoused the party of Venusius, were left more
• Crebra hinc prajlia, et ssepins in motlum Lilrocinii ; per saltus, per palutks ; ut cuique
Kors aut virtus ; temere proviso ; ob iram, ob priedam ; jussu, et aliqnanrto ignaris ducilniR.
Tacitus, Annal, lib. xii., c. ?>9.
6 UKICONIUM.
than ever exposed to the vengeance of the foreigners. The
projinetor Didius was succeeded by a skilful commander
named Veranius, who, towards the end of the year 59, gave
place to the more celebrated Caius Suetonius PauUinus.
Veranius appears to have completed the subjection of the
Silures during liis short proprsetorship, and Suetonius found
himself at liberty to carry the Koman arms in another direction.
Immediately after his arrival, he marched against the island of
Anglesey, the events attending the conquest of which are so
graphically described by the historian Tacitus. From this war
the proprsetor, with the legions who were in this country,
was called away to suppress the alarming insurrection under
Boadicea on the eastern side of the island. Suetonius appears
to have carried -with him from Wales the fourteenth and a
part of the twentieth legions ; and it is at least a curious
circumstance that, among the inscribed monuments which have
been found in the cemetery of Uriconium, one commemorates
a soldier of this fourteenth legion, especially as that legion
was finally withdrawn from Britain so early as the year 69.
It is probable that all the Roman towns on the borders
of Wales were founded during the wars under the propraetors
Ostorius, Didius, Veranius, and Suetonius.
Time has spared some records of a very interesting descrip-
tion which show in what manner the Romans were especially
occupied during the years when wc have just traced their early
presence in North Wales and its border. They no sooner
reached this country, than they appear to have discovered the
ricliness of its mountains in metals, and especially in lead and
copper, and vast traces of their mining operations are found in
the mountains of the counties of Denbigh, Flint, Salop, and
Montgomery. I believe that the lead mines now worked in the
Stiperstones mountains and the hills behind them, on the site of
the early Roman mines, rank among the most productive in this
country and peihaps in Europe. We gather from Pliny, who
died in the year 79, that lead was a valuable metal at Rome
UBICONIUM. 7
previous to the conquest of Britain, for lie says that it was
obtained very laboriously in Spain and in all parts of Gaul ;
but in Britain, he adds, it was found on the surface — the
outside skin — of the earth, so abundantly, that a law had been
made to limit the quantity taken, of course in order to keep
up its price in the market.'^' In the year 1783 a Eoman pig
of lead, with an inscription, was dug up in Hampshne, which is
represented in the accompanying cut. The inscription on the top
may be read without difliculty,t intimating that it came from
the mines in the country of the Kiangi, or Cangi, in the year
when Nero was consul for the fourth time. I have abeady
pointed out that the tribe of the Cangi must have occupied the
district bordering on the northern coast of Wales, and this
pig very probably came from the vast Roman mines under
Castell-Caws behind Abergele, which have left that mountain
almost cut into two. But it is a still more interesting circum-
stance, that Nero was consul for the fourth time the year
before that of the insurrection of Boadicea and of the conquest
of Anglesey, so that we are fully assured that the Roman
mining operations in the country of the Cangi were in
activity at this early period. In 1772, a similar pig of lead,
bearing the name of the Emperor Vespasian, and the date of his
fifth consulship, (A.D. 76), also inscribed as coming from the
mines of the Cangi — DE"CEANG, — was found near the Watling
Street, and others, from the same district, have been met with,
* Nigro plumbo ad fistulas laminasque utimur, laboriosius in Hispania emto totasque per
Gallias : sed in Britannia summo terrie corio adeo large, ut lex ultro dicatur ne plus certo
modo fiat. Pliny, Hist. Nat. ^ lib. xxxiv., c. 49. The Romans called lead phimbum nigrum;
Vo-eii pluTtibum album, was tin.
+ This interesting monument was first engraved and described by Mr. Roach Smith, in the
Journal of the British ArchaBological Association, vol. v., p. 227. The inscriptions on its
sides have not been verj- satisfactorily explained.
8 URICONITJM.
cast in the same reign and in that of Domitian. The places
in which these have generally been found show that they
have been left or dropped by accident when on theix way
from the lead district, probably for exportation. Eoman
pigs of lead have been found not unfrequently in the
country to the north of Bishop's Castle in Sln'opshire, in the
parishes of Snead, ]\Iore, and Shelve, which appear to have
Ijcen the produce of the Roman mines on Shelve Hill,
in the estates of my valued friend, the Rev. T. F. More,
of Linley Hall ; they all bear the name of the emperor
Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), in the simple inscription, IMP.
HADRIANI, AVG. — in whose reign these mines appear to
have been most aetively worked ; or, perhaps, some change
took place in the system of working the mines, in consequence
of which the imperial mark was no longer impressed on the
metal. There is one circumstance worthy of further remark.
When we compare the statement of Pliny that the lead ore
was found on the siu^facc of the ground with the appearance
which the remains of the Roman mines in North Wales as
well as on the Shelve and other Shropshire hills still present,
we can hardly doubt that no mines had been worked here
before the Romans came, but that they found the ore literally
cropping out of the rock on the hill sides, and that they
followed the veins down into the mountain. The existence
of these rich mineral works at so early a date explains to us
why the Romans at that period assembled the mass of their
forces here to protect them.
The great revolt of the Brit(.ms in the east would naturally
have its effect on the British tribes in Wales and on its
borders, especially when it drew away a considerable portion of
the troops which held them in. check, and accordingly we
find this part of the country in a state of disorder during
several succeeding years. The Silures, the Ordovices, and the
other tribes on the border, again became troublesome, and a
new civil war liroke out among the Brigantes, in wliich the
URICONIUM. 9
influence of the Romans was by no means so successful as
before. On the accession of Vespasian to the empire, Petilius
Cerealis, an old and experienced officer in the armies in
Britain, was appointed proprgetor, and under him rose gra-
dually the military influence and fame of his friend, the
commander of the twentieth legion, the father-in-law of the
historian Tacitus, Julius Agricola. Cerealis was chiefly occu-
pied in reducing the Brigantes ; but his successor, Julius
Frontinus, finally defeated and subjected the fierce tribe of
the Silures, who seem to have recovered their courage during
the recent events. In the summer of the year 78, Frontinus
was recalled, and Julius Agricola was appointed propraetor of
Britain.
Under Frontinus, the Roman arms appear to have been less
successful in North Wales than in the south. Before the
arrival of the new governor, the Roman troops in the country
of the Ordovices (our Shropshire) had been surprised by an
insurrection of the natives, and a troop of Roman cavalry had
been entirely destroyed. This success had raised the hopes
of the neighbouring tribes, who only hesitated in taking part
in a general revolt until they could obtain a knowledge of
the character of the new proprsetor, for they had already
learnt by experience the necessity of acting with caution.
Agricola no sooner arrived from Rome to take the command,
than, contrary to aU expectations, he called out the legions
from their quarters, and proceeded to crush the insurrection
of the Ordovices. As the enemy refused to meet him in the
plains, Agricola pursued them into the mountains, and so
terrible was the vengeance which he exercised upon them,
that we are assured by his son-in-law that nearly the whole
tribe of the Ordovices was put to the sword.'"' From the
country of the Ordovices, Agricola hastened with his troops to
the farthest entremity of Wales, and again reduced under the
Roman power the isle of Anglesey, which had recovered its
* CsEsaque prope universa gente. Tacitus, Vita Agric, c. —
10 URIt!ONIUM.
independence after the first conqueror, Suetonius, had been so
suddenly called away to quell the revolt under Boadicea.
Wales and its Iwrders were now so entirely subdued, that he
was enabled during the following year to employ himself in
making the Britons acquainted with the arts of peace, and that
in the year 80 he could take away the troops from this part
of the island to begin his still more arduous campaigns against
the Caledonians in the north. When Agricola was recalled
from the proprsetorship in the year 84, we axe assured that he
left the province of Biitain to his successor in a peaceful and
settled condition. For many years afterwards this tranquility
appears to have been disturbed only by the turbulence of the
Caledonians.
The first care of the Eomans, when they had reduced a
territory to their subjection, was to cover it Avith good roads
and with towns, and Ave have abundant evidence that these
precautions were neither neglected nor delayed in the country
bordering on the Welsh mountains, or, indeed, in Wales itself.
So early as the time when Ptolemy compiled his Geography,
which is considered to have been about the year 120 after
Christ, Ave find along this border important toAvns named
Deva (Chester), where the twentieth legend was permanently
stationed, Uriconium (which Ptolemy calls Viroconium),
Mediolanium (supposed to have stood on the confines of the
counties of Montgomery and Denbigh, on the banks of the
Tanat, a tributary of the Severn), Brannogenium, the situation
of which is also rather uncertain, though it was clearly near
the southern Hmits of Shropshire. These names indicate two
principal lines of road across our county, which are more
distinctly laid down about two hundred years later in the
Itinerary of Antoninus. The first of these was during the
middle ages the most celebrated road in our island, and was
then known by the name of the Watling Street. It began at
the Avell-known Roman port of Rutupise ( Richhoroxigh, in
Kent), and proceeded thence through Canterbury, Rochester,
URICONIUM. 11
London, St. Albans, and by way of Dunstable and Towcestcr
into Staffordshire, where it passed by Wall (JEtiocetum), and,
entering Shropshire at the northern foot of Lizard Hill,
proceeded thence in a straight line direct west between the
Wrekin and the town of Wellington to Wroxeter. Before
leaving Staffordshire the road passed a station or town
named Pennocrucium, supposed to have stood on the banks.
of the little river Penk, and, immediately after entering Shrop-
shire, another, named Uxaconium, supposed to have stood
at Eedhill, in the neighbourhood of Shiffnal. It made a slight
bend southward before approaching Uriconium, which it entered
from the north-east, and, passing to the centre of the town,
turned there at an angle and left the town in a north-westerly
direction. It continued apparently in (or nearly in) the line of
the present road through Atcham to Shrewsbury, and so on by
way of Ness to a Eoman town called Eutunium, supposed to
have been in the neighbourhood of Alberbury, where we trace
the road in the name of Stretton,""' and perhaps in that of
Wattlesborough, which has been supposed to have some con-
nection with its name of Watling Street. Thence the road
directed its course westward into Wales, crossing the river
Tanat at Mediolanium already mentioned, and proceeding by
way of Cerrig-y-Druidion, near which place till lately the old
Eoman bridge across the river remained, and over the Snow-
donian mountains to the Menai Straits.
The other great Eoman road traversed Shropshire from south
to north, and formed part of the line of communication between
the two great military stations, Isca (Caerleon), where the
second legion was established, and Deva (Chester), the head-
quarters of the twentieth. This road, in its way north from
the town of Magna (Kenchester, near Hereford), entered
* The Anglo-Saxons, when they came into this island, were no road-makers, but they
adopted the Koman roads already existing, and gave them a name formed from that applied
to them by the Romans, street, from strata (via). Hence, wherever we find the syllable strat,
or strel, in the composition of names of places, we may be confident that it indicates the
existence there, in Anglo-Saxon times, of a road which had been constructed by the Romans.
12 URICONIITM.
Shropshire at Maiiow, proceed a little to tlie west of Cluiigun-
ford to Strefford Ijridge, where it crossed the river Ony, and
where it made a slight bend to Wistanstow and onward to
Little Stretton, Church Stretton, and All Stretton, which took
their names from it. On leaving the Stretton valley, it passed
by Longnor Green, and Frodesley, in a straight line to the
Severn, which it probably crossed at some distance below
Wroxeter, and so approached the city of Uriconium on the
eastern bank of the river, and entered it by its southern gate.
In its course from Kenchester to Wroxeter this road is also
caUed locally the AVatling Street. Till it reaches Wroxeter,
its course, like that of the great AVatling Street, is easily
traced, but, like that also, after passing Uriconium, it is some-
what uncertain. It would seem, however, by the Itinerary of
Antoninus to have continued along the great AVatling; Street to
Rutunium and Mediolanium, and then to have made a turn to
the north-east, and to have proceeded to a station named
Bovium, supposed to be Bangor on the river Dec, and thence
to Deva. This circuit was no doubt made for the advantage
of the mining works carried on by the Eomans on this part of
the border.
Besides these two great military ways, a variety of roads
of less magnitude or importance traversed our county in
every direction. The traces of some of these " streets " have
been entirely obliterated by the progress of cultivation, but
others may be stiU traced either by the remains of the road
itself or by names and marks which indicate its former
existence ; and these names and marks enable us to recognise,
as ancient, many roads which might otherwise be easily taken
for modern. As we follow the great AVatling Street from
Warwickshire, almost as soon as we enter Shropshire, little
more than a mile to the westward of Weston-under-Lizard,
we come to a cross road, running nearly from S. S. E. to
N. N. AV., which has been supposed, and probably with reason,
to be Roman. It crosses the AVatling Street at a spot named
UEICONIUM. 1 3
Stoneyford, and, to the north of the great miHtary way,
proceeds by a place called King Street, is called a little farther
on by the no less significant name of Pave Lane, and proceeds
throngh the town of Newport. It appears to have run on
thence by Avay of Whitchurch and Malpas, passing a locality
in the direction of Plolt, still callecl from it Stretton, and so
on to Chester. The continuation of this road is traced on the
south of the Watling Street, in the same line by way of Tong,
and the bold entrenchments called The Walls, at the village of
Chesterton, which name, as well as that of Stratford given to
the place where the road here crosses the stream, prove these
entrenchments to be Eoman. From the direction of this road,
it appears to have led, perhaps from Droitwitch, to Chester.*
Uriconium ( Wroxet&r) was, however, the great centre from
which most of the Eoman roads in Shropshire diverged. The
main line of the WatUng Street appears, as already stated,
to have crossed the Tern, and the Severn at Atcham Bridge,
and to have iim over the site of Shrewsbury, where it made
a tmTi to the north-west, and where also at least one branch
road left it. One is supposed to have taken the route Ijy
Little Oxon, Pavement Gate, (which probably took its name
from the Roman paved road,) over Stretton Heath. Another
road ran fr-om Uriconium to the southward of this by Berring-
ton Hall, near which it is called King Street, and on by Lea
Cross to Stoney Stretton, and it was perhaps continued to the
Eoman Station at Caer-Flos, in Montgomeryshire. It is very
probable that another road ran on the eastern side of the
Stiperstones, perhaps by way of Wentnor, from Shrewsbury to
Bishop's Castle ; and a road appears to have run eastwardly
from the latter place to join the southern Watling-Street
Eoad at the Craven Arms, for I am informed that the
peasantry have a legend that this was the first road ever
made in England, and that it originally went across the island
* I believe that the ancient character of this road was first pointed out by Jir. Hart-
shome, in his Salopia Antiqua, pp. 146, 26.^.
1 4 URICONIUM.
from sea to sea. An ancient road called the Port-way is
distinctly traced along the summit of the Longmynd moun-
tain. The line of the other principal road from Uriconium,
running south under the name of the Wathng-Street Eoad,
has already been described.
There was another road of some importance leading from
Uriconium to the southward, which has left some rather
remarkable traces behind it. It appears to have separated
from the AVatling-Street Eoad somewhere near Pitchford, and
to have run by way of Acton Burnell to Euckley, a little
beyond which place it becomes very distinct, and is popularly
called, The Devil's Causeway, a name which itself indicates
a Eoman origin.'"' This road, from Euckley to some distance
to the south, was carefully examined by Mr. Hartshorne, Avho
has given a good account of it in his Salopia Antiqua. The
remains are most perfect near what is named from it. Cause-
way Wood, and it presents a remarkably bold appearance for
two or three hundred yards from tliis place towards the south.
" The Devil's Causeway," as described by Mr. Hartshorne, " is
a way, partially at present but originally entirely, formed of
large blocks of basalt, which were procured from the neigh-
bouring sides of the Lawley. They vary in superficial size
from one to two feet in length, and from eight to fifteen
inches in breadth, and are disposed in their longest direction
across the road. At first they were placed with extreme
regularity, and had their face much more even than it now
lies. From an avei'age of several measures taken in different
parts, the road seems originally to have been thirteen feet
wide. It is edged with roughly hewn flat stones lying upon
the surface of the soil, and varying from one to two feet in
width ; they are uniformly one foot in thickness, and stand
• Our word cavscirmi is a mere eorruption of the French chaiissre, which was formed
from the Latin ealcea, cakeala, or cahealmn, given to such roads hecause they were formed
of stones set in lime or cement (calr). As none but the Eomnns made such roads In old times,
the use of the word in the middle ages became naturally restricted to roads wliich had been
derived from the Komans.
URICONIUM. 1 5
SO as to touch each other. The existing inequahty of the face
of the road may be accounted for on reasons which it is
almost superfluous to mention. Such, for instance, as the
peculiar nature of the stone itself with which it is paved,
and its aptness speedily to disintegrate ; the traffic which it
has from a very lengthened period sustained ; the operation of
various natural causes which are stiU in action, such as the
tendency that heavy bodies have to become imperceptibly
buried below the surface of the ground, together with the
spirit of destruction which has incessantly actuated man to
carry away and break up the materials of which the road is
composed." Close to the termination of this piece of the
causeway, it traverses a small bridge, which Mr. Hartshorne
has stated apparently good reasons for believing to be
Roman. " When we look at the architecture of the bridge,"
he says, " we cannot fail to notice three peculiarities. And
first, the form of the arch. It springs from two centres, and
assumes a curve, somewhat resembHng a segmental arch, but
more depressed than anything Norman, being in fact broader,
as we see it in Eoman examples. Secondly, the voussoirs are
alternately paraUel-sided and cruciform, or acutely shaped at
one end, as though the intention of the arcliitect was to make
them available in filling up the interstices between the regular
paraUel-sided voussoirs ; and lastly, the whole is put together
with concrete, as may readily be detected by taking the
trouble to creep underneath the arch, and detaching a piece of
it from the joints." This road evidently proceeded in a
straight line through Cardington to the bold entrenched works,
a Roman station of some kind or other, at Rushbury, and
from thence passed over a low part of the Wenlock edge range
of mountains, called Roman's Bank, and crossed Corvedale to
the great entrenchments of Nordy Bank, under the Brown
Glee Hill. There was, perhaps, a road from Nordy Bank
down the vale towards Ludlow ; I suspect that the tumuli on
the Old Field (now the racecourse) near Ludlow, also indicate
1 6 URICONIUM.
a Hue of road across it in a direction from north-west to
south-east, probably l^rancliing from the Watling-Street Eoad ;
and I believe there are traces of a Eoman road over the
Titterstone Clee Hill. One or two names of places, such
as Stanway, (the stone road), just below Eoman's Bank,
and Pilgrim Lane, not very far from the large entrenchments
near Lutwyche Hall called the Ditches, would lead us to
suspect that a branch of the road we have been describing
proceeded up Corve Dale ; and Mr. Hartshorne judged, by
the appearances, that at Ruckley a branch of the Devil's
Causeway ran westwardly over Frodesley Park.'"
We have every reason for believing that our county was
traversed by many other Roman roads, besides those we have
mentioned, of wlhch a minute survey of the ground would no
doubt reveal existing traces. These lines of road, whether
large or small, are usually marked by the residences of their
living, and by the burial-places of their dead, inhabitants, —
their earthworks, their villas, and their barrows or tumuli.
Of the fir3t of these three classes of monuments, it is necessary
to speak with considerable caution, inasmuch as we know that
not only the Romans, but the Anglo-Saxons after them, and
people of still later date, constructed enclosures of earthen
entrenchments, in a great variety of forms, and for an equally
great variety of purposes. The earthen vallum of enclosure
was the only durable-part of the manor house of the Saxon
chieftain ; it was prolDably employed, both among Romans
and Saxons, as a permanent place of shelter for cattle, or for
workmen, and no doubt in the mineral districts it often
enclosed the space where some of the operations of pi-eparing
the ore for the furnace were carried on ; while, among other
purposes, a space on the top of a hill surrounded by an
entrenclrment has often been found to l^e a place of burial.
It would, therefore, be very rash to assume that any earth-
work was Roman, unless we had some well ascertained fact to
* Hartsliorne's Salopia Antiqua, pp. 13i-148.
URICONIUM. 17
support such an opinion. It would not be safe, even, to take
an earthwork for Koman because it stands by the side of a
known Roman road, though in such case it would probably
not be older than the road ; but the Anglo-Saxons continued to
use the roads of the Romans, and would often build their
mansions or raise intrenchments for other purposes in close
approximation to them, as the Normans afterwards built castles
in similar positions. We have, nevertheless, in Shropshire, a
considerable number of large and very interesting monuments
of this description which undoubtedly belonged to the Romans,
and we shall find them usually scattered along the lines of
the Roman roads. Thus, on the line of the road which I have
spoken of as crossing the Watling Street soon after it enters
the county from Staffordshire, and which has been supposed
to run from Droitwich or Worcester to Chester, is the strong
position called The Walls, the Roman character of which is
declared by the name of Chesterton,'^' given to the village
adjoining. " The Walls " is an inclosure of upwards of
twenty acres, on the summit of a hlLl, the sides of which form,
on every side but the north-east, a nearly perpendicular
precipice of the height of fifty or sixty yards, surrounded at
the top by an intrenchment. At the foot it is almost
surrounded by a stream of water. Like the hill itself, the
form of the inclosure is irregular ; and it is rather remarkable
that no antiquities are known to have been found within it.
Along the line of the Wathng Street, in our way to Urico-
nium, we find few of these intrenched inclosures, partly
perhaps because there is a scarcity of hills ; and the extensive
inclosure on the summit of the Wrekin, where there is at least
one tumulus, may probably have been a cemetery. We have
seen that two great intrenched inclosures, Rushbury and
* When the Anglo-Saxons settled here, they prohahly found the Roman inhahitants
usually giving the name of castrum to their walled towns and stations, and they adopted the
Roman word merely moulding it down in theu- own pronunciation into ccaster, which the
change of the language has reduced to Chester or ceater, (the Welsh in the same way made
caer out of the Latin word.) Whenever we find cliester or ceater in the name of a place in
England, we may he certain that it indicates Roman occupation.
c
1 8 UEICONIUM.
Nordy Bank, stood on the line of road called the Devil's -
Causeway, and the name of the village of Wall-under- Hey-
wood, a short distance from Eushbury, probably implies the
former existence of another. Eushbury contains an area of
a hundi-ed and forty-five feet by a hundred and thii-ty-one, so
that it is almost a square with its corners rounded. It has been
surrounded by a very lofty vallum, and by a fosse twenty-
three feet mde. Eoman antiquities are said to have been
found on this site, but appear not to have been preserved.
Nordy Bank, which also may be described as a parallelogram
with rounded corners, is larger and in more perfect preser-
vation ; for it is two hundred and ten paces long from east to
west, by a hundred and forty-four in width. It is surrounded
by a high vallum, with a single fosse. It occupies a position
which gives it the command of the rich district of CorA^e
Dale. Above it to the east rises the Brown Clee Hill, the two
lofty summits of wliich, called Abdon-Burf and Clee-Bi;rf (no
doubt another form of the same word as hurg and hury)
have each an area inclosed in a wall of stones, filled with
small circles and tumuli, so that they were doubtless ceme-
teries. The highest point of the Titterstone Clee HUl has a
similar inclosure. Caynham Camp, near Ludlow, is on the
line of road I have supposed to have run across the Old
Field, perhaps to Worcester and Droitwich.
A considerable portion of the southern Watling Street, as it
passes through the Stretton Valley, is bordered on each side
by lofty hUls, several of which are crowned with intrench-
ments. The most remarkable of these and the loftiest is Caer-
Caradoc, which stands at the northern entrance to the valley,
and has an area doubly intrenched at the top. On the
opposite side of the valley, on one of the lower slopes of the
Longmynd, is an intrenchment called Bodbury Eing ; and on
the same side of the Watling-Street road, but on the other
side of Church Stretton, is another of a more oblono- form
called Brockhurst Castle, wliich also stands at the foot of the
URICONIUM. 19
hills, close to the modem railway. x4.t the southern entrance
of the valley are two smaller iutrenchments, known each by
the same name of Castle Ring ; and on the other side of the
Wathng Street, the hill wliich forms the entrance to the vale
of Onibury is crowned by a very large and strongly intrenched
area known as Norton Camp. It is nearly square. A smaller
oval intrenchment occupies the summit of Burrow Hill on the
opposite side of this rather Avide valley. I hesitate to call
them camps, as it appears to me that it would be assuming
more than we have any right to assume ; and I have not
thought it necessary to enter here into a detailed account
of their several forms and arrangements, as I believe that
those were regulated only by convenience (which might arise
from the form of the ground) and by the particular purposes
for which they were intended. As the Watling Street con-
tinues its way southward by Clungunford and Leintwardine,
it passes Brandon Camp, not far from which there is a camp
at Downton. Brandon, which is a fine work and beautifully
situated just "within the borders of Herefordshire, has been
considered to be the Bravinium of the Romans. But this
location is at least doubtful.
A branch road, already mentioned, left the main road some-
where near the site of the modern Craven Arms, and ran
westward into Wales. It, or a sub-branch, probably ran along
the valley of the Clun, which is bordered by hills, some of
them crowned by earthworks. At the opening of this valley,
above the village of Hopesay, are the extensive iutrenchments
known by the name of Burrow Hill. Farther on, on the
same (northern) side of the valley, are the still more remark-
able works called the Bury Ditches. This latter is a circular
inclosure, of considerable extent, surrounded by a triple fosse,
and, by its lofty and isolated position, commandmg a view
over a great extent of country. A few years ago, the keeper,
in unearthing foxes, met with the stone foundations of
buildings in the middle of the inclosed area, which may
2U URICONIUM.
have been tlie site of the Saxou hall, for I confess that the
appearance of these Bury Ditches impresses me strongly with
the notion of the manor-house of some great Anglo-Saxon
landlord. Names of hills on the other side of the valley, such
as Clun-burt/, seem also to indicate the former existence of
other iutrenchments. On the north side, these monuments
are continued along the hill tops. There is a camp, as it is
called, just above the town of Clun, to the north-west,
and a little farther, just beyond the line of Offa's Dyke, we
meet with a still finer intrenchment at Newcastle. There is
another similar work opposite to it, on the other side of the
narrow valley through which the Clun river runs, with several
tumuli in the neighbourhood. The hilly country to the south
of Clun is covered with ancient remains. Among these, the
most important is the very bold intrenched hill known
commonly by the name of the Caer Ditches, and called also
the Caer-Caradoc, which some antiquaries have supposed,
■without much reason, to have been the scene of the last
defeat of Caractacus. Among the hiUs to the south-eastward
of Clun is a place which is popularly believed to have been
the site of an ancient city. We are here close upon the
borders of Wales.
As we turn along the line of the border northwardly, we
meet mth numerous sunilar works, the object of which it
would be veiy hazardous to assume. It is no part of my plan
to follow them into Wales, but there is one crowning a hUl
about half a mile to the westward of the river Teme, which
here forms the boundary between England and Wales, and a
little farther north we have a stiU more striking and somewhat
circular inclosure called in the Ordnance Map, Castle Bryn
Amlwg, or Castle Cefn Fron. From hence we may turn back
eastwardly to Caer-din-Eing, the name as well as the character
of which appear to me to be Roman — for the Welsh word
Caer is itself probably a mere corruption from the Roman
castrum. At Knuck, in a line between these and Bishop's
TTRIOONlUM. 21
Caatle, we have two " camps," about a mile apart ; and some
three miles to the eastward of Bishop's Castle, we meet with a
larger monument of this description, oval in form, called
Billing's Ring. There is another Caer-Din, nearly four miles
to the N. N. E. of the former ; and lilie it of a quadrangular
shape ; and about a mile farther we find a camp at Pentre.
Still proceeding in a noii;h-easterly direction, we successively
find similar inclosures at the Roveries, between Snead and
Linley ; at the Castle Ring (a not uncommon name in these
parts for such monuments) among the hills between Church-
stoke and Hyssington ; at the Castle Hill, in the latter parish ;
on the hills to the east of Linley Park ; at Ritton Castle, in
the parish of Shelve ; on the hills opposite Mr. More's Roman
Grave] Mine ; and at the Castle Ring, under the northern
brow of the Stiperstones. On the eastern side of the Stiper-
stones, we have several very fine examples of these intrenched
inclosures, such as those at CaUow Hill, near Minsterley,
and on Pontesford Hill. Crossing the valley of the Rea, we
see first an intrenched camp at Mill Bank, near Betchfield ;
and there is a much larger one on the summit of the Long
Mountain, called Caer-Digol, and known also as the Beacon
Ring, and a smaller one on its western declivity. Another
occurs on the top of the Breiddin mountains, called Cefn-y-
CasteU, and there are one or two scattered over the valley to
the westward. We trace several of them at or in the
neighbourhood of Llanymynech ; and in general they are
most numerous in the mining districts, with the works of
which we are therefore justified in supposing them to have
some connection. They occur much less frequently in the low
country to the eastward, though there is a fine monument of
this description, named Bury Walls, near Hawkstone ; but the
largest and most striking of them all is that of Old Oswestry,
near the north-western extremity of the county.
I am inclined here to venture a suggestion with regard to
this latter locality. As it has been already intimated, the
22 URICOKIUM.
course of the road and the sites of the stations along the main
line of the Watling Street after passing Uriconium are very
uncertain. There can be little doubt that the road went from
Wroxeter to Shrewsbury, which has been conjectured by some
antiquaries to have occupied the site of Kutunium itself, the
only objection to which is, the distance given in the Itinerary
of Antoninus, and we know that the Eoman numerals were
very liable to be copied erroneously by the old scribes, who
were not acc[uainted with the facts. Whenever we have any
remaining indications of a Roman town or station answering
to one found in the Itinerary, it is far better evidence than
the distances printed from the manuscripts. Kutunium was
perhaps a mere postal station, where refreshments and changes
of horses might be had, and it is rather in favour of the
conjecture that there were certainly several Eoman roads
branching out from this point. I am informed, moreover, by
my friend Mr. Henry Pidgeon, of Shrewsbury, one of the
most zealous of Shropshire antiquaries, that Eoman remains,
especially coins, have been found in Shrewsbury, one of
Domitian, on the site of his own house in the High Street.
But Mediolanium, the next place, must have been a place of
some importance. It is coupled by Ptolemy with Uriconium
as one of the two towns of the Ordovices at that early period,
and it can hardly have failed to leave some traces behind it.
Now, Old Oswestry would answer very well to Mediolanium,
both in its distance from Uriconium and in its position
between Kutunium and Bovium on the way to Chester. It
has usually been placed fai1;her within Wales, somewhere on the
banks of the river Tanad, chiefly on the authority of Eichard
of Cirencester, whom I fear we must abandon as deserving
of no authority whatever.* Old Oswestry has certainly
been a to^^Ti of some importance. It is an inclosure forming
an oljlong parallelogram of upwards of fifteen acres, and
* T "°'^? tlwi'gW' tetter of Fachartl of Cirencester tlifin I do now, for I must confess that
the more I read bun, the stronger becomes the conviction thnt the work which passes imdev
his name is a modem fahnoation.
UEIC'ONIUM. 23
surrounded by very strong intrencliments, which are, moreover,
doubled in number on the weaker side, where there are five
lines of circumvallation. Two trenches arc continued round
the whole circuit. No scientific researches have ever been
made ^^^thin the interior of this inclosure, and few records
have been preserved of accidental discoveries ; but among
these latter were a well, a pavement, and " pieces of iron like
armour," all which indicate a Eoman origin. There are other
reasons for beheving that this may have been an important
position of the Eomans. One of the earlier and great Anglo-
Saxon battles, that of Maserfeld, between Oswald, the
Christian king of the Northumbrians, on one side, and the
Welsh and the pagan king of the Mercians on the other, was
fought on the 5th of August, 642, according to all traditions
in the neighbourhood of this town. The place took its modern
name, Oswaldes-treo, or the tree of Oswald, from the name of
the Northumbrian king, who was slain here. It is probable
that the Northumbrian army had advanced by the ancient
Eoman road from Chester to Uriconium, and the Welsh had
perhaps advanced by the branch Eoman road, which left
this road to the westward in the neighbourhood of Llanymy-
nech, to join the Mercians.* Old Oswestry is called in Welsh
Hen Dinas, the Old City.
There is less regularity in the position of the Eoman villas
than in that of most of the other monuments of that people.
Their sites were chosen no doubt, as in modern gentlemen's
houses, for the position and character of the ground, the
proximity of water, and the scenery, as well as for cir-
cumstances of convenience and utihty, which were more or
less peculiar to each particular case. As they most fre-
quently stood on fertile ground, valuable to the agricidturist,
all traces of them have in a majority of cases been swept
away by the operations of the farmer at a period when no
* Bede gives a brief account oj this battle, lib. iii. c. 9, but s.iys nothing to enable us to
identify tlie site.
24 TJRICONIUM.
attention was paid to such objects, and the circumstances, or
even the fact of the discovery, have not been recorded. The
discoveries of such monuments in more recent times have been
usually accidental, and they have been but partially observed.
In Shropshire, which is a highly agricultural county, the
number of Eoman villas known to have been discovered is
very small, and of these nothing had been left but fragments
which had escaped the spade or the ploughshare of earlier
times.
Towards the close of the last century, the remains of a
Roman villa were found at Lea Cross, in the parish of
Pontesbury. It was situated on rather low ground, in a rich
country, on the banks of the river Eea, in close proximity to
the mining districts of Pontesbury and Minsterley. Several
rooms appear to have been traced, one having a handsome
tessellated pavement, a drawing of which was made at the
time, and has been preserved. They had the usual accom-
paniments of hypocausts, one of which was supposed to have
been a bath, as it appeared to have had a pipe for carrying
off water. I believe the remains were covered in again,
without being destroyed.'"'
At the southern extremity of the mining district of the
Stiperstones, in the grounds of Linley Hall, the seat of Mr.
More, recent discoveries have shewn the former existence of a
Eoman viUa, which was apparently of much larger dimensions
than that at the Lea Cross. Linley Hall is approached from
the high road between Shrewsbury and Bishop's Castle by an
avenue of oak trees, one mile in length, reaching from that
road to the road from Lydham to Linley and Wentnor, which
* The following brief account of this discovery is given in the Gentleman's Magazine,
for 1793, part ii. p. 1144 : " A beautiful tessellated floor was lately discovered on the farm of
Ml-. Warter, at the Lea, between Hanwood and Pontesbury, (Salop) . It is between thirteen
and fourteen feet square, consisting of small tessellpe of red brick, whitish marble, and
brown, black, and gray stone ; and appears to have belonged to the bathing apaiijnenta of
an elegant Roman villa ; mortar floors having been found near it, three feet below its level,
with the foundation of such bi-ick piUars as usually supported the floor of the sudatoiy.
Numerous fragments of square flues or tunnels of tile, furred within with smoke, are also
found ; with some pieces of leaden pipe, charred wood, pottei-y of blackish earth, and
a charmel or gutter to carry ofl' water, corresponding with the descent of the ground."
URICONIUM.
25
' 3'i/OlA}
3HJ. (MOifJ Q\/Q-y
v^yf>rr/j?:7rjj!'/^,&/^^:^.^^.^^^y:^/^j7P,/77?,':^j'7>/.
t
a
>
a
I
26 UEICONIUM.
forms the southern boundary of Linley Park. Just within the
avenue, but close to this latter road, remains of masonry had
been discovered some years ago, and from the fragments of
brick it was suspected to be Eoman, but no further examina-
tion took place imtil the August of 1856, when, during a visit
I made to Linley Hall, Mr. More resolved to make further
excavations on the spot. The immediate result was to lay
open a small room, with a hypocaust, marked 4 in the accom-
panying plan. A portion of the floor, consisting of a thick
mass of cement formed of lime and pounded bricks, with a
smooth upper surface, remained on the eastern side of this
room, supported on rude square columns of red sandstone.
The rest of the floor had been destroyed. There was a
division in the hypocaust, and the columns of the western side
were formed, in the usual manner, of layers of the square flat
Roman bricks. The northern corner of this room, as repre-
sented on the plan, went a little distance under the road,
and two other smaU rooms adjoining, x and 2, were subse-
quently explored under the road, reaching nearly to the waU
of the park. Both had hypocausts, with colunms of Eoman
tiles, but the floors were gone. The eastern wall of these
rooms was continued southwardly, incHning towards the west,
till it made a comer with another wall, 6, running westwardly,
at right angles to the former. The first of these walls was
evidently the eastern boundary of this mass of buildings, and
along its outer side ran a well-made and well-preserved
stone drain, c, bordered by what appears to have been a
channel, h, formed of curiously constructed flue-tiles. The
wall marked 6 is three feet in thickness. Within the rooms
I have been describing was found an aqueduct, d, running
parallel to the eastern wall of the building, which was traced
by uncovering at diff"erent spots up to Linley Hall, a distance
of nearly eight hundred and fifty feet. It is formed of a
wall of masonry, with a channel upon it, the latter formed of
concrete, and was no doubt intended to carry water from the
URICONIUM. 27
rather copious springs just above Linley to the buildings
below in which it terminates. Near the place where the last
traces of this aqueduct were met with, opposite Linley Hall,
there was from time immemorial a large pond, which Mr.
More has recently enlarged into a lake, and it was suspected
that this might have been originally a Roman reservoir to
supply the aqueduct, but, when it was cleared away in forming
the lake, no traces of Roman work were found.
A hedge divides the avenue in which the first discoveries of
this villa were made from a large field which borders on the
Lyclham road, and extends to another road running from the
latter to the village of the More. Walls belonging to the
buildings of this villa were found all across this field, and to
some distance in the field on the other side of the More road,
but the whole had been so completely broken up, and the
remains were so imperfect, that it seemed impossible, except
perhaps with very great labour and by digging the whole
field, to trace any definite plan. One wall, 12, much thicker
than the others, ran across the field, almost direct east and
west, and may be distinctly traced across the More road by
a rising in the ground, and to a considerable distance into
the next field. This there can be no doubt was the southern
boundary wall of the whole of this range of buildings. It is
rather remarkable that this wall runs at an angle to the
other buildings, as is seen in the plan. A transverse wall, 13,
is distinctly traceable in the second field and across the
Lydham road into the park ; and another transverse wall, 8,
was found in the first field. Probably a strong transverse
wah at some distance to the ^east of the avenue, formed
the eastern boundary wall of a great square ; and Mr. More
found another strong wall crossing the valley a Little behind
Linley HaU, and running east and west, and therefore parallel
to the wall 12, which may have been a northern boundary,
so that the whole would have formed an immense square,
including the site of Linley Hall, and nearly the whole of
28
TJEICONIXJM.
the park in front. Mr. More caused the ground to be opened
in several places in the middle of this park, and in almost
every instance came to a level and artificially smoothed
floor of hard gravel, as though there had been a very
extensive interior court. Eemains of buildings had been
found within the park, at 10 in the plan, but were broken
up in forming the wall of the park, and the earth is stUl filled
with fragments. At 11, a well appeared to have once existed.
From the extent of this villa, (if it may be called a villa,
for it was large enough for a little town), we can hardly doubt
that it had some connection with the extensive lead mines in
the mountaiQS behind, perhaps it was the residence of some
one who had the command of them. The aqueduct, and the
evident care to secure a large supply of water, would seem
to shew that some of the operations of preparing the metal
may have been carried on here, and one or two pigs of lead,
inscribed with the name of the emperor Hadrian, have been
found in the country at a short distance to the west. One
of them, preserved by Mr. More at Linley Hall, is represented
Roman pig of lead preserved at Linley Hall.
in the accompanying cut ; another, found in the parish of
Snead, is now in the rich museum of Mr. Mayer, at Liverpool.
The hypocausts in the south-eastern corner, (2, x, 4,) evidently
belong to rooms which required at times to be warmed and
made comfortable ; but I suspect that the superior domestic
buildings lay in the ground not yet explored on the western
side of the park. To any one who has visited Linley Hall, it
is unnecessary to say that the situation of this Eoman villa
trjRICONIUM.
29
Was one of the most beautiful that can be imagined. Occu-
pying an elevated bank, backed by lofty mountains, it
commands in front an extensive view over the vales of
Bishop's Castle and Montgomery, bounded by a long circuit of
hUls, with the extensive intrenchments of the Bury Ditches
boldly prominent to the south. Close to it, on the eastern
side, runs a beautiful Httle mountain stream, the head of the
small river Oney, which joins the Teme at Bromfield, a short
distance above Ludlow.
A Eoman villa of smaller extent has been discovered far to
the eastward of this district, and near to the Watling Street,
or Roman road running from Uriconium to Bravinium and
Magna. Acton Scott, where stands the beautiful seat of Mrs.
30 URICONIUM.
Stackhouse Acton, is distant about three-quarters of a mile to
the east of the Watling Street, and lies on an old road leading
from the Watling Street at Marsh Brook, by way of Halston
and Ticklerton, to Wall, which latter place is close upon the
Eoman road already described as running by Eushbury to
Nordy Bank, and probably took its name from the remains
of some Roman building which once stood there. The position
of Acton Scott will be best understood by the map on the pre-
ceding page. Two alterations in this old road, where it passed
thi-ough the parish of Acton Scott, as I am informed by Mrs.
Acton, brought to light no traces of a paved way such as
would have proved at once its Roman origin, but one of
them, made in 1817, led to the discovery of a Eoman villa,
which bordered upon the road, and therefore affords very
strong evidence of its antiquity. This villa stood on a bank
which slopes towards the south-west down to a small stream.
The labourers first came upon a floor of concrete, marked A
in the annexed plan, inclosed by walls, Avhich were broken up
and used in making the new road. Other rooms and walls
were discovered in the course of the work, forming the plan
indicated by the dark lines iu the accompanying cut. Mrs.
Acton was fortunately made acquainted Avith the discovery in
time to examine and make accurate drawings of the remains,
or it also might have been allowed to pass unheeded.''' These
walls, as then explored, formed an oblong square of 112 feet
by 42, but it was probably only a portion of a larger building.
The character of the remains were not at this time suspected,
and even their exact site had become forgotten, when, in the
dry summer of 1844, the hollow lines where the foundations
had been removed were traced by the scantiness of the herbage,
and Mrs. Acton employed some labourers on a more careful
excavation. They came upon the floor which had been before
„r„l Pnl™/-''''/?*f'':l'^l ''.'=™™t °f tlie discoveries on this site, drawn up by Mrs. Acton,
ZntTinX A V ^Y ^""1^ °^ Antiquaries of London by the late Dean of Hereford, was
tlmnktbpr™,, ^.■■'^^fologia,™! X.XXI. from wliich entirely I take my account, and I have to
thank the Council of the Society for the loan of the wood-outs which iUustrated it.
UEICONIUM.
31
seen, (a). " It consisted of three layers of very hard con-
crete, varying slightly in composition, the lower one consisting
chiefly of lime, while the upper one contained pebbles and a
good deal of pounded brick. Upon this was laid a floor of very
thin flags; the dimensions were 13 feet by 10, and it was
nearly two feet in thickness. Several small apartments were
discovered shortly afterwards, containing piers formed of tiles
varying from a foot to seven inches in diameter ; in some
instances there was a base-tile of large dimensions. Only one
pier was found of the height of the stone walls (20 inches),
32
URICONIUM.
and that was formed of nine tiles. The larger piers were
made of tiles, many of which had been broken into fragments
before they had been placed in their present position f their
broken edges had been rudely fitted ; some were plain, others
had ribs at the edge, and others had patterns on them.
The floors on which the pOlars rested were formed of a thin
layer of fine-grained concrete." In the hjrpocausts and in
their flues, much soot and fragments of charred wood were
found ; and in various places were scattered the remains of
the painted stucco of the walls, and of various buUding
materials. " The fragments of decorative painting showed
that the ground had been of a white or very light colour ;
upon this panels appear to have been marked out by lines of
dingy purple and red ; the ornaments being round spots
arranged by fours and fives, pyramidically. On one fragment
was painted the head of a bird with a branch in the beak,
indicating that ornamental designs had been painted on some
of the panels." The roof of this viUa was probably formed
of tiles, as some of the flanged roofing tiles were met with,
of which a perfect specimen and a fragment are shewn in
the accompanying cut.
Many other tiles used
for diS'erent purposes
were also found scat-
tered about, and on
some of them "were
impressions of the
naUed caligse of the
soldiers, which must
have been made previ-
ously to the tiles having been baked ; and also of the feet
of a dog and other animals. A few fragments of black,
red, and light-brown pottery, together with bones and oyster
Roof-tiles from Villa at A cton Scott.
* This would seem to show that they had to be brought from a distance, and that it
would require time and e.xpence to replace the broken ones by new whole ones.
URICONIUM. 33
shells, were also discovered." In the largest room, that to the
east, a baluster-shaped pillar, 3 feet 1 inch in height, made of
sandstone grit, lay on the floor. At the outside of the western
wall of this place, near the southern corner of the room a,
appeared " some remains of a pavement formed of small
angular pebbles, covered with soot, but no tessellse or indi-
cations of any other sort of floor than those already described
could be discovered in any part of the building." In the
southern part of the two large rooms " there was a trench
four feet wide, and two feet deeper than the floor of the
hypocausts [which latter occupied the part marked in the
plan as not found in 1817.] The bottom was laid with large
pieces of half-bm'nt limestone, and, above, it was filled with
large pebbles to the level of the other floors. No fragments of
lime, or broken tiles, which abounded everywhere else, were
found in this trench ; only one bit of thick ground glass. It
was cleared out to the extent of eight yards, but its ter-
mination was not ascertained." This trench had perhaps
belonged to the ■villa in some earlier state, and been filled up
when alterations were made in its arrangements ; for in
excavating and thus dissecting the Eoman vdlas in our island,
we often discover great changes which have been made in
them at difli'erent periods by their proprietors, and not
unfrequently a ncAv floor laid over an old one. The most
curious discover}'-, however, made in this villa, was that of
six Greek coins, found in the soil, the latest of which was of
the early part of the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54.)'"' As
this was the first weU-authenticated instance of the discovery
of Greek coins in England, some suspicions were at the time
thrown on Mrs. Acton's statement, and it was suggested that
the coins might have been brought thither surreptitiously ;
but she urges that " the labourers employed had all worked for
* These coins, which are now deposited in the British Museum, were of Neapolis, struck
300-2.50 B.C. ; of Andi-os, struck 300-2.50 B.C. ; of Smyrna, struck 150-100 B.C. ; of EfQ^it, of
Antiochus VIII. and his mother Cleopatra, struck ahout 70 B.C.; of Smyi-na, struck during the
reign of Claudius ; and of Parium in Mysia, with inscriptions in Latin ; all in hrass,
D
34 URICONIUM.
me for more than twenty years ; they had nothing to gain by-
imposition, and from the long-established custom of bringing
all curiosities to me, I am sure, if one of them had possessed
such coins, I should have had them before. I have no
suspicion that they could have been placed where they were
found by any other person." I have since heard from Mrs.
Acton's own lips her confident belief that no trick could have
been played with these coins, and I myself fully believe it.
Greek inscriptions have been found in Britain, and why not
Greek coins ? They may perhaps be taken as evidence of the
early date at which the Eoman settlers in Britain began
to erect country villas ; some one of the first inhabitants of
that at Acton Scott, — perhaps the individual who erected it, at
a time when men remembered Caractacus, and the struggles
with the Silurians and the Ordovices, and the war of
Boadicea, — may have come from Greece and brought with
him " the coinage which was current in the eastern Archi-
pelago, and left these six coins in the earth as memorials to
his successors who Hved on the same lands after a lapse of
nearly nineteen centuries.
If we find traces of vOIas in our county at so early a period,
it can hardly be doubted that Sln'opsliire was thickly scattered
\^dth such buildings, although at present no more than the
three described above have been examined. There appears
to have been a Eoman villa on the road between Wroseter
(Uriconium) and Shrewsbury, near the river Tern. At the
close of the last century, sepulchral remains of an iirter-
esting character were discovered near Tern Bridge, which
belonged without doubt to a wealthy family, and had every
appearance of forming part of the private cemetery of a vUla ;
for generally each viUa had its family cemetery, sometimes
witliin the walls of the building, and we rarely meet with
such an interment as was found on this occasion apaxt from a
villa or Eoman settlement of some description. Some of the
tTRICONIUM. ;5 ,j
objects found are still preserved at Attingiiam.* Here and
there, perhaps, local names also indicate the recollections or
discoveries of the remains of Roman viUas in former times.
There is, I believe, no known locality in Sln'opshii-e bearing
the name of Cold Harbour, or Cold Arbour, (in the dialect
of the borders of Wales the h is often dropped,) which
almost invariably indicates the site of a Eoman building ;t
but Cound Arbour, near Berrington, is probably a cor-
ruption of the same name. The name of Cold-Stockina;,
attached to a place near Stokesay, close to the Watliug
Street, may have a similar meaning ; and there are other
places to the names of which cold is thus attached, all of
which appear to be ancient sites, as Cold Hill, near Shelve,
Cold Oak, Cold Hatton, near Welling-ton, Cold Green, Cold
Weston, near Ludlow, and Coldwell. The name of Yarchester
occurs near the village of Harley, on the road from Shrewsbury
to AVenlock, which most probably points out the site of a
considerable Roman villa, for this word chester often marks
the site of villas of some importance, as in the case of
Woodchester, in Gloucestershire ; and I am told that there
have been met with here traces of the remains underground
* The folio-wing account of this discovery is preserved in a manuscript of collections on
Shropshire Antiquities, now in the Library of the British Museum, MS. Addit. No. 21,011,
fol. 38, &c. " On Feb. 8th, 1798. Bet'^een Tern Bridge and the river Severn, at Attiugham, in
a ploughed field, a little more than a plough depth, they came to an enclosure of large stones,
within which were ranged three large glass urns of very elegant workmanship, one large
earthen urn, and two smaller ones of fine red earth. Each of the urns had one handle, and the
handles of the glass urns are elegantly ribbed. The glass urns were about 12 inches high, and
10 in diameter. The large earthen urn was so much broken, that its dimensions could not
be ascertained (it was probably an amphoraj ; but on its handle are stamped the letters SPAH.
The small urns were about 9 inches high. Within the glass urns were biu-nt bones and fine
mould, and in each a fine glass lachrymatoiy of the same material as the ums, which are a
most beautiful light green. Near one of them was part of a jaw-bone, an earthen lamp, and
a few Roman coins of the lower empire, of little value. The whole were covered with large flat
stones, covered with a quantity of coarse rock-stone."
«
+ I shall perhaps be excused for repeating here the explanation of this word, which I
have oflered in my " History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during the
Middle Ages," p. 76. " It seems not improbable, also, that the ruins of Koman villas and small
stations, which stood by the sides of roads, were often roughly repaired or modified, so as to
furnish a temporary shelter for travellers who carried provisions, &c. with them, and could,
therefore, lodge themselves without depending upon the assistance of others. A shelter of
this kind — from its consisting of bare walls, a mere shelter against the inclemency of the
storm — might be termed a ceald-liereherga (cold -harbour), and this would account for the great
number of places in difierent parts of England which bear this name, and which are almost
always on Roman sites and near old roads. The explanation is supported by the cii-cumstance
that the name is found among the Teutonic nations on the continent — the German haltera-
herberg, borne by some inns at tbe present day."
36 URICONIUM.
of very extensive buildings, and the surface earth of the
field in which they occur is thickly intermixed with fragments
of Koman bricks and pottery. Even the names of fields
are sometimes expressive. In some landed property at
Wentnor, recently advertised for sale, one of the fields of
which it is composed is called Parlour Furlong, given to
it perhaps from the discovery at some former period of old
walls, which may have been poptdarly supposed to have
surrounded a parlour. A careful examination of such local
names might lead to very interesting results. The presence,
also, of Roman bricks in churches furnishes evidence that an
edifice of some description had existed there in the time of
the Eomans. In the walls of Whitton Chapel, near Cayn-
ham, bricks are used wliich are apparently Roman, and
perhaps came from a villa in the neighbourhood ; and, though
the aljundant Roman materials in the walls of Atcham church
may have come from the ruins of Uriconium, they may with
equal probal)ility have been furnished by a villa which, as
already stated, appears to have existed at Atcham itself.
There are few counties more thickly strewed with the
sepulchral tumuli of their ancient inliabitants than Shropshire
and HerefordsViire, and, in many instances where the tumuli
themselves have disappeared, the evidence of their former
existence is preserved in the numerous names of places ter-
minating in loiv, the Anglo- Saxon name for what we now more
commonly term a harroiv* The subject of barrows is quite
as obscure as that of old intrenchments, partly tln'ough the
hasty and injudicious attempts of antiquaries to classify them.
Some have proposed to arrange them according to their
forms, others according to their positions, and almost all have
* The Anglo-Saxon word ldivii\ or lilai'\ signified primurily a low liill or hillock, but was
usually applied to the artificial hills, or mounds, raised over the remains of the dead ; it has in
the changes of the language taken the form Joi'^ and when it occurs in the composition of the
name of a place, usually at the end, it may always he taken as evidence that there was a
sepulchral mound there, whether it be still existing or not. Thus, Ludlow means the low, or
tumulus, at Lude, which appears from Mr. Eyton's researches to have been the name of the place
in Anglo-Saxon times independently of the mound, which, though it exists no longer, is under-
stood to have occupied part of the site of the present church. Our word han-owjor asepulchral
mound, is the Anglo-Saxon heaj'w, or bearo, which was used in the same sense.
URICONIUM. 37
yielded to a tendency to overrate their antiqiuty. We can
only be certain of the age to which a monument of this
description belongs, wlien, on <_>pening it, we can identify
that of the objects found within. This identification is easy in
the case of the tumuli of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, because it
was the custom of that people to inter a great number and
variety of objects with their dead ; and we can sometimes
identify Eoman tumuli in the same manner. But it is very
unsafe, in cases where we find few or no objects, or those of a
kind of which we do not know the age, to conclude from those
circumstances that they are of gTeater antiquity than those
which contain objects of known date. To any one who reflects,
it must be evident that the character and contents of a
tumulus depended much, if not altogether, on the circum-
stances of the locality and of the individual who was buried in
it. Men of wealth, especially in the neighbom-hood of con-
siderable towns, could purchase urns well made, which were
on sale for such purposes, while in remote or less populous
parts of the country, where such things were not always to be
purchased, they would be either rudely made for the occasion,
or would be dispensed with altogether, and they would also
be more frequently made of perishable materials. Thus, while
near a to'^\Ti, the ashes of the dead Avould be deposited in well-
made ru'ns, the work of skilful potters, such as those found
in the cemetery of Uriconium, and which would be easdy
recognised as Eoman, when an inhabitant of some distant
hamlet died, his friends ^vould probably make for him, wdth their
hands, a rude vessel of clay, and Ijake it in the sun or by some
other very imperfect process ; and similarly, while the friends
of the former might place in his grave some object of metal
and of elegant workmanship, the latter might be accompanied
only mth some rude implement formed of chipped flint or
iiibbed stone. My own impression is that there are not a very
great number of tumuli in Britain older than the Eoman period,
and the discovery of new facts is continually diminishing
38 ITEICONIUM.
the number of those which are reputed to be of so great
antiquity. Not many years have passed since the Anglo-
Saxon sepulchral remains were supposed to be ancient British,
and observations I have made myself in excavating barrows
belonging to a class still reputed to belong to the ages before
the Eoman invasion, have gone far towards convincing me
that they really belong to the period which intervened
between the withdrawal of the imperial government and the '
estabhshment of the Anglo-Saxons. Some antiquaries have
held that, because Roman barrows are not found in Italy,
the Eomans never raised tumuli over their dead. But this
argument is refuted by the fact that we do find in this
coiantiy sepulclu-al mounds which were imdoubtedly Roman.
I need only refer for an example to the weU-known Bartlow
Hdls, on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Essex. Moreover,
it involves a grave fallacy. Very few of the Romans in
Britain were Romans of Italy ; but they Avere a people
gathered from aU the countries of the world which came
xuider Roman influence, and, as we find from abundance of
monuments that each brought with him the religious belief
of his forefathers, there can hardly be a doubt that they also
persisted, as far as circumstances allowed, in some of the modes
of burial which were used in the countries they came from.
This itself is quite enough to account for the varieties in the
character of the barrow interments found in our country ; and
I shall not attempt, therefore, to decide whether any or what
barrows ou our border are British, or call any Roman, unless
some object found in them be evidently Roman in character.
The object all peoples had in erecting a mound over the
dead was of course to make the spot known, and their aim
was two-fold, first, to make it durable, and, secondly, to place
it in a position where it could be seen by many people, and
whence the spirit of the departed, which was supposed to
continue to haunt the grave, could also see many people and
much territory. People who had no towns, and therefore no
URICONniM. 39
roads of importance, like the Britons and all the German and
northern peoples, usually chose for their hurial places the tops
of mountains or hills, where these existed, or at all events the
highest and boldest elevation in the neighbourhood ; while the
Romans, who lived in towns, chose their burial places by the
sides of the public roads where travellers passed, and to these
the memorial inscriptions were sometimes addressed. In a
population so mixed as that of Roman Britain, many, espe-
cially of the rural population, would doubtless still prefer
the tops of the hills for this purpose, and the summit of
the Brown Clee Hdl as well as that of Titterstone, were
probably early cemeteries inclosed by walls of stones, merely
because earth was not here so easily procured. It would not
be diiEcult to point out other hiUs in Shropshire on which
barrows are found, and, as I have already observed, some of
the intrenched hill tops so common in this part of the country
probably served the same purpose. The tumuli found in the
lower lands are much more remarkable in their character, and
I beHeve usually stood by the side of the ancient roads.
There is one class of barrows which is almost pecuhar to our
border, and is generally found in a modern village, often
standing in the near neighbom'hood of the church."'" These
barrows are of large dimensions, and thej are often, perhaps I
may say generally, truncated, or, in other words, they have a
flat space of ground on the top. This cu'cumstance, and their
great dimensions, led many people to dispute the fact of their
being sepulchral, and to consider them as having served for
beacons or watch-towers, or for some other purposes connected
with the rude military system of ancient times. This C[ues-
tion, however, was set to rest when, in 1855, I undertook the
direction of excavations into one of these barrows which
* There can be no doubt tbat in times long subsequent to that of theu" erection,
these mounds were objects of superstitious reverence, and the people of the neighbourhood
probably assembled at them on certain festal occasions. The early missionaries who preached
to our Saxon forefathers found thus a congregation aheady assembled, and they took advantage
of this circumstance to erect their church there. This is no doubt the reason why we so
frequently find a church and a great tumulus standing side by side, or at least near one
another.
40
URICONITJM.
stands in the village of St. Weonards, in the south-west of
Herefordshii-e, on the property of P. R. Mynors, Esq. This
tumulus at St. Weonards is situated, as was that at Ludlow,
on 'an elevated knoll, commanding a magnificent and ex-
tensive view, and overlooking a Eoman road which ran from
Monmouth (beheved to be the Eoman Blestium) towards
Hereford, probably a direct road to the Eoman Magna
(Kenchester). Its position, and that of the cutting which was
made into it, will be best understood by the accompanying
diao-ram. The mound is about a hundred and thirty feet in
diameter, and twenty feet in height, with a circular platform
on the summit seventy-six feet in diameter. The cut on
the next page will give the best notion of its present
appearance, and of the manner in which we opened it.'"
A trench from eight to nine feet wide was cut from the south
eastern side towards the centre, and tliis cutting, which
was fourteen feet deep from the surface of the mound, Avas
continued to a little distance beyond the centre. The reason
I took this level was that some circumstances led me to
* I comniimicated an accomit of tliese excavations, and of Treago, the ancient
mansion of the Mjixors family, to the Archfeologia Canibrensis, in wliich it was published in
•Tvily, lafiS, and I have now to thank the Cambrian Archa-ological Association for the loan of
the engravings which illustrated it.
URICONIUM.
41
believe that, before the tumulus was raised, an artificial level
had been made for the interment, and this I found to be the
case. The direction and extent of this cutting, as well as the
position of the mound with regard to the village and the
church, will be best understood by the accompanying plan ;
and it may be remarked that in the view of the mound given
below, the church steeple is seen to the right. At about
fifteen feet from the centre of the mound, the workmen came
upon what appeared to be a small mound of stones, or cairn,
but which proved to be a small vaulted chamber, buUt of the
sandstone of the locahty, which breaks up easily into large
Sepulchral Tumulus at St. Weonards, Herefordshire.
flat pieces. Beyond this, we came to another similar but rather
larger vault, and on clearing them away, we found the first
empty, except of earth which had gradually dropped through
the interstices of the stones, but the second containing a mass
of much finer mould than that of the rest of the mound.
These rude vaults were cleared away, but at first we found no
traces within them of sepulchral interment, and yet we were
evidently on the level on which the mound was raised.
However, I directed the men to sink a pit on the spot which
had been covered by the principal vault of stones, and they
had not proceeded far, before they came to a mass of ashes.
42 URICONIUM.
mixed with pieces of charcoal and fragments of burnt human
bones, which was found to be about a foot and a half thick, and
was about nine or ten feet in diameter. A piece of the thigh
bone, part of the bone of the pelvis, and a fragment of the
shoulder blade, were picked up here ; and it appeared evident
that the whole of the ashes of the funeral pile had been placed
on the ground at this spot, and that a small mound of fine
earth had been raised over them, upon which had been built
a rude roof or vault of large rough stones. No traces of urns
or of any other manufactured article, were met with. When
a similar pit was sunk under the first mound of stones,
another interment of ashes was found, also mixed with human
bones half burnt. The sepulchral character of the mound was
thus satisfactorily proved. The cutting of the trench in the
way it was done, revealed in a very remarkable manner the
method in which it was erected, which will be explained by
the accompanying diagram, representing a section of the
Section of the Tumiilus at St. Weonard's.
mound in the direction of our cutting, which is shewn by the
shaded part. In this diagram, e and f represent the two pits
dug through the layers of ashes, (represented by the black
lines,) to a small depth below. On the surface of our cutting,
as here represented, were visible regular discolourations arising
from the employment of different kinds of material. The
mass of the mound consisted of a uniform light-coloured sand;
but from the point i, a narrow arched stripe of a much darker
mould occurred, as represented in the cut. Beyond this, two
or three other bands, but thinner, of a lighter-coloured soil,
and therefore less strongly marked, followed each other, until
at g, we came upon a narrow band of small stones, also
represented in the cut ; and at li, near the summit of the
TJEICONIUM. 43
mound, there was another bed of similar stones. It is evident
that, in the interment, a level surface Avas first formed, in the
middle of which two holes were made for the reception of the
ashes of the funeral pile, that these were covered with earth
and vaiilted over with stones, that a circtdar embankment was
next formed round the whole, and from this embankment the
workmen filled up the interior inwards towards the centre.
When they began filling in, they appear to have met with
some darker mould, which has formed the band at i, and this
dark band probably defined very nearly the outline of the
first embankment. The lighter shaded bands show the suc-
cessive fillings in towards the centre, until at length the
workmen made use of a quantity of stones and rubble, taken
perhaps from the quarry which furnished the large stones of
the internal vaults. This bed of stones forms a kind of basin
in the middle of the mound. They then went on filling
again with the sand, tiU the work was nearly finished, when
they returned to the stony material again, which appears at
Ti. They finally smoothed the top, and formed the platform
h h. It may be added, that the circle of the mound was not
quite perfect, as the diameter through our cutting sHghtly
exceeded in length the transverse diameter. The only piece
of pottery which was found in the mound appeared to be
Eoman.
A tumulus, in Shropshire, closely resembhng that at St.
Weonards, has been accidentally cut partly away, so as to
admit of its examination. It is situated in the villaee of
Fitz, about five miles to the north-east of Shrewsbury, on the
ground of E. Middleton, Esq., and one side of it was taken
away in order to enlarge the farm- yard, to wliich it was
adjoining, and not far from the church. On a visit to Fitz,
in 1860, with my friend Mx. Henry T. Wace, of Shrewsbury,
I was informed by Mr. Middleton that towards the middle
some ashes and burnt bones were found, although the centre
had not been reached. When I saw it, the surface of the
44 UEICONIUM.
cutting was sufficiently fresh to exhibit the shades of different
coloured earth used in the filling in, which showed that the
mound had been constructed in exactly the same manner as
that at St. Weonards, namely, that a circular embankment
had first been made, and that the mound had been filled in
from the circumference of the circle, and not, as the common
notion of building sepulchral mounds supposes, filled out
from the centre. This tumulus was a hundred feet in
diameter at the base, and forty-eight at the top, and about
eleven feet high. It stands on an eminence commanding a
fine view of the surrounding county.'''
Another large barrow, a few yards to the north-east of the
church at Clungunford, was opened some years ago by the
incumbent, the Eev. John Eocke, whose account of the results
is given by his friend, Mr. Hartshorne, in the Salopia Antiqua,t
whom I can only follow in describing it. Tliis tumulus was
about fifteen feet high, and a hundred and three feet in diameter
at the base, and forty-nine at the top. " Mr. Rocke made an
incision into the Isarrow from the north, by cutting a passage
five feet five inches mde, which he carried on six feet beyond
the centre in a southern direction. At the distance of eight feet
from the edge, he came upon a solid mass of ashes, in which were
found numerous pieces of rude unbaked pottery. This cinereal
stratum was one inch and a half in thickness at its commence-
ment, and kept gradually increasing as it got nearer the centre,
when it became four inches thick. Four feet from the edge
of the ashes, or twelve from the extremity of the barrow, a
stratum of deep grey-coloured mud began, of that kind thrown
* I have since received from Mr. MidcUeton tlie following account of tlie appearances
wliich presented themselves in the process of cutting away the side of this tumulus : " About
fifteen years ago, whUe cutting it evenly through to the base to enlarge the yard in which it
stands, at about eight feet from the centre, we came upon a curious pile of pebblestones, placed
much as bricks are in an arch, in which form they were erected, and under them (so far as mj
memory serves me) a little space, and then a quantity of fine gravel or sand, and under that a
large quantity of ashes containing burnt bones. This fortunately happened to be just m the
face of the perpendicular we were cutting, or it would not have been seen, and I have little
doubt but that another similar was found about the same distance from the centre in anothei
place, but as what appeared to be the top of it was broken in with pickaxes, we found it hard to
decide, as large quantities of ashes were dispersed more or less ui layers all over it near the
base or primitive soil."
t Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, p. 102.
UKICONIUM. 45
out of fisli-ponds ; it took an undulating form, and at the
centre of the tumuhis was as much as eight feet in thickness.
It was highly charged with a light-coloured matter, lesembHng
mushroom spawn, which after a few miaautes exposure to the
air assumed a pale Prussian-blue colour. It contained animal
matter, pieces of charcoal, of unburnt wood, pieces of bone,
and fragments of unburnt pottery ; the handle of one piece
had the impression of a man's thumb on the under side. Below
this stratum was another of a similar kind, varying, howe^'er,
in some degree, inasmuch as it was of a deeper colour, and
appeared more highly charged with animal matter. Besides
containing bones of oxen and large pieces of charcoal, there
were in this deposit boar's tusks, and two pieces of iron resem-
bling a horse-shoe nail ; one long and thin Uke an awl, the
other like a 'frost-nail.'" The state of mud here described
probably arose from some peculiarity of the ground, and other
particulars bear a resemblance, if we keep in mind the differ-
ence of locality, to a large Roman barrow at Snodland, in
Kent, which I assisted in opening in 1844.'''" The iron nails
were no doubt used in attaching together the wooden frame on
which the body was laid for burning, and preclude the suppo-
sition of this barrow being older than the Eoman period. It
is, in fact, nearly adjacent to the southern branch of the
Wathng Street. " At the distance of twenty feet six inches
from the outside of the barrow, Mr. Eocke came upon a heap
of stones, which was three feet nine inches Avide, and one foot
eight inches high ; underneath it lay the dark mass of charcoal
before mentioned. At this point the richer mud was one foot
in thickness ; midway betwixt this part and the centre it
increased to one foot four inches Towards the
centre there appeared to be two strata of ashes ; the lower
one was four inches thick, the upper one three inches thick,
having nine inches of clay betwixt them. Tliis seemed to
have been sunk on the eastern side, as the ashes rose up
* See my WaiideriDgfi of an Antiquarj'. p. 1H3.
46 URICONIUM.
towards the west. The richest part of the mud was toward;
the centre of the mound ; it was there of a deeper cast, anc
fuller of the prussiate of iron, and here it was two feet thicl
above the coal hearth, and about two feet six inches below it
Outside the heap of stones, just where the cinereal stratun
commenced, was found a great quantity of vegetable matter
which seemed to be rushes. Having carried on his investi
gations thus far, Mr. Eocke reached the centre of the tumulus
and thinking that he mie'lit still have missed some interment
he continued the excavation five feet further, and two feel
lower. He still found the same kind of mud, but in a more
liquid state, and falling into a basin as it were, in the centre
of which was a plum-pudding stone of a peculiar shape, one
foot high and eighteen inches long, and fifty pounds weight
that had formerly been supported by a piece of cleft oak
which was lying flat underneath it."
A certain number of these sejDulchral mounds are marked
in the maps of the ordnance survey, but many more, althougl
of considerable magnitude, have escaped the observation o1
the surveyors. Many have been AvhoUy or partly cleared
away, and no memorial of what was found in them preserved :
but in general they seem to have been very unproductive oi
objects of interest, and indeed excavations into these large
barrows on our border have only satisfied us of the fact thai
they were erected for sepulchral purposes, and that the bodies
of the dead had been in all cases burnt before interment.
According to the old monkish record of the clearing away oj
the tumulus at Ludlow, at the end of the twelfth century
the bodies of its tenants had been buried entire ; but as these
monks wanted relics of samts, we cannot trust much to theii
statements, as far as regards this question. I believe no othei
instance occurs of the remains of bodies which had beer
interred without burning in any of the tunmli on the borders
of Wales. In 1823 an opening was made into a large
tumulus at Stapleton, five miles to the south of Shrewsbury
TJRICONIUM. 47
but nothing more was discovered than a sepulchral wen of
baked clay. A large tumulus stands close to the church of
Little Ness, about seven miles north-west of Shrewsbury.
]\Ir. Pidgeon informs me that some years ago he " delved at its
side, and found quantities of animal bones and burnt wood."
There was another large conical mound at Cressage, eight miles
to the south-east of Shrewsbiu'y, contiguous to a ford through
the Severn ; but early in the year 1861 it was partly removed
in the formation of the line of the Severn Valley Eailway,
and no information has been preserved of any discoveries
made in digging into it. A large tumulus at the corner of
cross roads at Eaton, in the parish of Lydbury North, was
partly cut away a few years ago, for purposes of utility, and
a number of urns and burnt bones were found, which were
preserved by the late Eev. John Eogers, of the Home.
I examined both the mound and the urns, in company with
Mr. More, of Linley Hall, and believe them to have been of
the Eoman period
I have ahready stated that the tumuli of the Eoman period
were usually placed along the lines of their roads, often, no
doubt, attached to villas which were buUt in similar positions.
The tumuli at Fitz and Little Ness, as Avell as another at
Wilcot, near the Neschff, stood near the road from Uriconium
through Eutunium to Mediolanium. A tumulus at Yockleton
adjoined the Eoman road leading from Shrewsbury westward
through Stony Stretton ; while one at Woolaston, as well as
that at Eaton, and another at Hardwick near Eaton, stood
near a probable road leading from Shrewsbury in the direction
of Bishop's Castle. That at Cressage stood upon a road, which
there can be Httle doubt was Eoman, running perhaps from
Eutunium, on the southern side of the river, to Wenlock,
and onward to Bridgnorth. That at Stapleton stood perhaps
on a road running from Uriconium, or branching from
the Watling Street across the country towards Bishop's Castle,
or perhaps on a branch of the road running from the site
48 URICONIUM.
of Shrewsbury southward, to join the Watling Street, on
the hne of which, but nearer Shrewsbury, is also found the
boldly intrenched area called the Burghs, which I have
omitted to mention in the list of early so-called "camps,"
and the tumuli at Smethcote and Woolstaston may perhaps
have bordered the same road. Tumuli are found at various
places along the line of the southern Watling Street, as
at Clungunford, at Broadward, several in the neighbourhood
of Leintwardine, and others further south. Two fine tumuli
at the village of Aston, between three and four miles to
the south-west of Ludlow, probably stood by the side of a
cross road, and in the vicinity of a Roman villa. There
are tumuli at Rushbury, and at Holgate, in Corve Dale,
on the line of road already mentioned as running by the
former place and Nordy Bank ; and the tumuli of smaller
dimensions on the Old Field near Ludlow, that which
formerly existed at Ludlow itself, and that still remaining
at Tenbury, stood in all probability near a line of Roman
road running in the direction they indicate. A branch of
this road seems to have ran more directly south. Mr. J. T.
Irvine, who had the direction of the very important restora-
tions of the church of St. Lawrence, at Ludlow, and who,
with a very great intelligence of these ancient remains, visited
attentively the country for a considerable distance round that
town, has called my attention to a Roman road which comes
from Herefordshire by Portcullis, Preston Wynn, Lower Hol-
back, Bowley Lane, Blackwardine, (in the parish of Humber,)
Stretford, Pattys Cross, Stockton, (in the parish of Kimbolton,)
and Ashton, and thence indistinctly towards Broderts Bridge,
near Wooferton, and suggests that the Ypocessa, or Epocessa
of the anonymous geographer of Ravenna, may have been on
this line. In fact, Blackwardine appears by the great quan-
tities of Roman remains found there, to have been some rather
important Roman station. A little wide of this road,
which perhaps came straight from Gloucester, are Sutton
URICONIUM. 49
Walls, the palace of king OfFa, and close upon it are the fine
intrenchments of Risbury Camp, near Humbcr, the camp
near Upper Bach, in Kimbolton parish, a " camp " within
a mile, at Ashton, and a large tumulus called the CJastle
Tump, a little farther north. On the eastern side of the
county the tumuH seem to be scattered much more irregularly,
though they may stiU. have been near cross-roads, which appear
to have been numerous in this part of the county, and the
positions of which were no doubt connected with the works
of the mining districts, and perhaps with villas of men who
were more or less employed in the direction or command of
the mining operations. There are several tumuli in Linley
Park, no doubt the burial places of some of the rahabitants of
the extensive vdla already described.
We must not overlook the knportant monuments of the
Roman period just alluded to, — the remains of their mining
operations. These were carried on actively and extensively
on the western side of Shropshire especially, where the
Romans obtained large quantities of lead and apparently a
considerable supply of copper, with some other metals in
smaller quantities. The locality which in this district
furnished the greatest supply of lead was the Stiperstones
range, Vith the lesser mountains depending on it, especially
Shelve Hill, on the property of Mr. More of Linley Hall.
Pliny, who died in the year 79, informs us that lead, which
he calls nigrum plumbum, to distinguish it from plumbum
album (or tin), was found in Britain so plentifully on the
surface of the ground, or, as he expresses it, on the eaii:h's
outside skin, that it was found convenient to make a law
which limited the quantity to be extracted.'"' The great
Roman naturalist does not tell us in what part of Britain this
, occurred, but it is in the highest degree probable that he
alludes to the district just mentioned, for the remains of the
Roman workings on the Shelve HUl, which are of a very
* See Pliny, as already quoted on p. 7 of the present volume.
50 UEIGONIUM.
remarkable character, agree exactly with Pliny's stateme
that the metal was found on the siu-face of the groui
Along this hill the lead ore, which runs almost in horizon'
veins across it nearly from east to west, came out up
the surfiice of the rock. In this condition it must ha
1ieen found by the Eomans, and their miners began to wc
apparently from the bottom of the hill, following the v(
into the rock as far as they could trace it. The remai
of their labours are visible along the whole surface of the h
and resemble somewhat a series of irregular cuttings alon^
large cheese ; but the most remarkable of these occur at
s^iot near the northern end of the hill, where, at its foot,
mine called the Roman Gravel Mine is now in operatic
We may here trace distinctly and on a large scale the mam
in wliich the Roman miners followed the veins of ore. Wh(
it did not a] ipear to run deep, they soon gave up the labc
of breaking the rock till they came to another, but, leavi
only a shallow cutting, followed the vein along the surfa
while in some places the cutting is at the same time ve
narrow and very deep. In one instance it sinks to a dej
of, I believe, forty yards, yet barely mde enough for one m
to work in. In other places the vein of ore had been m(
massive, and in following it the Roman miners had lioUoA^
in the rock cavern-like chambers, from which galleries wi
carried in different dii'ections. These are now, or at le;
the entrances to them, blocked up with rubbish. In one
the largest of these caverns, near the brow of the hUl, the vi
has been followed downward by a shaft of great depth ; in
present state a stone is heard rolling down for several secon
It is not easily examined on account of its position in a di
corner, and from the dangers of slipping into it ; but havi
been carried up to the surface of the rock above, no doubt
facilitate the raising of weights up and letting them down
appears that it was a rectangular shaft of small dimensic
From discoveries made in this island of pits for varii
URICONIUM.
51
purposes, it appears tliat the Romans were in the habit of
sinking to very considerable depths shafts so narrow that in
some instances they could hardly be excavated by a single
man. At Richborough, in Kent (the Roman Rutupise), cir-
cular pits were found in making the cutting for the railway
from Sandwich to Minster, which were from tAventy to thirty
feet in depth, and hardly more than two feet in diameter. By
the remains described above, we should not know how deep the
Roman miners in Shelve Hill went, but the modern miners of
the Roman Gravel Lline have met with the Roman shafts and
galleries at a very considerable depth, while the excavations of
former, though stiU recent, miners on the same spot have
shown that the Romans, in following the veins from the
surface, missed very large masses of metal.''"' The antiquity
of these mines has Ijeen proved not only by pigs of lead
bearing the stamp of Roman emperors, but by Roman coins
and pottery found from time to time among the Roman
rubbish. Early mining implements also have been found,
and especially a cmious description of spade, of which Mr.
More possesses tlu'ee samples, which are all represented in the
the accompanying cut.
They are formed of
laminae of oak timber,
roughly split and cut
into the shape she^vn
in these figures, ^ttdth
a very short stumpy
handle, and a hole,
generally square, the Roman Mining spades, presorred at Llnley HaU.
side of which nearest the handle was cut sloping from it.
This hole was evidently intended to receive a short staff,
which might be used as a lever in giving force to the move-
ment of the hand ; and the implement itself was no doulrt
* Immediately under one part of the ancient workings, aliout 16 years ago, one " pipt '
of ore produced two thousand tons in eleven months at a depth of eighty yards.
52 UPaCONIXJM.
designed for yliovelling away the broken stones containing i
lead (»-e in narrow passages where there was not space :
giving much movement to the human body. The dimensic
of the spade or shovel in the middle of these three spad
which are all drawn to the same scale, is sixteen inches lo
by eight and a half in greatest l^readth. Our only authori
foT stating these spades to be Roman is, of course, the fact
their having been found in the rubbish of these Roman mine
l^ut it must be stated also that in other parts of our isla:
similar spades, aird of the same materials, have been a]
found in the remains of mines which are undoubtedly Romf
They furnish a remarkable proof of the great durability
sound oak timljer.
No traces of the places for washing and smelting the oi
obtained by the Romans from these mines have yet be
met with, l)ut that these processes were carried on in t
neighljourhood of the mines is proved liy the discoveiy alrea(
alluded to, of Roman pigs of lead foimd ■ndthin no gre
distance. In addition to the two examples I have alreai
mentioned, there is one in the British Museum, found in t
last century at Snailbeach at the northern end of the Stip(
stones. All three bear the mark of the emperor Hadrif
This name, and the allusions in Pliny, shew at what an eai
period of the Roman settlement in this country the mir
of the Stiperstones district were woiked.'"'
Westward of the Stiperstones mountains, and throughc
the county of Montgomery, lead and copper are found
abundance, and we trace ever}T\"here the presence of t
Roman miners. But we will not on this occasion wane
from our own county. To the east of the Stiperstones cop]
is found, but not now in such Cjuantity as will pay for t
labour of mining, as far as it has been discovered. I s
* The lead mines, — or, at least, a lead miiie, — at Shelve, were worked again by
Normans, and a considerahle quantity of lead was obtained thence during the latter liaU of
twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, as appears from documents quoted by Mr. Eyton, m
excellent Antiquities of SlirnpsJure, Tol. xi. p. 110. It is probable that the want 'of lead
roofms the numerous monastic houses erected during the former period led to the renew!
mining operations hi this district.
URICONIUM. 53
informed by my friend Mr. More, that the little stream wliich
enters his park under Radley Hill, and which is marked in the
Ordnance Survey Map as the Black Brook, running south-
wardly at the eastern foot of the Stiperstones, divides the lead
district from the copper. The hill in Linley Park, opposite
Radley Hill, certainly contains copper ; and there are traces
of copper over the whole district between Minsterley and the
Stiperstones on the one side, and the Longmynd on the other.
Copper has also been found, though in no great quantities, in
Lythe Hill, facing the entrance to the valley of Church
Stretton. Hence the copper district turns northwardly. To
the north of Shrewsbury we meet a flat country with a broken
line of eminences, the latter represented by Grinshill and the
Hawkstone hills, which all contain copper. My friend Mr.
Samuel Wood, of Shrewsbury, informs me that there are
traces of mines which had been worked by the Romans at the
Clive, near Grinshill, and he is of opinion that the well-knoAvn
grotto in Hawkstone Park, with its dark passage of eighty
yards, was certainly formed by the Romans in working for
copper ore.
From this spot the traces of Roman mining operations
disappear until we arrive at the hiU of Llanymynech, on the
north-western borders of our county. Llanymynech Hill is
a mountain of limestone of considerable extent arising from
the plain at some distance in advance of the edge of the
mountain district of Denbighshire. Between the strata of
lime occurs a very tenacious smooth clay, with orange-coloured
ochre and green plumose carbonate of cojaper. The latter
attracted the attention of the Roman miners, and remains of
their extensive works are found on the north-west side of the
lull. These consist of shallow pits, the debris from the
excavations of which are full of small pieces of copper ore.
In the neighbourhood of these pits we find traces of vitrifi-
cation, which seem to show that the Romans here smelted
their copper on open hearths. They had also penetrated deep
54
ITRIC'ONIUM.
into the mountain, and there is a rather celebrated cavern
considerable dimensions, known popularly by the Welsh ns
of Ogo (a cave), from which irregular winding passages rur
different directions, and connected wdth these the remain!
air-shafts have been found. Though at the beginning tj
are not easy of access, the Roman workings in the iuterioi
Llanymynech Hill have been explored more than once.
the latter half of the last century they were entered by min
in search of copper, who found a certain number of Ron
coins, some mining implements, and, it is stated, culin
utensils, and several human skeletons and scattered bones
one of the skeletons having a bracelet on the left arm, ani
" battle-axe " by his side.'* Some of the mining impleme:
foimd here were deposited with other antiquities in :
Library of Shrewsbury School, but they appear to be
longer preserved. My friend, the Rev. C. H. Hartshor
however, who was educated at Shrewsbury School, me
dramngs of them before they were lost, and by his kindn
I am enabled to give a figure of one of them in the acco
panying cut. It is a rather heavy pick, eight
inches and a half long, by about two in diameter
at its thickest end, and appears to have been
used for breaking and extracting rock, or perhaps
for crushing the ore. At a rather later period, a
gentleman well-known in the literary history
of Shropshire, J. F. M. Dovaston, explored the
Roman workings as completely as it could be
done, taking the precaution of carrying a piece
of chalk with him to mark his way. He found
some of the passages, which were extremely sinu-
ous, extending as far as two hundred yards, '^°°^'
sometimes so small that it was necessary even to creep throu
them, while they were usually from a yard to three yai
* Sec Pennant's Turns hi Wales, vol. iii. p. 218, etUtion of 1810; ami Nicliols
tambnan rravcltcr's Ci'vtrh', under tlie word Llan y Mynacli.
XJRICONIUM. 55
wide, and at times, where the ore had been found in larger quan-
tities, became developed into broad and lofty chambers. These
passages had all been cut through the solid rock, and in many
places the marks of the chisel were distinctly visible.* " Long
passages," as we are told in the account of this exploration,
" frequently terminate in small holes about the size to admit a
man's arm, as if the metal ran in strings, and had been picked
out quite clean, with hammers and long chisels, as far as they
could reach." The roofs of these caverns were covered with
pendant stalactites, which glittered brilliantly in the light of
the torches. It is further stated that so many human bones
were found scattered about, that it was conjectured that these
caves had become, in the troubled times which followed the
overthrow of the Eoman empire in the west, a place of refuge
in moments of danger, and that the fugitives had perished
there. Eoman antiquities of various descriptions, and espe-
cially coins, are stiU often found on Llanymynech Hdl, and
Mr. Pidgeon, of Shrewsbury, possesses about twenty copper
coins obtained here, ranging from the earher emperors to a
tolerably late period of the imperial sway in Britain. The
metal taken from the Llanymynech HUl was no doubt prin-
cipally copper ; but the Eomans also obtained some lead and
calamine. It stdl produces lead and copper, though I believe
in no great abundance.t
As far as we can discover, the Eomans seem not to have
been aware of the existence of iron in Shropshire ; but there
can be no doubt that they had discovered and worked the
Shropshire coal-field. In the course of the following pages we
shall meet with repeated evidence of the use of mineral coal
by the inhabitants of Uriconium. It appears, however, to
have been generally the coal of inferior quahty which they
* This is the case also at present in a part of the Eoman cuttings on Shelve HiU,
where the rock which formerly covered it has recently fallen in, and left some of the internal
surface exposed to view which was formerly concealed.
+ See, for further information on this subject, my paper on the " Roman Mining
Operations on the Borders of Wales," in the " Intellectual Observer," vol. i, p. 295, from which
the foregoing remai'ks on the Eoman Mines are chiefly repeated.
56 URICONIUM.
found near the surface, and wliicli is still called surface cc
Even within a century back, people in some parts of the Wi
Riding of Yorkshire were accustomed to supply themseh
with mineral coal by digging ia their fields.
It wUl be remarked, in perusing the foregoing sketch of f
existing remains and traces of the population of ShrojDsh:
under the Romans, that they are found most plentifully
the centre of the county, and in the western and southe
parts. It is very probable that the north eastern part of t
county was then covered with the forests from which t
inhabitants of Uriconium procured the boars and other wi
animals, the remains of wliich are found so plentifully in t
course of our excavations. But western Slu'opshire, and i
the country south of the Watling Street, including Herefoi
shire as far as the iron districts of the forest of Dea
Avere no doubt in the time of the Romans well inhabit-
and richly productive.
The shght glances at the history of the province of Brita
which we obtain from the existing Roman writers, throw i
light on the events which may have occurred on our bord(
We can only conjecture that when, in the latter end of t
fourth century and the earlier part of the fifth, the ties whii
held the island province to imperial Rome were loosened, ai
the Roman population of our island began to intrigue and reb
and set up emperors for themselves, our border must have he
an important place in the political events of Britain from ti
circumstance that two of the three legions stationed in ti
island had their head quarters at its northern and southe:
extremities, at Deva (Chester,) and Isca Silurum (Caerleoi
At the time of the compilation of the important official wo:
called the Notitia Utriusque Imperii, believed to have be(
alwut the year 410, both the legions had been withdrawn fro
this part of the island, the twentieth, from Deva, having passi
over to the continent, and the second, from Isca, lieing station(
fit Rutupige (Richliorough, in Kent), ready to follow it. T
URICONIUM.
57
districts on the Welsh border were probably attractive by
their richness, as they were exposed by their position, to the
barbarous marauders who now began to attack the province
from every side. The mouth of the Dee and the coasts of
Fhntshire lay open on the north to the terrible Picts and
Scots, while no doubt invaders equally destructive, periiaps
Irish (only another name for Scots) and Bretons from the
coast of Gaul, with any other tribes who would join them,
following the rivers and the roads, could overrun and ravage
the whole of the border, almost with impunity. It was no long
time after the compilation of the Notitia, when the towns of
Britaiu were finally released from the imperial supremacy by
the letters of Honorius recommending them to provide for
their own defence. It was at some period after this event, as
I shall endeavour to shew in the next chapter, that the city
of Uriconium perished, and our border appears at that time to
have been inundated by a deluge of barbarians which left the
whole country a waste. All the Roman towns appear to
have been taken and destroyed, including Isca itself, Venta,
Blestium, Axiconium, Magna, Bravinium, our Uriconium, and
the other towns to the east and north-west of it, and none of
them are heard of afterwards except in fable and romance.
Deva seems alone to have been strong enough to resist the
invaders, for it continued to exist as an important city under
the Anglo-Saxons ; and this circumstance renders it probable
that this final devastation of this part of the Roman province
came from the south. Amid blackened ruins of towns and
vUlas, all that remained here of the civilization of the
Romans was their roads, their hill intrenchments, and
their tumuli, with a population scattered and terrified, and
fearfully reduced in numbers.
We might here conclude our notice of Roman Shropsliire,
but I am unwilluig to leave one of the classes of remains just
mentioned without some account of its subsequent history,
because it presents a curious illustration of the state of the
58 UEICONIUM.
country during the ages which followed the close of the Eoman
period. The Saxons were, as I have remarked already, no
road-makers, and the Roman roads remained the only works
of the kind in our island for a great length of time, — in. fact
they are the foundation of most of our principal lines of road
at the present day. Hence, most of the great roads in other
parts of the island were adopted and kept up by the Anglo-
Saxon settlers. But in Shropshire, where the country had
probably become very thinly inhabited, and where all the old
commerce and traffic had perished, the Eoman roads remained
useless and neglected untU the period when Shrewsbury rose
into existence, and became a place of importance. The roads
to the west of Shrewsbury, which led into the mining districts,
now that the latter were abandoned, appear to have been so
generally lost, that e-ven the continuation of the Watling
Street in that dii-ection can no longer be traced with certaiuty.
But we can trace to the eastward not only the Wathng Street
itself, but the different variations from it which have been
made at different periods by local or other causes.
Shrewsbury, as has been before stated, stands on the Wathng
Street, and appears to have arisen on the site of some small
Roman station. When Uriconium was destroyed, and its
ruius too vast to be cleared away for the foundation of a town
among a small population, Shrewsbury was decidedly the best
site on the river for a settlement. We might suppose that the
inhabitants of Shrewsbury would have adopted the Wathng
Street as their road eastward, but this appears not to have
been the case, and it was perhaps the ruins of Uriconium,
which must have blocked it up, and probably also the
insecurity of this road from causes not now known to us,
which led them to abandon it. They chose for their route
towards the south-eastern parts of the island, a road no doubt
also Roman, which passed by Wenlock to Bridgnorth. The
foundation of the abbey of Wenlock by the Saxon prince
Merewald, in the latter half of the seventh century, may
UEICONIUM. 59
probably be taken as a proof that at that period this was the
road in general use. Bridgnorth was e^ddently from an early
period a very important position. The Anglo-Saxons called it
simply Bricg, the bridge, because the Severn was there passed
by a bridge, which the pecuharity of the site rendered the
position weU calculated for defending. The epithet North
was given to it no doubt because, after the destruction of the
Eoman bridge at Uriconium, it was the last bridge up the
river. It became thus the place for passing the Severn in the
way to Shrewsbury and North Wales, — it was the key to that
road. It was this circumstance which caused Ethelfleda, in
912, to erect the first known fortress of Bridgnorth, as a
barrier to the uiroads of the Danes, who took this way into
Shropshire. After the Conquest, Bridgnorth continued to be
considered as the eastern outpost of ShrewslDury and the
earldom of Salop, and great importance was given to its
castle by the Norman earLs. In 1202, king John marched
to Shrewsbury by way of Bridgnorth, and in 1220, and,
ia 1223 and 1224, he went to and from Shrewsbury l)y
the same route. The way from Bridgnorth to London
then passed through Kidderminster and Worcester. This
appears to have been the regular high road from London to
Shrewsbury during the middle ages.
At some period of the middle ages, however, the old
Watling Street road was resumed by making a deviation from
that road a httle to the north so as to avoid the ruins of
Uriconium. In the time of queen EHzabeth, people seemed
to have usually travelled to Shrewsbury by the Watling Street
road. Every reader will remember how Shakespeare, in the
first part of King Henry IV., leads Falstafi" m the route of the
king's troops by this way. Falstafi" complains of his soldiers
having stolen a shirt " from my host at St. Alban's, or the
red-nose innkeeper of Daintry ;" and at the beginning of the
scene, which is laid in " a pubhc road near Coventry," he is
introduced saying, " Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry ;
60 UEICONIUM,
fill me a bottle of sack ; our soldiers shall march through ;
we'll to Sutton Coldfield to-night." Sutton Cloldfield is
situated at a short distance from the Watling Street on
the Iwrders of Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Birmingham
was now rising into importance, and caused a deviation to
be made from this road, for in the list of roads in Piers'
Almanack for 1640, the road from Shrewsbury to London is
given as running through Watling Street, Sheffnal, Bonigall,
Wolverhampton, Bremicham (Birmingham), Meriden, Co-
ventrie, &c. For some reason, however, some few years
afterwards, when the traffic on the main roads began to be
more regular, the part of this road between Birmingham and
Shrewsbury was abandoned for the old road by way of
Bridgnorth ; and John Ogilby, who first published plans
of the principal roads made from an actual survey of
them aU in 1674, delineates the road from London to
Shrewsbury as leaving the Watling Street, or Holyhead Road,
at Weedon, and as passing through Birmingham and Dudley
to Bridgnorth, and thence by way of Wenlock, Harley,
Cressage, and C*ound, to Shrewsbury. This continued to be
the road to Shrewsl^ury when the revised and diminished
edition of Ogilby's road -maps was pu1:ilished by Emanuel
Bowen, in the year 1731, about which time it was finally
abandoned, and the permanent service of coaches was estab-
lished on the road indicated in the Almanack of 1640, which
has continued to be the regular coach road to London down
to the present time. A note engraved in one corner of
the map in the edition of Bowen's Ogilby just alluded to,"''
informs us rather quaintly that since the survey was made, a
better way " had been found," as though people had been
• This note is so quaiut, tliat I give it here yerhatim. "Advertisement. Since the
Survey of this Road by our Author, that part of it from Bii-mingham to Shrewsbui^, passing
through Dudley, Bridgnorth, Wenlock, ifcc, as describ'd in ye Plan in this Page, is now wholly
dissused or laid aside ; a much better Way having since been found both in respect of goodness
and shortness : an Account of wliich we have rec'd from a Gentleman who is well acquainted
therewith, viz., as soon as you pass Birmingham, the New Eoad breaks off on the Left acutely
and passes thro' AV. Bii-mingham, Wolverhampton, Boxnigal, Cosford, Shiifnal, Priors Lee,
Oken-yate, WatUng Street, Fen [Tei-n] Bridge, Alcham (Atcham), Eustry, and so to Shrews-
bniy."
URIOONIITM. 61
searching their way through a wilderness, and that the ohi
road was then totally disused. It is probable that the reasons
for abandoning the Watling Street beyond Meriden, were,
first, the dangers to which it was exposed from highwaymen
and others in the wild wooded countr}- of Sutton, CViunock,
and other chases, and, secondly, the increasing manufacturing
and commercial importance of Birmingham.'"' It is probable
also that the road from Birmingham by way of Shiffnal had
become a very bad one, for in the Itinerar}^ of Cook's County
Directory for Shropshire, published early in the present cen-
tury, the road in different places, as at Bromwich Heath,
Bilston, Tettenhall, and Boninghal, that is, between where it
left the Wathng Street and the place where it rejoined it,
remarks are made relating to then recent improvements of
the road wliich woidd lead us to suppose that it had pre-
viously been in a deplorable condition. It may be remarked
also, that the foho edition of Ogilby, printed in 1698, contains
* The same reasons, no dou"bt, cansed the old Holylicad road to be graduiillj aban-
doned. I have received some remarks on tliis subject from a friend at Walsall. Mr. W. H.
Duignan, ivith whom I visited the part of the road in his own neighbourhood, some two years
ago, and who has explored pei*sonally the whole line of the Watling Street with gi'eat care,
and I may add, great antiquarian knowledge, which are so much to the purpose, and so inte-
resting, that I shall take the liberty of inserting them here. — " The ancient way fi'om London
to Shrewsbury, Chester, and all parts of North Wales, was via Bamet, Towcester, d'c, Coven-
try, Stone Bndge, Castle Bromwich, Ivetsey Bank, Weston, (here the road goes to the right, to
Chester, &c.) It is the Watling Sti'eet up to Weedon, there it leaves it, and joins it again at
the Rising Sun on Cannock Chase, and travels on it again close up to Shrewsbury. We crossed
this road just above where I pointed out to you a withered old oak, and on our return I shewed
you the Welsh Harp, and the Swan near it, just before we wallved up that gravelly hill. The
Four Crosses is a very ancient half timbered hostelry, eight miles north of the Welsh Harp.
In my opinion the whole road was used by the Eomans, as there are tumuli and camps all along
it. It was formerly th-e great coach and post road, but became forsaken about 70 or BO years
ago, as it is said by tradition and history, on account of its being so infested by liighwaj-men,
who found shelter on the great wastes of Sutton Coldfield and Cannock Chase. In some of my
old papers I have accounts of the apprehension of great highwaymen, almost of Dick Turpiu
celebrity, on this road ; but I am disposed to think that the groTsing irapoi-tance of Birming-
ham attracted the Shrewsbury traffic, which then passed on through Dudley and Bridgnorth,
and the Chester traffic was also diverted via Coleshill, Lichfield, Stone, &c. In one of hif*
joumies to London, Pennant goes from Whitchurch, in Shropshire, to the Welsh Harp in one
day, and thinks it a prodigious journey. The cattle and packhorse traffic used to go for at all
events a gi'eat deal of it, between Korth Wales and London) through KenUworth, Oifchurch,
Lentham, Cubbington, &c., where it is called the Welsh road, and the Welshman's road, and
the Welshmen travel it to this day, with one or two divergencies, to avoid modem toll gates,
and they have told me they can drive their cattle fi*om Carnarvonshire to London without
paying a gate. The inns on th e old Chester road were frequent, and enormously large, (the
Welsh Harp contains eight finely panneled rooms,) and it is melancholy to see. even at this
distance of time, the dilapidated old coach-houses, and the acres of stabling; and about most
of them you may still find some wheezy old postboy or helper, who clings about the old place,
and who is but too happy to tell about its former bustle and grandeur. There is a very aced
lady who stiQ posts up from London into Wales, and returns once every year ; she changes
horses at the Four Crosses, and ujatil about six years ago, (this was written in 18G1), an old
Lish nobleman posted up the same way to Holyhead." It is to be hoped that Mr. Duignan
will give the result of his interesting researches to the pnblio.
62 URIGONIUM.
the statement that, " as the stage coaches to Chester miss
Lichfield and pass through Newport and Whitchurch in
Shropshire, so on the otlier hand horsemen will sometimes
ride by Northampton, and carts keep the Watling Street."
And again Ogilby, spealiing of the Watling Street, explains
how, in one instance, it became abandoned, informirig us that
" this way having passed Dowbridge, where it leaves Northamp-
tonshire, is first interrupted by the river Swift. The bridge
over which this road was heretofore continued, they call
Bransford Bridge. It was a long time broken down, and
that occasioned this famous way [the Watling Street] to be
for many years little frequented, but now it is repaired at the
charge of the public." Several attempts were made in the
latter half of the last century to establish a service of stage
coaches along the stUl older road by way of Bridgnorth,
through Worcester and Oxford, to London.
Another principal Roman road in Shropshire, the southern
Watling Street, has also undergone its variations, though on
the whole less considerable. As it started from Uriconium,
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers were obliged to take a road from
Shrewsbury, which also was perhaps a Eoman road, (for under
the Eomans this part of Slu'opshire seems to have been
traversed hj a multitude of roads in every direction,) which
joined the Watling Street at the entrance of the Stretton
valley, and thence the WatHng Street appears to have been
the high road until it approached Hereford, where the road
separated from it, and went to this latter place, where there
was an important ford over the river Wye, instead of
continuing with the Roman road to the ruins of Magna, or
Kenchester. The importance of this road is proved by the
fact that upon it the west Saxon king Edward, the son and
successor of Alfred, built in 921 the fortress of Wigmore, as a
check upon the incursions of the Danes upon the border,
which was the same route — that is, the great Roman road,—
taken 1)y the Imrbarians who had ravaged the Roman province
TTRICONITJM. 63
for this was looked upon as the key to Shropshire from the
south ; and that at a much earlier period the ]\Iercian king
Merewald had established his palace at Kingsland, wliich
was close to it. There appears also to have been a branch
fr'om the Watling Street running near Ludlow, and in the
direction of Hereford, on which Llerewald established the
nunnery of Leominster, and near which king Offa had his
palace, in which the east Saxon king Ethelbert was murdered,
and the intrenchments of which are now called Sutton "Walls.
At some period, probably about the time of the Norman
Conquest, when the border was more subject to the incursions
of the "Welsh ia some parts, travellers seem to have found the
road between the country south of the Stretton valley and
"Wigmore no longer safe, and they left it near Onibur}", and,
turning more towards England, went by way of Bromfield,
and on the opposite side of the river Teme from Ludlow, and
so passing over the hill and through the wood by way of
MaryknoU, joining the "Watling Street again at "\Yigmore. From
the tumuli which border this route, it also was probably a road in
the Eoman period. To it no doubt we owe the importance of
Wigmore Castle during the Norman period, and it was to
command it, where it passed near the river Teme, that a stUl
more important castle in subsequent history, that of Ludlow,
was built towards the end of the eleventh centmy, probably
by the great fanuly of the Lacies. This road also was soon
abandoned for the other road just mentioned, which was the
road taken by Giraldus Cambrensis, when, in the year 1188,
on his return from Wales with Archbishop Baldwin, he tells
us that leaving Wenlock he "passed by the little cell of
Brumfield, the noble castle of Ludlow, through Leominster, to
Hereford." People had thus been aljandoning the main Une of
the Eoman road to adopt successively cUiferent branch or secon-
dary roads. Giraldus, on quitting Shrewsbury, had gone out
of his way to visit the monastic estabUshment of Wenlock, and
thence seems to have returned across to the WatHng Street, to
64 UEICONIUM.
follow it down the Stretton valley. At that time the roa
from Shrewsbury- to Wenlock was in a very bad conditioi
and was called by some name which Giraldus translates iat
Latin by {mala platea), and which may again be translate
into English by the evil-street. " From Shrewsbury," he sayi
" we continued our journey towards Wenlock by a narrow an
rugged way called EvU-street (mala platea,) where, in on
time, a Jew travelling with the archdeacon of the plac«
whose name was Sin, and the dean, whose name was Devi
towards Shrewsbury, hearing the archdeacon say that hi
archdeaconry began at a place called Evil-street, and extender
as far as Malpas, (Mains passus) towards Chester, jokingl;
told them, it would be a miracle if his fate brought hir
safe out of a country, the archdeacon of which was sin, th
dean the devil, the entrance to the archdeaconry evil streei
and its exit liad pass."* The road described last has con
tinned to Ije the coach road from Shrewsbury to Herefon
until the present day.
Giraldus Cainbrensis, Itinerar. Cnnibr, lib. ii. cap. i.
m
CHAPTER II.
THE CITY OF URICONIUM ITS HISTORY, WALLS, AND INTERNAL
ARRANGEMENT.
The statements of the writers of antiquity, who speak of
our island, would lead us to disbelieve that the Britons, before
the arrival of the Romans, possessed anything resembling what
we call a town, or that Roman towns were founded upon
previously existing British towns. Uriconium probably came
into existence at the time when Ostorius Scapula was building
towns and fortresses to establish the Roman power on our
border. It is first mentioned in the Geography of Ptolemy,
beheved to have been compiled about the year 120, who
enumerated it, under the name of Viroconium, as one of the
two towns in the district of the Cornavii, Deva, the station
of the twentieth legion, being the other, and gives as its
longitude 16° 45\ and as its latitude 55° 45\ according to his
mode of reckoning. Very few relics have been found which,
even by the imagination, can be carried back to this remote
period of Uriconian history.* The name does not again occur
during two hundred years. The Itinerary of Antoninus, believed
to have been compiled about the year 320, mentions this town
* Among a quantity of silver coins found on the site of Uriconium, and now in the
possession of Mr. W. H. Oatley, of Wroxeter, are a Celtish (apparently Gaulish) and a Komau
consular coin. The former is of the same type as some gold coins found in Kent, and repre-
sented in Mr. Eoach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, vol. i. pi. vii. figs. 1 to 6. The other coin
is one of the most common consular denarii, which were no doubt in circulation during a long
period ; and this also was doubtless the case with these Celtic coins, which appear to belong
to the earliest period of the Roman domination. A bronze dagger, or two-edged Imife, similar
to those which are found in the barrows of Wiltshire, and of other districts, which are generally
supposed to be British, but which probably belong to the early Eoman period, is said to have
been found at Wroxeter. Of this I shall speak more fully in a subsequent chapter.
F
66 URICONIUM.
twice, and gives us the means of identifying its site with
certainty. It appears first in the second iter in Britain,
beginning from the borders of Scotland, and passing by way
of Deva, (Chester,) Bovium, Mediolanum, Eutunium, our city
which is here called Uroconium, Uxacona, and other towns,
the sites of which are mostly well known, and so to London,
and to Eichborough. It is the Hne of the great and well-
known Watling Street. In the second iter in which it occurs,
and in which it is called Viroconium, as in Ptolemy, it is the
termination of a road which comes from Isca (Caerleon), by
way of Gobannium (Abergavenny,) Magna (Kenchester,)
and Bravinium ; or in other words, it was the place at which
this road joined the Watling Street. Now there can be no
doubt that the road just mentioned is the one which, called
also along the border the Watling Street, proceeds northward,
until it joins the other road at Wroxeter, and thus deter-
mines, without leaving room for question, the remains which
are found at Wroxeter to be the ruins of Uriconium.
These are the only instances in which the name of Urico-
nium is mentioned in writers contemporary with its existence.
In that curious work, the comj^ilation of the anonymous geogra-
pher of Eavenna, which is ascribed to the seventh centmy,
but the author of which had no doubt an ancient map before
his eyes, our city apjDcars among a confused list of names of
towns, under that of Utriconion Cornoninormn, an evident
error for Uriconion Coruoviorum. In another Itinerary, but
one in the authenticity of which I fear we can place no trust,
that given in the work De Situ Britannice published under
the name of Eichard of Cirencester, this town occurs first on
the Watling Street, under the name of Virioconium, and sub-
sequently at the point of junction of the other Watling
Street, under the name of Urioconio, just as in the Itinerary
of Antoninus, from whom the author of this work may have
copied. But Eichard does more than this, for in an earlier part
of the book our city is stated, under the name of Uriconium, to
■URICONIUM. G7
have been "the mother of the other towns" of the district of
the Carnabii, and to have been considered one of the largest
cities in Britain.t
Thus the name of our ancient town occurs during four
hundred years under two different forms, Uriconium and
Viroconium, and as the difference may have arisen entirely
from the errors of the scribes to whom we owe the existing
manuscripts in Avhich they occur, it would be difficult to
decide which is correct. Possibly Viroconium may have been
the earlier form, and it may have been gradually changed
into Uriconium, and as the latter has been most commonly
used by antiquaries, I shall adopt it in the present volume.
The derivation of the names of the spot, both ancient and
modern, has also been a stibject of discussion. It is my own
belief that the names of the Roman towns in Britain were
given to them by the colonists, and that, except where they
take their names from the rivers on which they stood, they
were, as is the case in America and in the British and other
colonies in all parts of the world, of foreign origin. Yet,
as the far-famed Wrekia stands within five miles to the east-
ward of Uriconium, and presents itself as the most conspicuous
object in the neighbourhood, the town may have received its
name from the mountain, if the latter name be as old as the
British period. The modern, or Saxon, name of the place,
Wroxeter, has been supposed to be a mere corruption of
the ancient name, representing literally the Latin words,
Uriconii castrum ; but, as I shall state a little further on,
considerations connected with the history of the locality, lead
me to think it perhaps more probable that the modern name
is derived directly from that of the Wrekin.
The time at which Uriconium was destroyed, the manner in
which it perished, and the people who destroyed it, have
also been in turn subjects of dispute. The last of these
+ Et reliquarum mater Uriconium, quse inter Britanniae civitatcs maximas nomen posai-
iebat.—Bicardi Cicestremis ik situ Britimniie, p. Sg."), in the volume of HiHtorical Documents
published by Dr. Giles.
6S
URICONIUM.
questions cannot, with our present amount of knowledge, be
answered witli any certainty. Our excavations have proved
beyond a doubt that the town was taken by force, that a
frightful massacre of the inhabitants followed, and that it was
then plundered and burnt. Eemains of men, women, and
cliildren, are found everyivhere scattered among the ruins,
and the traces of burning are not only met with in all parts
of them, but the whole of the soil witliin the walls of the
ancient city is blackened by it to such a degree as to present
a very marked contrast to the lighter colovTr of the earth
outside. Discoveries made during the excavations seem to
clear up satisfactorily the more important question as to
the period at which Uriconium was destroyed. Early in the
course of the excavations the skeleton of an old man was
found in one of the hypocausts of the Baths, and close to him
lay a heap of coins, which had been contained in a small
Avooden casket, and which the man had evidently carried
with him when lie fled from the massacrers. These coins, aU
copper but one, and in number a hundred and thirty-two,
Ijelonged to the following emperors :
TETEICUS
.. 1
CLAUDIUS GOTHICDS ...
.. 1
CONSTANTINE THE GEEAT
.. 13
CONSTANS
.. 1
CONSTANTINE II.
.. 36
CONSTANTIUS n.
.. 5
JULIAN
.. 1
HELENA
.. 2
THEODORA ..
.. 1
URBS ROMA . .
.. 24
CONSTANTINOPOLIS ..
.. 34
VALENS
1
MINIMI
.. 6
DECOMPOSED
.. 6
Total number . .
.. 132
All this was, of course, money in circulation in Uriconium
at the time it was destroyed. On a subsequent occasion,
another small heap of thirty-eight coins was found at the
UKICONIUM.
69
entrance of Avhat appeared to be the shop of a worker in
metal, or perhaps of enamel, where they had evidently been
dropped by a citizen in his eagerness to escape. They had
been placed in a small vessel of earthenware, the fragments
of which were scattered around. These coins were —
CARACALLA, (a SUvev Denaiius)
1
SEVEEUS ALEXANDER, (a Plated Denarius) .
1
MAXIMDS, (Second Brass)
1
GALLIENUS ..
.. 2
SALONINA, (Copper, washed nitli SUvcr)
.. 1
POSTUMtIS
1
VICTOEINUS ..
.. 8
TETEICUS
.. 3
CLAUDIUS GOTHICUS . .
.. 2
CAKAUSIUS ..
1
THE CONSTANTINE FAMILY
.. 12
VALENTIN IAN
1
GKATIAN (A.D. 375 to 383)
.. 1
A Misnius ..
.. 1
DECOMPOSED
.. 2
Total number .
.. 38
From these lists it wiJl be seen that the mass of the money in
use in the city of Uriconium at the time of its destruction
consisted of the coinage of the emperors of the Constantine
family, and, as most of it appears to have been very fresh
from the mint, it cannot have been long in circulation. It
has been supposed that the dies of this coinage were kept in
Gaul, and that c[uantities of it continued to be imported into
Britain down to the time of the withdrawal of the imperial
government, for they are found in abundance in aU parts
of our island formerly occupied by the Eomans. A more
interesting class of coins are those to which, from their
generally ditninutive size, numismatists have given the
•name of minimi, and which were evidently in circulation,
though not perhaps in large quantities, in Uriconium. They
are very rude imitations of the Eoman coinage of the Con-
stantine family, and, as they do not resemble the Anglo-
Saxon coinage which soon followed that of the Romans and
at first consisted also of imitations of the coins of the family
70 URICONIUM.
of Constaiitine, they are believed to have been struck by the
towns soon after the withdrawal of the Eoman government, to
supply the want of a small coinage. They are found in the
Roman towns in the south of Britain, under circumstances
which leave no room to doubt that they are rightly placed
between the coins of the Eomans and those of the Saxons, and
therefore they cannot have ranged over any long period of
time ;'" and we are justified in concluding, from this and
other circumstances, that the city of Uriconium was destroyed
at some period between the withdrawal of the Eoman govern-
ment from the island and the commencement of the Anglo-
Saxon period, that is, probably between about the year 420
and the middle of the fifth century. It may be added that,
with the exception of these minimi, no object has yet been
found among the ruins of Uriconium which is not perfectly
Eoman in character.
Other opinions have, however, been held on the date of the
destruction of Uriconium, and one of these is supported
upon what appears at first sight to be very direct evidence.
According to the Welsh annals, there lived in the sixth
century a prince of Powys named Cynddylan, whose supposed
brother-in-law,t Llywarch Hen, one of the princes of Cumbria,
was, according to the Welsh authorities, one of their bardic
poets. Driven from his home in Cumbi^ia by the conquests
of the Angles, Llywarch is said to have taken shelter at the
coiu't of his brother-in-law, and among the pretended relics of
this early bard, there is an Elegy on Cynddylan ascribed to him.
According to this Elegy, the Saxons invaded Shropshii'e in the
time of Cynddylan, who had his residence at Shrewsbury,
and that prince was slain with his brothers in defending
Uriconium against the invaders, who defeated the Britons,
• I sliall have to return to the subject of these mmMrei in a future chapter, in speaking
of the coins found at Wroxeter.
+ I (luote fiom Mr. .Joseph Morris's paper on Llywarch Hen, printed in the Arch^ologia
Camhrensis for 1859, for it was he who first pointed out the real events intended to be described
in this Elegy, namely, the destruction of Uriconium. I have also used William Owen's edition
of the poems of Llywarch Hen.
URICONIUM. 71
took the town, and burnt it. He calls Cynddylan " the pro-
tector of Tren," the name the bard gives to Uriconium, and
laments that " Cynddylan has been slain, as well as
Cynvraith (one of his brothers), in defending Tren, a town
laid waste. — Great is my woe, that I survive their death !"
Lias CjTiddylan, lias Cj'nvreith,
Yn amwyn Tren, trev ddifaith. —
Gwae vi vawr araws eu Uaith !
" Henceforth," he adds, " Tren shall be called the flaming town."
Ehy gelwir Tren trev lletlirid.
Uriconium, according to this bard, was remarkable for its ale,
for he speaks of the Uberahty of Cynddylan in giving " the
ale of Tren " (cwnvv Tren.) All this, and much more in the
poem itself, appears so circumstantial, that if it were written
by a Llywarch Hen, who lived at the time and was present
at the events he relates, we must necessarily accept it as
historical truth ; but, unfortunately, whoever composed it
has been too eager to enter into particular detads, and his
blunders have thus betrayed the forgery. I will not dwell
upon the fact that the whole Elegy is written in a form of
verse which was only introduced by the Normans in the
twelfth century, but let us proceed at once to the detads of
the story. The Elegy tells us that Cynddylan, thus slain
in defending his territory, was buried at Baschurch. — "The
churches of Bassa afi"ord space to-night to the offspring of
C3riidrwyn ; the gravehouse of fair Cynddylan."
Eglwysau Bassa ynt wng heno,
I etioedd Cyndrwyn ;
Mablan Cynddylan wyn.
Now, as Mr. Eyton has already observed,''' Bassa is an Anglo-
Saxon name, and Bassa's church was an Anglo-Saxon foun-
dation, and, as Christianity was only established in Mercia in
the year 655,t this church could not have existed within
• Antiquities of ghropsliire, vol. x. p. 130.
+ See the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under this year.
72 UEIC'ONIUM.
a hundred years after the period at which Llywarch Heir is
su]-)posed to have written. Again, the Imrd speaks of
Withino-ton as the scene of one encounter with the Saxons,
and calls it " the Avhite town in the cultivated plain," —
Y drev wen }'n y tymmys,
and " the white town between the Tern and the Roden."
Y drev wen rhwng Tren a Trodwj'dd.
Here we have again a purely Anglo-Saxon name, which could
not therefore have existed in this locality in the time of
Llywarch Hen, and there is moreover a blunder in the interpre-
tation of it. The name has no relation Avhatever to ivliite, for
Withington simply means in Anglo-Saxon the tun, or residence,
of the family of the Withingas or Wittingas, and the blimder of
our poet could not have been made untU after the middle of the
twelfth century, when the Anglo-Saxon language began to be
broken up, and the rage for ingenious derivations began to come
in. The writer of this Elegy further tells us that, " the sod of
Ercall is on the ashes of fierce men, of the progeny of Morial."
TyA^^argen Eroal ar ar dywal
Wyr, o edwel Morial.
This is also an Anglo-Saxon name, and the bard seems not to
have been aware that the modern name Ercal was only a
coriixption of the original name of Ercalewe, or Arcalewe,
meaning of course Erca's-low, and this name is constantly
found from the time of the Domesday Survey to near the end
of the fourteenth century, before which period the corrupted
form of the word could hardly have been used. A Aviiter
of the age ascribed to Llywarch Hen, could not have known
the name at all, and if he had written at any time after
the name existed, and before the fourteenth century, he
would have known it better. The elegy-writer had a hostile
feeling towards another people, beside the Saxons — in com-
memorating the pride and courage of one of his heroes,
Garanmael, he says —
Ki cafai Franc lane o'i bon,
UBIOONIUM. 73
■which William Owen, who edited Llywarch Hen's poems,
translates, " From his mouth the Frank would not get the
word of peace." Owen was puzzled with tliis passage, and
sought to get over it liy supposing, rather innocently, that
a body of Franks had come over with the Saxons to help to
destroy Uriconium ; luit there can ha very little doubt that
the Franks here spoken of were the Frenchmen or Anglo-
Normans, and that the enemies whom the minstrel would
deprive of peace were simply the Norman lords marchers.
I go on to a still stronger proof of the ignorance of
the writer. Had Uriconium been in existence at the time
when Llywarch Hen flourished, it would no doubt have been
well known by its proper name, but the writer of the Elegy
was entirely ignorant of its name, and perhaps because we
cross the Tern and not the Severn in going to it from
Shrewsbury, he seems to have thought that it stood upon the
banks of the former, and he called it Tern, or Tren, after the
smaller stream, from which it is distant more than half-a-mile,
not aware that it really stood on the banks of the much larger
and more important river Severn. In fact it is evident that this
Elegy was composed by some Welsh minstrel, who knew some-
thing of the country as it appeared in the fourteenth or fifteenth
century, and of the names by which the places were then
called, and who was aware that on the other side of the river
Tern from Shrewsbury there existed the remains of a great
city, which, according to the tradition, had been captured by
enemies and burnt, but knew nothing more about it. The
rest he probably invented, and Ms authority on the question of
the date at Avhich the to'WTi was destroyed, or on the manner
in which that catastroj^he was brought about, is therefore
worthless.
We are informed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that, in the
year 584, the West-Saxon kings Ceawlin and Cutha "fought
against the Britons at the place which is named Fethanleag,
and Cutha was there slain ; and Ceawlin took many towns.
74 OEICONIUM.
and countless booty ; and wrathful he thence returned to his
own." An antiquary, who identifies Fethanleag with Faddi-
ley in Cheshire, has suggested that it was on this expedition
that the West-Saxons advanced into Shropshire, and attacked
and destroyed Uriconium. But this is a mere hasty conjecture,
improbable, unsupported by any evidence, and contrary even
to the spirit of the account given by the Chronicle itself,
from which it is clear that the taking of the towns was the
consequence of and followed the battle, and had the Saxons in
their way to Fethanleag destroyed a vast town like Uriconium
it is hardly likely that the chronicler, who remembered so
Avell the name of an obscure place like Fethanleag, should have
forgotten so great an exploit as the destruction of Uriconiiim.
Another suggestion on this subject deserves to be mentioned,
because it involves some curious notices relating to the early
history of this part of Shropshire. A charter has been
preserved, by which Burhred, king of Mercia, in the year
855, made a grant of lands to Alhun bishop of Worcester,
and his monks,^^ and it is stated at the end that this
charter was made " in the place wliich is called Oswaldes-
dun, when the pagans {i. e. the Danes) were in Wreocen-
setun," (or, more correctly, Wreocensetum.)t It has been
suggested that Wreocensetum meant Wroxeter, and that the
old town might even at that late date have been inhabited.
This suggestion, however, is founded on a misinterpretation of
the word. The Anglo-Saxon word scBtas ■wa.s applied to the
inhabitants not of a town, but of a country or district. Thus
dun-scetas was the Avord for dwellers in the mountains —
mountaineers, and den-scetas for dwellers in valleys ; Dorn-
scetas were the people of the district of Dorn, now called
Dorset ; and so Sumur-scetas, were the inhabitants of the
country of Sumur, now called Somerset. Just in the same
• Alliuno et ejus lamilise in Uueogema civitate.
t Gesta est autem hujus libertatis donatum anno dominicEe incamationis DCCC LV
mdictione Ilia, m loco qui vocatur Osuualdesdun, quando fuerant pagani in Uureocensetunl
The document is printed m Kemble s Codex Diplomaticus, vol. ii. p. 58.
URICONIUM. 75
manner, the Wreocen-scetas were the population of the district
of the Wrekin, and the meaning of the words of the charter
are that, at the time it was made, the Danes had got possession
of the country round the Wrekin, and were no doubt plunder-
ing it, while king Burhred and what remained with him of the
Mercian army occupied Oswaldesdun, one of the old names of
Oswestry. The Wreocen-seetas, or, as they are there called,
the Wrocen-sEetas, are mentioned in another Anglo-Saxon
charter, of a somewhat later date, and there they are plainly
stated to be the inhabitants of a province. King Edgar, in
the year 963, granted to his minister Wulfric, " six manses
in the province of the Wrocen-saetas, in two places which are
called Plesc and Eastun.'* Plesc is no doubt Plaish, or Plash,
a township in the parish of Cardington, so that the district of
the Wrekin- seetas must have extended to a very considerable
distance from the hill ; and this is an interesting circumstance,
because it shows not only the celebrity of the Wrekin at this
early period, but it, as well as the whole tenor of the statement
in the older charter, seems to prove that Shrewsbury was not
yet a place of any importance. It would appear indeed that,
for some reason or other which we cannot now explain,
the Wrekin had from the earliest period been considered by
the Anglo-Saxons so remarkable a mountain, that the people
of the greater part of Shropshire were known by their prox-
imity to it as the Wrekin-seetas, and probably, but for the
vast power and importance of the Norman earldom of
Shrewsbury, our county would now have been called Wrekin-
setshire instead of Shropshire. This explains also the peculiar
force of our native patriotic toast to " all friends round the
Wrekin," meaning all Shropshire people, derived continuously
perhaps from the reverence paid to the mountain in the
remote ages of Anglo-Saxon England. And I am inclined
also to think that it explains the modern name of the ancient
city of which I am trying to write the history. When the
* vi. mansas in provincia Wrocensetna in duobus locis quse sic vocitantur Plesc et Eastun.
Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, vol. vi. p. 60.
76 URICONIUM.
Anglo-Saxons came into this district, it can hardly have been
remembered that the mass of uninhabited ruins was once
called Uriconium ; but if the Wrekin gave its name to the
country and its inhabitants, we can easUy understand that a
vast ruined Eoman site like this, recognised at once as the
castrum, or Chester, of the district, would become kno\vn as
the Chester of the district of the Wreocon-seatas, the Wreocon-
ceaster, or Wroxeter. To return, however, to the Saxon
charter last mentioned, it may be added that there is an Aston
in Munslow parish, some six miles to the south of Plaish,
which may possibly be the Eastun of the charter; and there
is another place of the same name under the Wrekin, but the
description of the boundaries would lead us to believe that
the two places were near together.
We thus see that there is no evidence whatever to contradict
that which we derive from the discoveries made in excavating
in relation to the date of the destruction of Uriconium, and
that it is therefore not at aU. probable that the Roman town
was destroyed by the Anglo-Saxons. It is my belief that the
first Angle or Saxon who entered tliis district after the Eoman
period found the site of Uriconium covered with a mere mass
of mouldering ruins, over which herbage and brushwood were
abeady beginning to spread themselves, and it remained in this
condition until long after the Norman period. At a time when
the country was so thinly inhabited as Shropshire must have
been in Anglo-Saxon times, people had little inducement to
attempt to clear away old ruins, and there were circumstances
in the superstitions of our forefathers which assisted in pro-
tecting them. They believed that ancient ruins, especially when
extensive, were taken possession of by powerful evil spirits,
on whose limits it was in the highest degree dangerous to
trespass ; and this was perhaps one cause why the Watling
Street, which ran through the ruins of the town, was abandoned.
No person would have ventured along it after dusk, even if the
road had been turned so as to pass near the town, though
URICONIUM. 77
outside. The ruined sites thus became gradually the subject
of strange legends, and a very wild legend has been acci-
dentally preserved connected with the ruins of Uriconium. A
Norman minstrel of the thirteenth century, who composed in
verse the history of the Fitz-Warines, and who was well
acquainted with Shropshire localities, though he was just as
ignorant of the history of Uriconium or its name as the com-
poser of the Elegy on the death of Cynddylan, has introduced,
in his narrative, the legend to which I allude. With regard to
the origin of this legend, it may be remarked that it must have
been formed after the period when the British story, as told by
Geoffrey of Monmouth, had become popular, and therefore
hardly before the end of the twelfth century ; it may have
been partly made up by the poet himself, but it is sufficiently
curious, in regard to the ruins of the ancient city, to induce me
to give it in a literal translation of the words of the original.*
William the Conqueror, according to our minstrel, marched to the
Welsh border to take possession of the land, and distribute it
among his followers. "When king William approached the hills
and valleys of Wales, he saw a very large town, formerly
inclosed with high walls, which was all burnt and ruined ; and
in a plain below the town he caused his tents to be raised, and
there he said he would remain that night. [The place which
the poet had in view may be supposed to have been the vale
of the Severn, on the opposite side of the river from
Wroxeter.] Then the king inquired of a Briton what was
the name of the town, and how it came to be so ruined.
' Sir,' said the Briton, ' I will tell you. The castle was
formerly called Castle Bran ; but now it is called the Old
March. Formerly there came into this country Brutus, a
very valiant knight, and Corineus, from whom Cornwall has
still its name, and many others derived from the lineage
of Troy ; and none inhabited this country except very foul
• The History of Fulk Fitz-Warine, an outlawed Baron in the reign of king Jolin, edited
by Thomas Wright, p. 5. When I edited this book I thought that the site of this legend might
be Old Oswestry, but I have since become con\'inced that it must belong to Wroxeter. It was
after passing the ancient city, that Wiliiam, according to the story, marched towards Oswestrj'.
78 TOICONIUM.
people, great giants, whose king was called Geomagog. These
heard of the arrival of Brutus, and set out to encounter him ;
and at last all the giants were killed, except Geomagog,
who was marvellously great. Corineus the valiant said that
he would willingly wrestle with Geomagog, to try Geomagog's
strength. The giant at the first onset embraced Corineus so
tightly that he broke three of his ribs. Corineus became
angry, and struck Geomagog with his foot, that he fell from a
great rock into the sea ; and Geomagog was drowned. And
a spirit of the devil now entered the body of Geomagog, and
came into these parts, and held possession of the country long,
that never Briton dared to inhabit it. And long after, king
Bran, the son of Donwal, caused the city to be rebuilt, repaired
the walls, and strengthened the great fosses ; and he made
Burgh and Great March ; and the devil came by night, and
took away everything that was therein ; since which time
nobody has ever inhabited there.' The king marvelled much
at this story ; and Payn Peverel, the proud and courageous
knight, the king's cousin, heard it all, and declared that that
night he would assay the marvel. Payn Peverel armed him-
self very richly, and took his shield shining with gold -with a
cross of azure indented, and fifteen knights, and other atten-
dants ; and went into the highest palace, and took up his
lodgings there. And when it was night, the weather became
so foul, black, dark, and such a tempest of lightning and thun-
der, that all those that were there became so terrified that they
could not for fear move foot or hand, but lay on the ground
like dead men. The proud Payn was very much frightened,
but he put his trust in God, whose sign of the cross he carried
with him, and saw that he should have no help but from God.
He lay upon the ground, and with good devotion prayed God
and his mother Mary that they would defend him that night
from the power of the devil. Hardly had he finished his
prayer, when the fiend came in the semblance of Geomagog ;
and he carried a great club in his hand, and from his mouth
URICONTUM. 79
cast fire and smoke with which the whole town was illumi-
nated. Payn had good trust in God, and signed himself with
the cross, and boldly attacked the fiend. The fiend raised his
club, and would have struck Payn, but he avoided the blow.
The devil, by virtue of the cross, was all struck with fear and
lost his strength ; for he could not approach the cross. Payn
pursued him, till he struck him with his sword that he began
to cry out, and fell flat on the ground, and yielded himself
vanquished. 'Knight/ said he, 'You have conquered me,
not by your own strength, but by virtue of the cross which
you carry. ' ' Tell me,' said Payn, ' you foul creature, who you
are, and w^hat you do in this town, I conjure thee in the name
of God and of the holy cross.' The fiend began to relate, from
word to word, as the Briton had said before, and told that,
when Geomagog was dead, he immediately rendered his soul
to Beelzebub their prince ; and he entered the body of Geoma-
gog, and came in his semblance into these parts, to keep the
great treasure which Geomagog had collected and put in a
house he had made underground in that town. Payn demanded
of him what kind of creature he was ; and he said that he
was formerly an angel, but now is by his forfeit a diabolical
spirit. ' What treasure,' said Payn, ' had Geomagog 1 ' ' Oxen,
cows, swans, peacocks, horses, and all other animals, made of
fine gold ; and there was a golden bull, which through me was
his prophet, and in him was all his belief ; and he told him the
events that were to come. And twice a-year the giants used
to honour their god, the golden bull, whereby so much gold is
collected that it is wonderful. And afterwards it happened
that aU this country was called the White Laund, and I and
my companions enclosed the laund with a high wall and deep
foss, so that there was no entrance except through this town,
which was full of evil spirits ; and in the laund we made
jousts and tournaments ; and many came to see the marvels,
but never one escaped. At length came a disciple of Jesus,
who was called Augustine, and by his preaching took many
80 UEICONIUM.
from ns, and baptized people, and made a chapel in his name ;
whereby great trouble happened to us.' ' Now you shaU tell
me/ said Payn, ' where is the treasure of which you have
spoken \ ' ' Vassal/ said he, ' speak no more of that ; for it is
destined for others. ' . . . When the spirit had said this,
he issued out of the body ; and there arose such a stink, that
Payn thought he should have died through it. And when it
was past, the night became light, and the weather fair ; and
the knights and others, who were overcome mth fear, recovered
themselves ; and they marvelled much at the event which had
happened to them. Next day the affair was told to the king
and to aU the host. And the king caused the body of Geomagog
to be carried and thrown into a deep pit outside the town ;
and he caused the club to be preserved, and long showed
it to many people on account of its marvellous magnitude."
Such is at least one known legend connected with the ruins
of Uriconium. The belief in the giants appears to have con-
tinued till a comparatively modern period, for in the additions
to Camden's Britannia in Gibson's translation, repeated in the
Magna Britannia, the volume of wliich containing Shropshire
was pubUshcd in 1727, we are gravely informed, speaking of
the ancient inhabitants of Uriconium, that " in searching into
their places of interment, there have been taken out of the
jaw-bones of men, teeth near three inches long, and three
inches about, and thigh-bones have been lately found by the
inhabitants fuU a yard long ! "'"" The legend given in the
liistory of the Fitz-Warines would lead us to believe that much
* The only legends relating to Wroxeter wliich I have been able to pick up among the pea-
santry of the present day, are two — one relating to a well said to lie buried at the side of the
BeU Brook, on the northern side of the Watling-Street road, near where it ci-osses it, in which
vast treasures are believed to be buried, and the circumstance is commemorated in a popular
rhyme : —
" Near the brook of BeU, '
There is a well.
Which is richer than any man can tell."
And another, according to which the city of Uriconium was destroyed by sparrows — for, when
the assaUanta found it impossible to break through the walls of the town,' they collected all the
spaiTows in the coimtrj', tied lighted matches to their tails, and let them fly, and they all settled
on the thatched roofs of the houses, and thus set fire to the whole town, and the enemy entered
in the midst of the confusion. Both these legends are found on the sites of other ancient towns.
When I was first at Wroxeter to watch the excavations, one of the inhabitants came to me and
offered to conduct me to the lield where the span-ows were let loose.
m
URICONIUM. 81
of the walls of the town and houses of Uriconiuni were still
standing above ground as late as the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, and perhaps a considerable portion of them remained
thus standing at the time when the author of that history-
wrote. But during the centuries which had passed since the
Roman city had become a ruin, the site had been undergoing
a gradual but continual change, arising from the accumulation
of earth, which no doubt was here greater then usual tlrrough
the extreme lightness of the surface soil. This rising of the
level of the ground is always found to have taken place under
such circumstances, and may be explained without difficulty.
In the first place, the floors must have been covered with a
mass of rubbish formed by the falling in of the roofs and
more perishable parts of the buildings. Vegetation, too,
would arise in the course of years, and the walls would stop
and cause to be deposited the dust and earthy particles
carried about in the atmosphere. This deposit we know by ex-
perience to be considerable, for, though it is little more than
three centuries since the dissolution of the monasteries, yet
the floors of the monastic houses now lie under a depth
of earth sometimes amounting to as much as tln'ee feet. Thus
in the twelfth century, that is after the ruins of Uriconiuni
had lain perhaps undisturbed during seven centuries, we can
imagine how deep the floors lay under the surface of the soil.
It was at this period that the Roman buildings began to be
systematically destroyed. There is reason for believing that
in the twelfth century, England was covered with the remains
of Roman ruined towns and villas still standing above ground,
which now became so many quarries of materials for buildings
of a difi"erent description. We have seen the superstitious
feelings which prevented men from approaching these ruins,
and especially from disturbing them, and it required nothing
less than the hand of the church to interfere and break the
charm which held the rest of society aloof. The twelfth
century was especially the age of building the great Anglo-
G
82 UPvICONIUM.
Norman abbeys and priories, and it became the practice to
break up the old buildings within reach to supply building
materials. From that time the Eoman mins were pillaged
whenever a monastery or a church was to be built. The
ancient city at Wroxeter was probably one of the great
quarries from AA'hich the builders of Haughmond Abbey, of
Buildwas, perhaps of Shi-ewsbuiy Abbey, and other monastic
houses in this part of the country, were supplied. The churches
of Wroxeter and the adjoining parish of Atcham still bear
evidence to this appropriation of Eoman building materials.
At the time when this inroad was made upon the ruins, the
ground, as explained above, was already raised several feet
above the Eoman floors ; and the medigeval builders, finding
plenty of material above ground, cleared away the walls down
to the surface of the ground as it then existed, and sought
them no further. This accounts for the condition in which we
now find these walls, for they remain tolerably perfect just up
to the height of what was the level of the ground at the time
the ruins above ground were cleared away. The difference
between the tops of the walls as they now exist under ground,
and the present surface of the gTound, is the accumulation of
earth which has taken place since this destruction. It was the
demolition of the Avails which first contributed to this accumu-
lation, by scattering about fragments of the plaster of the
walls, and the broken tiles and stones which were not worth
carrying away. After the walls above ground disappeared,
and the ground was levelled and cleared, such accumulation
went on much more slowly. The neglect to observe these two
distinct series of accumulations has led sometimes to rather
ciirious mistakes, and it may be remarked that in the account
of a former partial excavation at Wroxeter, published in the
Archseologia of the Society of Antiquaries, the writer has fallen
upon the very odd notion that the Eoman town had been
burnt twice, — that he saw the layers of burnt materials from
two successive burnings.
trpJCONlUM. 83
The sites of the ancient towns thus cleared, and the spell which
held their invaders at bay having been broken by the mediaeval
ecclesiastics, they became exposed to a new class of depredators.
Coins, and objects of some value, were not unfrequently met with
by accident, and their value was greatly exaggerated by common
report, during the ages when the existence of hidden treasures
formed a prominent article in the popular belief. Many a
Salopian, doubtless, longed for the hidden treasures of the city
of Geomagog, and many an attempt no doubt was made to
discover and obtain them. Treasure-hunting of this description
was a great pursuit with our mediseval forefathers, and the same
superstitious feelings were connected with it, which, in the
minds of our ignorant progenitors, were attached to all remains
of remote antiquity. The treasure-hunter rarely ventured on
his search without having first secured the aid of a magician
for his protection as well as for his guidance, for the same e^dl
spirits were believed still to haunt the ruins underground, and
it was supposed that by the power of the conjurer they might
not only be rendered harmless, but be made to give information
as to the exact spot where the treasure lay. An old manuscript
chronicle of the monks of Worcester, which is printed in
Wharton's AngHa Sacra, and has preserved numerous notices
of events which occurred on our borders, informs us that in
the year 1287, at a place by Wroxeter called BHebury, the
fiend was compelled by a certain enchanter to appear to a
certain lad, and show him where lay buried " urns, and a ship,
and a house, with an immense quantity of gold." We easily
recognize in the objects enumerated by the false Geomagog,
though not in the material, some of the numerous figures in bronze
which are from time to time found on Eoman sites, and the urns
and ship may perhaps admit of a similar explanation. The
treasure-diggers had, however, sometimes to encounter a worse
opponent than even the fiend himself. Treasure-trove belonged
to the feudal lord, and it was a right which he was inclined
to enforce with the utmost severity ; and the unfortu-
84 URICONIUM.
uate individual who was caught in the act of trespassing
against it found his way immediately into a feudal dungeon,
from which escape was not always easy or quick. The histo-
rian of our county, Mr. Eyton, has met with a record from
which we learn that, towards the close of the tliirteenth century,
some individuals were thus caught " digging " for a treasure
at Wroxeter, and that tliey were taken and thrown into prison.
On their examination or trial, however, it appeared that,
though they had dug for a treasure, they had not found one,
and on this plea they had the good fortune to be set at hberty.
After the ruins had been broken up by the ecclesiastical
builders, the site of Uriconium probably remained a neglected
piece of ground, which was soon overgrown with trees and
brushwood, which, in fact, was the usual case with such places.
AVhen Leland passed by it, in the time of Henry VIII., he
appears, to judge by the few words which he bestows upon
Wroxeter, to have supposed that there was nothing to be seen,
for he merely remarks that, " Eoxcester was a goodly walled
towne untill it was destroyed by the Danes." The popular
notion, wliich ascribed all destruction to the Danes, continued
to exist in the time of Camden, who published his Britannia
in the reign of queen Elizabeth. The site appears then to have
been cleared for agricultural purposes, and Camden informs
us that there were no remains of the ancient town visible,
except certain walls which the inhabitants of the village
called " The olde worke of Wroxceter." '"' This was no
doubt the same piece of building still known as the Old Wall,
which will be described in a subsequent chapter. It has
remained much in the same condition down to the present
time ; but, though the Old Wall was the only piece of Eoman
building visible above ground, it was easy to see that buildings
lay under the surface, both by the unevenness of the ground,
and by the appearance of the crops in dry weather ; and
. ,. . * ^""^ 1™* '^'^'^ i""' prceter parietinas cernitur, quas the olde worhe of Wroxceter
mdigitant incoiE. Camden, Britan. 8vo. ed. p. 474.
URICONIUM. 85
especially the line of the town wall may be traced by a ridge
strongly marked round its whole circuit, except on the side
of the river.
The length of this line of wall has been roughly estimated
at between three and four miles, and its course is in every
respect extremely irregular. The site of the ancient city was
remarkably well chosen, for it occupied the boldest piece of
elevated ground on the banks of the Severn in this neigh-
bourhood, where it commanded the rich vale of Shrewsbury.
Along a considerable portion of the western side, from the
ford at the Watling Street road northward to the turn of the
river towards the west, the ground rises from the bank of the
Severn in a steep and in some parts almost precipitous bank,
of considerable elevation, especially at the southern end, where
it is hardly less than a hundred feet above the level of the
plain. Where the wall leaves the river to make a sweep
roimd towards the hamlet of Norton, the groimd falls gradu-
ally to the stream called the Bell Brook, and then becomes
uneven, though rising from the brook in banks to the north-
ward. Through the fields to the south-east the mound which
covers the remains of the town wall is remarkably bold.
Within these walls the ground which the ancient city occupied
rises, though not rapidly, from the bank overlooking the river
towards the north-east until it reaches its greatest elevation
in the field marked d in our general plan of the site of
Uriconium. Hence it sinks gradually towards the village, and
more abruptly towards the Bell Brook, from which it rises
again towards the north, so that Uriconium stood upon two
lulls, with a stream running in the bottom between them.
From the form of the ground this stream must always have
run in its present course through the city of Uriconium, and
in the time of the Eomans it was probably more considerable
than at present.
The greatness of the extent covered by the city of Urico-
nium wiU be best understood by the plan in our plate, in
86 URICONIUM.
which it is laid down on the same scale with those of the
other great towns on our border, of wliich we have any means
of tracing the circuit of the walls. To the north, Chester, the
Eoman Deva, was not only the head-quarters of one of the
three legions Avhich formed the military occupation of Britain,
but it was evidently an important commercial towni ; its
mediaeval walls, which remain around the whole town, appear
to have been identical with the Roman line of circumvallation,
for, as will be shewn further on, the primitive Eoman masonry-
remains visible in several parts of it. There are no remains of
the Eoman towns between Chester and Wroxeter, or between
the latter and Kenchester, near Hereford. This latter site
represents the Eoman Magna, supposed to have taken its name
from its size, but its small extent in comparison with Uriconium,
or even with Deva, would lead us to suppose that it must have
obtained its name from some other cause. To the south, in
the country which commanded the entrance to the Bristol
Channel, and the Eoman boat service from the west of
England across the channel to South Wales, were two impor-
tant towns, one of which, Isca, was the head-quarters of
another legion, the second. The walls of Isca remain m
nearly their whole circuit at Caerleon, in Monmouthshire,
and they inclose a space of hardly half that included in the
walls of Deva. In fact, Isca was evidently more a military
than a commercial town. Venta, near Caerwent, of which,
also, the walls may be traced standing above ground in nearly
their whole extent, was somewhat less in magnitude than Isca,
but of much the same form. Glevum was again, no doubt, from
its position, an important commercial town. I owe my plan
of it to a friend who is weU acquainted vdth the antiquities of
Gloucester, Mr. Thomas Wakeman, of the Graig, near Mon-
mouth, and who has made it from the remains of the ancient
town walls still existing or remaining within his own memory.
It is necessary to state that in this case the river Severn has
changed its course since the time of the Eomans, and now
TIRICONIUM. 87
runs over what was a part of the Eoman town. It will be seen
that of these six towns, four were situated on the banks of
considerable rivers : Deva, on the Dee, Uriconium, on the
Severn, Isca, on the Usk, and Glevum, on a branch of
the Severn. Magna, on the contrary, stood at a distance of
hardly less than a mile from the Wye, and Venta (Caerwent),
was at considerable distance from any river of importance.
The forms of these towns, too, varied much, for while Deva,
Isca, Venta, and Glevum, were rectangular parallelograms.
Magna in small, and Uriconium in large, were of forms so
irregular that it would be impossible to describe them in any
definite terms. It is not difficult to explain this difference of
form. Deva, near the mouth of a great river, entering a sea
winch lay open to Ireland and the land of the wild Cale-
donians, and Isca, Venta, and Glevum, laying equally open to
the gTeat estuary of the Severn, Avere exposed to the sudden
attacks of pirates, and were no doubt fortified at a very early
period, while Uriconium and Magna, inland to^vns, which were
exposed to no dangers, remained probably without defensive
walls of any kind, until the late period when the internal state
of the island had become so turbulent and unsettled, that
every town threw up foi-tifications with as httle delay as
possible, and were obhged to encircle with an irregular line a
population which had spread itself without any settled plan.
The materials and construction of the walls varied from the
same circumstances, but they wdll require a rather more
minute investigation.
Eeasons have been alleged for supposing that the Eoman
towns in Britain, with the exception of the military stations,
were not originally surrounded with walls, or with any
defences. In fact, there are very few of the existing remains of
walls of Eoman towns in this island which have not, when
broken into, revealed their comparatively late period by the
evidence of stones belonging to older architectural works
which have been used up as materials, and these sometimes
88 URIOONIUM.
are themselves of a rather late style. And at the same time, ■
in many cases, the existing wall, although presenting these
circumstances, is so uniform in its structure, that if a pre-
vious wall had existed, it must have been completely cleared
away to make room for its successor. We have in no instance
any direct evidence of the date of any of these walls, but
they present points of comparison which enable us to
form some notion of their relative antiquity. The style of
masonry Avhich is found most commonly, both in Britain and
in Gaul, is known by a facing of small stones, carefully
squared, with bonding-coru'ses of large flat tiles, and mortar of
extreme hardness, recognized at once by its being rather
largely mixed with pounded tiles, which is understood to have
had the effect of causing the mortar to set quickly and become
hard. This style of masonry is found in great perfection at
Eichborough, Lymne, Pevensey, London, Colchester, York,
and various other places, and is represented at Wroxeter by
the " Old Wall," and in fact by the walls of aU the buildings
generally within the town. We have no direct reason for
ascribing this style of masonry to any particular date, but as it
is found very perfect in the remains of the fortresses raised for
the protection of the Saxon coast, and which were doubt-
less erected at a rather late date, this style of building must
have prevailed till towards the close of the Eoman period.
There is one very important exception to this style of
masonry, the peculiarities of wliich have been pointed out by
Mr. Roach Smith.""' The mediaeval walls of the city of Chester
have been found to contain in nearly their whole circuit
portions of the walls of Eoman Deva, and a comparison of the
two show us in a striking manner the care employed by the
Eoman builders in the selection of their building materials.
While the surface of the mediaeval wall is already in a
lamentable state of decay, the facing-stones of the older
^1, i ' -^^S ^^% Collectanea Antiqita, vol. yi. p. 42, and hia paper on tlie Roman Eemains at
Chester, in tile Journal of the British ArchaBolosical Association, vol. v p 207 The former
article is especially recommendea to the study of all who are interested in this subject.
URICONIUM.
89
Roman masonry are fresh and uninjured. In fact, while the
medieeval builders were satisfied with a grit- stone which is
found on the spot, and which presents a good appearance
when quarried, but is not durable for a long period, the
Eomans despised this stone, and went to a distance of some
miles to obtain another grit-stone, which, though presenting
much the same character when quarried, is far more durable.
It is not, however, the difference of material alone which is
remarkable in the Eoman work of the walls of Chester, but
the construction of it is stiU more interesting. Instead of the
Portion of the Eoman Wall of Chester.
small facing stones, bonding-courses of tiles, and hard mortar
of the walls I have before spoken of, we have here large stones
a foot high, by from eighteen inches to two feet in length,
which are arranged in regular and uniform courses. These
stones, perfectly squared, are laid upon one another, and
fitted together without any mortar at all. The character
of this wall is seen best on the northern side of the city,
where it looks over a modern canal, which is indicated in
the plan in our plate of the plans of the Roman towns on the
border. A portion of it is represented in the above cut. It
90 UKICONIUM.
is a portion of the wall on the north side of Chester, where it
overhangs the pathway along the canal, at a considerable
elevation, the lower portion of which consists of the natural
rock. At about seven feet below the top of the modern
parapet, as here shewn, the Eoman portion is surmounted by a
cornice, which extends, in broken lengths, for at least a hundred
yards. The original parapet no doubt rose above this cornice.
The Eoman courses of stone are regularly a foot deep, and
the blocks from eighteen inches to two feet on the bed ; and
the same construction prevails tlu'oughout the Eoman work in
this wall. In the next cut we give a section of the wall of
ia/el inside.
Section of Wall at Chester.
Chester as it now exists, taken across the part represented in
the other cut, and exhiliiting the relative proportions of the
remains of the Eoman wall, of the mediseval parapet above,
and of the rock below. There is no other example of a
Eoman town wall in our island which presents the same
description of masonry as this, but Mr. Smith points out
remains of somewhat similar masonry in the lower part of
TJRICONIUM. 91
the town walls at Sens in France, where it is surmounted
by masonry of the usual Eoman character, with facing of
small squared stones and courses of tiles.''" In this foreign
example, there can hardly be a doubt that the masonry of the
lower part of the wall is more ancient than that which sur-
mounts it ; and although, as Mr. Eoach Smith justly observes,
we should not be justified in assuming that none of the other
description of masonry is of a very early date, yet we seem to
have sufficient reason for considering the remaias of the walls
of Roman Deva as examples of the earliest style of masonry
used by the Romans ia their walls of defence ia this island.
Before we proceed to consider other styles of masonry used
for the same purpose, it may be remarked that these town
fortifications differed in their form as well as in their masonry.
Our plan of the walls of Deva, which is taken from the plan
of the modern city given in the volume on Cheshire ia
Lysons's Magna Britannia, represents a parallelogram, some-
what out of shape at its southern end, which may perhaps be
accounted for by supposing that the modern here varies a
httle from the hne of the ancient wall ; but the plan of
Caerleon, which is abridged from Mr. Lee's map, and which is
nearly a square, also varies in a somewhat similar maimer
from an exact rectangle. The walls at Caerleon present the
usual facing found in the Roman town walls in other parts of
the island, consisting of small squared stones with courses of
bricks similar to that which is found in the Old Wall at
Wroxeter. I am not aware what was the character of the
facing of the Roman walls of Gloucester (the ancient Glevum),
or if any of the original facing be visible ; but in the plan
given in the plate, it wiU be seen that it presented the
shape of an exact parallelogram. It is right, however, to
remark that the northern comer is here dra^vn conjecturally,
as the channel of the river, as I have stated before, now runs
partly over its site.
* See the ColhctaiLCO, Aidi^jiia, vol. v. p. 172.
92
CEICONIUM.
The walls of Caerwent present a new style of masonry,
inferior in many respects to those with the bonding-com'ses
of tiles. The mortar is of inferior quality, and contains no
pounded brick, and the facing consists of what appear to be
tolerably uniform layers of squared stones, largest at the bot-
tom, but smaller as the courses rise higher in the walls.''-'
There are, however, four bonding-courses of red sandstone,
which, among the limestone of which the facing stones are
composed, would, when fresh, produce somewhat the appear-
ance of tiles ; but now, through the effects of weather, and in
consequence of a species of lichen which covers them all, the
Roman Walls of Caerwent.
external surface of the whole wall appears of one colour. The
lowest course of stones in the wall projects about six inches,
and the stones are much larger, many of them not less than
eighteen inches square. It is worthy of remark that similar
masonry is found in the wall of Silchester, in Hampshire, the
Roman Calleva, the remains of which bear more than those of
any other Eoman site in Britain, a resemblance in extent and
character to those of Wroxeter, and singularly enough, have
attached to them the same popular legend of the destruction
of the town by means of sparrows. In the waUs of Silchester
* It should be stated that my account of the walls of Caerwent, is taien chiefly from
that given by Mr. Roach Smith, in the Journal of the British Archieological Association,
vol. iv., p. 254.
tJRICONlUM.
93
there are no courses of tiles, and the mortar is without pounded
brick, but a sort of bonding-courses are formed by wide
irregular lines of rough carstone, and the stones of the lowest
course are much larger than the others, and project from the
wall. The cut on the preceding page represents a part of the
wall of Caerwent, where it is most perfect, and where, on the
western part of its southern line, it is supported by four
pentagonal towers, or buttresses ; or, as they are sometimes
called, though by a less appropriate name, bastions. It is
right to remark that these remains are overgrown and much
concealed by trees and brushwood, which are omitted in the
drawing for the sake of convenience. Buttress-towers of con-
Buttress-tower in Wall of Caen\'ent.
siderable bulk, round or square, and sohd in the whole or in a
great part of their height, are usually attached to the regular
Roman town- walls which are built with courses of tiles, as at
Richborough, (Rutupiee,) Lymne, (Portus Lemanis,) Pevensey,
(Anderida,) Burgh Castle in Suffolk, (Gariannonum,) and other
places, or at least are built against them, for they are quite
distinct from the wall, and not built into it, except sometimes
at the top. The buttress-towers at Caerwent, of which two are
shown in the preceding cut, are peculiar in form, and, as
usual, are only built up against the wall, although they may
have been attached at the top. Two sides of another of these
94 URICONIUM.
buttresses, perhaps the most perfect of them all, is represented
in the next cut, which shows better than the former the
character of the masomy as it appears at the present day.
The circuit of the wall of Roman Magna, at Kenchester, near
Hereford, was extremely irregular in its form, as is shown
by the plan in our plate. The only remains of the masonry
now visible are seen supporting hedges chiefly on the north-
west side of the area. It is faced with small stones, arranged
in some parts, as at Silchester also, in what is technically
termed herring-bone work, and set in very inferior mortar.
It is situated on slightly rising ground, in the middle of a
plain, at a distance of full a mile from the river Wye, and
neither by its position nor by its shape could it have been
originally intended as a strong fortification. On the contrary,
by its locality, as well as by its irregular form, and by the
rudeness of the masonry of its walls, it appears to have been
originally an open town, and its fortifications were probably
only raised at a late period, when every town was exposed
to attacks and in need of protection/'"
What Magna (apparently misnamed, but its name may
have had a meaning now forgotten) was in small, Uriconium
was on a much larger scale, on a scale indeed Avhich gave it a
just claim to the title applied to it in the book of Richard of
Cirencester, of the queen of the cities in this part of the Roman
pro^dnce. As I have already stated, the line of the wall may
be distinctly traced in nearly all its circuit by a continuous
bank through the fields. To take it at its southern extremity,
it begins at a low hill or knoll at r, in our map of the site of
Uriconium, which overlooks and commands the river to the
east, and where there stood probably a principal entrance to
the town. In its course westward from hence it passes below
the church and the vicarage in a bottom, the fosse being
occupied by a small stream, but the ground rises gradually as
* ^°^ ™ account of the present condition of tlie Eoman remains at Kenchester, see the
}ianderings of an Antiquary, hy the author of the present volume, p. 34.
TJRICONIUM. 95
it passes through the glebe land and the fields beyond, and
then it sinks again to tlie BeU Brook, and during nearly the
whole of this part of its course the ground within the wall is
generally higher than that on which it stands. After passing
the brook, the ground over which the wall runs is very
uneven, but in some places the strongest point of ground is
certainly not taken, though this might have been done with
very httle change of position. This seems even to have been
the case at K, where the principal entrance, that from London
by the Watling Street, appears to have stood. The wall may
be traced over the banks, until it approaches the river, and I
have followed the older plans, including that of the original
maps of the Ordnance Survey, in laying it dowm along the
side of the river itself. But the existence of a wall parallel to
the river is open to doubt, for it was not unusual in the
fortifications of the Roman towns in Britain, to leave the town
without a wall on the side where it was protected by a river, or
by the sea, as we find to have been the case at Burgh Castle, at
Eichborough, and at Lynme ; and we have not yet been able to
trace the wall at Wroxeter between the point where it reaches
the river from the north, and the knoU abeady mentioned as
standing at the southern extremity at F, either by the existence
of any bank above, or by trenching the ground. One thine,
however, seems clear, that the vast extent of wall we can
trace was so irregTdar in its circuit, and must have presented
so many weak points, that it can never have been an original
fortification, or been capable of any long defence. It must
have been thrown up in a great hurry, and was simply
carried round the outside of the city of Uriconium as
it then existed. AVe shall see how far the recent discovery of
the character of the masonry of the wall of Uriconium confirms
this view of the case.
The statement of the writer of the history of the Fitz-
Warines, that the ancient city was encircled with a very lofty
wall, is probably not worth much attention, but it became a
96 URICONIUM.
matter of considerable interest to ascertain the real character
of this long line of circumvallation. Accordingly, late in the
year 1861, a spot was selected in the glebe land where the
mound was boldly prominent, and trenches were dug across
at the point marked a in our map of the site. The expected
wall was not found under the external bank, but these exca-
vations brought to light a ditch or fosse, and a parapet, the
appearance of which will be best understood by the section
across the line of the mound, given in the accompanying
^ Section of tlie Fosse at Uriconium.
cut, in which the upper outline represents the form of the
surface of the ground as it now appears, of which A is the
northern side, towards the town, and B is the southern, or
exterior side. The line below shows the form of the ditch,
which had a ilat bottom. At A, a bank of rubble had first
been raised, and this had been faced outwardly with a mass of
clay, the surface of which, towards the outside, was inchned
at an angle of about 45°, its height above the bottom of the
ditch being about nine feet. The side of the ditch at B, which
was only about three feet high, was more nearly perpendicular,
and was also faced with clay. Th(* breadth of the ditch was
ninety-five feet. No traces of any wall closely adjacent to
these defences of the city were then met with, but in the
course of further trenching in the ground adjacent, the wall
of the town was at length met with, and presented a very-
unexpected appearance. Instead of any of the usual charac-
teristics of Roman masonry, we had here the lower part of
a wall which must have been raised very hurriedly, for it
consisted merely of large cobble stones (or small boulders)
and broken stones from the quarry, which had been placed
together without any order, and imbedded in clay. The
URICONIUM.
97
remains of the wall were subsequently found in several places,
always presenting the same appearance, and on an average
about six feet thick. The annexed sketch will give the best
notion of the appearance of the remains of the wall in one
of the excavations in Mr. Egremont's field, and will shew at
the same time the appearance, where more strongly marked,
of the Une of the mound covering the site of the town wall
Kemaina of Towii Wall of Uriconium.
as it runs through the fields. Excavations were subse-
quently made on other points on this line, both here and
on the northern side of the ancient city, at the spot marked
b in the map, and the wall always presented the same
appearance, and was accompanied with the same description
of parapet or fosse. No tracing of anything hke facing-stones
to the waU were found.*
The character of the wall, thus ascertained, entirely con-
firms the opinion formed from other appearances, that the
city of Uriconium was fortified very hastily, and only at a
late period. It now became a matter of interest to ascertain
the character of the entrance gateways to a town fortified in
this manner, and it was resolved, in the October of the year
1862, to make excavations for this purpose. Accordingly,
two or three men were set to work at a spot on the line
• It is curious that the old Magna Britannia, published in 1727, tells us on the
authority of the author of the additions to Camden's Britannia, that the city of Uriconium
" was encompassed with a wall, huUt upon a foundation for the most part made of pebble stones,
about three yards thick, and a vast trench round it, which in some places appears exceedingly
deep at this day." — (Shropshii-e, p. 639.) The character of the wall had been observed, nnd
reported, perhaps by the farmer who tenanted the lands, but not verj' accurately.
H
98
URICONIUM.
of the wall, marked c in the map, in a field belonging to
Lord Berwick, and in the occupation of Mr. Bayley, at what
was supposed to be not far from the western side of the
buildings of the gateway. The excavators soon came to the
wall, which was here in a much more perfect condition than
where it had been previously discovered, and remained
tolerably perfect to the height of about four feet, or perhaps
rather more, Avith its sides even and tolerably smoothed, but
with no more evidence of facing-stones than before. It was
traced both westward into the field, and eastward to the
hedge which divided the field from the Watling-Street road,
and, in this latter direction, was found to break off abruptly
a little before it would have reached the hedge, with no
appearance of having been broken away, but in a manner
which would lead to the conclusion that there had been here
an original opening in the wall, and with no traces of any
bunding besides the wall. We could not dig across the road,
and at this time it was not convenient to dig in the field on
Section of Town Wall of Uriconium.
the other side of it ; but the appearances as far as we went
led to the supposition either that the entrance to the city
had been a mere discontinuation of the wall, or that whatever
structure protected it may have been of wood. The town
Avail, at this place, was cut through by the workmen in a
transverse trench, and thus furnished the section of the wall
itself which is represented in our cut. The sketch is taken
URICONIUM. 99
looking towards the hedge of the Watling-Street road, and
represents the last piece of the wall before the discontinuation
here alluded to, and the transverse trench led to no disco-
veries, nor did the fosse seem to exist here ; but the wall
having been traced to some distance back iuto the field, and
another transverse trench dug, the fosse, -with its parapets of
clay, was found just as it had first been mot with in ]\Ir.
Egremont's land. It would thus seem to have been discon-
tinued at the opening in the wall.
Such is all that we have been able to discover in regard
to what may be supposed to have been the chief entrance
to the city of Uriconium, for the great Eoman road so well-
known as the Watling Street, approaching the cits' from
London, entered it at this poiut. At in our map, where
there is a road-side inn called the " Horse-Shoe," the modem
continuation of the London road to Shrewsbmy branches
off from the "WatHng Street, and the latter continues as a
mere country lane. It entered the city by the opening of
the waU just mentioned, which is marked k in the map.
This lane is bordered to the south by a bank, which is the
site of the principal cemetery of Uriconium. There was
no doubt another entrance to the city on the north-western
side, probably somewhere near where the Bell Brook passes
out of its site, as the present road to Shrewsbury appears
to have been the Line of the Eoman road which went iato
North Wales and to Chester.
The entrance to Uriconium from the river was at the
south-eastern comer of the city. Opposite the gate of the
churchyard, the present Watling-Street road makes an abmpt
tum down to the side of the river, across which there is an
ancient paved ford, leading to a continuation of the Watling-
Street road on the other side. This in fact was the Eoman
road leading to the south through the Stretton vaUey and by
way of Bravinium (the site of which is still rather uncertain)
and Magna (Kenchester) to South Wales. I am inclined to
100 UKICONIUM.
doubt if this were the principal entrance to the town from
the river, and it is very improbable that so large and im-
portant a place as Uriconium should not have a bridge,
especially Avhen we consider that the floods to which this
district is subject would render the ford totally impassable
during a part of the year. Now, the part of the Wathng-
Street road which runs down to the river passes along a
break in the bank, which rises again to the south in a smaU
knoll at F. The Ordnance Survey map gives the town wall
at this corner a curious form, marked here by a single dotted
line, I, which is not at all easy to understand, and, in fact, ia
the Ordnance Survey map itself it is marked by dotting the
line as conjectural or doubtful. In an old map of this site,
etched some seventy or eighty years ago, and apparently made
with very considerable care, the form of the wall is given as
marked in our plan by the double dotted lines at H, indicating
an entrance gateway of a construction not uncommon in
Eoman fortifications. The gateway in the northern wall of
Eichborough, in Kent, presented somewhat the same character.
I think it very probable that the line of streets in the town
represented by the Watling-Street road was continued to this
point, and that here was the entrance to the city from the
south. I am told that a little way further down the river
the remains of an ancient bridge, supposed to be Eoman,
have been found, and it is curious that, although the lane
opposite the ford is called the Watling-Street road, yet the
real line of the WatHng-Street road from Church Stretton
points more dkect to the site of these remains of a bridge
than to the Wroxeter ford. I think it therefore not at all
improlmble that the Eoman road from Uriconium to the
south left the city by a gate at h, followed the left bank
of the Severn to this bridge, and there crossed the river.
It may have been budt at this point as less exposed to the
violence of the water in great floods, than under the city,
where the force of the stream would be increased by iJie
TJRICONIUM. 101
resistance of the bill on which it was built. If the paved
Pord at M be Roman, it was probably used as a convenient
passage of the river when the season allowed. In this case,
perhaps, at the time of the ruin of the city, the bridge also
svas destroyed, and afterwards in the middle ages people
made for the ford to cross the river, and the old road was
abandoned altogether.
In 1859, during the period while the workmen were ex-
cluded from the field of our principal excavations, they were
employed at the top of the knoU at r, above alluded to,
which overlooks the ford. The earth was fuU of remains of
building materials, and walls were found which had been
so much broken away that it was difficult to say to what
description of building they had iDelonged. They appjeared
to have formed a smaU square room attached to a more
continuous wall. It might have been a tower, but it was
of rough masonry, and might be either Roman or mediseval.
Now, there appears to be documentary evidence of the ex-
istence of a mediaeval castle of Wroxeter, which is said to
have been called Arundel castle (the earls of Arundel were
feudal lords of this territory during the fourteenth century),
md, as it was probably only a small fortress to command
the ford, it has been conjectured that the walls uncovered
3n the knoU at f were remains of this castle. It must, how-
ever, be stated on the other hand, that all the objects found
n digging at this spot were Roman. Among them was a
lead sculptured in stone, which is evidently of late Roman
iv^ork, and appears to have belonged to a building which
yas rather highly ornamented. Coins and other articles
vere also found, and a coin-mould, in which was the impress
)f a coin of Julia Domna, the wife of the emperor Severus.
It may be remarked that the callage of Wroxeter must
lave been begun to be built ages after the destruction of
he town, when the nuns were already covered with a con-
iderable depth of earth, for the Roman buildings are found
102 URICONIOM,
almost everywhere under the surface of the soil. The cot-
tagers meet with the remains of walls in digging in their
gardens, and Mr. Egremont discovered that there are Eoman
Ijuildings under the la\m of the vicarage. In the year 1827, .
a rather handsome tessellated pavement was found in what
was then a stack-yard, at E in our map, but it was torn
to pieces by people who came to see it from Shrewsbmy and
carried away the tessellse, and was thus destroyed as soon as
it was found, but fortunately not before a drawing had been
made of it. It probably belonged to a room of a house
which abutted on one of the line of streets which ran from
the forum to the town gate at H. Trenches have been dug
in various parts of the fields on the other side of the
Watling-Street road, immediately opposite the church, and
on the top of the hill, but few traces of buildings were
discovered, though the ground was full of Roman materials.
In one field a Eoman well was found and cleared out, and it
is now in use for drawing water. Other wells had been found
in the immediate neighbourhood.
A glance at our map wifi show that the principal excavations
now in progress (a) are nearly in the centre of the ancient
city, and the buildings they have brought to light occupied a
high position, though not quite the highest ground ^vithin the
walls. We should naturally expect that the principal pubfic
buildings and mansions of the town would be scattered over
the higher ground, and I anticipate that the remains of temples
AAdll be found in the field c and in that to the north of it,
where we may everywhere trace indications of buildings under
ground. At c, in the first of these fields, partial excavations
were made in the year 1788.*
^¥e are informed that in the month of June of the year
1788, the tenant of this farm, then a farmer named Clayton,
"having occasion for some stone to rebuild a smith's shop
* They are described in a communication made in the following year to the Society ot
Antiquaries hy the Kev. Francis Leighton, and printed in the Archccologia, vol. ix.
UEICOXIUM. 103
lately burnt do^vn, and knowing by the dryue!>s of the grovuul
that there were ruins at no great depth beneath the suiiaee of
a field near his house, began to dig, and soon came to a floor
and a small bath. AppHcation was made to William Pulto-
ney, Esq., then the proprietor of the soil, for leave to open the
ground farther, which was readily granted. Coins both of the
upper and lower empu-e, bones of animals (some of which were
burnt), fragments of earthen vessels of various sizes, shapes,
and manufactures, some of them black, and resembling Mr.
Wedg-wood's imitation of the Etrascan vase, and (as 'Sis. Tel-
ford the architect informed me) pieces of glass, were found in
various places ; and the whole ground was full of charred
substances. " The floor alluded to was at a small depth under
the ground, and was paved with tiles sixteen inches long,
twelve inches wide, and half an inch thick, hdno- on a bed
of mortar one foot thick, under which were rubble stones
to a considerable deptL Adjoining this pavement, to the
north, was what !Mr. Leighton appears to ha-ve rightly deno-
minated a bath. It was seven feet four inches long, by three
feet seven inches broad at one end, and three feet eleven
at the other, so that it was not quite scpiare. It had two
steps or seats, running along the southern side, and, as ]\Ir.
Leighton calculated, it was "capable of holding four persons,
supposing them to sit on the steps or seats." He adds,
"through the north side is a hole through the bottom, at
the distance of two feet six inches from the west end. The
bottom is paved with tiles, and the sides and seats plastered
with mortar, consisting of three layers or coats ; the first, or
that next the stones, is formed of lime and bruised or pounded
brick without sand ; the third of the same, but a greater
proportion of Hme, and a httle sand ; this is very smooth
on the surface, and very hard." On the eastern side of the
boundary waU of the floor, which was the Hmit of the exca-
vations in this direction, was found what Mr. Leighton calls
" a place four feet deep below the level of the floor. It has
]04 URIGONIUM.
a paved bottom ; and is formed by large grauite stones on
the southern and eastern sides, on the noi-th by a large thin
red stone set on edge." This "place" was about four feet
square. On the west of the floor and pavement, separate
from them only by a wall, was an apartment with hj^ocaust,
twelve feet wide by twenty long, its length running north
and south. This hypocaust was foiTned of round piUars of
stone, instead of the ordinary columns of bricks, and of dif-
ferent sizes, as though they had been taken from former
buildings which had been demolished. " The pillars," as Mr.
Leighton describes them, " are not uniform in their shape,
size, or disposition ; some rows consisted of six, some of
seven pillars ; some pillars were much shorther than others,
and the deficiency was made up by tiles or stones laid upon
them ; some were apparently the fragments of large columns
of a kind of granite, one foot six inches, and one foot two
inches in diameter ; others were of a red free-stone, ten
inches in diameter." At the south-west corner were four
square pillars formed of tiles in the ordinary way, and there
were two passages through the western wall, both clogged
with ashes. In the south-eastern comer of this apartment,
similar pillars of tiles supported " a small bath, with one
seat or step on two of its sides, the whole of the inside
well plastered with mortar. From this bath, in a direction
southward, there was found a piece of leaden pipe, not
soldered, but hammered together, and the seam or puncture
secured by a kind of mortar ; and there appears a kind of
channel or groove cut in large stones, which falls tlu'ee inches
in twelve feet." To the north of these buildings, were small
apartments, some with hypocausts and others without ; and
beyond these, again, a large enclosure, which, hke two of
the small apartments just mentioned, had " tesselated floors
made of pieces of brick one inch and a quarter square, not
disposed in any fancied form, but in a simple chequer ; the
tessellae are all red."
URIOONIUM. 105
Such were the remains of buildings uncovered in the year
1788. They were contained within a rectangle of between
fifty and sixty feet by somewhat less than thirty, and appeared
to be part of some more extensive buildings, but the baths are
of rather small dimensions, and might have belonged to a
large mansion ; though this question can only be decided by
further excavations.
The large field marked D, to the north-east of the present
excavations, and inclosing the highest part of the ground, has
certainly buildings under it in every part, and excavations in
any part of it would doubtless be attended with very interest-
ing results. I am informed that tessellated pavements are
known to exist at no great depth under the surface. It was in
this field, at the spot indicated by the letter d, that the disco-
very was made in the year 1701, which was communicated to
the Eoyal Society by Dr. Harwood, and printed in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, vol. xxv., where the following account
is given of the discovery. " About forty perches distant north
from a ruinous wall called the Old Work of AVroxeter, once
Uriconium, a famous city in Shropshire, in a piece of arable
land in the tenure of Mr. Beunet, he observed, that although
these fields had formerly been fertilized and made very rich
by the flames and destruction of the city, yet a small square
parcel thereof to be fruitless, and not to be improved by the
best manure. He then guessing the cause of sterility to be
underneath, sent his men to dig and search into it ; but the
soil being then unsown, caused them to mistake, and search
in a wrong place ; where they happened upon bottoms of old
walls, buried in their own rubbish (being such as are often
found in those fields) ; and the inhabitants digging one of them
up, for the benefit of the building stone, were thereby guided
to the western corner of the said unprofitable spot of land ;
where they found (near the foundation) a little door place,
which, when cleansed, gave entrance into the vacancy of a
square room, walled about, and floored under and over, Avith
lOG URICONIUM.
some ashes and earth therein." The discovery on this occa-
sion only extended to the opening of a hypocaust, with its
floor above, of which a model was made, and the latter is stiU
preserved, with some other objects found at Wroxeter, in the
library of Shrewsbury School.
The smith's shop or forge, alluded to in the account of the
discoveries at c, stands on the road-side, at the corner of this
field (at p), and I have heard it reported that buildings were
found under it, and that a large capital of a Roman column
forms the foundation for the smith's anvil.
It is not improbable that the commoner orders of the inha-
bitants of Uriconium inhabited the lower parts of the town
bordering on the stream now called the Bell Brook and the
northern banks, and their houses may have been constructed
chiefly of wood. The earth is everywhere black from the
mixtiu'e of burnt materials, as in aU other parts within the
limits of the ancient city. In the year 1859, with the ready
and friendly permission of the tenant, Mr. Bayley, trenches
were dug in several directions in the field L, but no walls were
met with, though the pavement of a street was found, as
indicated in our map. Roman coins, and other small objects,
were turned up by the spade, and among them a bronze fibula.
A curious document, at present in the possession of
C. L. Prince, Esq., has been communicated to me by a friend
(M. A. Lower, Esq., of Lewes, in Sussex) : it is a rent-roll of
the manor of "Wroxeter, in the twenty-fourth year of the
reign of Edward III. (a.d. 1350). As it appears to me in
many respects worthy of being printed, I shall give it in an
appendix to the present volume. It will appear at once that
a very small portion of the acreage of the parish, which is
now estimated at 4774 acres, two roods, and thirty perches,
was then under cultivation ; for, reckoning the virgate at
sixty acres (I believe the ordinary estimate in this part of
the country), and the noca, or quarter of a virgate, at fifteen,
we can hardly account for more than six or seven hundred
URICONIUM. 107
acres, including a considerable quantity of waste. I am
informed, moreover, that some of the land mentioned in this
document is not now included in the parish. It is evident,
therefore, that a great part of the land was then waste, —
the ground at Norton was a heath, which must have been
extensive. Probably a part at least of the site of Uriconium
M^as so covered on the surface with the ruins of buildings as
to be left wild. One of the residents bears the very signi-
ficant name of Johannes atte Walk, or John at the Wall,
wliich was in aU probability given to him because his messuage
was adjacent to a part of the ancient town wall. The whole
parish at this time appears to have contained twenty-two
messuagia, or houses of men holding generally about thirty
acres of land, and eleven cottages. By the census of 1821,
the latest to which I can at present refer, there were a
hundred and twelve houses in the present parish. The
dominus, or feudal lord, was the earl of Arundel.
There is one local name in this record which is interesting.
Hugh Maunseil held a piece of pasture " called le Eowemehie,"
Tiielne being of course the usual old English word for a milL
It may perhaps be allowable to conjecture that the first part
of the word is some corruption of Eome or Roman, and
that the pasture received its name from the ruins of a Eoman
mill, or the tradition that there had been one there. There
is, I am informed, a field through which the BeU Brook runs,
on the right hand of the AVatling-Street road as we go to the
Horse-Shoe inn, which is still called Rue-mill, and which is
no doubt the pasture in question. Perhaps the Romans had
a miU on the Bell Brook, Avithin the town.
108
CHAPTER III.
THE BASILICA, AND THE PUBLIC BATHS.
It has been already stated that the only portion of building
belono-ing to the city of Uriconium which remained above
ground as long as we have any clear description of the site,
was a long piece of waU, which was popularly called the Old
Wall, and which appears to have been known at an older period
as the Old Work or Works. In old English, the word luork, or
as it was then usually spelt, warh, was appHed to a building,
and especiaUy to a castle, and this was the origin of such
names of places as Newark in Nottinghamshire, which was
equivalent to Newcastle, and Southwark, now forming part of
London. It is under tliis latter name that the Old WaU at
Wroxeter is spoken of by Camden ; and the compiler of the
article on Shropshire, in the old Magna Britannia, published
in 1727, teUs us of Wroxeter: "Here is nothing now to be
seen of it but a very few reliques of broken walls, called by
the inhabitants ' The Old Works of Wroxceter,' which were
built of hewen stone laid in seven rows, at an equal distance,
arched within after the fashion of the Britains' buildings. In
the place where the ruins are, 'tis supposed stood a castle
formerly, as is probable, from the unevenness of the ground,
heaps of earth, and the rubbish of walls lying here and there."''^
* The various conjectures which have heen made as to the cliaracter of the huUding to
which this wall helonged are curious as shewing the absolute futility of all conjectural expla-
nations, instead of proceeding to a careful examination of facts. Horsley, (Bntaiima Rornaim,
p. 419,) imagined that this wall was part of the prretorium of the Koman city. Others have
supposed it was part of a hasihca, or a temple, or puhhc gi'anaries, or public baths. We shall
see liow some of these conjectures accidentally approached the truth ; but it must he remarked
that this list nearly exhausts the number of great public buildings which we may suppose to
have existed in a Itoman town in Britain.
URICONIUM. 109
From this description we might be led to suppose that, at the
time when it was written, more remains of walls were seen
above ground than in our time, but we must perhaps make
considerable allowance for vagueness of description. How-
ever, although, as far as we have any information on the
subject, the Old Wall at Wroxeter appears to have undergone
no great alteration during at least two centuries, there were
certainly more remains at the beginning of the last century
than at present/' Its present appearance will be seen in our
engraving, Avhich represents it as viewed from the northern
side. This wall stands in a large field by the side of the
upper road from Attingham to the village of Wroxeter, and
near where the road to Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge turns
from it, so that it forms a striking object from both. On
the northern side, which is represented in our engraving, this
wall presents the appearance of the exterior of a building,
its facing of small squared stones, with the successive bonding-
courses of tUes, being well-preserved. On the southern side,
the traces of vaulted roofs which had sprung from it showed
us that we were in what had been the interior of a building.
This wall is about twenty-one feet high above the modern
level of the ground, and seventy-two feet long by three feet in
thickness. It runs in a Une deviating a httle from east to
west. It is formed, according to the usual construction of
Eoman walls, of an internal mass of rubble and boulder stones
and other similar material set in very hard cement or mortar,
with facing-stones and bonding-courses of tiles, as just stated.
These courses consist generally of two layers of tiles. It has
been supposed that the mode of construction of these Eoman
walls was, to erect first the two faces, to a certain height,
which were supported by wooden framework or caissons, and
then, as the facings thus rose, liquid cement was poured into
the space between them, and the stones placed in it to fill
• A curious drawing of the Old Wall, and of Bome remains, then above ground, of the
buildings adjacent to it, is presei-ved among the collections of drawings in the library of the
Society of Antiquaries, and I shall give a fuller account of it farther on in the present chapter.
110 ORrco]sriUM.
up ; and the horizontal rows of holes which are usually
seen on the surface of the walls are supposed to have been
the places where the transverse timbers were laid to support
the wooden framework, as it was raised higher and higher.
After the wall was finished, these holes were perhaps filled up
Avith stones which were not so well cemented, and have fallen
out as their mortar became decayed by time.
For several reasons the vicinity of the Old Wall was chosen
as the place for commencing our recent excavations. It was
nearly the centre of the city, and almost the liighest ground in
it, so that the most important buildings might be supposed to
have stood there. And there was also a question of still
greater importance. The ruins of Uriconium might have been
so entirely cleared away for building materials as to leave
hardly any remains of masonry under ground ; and on this
point the great height of the Old Wall above ground, and
its general appearance, were not very encouraging, for the
hope of interesting discoveries depended evidently on the
depth to which the floors were covered by the accumulation
of earth when the walls began to be broken away. The
information, therefore, which we wanted could not be obtained
more effectually than by digging to the foundation of the
Old Wall. Accordingly, on the 3rd of February, 1859, a pit
was sunk against the northern side of the Old Wall, a Httle
to the left of the aperture just alluded to ; and it was not
without some surprise that the men found themselves obliged
to dig to a depth of fourteen feet below the present surface
of the ground before they came to the bottom of it. For
about two-thirds of this depth it was built in the under
stratum of sand which forms a geological feature of the
locality, so that the wall must have had a very deep foun-
dation. A large capital of a column, ornamented with a plain
band, lay on the original level of the ground, in a reversed
position, as though it had fallen from above. But we have
continuaUy found architectural fragments of this sort scattered
UBICONIUM. Ill
about in such a manner, as to leave little doubt that they
had been removed from their original places.
A trench was next carried to the northward from the wall,
and led to the discovery of a pavement formed of small bricks,
three inches long by one wide, set in what is technically
called herring-bone pattern, and lying here about four feet
under the surface of the ground. By folloAving this pavement
in different directions, it Avas discovered that we were in the
middle of an extensive budding, the principal walls of which
were subsequently traced, and will be best understood by
reference to the accompanjdng plan, in which the Old Wall,
A, B, which stood above ground, is distinguished by being
shaded darker than the rest, with the exception of the breach
in the middle, of which I have spoken above, which is left
with the lio;ht shading. It was found that this Old Wall itself
was continued to the westward, the lower part of it being
met with under ground, and that there were three parallel
walls to the north of it. The first of these was at a uniform
distance of fourteen feet ; the space between this and the next
parallel wall was exactly thirty feet ; and the last wall was
fourteen feet from the previous wall at its western end, and
sixteen at its eastern end, so that these walls were not
accurately parallel, and consequently the whole buUdiug was a
little out of square."' The length of these walls, from east to
west, was two hundred and twenty-six feet. The central
inclosure, which had no transverse wall except at its two ends,
contained, therefore, a space two hundred and twenty-six feet
long by thirty feet wide, and had two equally long but com-
paratively narrow spaces on each side, divided from it by its
side- walls. The southernmost of these, marked 1 in the plan,
appeared to have been an open alley ; and there were some
traces of its having been paved Avith flag-stones. There can
be no doubt, indeed, that the northern face of the Old Wall,
* It is not at all vmcommon to flncl Eoman buildings in this counti-j- out of square, liut
the cause of this deviation is not known.
112 UEICONIUM.
which formed one side of this alley, was the outside of a
building. The sort of brick pavement which formed the floor
of the great central inclosure (2) is generally found in courts
and places open to the sky ; and the very extent of the
inclosure, in this case, would lead us to suppose that it also
was not roofed. The narrow inclosure to the north (3) has
had, ia its whole length, a rather elegant tessellated pavement,
arranged in a series of compartments, and this would seem to
indicate that it at least had a roof. No doorway was found
communicating between these several inclosures ; but as the
walls of separation were in several places entirely broken
away to the foundations, we cannot positively decide whether
there were doors or not. In the middle of the most northern
wall there was a very wide breach, which in aU probabihty
was the site of a principal entrance ;. for it was afterwards
discovered that this waU formed the side of a wide street, the
central pavement of which (c c, in the plan), composed of
smaU round stones, was found at a distance of a few feet to
the north of the wall. At the western end also of the middle
apartment, openings and plinths of stone were found, Avhich
seemed to indicate not only an entrance, but the former
existence of a considerable amount of architectural ornamen-
tation. As this came near to the edge of the field, and
abutted on what is now called the Watling-Street road, which
subsequent discoveries have shewn to occupy the line of a
principal street of the town, these buildings evidently occupied
the corner formed by two streets crossing at right angles.
The only articles found in the course of excavating these
inclosures, calculated to throw any light upon the object for
which they were designed, were a portion (two or tlu'ee links)
of a rather ponderous iron chain, the steel head of an axe, and
a small trident, also made of iron. The latter is about five
inches and a half long, and the one end, formed like the
ferules of the old spear heads, was evidently intended to be
fitted on a shaft, so that it may have belonged to some sort
URICONIUM. 113
of ceremonial staiF. Portions of several padlocks, of a curious
but now well-known Roman character, and apparently in-
tended for fetters, were also picked up in this part of the
excavations. These objects might lead us to suspect tliat
the buUdings immediately to the north of the Old Wall
were of a public, or perhaps municipal, character. Many
fragments of the stucco, painted in fresco, were found in
digging in these buildings, among which was part of an in-
scription in large letters, two of which were perfect, and
sufficient remained of the first and last, when first picked up,
to shew that the four letters were A E C A ; of course these
letters are quite insufficient to throw any light on the pur-
port of the inscription when entire.
The continuation of the northernmost wall was traced east-
ward until the excavation was interrupted by the 'opposite
hedge of ' the field, making a whole length of about four
hundred feet. A doorway, approached by a stone step, led
through the waU forming the eastern end of the great central
inclosure, into a smaller inclosure (4), which, from the set-off
on the walls, and some other circumstances, was supposed +0
have been a quadrangular yard, or court, built a httle out of
square, and measuring about sixty-six feet from north to
south, and about thirty from east to west. Beyond this was
a much larger inclosed space, which was trenched across in
several directions, but no floor or transverse walls were fc d,
and it was conjectured that it may have been a garden.
I have already remarked that the northern face of the Old
WaU presents all the appearance of having been the exterior
of a building ; and this had evidently been the case with its
continuation westward, in which, at a rather considerable
interval from each other, were found two openings for doors,
each approached from the narrow passage by a step composed
of one large squared stone. The step to the westward (6 on
the plan) was very much worn by the action of people's feet,
and must, therefore, have been much frequented ; l)ut this
I
114 TJEICONIUM.
was not the case with the other (5). It was at this latter
opening that we crossed the line of the Old Wall and began
to excavate the buildings to the south. But, while we were
in the middle of this work, circumstances occurred which,
through a local disagreement, compelled us to abandon our
work temporarily, and ended in obliging us to fill up the
excavations to the north of the Old Wall, where I regret to
say that the examination of the Eomau buildings had been
liut imperfect, and to confine our labours to the south.
On the southern side of the wall, begumuig with the door-
way (5), trenches were carried in several directions, and soon
brought the excavators to the outside of a semi-circular end
of a large apartment (7), about forty feet long by thirty wide.
The intermediate space appeared to have formed a court-yard ;
and from the number of human remains found in it, it is
evident that, at the time of the destruction of the Eoman
city, many of the inhabitants had sought shelter here and in
the adjoining buddings, and had been pursued and massacred.
In the south-eastern corner, under what appeared to have been
an opening from an apartment above, lay the bones of a very
small child, believed, from the appearance of the skull, to
have been an infant in the arms, which had perhaps been
murdered and thrown down from a room above. The semi-
circular wall just mentioned presented a mass of very good
masomy, and was partly covered with plaster or stucco, wliich
had been worked to a smooth surface, and painted Avith stripes
of red and yellow ; from which it appears that the Romans
in this country painted in fresco the outsides of their houses
as well as the interiors. Near the wall lay a very ponderous
stone, worked into the form of part of the arc of a circle,
which had evidently formed one of a layer of such stones at
some unknown elevation in the semi-circular wall. A piece
of iron remains soldered into it with lead, but for what
pu.rpose, it v^ould not be easy even to conjecture. It is noAV
placed on the top of the wall.
TTRICONIUM. 115
The floor of the interior of tliis large room, which appeared
to have presented merely a smoothed surface of cement, was all
destroyed, with the exception of a small fragment in the north-
east corner, but the columns of the hypocaust on which it had
been supported remained in almost a perfect state. Our plate
represents a portion of the hypocaust, viewed from the s.s.w.,
that is looking towards the semi-circular end, as it appeared
"when it was first opened. It is taken from a photograph, and
possesses the more interest, because soon after it was taken
nearly all the columns were destroyed by an incursion of
ignorant vandals from the coUiery districts.* These sup-
porting columns, which were of the rather unusual height of
a httle more than three feet, were formed of square flat bricks,
placed one upon another without mortar, and most of them
were standing to very nearly their original height. The floor,
as just intimated, had been all broken up, but pieces of the
concrete which composed it were found scattered about.
A small piece of floor still remains on its supports in the
north-eastern corner, presenting a mass of hard concrete about
eight inches thick. In this corner were found the ashes
from the fires, as well as in other parts of the inclosure.
A hundred and twenty of the supporting columns were
counted before the area had been entirely cleared. About
the middle of this hypocaust, there was a sort of passage
across, from west to east, Avhich communicated to the west
with a building formed of cross walls and hypocaust columns
(10), which is not easily described, but which appeared to
have been a depository for fuel, fov a cjuantity of unburnt
coal, both charcoal and mineral, was found in it when opened.
* In tlie May of the year 1859, while we were temporarily excluded from the field in
which the escavations were earned on, it appears that a party of miners from the collieries,
who were in the habit of taking a holiday and making an excui'sion at this time of the year,
haying been attracted hy the accounts published in the newspapers, paid their visit to Wroxeter.
Not understanding what they saw, and finding nobody there to kecj) tliem in order, they
amused themselves by throwing down the columns of this byiiocaust and breaking to pieces the
materials. When therefore an an-angement had been made, and wc returned to our work, we
found this interesting hypocaust a mere heap of broken tiles. Dr. Heni-y Johnson, with great
care and labour, had the more pei-fect tiles picked out, and the columns re-erected, as far as it
could be done, by the help of photogi'aphs and dramngs which had been made before the
occurrence of this barbarous piece of vandalism.
116 UEICONIUM.
On the eastern side, the passage alluded to brought us to a
doorway in the wall, through Avhich we entered the similar
hypocaust of another large room (8). The columns in this
second hypocaust were much more dilapidated than in the
first, but some of them were found entire, supporting a
portion of the floor in the south-west corner, where also were
found the ashes from the fire and soot on the waUs, the latter
appearing quite fresh when first uncovered. The floor
appeared here to have been at the same height as in the other
room, and it was similarly formed of a bed of smooth concrete.
In the northern side of this room, where the wall remained to
the height of nine or ten feet, there was a doorway, with an
arch turned with large flat Eoman tiles. This was found to
be approached from without by a staircase (.9) of three large
steps, each composed of a single stone, descending from a
small square platform, which was approached from the north.
On the western side of this platform, and looking upon the
outside of the semi-circular end of the first room opened,
there appeared to have been an opening in the wall, under
which, in the coiu't outside, the skeleton of the chUd was
found. When the platform of the staircase was first un-
covered, it was blocked up by the broken shaft of a column,
which lay across it as though it had fallen from above ; and a
squared block of stone lay by the side of the staircase in what
seemed to have been its original position. This appeared to
have been the principal entrance to the whole series of the
hypocausts I am now going to describe, which seem all to
have communicated with one another. The north-eastern cor-
ner of the space at the foot of the staircase, that is, the corner
which was opposite the stairs and the archway, and therefore
out of the way of those who had to pass up and down the
one and through the other, presented an appearance which
would lead us to suppose that, at the close of the Eoman
period, it had been used as a receptacle for refuse, such as the
sweepings of the floors, for the earth, as each spadeful Avas
URICONIUM.
117
taken up, was found to be filled witli Roman coins, liau-pins,
and other personal ornaments, buttons, nails, broken pottery,
and glass, bones of birds and other edible animals, and a
variety of other objects, which were carefully collected, and
have been placed in the Museum, at Shrewsbury. The
appearance of the staircase and doorway, when first uncovered,
will be best understood by our plate, engraved from a drawing
by Mr. Hillary Da\deSj a very able young artist, of Shrews-
bury. It is taken from the north, and over the wall we see
to the extreme right the upper part of one of the columns of
the first hypocaust, and before us the perfect columns sup-
porting a portion of floor in the south-western comer of the
second. In the back ground, rises the tower of Wroxeter
Church ; and in the distances, are seen Caer-Caradoc, Lawley
Hill, and the Stretton mountains. The accompanying wood-
Entrance to the Hypocauatu.
cut, taken from a sketch made by Mr. Fairholt at a rather
later period, represents the appearance then presented by the
entrance to the hypocaust as seen from the east, and shows
the passage through the wall, and the semi-circular wall
beyond it.
118 URICONIUM.
Immediately to the east of this staii-case is a rectangular
chamber (14), about twelve feet square, with a herring-bone
pavement formed of small bricks, exactly Uke that of the large
inclosure to the north of the Old Wall, part of which is shewn
in the foreground of the preceding cut. The eastern side of
this room, which is in a line with the eastern wall of the
second room with a hypocaust, appears to have been originally
open in nearly its whole width, although it has been, at some
later period, built up. It opened into a larger room (11),
also possessing a hypocaust. It was in this hypocaust that
tlu'ee skeletons were found ; one that of an old man, who
had died crouched up behind the columns in the north-west
corner, the others aj)parently females, who were lying down
at the foot of the north wall. Close to the man lay a heap
of coins, which had been contained in a small wooden coffer,
as described in the foregoing chapter. In the southern waU
of this hypocaust, there is a breach, wliich has no doubt been
a small entrance from a court outside. The three individuals
to whom these skeletons belonged, who had no doubt sought
refuge here from the fury of the massacrers who were plun-
dering the city, had either entered the hypocaust No. 8, by
the steps and so made their way into this hypocaust No. 11,
or, probably, passed through tliis passage in the waU, and so
crept between the rows of columns to the sj)ot in which they
were found. But, though their asylum was tolerably safe
from pursuit, it was exposed to other dangers which were no
less serious — it was somewhat the case of a man getting
into his chimney when his house is on fire ; and, as these
buildings were no doubt given to the flames, if they were not
actually burnt, they were no doubt suffocated, and the latter
alternative appears the most probable by the position and
appearance of the bones. Other rooms, and what appeared to
be a passage, followed to the eastward of the one just described.
The first of these was the large room, or perhaps two rooms,
(12), also vnth a hypocaust. The passage appeared to have
UmCONIUM. 119
run along the northern side of this room, and near the middle
of it was a square reservoir, somewhat like a cesspool, across
the bottom of which a drain runs north and south, built in
very good masonry, and evidently intended to carry off water.
Beyond the room 12, is another room with a hypocaust,
resembling exactly in shape and dimensions the room 11,
and adjoining to it a smaU square chamber with floor of
bricks set in herring-bone (15), exactly resembling that
marked 14 on the plan, and open to the room 13, just as
the room 14 was originally open to that marked 11. Ad-
joining the room 13, to the south, was a smaller room
with a hypocaust, in which were found two skeletons, one
that of a young person, but the other wanted the head.
Our engraving of "The Excavations at Wroxeter," near the
Old Wall, taken from a drawing by Mr. Fairholt, represents
them looking westward, at a time when they were only
partially excavated, and shows the northern ends of the
rooms just described. The foreground is formed by the
herring-bone pavement of the small room, 1.5 ; and in the
farthest wall is seen the original opening of the similar room
1 4, afterwards built up. To the right is the Old Wall, and in
the far distance the three Breiddin movmtains, on the hne of
boundary between England and Wales. In the eastern wall
of the room marked 13, there is a neatly-built recess, wliich
has either been a fire-place for the hypocaust, or more
probably a passage through the wall, which here ajppears to
have been the eastern boundary of these buildings. The
northern wall of the room 13 was, when first opened, covered
with the remains of flue-tiles. The columns of the hypocaust
are gone, but their height is marked on the stucco of the wall.
The western end of this wall is squared ofi" to the passages,
forming apparently the side of a cross passage, and at the
foot it has a kind of base formed of large stones hoUowcd
or scooped out in a very remarkable manner, which appears to
have joined in with the concrete of the floor, as though they
120 URICONIUM.
had formed the side of a channel for water ; but it is not easy
to make out what was their real object. These stones are
represented in the engraving just referred to, and in another
engraving of this wall, which will be given farther on.
The passages just described lie parallel to the Old Wall, at
a distance of about forty feet to the south. On this side, the
surface of the Old Wall presents unmistakeable evidence of
having been the interior of a building ; the startings of
transverse walls and of the vaulted roofs (of the description
termed barrel-roofs) of three distinct rooms, being perfectly
visible. A series of rooms, therefore, extended from the Old
Wall to the eastern part of the buildings I have just been
describing. These rooms, which were five in number, (marked
16, 17, 18,19, 20, in our plan), have not yet been explored,
with the exception of very partial excavations to trace the
walls, and of the southern part of the room 20. Here was
found, on a level mth the floors of the hypocausts, a perfect
tessellated pavement, formed, very laboriously, of small cream- "
coloured tessellse, laid in a uniform field, without any attempt
to introduce a pattern. It was evidently the floor of a bath,
and there are extensive remains of a raised step around it,
forming a rectangular basin to contain water. A little higher
on the side of the wall are indications of the former existence
of something fike a platform, or wooden floor, too low, however,
to admit of people standing beneath it, and the object of
Avhich we are the less able to explain, because there are in
different parts of these buildings many indications of alter-
ations made at different times, and because when this room is
fm'ther explored, we shall probably be able better to under-
stand its, peculiarities. One of these is sufficiently remarkable.
The surface of the southern wall of this room, which forms the
separation between it and the room 1 3, was ornamented with
tessellated work instead of fresco-painting, and the lower edge
of it, consisting of a guilloche border, still remains. On
uncovering the corresponding wall of the room marked 16,
TJRICONIUM. 121
similar tessellated work was found upon it, so that when the
two rooms are completely excavated, they will probably be
found to correspond to each other. The three intervening
rooms have not been examined, with the exception of a
trench run into that marked 17, where a quantity of charred
wheat was found, as though it had been used at the close of
the Roman period as a granary.*
I will state briefly, at present, that further south, opposite
E in the plan, a wide trench was carried from west to east, in
the course of which was discovered first a wall, H, i ; and next,
at a distance of about 12 feet, another similar wall parallel to
it. Beyond this, there was a narrow passage, then a rise with
a pavement of cement, which extended some four or five feet,
and then suddenly sank to a floor of large flagstones, at a
depth of upwards of four feet from the floor of cement. The
floor of flags, covered with black earth, marked by the letter
E in the plan, appears to have been a reservoir of water ; for
the bottom was found covered with black earth fiUed with
broken pottery and other objects, such as may be supposed to
have been thrown into a pond. This reservoir was of con-
siderable extent, and from the height of the original surface of
the ground on the other side, the water appears to have been
about three feet deep. A further exploration of the two
parallel walls first brought to Hght by this trench, showed that
they belonged to a gallery, which extended along two sides
of a rectangular inclosure, about two hundred feet square,
(h, t, k,) and that these galleries formed the boundary of the
building towards the west and south. The southern wall
formed the side of a street, the pavement of which, l, l, l, has
been uncovered along the whole extent of these excavations.
The trench above mentioned, after passing the reservoir e,
brought the excavators to a very substantial wall at o, which
* As one of the old conjectures as to the character of the huilding of which the Old
Wall made a part was that it was a puhlic gi'anary, it is probahle that this room had been dug
into before. It would reciaire a much gi-eater knowledge of the history and condition of
Uriconium during the period before its destruction than we are lUicly to gain, to account for
the presence of wheat in this room.
122 UEICONIUM.
was traced in its whole extent, and was clearly the exterior
of a building, so that the reservoir evidently occupied the
middle of a large open court. At a short distance within the
wall 0, at D, another sunken floor was found, formed of flat
Eoman tiles, twelve inches by eighteen inches square. This
floor was about ten feet wide by thirty long, and was about
three feet below the level of the cement floor of the very large
apartment enclosed by the wall o, p, p, and the others parallel
to them. It appeared also to have been a tank of water, and
was perhaps a cold-water bath. There were two entrances
to this building from the south, at p, p>, of one of which the
walls are well preserved and defined.
A glance at the whole plan of these buildings, and a
consideration of the distribution of their different parts, can
hardly leave a doubt in our mind that they formed the public
baths of Uriconium ; but, before we proceed to treat further
this question, I will shew briefly how it afl'ects the identifi-
cation of the previously mysterious building to the north.
The public baths of the Eoman towns in Britain are not
unfrequently mentioned in inscriptions — those only written
records of the internal condition of our island under the
Eomans — which commemorate the repairing or rebuilding of
them ; but it is a circumstance of some importance that this
building is usually combined with the basUica, or town halL
In fact, these bufldings were so closely attached that both seemed
to have participated in the same accidents, and to have under-
gone decay together. Thus an inscription found at Lanchester
in Cumberland, (supposed to be the Eoman town of Epiacum,)
informs us that the pul^lic baths and basilica there were built
up from the ground (the form of the phrase intimates that
they had been rebuilt), in the reign of the emperor Gordian,
A.D. 238-244, by his legate, the propraetor of Britain, Gneius
Lucilianus, by the care of Marcus Aurelius Quirinus, prtefect
of the first cohort of the Gordian legion. The inscription i^'')
* Given in Horseley's Britannia Komana, and in Lyson's Magna Britannia, Cumberland.
XJEICONIUM. 123
is so generally interesting in relation to this subject, that it
may be given entire :
IMPEHATOR CiESAR MAECVS ANTONINVS G0RDIANV8
PIVS FELIX AVGVSTVS BALNEVM CVM BASILICA A
SOLO INSTRVXIT PER GNEIVM LVCILIANVM LEGATUM
AVGVSTALEM PROPRiETOREM GURANTB MARCO
AVRELIO QUIRING PR^FECTO COHORTIS PRIMAE
LE6I0NIS GORDIAN/E.
At Eibchester, in Lancashire, which appears from a Eoman
altar found there to be the site of the Eoman Bremetonacae,
the baths and basilica (balinevm et basilic am) were rebuilt
after having fallen into ruin through age. We are, therefore,
I think, justified in concluding that the building to the north
of the Old Wall was the basUica of the city of Uriconium.
The basilica was, primarily, the court of justice of the town,
where prisoners were tried, and the praetor gave his judgment.
In the provinces, no doubt, it served various other public
purposes ; it was perhaps used sometimes for pubhc games ;
and an inscription found at Netherby, in Cumberland, speaks
of a basilica in the Eoman town which occupied that site for
practice in riding (basilicam eqvestrem exeecitatoeiam).
It is a curious circumstance that, assuming that we have
correctly identified this building, the basilica of Uriconium
was exactly the same length, 220 feet, as that of Pompeii, and
also, as we shall see further on, occupied exactly the same
position with regard to the forum. But the basilica of
Pompeii was eighty feet wide, whereas the interior space of
that of Uriconium is only thirty feet wide. But two rows of
columns in that of Pompeii separates a central nave from Uvo
aisles, and if we reckon the two side passages in that of
Uriconium at an average width of fifteen feet, it would
make the whole breadth sixty feet, which would not be so
greatly disproportionate. The basihca had usually a gallery on
each side, and as the five tessellated pavements in the northern
passage of the building at Uriconium seems to intimate that
124 UEicomuM.
it was covered, there may have been a gallery above. There
may possibly have been a gallery also on the other side, over
what was evidently a public passage, from which people
entered the baths and other establishments.
With the Eomans the bath was one of the most important
of the social institutions. Among the ancients, poverty was
not considered to be equivalent to dirtiness, as is too generally
the case in modern times, and all classes of society made
constant use of the bath, which thus became a necessary of
life. Hence the practice of building public bathing estab-
lishments had existed from a very remote period. The
Greeks called a bath halaneion, from which was derived the
Latin word halineum, or balneum. The word was also used
in the feminine gender and plural number, balnece. It is
generally considered that the latter form was properly applied
to a pubhc establishment of baths, and that balneum meant
a private bath ; but this was certainly not the case in Britain,
where the inscriptions always apply the word balineum or
balneum to the public baths. The Eomans also adopted for
these establishments the Greek name of thermas, meaning
literally, "hot places," and therefore indicating one of the
chief characteristics of these establishments, which was the
heat and not the water, and this seems to have been the more
fashionable name at Kome and in the great Eoman cities of
the south. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers appear not to have
been acquainted with the Eoman hot bath before they settled
in this country, and they had no name for it in their own
language ; for their verb bathian, to bathe, meant literally to
wash, and theii' bceth, or bath, implied always the idea of using
water. Hence has arisen a general misunderstanding of the
real nature and use of the ancient bath.
The arrangement and construction of the baths were con-
sidered as one of the proudest and most difficult tasks of the
Eoman architect, and are treated with considerable minuteness
by Vitruvius. The plan, though always made according to one
URIOONIUM. 125
unvaried principle, was of course in detail varied according
to circumstances, and we should expect such variations to be
found more especially in a distant island like Britain. Yet it
is remarkable that the builder of the ptiblic baths of Urico-
nium followed exactly the general direction of the Eoman
architect just quoted, that the buddings should face the south,
and that they should be sheltered from the north, as they were
here very effectively sheltered by the large buildings of the
basilica. The different processes of the bath are tolerably
fully described by the ancient writers. Within the entrance
of the budding there was a small room occupied by the
keeper, halneator, who took the admission fee, usually the
smaU coin called a quadrans, equal to half a farthing.
Adjoining to this, in the great baths in Italy, were two
waiting rooms, one for friends, the other for the servants, who
brought with them their bathing linen or towels (lintea,) the
scraping-instruments (strigilesj and their small bottles of od
or imguent (ampullce olearece.) People of position appear to
have generally carried these objects with them, instead of
using those which were furnished at the baths, and in
examples which have been found among Eoman remains on
the continent, sets of bathing implements have been found,
the set usually suspended to a ring, from which they could
be taken at wiU, and consisting of the strigd, the small
oil bottle, tweezers for depdation, and teeth and ear picks,
all usually made of bronze. A friend who has done much
towards making better known and appreciated the Eoman
bath and its modem representative the Turkish bath, George
Witt, Esq., F. E. S., possesses, in his extremely interesting
private collection of antiquities, a very complete set of these
instruments, which was found near Latum, in Germany, in
the grave of a Eoman officer, who had considered them of
such importance to his personal welfare that they had been
deposited with him in his last resting-place. All these
objects have been found not unfrequently in Britain, with the
126 URICONIUM.
exception perhaps of the oil bottle, of which, however, I
believe that examples have been met with, but I am not
aware of any instance in which the set of bathing instru-
ments was found together, suspended to their ring.
The first room which formed really a part of the bathing
establishment was the undressing room, where the bathers
stripped and left their clothes, which they entrusted to an
attendant appointed for that purpose. This room was called
the vestiarium, spoliarium, or aiDOclyterium. From it you
passed into the imctuarium or elceothesiiim, the room where
people were anoiuted, and underwent the operation of shaving
and some other processes. People who could afford it were
here anointed with rich unguents and perfumes, which appear
usually to have been kept here as in a shop, but the poorer
people were merely anointed all over the body mth a coarse
cheap oil. The bathers went hence into a large room set
a]3art for bodily exercises and games, of which the one most
in favour was playing at ball, and hence it Avas called the
splicer ist&t^ium. It would appear that the exercises of the
sphcBristeriiim were partaken in before the hour of opening
the baths themselves, which was announced by the ringing
of a bell. The reader of Martial wiU remember the line —
Eedde pilam ; sonat res thermarum ; ludere pergls ? — i^;. lih. xiv. ep. 163.
It was believed that this previous bodily exercise was
higiily conducive to the good effects of the subsequent baths.
When the bather proceeded to the latter, he was first
introduced into the teindariuni, a room moderately heated,
which was preparatory to another apartment, kept at a very
much greater heat, and called the caldarium, sudatorium,
or laconicum, the two first names describing its particular
character, and the other said to have been given to it because
its use was derived from the Laconians. In the laro-er and
more elaborate baths, however, the laconicum, appears to
have been distinguished from the sudatorium, and the name
caldarium was given, at least sometimes, to a warm-water
URICONIUM. 127
bath. I have already stated that the process of bathing did
not consist in immersion in water, which was not introduced
for this purpose either in the tepidarium or in the sudato-
rium ; and the erroneous notion on this subject has entirely
led astray the writers on the Eoman batlis down to the
present day. By means of the hypocaust beneath the floor,
and the flues which lined the walls, and through which the
hot air passed, the tepidarium was kept at a moderate heat,
and the sudatorium at so high a temperature as to produce
in the human body the very profuse perspiration necessary
to a thorough cleansing of the skin. The sudatorium was
surrounded by benches, on which the bathers sat while they
were undergoing its effects. It was here that the strigils
or scrapers were used, which people in the better classes of
society usually brought with them, but others were probably
kept at the baths for the use of the poorer people. The
stiigU was usually made of bronze, sometimes of iron, and,
in some rarer cases, of silver. It consisted chiefly of a
curved blade, with a simple handle, the latter often forming a
loop, through which the fingers were perhaps passed, to hold
it with more strength. The accompanying cut represents a
strigil found ia the last century, in one of the rooms of the
Eoman StriiTil, ionni at Wroxeter.
baths at Uriconium, and now presented in the hbrary of
Shrewsbury School. It is of bronze, about nine inches long,
and has a handle of rather unusual form, but the blade has partly
lost its original curved form through violence or pressure to
which it has been exposed. With the edge of this instrument
the skin was very forcibly scraped, so as to clear away the
surface of sweat and dirt, and the attendants then cleansed
it with sponges ; in fact, the bather was treated somewhat
128 UEICONIUM.
in tlie same way as we now treat horses, when they come
into the stable hot. In an adjoining room called the
lavatorium, he bathed in water, which was supphed in a
shower, or in a bath in which he could immerse himself,
or in vessels of different sizes. One of these, a large vessel
with overhanging edge, was called a labrum, and seems to
have been frequently placed at the semi-circular end of a
large room. The process of the bath was now completed,
and the bather returned slowly through the tepidarium, into
another large room called the frigidarium, or cooling room,
which like the sudatorium, was furnished with benches and
seats, with large open windows to let in the wind and
cold air. Here the bathers reposed themselves, until all
remains of the perspiration had disappeared. The effect of
the sudorium itself, and especially that of the rather sudden
transition from its intense heat to the cold of the frigid-
arium, produced an agreeable and even a voluptuous feeling,
which can only be understood by those who have experienced
the effects of the modern Turkish bath, and which contributed
much to the great love of the Romans for the bath. It
was this, indeed, which constituted its charm, and which
acted so beneficially on the constitution. The physician
Galen says that "the body is tempered by going from the
caldarium into the frigidarium, like steel or iron when
thrust red-hot into cold water." And the Christian father,
Clemens of Alexandria, expresses a similar sentiment, when
he represents that " the flesh is softened by heat in the same
manner as steel ; and so, when we cool ourselves, we go
through a process resembhng the tempering of steel by
immersion."''"
In the course of the bath, the bather had undergone various
operations of the toilet. The old comic writer Lucilius, in a
line which has been preserved, states them all in as many
words under the different processes of scraping, shaving,
* Clemens Alexandrinus, PoBdagog., lib. iii., cc. 5 and 9.
TJRK'ONIUM. 129
ecowering, smoothing Avith pumico, adovniiig, expilating, and
finishing off —
Soabor, snppilov, desqnamor, pumieor, ornnr, expilor, pingor,
But other purposes were also provided for in the larger baths.
Adjoining to the l)uildings were usually added gardens with
shady avenues, and within the buildings a large court for
exercises in the open air, with cold swimming baths (piscince),
and above all, an ambulatorium, or cloister for walking under
cover, which usually formed two sides of a square. These
made it a favourite place of resort for the citizens. Hence,
although men of wealth had usually private baths in their
own houses, yet they seem generally to have preferred the
use of the public baths, partly perhaps because the private
baths were smaller and less complete. The younger Phny,
in the interesting description of his villa at Laurentinum,
states, as one of its advantages, the vicinity of the town of
Ostium, where, among other things, there were public baths,
of which he could make use, as an economy, when circum-
stances occurred which rendered it inconvenient to use his
own.'" Private baths are always me t with in the Roman villas
in Britain ; and at least one private bath appears to have
been found attached to a dwelling in the city of Uriconium.t
The general plan of the public baths of Uriconium is
tolerably evident, but the details wUl be better imderstood
when the site has been further cleared, and especially when
the rooms adjacent to the Old Wall, numbered 16 to 20 in
the plan, have been fully explored. On the first glance at
our plan, we are struck by the circumstance that there appears
to have been a duplicate series of rooms corresponding to
each other with remarkable uniformity, the large room 12
forming the centre. It is from what appears to have been
a, receptacle of water in the middle of this latter apartment,
* Frugi qiiiJem homini sufficit etiam vicus, quem una villa rliHceniit ; in hoc balinca
meritoria tria ; magna commoditas, si forte balineum domi vel subitus advcntus vel brcvior
mora calefacere dissnadent. — Plinii Epist., lih. ii. ep. 17.
t See it described in the preceding rbapter, p. lO-S.
130 TJRICONIUM.
that the drain runs northward under the room 18, which has
not been explored, and no doubt under the basilica, to
communicate with a main sewer which ran probably down
to the river, and ^xjihaps at no great distance hence. From
the appearances presented in the course of excavating, a
passage seemed to have run along the southern side of the
northern wall of the room 12, which was interrupted by the
square pit from which this drain proceeded, and which had
furnished a means of communication between these different
apartments. At two places there were wide openings through
the wall from this passage to the northern side of it ; and at
the more easterly of these openings, just at the entrance to
the room 13, there is, at the foot of the wall, a large stone
scooped out in a singular manner, and joining on the other
side to other similar stones which run round the end of the
wall. They have somewhat the appearance of having formed
the side of a water channel, but their real object is, with the
extent of our present knowledge, very uncertain. The first
of these stones is shewn in our view from the east of the
"Excavations at Wroxeter near the Old WaU," and the whole
group appear in the plate of "Eemains of Buildings opposite the
East End of the Old Wall," taken from the opposite side, as
they appeared lying on the ground when this passage was first
opened. The walls round it have become dilapidated since the
earth has been cleared away round them. The bed of the drain
is formed of the large roof tiles, with the flanged edges turned
upwards. The surface of the southern side of the wall
of the passage described above was covered with plaster or
stucco, and a little to the eastward of the pit an inscrip-
tion was fo;md, scrawled in large straggling characters with
some sharp pointed instrument, such as a stylus, and closely
resembling in character the graffiti, as they are termed,
found on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. When,
one evening, this part of the wall was first uncovered, two lines
of this inscription remained, which appeared to have been
its conclusion, and seem to have been perfectly well pre-
XTETCONIUM. 131
served, but, before anybody had an opportunity of examining
it, two casual visitors (for the pubhc were then admitted
freely) amused themselves by employing their walking sticks
or umbrellas to break off the plaster, in order apparently
to try its strength, and they were not observed by the
workmen until the first line had been completely destroyed,
and the second, which had been a shorter one, was very
much broken into. When I visited the excavations next
morning, I could only trace distinctly the letters N T,
which had formed the termination of the second line, but
I was satisfied from what remained that the letter which
preceded them was an A, and that these letters had formed
the termination of a verb in the plural number at the end
of the sentence. I have no doubt that the inscription
was written in Latin. I gathered up the bits of plaster
from the ground, on the faces of many of which were still
visible lines of the letters which had been destroyed, but
they were in far too fragmentary a state, and too much had
been reduced to mere powder, to allow the slightest hope
of putting them together and making anything of the inscrip-
tion. I gave directions for making a careful facsimile of
what remained on the wall, but before this could be done,
the unfortunate misunderstanding with the tenant occurred,
by which we were tempjorarily excluded from the field, and
on our readmission, what had been left of the inscription
was further damaged by the weather, and perhaps by other
meddling visitors, so that aU that remained of this inscription
when I was at length enabled to have it copied, was reduced
to a few mere scratches. Thus, through mere ignorant and
mischievous wantonness, we lost all the advantage of a dis-
covery which might have thrown important as well as curious
light on the state of Britain at this period.
The large apartment marked 12 evidently forms the centre
of a uniform system of rooms, but it would not be safe in
our present extent of knoAvledge to attempt tu fix the pur-
132 URICONIUM.
poses which each was intended to serve. In the hypocaust
of the room marked 13, opposite the eastern extremity of the
Old Wall, the bases of the columns alone remained when it
was opened, the columns themselves having been cleared
aw\ay, probably dragged up for mateiials. The floor has been
of smoothed concrete, which also appears to have been the
material of the floors of the passages leading to it. But the
most interesting feature of this hypocaust is the manner in
which the surface of the northern wall above the floor was,
when brought to light by the excavators, covered Avith
remains and impressions of the flue-tiles which carried
upwards the hot air from the hypocaust through the room.
Few traces of these flue tiles had hitherto been found in
position, though many of them lay broken and scattered
about, but here they had run up in rows close together, as
will be seen in our engraving, which represents a view looking
towards the north, taken when the hypocaust 13 was only
partially opened. A view of this piece of the wall as seen
from the east is also given in a former engraving. A few of
the backs of the broken flue-tiles are found still attached to
the wall, the surface of which is, as wall be seen, covered
with the impressions of the surfaces of others, which were
usually striated with lines in various patterns, to give them
a firmer hold on the mortar. This gTeat accumulation of
flue-tiles must have been intended to give to this room a very
high degree of temperature, and we are perhaps justified in
calling it the caldm^ium. A small square room, 15, mth the
herring-bone brick pavement, adjoins this hypocaust, and
projects beyond what appeare to be the eastern boundary-
wall of the building. This no doulit served some purpose
connected with the apartment 13 — possibly it may have
been a room for ointment, an elcBothesium ; but it must be
remarked that these two rooms have their exact counterparts
in 11 and 14 on the other side of the large room 12. The
latter may be a tqndarium. Passages at the north-western ■
URICOiN-lUM. 133
-corner of the room 13 appear to have communicated du-ectly
with the three rooms 12, 19, and 20. The southern part of
this last room, which may have been a frigidarium, has been
opened, and was found to contain a cold water Ijath, the
floor of which was formed of a tessellated pavement, consisting
of a uniform field of small delicate cream-coloured tessellse,
placed together without the slightest attempt at the intro-
duction of a pattern. The seats remain round part of this
bath, and there are indications on the wall as though there
had once been a wooden floor above, perhaps surrounding the
bath, though it may have belonged to some alteration in the
purpose of the building. The most remarkable circumstance,
however, observed in the southern waU of this room is that,
instead of being covered with the usual facing of stucco,
or plaster, it had been ornamented with mosaic work — a
tesseUated wall, of which a small fragment of a single
gilloche border is aU that now remains. But in the earlier
period of our excavations, a short trench having been dug
into the southern end of the room 16, the Avail corresponding
to that I have just described, was foimd to have been ornamen-
ted in the same manner, much more of the tessellated work
remaining in its place, of which several pieces were broken off,
and one of them at least is preserved in the museum at Shrews-
bury. In the work found here, the tessellse, which were one-half
by three-fifths of an inch square, were alternately of dark and
light stones. From this circumstance, we are led naturaUy
to suppose that the room 16 was the counterpart of 20 ; and
no doubt 19 had the same relationship to 17. The latter
has been opened, and contains a hypocaust stiU supporting
its floor of cement, though this is considerably damaged.
We have thus two uniform sets of apartments which have
been intended severally for the same purposes, and which,
as it is equally evident, were baths ; and this can hardly l^e
explained but by the supposition that they were intended fol
people of different sexes — the men's Ijatlis and the women's
134 UEICONIUM.
"batlis. Possibly the large room 18 may have been a large
vestibule common to both, but it has not yet been explored.
The men's baths ran probably to the west, and included the
large rooms 8 and 7, for they appear usually to have been
more spacious and complicated than those of the other sex.
At Pompeii, the semicircular apse of a large room not unlike
that marked 7 in our plan, contained the lahrum, or large
l^asin, which was furnished with hot water through a pipe at
the bottom,
We have not yet satisfactorily discovered the position and
character of the entrance, or entrances, to the baths of
Uriconium. I once believed that the large breach in the
Old Wall might occupy the site of a principal entrance, on
the supposition that this has been caused first by the tearing
away of large stones, which had formed the doorway, and
which would furnish better materials for building than the rests
of the masonry, and also because a portion of a column was
found near this opening in excavating on the other side of the
wall. But I have since met with what appears to me to be
decisive evidence that I was wrong. In the collection of old
drawings in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London,
there is a very curious sketch, taken from the south, of what
is called, " The Old Work of Wroxeter," drawn near the begin- '
ning of the last century, that is about a hundred and fifty
years ago, of which we give a facsimile, on a somewhat reduced
scale, in the accompanying plate.* In this drawing, what is
now called the Old Wall appears in a much more perfect state
than at present, and portions of the continuation of it westward
are seen above ground nearly, if not quite, to its termination.
The line of wall, also, which formed the southern boundary of
the first series of rooms, opposite the Old Wall, is also seen to
the height of about a yard above grotmd. But, which is most
• Collection of Drawings, &c., in the Libraiy of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. ii p 12
It Ws no date of the time when the di-awing was made, hut the date of its presentation to
the Society of AntKjuanes, which may have been a few years later, is stated in the following
words :—" Hocictati Antiquariw Londini dono dedit rcverendus vii- Mr, Carte, sonr., do
3 -ei^ester.
USrc'ONIUM. 135
important to our present purpose, in the middle of the central
arch of the Old Wall, instead of the present great opening
from the ground, there is merely an irregular hole, of no great
dimensions, and evidently broken through from some cause or
other, at a recent period. It is clear, therefore, that the
entrance to the baths was not through this part of the Old
Wall. On the paper of this drawing the following description
is written, no doubt by the draughtsman : — " The main wall
now standing is 30 yards long, and the foundation from it
westward is 40 yards, so that the whole wall and foundation is
.70 yards long. The middle arch is 6 yards high from the
ground, but from the floor much higher. It is 6 yards broad.
The other two only 4 yards broad, but exactly the same height.
The hole in the middle arch is supposed to be bulged through,
and so is the other. The two straight black strokes at each
end are two smooth walls coming out at the ending of the
arches. The foundation answering the main wall and arches
\ie., the parallel wall at the opposite end of the rooms] is ten
yards from it. The two rows of tiles go quite through the
wall. The outside of the wall is built exactly as you see it,
the stones laid exactly across one another, but in the middle is
all manner of rubbish and pebbles. The arches seem to be
covered with the same as the wall. There are standing out
some rugged pieces a yard and half from the wall. The wall
is 8 yards high now from the ground. The north side of the
wall is smooth and even, only you may see some small holes
in it like scaifold holes."
It is clear from the foregoing facts, and from other con-
siderations, that what is now called the " Old Wall " was only
the boundary . wall, on this side, of the building containing
the baths.
Before leaving this part of the building, I will point out a
rather curious resemblance it bears to a part of that of the
public baths at Pompeii, which also was covered with barrel
vaults. The accompanying cut represents the remains of the
136
URICONIUM.
three rooms wliieli, at Pompeii, constituted the Frigidarium,-
Tepidariuin, and C'aldarium, or baths, in which severally the
water Avas cold, t^'pid, and hot ; and, although the rooms
A part of the Public Baths at Pompeii.
represented by the three arches in the Old Wall at Wroxeter
may not have l)een employed for exactly the same purposes,
yet we see an exactly similar arrangement, with a similar
kind of vaulting. It is remarkable that the interesting mass
of Roman masonry called the Jewry Wall in Leicester presents
an appearance in some respects so similar to that of the Old
Wall at Wroxeter, that I once believed that it had formed
similarly a part of the pul^lic baths of the Roman city of
Ratse, an appropriation which I believe was first suggested by
Dr. Priestley. In fact, it will be seen by the elevation, in
outline, given in the accompanying cut, that the front of the
Leicester wall presents an appearance not dissimilar to that of
Wroxeter, which will be better understood by the next cut,
which represents a section of it.* This view was sustained by
Mr. J. F. HoUings, in a lecture on Roman Leicester, printed by
the Leicester Literary and Scientific Society ; but more recent
* The following explanation of the reference to the cuts, for the loan of which I am
mdehted to Mr. Hollinffs, is taken from his printed Lecture on Itoman Leicester: " A. — Filled
np with ruhhle. B. — Modem hnckwork. C. — Original thickness of the wall." There have
been here arched doors of the Koman period, through the wall, but this building has evidently
gone through many alterations, and these arches might not have belonged "to the original
buildiug.
URICONIUM.
137
^
excavations in front of the wall did not seem to give any
confirmation to it, and my friend Mr. James Thompson, the
antiquary of Leicester, who seemed once to have held the
same opinion, has since investigated the question more care-
fully, and has arrived at the conclusion that this wall was part
of the defensive Avail of the town, and that here was one
of the entrances.
As I have stated above, the entrance to the i^ublic baths at
Wroxeter was certainly not through the Old Wall, at the
s]3ot marked by the present breach. There may have been
a princijjal entrance from the west, l)y a rather wide pas-
138 UEIGONIUM.
sage which runs between the "Enamellers" workshop, which
will be described further on, and the supposed market place ;
it would have entered the building just at the southern
wall of the baths themselves. But this has only in its favour
the negative evidence that we know nothing to the contrary,
while it has against it, which I look upon as the serious objec-
tion, that it would cross the ambulatorium. I am, therefore, of
opinion that the main entrance to the baths was through the
doorway already described, (5, on the plan), by which we first
crossed the line of the Old Wall at the beeinnins; of our exca-
vations, and which was entered by a step from the passage
between the Balnea and the Basilica. This doorway leads
into a court, of rather small dimensions, in which we had
immediately in face of us the semicircular end of the room 7.
The ground here has been so imperfectly explored, that we
can hardly tell what we had to the east^ but parallel walls have
been traced from which we might be induced to suppose that
there was a flight of steps ascending eastward to the level of
the floors of the various rooms, and leading on one hand to the
head of the staircase 9, and communicatinsf on another hand
with a long passage, that in which were found the remainis of
graffiti, or inscriptions traced on the plaster of the wall, and
from which, to the right and left, the various rooms of the
baths were entered.
The ground to the south of the entrance door 5 and the
semicircular building opposite has not yet been excavated, and
we are entirely ignorant whether it was a continuation of the
open court up to the wall of the ambulatorium, or whether it
contained any other buildings. But to the west of the large
room (7), parallel walls (10) have joined it to the wall of the
ambulatorium, and include a mass of what appear to have been
low walls forming a depository of fuel for the use of the fires of
the hypocausts, with which it communicated. In it were found
abundant evidences of its former purpose, and, besides charcoal,
many small pieces of mineral coal, cinders of which had been
tlRICONlUM. 139
found in the hypocausts themselves. The arrangement of this
system of walls, which are tolerably well preserved, is shewn
with sufficient accuracy in the plan.
The original extent of the western part of the buildings of the
Balnea towards the south appears to have been limited by the
southern wall of the rooms 10, 7, 8, and 11. From the eastern
end of the latter, a wall, f, ran southward, and formed the
western hmit of another building, of which Iwill speak presently.
This wall was the eastern boundary of an extensive square
open court, which was bounded on the north by the buildings
of the baths, just described, and on the west and south by the
ambulatorium. This great court, as I have already stated,
has only been imperfectly explored on the southern side, and
it was found that the centre was occupied by a large tank or
reservoir, no doubt of cold water, (e.) It and the building
to the eastward, containing the supposed bath d, are at
present in great part buried under the heaps of earth thrown
up from the excavations. On the northern end of the interior
of the latter building a numerous series of pillars of a hypo-
caust were found, but whether they formed a continuation of
the room 12, or belonged to a room adjoining to it, is at present
uncertain. In the southern wall of this building, there has
evidently been an entrance, or perhaps two, of tolerable mag-
nitude, as appears by the side walls, and, internally, the building
has here evidently undergone considerable alterations at dif-
ferent times, as even the elevation of the floor has been
changed. The western wall, which is well preserved in its
whole extent to the height of five or six feet, has been covered
with stucco outwardly towards the great court, much of which
was perfect when uncovered, but it soon perished through
exposure to the atmosphere.
The great court appears to have extended originally up to
the southern wall of the rooms 10, 7, 8, 11, but at a later
period new buildings were erected, adjoining to this wall, and
encroaching upon the court to the southward, but to what
140 URICONIUM.
extent is not known, as this part of the site has been very
imperfectly explored. The Avails are of inferior masonry, and
are merely built up to the wall of the older building, without
being in any other way united with it. The part hitherto
uncovered consists of four very small rooms, but they present
no features to lead us even to form a conjecture as to the pur-
pose for which they were designed. In one of them were found
a part of a cornice with rather elegant mouldings, some
other materials from the ruin of the buildings, and a large
mass of iron, which presents some appearance of having been
exposed to a powerful fire. This room was entered by two
steps from a little recess of the court, at F, between the wall
of this latter building and the original wall of the great court.
This recess in the court, when the ground was uncovered in
the course of the excavations, was extremely interesting in
several points of view. The view in our engraving represents
the eastern wall, the original boundary wall of the great court
on this side — to the left we have a part of the Old Wall, to the
right the mound of earth thrown out from the excavations, and
in the distance the Wrekin. It will be seen that, at some
period, a great breach has been made in this piece of wall, and
it had been built up with masonry very inferior to that of the
rest of the wall. But, which is still more interesting, further
building operations were evidently in progress at the time of
the attack in which the town was destroyed, and Avere no
doubt inteiTupted by the approach of the enemies. On the
ground Avere found three blocks of stone, one of Avhich has
since been raised to the top of the Avail, Avhere it is seen in the
engraving. These blocks had been in the hands of the stone-
cutters, who, Avhen they were interrupted, had begun to form
them roughly into shape, and in this very unfinished condition
they are now found. They appear to have been designed to
form the top of the arches of doorways or windows. They pre-
sent curious evidence of the degree of vital activity which
continued to exist in this toAvn down to the very moment of
its ruin.
IfEICONIUM. 141
Other materials for building also lay scattered about the
ground, a heap of which, as they were pUed up against the wall
by the excavators, are seen to the right in our view. Among them
are rather numerous blocks of a sort of artificial tufa, made chiefly
of vegetable materials, and cut into the form of modem bricks.
It appears to have been employed indiscriminately with the
squared stones in the facing of the walls. I have been in-
formed that a similar artificial substance for the same purpose
is still, or has very recently been made in Suffolk.* Leaves
and branches of trees, mixed with mud or clay, are beaten
up together, until they are kneaded into a consistant
mass, which is left to dry, and, when sufficiently hard, is cut
into these small square blocks. In course of time this Roman
artificial tufa has attained the hardness of stone. But the
leaves, in this state of petrifaction, have preserved their forms
so perfectly, that, when broken, they actually offer studies for
the modern botanist. Pieces picked up at Wroxeter, have
off'ered, among others, abundance of leaves of the Quercus
robur and pedunculata, the ordinary modern oaks of the
British forest, the black thorn, the willow with short rounded
leaves, and the alder, with some grasses. All these have
been observed by my excellent friend, Mr. Samuel Wood, of
Shrewsbur}^, who pointed out to me a curious question which
is decided by the vegetable remains preserved in this artificial
tufa. Lindley held the opinion, which some other botanists
have shared, that the modern oak of our forests is not the
original British oak, but that it was the Quercus sessiliflora,
* I have since received the foUow'ing information, fumislied to Mr. Wood by a Suffollt
friend. — "I have been fi-om home, or would have replied to your enquii-ies respecting " Tufa"
in Suffolk. I told you we used it, but now it is quite given up, excepting in a few villages.
The last walls btult with it, at our own farm at Cretingham in Sufibik, was about the year
1841, or 2. They used for mixing with the clay, what they call hanbur ; it was the stubble
left in wheat fields where the sickle was used, and afterwards mo\vn ; this was stamped by
horses into the clay, plenty of water being used, and the worst horses we had, as it strained
them so much ; it was then moulded into" brick, 18 by 9, so that the walls were eight inches
thick ; the bricks were allowed to dry for several days, and were then laid with a thinner
paste of the same composition. We have stiU two sheds, and six or eight cottages in the
village, built in this manner. I will write for information if still used. But the great fault in
the walls was this — the stock would lick and bite them, until they got gi-eat holes through, and
in addition, the frost, just where they stood on the wet ground, ci-umbled them away so.
Sticks and leaves were used at one time, as I have picked thom out of very old walls, but i
never saw any put in ; the hauhn was more easUy got at.
142 UTHCONIUM.
which he strongly recommended for planting and cultivation
as growing quicker and producing better timber than the com-
mon oak, and at the same time forming a very handsome and
straight tree. When such ancient examples as, in our own
county, the Shelton or Glendwr Oak, the Lady Oak at Cressage,
and the Boscobel Oak, all Quercus robur and pedunculata, were
adduced, these were rejected as of comparatively modern date,
and affording no evidence of what grew there in British or in
Eoman times, but the examples found in this Roman artificial
tufa leave no further room for doubt on the question. It may
be remarked, that there were portions of the branches mixed up
with the leaves, which, decaying and leaving holes, made this
artificial tufa fighter than it would otherwise have been.
We have, no doubt, ascertained quite satisfactorily, the limits
of the site of the public baths of Uriconium, towards the north,
west, and south, but they are less certain on the eastern side.
At first I imagined that they were bounded on this side by a
fine drawn G to K in the plan, but one or two hot and dry
summers have furnished evidence that this is not the case.
At the time when the vegetation is most effected by the heat
and drought, we can distinctly trace, looking down from the
summit of the mound of earth raised from the excavations,
fines of walls which exist under ground, to a little distance
eastward, which appear to have formed part of the bufiding of
the Balnea. But it will only be by excavation that we shall
ascertain the true character of these buried buildings.
The existence of pubfic baths of such considerable extent, in
a town so remote from the centre of the Eoman power as
Uriconium, shows us that the Romans carried into their most
distant settlements the same love of personal cleanfiness which
characterised them so strongly in Italy. That there was no
diminution in the importance attached to these public baths in
Uriconium during the Eoman period, but that, as a social
institution, they were in fuU activity to the last, is proved by
the state ui which they were found when excavated, by the
UEICONIUM. 143
remains of the fuel, some of it only imperfectly burnt in the
hypocausts, by the skeletons found in the hypocausts, and by
the money they carried, and by the circumstance that repairs
were going on in the buildings at the time when the town was
attacked and destroyed. Under the weight of this catastrophe
the baths of Uriconium of course ceased to be frequented.
But there is no reason for supposing that the use of the Eoman
baths was discontinued by the populations of the Eoman
towns which stood their ground, as was the case with most of
the large towns, after the imperial authority was withdrawn.
That this was not the case on the continent we can have no
doubt, and it would be far from an uninteresting labour to
investigate the question, how long the use of the Eoman baths
continued in Western Europe during the middle ages. The disuse
of the Eoman hot air bath arose, perhaps, from the neglect,
and eventual abandonment of the hypocaust, among people
who did not yet sufficiently appreciate it, but still more perhaps
from the exaggerated ascetic spirit which was early introduced
into the Christian Church, which taught that it was man's
duty to mortify his body, and not cherish or cleanse it, in
fact, that fnth was more grateful to God than cleanliness. I
believe it is told, as a most satisfactory proof of the extreme
piety of a saint, that he washed only once in a year, or in a
very long space of time. Yet public baths continued to exist,
and are alluded to not unfrequently in the saints' lives. We
are told of baths which were frequented more than others,
because a very revered saint had used them, and was supposed
by that circumstance to have conferred miraculous powers
upon the waters, and another refused to enter the bath because
he saw a heretic among the crowd who were using it. More-
over, some of the earlier mediaeval writers speak of the fees
which were given to the bath-keepers. In England, one of the
capitula of Theodore of Canterbury, (in the first half of the
seventh century), is directed against the practice of men
entering the same bath with women, and enjoins, as a penance
144 tJRICONIUM.
for each act of this description, three days' fasting.^" This
mast, of course, relate to a public bath ; and, moreover, the
baths which the church objected to were warm baths, which
were considered as a luxury, and it was looked upon as a
punishment to be compelled to abstain from them. One of the
ecclesiastical canons enacted under king Edgar, enjoins to a
man as a penance, among other things, " nor that he come into
a warm bath fo7i wearmum boetlie), nor into a soft bed, nor
taste flesh," &c. That the Eoman bath was foreign to the
habits of the Anglo-Saxons before they came into this island
is evident from their difficulty in naming it in their language ;
for in their vocabularies they represented the Latin word,
thermce by bcedh-stede and bcedh-stoiv, a bath-place, or by
bcedh-his, a bath-house, and they translate apodyteriuvi, the
name the Eomans gave to one of the rooms, by badhiendra
manna litis, the bathing men's house, thcBr hi hi unsrcredadh
inna, in which they undress themselves.f The warm bath,
nevertheless, continued under the Anglo-Saxons, to form one
of the luxuries, and even of the necessities of the household.
Among the duties of charity, the canons just quoted enume-
rate to " feed the needy, and clothe, house, and fire, bathe, and
bed them ;" and again, the good man was enjoined to "give
the shelter of his house, and meat and protection to those who
need it ; and fire, and food, and bed, and bath." On the con-
trary, the cold bath is spoken of as itself a punishment and
penance ; and to mortify a man's body against lust, it is
ordered, " let him suffer cold and cold bath, tholige cyl and
cold bcBdh ongean tha hliwthe.'"^ But it was only in the east
that the vapour baths of the Eomans continued to preserve
their true character, which has been there preserved to the
• Be illis qui cum mnilierihis in halneo sese larerint. Si quis in balneo se lavare
prtesumpserit cum mulieribns, tres dies poeniteat, et ulterins non prajsumat. Thorpe's Ancient
Lavi'i and Institutes of England, vol. ii., p. 71.
+ See my Volume of Vocahularies, jip. 37 and 57.
} Thorpe's Ancient. Lavs and Institutes of England, vol. ii., pp. 2S0, 282, 2S4,
umooNiUM. 3 45
present day ; in our west they liad ali'eady degenerated mostly
into nothing more than tubs full of hot water.
The extent and rather laborious arrangements of these baths
show the great attention and care bestowed by the Romans on
the cleanliness and sanitary condition of the population of their
towns, even in their distant provinces like Britain. There can
be no doubt, from allusions in ancient writers, that the Eoman
towns were provided with public establishments for the ease-
ments of nature, but they are establishments of which, from
the subject itself, we have least reason to expect any particular
descriptions. One name for such a place was forica, a word
the derivation of which is somewhat doubtful. Juvenal,
speaking of the worthless people who obtained employments
then more or less reputable or lucrative, describes them as
descending eventually to their own level, and becoming the
keepers of foricce, or, as such officers were then called,ybricariV,
who received a small fee in this character.
" inde reversi
Conducunt foricas." — Juvenal, Sat. III., I. 38.
The commentators on Juvenal regard these as public
privies, but there is so much of uncertainty in the question,
that others hold this interpretation to be wi'ong, and assert
that the foricce were common taverns, so named because they
were situated in the neighbourhood of the forum. The same
diflference of opinion exists with regard to the word latrina
itself, which, according to some critics, means a place not for
easement, but merely for washing. However, the manner in
which this word is explained in the later glossaries and voca-
bularies seems to show that these critics were in the wrong.
In the later period of the western empire, several different
names were given to these establishments, perhaps from a
sentiment of euphuism, such as hypodromum, literally, a place
of refuge, spidromum and spondoromum, (presenting, appa-
rently, a similar meaning, these being what might be called
K
14G URICONIUM.
" liard ^vords," derived from the Greek,) secessus, a place of
retreat, and others, but latrina appears to have been the word
most generally in use, and best understood."' An early list of
the buildings, &c., in ancient Rome, informs us that there were
in that city a hundred and fourteen public latrinfe.t
We have no information as to the form of these public
latrine in the Eoman towns. But some years ago the atten-
tion of our antiquaries was called to circular pits, of small diam-
eter, but of rather considerable depth, found in a part of the
city of Winchester, the Venta Belgarum of the Romans. The
discovery of such pits in Winchester was found to be not an
uncommon occurrence, and they all contained objects of un-
doubted Eoman manufacture, such as broken pottery, coins,
and objects in bronze and other metals, but I believe they
were mostly opened under the eyes of ignorant or unskilful
observers, and that none of them were carefully examined.
The object of these pits could only be guessed at, but, on
account of the very miscellaneous character of the objects
found in them, they were called by the anticjuaries of that clay
rubbish pits. Somewhat later, a number of similar pits were
found at Ewell in Surrey. These appear to have formed a sort
of group of circular pits sunk in the solid chalk rock ; they
were from twelve to thirty-seven feet deep, and from two feet
two inches to four feel; in diameter. The soil with which they
were filled contained animal bones, fragments of Samian ware
and other pottery, broken glass, Roman coins, and other
objects, such as one might suppose to have been thrown or
dropped accidentally into an open pit. Ewell stands nearly
on the line of the Roman road from London to Chichester, the
* The same use of Indii'ect tenns for tlie privy prevailed among our Ajiglo-Saxon fore-
fatliers, witli whom the most commou name "was gang, gong, or genga, meaning simply, a
place where x)eople went, and its compounds, such as gang-tern, a gang comer, gang-^itte, a
gang-pit, gang-settl, a gang-seat, gang-tun, a gang enclosure, &c. This word gong was
preserved in the English language to a late period. The Angio-Sasons also applied to the
place the adjective rf'V/'c;, private or secret, a.s digle-hus, tlie secret house, digel-gang-eim, the
secret gang comer. The Anglo-Saxon vocahnlaries have preserved another name, gold-hord-hus,
a gold treasure house, or gold treasury, which is still more curious from its connexion with the
name gold-finder, or gold-farmer, given as late as the seventeenth centuiy to cleane re of privies.
It is at this time still in use in Shrewsbury to designate such men.
t Latrin[e publico? cxiv. Victor de liegionihus Urhis, in Grcvvius, torn. iv. col. 1433.
URICONIUM. 147
Regnum of the Romans. These pits at Evvell are described in
the thirty-second volume of the Archfeologia of the Society of
Antiquaries (p. 451), by Dr. Diamond, who started the, as I
thought, unfortiinate theory that they were sepulclu'al. The
mystery, however, was cleared up when, some years later, the
railway was made from Minster to Sandwich, in the construction
of which a part of the hill at Hichborough, on the summit of
which stand the ruins of the citadel of Roman Rutuioiw, was
cut away, and pits of the same description were laid open to
view. There could be no doubt that these pits had been
latrmae, public places for personal easement. The diameter of
these pits at Richborough was so small, and their depth so
considerable, that it is difficult to imagine by what process they
were formed. They contained in abundance the same
description of miscellaneous objects which were found in the
pits at Winchester and Ewell, and the earth taken from the
bottom was pronounced by an experienced chemist, who
examined it, to be the remains of stercoraceous matter.'"' These
pits appear to have been arranged in a rather considerable
group on the top of the hill of RichlDorough, outside the walls
of the citadel, and they were no doubt covered with seats, and
with some kind of superstructure, probably of wood. We had
here then discovered one form of the public latrinte of the
Roman towns in Britain; but the excavations at Wroxeter
have shown us that the latriase, or foricis, of Uriconium were
much more perfect in their character.
I have already mentioned that, in the passage, or alley,
there was a doorway (6), with a stone step which was very
much worn by the action of the feet, and, as I have also
observed, we did not cross the line of the old wall to the south-
ward at this place. Since then, however, the excavations have
been carried on extensively on the ground to the south, and
have exposed to view the buildings represented in our plate.
* The pits at Ewell have since been further examined by Jlr. C. Warne, who found in
them unmistakable evidence of their having been latriiia.
148 UEICONIUM.
Our view is taken from the line of the Old Wall looking south-
ward ; before us is seen the steeple of Wroxeter church, and in
the distance the Wenlock hills, with Lawley Hill and Caer
Caradoc on the right. It will be seen that the building in
front consists of four parallel walls running south from the
line of the Old Wall. The distance between the two walls to
the left is only a little more than two feet, and the appearance
of the floor at the bottom left no doubt, when opened, that
it had been a drain into which refuse had been dropped,
which had been carried oS apparently by a continuation of
the drain under the buildings to the north, in the same
directon, and no doubt in the same manner, as the drain we
discovered more to the east running under the rooms marked
1 2 and 1 9 on the plan. The earth at the bottom presented
similar characteristics to that foixnd in the pits at Eich-
borough, and in it were found fragments of pottery and
other objects, among which was a small earthen vessel con-
taining almost unbroken the shell of a hen's egg. This is
preserved in the Wroxeter Museum at Shrewsbury. From
some indications on these walls, we are led to believe that
it was originally covered with wood-work — in fact, a row of
seats of a privy. The similar space between the two walls on
the other side, or to the west, is rather more than five feet
wide, and if designed for the same purpose, was perhaps
somewhat differently arranged. It will be seen that there
is a slight set-off on the wall to the right at the same elevation
at which there is a row of holes on the wall opposite, which
seem to have been intended for the support of a wooden
structure, but of what kind I wiU not venture to conjecture.
It appears, with the drain on the other side, to have formed
part of the arrangements of one and the same building. The
middle compartment, which is about fifteen feet and a half
wide, has been filled up with earth so as to form a floor, which
was covered with a pavement of small bricks set in herring-
bone pattern, and, as this description of pavement seems to
URICONIUM. 149
have been generally used where it was exposed to the open
air, this part of the building was perhaps without a roof. A
portion of the pavement still remains as shewn by the shading
in the engraving. There are no traces of an entrance in the
southern wall of this building, but the door with the worn
step, alluded to above, appears to have led to the middle
opening with the herring-bone pavement. Unfortunately,
through accidental circumstances, we have not yet been able
to carry the excavations close up to the northern walls, so as
to identify the portion of the door, and ascertain how the
drains passed under the basHica.
We have thus, in these two forms of supplying a want
which would hardly be thought of in a low state of civilization,
and which has been supplied only very imperfectly even in
recent times, evidence of the refinement of Eoman society
carried into Britain. How long such establishments were
preserved in the far west after the fall of the Eoman power,
we have no longer the means of knowing. Perhaps the Anglo-
Saxon name of gang-pit may be considered an evidence of the
continued existence of such pits as those found at Winchester,
Ewell, and Eichborough ; but the larger buildings containing
rows of seats like that which appears to have existed at
Uriconium certainly continued to exist in the middle ages,
and were in fact not only the models of the great latrinse of the
monastic and other establishments, but of those of the larger
private mansions which have only been discontinued at a very
recent period. The more we look into the minute details of
manners of former days, the more we become convinced to
what an extent medi;fival society was merely Eoman society
degraded, that is, modified gradually in its adoption by the
" Barbarians " who had seized upon the Eoman provinces.
150
CHAPTER IV.
THE LITTLE MARKET PLACE ; WORKSHOPS, TRADES, AND
PROFESSIONS ; THE FORUM OF URICONIUM.
We had found, by tlie discoveries related in the last chapter, that
the principal public buildings of a utilitarian character, its
basilica or court-house, its public baths, and its pubHc latrinae,
were proportionate to the extent of the town as indicated by
the course of the line of its surroundins; wall. We have been
able further to bring to light one or two other buildings of a
more or less public character. The basilica, as I have already
stated, appeared to have formed the corner of two streets
crossino- each other at rig-ht andes. The side of the street
I'unning nearly east and west was explored as far as it was in
our power to explore it, namely, to the hedge forming the
eastern boundary of the field, and it appeared to have been
formed entirely of the basilica, or of buildings or walls con-
nected with it. With the side of the transverse street running
southward, this was not the case. The western end of the
basilica, in which was apparently the principal entrance into
its central area, abutted upon the street ; but the baths, and
even the latrinte, lay back, leaving a considerable space
between these walls and the street, which there could be little
douljt had been covered with Ijuildings. These, after having
satisfied ourselves of the character of the buildiufTs we had
already opened, we proceeded to explore.
It was soon found that a line of wall extended continu-
ously southward from the end of the basilica and in continua-
tion of its southern face. In tracing this wall to the south.
URICONIUM. - 151
the excavators came to two openings, at some distance apart,
which induced us immediately to explore the ground on the
other side of the wall. The first of these openings was twelve
feet wide, at an elevation of two or three feet from the level
of the street, and had been approached by an inclined plane,
the central part of which was formed l)y three great l:)locks of
squared stone, and the rest apparently of smoothed concrete.
These stones which are represented in the engraving as they
now lie, were, when first uncovered, in their original position,
as forming part of the inclined plane. The other opening
through the wall was at the same elevation, but it was
approached by two steps. Both entrances were found to lead
into the same inclosure, a quadrangular court about forty feet
square, paved with the same herring-bone brickwork which
we have met \vith in other parts of these ruins. This extended
over the whole space, except apparently in the centre, where,
over a small extent, there were no traces of the former exist-
ence of pavement, and the appearance of the gTound, when
examined, led us to suppose that it might have been occupied
by some structure, the remains of which had been all cleared
away for building materials. On the northern and southern
sides of this court we found a series of square rooms, marked
g, g, g, on the plan, four on the northern side, and three on
the southern, each about twelve feet square. Our view of the
larger entrance represents these rooms on the northern side
when three of them had been partly opened. The one nearest
the street, shewn in front of our view, which is the only one
yet cleared out, w^as found to be no less than ten feet deep, with
a low cross wall at the bottom. In it was found a quantity of
unburnt charcoal, with some remains of mineral coal. In two
of the rooms, one on the north side, the other on the south, great
quantities of bones of various animals and horns of stags were
found ; and, as many of these had been cut and sawed, the
notion suggested itself that they may have been stores of the
materials used by the manufacturers of the objects made of bone
152 . URICONIUM.
wliicli are found so numerously among the ruins of Urico-
nium, and, in fact, that all these square chambers were depots
of materials for sale. This conjecture appeared to receive some
confirmation from the circumstance that a number of undoubted
weights were picked up in the court, which Avould seem to
show that articles of some kind had l^een delivered out by
weighing. The larger entrance is supposed to have been
intended for horses, and perhaps for carts ; and this suppo-
sition seems confirmed by the circumstances that the pavement
on this side of the court had evidently been much damaged
and repaired in Eoman times, and that a portion of an iron
horseshoe was found upon it. The appearance of the southern,
or smaller, entrance to the court was still more remarkable.
It had evidently been the entrance for people on foot. The
appearance of the two steps by which it was approached, will
be best understood by the view on our plate. One corner of
the stone forming the lower step is quite worn away, and the
stone of the upper step had been so much worn and hollowed
by the same cause — the feet of those who had walked over it —
that it broke into three pieces when the excavators attempted
to raise it. There is also, on the most worn side of this upper
stone, corresponding exactly to the worn corner of the lower
stone, a deep hollow, in the form of a man's foot, which looks
as though it had Iseen scooped out intentionally, for we can
hardly suppose it to have been worn into this form merely by
people treading upon it. The condition of these steps proves
that this cpiadrangular court must have been frequented by a
great number of people on foot, and that the concourse of
visitors came up the street from the south. After a fair con-
sideration of the facts above enumerated, my opinion is that
this quadrangular court was a market place, the nuncUnce, or
forum nundinarium of the Roman town of Uriconium. We
have thus an unique illustration of one of those social insti-
tutions which have been handed down to us by the ancient
Eomans.
URICONIUM. 153
The market was an institution the origin of which the
Roman antiquaries carried back to a very remote date. In
fact, from the moment when people began to settle and culti-
vate the land, they soon saw the necessity of some arrangement
of this kind. Each cultivator naturally produced more than
he wanted of some articles, and less than he wanted of others,
and others again, Avhich gradually became necessaries, he might
not produce at all ; he felt, therefore, the want of some means
of carrying his superfluities to exchange them with those who
possessed in superfluity the things he wanted, for, before
money was invented, all commerce was carried on by exchange,
and with the Romans the institution of a market preceded that
of a mint. The place naturally chosen for such meeting would
be the town of the district or tribe, but, unless strictly regulat-
ed, this sort of commerce would lead to great confusion and
inconvenience, for the town would be continually embarrassed
by the number of rustic visitors, whUe the labour of agriculture
was neglected. As a remedy, the earlier kings divided the
year into periods of nine days, and made the ninth day a holy
day, on which the agricultural population was to abstain from
work, and might go into the town to sell and buy and transact
other business which appertained to them, such as setthng
private disputes by law. The Romans had a peculiar method
of reckoning time, according to which each ninth day was
counted as the first of the next nine, so that seven days only
intervened, and in truth the market was held every eighth day
and not on the ninth. ■^'' Nevertheless, the Romans considered
it as the ninth day, and called it nundince, a word contracted
from novendince, and derived from novem, nine. According to
Macrobius, some ascribed the institution of the nundinse to
Romulus himself, while others said that they originated with
Servius Tullius. They were the only days on which the rural
* It maT te remarked that traces of this mode of reckoning are still found in countries
where the Roman element prevails. Thus the French call a week Imt jours, and a fortnight
quinxe jours The ItaUans say quindici giarni, for a fortmght ; and the Spaniards qmnze dias.
Even the Germans say acht tage, eight days, for a week.
154 URICONIUM.
population was allowed to go into Rome, while, during the
intervening seven, rustics were confined to their agricultural
labours ; and hence these seven days were called dies rustici,
and those of the nundinse dies urbani. These were made
sacred, and placed under the protection of a goddess named
Nundinee, and people were not allowed to work or to plead in
court on them. The comitia were not allowed to be held on
these days, but this regulation is said to have arisen from the
fear that the influx of country people would interfere with the
debates.* As, however, the principal business of the day was
buying and selling, the nundinse were exactly equivalent to our
market day, and the word itself v/as commonly used in the sense
of a market, or even of a sale ; the act of purchasing was
called nundinatio, and the place in which the market was held
was also termed nundincB, or, sometimes, forum nimdinariiim.
Markets of all kinds were placed under the patronage of Mer-
cury, and a Roman inscription found at Birstadt near AViesbaden,
commemorated a dedication to Mercury in the words —
DEO MERCVEIO
NVNDINATO PJ.
Deo Mercurio Nundinatori, to the god Mercury the patron of
the Nundinse.t Possibly a statue of Mercury, or a dedication
to the god, may once have stood in the centre of the Nundinse
at Uriconium.
The Roman nundinse were placed under restrictions, and
subjected to the control of the senate, which alone had the
right of instituting or regulating them. According to Sueto-
nius, the emperor Claudius asked the consuls for permission to
establish nundinse on his own estates.^ In towns in the pro-
vinces, like Uriconium, the market was perhaps considered as
* The sacred character of the nunclmoe was surrounded mth many superstitions, some
of which were odd enough. If the first day of the year happened on the nuudiuas, it was
heUeved that the whole year would be unlucky. To avoid this misfortune the Romans had
recoui'se to intercalation, and made the previous month a day longer. The country people
shaved between the nundin£e. Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. xxviii. c. 5, tells us that it was considered
ominous, in a pecuniary pouit of view, for a person to pare his uaUs without spealdng on the
nundin<T3 at Eome, or, in paring them, to begin with the forefinger.
+ The inscription is given by Eeinesius, Sj-ntagma luscriptionuni Eomnn. tom. i., p 118,
and more correctly in the recent work of Dr. Steiner, Codex Inscript. Eom. Kheni.
+ Jus nundinarum in privata pra:dia a consulihus petiit. Suetonius, lib. v., c. 12.
URICONIUM. 155
a part of the privileges given by their municipal constitution,
and was thus under the control of the municipal magis-
trates. At a later period the emperors exercised a control
over the instituting of markets, to prevent new ones from
being unnecessarily created to the injury of those already
existing. After the week of seven days, dedicated to the seven
gods, was adopted by the Eomans, the nundinse were moved
to the last day of the week, and were thus held every seventh
day, instead of the eighth. In the time of Constantino they
were held on the dies solis, or Sunday. When the Christians
adopted the Sunday as their Sabbath, the nundinse were
removed to the dies Sabhati, or Saturday, which was considered
to be the last day of the week ; but in the middle ages there
was a great tendency to carry back the market to the Sunday,
perhaps because it was a clay on which work was not allowed.
When the barbarians establisherl themselves in the Eoman
provinces, the nundinse continued to exist, as one of the
municipal institutions, and its importance was too great and
too evident to allow them to disregard it. The king assumed
as one of his prerogatives the right of giving licence to establish
them. The Eomans had the mercatus as well as the nundinse ;
but the latter was the more important and more regular
institution of the two. To use the language of writers on this
subject, "aUnundiDse were markets, but all markets were not
nundinse."''" But, in passing to the middle sges, the relation
between these two words became changed, and the word
mercatus was applied to the regular market, whUe the term
nundince was given to the greater mercantile assembhes at
particidar places which we term fairs, such as those of Leipsic,
Frankfort, Leyden, &c. ^^^len the Saxons and Angles settled
in Britain, they brought in their language the word ceapian,
which signifies to trade or bargain, to buy, and seemed to have
belonged especially to itinerant dealers, for they do not appear
• Nundmse omnes mercatus sunt ; non omnes mercatus nundinse. Erycii Puteani Bamel-
rodii De Nundinis Eomanis, iu Graevius, Thesaur, Antiq. torn, viii., col. 646.
156 XJEIOONIUM.
to have been acquainted with the regular Eoman forum, or
market place. A sale or act of selling was called ceap, or
ceaping; and they called the place where such selling took place
ceap-stoiv, a place of selling, and ceap-strcBt, the road or street
in which such sale was going on, and the day fixed for such
sale ceap-dceg or selling-day. In archbishop Alfric's Vocabu-
lary, the Latin nonai, or days of the nundinee, are interpreted
by ceap-dagas, market-days. The Anglo-Saxon word is now
only preserved in our chapmen, and chaphooks, and in local
names, such as Cheapside, the commercial quarter of mediaeval
London, and Chipping Norton, Chipping Ongar, and similar
names. Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, was no doubt originally
a regular place of market, instituted by the Saxons, because
they gave it their name, ceap-stoio, as a place of meeting for
the people of both sides the border to exchange their merchan-
dise. The Normans, with their feudal institutions, adopted the
Latin word mercatus, the use of which had been established on
the continent, and introduced it under a Frencliified form
marchet, which became our modern word market, which has
since entirely superseded the Saxon word. After Uriconium
was destroyed, its market, or nundinse, no doubt gradually
transferred itself to the site of the present town of Shrewsbury ;
and in the particular ruins we are now contemplating we
may perhaps see the original representative of Shrewsbury
market-hall.
We have no means of judging of the character of the
buildings of this quadrangular court, or market place, or of the
appearance it presented towards the street, but we may sup-
pose that its architecture was more or less ornamental, especially
if we might assume that the sculptured fragments found among
its ruin belonged to it. When it was excavated, the portion
of the capital of a column, represented in the accompanying
cut, was found lying on the floor. It is rather classical in style,
and of large dimensions, for in its present state it is more
than two feet high, and this is little more than two-thirds of
UKICONIUM.
157
its original height, for an upper part of a capital, corresponding
with it, was also found, and
is placed over it in the Mu-
seum at Shrewsbury. As,
however, this upper part
evidently belonged to an-
other capital, and not to
the one here represented,
there must liave been at
least two of them. Among
other objects foimd on the
floor of this court, were
the remains of several docs Eoman capital, from the Quadrangular Com-t.
the skull of one of which, now preserved in the Museum,
bespoke an animal of the mastiff kind, of an unknown species,
perhaps the British dog spoken of so much by Eoman writers.
It will be seen in the plan, that the series of rooms does not
extend along the whole of the southern side of the court ; but
leaves an opening at the south-eastern corner, at h, where there
was a descent, apparently by steps, to a level about two feet
lower than the floor of the court, which also was paved with
the small bricks in herring-bone pattern. There appeared to
have been here a descent to an opening into the bottom of the
easternmost of the rooms marked g, but the groimdhad been so
much broken that it was not possible to decide on its true
character. From this lower floor, ran, along the eastern side
of the court, what we supposed at first to have been a sort of
long gallery, or cryptoporticus, which had for its eastern side
the outer waU of the ambulatory of the Baths, but, on being
cleared out, it presented an unexpected appearance. It extends
the whole length of the court and its side rooms, and is divid-
ed into compartments by transverse walls, running from the
wall forming the side of the court, about half-way across the
space between it and the opposite wall. A passage is thus
left, which runs along the whole extent of this building, and
158 tJRICONIUM.
appears to have communicated at both extremities with open-
ings of some kind which ran along the northern and southern
sides of ihe buildings of the court, but which have not yet been
fully explored. The present appearance of these walls at the
back of the quadrangular court, or market, will be better under-
stood by the view given in our engraving, in which the farm
buildings, of which I shall soon have to speak^ appear in the
background. Opposite these recesses, there appears to have
been a door in the wall leading from the passage or gallery in
front of them into the ambulatorium of the baths. Perhaps
the notion that these recesses were intended to contain shops
may be considered to be confirmed by the fact, that on the
floor of one of them, the northernmost, the excavators found a
small cylindrical coffer, or box, in diameter about the size of
an ordinary tumbler glass, and supported upon three short
legs. The lid was upon it, and the decomposition of the metal
had caused it to be in a manner hermetically sealed. It has,
however, been sawed off since it was deposited in the ]\Tuseum,
and the state in which its contents were found seemed to indi-
cate that it was in an untouched condition, as if for sale,
rather than having been in use. Before we leave this supposed
market place, it will be well to remark that the walls of the
rooms mentioned above as bordering it on each side, and
which are 'probably all of the same depth as that which was
excavated to the bottom, as high as they now remain, that is,
aljout two feet above the floor of the court, present no trace of
entrances, which must, therefore, have been higher in the wall,
and they were perhaps entered by a ladder, or by wooden
steps.
In tracing back the line of the wall through which we had
first entered the quadrangular court supposed to be a
market place, wo came to other openings at c, c, which led
us into what proved to be a large square room (n), which was
about thirty-eight feet in breadth and forty in length. The
side of this room looking towards the street appears to have
UEICONIXJM.
15.9
been open to it, or at least the masonry of the wall presents
the appearance of having had wide doors, or a framework of
wood, in t-wo compartments, and it was soon found to have
been the workshop of an artificer in metals. Towards the
north-western corner of the room, at a spot marked 2 in the
plan of the excavations, stood a pile in the form of a sugar loaf,
about six feet high, buUt very roughly of clay, mixed with
stones and other unprepared materials, among which were
several pieces of unburnt mineral coal, a sufficient proof that
that substance was plentifid in Eoman Uriconium. On the
eastern side of this structure, near the top, was a small furnace,
which had contained a fire so intensely hot that the whole
internal surface was vitrified to some depth. From the form
and position of this little furnace, it is quite evident that it
must have been heated by a powerful blast, no doubt of bel-
lows, but which, with their machinery, have long disappeared.
Remains of burnt charcoal were found in it, and on the ground
Interior of the Enameller's Shop.
near it. By the side of this sugar-loaf, and just opposite the
furnace, stands upright a rudely-formed cybndrical stone (3)
resembling the stump of a column, which was evidently used,
in one way or other, for working metals which were melted, or
rendered malleable, in it. These objects will be better under-
stood by the accompanying sketch, taken from the south east.
160
URICONIUM.
The purpose of the cylindrical stone, at least, is easily illus-
trated from engraved gems, and other works of ancient art,
in which are found rather numerous pictures of the forge
of Vulcan, and of other scenes of a similar description,
representing both the furnace and the anvil. The first of
those here represented, that to the right, is taken from a
sepulchral marble at Eome ; the second, which represents
Vulcan forging thunderbolts for Jupiter, is furnished by a gem
in the old Cabinet Royal at Paris ; and the third is also taken
from an engraved gem. Other examples might easily be added
to these, but it may be sufficient to remark that the form of
the stand of the anvil is invariably the same — a short cylin-
drical stone or stump of a column. On comparing these with
the object in our room at Wroxeter, and considering its
Romiiu Anvils, from Antiques.
position, we cannot hesitate in looking upon the latter as
having been the support of an anvil. Now it has been
already remarked, that in clearing the ruins of some small
rooms at the north-eastern corner of the great court of the
Baths, as represented in a former plate, a large mass of iron
had been found, which had evidently been exposed to the
action of fire, and from that cause, and the effects of decom-
position, presented no very intelligible form. It lay upon
remains of building materials, as though it had been dropped
there, and it had evidently been carried away from its proper
place. But, when examined a little more carefully, this mass
URICONIUM. 161
of iron presented rather distinct appearances of liaviug formed
some object resembling an anvil ; and I felt convinced that it
was the anvil which once stood upon the cylindrical block of
stone above described, which with it would still more exactly
resemble the figures I have given from th: ancient gems,
Some individual, probably at the time when people were
breaking up the ruins to carry tlicm away as building materials,
seized upon this piece of iron, and would have carried it off
also ; but, perhaps finding it heavier than was convenient,
he let it drop on this spot, and it was left here. The cylind-
rical block of stone is strongly bevelled round the top, perhaps
to receive a wooden case on which the anvil was placed.
The smallness of the furnace is enough to convince us that
the objects of metal made on this anvil were not on a large
scale ; and there are other circumstances connected with the
room itself which are deserving of consideration. Its front, as
just remarked, appears to have been open to the street,
like the shop of a modern coach-builder, in two openings,
separated by a pier of masonry, and no doubt capable of being-
closed with wood-work, the sides beino- g-rooved for this
purpose. On this side of the room, internally, there was a
smooth floor of cement, nearly level with the siU of the
entrance openings, and extending not quite to the middle of
the room. Beyond this, there is a floor at a much lower level,
formed entirely of very fine sand, which has been brought
from a distance, and placed to a considerable depth upon
the natural sod of the spot. The only use we can imagine for
this sand would be to form moulds for casting, and various
other circumstances seem to show that this was, in fact, a work-
shop for the fabrication of small ornamental objects in metal.
A considerable quantity of the scoriae from molten metals were
found scattered about, both within the room and outside ; and
many fragments of worked metal, with about a dozen bronze
hair-pins, a large bronze fibula, and various other articles, were
picked up in the room. The floor of sand had been sujjported
162
URICONIUM.
on the norfcliem side by a low wall [a, a), from which another
low wall (6, h) crossed to the northern wall of the room, and
between these low walls and the latter there had been a sort
of pit, ill which were found many pieces of scoria, and other
apparent articles of refuse. On one side of the room, upon the
floor of sand, was found a quantity of pounded granite, which,
I am told, might be used for the purpose of enamelling ; and
many fragments of fine glass were also scattered about. On
this same floor of sand, near the middle of the room, lay a
large piece of a shaft of a column. This, however, had proba-
bly found its way here by accident, and did not, apparently,
belong to this room. Objects of all kinds appear to have been
thrown about in such a manner, when the town was plundered,
that it would be hardly safe to pronounce upon the character
of any particular building, merely from a single moveable
article found in it, and, at subsequent periods, building
The Enameller's Shop, from the east.
materials were evidently, in the course of carrying them away,
dropped and left in places to which they did not belong.
This column may possil)ly have been brought from the sup-
ITRICONIUM 163
posed market place. Its appearance and position may be seen
in the foregoing cut, which represents the interior of this
room, as seen from the floor of the latrinse.
The occupants of this workshop appear to have left it
hastily, when the town was taken by the barbarians ; for one
of them, as he passed over the sill of the front opening into the
street, dropped his money, which had been placed in a small
earthen vessel. The latter was found on the sill, near its
northern end, at the spot shewn in our cuts, broken into
fragments, and the money lying a little scattered about it.
Among it was found a small circular disc resembUng a button,
the shank of which was broken off", and the ornamental face of
which is represented, the exact size of the original, in the
accompanying cut. It is formed of a thin plate of steel, on
the surface of which the ornament is inlaid with
sUver, with very great skill, by the process
which is, I believe, technically termed damas-
keening. This button has the appearance of
having been fresh from the hand of the maker
o^damMke^S^g. wheu it was dropped with the coins, and it is
by no means improbable that it was made in the workshop in
the entrance to which it was found. There were also, with it,
the remains of some other ornament made of metal, which had
been of a globular form, and of delicate workmanship, but they
were too much broken to pieces to allow us to judge satis-
factorily of the real character of the object to which they
belonged. All these facts seem to justify our supposition
that this workshop belonged to a manufacturer of ornaments
and small articles of metal, including, probably, the practice of
the art of enamelling and nieUo. It must further be stated
that, in addition to the furnace already described, there are
on the higher floor of cement near the south-western corner of
the room, the remains of another furnace, which was built of
masonry, and heated by means of a flue ; and that, in the
164 URICONIUM.
middle of the room, there is a square mass of rather rough
masonry (1), with a level surface about the height of the floor,
which has been intended to support some heavy object, or
possibly to serve as a work table. This mass of masonry is
shown in the front of our first cut, with the higher floor to the
left, and the lower floor of sand before it and to the right.
The existence of this workshop, and the manufacture of
enamels and niello in it (if the conjecture be correct), would
form an interesting fact in the history of mediaeval art. There
are aj^parently good reasons for believing that the art of
enamelling was practised at a very early period in western
Europe ; indeed, it has been supposed to have been invented
in Gaul. It would be an important cu'cumstance, therefore, to
find the remains of an enameller's workshop which had been
in active operation in a city in Britain at so early a date, and
that on an apparently rather large scale. It would lead us
to suppose, also, that the Anglo-Saxons, who were celebrated
at a very early period for their skill in the manufacture of
jewelry, and in goldsmiths' work in general, had learnt their
art from the jewellers and enamellers who remained in the
Roman cities which had not been destroyed.
There is another room, adjoining to this workshop, and
lying between it and the waU of the basilica, which was, per-
haps, also a shop, but it has not yet been opened. The
excavators began to work upon it at the commencement
of winter, when, as it was found that the walls were covered
with stucco, and perhaps with fresco-painting, which would
have been entirely destroyed by a sudden frost, they were
ordered to desist, after filling up as much as they had already
opened. It thus appears that the buildings extending in a
line southwardly from the western end of the basilica con-
sisted of shops and a market-place. Our judgment of the
character of the latter building seems to be further justified
by the fact of finding among the ruins a number of weights
T)RICONIUM.
165
of different sizes, made of metal and of stone, some with
Roman numerals, thus leaving no doubt of their true character.
Four of these are represented in the accompanying cut.
Three of these are made
of lead, and the larger
one of stone. The latter
weighs, according to our
modern
reckoning,
114
ounces ; the larger of the
leaden weights 20^ ozs.,
the one marked 11, 2^ ormces, and the other 2^ ounces.
AYhen our excavations are resumed and continued, I have
no doubt that we shall trace lines of streets and shops which
will throw far greater light than we at present possess on the
internal economy of a town in Eoman Britain. Hitherto, in
regard to the trades and professions exercised within Roman
Uriconium, our slight information depends merely upon a few
isolated and accidental discoveries. In the autumn of 1862,
in the course of the excavations in the extensive cemetery to
the north of the ancient city, a grave was opened in which
w^as found, among other small objects, a surgeon's lancet. The
other objects, which had unfortunately been carelessly scat-
tered about by the excavators before they were seen, appeared
to have been inclosed, or at least a part of them, in a wooden
box, the lock of which is remarkably well preserved, and has a
portion of the wood of the box attached to it. Among the
small objects which appeared to have been placed in this box,
were some beads of coloured and striped glass, a portion of a
neeiile or bodkin, which had somewhat the appearance of the
handle of a small spoon, other small fragments of metal, and
the remains of two very small earthen vessels, containing a
very hard substance resembling white pauit dried. It was
suggested that aU these seemed to be objects connected
with a lady's toilette, and that therefore the lancet may not
166
URICONIUM.
have belonged to the box. There is no convincmg reason, how-
ever, for believing that the small pots of, perhaps, ointment,
the fr;,^,] Jientary objects, and even the beads,'^' may not have had
some relation to the surgical art, as then practised, and we
can hardly doubt that this was the grave of a Eoman surgeon
established in Uriconium. The accompanying cut, from a
sketch by my friend Mr. Wood made immediately after its
discovery, will give the best notion of this instrument. It is
here represented the exact size of the
original. The handle, which is in the
form of a narrow oval loop, is made
of bronze, at the top of which is a
small projection, from which some-
thing has been broken, — probably a
knob. At the other end a small circu-
lar disc forms a sort of guard to the
blade, which latter is of fine steel, and
triangular in its section, remaining
stni so sharp, that a distinguished sur-
geon of modern Shrewsbury, after
examining it, assured me that he
thought he could almost perform an
operation with it in its present condi-
tion. The lancet had been placed in a
wooden case, or sheath, lined inter-
nally with leather ; and the more
considerable fragments of the wood,
which is rather coarsely grained, and
leather lining of this sheath, are re-
presented in our cut on the next
page, drawn on the same scale with
the instrument itself. ^^^eon's Lancet.
Our Roman lancet is susceptible of illustration from one ob-
ject belonging to the same class. A certain number of surgical
* It has been snggested to me tKat the beads may have been used as peas ti- }: 'ep issues open.
UEICONIUM.
167
instraments, of rather varied charactoi', liavc Ijeeii f(jund
in Pompeii. Among them was a case of such instruments,
which is figured in Carlo Ceci's v,-ork on the sma-Uer bronzes
Surgeon's Lancet, and remains of Case.
in the Museum at Naples, " Piccoli Bronzi del Real Museo
Borbonico," published at Naples in 1858, and copied in our
cut on the next page. These instruments could not be drawn
out of their case in consequence of the oxidation, which had
attached them altogether internally, Ijut the breaking away of
the upper end of the case has left the ends of the instruments
visible. There is hardly room foi- a doubt that the instrument to
the right is a lancet similar to the one disco\'ered at Wroxeter.
The knob is here remaining, which, ic the other, was wanting.
168
URIGONIUM.
se
in
;-Vnother example of the instrument in the middh?, perfect and
;parnto from any case, is mentioned by Ceci, and described
lis Italian text as " Instrumento cerusico formato da sottil
verga che termina a punta uncinata ed
acuminata," a surgical instrument form-
ed of a d.rli(iate rod which terminates in
a hooked ;md sharj? point ; and in the
more brief description in French which
accompanies the Italian, it is called
lancette cerebrale. The third instrument,
in this case, is a small spatula. There
can be little doubt that the example
found at Wroxeter has been a case of
surgical instruments closely resembling
the one found at Pompeii, and among
the small fragments of bronze gathered
from the debris, evidently belonging to
the other instruments of the set, was
one which was clearly the head of the
spatula. The similarity of the shape of
the handle of the lancet found at places
so distant from each other as Pompeii and British Uriconium,
and deposited there at periods the distance between which
was probably not less than between two and three centuries,
furnishes a curious example of the general uniformity of types
through the Roman empire.
We seem to know but little of the surgical practice, or the
use of the lancet, among the Romans, but we learn from Celsus
that the name by which this instrument Avas known was
scalp ellus, or, sometimes, scalper and scalprum, words which
mean simply a small cutting implement ; while, at a rather
later period, Isidore of Seville gives its Greek name phleboto-
mum, which expresses its more especial use in letting blood by
making an incision in the vein. In earlier times surgery
Case (if Surgical Inslmments.
TJRICONITJM. 169
(chirurgia) appears to have been always included under the
head of medicine. It is hardly necessary to state that the
name is derived from two Greek words, clieir, a hand, and
ergon, a work, and that it means that part of medical practice
which was executed with the hand, instead of being effected
by the administration of medicines. Originally its province,
almost exclusively, was the treatment of wounds. The first
professional surgeon introduced iato Rome is said to have
been the Greek Archagathus who settled there in B.C. 219,
and was received with so great honour, that a shop was given
him at the public expense. He was at first called Vulnerarius,
healer of wounds, but people were soon so astonished at the
manner in which he cut up his patients, that they exchanged
this title for that of Carnifex, which means simply an execu-
tioner. Although the title of Medicus, equivalent to our term
'"' medical man," was given indiscriminately to the physician and
surgeon, yet the two branches of the healing art in Eome and
the Roman towns generally, appear to have been practically
two separate professions, as they continued to be in the middle
ao-es. During a long period, both professions were exercised
almost solely hj foreigners, and especially by slaves ; but
this can hardly be taken as a proof that they were in discredit,
because, in consequence of the manner in wloich slaves were
made and obtained in ancient Eome, some of the most skilful
professors of most arts, and even of literature itself, were either
slaves or freedmen. It only proves that skill in these arts was
superior and more common among foreigners than among
Romans. The most celebrated medical schools of antiquity
were found in Greece and in the Grecian colonies. Gradually
the physicians and surgeons in Rome were held in high
honour and received great salaries, and a class arose, no doubt
of more approved talent and skill than the others, on whom
therefore a higher degree was conferred, and they were entitled
archiaters, or chief physicians. These appear to have been
170 URICONIUM.
paid with the public funds, and to have been employed about
the persons of the emperors and great ofl&cers of state, or to
attend on the poor plebeians or such as were not in a position to
pay them. The ordinary physicians or surgeons attended on
all who called them in, and were paid in each case by their
patients. Wealthy individuals sometimes retained a physician
and surgeon in their household, to attend solely to themselves
and their families ; and it was still not uncommon for a patri-
cian to have among his slaves individuals who were skilled in
medicine and surgery. This may have arisen, perhaps, in some
degree from the sentiment of fear ; for it would naturally
strike everybody that he who could cure, could kUl also, and
in the state of society then existing in Rome any one, who had
the means, would be glad to have a medical or surgical attend-
ant who was under the influence of no other but himself.
Instances are not wanting in history, of men of consequence
who were poisoned by their physicians. This feeling is curi-
ously illustrated by a remarkable oath, preserved in Greek and
ascribed to Hippocrates, which, in the earlier times, the medical
students were obliged to take before they were allowed to
practice. Its terms are as follows : — " I swear by Apollo the
physician, by ^sculapius, by Hygeia, and Panaceia, and all
the gods and goddesses, calling them to witness, that I will
fulfil religiously, according to the best of my power and judg-
ment, the solemn promise and the written bond which I now
do make, I wiU honour, in the same degree as my parents,
the master who has taught me this art, and endeavour to
administer to all his necessities. I will consider his children
as my own brothers, aird will teach them my profession, should
they express a wish to follow it, without remuneration or
written bond. I will admit to my lessons, to my discourses,
and to aU my other methods of teaching, my own sons,
and those of my tutor, and those who have been inscribed
as pupils and have taken the medical oath ; but no one
UEICONIUM. 171
else. I will prescribe such a course of regimen as may be
best suited to the condition of my patients, according to
the best of my power and judgment, seeking to preserve
them from any thing that might prove injurious. No in-
ducement shall ever lead me to administer poison, nor will I
ever be the author of such advice ; neither will I contribute to
an abortion. I will retain rehgiously the purity and integrity
both of my conduct and of my art, I will not cut any one
for the stone, but will leave that operation to those who culti-
vate it. Into whatever dwellings I may go, I will enter them
with the sole view of succouring the sick, abstaining from all
injurious views and corruption, especially from any immodest
action, towards women or men, freemen or slaves. If, during
my attendance, or even unprofessionaUy in common life, I
happen to see or hear of any circumstances which should not
be revealed, I will consider them as a profound secret, and
observe on the subject a rehgious silence. May I, if I rigidly
observe this oath, and do not break it, enjoy good success in
life, and in the practice of my art, and obtain general esteem
for ever ; should I transgress and become a perjurer, may the
reverse be my lot."
It will be seen by the foregoing oath, that, from a very
early period, there were physicians and surgeons who confined
themselves to special branches of the art, as here of the practice
of cutting for the stone, and that it was a part of what we,
should caR professional etiquette on the part of the general
practitioner to abandon this branch of the heahng art to them.
Our city of Uriconium has furnished us with an interesting
monument of another class of these special physicians, the
Eoman oculists. We should be led to suppose, from the
exception made in the Hippocratic oath, that the stone was a
very prevalent disease among the ancients ; the class of monu-
ments to which I am now aUuding prove that, for some reasons
with which we are unacquainted, the population of the western
1 72 URICONIUM.
provinces of the Roman empire (at least) were greatly subject
to diseases of the eyes.
As long ago as the year 1808, a labourer ploughing in one of
the fields at Wroxeter, turned up a small cu-cular slab of stone,
with an inscription in Eoman characters on one face. An
inaccurate engraving of it was given in the Gentleman's
Magazine, and was copied by the Rev. Charles H. Hartshorne,
in his Salopia Antiqua, published in 1841. Mr. Hartshorne
called it " an amuletal seal," and stated that it had baffled the
efforts of aU who had attempted to explain it. This was the
less excusable, as Richard Gough, the Antiquary, had years
before, on the 4th of December, 1788, read a paper on this
class of monuments before the Society of Antiquaries, which
was printed in the ninth volume of the Archceologia, under
the title of " Observations on Certain Stamps or Seals used
anciently by the Oculists."""" These stamps are generally in
the form of small rectangular slabs, squares or parallelograms,
made of a greenish schist or steatite ; and the inscription is
not on the face, but on the edge. They were no doubt intended
to he used to stamp collyria, ointments or salves for the eyes,
much on the same principle as modern patent medicines, either
upon the ointment itself, in a hard state, or upon the packet
which contained it. Diseases of the eyes were certainly not
unfrequent in Rome, and the oculists formed a numerous class,
and employed a great variety of remedies. Several sepulchral
inscriptions have been found in Rome commemorating medici
occularii. The reader of Horace will remember the words
of the poet, — ■
Hie ociilis ego nigra meis collyria lippus
Illinere. Horcd. Sat. lib. i. 5, 1. 15.
* Several dissertations on the sutject of these stamps have appeared on the continent,
among which I may more especially mention a tract hy M. Sichel, entitled, " Cireg cachets
inedits des Medecins Oculistes Homaiiis. Paris, 1845, and another by M. Duchalais, Observa-
tions sur les Cachets des Medechis Oculistes aiiciens, a-propos de cinq Pierres sigillcdres
inediics." Paris, 1846. A series of very learned and valuable papers on the subject of the
monuments of this class found in Britain, written by Professor Dr. J. Y. Simpson, of Edin-
burgh, win be found in the " Monthly Journal of Medical Science," for 1851, vol. xii.
pp. 39, 235, 338, under the title of " Notices of Ancient Eoman Medicine Stamps, &c, found iu
Great Britain."
I ^-
l< ™
URICONIUM. 173
These collyria, as we gather from the old medical writers, were
exceedingly mimerous and varied, but it is not clear if the
practice in Italy was conducted exactly in the same way as in
the more distant provinces. It must have been very extensive
in the west, for upwards of sixty Roman oculists' stamps have
been found in Western Europe, of which more than a dozen
have been brought to light in Britain. These have all been
found in widely distant locahties, and all present different
names, which we cannot doubt were those of local practitioners.
Sometimes there is only one title of a medicine on one edge ;
others have different titles of medicines on two, three, or four
edges. One of the most perfect of the British examples was
found in digging a cellar in the abbey yard at Bath in 1731.
Each of the four edges, in this stamp, had an inscription, in two
lines, and the name of the oculist was Titus Junianus. The
first of these foiu" inscriptions was, —
T • IVNIANI THALASER
AD CLAKITATEM
which may be translated, "The thalasseros, (or marine coUyrium),
of Titus Junianus, for clearness (of vision.") The second in-
scription was, —
T • IVNIANI CRSOMAEL
INVM AD CLAEITATEM
which may be translated, " The leaden meliaum, or golden
coUyrium (cerussomaelinum) of Titus Junianus, for clearness of
vision." Some of the letters of the third title were doubtful,
and it can only be represented with any certainty as, —
T • IVNIANI D VM
AD VETEEES CICATRICES
The name of this ointment should probably be read diamysum,
a word which occurs again in a stamp found in Ireland, which
I shall shortly describe, and also on one found at Nimeguen.
It was a mineral composition, spoken of by the early medical
writers as of virtue ad aspritudines ocidorum. Pliny tells us
174 TJRICONIUM.
" that it diminishes the confirmed granulations of the eye-lids,"
and that it was " added to coUyria " (extenuat etiam scahritias
oculorum inveteratas ...et collyriis additur./'' Hence we see
that in this Bath stamp, as in several found on the continent, the
dyamysum is destined for the cure of " old specks or opacities"
(veteres cicatrices. Ji The fourth of these titles is still more
obscure, partly, perhaps, from being imperfectly read, and partly,
to judge from other errors in the inscriptions, from the circum-
stance that the man who made them was rather illiterate. It
must, therefore, be'Ieft as doubtful, but it is given as follows, —
T • IVNIANI HOFSVMAD/jV
EC VMODELICTA AMEDlCIS
A stamp is preserved in the British Museum, which is un-
derstood to have been found on the site of Verulamium, (St.
Alban's), which has three sides inscribed, and which bears the
names of two different oculists.^ The first name is Lucius
Julius Juvenis ; the second is without a name ; and the third,
in a ruder style of execution, is F. Secundus. In this instance
the second ocuHst was probably a successor to the first.
The greater number of these stamps found in Britain belong
to the western districts of the island. I have already men-
tioned the one found at Bath, belonging to an oculist named
Titus Junianus. Another was found at Cirencester, (the
Roman Co7-inium), with two sides inscribed, which had
belonged to an oculist named Minervalis. One of its titles
was,—
MINERVALIS DIALEB
ANVM AD IMPETLIPP EX OVO
which may be read Minervalis dialebanum ad impetum lip-
pitudinis ex ovo, "the dialebanum of Minervalis, against the
attack of blear- eye, to be applied with white of egg."
Another of these stamps was found at Kenchester, in Here-
• Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiT. c. SI.
+ See the Arcliieological Journal, vol. ix. p. 187.
I White specks, or spots of opacity on the cornea, are very frequently produced by the cicatrices
of ulcers tbei'e, especially when the preparations of lead have been used for their cure. If
intended for any other part than the eyes, it would of course read " old scars or contractions."
XJRICONIUM. 1 75
fordshire, (the Eoman Magna,) bearing four titles, with the
name Titus Vindacius Axiovistus, which sounds like that of a
man of German race. And we have the one found at Wroxeter,
bearing the very pure Eoman name of Tiberius Claudius.
Other examples of these stamps have been found at Colches-
ter, with the name of Quintus Julius Murranus ; near Little-
borough in Nottinghamshire (the Roman Agehcum), but the
name of the oculist it commemorated is not stated ; two m
the British Museum, one bearing the name of Sextus Julius
Sedatus, the other a fragment from which the name has been
lost, and the place of discovery of neither of which is known ;
one described by Douce in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1778,
bearing four titles, with the name Marcus Julius Satyrus, but
of this also we are not informed where it was found ; and one
found in Scotland, at Tranent, not far from the site of a Eoman
town at Inveresk, with two titles of coU}Tia, and the name of
Lucius VaUatinus. Lastly, one of these Eoman oculists' stamps
was found in 1842 in Ireland, in the county of Tipperary, in
digging a dike on the rising ground above the green of the
village of Golden Bridge, along with human bones, so that it
may be supposed to have been buried with the oculist to whom
it belonged. It bore the inscription, —
MIVVENT TVTIANI
DIAMYSVSADVETCIC
which may be read, Marci Juventii Tutiani diamysus ad
veteres cicatrices, " the diamysus of Marcus Juventius Tutainus
for old opacities." It is a similar
coUyrium, as will be seen at once, to
that on the stamp found at Bath.
The oculist's stamp found at Wrox-
eter differs from the others in form,
and in the manner in which the in-
scription is placed on it, as will be
seen by the accompanying engraving. ^^'^'^foxTr*'""' "*
176 UKICONIUM.
It is a neatly formed round slab of whitish stone, and appears,
therefore, to have been intended for impressing the names
of the medicine and its maker on a pot, box, or parcel, of a
circular form. The inscription, in five lines, may be read
Avithout difficulty, —
TIBCLM
DIALIBA
AD ■ OM
NE A VIT
EXO.
The small character A is often used in Roman inscriptions in
the place of a stop or division. The whole may be extended,
" Tiherii Claudii medici dialihanum ad omne vitium oculorum,
ex ovo," and may be translated, " The dialibanum of Tiberius
Claudius, the physician, for all complaints of the eyes, to be
used with egg." Thus Ave learn that one physician of the
Roman town of Uriconium bore the very classical name of
Tiberius Claudius. The ointment indicated by this stamp was,
as it will be seen, of a similar description to that of Minervalis
of Corinium (the modern Cirencester,) and like it is directed to
be used ex ovo, or beaten up with the white of egg. The
dialibanum was a well-known ointment for complaints of the
eyes, made originally of a vegetable substance, said to have
been procured in its greatest purity from Arabia ; but no
doubt these local doctors used other substances in its place,
and probably each laid claim to greater perfection than his
neighbours. Moreover, the presence of the term medicus in
the Wroxeter stamp leaves hardly room to doubt that the
individual to whom it had belonged, Tiberius Claudius, was a
general physician of Uriconium ; and perhaps this was usually
the case with the practitioners in the provinces. Of aU these
stamps yet found, no two bear the same name, from which
circumstance we are justified in concluding that each belonged
to an individual permanently established in one of the more
URICONIUM.
177
important towns, who sent his medicines, properly stamped
and identified, probably to a considerable distance around.
We have thus discovered interesting memorials of the exist-
ence in Uriconium of the healing science in its two branches
of medicine and surgery, and have brought to light the name
of a physician who no doubt flourished in the Roman city.
Accident has also brought to hght on its site the evidence of
the existence of the fine arts, and most probably the name of
a Uriconian painter. Among the buildings in the immediate
neighbourhood of the enameUer's shop, between it and the
baths, were found, at different times during our excavations,
and not far from one spot, three small rectangular slabs, and
part of another, of a whitish stone, apparently steatite or soap-
stone, which had been carefully smoothed, the one side present-
ing a perfectly level surface, but the other bevelled off" at the
edges. They are all nearly of the same size, about two inches
and a half broad by two inches and three-quarters long, and
they present the unmistakable characteristics of painters'
Painters' Palettes, from Uriconium.
palettes. They are represented in our cut, where it will be
observed that the one to the right is much worn in the
M
178 URICONIUM.
the middle of the upper or unbevelled side by the action
of the painter rubbing his colours, and traces of colours
themselves may still be perceived. This palette had been
broken, and the section, as here shown by the fracture, will
give a better notion of the form of the palette, and of the
character of the wearing, than any description. We have
reason to believe, from the locality in which these objects were
found, that there was a painter's shop, or studio, in the neigh-
bourhood of the baths, so that the fine arts, perhaps, flourished
in Uricouium. But one of these palettes furnishes us with
another fact of some interest connected with this part of our
subject. On the back of this palette, which is tuxned towards
us in the engraving, and which has been less used than the one
just described, we find, among several scratches made inten-
tionally with a sharp instrument, a man's name, rudely but
minutely and clearly written in a small label, evidently an
imitation of the forms in which the potters' names are stamped
on the red Samian ware. No similar inscription is found on
the other palettes, and, from the manner in which it has been
executed, we are fairly justified in supposing that it is the
name, not of the maker of the palettes, but of the possessor of
this particular example, and perhaps of the others also. From
the careless manner in which this inscription is Avritten, it is
not very easy to decipher, but it appears to be DICINIVMA,
which may be read as Diciniv^ manw, i.e., " by the hand of
Dicinivus." This was, in all probability, the name of a profes-
sional artist of Uriconium, who lived perhaps at the time the
town was destroyed, and which, certainly not Eoman, would
apparently show him to be either a Gaul or a German. All
this is extremely important in its relation to the history of art,
one of the most valuable measures of the extent of social
refinement at this interesting period. Our knowledge of the
forms of the practice of art among the Romans is in many
respects defective, although they appear in general to have
TJRICONIUM. 179
resembled very closely those in use at the present day. We
hardly know the technical name of the palette itself ; Julius
Pollux gives it in Greek the name of jnnakion, and PUny
uses the Latin word tahellce, Avhich are words identical in 'sig-
nification, meaning a small tablet, and implying its rectangular
form. Another Latin name for it appears to have been assula,
which means simply a thin slice or strip of stone, or of other
material Wall pictm-es have been met with in Pompeii, in
which the painter is represented at liis work. In one of these,
which is a burlesque or caricature, the painter seated before a-n
easel, resembling closely the modern implement of that name,
has a tablet of stone, supported upon four legs, forming a large
description of palette, on which he can spread a number of
colours at the same time ; but in another fresco-painting,
which represents a female artist making a picture of a statue
of the bearded Bacchus, the lady holds in her left hand a real
palette, only differing from those found at Wroxeter in being
oval instead of rectangular.
From considering the evidence, imperfect as it is and derived
chiefly from only one spot of our excavations into the ancient
city, of the existence of trade, manufacture, art, and science,
in a very advanced degree of progress, let us return to the
locality which we have been describing. We have traced a
tolerably long line of frontage, facing nearly west, and consist-
ing of, first, the entrance front to the Basilica ; then, one or two
shops of importance ; next, the face of a market square ; and,
beyond this to the south, waUs indicating buildings of no great
extent, but whether they had any connection vdth the market
is a question of great uncertainty. On the south, this line of
frontage is bounded by a street running east and west, but we
have crossed this street, and found on the other side a hue of
buildings which appear to have been ordinary houses. This
line advances westward, considerably l:)eyond the line of the
market and Basilica, and then stops and turns at right angles
180 URICONIUM.
to the south. From this it is evident that the line of frontage
of which the basihca formed a part looked upon a wide open
space, and that, from the southern end where the street just
mentioned crossed it, the way to the south was continued by a
street of only ordinary dimensions. When we consider the
relative position of this wide space in regard to the whole area
of the ancient city, and when we reflect that, as far as we are
acquainted with the plans of the Roman towns, the Basihca was
always entered from the Forum, we can hardly doubt for a
moment that we are here upon the site of the Forum of the
Eoman city of Uriconium. In regard to it, the Basilica holds
exactly the same position as in Pompeii. Moreover, Vitruvius
states as an established rule that the Basilica in a Eoman
town stood adjoining to the It'orum. But, if any doubt
had remained, it would have been entirely taken away by
discoveries which had been accidentally made two or three
years before the commencement of our excavations.
In 18.55, the then tenant of the land, the late Mr. Stanier,
built the farm buildings which now stand on the opposite side
of the road from the field in which the excavations have been
carried on, but a little more to the northward. In clearing
away the ground for the foundations, the workmen made some
interesting discoveries, a plan and section of which, made at
the time by Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., has been preserved by
my friend Mr. Samuel Wood, by whose kindness, and with Sir
Henry's permission, I am enabled to give an engraving of it
on a reduced scale. In what is now the farm-yard, a row of
short square pillars, marked A. A. A. A. on the plan, run-
ning parallel with the line of buildings described above, and
standing at equal distances of about twelve feet apart, were
found. A drawing of one of these pillars is given on a larger
scale at the foot of the plate. It consists of a basement stone
about three feet square, upon which rested the base of the
pillar, the latter ornamented with mouldings, above which was
URICONIUM. 181
a short square shaft, and at the top a small square cap-stone,
of which the engraving gives the elevation. These cap-stones
were roughly dressed, and not uniform in the colour of the
stone, as two of them were red, one light red, and the other
drab. The most curious feature of these pillars, which were
taken up and are still preserved in the garden of what was
Mr. Stanier's house, is a vertical groove on the opposite sides
of the base, a sectional plan of which is represented in the
figure B. These grooves were on the sides of the pillars which
faced each other when in situ, and had evidently been intended
to receive some connecting work of metal or wood, probably
the latter, which extended from pillar to piUar, and thus formed
a continuous barrier. When we consider the position of these
pdlars in regard to the buildings which we have discovered in
the field on the eastern side of the road, and which I have
given as nearly as I can ascertain it in the map of the ancient
city, we cannot look upon it as otherwise than an entire con-
firmation of the supposition stated above, that we are here
upon the site of the Forum of Uriconium. A corresponding
row of pUlars may, perhaps, lie under the eastern side of the
present Watling-Street road, and thus formed the enclosure
devoted to pubHc meetings and public business. If the ground
further to the north, or to the south, were explored, we should
probably meet with remains of buildings which would present
a still closer resemblance to the Forum of Pompeii. Another
pillar was found at D in the plan, quite out of the line of the
four others, but it may probably have been displaced, or it
marks some distribution of the Forum which, with our present
imperfect knowledge, we cannot attempt to explain.
No attempt, I believe, was made to carry out these excava-
tions, except so far as they were necessary for the construction
of the modern buddings. In laying the modern drain, which is
indicated by the dotted fine, and which led to the discovery of
the pUlar at D, a floor of concrete was found five feet below the
182 UEICONIUM.
surface of the ground at f, and a number of large stones were
scattered about, with iron straps, bones, lead, cramps, and other
objects, among which one silver coin was picked up. A large
squared stone was found at c, and a flagstone at g. At H, a
floor of flagstones was met with at a depth of six feet. In
digging for the foundations at i, a gold coin was found, which
is said to have been carried away and sold privately by the
workman who picked it up.
The fields to the westward of the site of these discoveries
present appearances, in the surface of the ground, which leave
no room for doubt that they contain in their whole extent,
under the surface, masses of buUcUngs, among which we may
hope to find some of the temples of the ancient city, which
seem usually, as in Pompeii, to have occupied this position in
regard to the Forum. The fields to the north-east and east
are also fuU of the remains of buildings, probably belonging to
the more important private mansions of the town, as tessellated
pavements are said to have been frequently met with by the
farm labom-ers. It is to be hoped that the time is not far
distant when all these will be carefully explored.
183
CHAPTER V.
THE HOUSES, AND GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE TOWN.
The excavations at AVroxeter have not yet been carried out to
a sufficient extent to enable us to form any satisfactory notion
of the general distribution of the town of Uriconium, but it
was probably quite equal in character, if not superior, to Eoman
towns in general, either in Britain or in the provinces of the
continent. As far as we can judge, the streets were more open
and roomy than those of Pompeii, where they appear to have
been very narrow and gloomy. We are in the habit of always
associating these ancient towns with narrow and inconvenient
streets, and in fact, in Italy itself, there seems to have been a
prejudice in favour of them ; for we learn, from the historian
Tacitus that, when, in the reign of Nero, Eome was bm'nt and
rebuilt with more spacious streets, people complained of the
change as injurious to the sanitary condition of the town, be-
■ cause, they said, ui the old state of things, the sun's rays did not
penetrate into the streets, and people were protected from their
heat, whereas in the new changes people who passed in the
streets would be exposed to the sun's rays without protection.'"
Perhaps this inconvenience was less felt in Britain than in
Italy ; but it is certain that, as far as we have yet traced them,
the streets of Uriconium were \vide and straight, and crossed
each other at right angles.
* Taciti Annal., lib. xv. c. 43. — Erant tamen qui credcrent, " Veterem illam forrnam salu-
britati magis conduxisse, quoniam angustias itinenim et alULudo tcctorum non perinde solis
vapore perrumperentur ; at nunc patibulam latituJinem, et nulla umbra defensam, grariore
5p_8tu ardescere."
1 84 URICONIUM.
This at least was the case in the streets we have yet met
with. The wall which formed the northern side of the Basilica,
ran at right angles from the face of the buildings fronting the
Forum, and was traced in a direct line without any variation
up to the edge of the field, where we were stopped. There
could be no doubt, from various appearances which were
noticed, that this wall formed the southern side of a street, and ,
that it was a wide street, paved in the middle in the same
manner as that subsequently found to the south, but we had
not the opportunity of examining it very closely. The part of
it immediately adjoining the wall appeared to have been formed
of concrete. The baths, again, were bounded to the south, by
a line of buildings which ran at right angles to the Forum, and
parallel to the street on the north, and it has been traced as far
as the land allotted for excavation will permit. Here the road-
v/ay of the street has been uncovered, and the foundations
traced of the houses on the opposite side, so that we are well
acquainted with its character and dimensions. The paved part
of this street, marked L. L. L. in the plan of the buildings
excavated, which was bounded by kirb-stones, and did not reach
quite to the walls of the houses, was somewhat more than
twenty feet. This is about the width of the widest street in
Pompeii, that which, for the sake of distinction has been named
the street of the Mercuries, and which is supposed to have been
the grand street of the city, or via sacra, by which all public
processioj^ approached the Forum, and in which the triumphal
arches stood. The other streets of Pompeii were very narrow ;
often hardly wide enough for a beast of burthen. Even in Eo-
man London, as far as we can judge by the examples which have
been met with in the course of excavations, most of the streets
were very narrow. Such was the case also in a comparatively
small Eoman town on the site of Maryport in Cumberland,
which was excavated in 1766. In the small towns along the
line of Hadrian's Wall, the streets are mere narrow passages.
DRICONIUM. 185
At Chesters in Northumberland, the Cilumum of the Eomans,
they were mere passages from three to four feet wide. At
Bremenium (High Rochester), a small and thickly buUt Roman
town on the northern Watling-Street a little to the north of
Hadrian's Wall, which has been recently laid open to a great
extent by the Duke of Northumberland, the main streets
varied in width from ten to fourteen feet, and the bye-streets
were usually less than three feet wide. Those of earlier form-
ation were here flagged -^ith broad flat stones, while the pave-
ments made at a later period were formed of small stones. At
Cilurnum and at Maryport the streets were paved with flags,
which shows that they were only used by men on foot, whereas
the remains of a chariot have been found at Wroseter in the
middle of the ancient town. At Wroxeter the pavement of
the Roman street is formed of small stones, such as might
be gathered from gravel, well put together, and hard beaten
in, and presenting an appearance not much unlike that we
call macadamizing. A row of kirb-stones was placed on each
side. At Leicester, where some of the pavement of the
Roman streets in the town of BatCB were uncovered, it was
found to be laid with small round cobble-stones, much in
the same way as they are set in the streets of Leicester and
Shrewsbury in modern times. At the western end of the
street of Uriconium just described, another street leaves it
towards the south, also at right angles, and probably broad,
because, from its position, it was evidently one of the principal
streets of the town, but it lies under the modem road, and
we have not been able to make any complete examination of
it. It presents the pecuharity of a side gutter, on one side
at least, which I believe is unknown in Pompeii, or in any
other Roman town with the remains of which we are ac-
quainted. It is marked i i. in the plan of the buildings
excavated, and begins just below where the line of houses of
the southern side of the street l. l. l. abuts upon the Forum.
186 IIPJCONIUM.
This gutter is well made, of carefully squared stones, and in a
remarkably good state of preservation, and runs close to tlie
houses at the side of the street. It is about a foot wide, and a
foot deep, and from place to place there are laid in it square
stones which, placed lozenge- wise, reach exactly across, and must
have stopped a current of water. Their only apparent purpose
can have been to serve as stepping-stones, yet, in so narrow a
channel, they can hardly have been necessary. This gutter
has been traced further on southwardly in its way.
Of course it would not be quite fair to form a judgment of
the character of the whole town from the small portion of it
we have as yet explored, and we must bear in mind that this
was the most important part of it, and that, in other parts
of the extensive area which it covered, there may have been
lower quarters covered with smaller and less regular streets.
We can hardly be said to have touched the domestic buildings
of the city of IJriconium. The ground bordering on the street
L. L. L. upon the south, was found to be full of remains of walls
running parallel or at right angles to it, which appeared to have
formed rooms mostly of rather small dimensions, but they had
been so much broken up in modern times in the search for
building materials, that no satisfactory plan could be made
out. Near the western end, the walls of two different build-
ings were separated, as seen in the plan, by a passage so nar-
row, that even a man could only pass along it with diificulty,
and it would be in vain even to guess what could have been
its object. But it is probable that these buildings were all
shops or dwelling-houses.
The masonry of the buildings of Urieonium, like all Eoman
masonry, is excellent, and, in spite of its great age, they might
have been still perfect but for the effects of violence from with-
out. Whatever material the Eomans used in their walls was
good. They never chose bad material for their facing stones,
whether large or small, and they appear to have known well
UEIC'ONIUM. 187
■ liow to select it, as we have a remarkable instance in the walls
of Chester (the Eoman Deva), mentioned before.'^ No less so
were their tiles or bricks, to which they gave, according to their
different purposes, the names of lateres or tegulce. The Roman
tegulse were, as is generally known, formed like our tiles, and
not like our bricks. They are flat, generally about an inch in
thickness, and the smaller and more common examples are
about seven inches square. Some of the building tiles are
much larger, and in the form of an oblong parallelogram in-
stead of square, as much sometimes as two inches thick. The
latter seem to answ"er to those called by Vitruvius the Lydian
tile, late?-' Lydium, which he says was a foot broad and a foot
and a half long. We learn from Vitruvius how much care
was given to the choice of the clay of which these tiles were
made, and to the process of making them. It appears that
they were not baked by fire, but dried in the sun ; and he
lays it down as a rule that tiles should always be made in
spring, that they might have the time between that and
autumn through which to dry gradually and equally through
the increase in temperature ;t and as another, that the best
and most useful tUes are those which have been more than two
years drying. J
But of aU their building materials, that on which the Eomans
set greatest importance was the mortar, and the old writers
give us many directions about making it, especially about the
selection of the different sorts of Hme to be used, and of the
different sorts of sand, &c., to be mixed with it. We aU know
the immense hardness of the mortar in Roman buildings as it
now exists ; it is literally more difficult to break, or to act
• Seepage 69 of the present Tolnme.
+ Ducendi autem snnt per vemum tempus et autamnale, ut uno tenore siccescant.
VHruv. de Architectural lib. i. c. 3.— Ducendi autem sunt lateres vemo tempore, ut ex lento
siccescant ; qui enim solsticiali tempore parantur, vitiosi flant, &c. Arddte.ctune Compendium,
c. I. The abridgement of Vitravius and other ancient writers for practical use, published
with the editions of his book.
+ Maxime autem utUiores emnt, si ante biennium htunmt ducti; namijue non ante
possunt penitus siccescere. Vitruvius de ArcJi., ib. See also Flimj Hist. Nat. lib. xxjv., c. 49.
188 URICONIUM.
upon, than the stone itself. Between the facing stones of the
masonry of the entrance gateway at Pevensey in Sussex, (the
Koman Anderida), the marks of the trowel used in pointing
it are as sharp and distinct as on the day it was built, and
they cannot be defaced. The old writers tell us of many in-
gredients used in the mortar or cement for different purposes,
but the most usual material used for this purpose was pounded
brick, or tUe, which had the effect of making the mortar set
quick and hard.- Hence, it is a general characteristic of
Eoman mortar in England to find it full of small red grains
of brick ; and this is found everywhere in the mortar of the
buildings uncovered at Wroxeter. The primary cause of the
hardness which the Roman mortar has assumed is, however,
understood to be the fact that the lime was not slaked until
the moment of using, and that it was poured into the work
hot, as is still the practice with railway engineers. There
is every reason for believing, from the extreme hardness of the
mortar in our old castles and early churches, that this manner
of preparing it was continued during the middle ages, com-
bined also sometimes with the use of the pounded tile. Pounded
tile has been found in the mortar of some mediaeval buildings,
so that its presence cannot be taken absolutely as a test of
Eoman building, though it is very rarely found elsewhere.
On the other hand, the pounded bricks are not necessarily
found in Eoman mortar. Dr. Bruce, in his great work on the
Eoman Wall, informs us that it is never found in the Eoman
buildings in the north of England ; and it is wanting in some
of the mortar of the commoner buildings in our Eoman towns
and stations in the Avestem districts. However, as a general
rule, we usually find Eoman mortar, except in the north of
England, marked by the presence of an ingredient of pounded
brick.
The Eomans appear not to have thought it necessary to dig
any foundations for the massive defensive walls with which
UEICONIUM. 189
they surrounded their towns and citadels, which are those
we have had most opportunity of examining. Those at
Eichborough in Kent (Rutwpice), were merely laid upon, or
very little below, the smoothed surface of the natural soil,
which is here a compact pit-sand. At Burgh Castle in Suffolk
(Gariannonum), it was found that frames, or floors, of wood
had been laid upon the ground, and a bed of mortar spread
upon them, upon which the first stones of the wall were laid ;
and, a part of the wall having been accidentally overthrown,
the impression of the timber, which had itself long perished,
has been found remaining on the mortar. Dr. Bruce informs
us that, on removing a long strip of Hadrian's Wall at Wal-
bottle Dean in 1864, the remains of vegetation were found
immediately beneath it ; and, below what had evidently been
the surface of the ground at the time the wall was budt, the
soU was blackened for some inches by the roots of the herb-
age which had been growing there ; so that the foundation of
the wall had been laid on the mere surface of the ground
while the grass was growing upon it. In some parts of
Cumberland, he adds, where the sod is of a sandy nature, an
excavation of from fifteen to eighteen inches appears to have
been made. In other places, where the ground was boggy,
the foundation was found to have been laid upon what the
antiquary Stukeley calls a strong frame of oak timber. How-
ever, the "walls of ordiuary buildings were certainly buUt
with good deep foundations. Those of the Old Wall at
Wroxeter, the separation between the Basdica and the Baths,
were traced to a depth of not less than seven feet below the
original elevation of the ground, and those of other parts of
these buildings which we tried were equally deeply laid.
The Romans had a peculiar manner of constructing their
walls, as far as we can judge by examining them. They began
by laying two parallel lines of stones, usually larger than the
facing stones above, and somewhat wider apart than the wall was
190 URIOONIUM.
intended to be higher up. Upon these first stones were placed
the first row of facing stones, which were continued to a small
height, and then they placed boulder stones and other material
in the space between the two faces, and poured into it the hot
liquid mortar, which set quite hard in a very short time, and
the same process was repeated. The wall was thus raised up
gradually, in small heights at a time, while it appears to have
been supported by a frame, or casing, of wood, supported by
cross beams of' timber, which left holes at certain distances
in the wall, still ojDeu. Perhaps these were filled with facing
stones without the mortar, which have since dropped out. After
a certain number of courses of facing stones, which appears
to have been regulated by the custom or choice of the
builder, a sort of bonding-course of the flat tiles was intro-
duced, consisting usually of two rows of tiles, but sometimes
of only one single row, and at others, though more rarely, of
three. The number at Wroxeter is generally two. These
courses of tiles, though they generally run into the wall only
one tile deep, and do not pass through it, materially helped to
prevent the facing from separating from the core of the work,
particularly while the latter was green and liable to settlement.
These courses of bricks are seen to great advantage on the face
of the Old Wall.
These tiles are sometimes used in the Roman masomy for
other purposes. At times a short course, a couple or two tiles
only in length, were drawn from the angle of a wall, produc-
ing somewhat the effects of what is called in our early Saxon
architecture " long and short work." But they were still more
frequently used for turning the heads of arches, of which an
excellent example was disj^layed in the entrance to the hypo-
causts of the baths, Ijefore it fell into dilapidation. This use
of the tiles appears to have been long continued in the middle
ages. A part of the masonry of the early church in Dover
Castle, which appears to be uudouljtedly woik of the Anglo-
TJRICONIUM 191
Saxon period, presents a similar arrangement of tiles ; and
they are found in string-courses and in arches in the early
Norman work of the castle and of the priory of St. Botolph at
Colchester. The Anglo-Saxon builders certainly adopted the
Eoman manufacture of tiles, for they took the name also.
It was from the Latin tegula, which was applied originally to
the roof tile, but which appears in the late Roman period to
have usurped the place both of tegula and of later (the building-
tile), that our Saxon forefathers made their word tigel or tigol,
which they used not only for tiles both for roofing and building,
but even for pottery, or fictile ware, and from which we derive
our modern English word tile, while the French turned it into
tuile. The name, and probably the form, of the hriqiie, or
hrick, came to us from the Normans.
With regard to the cjuality of the Eoman tiles found at
Wroxeter, it must be acknowledged that they differ very
considerably in quality, or at least they have been very differ-
ently affected by circumstances. The bricks in the wall above
ground, the Old Wall, have experienced no decay, and those
which were uncovered were found generally in a very peirfect
condition, but they suffered in very various degrees from
exposure to the air. In the hypocaust of the first room of the
baths opened, (7 in the plan), the tiles of the piers which
supported the floor appeared to experience very httle damage
from exposure to the air, and, but for external violence, would
Lave been in perfect condition at the present time. Those
in the next room (8,) absolutely fell into heaps of powder, not
long after they Avere uncovered. The fine-looking tiles with
which the arch was formed (9,) leading into the hypocausts,
and which is represented in our cut on p. 117, remained perfect
for some months, and then fell into absolute decay. This can
hardly have been the mere effect of the weather, for, while
the tiles in room 8 have not perished in any considerable
degree, those in room 7 \\'cre destroyed in the first winter to
192 TJRICONIUM.
which they were exposed, and those in the arch 9 only perished
after more than one winter's exposure. Vitruvius tells us that
the badness of the tiles, whether from the inferiority of the
materials or in consequence of the insufficiency in drying, was
proved by the effect of frost upon them ;* and no doubt,
after so many ages, when at last exposed, the different degrees
of the frost have proved the original differences of quality
of the bricks made and used at Uriconium.
The word paries, the name which the Eomans applied to the
wall of a house, does not necessarily imply that it was
built of stone or brick. Vitruvius speaks of the parietes
cratitii, or walls formed of wattles or hurdles, covered in
early times with clay, but at a later period with mortar ;
and PHny speaks of them as having been in use in the
ancient buildings in Eome. Vitruvius states as one of the
objections to these walls that they were exposed to injury
from fire.t We can hardly expect to find remaining any
examples, or very distinguishable remains, of walls of lath and
mortar of the Eoman period. The fire, which Vitruvius feared,
has passed over them all, and has left nothing, as far as our
discoveries have yet gone, to assure us whether the stucco and
wall plaster we find so abundantly scattered over the floors of
the Eoman ruins came from walls of stone or from waUs of
wood. It is rather a curious fact that, in the remains of Eoman
buildings in this island, we most frequently find the walls
remaining to a certain elevation, which differs in different
localities, but presenting, in each locality, a nearly uniform
elevation throughout, and at that elevation an unbroken,
or only slightly broken, line ; and it has been supposed,
from this circumstance, that this was the original height of the
stone wall, and that the upper part was built with lath and
* Nam qufE (testa) non fuerit ex creta bona, ant parum erit cocta, ibi sc ostendet esse
vitiosam gelieidiis et pruina tacta. — Vitrumus de Architectural lib. ii. c. 8.
+ Cratitii vero veliin quidem ne inventi essent. Quantum enini celeritate et loci laxamento
prosunt, tanto majoii et communi sunt calamitati, quod ad incendia {uti faces) srnt parati. —
Vitruvius de Arehitcctura, lib. ii. c. 8.
URICONIUM. 193
plaster. The fact alluded to, however, is capable of another
explanation ; for, as the destruction of the walls generally took
place at a period when they were partly buried by the accumu-
lation of soil, and when they were broken up for building
materials, the depredators naturally enough stopped at one
course of stones, perhaps the first or second under the surface
of the ground, which would account perfectly for the level
line of the tops of the walls as they are now found. It must
be remarked that the same appearance is presented by the re-
mains of the walls we have uncovered at Wroxeter, and these
must have been altogether walls of solid masonry, because they
belonged to public buildings, and some of them supported
vaulted roofs. When the parts of the Eoman town which con-
sisted of private houses shall be opened, the appearance of the
walls wiU be a subject of careful observation, with regard to thi.s
question. In the middle ages, no doulDt, a great proportion of
the houses in a town were built in the manner alluded to, the
walls, up to a certain height, of stone, and above that of wood
and plaster. The rule, in regard to the thickness of the paries,
or wall of the house, in Italy, appears to have been that it should
be sesquipedalis, or a foot and a half thick. Perhaps in this more
northemly climate, it was thought necessary for warmth, or for
other reasons, that this measure should be doubled, for the
general thickness of the walls of the buddings of Uriconium
is three feet, and I beheve the same thickness of walls is found
in the remains of Roman buddings in other parts of the island.
It is rather curious that this same solidity of wall was the
one prescribed by municipal law in the towns of western
Europe during the middle ages, probably derived from the
practice of the old Roman builders. The wall which was
then of importance to come under a public regulation of
this kind was the partition wall of the house, and with
this we must also no doubt reckon all the exterior walls
of a house, facing the street or not. There were various
N
194 ITKICOKIUM.
reasons for requiring that its thickness should not be less
than the established rule. In the curious Assize of Budd-
ings in London, enacted under the mayoralty of Henry fitz
Alwyn, in 1189, it is ordered that the party-wall should be
of stone, three feet thick and sixteen feet high ; and that if
arches (for cupboards or closets) were made in the waU on
either side, these should be never more than one foot deep, so
that, if two such arches were opposite each other, the wall
should still remain between them a full foot in thickness.*
One of the most remarkable pecuharities of the Koman
house in these northern provinces was the method by which
the rooms were warmed, which consisted simply in the use
of hot air. The floor of the room was not laid upon the solid
ground, but was raised on a great number of square piers,
formed of square tdes laid upon each other to the requisite
height. This system was called ^?/poca?/siitm — ahypocaust; and
the technical name for the combination of piers, or pilce, appears
to have been suspensurce. Fires were made underneath these
floors, and the warmth not only passed up between them, but it
was carried up the walls by hollow tubes of tile, or earthenware.
Vitruvius gives minute details for budding the hypocaust. He
directs that the ground was first to be laid with foot and a
half tile, on which the piers were to be raised with eight inch
tiles to a height of two feet, that on these a layer of clay mixed
with hair was to be spread, and tiles of two feet were to be laid
over this, which were to support the pavement.t The exca-
vations at Wroxeter have brought to light some very fine and
perfect examples of Roman hypocausts, the proportions of
* Et sic communi custu construent murum lapideiim inter se spissitudinia trium pedum
et altitudinis sexdecim pedum Et si ambo voluerint in muro arcus habere, iiaut arcus ex
iitraque parte profunditatis tantummodo iinius pedis, ita quod spissitudo murl inter arciis sit
continens unnni pedem. — Manimaita Gililhalla: Londoniensis^ edited by Henry Tbomas Itiley,
vol i. pp. 321, 322.
+ Vitruvii de Arcliitectura lib. v. c. 10. — It may be remarked that in Roman buildings
in Britain instances have been met with of the use of pillars of squared stone instead of the
usual piers formed of bricks, usually only one or two stone pillars mixed with the brick piers,
in some cases taken apparently from some older building which had been demolished. In the
hypocaust of a house found at Chester [Dcva), the floor was supported on regular rows of
pillars formed of the sandstone of that district, two feet ten inches high. The usual large tiles
were laid upon these pillars.
URico>riUM. 195
which are here generally rather larger than the dimensions set
down by Vitruvius. In the large room marked 7 in our plan,
in which, when first opened, no less than a hundred and twenty
of these columns remained standing, they were a little more
than three feet in height. At the north-eastern corner, they
supported a small portion of the floor in its original position,
which was a mass of cement, eight inches thick, and perfectly
smooth on its upper surface. The other hypocausts were
generally in a less perfect condition, but the piers seemed
mostly to have been about three feet high. In several places
the remains of the fires by which they had been heated were
found, some of which had been alimented with mineral coal.
Across the middle of the large hjrpocaust (7) a sort of passage
ran from east to west, which had been crossed into from the
archway already described, and was no doubt intended for the
use of the men who had the care of the fires. At its western
extremity it communicated with a mass of walls which pre-
sented the appearance of having been receptacles for fuel, and
pieces of both mineral and vegetable coal were found scattered
among them. In the room marked 13 on our plan, which is
supposed to have been the sudatorium of the Baths, the hollow
tiles which carried the hot air up the inside of the walls so as
to disperse the warmth over the room, may be seen still partly
attached to the cement of the masonry.
The directions given by Vitruvius refer only to the hypo-
causts attached to the baths for the purpose of heating them,
for I believe that there is no single instance known in southern
Italy of a hypocaust attached to a private house for the pur-
pose of warming the apartments. There is no such thing
in Pompeii. The climate, in fact, rendered such contrivances
unnecessary ; but when the Eomans came into our colder
climes, they soon found that they wanted their rooms warming
as well as their baths, and they adopted precisely the same
method of effecting their purpose ; and in Gaul, or in G-ermany,
196 UEICONIUM.
or still more in distant Britain, we find no Eoman residence,'
whether town house or country villa, which has not a certain
numl^er of rooms furnished with hypocausts to warm them.
The people who garrisoned and inhabited the little towns and
stations along the line of the Wall of Hadrian would indeed
have had a dreary life of it without their closely built houses
and their weU fed hypocausts.
It might be considered as a matter of surprise that in the
middle ages the Eoman method of warming houses by hypo-
causts should have been so entirely abandoned, especially in
towns. It was perhaps found to be too elaborate for a ruder
state of society. Our earlier mediaeval forefathers, we know,
merely lighted up their fire in ttie middle of the floor of
their hall, in the way that boys make bonfires, or in the
place where they cooked their meat ; and they gave the
same name, heorth, or hearth, to the fire and to the place on
which it was made. The other word, j^r, a fire, was employed
just in the same manner ; and the Anglo-Saxon looked with an
affection on everything connected with his hearth that shows
how well he appreciated its comforts. He spoke of his family
as liis heorth-iverod, or his hearth-troop ; his domestic servant
was his heorth-cniht, or his hearth-boy ; and even his brides-
maid was distinguished by the at least homely epithet of his
Iteorth-swcepe, his hearth sweeper. The Anglo-Saxons had also
a fijr-cruse, or fire-pot or cruse, and a fyr-panne, or fire-pan,
in Avliich perhaps the lady of the house sometimes had a suffi-
cient quantity of lighted fuel to warm her and her maidens in
her hur, or chamber, in rude imitation of the Eoman braziers,
of which examples have been found at Pompeii. Nobody
has been able to trace any existence among the Eomans
of the open fire-place in the wall, such as we have them :
it was a thing of much later introduction, and seems to have
arisen in the feudal castles. Feudalism everywhere almost
adopted the languages derived fi'om that of the Eomans, and
URICONIUM. 197
they took the Latin word caminus, and made out of it our
word chimney.
I have been describing the rough construction of the
hypocaust, but, as part of the house, it had to receive a con-
siderable amount of ornamentation and finish. The flue-tiles
were run up the walls in parallel rows, and fixed to the
interior surface of the wall by the mortar, and sometimes also
by T-shaped clamps of iron, and all this was afterwards
covered with a smooth surface of mortar. The flue-tiles
probably ran up to the top of the wall, and j)assed through
the eaves. Every room which had a hypocaust had not these
flue-tiles, which were used where greater heat was wanting
than that given merely by the floor. When there were no flue-
tiles, the smooth surface of cement was of course laid immedi-
ately on the masonry of the waU, and its face was adorned with
painting in fresco. As far as we have yet explored the ruins,
we have not found any pieces of fresco painting which would
be very striking as works of art. As stated before,"'' one
fragment was picked up which had formed part of an in-
scription in large letters. When the floor of the room was
finished (it also was formed of cement), one of those beautiful
tessellated pavements for which the Eomans were so celebrated
was laid down upon it. From the discoveries made at
Wroxeter, we can hardly doubt that the Eomans covered
the outside of their walls with stucco and painting as well
as painting them within. The semi-circular northern end
of the great hypocaust of the Baths had been externally
painted red, with stripes of yeUow. The walls which
formed the eastern side of the great internal court of the baths.
was coated with cement externally, and I believe presented
similar indications of painting, but it perished on exposure to
the atmosphere. Altogether, I think we are justified in
assuming that the buildings of Uriconium were painted outside.
It seems to have been rarely the case with a private Eomai^
house of any respectability not to possess a tessellated pa^'C-
t See before, p. ll.-i.
1 98 URICONIUM.
ment. Several have in times back been discovered in different
parts of the site of Uriconium which no doiibt belonged to
private houses, and others have been traced at different periods
by the farmers, but have not been vincovered. In the year
1827, a rather handsome example of a tessellated pavement
was found in what was then a stack-yard, at E in our map,
but it was torn to pieces by people who came to see it from
Shrewsbury, and who carried away the tessellas before any
drawing could be made of it. It probably had belonged to
the room of a house which abutted on the line of street which
ran from the Forum to the town gate at H. Whatever hope, how-
ever, we may have of finding tessellated pavements when we
explore some of the houses in the town, we have been somewhat
disappointed in this respect, in the pubhc buildings. Only one
single tessellated floor has been discovered in the whole extent
of the baths, where they appear to have consisted generally
of a smoothed surface of cement. But this was not the case
with the Basilica, which, as I have before stated, was divided,
in its breadth from north to south, into three divisions, the one
in the middle being thirty feet wide, while the two to the north
and south of this formed long slips of somewhat less than half
this breadth. In the northernmost of these slips, which ran
along the side of a wide public street, were found several frag-
ments of tessellated pavement at sufficiently distant spots to
leave no doubt that a pavement extended continiiously along
its whole length. The southern slip divided the wide apartment
in the middle of the Basilica from the building of the Baths,
and two doors at least led through its boundary wall to the
south, one leading into the Baths, the other into the public
Latrinse. From this, and other circumstances, I have been
led to think that it was a public passage, and I believe some
traces were found of its having been paved with flag-stones.
Moreover, it was at a lower level than the floors of the central
division and northern slip. It appears that about its centre
some fragments of tessellated pavement were found by the
rRICONlQM. 199
men employed in excavating, but, as the site of this build-
ing, the Basilica, had been greatly broken up in excavating
for building materials, for large breaches were found in the
long central walls almost if not quite to their foundations, and
as only small fragments of the northern tessellated pavement
remained, I suspect that the fragments of pavement first
mentioned as found in the southern passage were merely bits
of the northern pavement dropped there by the excavators
whUe carrjdng away materials.
These fragments of the northern pavement have now been
aU covered up ; but before this was done, they were carefully
examined and drawn by my friend Mr. George Maw, of
Benthall Hall, near Broseley, who, as one of the first and most
celebrated of our artists in encaustic tiles, was eminently
qualified to form a judgment upon them . At the congress of
the British Archaeological Association at Shrewsbury in 1860,
Mr. Maw exhibited a dra^ving of a restoration of this pave-
ment of the northern corridor, as he terms it, accompanied
by a paper, both of which were subsequently published in
the volume of the Transactions of the Association for 1861.
He represents it, I have no doubt with perfect truth, as
consisting of a series of oblong panels of simple geometrical
patterns, composed of dark grey and cream-coloured tessell^,
and, as in most Eoman pavements, surrounded, next the wall,
by a broad field of uniform colour, in this instance of a
greenish grey tint. Narrow bands, about five inches wide,
branching from this, divided the whole pattern into panels
of about eight feet by eleven feet. The panels at each end
appear, by the remains, to have been eleven feet square.
The general character of these designs, will be understood
by the accompanying cut (on next page) of the remains of the
tenth panel from the eastern end of the corridor, for which
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Maw. He thinks
that these equal divisions of the pavement may have had
200 UEICONIUM.
relation to some other members of the building, and suggests
that the sides of the corridor next the central apartment may
have been a kind of open arcade, the piers of which corres-
Tessellated Pavement fi'om tlie CoxTidor of the Basilica of Uriconium.
ponded with the partitional bands of the design. I think this
by no means improbable. This pavement, it may be remarked,
is of much coarser work than the pavements which have been
found in some of the Roman towns and villas in this island,
such, for example, as those at Cirencester and Woodchester.
URICONIUM. 201
As the workmen dug below the level of the pavement, Mr.
Maw had an opportunity of examining the construction of the
foundation on which it was laid, and I prefer giving the
description of it, as well as that of the pavement, in his own
words. " The foundations on which tessellated pavements
were laid," he remarks in the paper just quoted, " were of two
distinct kinds, — one formed in connection with the hypocausts,
when it consisted of a thick and uniform layer of coarse con-
crete resting on the large tiles which formed the tops of the
flue-pUlars ; — the other formed for the pavements of apart-
ments such as those now under consideration, where they rested
on the solid ground without the intervening subterranean
air-flues, termed the ruderatio by Vitruvius. This appears
to have been an elaborate and rather careful construction, and
agrees in its formation in nearly aU Roman remains that have
been described. At Wroxeter, it consisted of four distinct
layers of materials, forming, in the aggregate, a substratum
nearly three feet thick. Its principal bulk consisted of a bed,
two feet thick, of lumps of red sandstone, the surface of which
was levelled by a layer of a kind of mortar rather soft and fine
in texture, of about eight inches in thickness. It appears to
have served merely to fill up the irregular cavities of the stone.
The bed resting on this, and forming the immediate foundation
of the mosaic, was a level layer of singular hardness, about
two inches and a half thick, composed of a mixture of hme
and coarsely powdered burnt earth, or brick rubbish ;"' and,
from its uniform thickness and even surface, appears to have
been very carefully prepared for receiving the tessellse. The
fourth layer, in which the tesserse were immediately bedded,
consisted of quite white and very hard cement, which was also
used for filhng in the joints. This construction appears to
have been a weU recognised process by the Eoman writers,
* " Cements of this composition are frequently met witli in Roman buildings, and possess
extraordinary durability. It was also used at Uriconium as a floor-surface, especially in the
bypocausts, where it is seen nearly a foot thick, resting on the large slabs forming the tops ol
the tile pillars."
202 UEICOKIUM.
and in its entirety is called by Vitmvius, the ruderatio ; the
constituent strata being termed the statumen, rudus, and
nucleus, which evidently correspond respectively with the three
principal layers occurring at Wroxeter. Professor Buckman,
in his work on the Cirencester remains, also describes the
foundation of the Eoman pavements there of precisely similar
construction, excepting only that the lower layer, or statumen,
consisted of rammed gravel, in lieu of the sandstone used at
Uriconium. In each case the materials forming the bulk of
the foundation would be such as could be most easily obtained
close at hand, and would vary with the locahty.
" The materials with which the tesserse were composed,"
Mr. Maw goes on to state, " were, first, a light cream-coloured
limestone, of very compact texture, which was, I think, from
its apparent identity with that known in Italy as Polombino,
in the formation of the tessellated mosaics of Eome and the
mediseval Italian mosaics, imported. This, of course, formed
the light, or pattern portions, of the pavement. The dark
parts of the long pavement were composed of two kinds of
stone ; that used in connection with the cream-coloured tes-
serse in the panelled patterns is of a dark bluish colour, much
resembling marble in texture, and, as it was evidently used very
sparingly, I am inclined to think it was imported from abroad
with the cream-coloured stone, or, perhaps, was one of the finer
stones of the lias formation of our own country, brought from
a distance. The broad dark band forming the outside of the
pavement, was made of a greenish stone of open texture, which
I believe occurs at the foot of the Wrekin. It was incapable
of such fine working as the other material, and probably would
not wear so well ; so I am inchned to think its employment in
the pavement at all, was merely on account of economy, to
save the more costly stone before described. Here and there
you find a little fragment of it in the body of the patterns,
which had probably been employed in subsequent repairs, when
URICONIUM. 203
the better stone was not procurable. In addition to these
three natural stones, we find red terra-cotta introduced in the
formation of the guilloche border surrounding the panel."
Mr. Maw adds another remark worthy of our notice. " It is
rather an interesting fact, that these remains of pavements
afibrd confirmatory evidence of the supposed destruction of the
building by fire. Several of the fragments in the Shrewsbury
Museum are very much discoloured, the light cream-coloured
tesserae being turned of a greyish hue, a tint that would be
produced on any yellow stone by a low degree of heat. Nearly
all the fragments of pavements are more or less discoloured,
the grey tints graduating ia patches, from its darkest shade to
the natural colour of the stone, in such a manner as to render
it certain that they would not be produced by selection in the
arrangement of the tesserae ; and I think there is little doubt,
that they are the effect of the burning timbers of the building
that fell upon the floors on the destruction of the city. Here
and there, also, wo find corresponding patches of the pavement,
where the concrete foundation is entirely decomposed, and has
the character of slacked lime. I am more inclined to think,
that this was also the result of the partial application of heat,
than that it was due to mere exposure to the weather, as a
large portion of the foundation remains in the original state.
It is worthy of note, that the pavement, of cream-coloured
tesserae forming the bottom of the bath, which would probably
have been covered and protected by water at the time of the
conflagration, shows no symptoms of the grey discolouration
observed in the pavements, but is singularly clear and uniform
in colour, when compared with them."
When we look at the finer examples of these tessellated
pavements, even in their present condition, worn and battered
by the agency of time and violence, we cannot but feel
convinced of the beautiful efi'ect Avhich they produced when
fresh and perfect. They must have presented somewhat
204 URICONIUM.
the appearance of a floor covered with a fine carpet. The
labour required to produce them must have been immense,
yet the Eomans, in the provinces, at least, seem to have enter-
tertained almost a passion for this sort of ornamentation. We
have a singular example of this feeling in the Baths of Urico-
nium, where the floor of what appears to have been a cold-
water bath (at 20 in our plan) has been formed, at what must
have been an immense expenditure of labour, of small cream-
coloured tessellse in one uniform field, without the slightest
attempt at the introduction of a pattern. The labour, there-
fore, was entirely thrown away. The tesseUae of this floor
are made of the same material as the cream-coloured tessellse
of the pavements of the corridor of the Basilica.
After the close of the Roman empire, the tessellated pave-
ments, like the hypocausts, were discontinued in western
Europe, and probably for the same reason, that they belonged
to a higher state of cultivation, and that the result was no
longer looked upon as commensurate with the labour of their
construction. A very small number of mediaeval tessellated
pavements is known, and these mostly under circumstances
which may be considered exceptional. There is a very remark-
able example in a small early chapel outside Eipion, which had
formed the pavement of the altar platform, but its proximity
to Aldborough, the Isurium of the Romans, celebrated among
modern antiquaries for its tessellated pavements, would lead us
to suspect that this pavement, or at least the materials, had
been brought from that site. It is, I think, an example unique
in our island. In the middle ages, the encaustic tiles took the
place of the tessellae, but these were used chiefly for public
buildings, more especially for buildings of an ecclesiastical cha-
racter, and in houses, of whatever kind, no attempt appears to
have been made to ornament the floors, until carpets were intro-
duced. Nevertheless, the mediaeval builders had studied at
■least the designs of the pavements left by the Romans, and we
TIKICONIUM.
205
trace in the designs and arrangement of the encaustic tiles
evident imitations of them. M. de Caumont, in his Abecedaire *
gives an example of encaustic tUes from the ruins of Saint-
Sampson-sur-Eille, in France, which are exact copies of the
geometrical designs of a Eoman tessellated pavement found in
that district. In the same manner, the accompanying engrav-
Pavement of Encaustic Tiles, from Beaulieu Abbey.
ing, representing part of a mediaeval pavement found in the
abbey of Beaulieu in Hampshire, is almost a copy of the panel
of the tessellated pavement of the corridor at Wroxeter, a
portion of which is given in our previous cut.
At the time when the practice of making tessellated pave-
ments died away in the western provinces of Eome, it took a
new development in the east, and it was thence that at a later
period the art was brought l>ack into the west. It appeared also
under a new name. In monuments, mostly of a popular cha-
racter; going as far back at least as the fourth century, we find
this pictorial work formed by very diminutive dies of different
substances, indicated by the name of musivum ojms, musive
* De Caumont, Abccedaii'e on Rudiment d'Archcologie (Arcliitecturc Ecligieuse), p. l^r
4th edition.
206 URICONirM.
work. An inscription given in Muratori,* speaks of a fountain
which was adorned with such musivum opus ; and ^lius Spar-
tianus, in his life of Pescennius Niger, speaks of a picture of
that general in an arched portions at Eome executed in this
same musive work.t One of the laws of Constantine the Great
related to artificers in musive work — musivarios artifices.
Again, a Eoman inscription found near Tunis, given by Spon,J
and another printed by Gorius,§ speak of chambers ornamented
with museum opus ; and another of the minor historians of the
emperors, Trebellius PoUio, mentions a civic crown pictured
with museum work. || The origin and primitive meaning of this
word are, I believe, totally unknown, and the people who used
it were evidently uncertain as to its form. At a date almost
as early as that of the words musivum and museum,, we find
another form, musaicum opus, and this, though not much in
use tni a considerably later period, finally took the place of all
the others under that of mosaic, which is still in use.^
Among the Byzantine Greeks, this tessellated work appears
to have been no longer used for pavements, but almost exclu-
sively for ornamenting the walls, in place of the Roman fresco
painting. This is the position in which we find nearly all the
musivum opus, in the east. Some of the old antiquaries held
that it was correct to call a pavement tessellated, and that
musivum opus, or mosaic, was a term exclusively applicable to
the tessellated work on the walls. And in the instances of the
use of the word just given, the picture of Pescennius Niger in
the porticus, must have been on the wall, and the ornamenta-
» Fontem hnnc Lysium quern.. .. C. Lycius Poatumus opere musivo exomavit.
+ Hunc in Commodianis hortis in porticu curra pictum de musivo inter Commodi amicissi-
mo8 videmus Sacra Isidis ferentem. — Ji:iii Spartiani Pescennii Nigi-i, p. 216.
J Et hoc amplius pro sua liberalitate cameram supei-posuit et opere museo exomata.
§ Camera opere museo exomata.
II Coronam civicam picturatam de museo. TrebelUi Follionis Tetrious Junior, inter Hist.
August. Scriptores.
^ From the pavements and walla, the miisivium opus, or mosaic work, woidd soon be carried
to the ornamentation of objects of various kinds, and we know of its use for this pui-pose at a
vei7 early period of the middle ages. Such no doubt was the civic crown of Tetricua. But
the practice of mosaic in western and southern Europe is generally considered to have been
derived chieflv from the east.
trRICONIITM. 207
tion of the chambers and of the fountain of Lysius, were
probably of the same character. It is a very remarkable
circumstance that, in two of the rooms we opened in excavating
the Baths of Uriconium (marked 1 7 and 1 9 in the plan) we
found that the waUs had been ornamented with this mosaic
work, identical in every respect in its structure with the mosaic
of the tessellated pavements of the Basilica. The lower part
only remained perfect, in consequence of the breaking away of
the walls, but it presented the design of a guUloche border,
which no doubt had enclosed a large central pattern, or possibly
a picture. It has nearly all fallen since it has been exposed to
the atmosphere, but a piece of it is preserved in the Museum
in Shrewsbury. This is the only example of such mural orna-
mentation yet found among Eoman remains in this country,
and I know of none found in Gaul. It belongs probably to a
late Eoman period, when this sort of ornamentation had come
into vogue in the west, where it was probably never very
popular. It remained, however, in great favour among the
Byzantine buUders in the east until the eleventh century, after
which time it was superseded by fresco-painting.
Another kind of pavement is foimd very generally at Wrox-
eter. It is formed of small tOes, resembling more in form our
modem bricks, about six inches long, by three inches wide, and
an inch and a half thick. These are laid edgeways, and placed
in zigzag rows, forming what is commonly called herring-bone
work. They composed thus a handsome and good floor, and a
dry one ; and they appear to have been used generally in
small courts, passages, and rooms, which were open to the sky.
The central part of the Basihca, and that of the Latrinse, the
court of the supposed Market Place, and some rooms of the
baths, were paved in this manner, and present excellent exam-
ples of the herring-bone pavement.
Hitherto we have had no opportunity of making ourselves
acquainted with the manner in which the architectural orna-
208 UEICONIUM.
mentation of the buildings was distributed over the town of
Uriconium, but we have good reasons for believing that it was
employed in abundance. Shafts of columns, capitals, cornices,
mouldings, and other sculptured stones, have been found in all
parts where we excavated, but generally more or less bruised
and broken, and under circumstances which seemed to show
that they lay on the spot where they were dropped or thrown
when, at a later period, the building materials were carried
away for other purposes. Eelics of a similar description,
which have been accidentally dug up by the farmers' labourers,
are preserved in the gardens and farm yards in the present
village and its immediate neighbourhood, especially in those
of the vicarage and of Mr. Stanier and Mr. W. H. Oatley.
Many of these monuments are also brought up from time to
time from the bed of the river, where also they were no doubt
dropped from the boats or rafts in the course of transporting
the buildings by water. But in no case, except, perhaps, the
pillars of what we believed to be the Forum, can we assume
with any certainty that a sculptured stone of any kind has
belonged to a building which stood upon or very near the spot
where the stone was found. Thus, when we first began our
excavations, at the southern side of the Basilica, the capital
of a column was found lying on the ground, near the wall
separating the Basilica from the Baths, and it was at first
supposed to have belonged to a doorway leading from one of
these buildings into the other ; but it seems now tolerably
certain that there was no doorway at all at this spot. At the
western end of the Basilica were found plinths of stone and
other indications of a grand entrance which had been remark-
able for architectural display. Sculptured stones, of different
Idnds, Avere found in several parts of the Baths. Pieces of
stone cornices and other architectural fragments lay in the
middle of a small room near to the buildings of the Baths.
The shaft of a Inrge column was found in what we call
UKICONIUM.
209
the enamel] er's shop : and capitals as well as portions of
the shafts of columns AA^ere found scattered about what is
supposed to be the market-place.
Two parts of capitals, found in the quadrangular court, or
market-place, and now preserved in the Museum at Shrewsbury,
which perhaps belonged to the fagade of a temple, and of the
more perfect of which an engraving has already been, given in
the present volume,''"'' approach near to classical elegance. But
in general the style of the Uriconian sculptures is veiy de-
based, and evidently of a rather late date approaching to
mediaeval. It all displays the tendency to profuse ornamental
detail and to that love of quaint forms, which is so peculiar
to mediacA^al, and especially to Byzantine architectrue. Two
capitals, formed of grey conglomerate, procured by Mr. Oatley
of Wroxeter, from the bed of the river, were presented by him,
I beheve when churchwarden, to be placed on the two columns
of the new entrance gateway to the modern churchyard, where
they still stand, though becoming more and more defaced by
the weather. They are represented in the accompanying cut.
RW. FAiBMOir
Capitals of Columns from Wroxeter.
It will be seen that these capitals present the same character
of design, and, although the design itself is veiy much varied
* Sec before, p. 157.
210 URICONIUM.
in detail, there can hardly be a doubt that they belonged
originally to the same colonnade, or, at least, to the same system
of columns. They are each about sixteen inches in height.
Another capital, identical in style with the preceding, but
presenting further varieties in detail, is represented in the first
figure of om* plate of Eoman capitals found at Wroxeter. Like
the others it is sixteen inches in height, and about twenty
inches in diameter across the top. It was also, as well as the
two other capitals given in the same plate, dredged from
the river, and preserved by Mr. Oatley. One of these (fig. 2)
measures twenty inches by twelve, and the other (fig. 3) nine-
teen inches by sixteen. A number of other capitals of columns
may be seen in the garden of the late Mr. Stanier ; and others
may be seen in the Shrewsbury Museum. A plain capital of
a very large Eoman column, which has been hollowed out into
a mediaeval font, may be seen in the church.
Among the Roman remains in Mr. Oatley 's garden, are two
fragments of columns which he preserved from being used in
building a wall, and which are represented in our plate of
Eoman columns found at Wroxeter. They are both made of
grey sandstone, but not, as usual with the shafts of columns,
smooth or fluted. The first, which is thirty-one inches in length
and thirteen in diameter, is ornamented, in the upper part,
with scales, and beneath, with crossed bands or trellis work.
Upon it is sculptured a figure which appears to be intended
for that of Atys, with the hraccce, or trowsers, thrown open
in front, as he is commonly represented carrying them.
In the animal by his side, we may probably recognize a
shepherd's dog.* The lower part only of this figure remains.
The other column, which is thirty-four inches long by twelve
in diameter, is entirely covered with the scale ornament, and,
• My frientl, Mr. Roach Smith, is of opinion tliat the figure may possibly liaye heen intended
to represent " a Bacchus, and that the animal on tlie right hand may have" heen intended for a
iwnther, the head of which seems directed to some object, pi-ohahly a wine-cup, or hunch of
Ri-apo9." See his Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iii. p. 31. If Mr. Smith he correct, the sculptor
was certainly not a very skilful delineator of animal life.
UEICONIUM. 211
on the lower part, the sculptor has represented a cupid, kneel-
ing upon a pannier and holding bunches of grapes. They
appear to be two columns from the same colonnade. This
style of ornamenting the shafts of columns is very unusual
among the Eoman remains in Britain ; but, as Mr. Eoach
Smith remarks, examples are not uncommon in some of the
temples in Italy, and the scale or leaf ornament is common,
especially in the south. I believe there are fragments of
columns of somewhat sunilar character in Mr. Stanier's garden.
The Eomans appear rarely to have had upper floors in their
houses, but all the rooms were situated on Avhat we should
caU the ground floor. In the present condition of the remains,
it would, of course, be difficult to say what was the original
elevation of the buildino-, or whether there had been rooms
above, or not ; but an upper-floor requires a stair-case, or
something of that kind, and in all our exploration of Eoman
houses in Britain, whether in viUas or in towns or stations, I
believe that no one has yet found the slightest traces either of
a stair-case or of anything which could be suj)posed to be a
place for a stair. The principal rooms were probably lofty.
The roofs appear to have been generally ridged, whether
high or low we have no means of judging, at least as far as
regards the Eoman buddings in our own island. In Italy
the roofs were covered with tiles (tegulcej, which are said by
Phny to have been first introduced about the time of king
Pyrrhus, that is, in the first half of the third century before
Christ. The roof-tiles were square, with two parallel edges
flanged. They were laid in rows, from
the bottom of the roof to the lidge,
-ttdth the flanged edges upwards and
joining, so as to form parallel lines,
which lines of flanges were covered
with other tiles made in the form of
Eoof-tiles and imbrices. J^^^^f ^^^^^_ ^^^^J ^.j^^gj tCChnicallv
212 UEICONIUM.
imbrices. When Plautus would describe the effects of the
storm on the roofs of the houses, he says that it broke both
the tegulce and the imbrices.
■ — Tempestas venit,
Confregit tegulas imbrioesque.
Plautus, — Mostellaria, act i. sc. 2.
This arrangement of the roof-tiles will be best understood by
the accompanying cut.
These roof-tiles, which were used also for other purposes, as
for forming the beds of drains, and even sometimes in the
place of wall-tiles, are found scattered about at Wroxeter, but
not in very great numbers. They are abundant among the re-
mains of Eoman buildings in the midland, eastern, and southern
counties, where they were certainly the favourite materials fo-r
the Eoman roofs. But in the rocky districts of the west and
north, especially where the rocks were of a slaty chara.cter, or
split easily into lamiuEe, the roof was more commonly made of
thin slaljs of stone. The slab was made in the form of an
elongated hexagon, as represented at b in the annexed cut, with
a hole at the upper angle
r"°~l » '^J^^jXj^.'CJ^Xj,/^ for a nail or peg, by
'"^ J\J<''''^Jr\y\ a€ which it was fixed to the
wood-work. They were
placed overwrapping one
another, so as to form
a pattern oi lozenges, as
represented in the cut. Half-hexagons, as represented at a
were made to place at the top, so that they should finish in
a straight line, and a row of ridge-tiles was probably carried
along the line. From the great quantity of these slabs which
are found scattered about among the ruins of Uriconium, and
many of which still retain the nail in the hole, it is evident
that this was the sort of roofing most in use in the Eoman city.
They are formed of the micaceous laminated sandstone which
is found on the edge of the Shropshire and North Staffordshire
DMOONiUM. 213
coal-fields, and the particles of mica are so thickly scattered in
it, that the roofs of Uriconium, when seen in the sunshine, must
have sparkled and glittered in a most extraordinary manner.
When exploring the remains of Eoman houses and other
buildings in Britain, we are often surprised at the small num-
ber of doors with which we meet. Often indeed we find a
room without any apparent entrance. Perhaps this is to be
explained by supposing that the sill of the door was jalaced
sometimes higher above the floor than the present elevation of
the ruin of the waU. The Eomans appear nearly always in
this country to have placed the siUs of the doors at some height
above the level of the floor, perhaps with a view to securing
internal dryness and warmth. They would no doubt be
approached on either side by a step, or steps, most likely of
wood, or some other perishable material. We have met with
several instances at Wroxeter where the door-sill, raised to a
certain height in the wall, was approached by a step of stone.
Probably the doors of the houses were not much decorated,
and in our excavations we have not yet found a single frag-
ment of ornament which can have belonged to them. The
door to the hypocausts in the Baths had a circular head very
nicely turned with tHes, but these have in great part perished
since exposure to the atmosphere.
We know less of the character of the windows of the
Eomano-British houses than of the doors, and there can be no
hope of finding any of the walls of Wroxeter remaining to a
sufiicient elevation to throw any light on this part of the sub-
ject. But of this we are certain, that the Eoman windows
were glazed, for several pieces of undoubted window-glass have
been found in the course of the excavations, and examples
will be found in the Museum at Shrewsbury. Window-glass
had already been met with in exploring the sites of Eoman
settlements in this island. In the excavations at Lympne in
Kent, the site of the Eoman Porius Lemanis, carried on under
214 tJRICONirM.
the direction of my friend, Mr. Eoach Smith, I myself picked
up, on the iioor at the foot of a wall in the interior of a large
room, a number of fragments of window-glass, which had
evidently fallen from the windows in the wall when they were
broken. In this instance the glass was thin, much like the
ordinary glass of the windows of our old houses. I believe
that glass of a similar description has been found in one or
two of the Eoman villas in our island. At Wroxeter, the
glass hitherto found is of fine qiiality and rather more than
the eighth of an inch in thickness, resembling our modem plate
glass, except that it is less transparent. In fact it appears to
have been intended for admitting light, rather than for seeing
through, presenting almost the appearance of ground glass.
This glass was found chiefly on the site of the public Baths.
It is a curious circumstance that similar glass was met with
in the Baths of Pompeii. In the vaulted roof of the Apodyte-
rium of these Baths a window was found, two feet eight inches
high and three feet eight inches wide, closed by a single large
pane of cast-glass, two-fifths of an inch thick, fixed into the
wall, and ground on one side, it is supposed for the pui'pose
of preventing persons on the roof from looking into the bath.
Many fragments of this glass are stated to have been found
among the rums of the Baths of Pompeii.
Our excavations have not yet been carried far enough to
throw any light upon the character of the drainage of the
domestic buildings in Uriconium, but we know that the Eomans
always gave great attention to the sanitary condition of their
towns. The drains, or cloacce, of Rome were celebrated for their
great dimensions and for their extreme antiquity, and, there-
fore, durable character. The principal sewers in the city of
Rome are stated to have been built by Tarquin the Elder, who
died in the year 578 before Christ, and to have been so
wide and lofty that a wagon laden with hay could pass along
them. We have hardly any knowledge of the system of
UETC'ONIUM.
215
tlrainag-e of Roman London, partly from the circumstance
that excavations in London have always been accidental, and
never carried on with an antiquarian object, and still more
because the Roman sewers probably lie at a greater depth than
the excavators usually reach. The accompanying cut represents
the section of what appears to be a sewer) and is certainly of
the Roman period, which was
discovered somewhat more
than twenty years ago at
a considerable depth under
Little Knight Rider Street,
in the city of London. It
passed through a wall of
Kentish rag ; and the arch
was formed of tiles about
Roman Sewer in London. twclvC iuchcS Ions'. The
dimensions of this sewer were about three feet by two.* Another
apparent sewer, also arched, and three feet wide by three feet
and a half high, was found about the same time under Old
Fish Street Hill.t Sewers have been met with in excavations
among the stations on the line of the Roman waU. But the
most interesting examples of Roman sewers yet discovered are
those at Lincoln, the Roman Lindum, which are still in good
preservation, and present not only the main cloacce, but the
transverse drains running from the houses into them. They
are built of excellent masonry, but, instead of being arched,
are covered with large flags of stone. The cut on the next page
represents one of these sewers in its present condition, with the
mouths of two of the transverse drains. Mr. C. Roach Smith
walked up it without diflficulty more than a hundred yards.
The finest sewer yet discovered at Wroxeter is that in the
Baths, already mentioned.^ It crossed a square pit, resembl-
* This relic of Roman London is described in the Journal of the British Archspologicil
Association, vol. i. p. 25.3, from which our cut is borrowed.
f See the same volume of the ArclifEological Association, p. 45.
J See pp. 119 and 130 in the present volume.
216 URICONIUM.
ing a cess-pool, and ran directly north towards the Old Wall,
through which probably it passed, and no doubt in one direction
or the other, it emptied itself into a main sewer, running
A Roman Main Sewer at Lincoln.
down perhaps to the river. It is hardly probable that the
Bell Brook, running through the middle of the town, and slow
enough in its course, would have been used by the Eomans as
an open sewer, as some have supposed, who imagine that these
drains in the higher ground emptied themselves into it. The
masonry of this drain, and of all the buildings adjacent, is
extremely good, with a profusion of the large Roman tiles.
These form the sides of the drain, which was opened only to
a very inconsiderable distance towards the north. It is
covered by a large block of stone, belonging to a course of
similar stones which run horizontally along the Avail. The
floor of the drain is formed of a course of roof-tiles, the flanged
edges turned upwards. When first uncovered, the square pit
and drain were in a remarkably good state of preservation,
and are accurately represented in the cut on the next page,
but they have since sufli"ered by exposure to the air.
We can hardly doubt that there must have been a drain
from the latrinse, though its outlet has not yet been traced ;
URICONIDM.
2V,
but a still more curious monument of tlie care of the Eomans
in this island for the good drainage of their towns has been
discovered at the south-western corner of the excavations.
Here no doubt is the southern extremity of the ancient Forum,
which was entered at this point by a rather wide street from
the east. The line of houses forming the southern side of this
la
Drain in the Baths at Wroxeter.
Street^ is carried westward considerably beyond the line of the
eastern side of the Forum, and then turns at right angles and
formed the side of a street running to the south, and coinciding
with the present Watling Street Eoad. At a very small dist-
ance from the wall of the houses, running along the side of
this street, we found, in a perfect condition, an open drain,
which may properly be described as a gutter. It is well
formed, of good squared stoneS;, and is about two feet wide by
218 tTfelCONlUM.
fifteen inches deep ; but its most remarkable feature is, that,
at short intervals, square stones are placed, diagonally towards
the sides of the gutter, and filling it so as hardly to leave any
passage for the water, which must, therefore, have filled the
channel and flowed over. The stones have evidently been
placed in their position by design, but what their object may
have been, except for stepping stones, it is difficult to conjec-
ture, and for this purpose they were unnecessary, and would
not be of much use. At all events we have here a unique
example of a Eoman street, with a gutter at the side much
like that of our old mediaeval towns. It would seem to show
also that the streets of our Eoman towns had no paved way
at the side for foot passengers.
The Eomans used pipes for conveying water under ground,
or at least concealed from view, usually made of lead, and to
which they gave the name fistula. Directions for the con-
struction and use of these fistulce are given by Vitruvius.*
They were made of plates of lead, bent round into the form of
a tube, not perfectly cylindrical, but having a sort of ridge at
the juncture of the edges. Fragments of leaden tubes, answer-
ing exactly to this description, were found to the north-east of
the Baths and Basilica, in the direction towards rather higher
ground in which springs are said to be plentiful, so that they
had probably been laid there for the purpose of carrying
water to the Baths. They are preserved in the Museum at
Shrewsbury. Similar pipes had been met with in the excava-
tions made in 1788 on another part of the site of Uriconium,
described in an earlier part of the present volume.t
Water is easily obtained by sinking a shaft in almost any
part of the site of the ancient city, and at various times
Eoman wells have been found in several diff"erent places, pro-
bably belonging, in most cases, to private houses. One is
understood to have been met with towards the south-eastern
* De Architectnra, lib. viii., c. 7.
+ See page 104.
umcoNiuM. 219
extremity of the extensive field which includes the present
excavations. We came upon a very perfect and interesting
well at the upper part of the field in ^^lich the skeletons with
deformed heads were found, to the westward of the church.
It consisted of a circular shaft, two feet and a half in diameter,
and about fourteen feet deep. The wall was built of small
tdes. Above was a small square platform, measuring six feet
by six feet seven inches, and formed of four irregularly shaped
flag-stones, about four inches thick. In the middle there is a
circular opening over the well, over-passing the brick-work
below by about an inch and a half all round. The appearance
of this platform when uncovered is represented in the accom-
panying cut. No doubt there was originally some structure
Mouth of a Roman Well at Wroieter.
above this platform, with, perhaps, rude machinery for raising
water out of the well ; but this was probably made of wood,
and has perished long ago. When uncovered and cleared out,
the water immediately appeared in this well as of old, and it
.has been since used as a well. But it was found to eutad
some inconveniences on the farmer, which have caused it to be
again covered up.
220
CHAPTEE VI.
THE DOMESTIC FURNITURE OF THE HOUSES ] THE POTTERY, FOR
THE TABLE AND FOR THE KITCHEN ; PROVISIONS ; MEANS
OF LIGHTING THE HOUSE ; BOXES AND COFFERS, AND
LOCKS AND KEYS.
Much of the domestic furniture of a house in Uriconium
would no doubt be made of wood, or of other perishable
materials, and that portion which was made of metal Avould
probably be considered either useful or valuable by the rude
invaders who destroyed the town, and would be carried away
among the plunder, so that we can hardly expect to find any
relics of it, as in to^vns like Pompeii and Herculaneum, which
were destroyed by natural causes, and not exposed to pillage.
The site of our excavations, too, has not yet introduced us to
the private houses of the inhabitants of Uriconium. It is not
therefore to be wondered at if we have as yet found little tend-
ing to illustrate the way in which the Romans lived indoors,
to show us what was the character of their tables and seats,
in what form and posture they took their meals, how and on
what they reposed, and to answer a number of similar ques-
tions ; l3ut every object we have met -ndth is so purely Roman
in its character, that we are justified in assuming that this
was the case also with what is lost, and that the Romans in a
town like Uriconium lived just as Romans did in other parts
of the empire, and even in Rome itself We are not, however,
quite Avithout monuments of the domestic life of the Urico-
URICONIUM. - 221
nians, for a considerable number of relics have been found
during the course of the excavations which tend to throw at
least a partial light on this subject. First of these, and in
many respects the most important, is the pottery, which is
found too generally broken, but in such large quantities, that we
cannot doubt of its having been used in great profusion by the
Eoman householders. From the purposes for which a very large
proportion of the pottery was evidently intended, and from its
very elegant and ornamental character, we cannot doubt that
the table was covered witL it at every meal.
As we collect the potteiy from the excavations on Eoman
sites in Britain, we quickly perceive that, as in modern times,
the earthenware used in Eoman Britain had issued from a
number of different manufactories, which differed very widely
in the character of the ware they produced, and a certain
number of the most remarkable of these estabhshments are
already well identified with the pottery which they sent forth
into the market. The extent to which the trade in pottery
was carried is proved by the circu.mstance that we hardly ever
excavate on a Eoman site in Britain, no matter how remote,
where Eoman pottery is found, but we find samples of almost
every description of Eoman ware which we know to have been
in use. It will be well to give a review of the more remark-
able of those which have been found in the ruins of our ancient
border city.
The pottery which was evidently most valued in Eoman
Britain, and no less so in Gaul and the other provinces of the
west, was a bright red ware, presenting in colour and texture
a close resemblance to red sealing Avax. The vessels made of
this ware are evidently of a superior class, in shape very
elegant and extremely varied, and a great proportion of them,
at least, seem intended for holding the difi'erent articles, solid
or liquid, which were served at table. Many of these vessels
are quite plain ; but a very great number are ornamented
222 UMCONIUM.
with figures in relief, presenting a great variety of subjects,
and often executed in a very good style of art. Antiquaries
seem generally agreed in calling this pottery Samian ware,
and the reasons for adopting this name appear tolerably con-
clusive. The isle of Samor was certainly so celebrated in the
days of ancient Greece for the manufacture of pottery, that
there was a legend that this manufacture was invented there.
We learn from ancient writers that there was, among the
Eomans in Italy, a class of earthenware, much valued and in
general use, to which they applied the name of Samian. The
expressions used by these writers in speaking of it, enable us
to recoenise several of its characteristics. AVe learn that the
Samian ware of the Romans was red. Pliny infoi'ms us that
the Samian ware was in great favour for the service of the
table, and he adds immediately afterwards an allusion to the
potteries at Arctium, in Italy, which would almost lead us to
suppose that this Samian ware was made there.'"" The Eoman
Samian Avare was brittle, and easily broken. One of the per-
sonages in the Mensechmi of Plautus begs another to knock
gently at the door ; he replies, " I fancy you are afraid that
the doors are made of Samian ware !"
M. Placide pulta. P.Metuis, credo, ne foros Samias sient.
Plavti Menahmi, act i., sc. 2.
And again, in another comedy of the same writer, one of
the characters speaking of a woman who Avas a native of
Samos, his companion, punning on the name, says, " Pray,
take heed that no one handle her without care, for thou
knowest that a Samian vessel is quickly broken."
Vide quaaso, ne quis tractet illani indiligens,
Scis tu, ut oonfringi vas cito Samium solet.
Plauti Balchides, act ii., sc. 5.
This description applies perfectly to the red ware found in
Britain to which we give the name of Samian, wliich is
» Major quoque pars hominum terrenis utitar vasis. Samia etiamnum in esculcntis
laudantur. Retinet hanc nobilitatem et Arctium in Italia. Plinii Hist, Nat,, lib, xxxv, c, 46,.
ITfiioONlUM. 223
undoubtedly brittle and easily broken, and which appears to
have been considered of so much worth, that, when broken
in ancient times, it was mended, which was done usually by
means of rivets and clasps of metal, lead or bronze, but most
frequently the forjner. Pieces of Samian vessels thus mended
are frequently met with, and some examples have been found
at Wroxeter.
We have, however, some other means of identifying this
pottery, which are curious, and rather accidental. A¥e have
seen that Pliny speaks of Aretium, in Etruria, as the great
manufactiire of pottery in Italy. Isodore, who wrote at the
beginning of the seventh century, was well acquainted with
the fame of the Aretine vessels, which, he says, were of a
red colour.'" The ancient Aretium is represented by the
modern Itahan town of Arezzo, and there in recent times
the remains of the ancient potteries have been discovered, and
plenty of the pottery which was made in them. An account
of this pottery was given by an antiquary of the locahty, A.
Fabroni, in an octavo volume, entitled Storia degli antichi
Vasi fittili Aretini, published there in 1841, illustrated mth
coloured engra^dng-s of specimens of the ware. These present
a general resemblance to our Samian ware, but Avith differ-
ences quite sufficient to show that they are not identical,
whilst other points of less perfect resemblance, would lead us
to suppose that the red ware we fiud so abundantly in Britain
and Gaiil was originally an imitation of that of Aretium. The
Aretine Avare is of a deeper shade of red ; it is ornamented
similarly with figures in relief, but they are in a much supe-
rior style of art ; and there is another point in which they
differ altogether. The vessel of what we call Samian ware is
almost always stamped with the name of the maker in a label.
* Aretina vasa ex Aretio Italia? mttnicipio dicuntur, sunt enim rabra, de quibus Sedulius,
Eubra quod appositum testa mijiistrat ulus.
Isidori Orig., lib. xx., cap. 4. Sednlios was a Christian poet of the fifth century, so that
the ware of Aretium must have been in common use at that time, unless the title of Aretine
had been extended to all ware of this description, bo as to include our Samian ware.
224 URICONIUM.
Examples of these stamps are given in our cut, taken, in this
instance, from Samian ware found in excavations in London.
l^^ cmB^Jl'^iTl (i\^lk)ETll°M l (MSEV
s^£V
Potters marks on the Samian ware.
The name is usually stamped across the bottom in the inside,
but, in some cases of the embossed vessels, it is found stamped
on the outside. The formula of the inscription differs. Some-
times the name is put in the nominative case, and followed
by F or FB, for fecit, made ; in other cases, perhaps the most
common, the name is given in tJie genitive case, and is accom-
panied by or of, for officina, from the workshop, or M or MA,
for manu, by the hand, either before or after the name. Thus,
in the examples given in our cut, the name on the circular
label is sabinvs.fe, Sabinus fecit, or Sabiuus made it. Of
the others, one reads OF sevepj, officina Severi, from the
workshop of Sevei-us ; another of.l.cos. viril, officina L
Cosii Virilli, from the workshop of Lucius Cosius Virillus ;
a third, mepeti.m, Mepeti manu,, by the hand of Mepetus.
Sometimes the name is put alone in the genitive case, as here we
have on one, wliich like the last, has ligulated letters, (or combi-
nations of two or more letters in one), paternvli, ioi Paternuli,
i.e., the work of Paternulus, and ivl.nvmidi, Julii Numidii, the
work of Julius Numidius. The stamps on the Aretine ware
give totally different names of potters from those found on our
Samian ware, and they are placed in a different position. A
few years ago, a friend, the late Mr. W. Burckhardt Barker,
(son of the Avell known John Barker, of Suwaidiyah, near
Antioch), gave me some fragments of pottery which had
been found among remains of the Grteco-Roman period, in
excavations at Tarsoos, the ancient Tarsus, which bore a close
URICONIUM. 225
resemblance to our Samian ware. I afterwards transferred
them to the collection of my friend, Mr. Mayer, of Liverpool,
and I believe they are now in the well-known Mayer Museum.
This ware, also, was rather of a darker red than our Samian.
The pieces alluded to were plain, but the potter's name, which
was in Greek characters, was stamped much in the same
manner. Perhaps we may regard these different sorts of
pottery, the specimens from Tarsus, the Aretine, and the red
ware of our western provinces, as all belonging to one
description of earthenware, the manufacture of which, as the
fine pottery for the table, had spread westward, and Mr.
Barker's specimens may represent the original manufacture of
the isle of Samos. All these facts well considered, we feel
justified in continuing to call our red ware of this description
Samian.
The potters' marks on our Samian ware have a historical
value. The variety is very great. I have given, in " The Celt,
the Eoman, and the Saxon," a Hst of some hundreds of different
names of potters, and almost every new discovery of Samian
pottery of any extent, adds some new name or names to the
number. The potteries, therefore, wherever they stood, must
have been of very considerable extent, and if they had existed
within our island, traces of them must have been met with.
Yet among all the discoveries and all the explorations made in
Britain, nobody has yet found a trace of a pottery for the
manufacture of Samian ware. But, on the other hand, pot-
teries of Samian ware have certainly been found in France,
chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Ehine, along with some of
the tools used in the making ; and here again the names of
the potters come to our aid. There can be no doubt that a
considerable number of these names are Gaulish, and those
stamped on the specimens found in our island are generally
identical with those found in France. We seem, therefore,
justified in considering that the potteries in which what we
226 URICONroM.
call Samian ware was made, were situated in Gaul, chiefly on
the banks of the Rhine, and that it was imported into Britain.
The forms and sizes of the various examples of this Samian
ware usually found point all to their use for the table. Many
them are of small dimensions, and were evidently employed as
cups, and perhaps to hold sauces and condiments of various
kinds. Our cut represents three of the commoner forms of these
Forms of plain Samian Ware.
small vessels, especially the two outer, which are of very fre-
quent occurrence. The form of the vessel in the centre is less
frequently met Avith. This latter is two inches high by four
and a half in diameter ; the cup to the left is two inches in
height by five in diameter ; while that to the right is two
inches by four. The smaller vessels are usually plain, but
they are always elegant in form. Some of them, however, are
ornamented with wreaths or borders of ivy-leaves, which form
the simplest article of ornamentation Ave find upon them. The
ivy, we know, was dedicated to Bacchus ; and in their great
carouses the Romans were accustomed to wear wreaths of ivy on
their heads. This circumstance, therefore, points further to the
uses for which this ware was employed. The larger bowls and
other vessels of this ware are profusely ornamented with figures,
as before stated, in relief. One of the chief characteristics of
these ornamented vessels is the prevalence of the festoon and
tassel, or, as some have called it less appropriately, egg and
tongue border, which so generally surrounds them, and which
presents some slight variations in its form. I give four of
these varieties, from Samian vessels found in London, in the
cut on the left. Others Avill be met AAdth in the samples
tTErCONITJM.
227
of this ware given in the following pages. It is a remark-
able fact in confirmation of wliat has been said in comparing
our Samian ware with the Aretine pottery, that in this
latter also the festoon and tassel border prevails as the favourite
ornament, with its own varieties, though varying more widely
from the same ornament on the Samian ware. Three ex-
amples of the border as it appears on the Aretine ware are
given in our cut on the right, from engravings in Fabroni's
book, and it will be seen at once that they are substantially
the same as those given in the cut on the left. The designs
©©®©®©®©©
© © © © ©
The festoon and tassel border from
Samian Ware.
© o © o © o o
The festoon and tassel border from
Aretine Ware.
with which the exterior surface of this ornamental pottery is
usually covered are extremely miscellaneous, and are formed
of figures of men and women, of animals, birds, and fishes, and
of other objects. Some of these present clearly defined sub-
jects, taken from classic poetry and romance ; or hunting
scenes, combats of gladiators, scenes of domestic life, &c.
Others are far more comphcated, presenting to the eye often a
very inexplicable picture, in which figures of all descriptions
are thrown together in the utmost confusion Avithout any
relation to each other. I shall endeavour to explain this cir-
cumstance a little further on.
228
URICONIUM.
Many specimens of Samian ware of all kinds have been
found at Wroxeter, and a certain number, ornamented, as
well as plain, are preserved in the Museum. I give, selected
from these, three examples of the ornaments of the Uriconium
Samian ware. The smallest of these is evidently intended to
Samian and imitation-Samian ware from Wroxeter.
represent a boar-hunt, and Avill serve as a good specimen of
the bold style in which the figures are usually executed. The
upper fragment represents a sea-monster, semi-human, combat-
ing with a club a number of other sea-monsters of different
shapes. To the right is the figure of a man, in an attitude not
quite intelligible, but holding what may be a sceptre or rod,
with which he is perhaps exerting authority ; it has been
suggested that this figure is intended to represent Neptune.
To the left is a figure of a more jocular character, represent-
ing a hare standing on its hind-legs, and playing on the double
TJEICONIUM.
229
pipes. This, of course, can have nothing whatever to do with
the rest of the picture, and can only have been introduced to
fill up a blank space. It may be remarked that, in the original,
the sea-monster in the centre is clearly represented as andro-
gynous. The subject of the third fragment is quite as unintel-
ligible. The scene appears, from the branches of trees, to be
intended for a forest, filled Avith wild animals, running about in
all directions, but without any particular object in view. The
centre is occupied by the nude figure of a female, with her
hands apparently tied behind her, — in fact, we can hardly
doubt that this figure was intended for the classic Andromeda,
who is as much misplaced in this example as the musical hare
in the former ] for we know that Andromeda was bound to a
rock on the shore, and exposed to a monster of the sea, and
not to the beasts of the forest. Perhaps it will be well if, to
illustrate the character of the forms and ornamentation of the
specimens of Samian ware abeady deposited in the IMuseum at
Shrewsbury, and of those which are constantly added to it, we
enter a little further into the description of the designs which
are usually found on this class of pottery, and describe the
mode in which it was manufactured.
The next cut represents a perfect bowl, five inches liigh by
nine inches in diameter, found some years ago in Bermondsey.
BoTvl of Samian Waro.
Nearly half of a bowl of the same type will be found in the
Museum at Shrewsbury. It is chiefly remarkable for the rich-
230
UEICONIUM.
ness of the ornamentation, and as illustrating the love of these
Eonian artists for figures of wild animals. The next cut
represents a vessel found in London, of not very large dimen-
sions, and of a totally different form, but stdl more elaborately
ornamented. It is five inches high by six in diameter. The
figures represented in the different compartments of its outer
surface belong to a class which is very common on this ware,
and was evidently a great favourite with the people who used
it, subjects taken from classic fable. The figure to the left, a
female modestly dressed and armed with bow and arrows, was
I
perhaps intended for Diana, or for one of Diana's nymphs. To
the left we see one of the heroes slaying with a club a serpent
or dragon ; perhaps it may be intended to represent one of the
exploits of Hercules. The central figure can only be described
as a hero, naked, in the act of combating. — Mr. Roach Smith
considers it, and probably with reason, to represent a per-
former in the Pyrrhic dance ; but perhaps we may find it
in some other pottery design combined with figures which
would enable us to define more exactly its meaning. It will
be observed that the figure of the nymph is rather too large
for the place she occupies, and that the head intrudes upon the
bead border and to some degree upon that of the festoons and
tassels.
Among the Samian ware found at Wroxeter, there are
many fragments ornamented with a class of subjects which
URICONIUM. 231
I believe belongs to a rather late date. I give as an example
a piece found at Colcliester, the Eoman colonia known
by the name of Camulodunum ; it will be seen that serpents
Samian Ware found at Wroxeter
and serpentine forms are its prevailing ornaments. It is
rather a curious circumstance that these forms are found in
the Aretine ware of Italy, and Mr. Eoach Smith was led,
by the examination of the fragments found at Colchester, to
beheve that this design was a direct imitation. It will be
seen that there is here an unmistakeable peculiarity in the
border ornaments, the festoon and tassel, &c., which distin-
guishes it from most of the Samian ware found in Britain ;
and it is iateresting to find even this rarer variety of the
Samian pottery in use so far ia the distant west as the city of
Uriconium.
I return to the Samian ware of I beheve an earlier, and
evidently a purer style. Our next cut represents a fragment
of this ware found in the excavations on the site of the
New Corn Exchange in London, and presents as usual rather
a confusion of subjects. The figure to the right no doubt
represents Fortune, holding the rudder and cornucopia, her
characteristics. The other figures are not so easily explained,
but the bird cannot be misinterpreted, for it represents un-
232
UEICONIUM.
mistakeably a fighting cock. Cock fighting, introduced into
Britain by the Eomans, seems to have become a perfect passion
Samiim Ware, with a Fighting Cock.
among the Eoman colonists. Among the animal bones found
in profusion at Wroxeter, have been found many ] egs of the
fighting cock, with very large natural spurs, which leave no
doubt that this cruel amusement prevailed to a very great
extent in ancient Uriconium. The love of the Eomans for
sanguinary exhibitions is well known, and it seems to have
gained force in the distant colonies for want of other occupa-
tion. Every town in Eoman Britain was provided with its
amphitheatre, generally of considerable extent. The games of
the amphitheatre, and especially gladiatorial combats, are
favourite subjects on the Samian ware, and appear to have
been in great esteem in Britain, for they are found among the
fragments of that description of pottery on most of the Eoman
sites which have been hitherto explored. Sometimes two or
three figures of gladiators are introduced among others with
which they have no direct relationship. The handsome bowl
represented in our next cut was found at Bermondsey, near
UEICONIUM.
233
London, and is, as usual, decorated with rather miscellaneous
subjects. On the side shown in the cut, we have, first, a scene
Samian Vase from Bermondsey.
from a stag-hunt, and next, towards the left, a scene in which
the retiariv^, who was armed with a trident and net, mth
the latter of which he entrapped his antagonist, and then killed
him with the former, is represented in face of two gladiators
of the class termed Samnis, or Samnite, because they were
said to be armed in the fashion of the ancient Samnites. Our
next cut represents a fragment of a handsome bowl, found also
in London, but a bowl of the same pattern, nearly complete.
Samian Ware with figures of Gladiators.
found at Wroxeter, may be seen in the Museum at Shrews-
bury. Some of the groups are placed over garlands not unlike
234
tTRTCONIUM.
those in the fragment given on page 231. The figures repre-
sent a Samnite apparently flying from his antagonist, who is
armed with a sword and circular shield, and probably belongs
to the class of gladiators who were termed Thracians. Another
Samnite is seen to the left. Such figures of gladiators are
among the most common ornaments of the Samian pottery,
and in general they resemble very closely in all their details
the pictures of the same class which occurs on the Eoman monu-
ments found in Italy. All the following groups have been
found on fragments of Samian ware found at Wroxeter, and
most of them are to be seen in the Museum. In the lower cut
on the left we see the retiarius, armed only with the trident,
engaged with a Samnite, who covers himself with a shield
peculiar to his class, wlnle he is fighting with liis sword.
Above is a Samnite engaged Avith a Thracian, the latter dis-
tinguished by his circular shield. The lowered shield and
sword of the Samnite shows that his antagonist has gained the
Gladiators from Samian Ware.
victory. In the upper cut on the right the two combatants are
;armed similarly, except that one is apparently without greaves.
UEICONIUM. 235
The latter is evidently vanquished, and he is imploring mercy of
the spectators, for it was on their decision it depended whether
his conqueror should slay him or not. The other couple are
also both armed with curved swords, but they differ consider-
ably in their dress. Both have greaves ; the figure to the
right has the shield, and perhaps the helmet, of a Samnite, but
the helmet and shield of his antagonist present an entirely
different character. Combats of wHd beasts, and of men with
beasts, and especially with bulls, were among the favourite
games of the amphitheatre, and are often found on the Samian
ware. An example is given in our next cut, from pottery of
which examples have been found at
Wroxeter, in which the bestiarius, as
the man employed in such combats
was called, armed -with shield and
axe only, is engaged with a bull. The
buU-fight appears to have been the
Ball-fight from the Samian ware. ^ p ^ i i * i
only one of these combats which out-
lived the Eoman period, and we all know how largely it
entered into the popular amusements of the middle ages, with
the single change that dogs were substituted for the human
combatant. In the mediaeval towns in England, the amphi-
theatre was replaced by the Bull-ring. In Spain the combat
between the man and the bull is still preserved, and in some
examples on the Samian ware we actually find the man armed
mth the sword and veil which shows the bestiarius literally as
the predecessor of the Spanish 'matador.
At the first glance it would seem difficult to explain the
process by which the ornaments of the Samian ware were thus
made in rcHef ; but, fortunately, some of the tools which the
potters used have been found on the sites of their workshops.
The potter's name was impressed from a stamp on which it was
incised, so that on the pottery the letters appeared in relief.
Single figures, whether of men, animals, or other subjects, were
236 U-EICONIUM.
made upon similar stamps. M. Brongniart, in his work on the
art of pottery,* has given engravings of both these classes of
stamps. Moulds were then made of clay, carefully turned,
presenting on a smoothed surface internally the form which
was intended to be given to the vessel, and on this internal
surface the potter stamped the figures while the clay was still
soft, and the moulds were then baked. The vessel itself, formed
of soft clay, was placed in the mould and pressed to it, so that
it took the figures in relief, and when dry it had no doubt
shrunk sufficiently to be taken out. Some years ago, in the
Museum of the Comte de Portales in Paris, I examined some
of these moulds which perfectly explained the process of the
manufacture. Among the stamps given by M. Brongniart,
one has upon it a single element, one festoon and one tassel, of
the well-known festoon and tassel border, whence it appears
that this border was made on the mould by a repetition of
impressions from the same elementary stamp. At first, no
doubt, the different figures on the stamps were employed
so as to form regular and intelligible subjects, taken from
history, or fable, or from the popular manners of the day,
and this probably continued to be the case among the
more skilful workmen ; but others stamped them in without
any design of this kind, and seem to have had only one object,
that of filling up the whole surface. Hence we continually
find such incongruities as occur on the specimens we have
already given, Andromeda bound in the midst of a forest, a
hare playing on the pipes to sea-monsters, and the like We
even find that the workmen sometimes used their stamps so
carelessly that they put in their figures reversed, so as to give
a rather singular appearance to the picture. ^Ye have a curi-
ous example of this in the fragment given in the cut annexed,
which is here drawn the actual size of the original, and on
which we have a hare or rabbit, no doubt accidentally placed
* Brongniart, Traite des Arts Ceramiquea ou des Poteries, 8vo., Paris, 1844.
URICONIUM.
237
in a reversed position. This method of making the ornamented
Samian ware also explains to us how it happens that the figures
Saiaian Ware, with reversed figure.
in relief are so often imperfect, and why they are so seldom
sharp and fresh.
This reversed rabbit is further curious in its bearing on
a rather disputed question in mediaeval archaeology. The
buildings and objects most frequently ornamented with figures
in the middle ages were, as might be supposed, those of an
ecclesiastical character, and one party among our ecclesiologists
insist that these figures have a hidden and symbolical meaning
of which they sometimes give rather extraordinary interpreta-
tion.='. My own opinion has always been that these figures
are to be ascribed chiefly to the imagination or iugenuity of
the workmen, who took any subject which presented itself,
and no doubt often copied, to the best of their skill, classical
figures which were continually met with upon ancient monu-
ments. At the meeting of the British Archseological Associa-
tion at Ludlow, in 1867, a drawing was exhibited, of figures
taken, I think, from painted glass in a church in Shropshire,
which had evidently been copied from a well known picture of
a part of the ancient Bacchic mysteries, the mystica vannus
lacchi of the poet Virgil. On the same occasion, there was an
238 URICOKICTM.
exhibition of drawings from sculptured stones found in a
reversed position in the walls of buildings, and certain questions
and some remarks were made on the subject, tending to show
that they were placed in that position intentionally with a
mystical or symbolical meaning. Some of them, I suspect,
owed their anomalous position to mere accident, while others
were probably copies from older designs which the ignorant
workmen misunderstood. Among them, I remember, was a
rabbit reversed in the midst of other figures which were in an
upright position, just as here on our piece of Samian ware.
In the middle ages, the Eoman Samian ware must have been
dug up continually, and have often fallen into the hands of
the old designers and served them for models. Some one of
Samian Ware found in London.
them had perhaps obtained a piece with the rabbit thus
reversed, and considered it as being in this posture an integral
part of the picture.
Another class of the Samian ware is found in this country,
though it is extremely rare, and was no doubt of much greater
yalue than the other. Mr. Roach Smith possessed, in his fine
collection of Antiquities (now transferred to the British
tJEICONlTTM. 239
Museum) seven fragments of this ware, two of which are given
in the above cut. They differ from the common ware of the
same class in the much superior style of art displayed in
the execution of the figures, but still more in the manner in
which they were made. They are in much higher rehef, and
instead of being stamped in moulds according to the process
before described, they have been moulded separately, and care-
fully affixed to the surface of the vessel by means of a
graving tool. This process is distinctly indicated iti all the spe-
cimens, and the mark of the tool used for polishing in the line
of junction, and freeing it from excrescent clay, is clearly dis-
cernible. In the fragments of this pottery we find the substance
of the vessel sometimes broken without breaking the figures
attached to it, which remain projecting over the fracture, as in
the case of the head and leg of the figure on the first of these
examples, and in part of the head on the other.
I have stated that we have every reason to believe that the
manufacture of this so-called Samian ware was foreign to
Britain ; but we find in considerable quantities in Eoman sites
in this country, a ware which was evidently imitated^from
the Samian pottery, though it presents very considerable differ-
ences. It presents nearly the same texture as that which I
have been describing, but it is of a lighter shade of red, and
the ornamentation, which consists chiefly of geometrical forms,
has been produced either by stamping on the pottery itself,
when soft, or, more frequently, by incision after it was baked,
with some instrument like the tool employed by engravers.
Eather numerous fragments of this ware have been found at
Wroxeter, and two of them are represented in the group I have
given before (p. 228,) of which the idea of the ornament on the
example to the left is partly formed upon the festoon and
tassel border of the real Samian ware. This pottery may have
been made in Britain, where principally it is found, but no
potteries have yet been traced from which it might be derived.
240 UEICONIUM.
I believe that the late Mr. Artis found it among the remains
of the potteries of Durobriv£B, of which I am now proceeding
to speak, under circumstances which led him to think that
it may have been made there.*
Edmund Tyrell Artis was land-steward to Earl Fitzwilliam,
and was warmly patronized by the Duke of Bedford. He
resided at Castor, near Peterborough, and was possessed of very-
considerable native talent, with a great love of archaeological
research. To him we owe the discovery of a very extensive
site of potteries of the Eoman period in that neighbourhood,
which corresponds with the Durobrivae of the fifth Iter of
Antoninus. Mr. Artis published a series of plates illustrative
of these discoveries under the title of " The Durobrivis (for
Durobrivse) of Antoninus identified and illustrated," without
any text, but an account of the discoveries was given by
Mr. Eoach Smith in the pages of the Journal of the British
Archaeological Association. Until our own time, no attempt
had been made to distinguish and classify the various descrip-
tions of pottery of the Eoman period found in Britain, but now
these have been found to be numerous, and their varieties
are sufiiciently characteristic. This ware, the sources of which ■
was first discovered by Mr. Artis, certainly stood in the first
rank. Its ornamentation consisting of figures in low relief,
though executed by a very different process, was, we can hardly
doubt, imitated from that of the Samia.n ware ; but the ware
itself was totally different in its texture, and equally so in its
colour. The latter is blue, or slate colour, and the ornament-
ation is frequently laid on in white ; and these characteristics
are so strongly marked, that, once known, it may be easUy
recognized wherever it is found. We meet with it in consider-
able quantities in almost every Eoman site in Britain, so that
it must have been very abundant, and very much in vogue.
• Very excellent papers on the Samian ware, by Mr. C. Eoach Smith, will be foxmd in the
Journal of the British Ai-chffiological Association, vol. iv., and in his valuable Collectanea
Antiqua, vol. i. I have borrowed some of my illustrations from the former.
URTCONITTM,
241
The character of the pottery made at Durobrivse (or Castor)
is altogether peculiar. It is generally of a bluish or slate colour,
and, like all Roman pottery, its forms are elegant. It is usually
adorned with ornaments in relief, 'which were laid on with the
hand after the vessel had been made and partly baked, and
are sometimes white. The plainer of these ornaments
consist of scrolls and other such patterns. The character
of this simple ornamentation will be best understood by the
two examples given in the accompanying cut, both found in
Dnrobrivian Pottery, from Colchester..
excavations at Colchester, the Camulodunum of the Romans.
They are given with the shading to furnish a better notion of
the general appearance of this pottery.
I give the other examples in outline>
merely to represent the forms of the
vessels, and the subjects with which
they are ornamented. The next is a
cup, six inches in height, ornament-
ed with an elegant scroU pattern. It
was found with other pottery in a
sepulchral interment ia the neighbour-
hood of the Upehurch marshes. As I
, 1 T J , 1 T 1 Durobrivian Pottery.
nave already stated, a peculiar charact-
eristic of this pottery, and one which we can hardly doubt M'as
Q
242
URICONIUM.
imitated from the Samian ware, is the introduction, very
extensively, of pictorial subjects among the ornaments ; these
subjects being, however, of a local character, for, instead of
groups taken from the classical mythology and from purely
Koman life, they usually represent hunting scenes or games
practised no doubt in this island, and they thus doubly interest
us as pictures of real life in Eoman Britain. Stag and hare
hunts are extremely common, and they were no doubt favourite
amusements among the people of our island at this remote
period. The two examples here given are from pottery of a
stag Hunt, from Durobrivian Pottery
brown colour, for it must be understood that the colour is not
always quite uniform. Sometimes it assumes a rusty copper
tint. No doubt we have here correct figures of British stags,
and of the original British stag-hounds. The hounds intro-
duced in pursuit of the hare are identical with these ; but we
also find sometimes a much fiercer and stronger dog, which
seems to have been used for hunting the boar, and which was
probably that ferocious dog for which, as we learn from the
Roman writers, the island of Britain was celebrated. The cut
to the left on the next page represents a fragment of Duro-
brivian ware found at Colchester, in which we have a good
figure of the stag-hound. It is engraved exactly one half the
size of the original. Fishes, especially dolphins, are also intro-
URICONIUM.
243
duced on this ware, an example of which is given in our
cut to the right, from a fragment found at Castor. Their
A Dolphin, from Durobrivian Ware.
A British Stag Honnd.
forms were particularly suitable for the process employed iu
producing the ornamentation of the Durobrivian pottery.
Sometimes vessels, which are usually of a darker copper
colour, are ornamented with indentations Hke the niches in a
wall, an example of which wdl be given in a subsequent cut.
In some cases these indentations are found filled with upright
figures.
Our interest in this particular class of Eomano-British pot-
tery is greatly increased by the circumstance that we have found
not only the site of the potteries in which it was produced,
but some of the kilns in a perfect state, and sufficient evidence
to leave no doubt as to the manner in which it was made. I
prefer describing this in the words of Mr. Artis himself, as
taken down and published by Mr. Eoach Smith.'''" Mr. Artis
gave to the kilns at Durobrivse the name of smother-kilns,
from the peculiar manner in which the colour was given to the
pottery, which he explains as follows : — " During an examin-
ation of the pigments used by the Roman potters of this
place, " he says, " I was led to the conclusion that the blue
and slate-coloured vessels met with here in such abundance
were coloured by suffocating the fire of the kiln at the time
when its contents had acquired a degree of heat sufficient to
• See the Jonmal of the British Archseological Association, vol. i. p. 3,
244 UKICONIQM.
ensure uniformity in colour. I had so firmly made up my mind
upon the process of manufacturing and firing this peculiar
kind of earthenware, that, for some time previous to the recent
discovery, I had denominated the kilns, in which it had been
fired, smother-kilns. The mode of manufacturing the bricks
of which these kilns are made is worthy of notice. The clay
was previously mixed with about one-third of rye in the chafi",
which, being consumed by the fire, left cavities in the room of
grains. This might have been intended to modify expansion
and contraction, as well as to assist the gradual distribution of
the colouring vapour. The mouth of the furnace and top of
the kiln were no doubt stopped : thus we find every part of
the kiln, from the inside wall to the earth on the outside, and
every part of the clay wrappers of the dome, penetrated with
the colouring inhalation. As further proof that the colour of
the ware was imparted by firing, I collected the clays of the
neighbourhood, including specimens from the immediate vi-
cinity of the smother-kilns. In colour, some of these clays
resembled the ware after firing, and some were darker. I sub-
mitted these to a process similar to that I have described.
The clays dug near the kilns whitened in filing, probably from
being bituminous. I also put some fragments of the blue
pottery into the kiln, they came out precisely the same colour
as the clay fired with them, which had been taken from the
site of the kilns. The experiment proved to me that the
colour could not be attributed to any metallic oxide, either
existing in the clay, or applied externally ; and this conclusion
is confirmed by the appearance of the clay wrappers of the
dome of the kUn. It should be remarked, that this colour is
so volatile, that it is expelled by a second firing in an open
kiln."
After some further observations on the condition in which
the kilns were found, Mr. Artis goes on to say : — " I now
proceed to describe the process of packing the kiln, and
securing uniform heat in firing the ware, Avhich was the same
URICONIUM. 245
in the two different kinds of kilns. They were first carefully
loose-packed with the articles to be fired, np to the height of
the side walls. The circumference of the bulk was then grad-
ually diminished, and finished in the shape of a dome. As
this arrangement progressed, an attendant seems to have
followed the packer and thinly covered a layer of pots with
coarse hay or grass. He then took some thin clay, the size of
his hand, and laid it flat on the grass upon the vessel ; he then
placed more grass on the edge of the clay just laid on, and
then more clay, and so on until he had completed the circle.
By this time the packer would have raised another tier of pots,
the plasterer following as before, hanging the grass over the
top edge of the last layer of plasters, until he had reached the
top, in which a small aperture was left, and the clay right
round the edge ; and another coating would be laid on as before
described. Gravel or loam was then thrown up against the
side wall where the clay wrappers were commenced, probably
to secure the bricks and the clay coating. The kiln was then
fired with wood. In consequence of the care taken to place
the grass between the edges of the wrappers, they coiold be
unpacked in the same sized pieces as when laid on in a plastic
state, and thus the danger in breaking the coat to obtain the
contents of the kiln could be obviated."
Mr. Artis goes on to describe one of the furnaces which he
beheved to have been used for the purpose of glazing, and
then he explains what appeared to him to have been the
method employed to produce the ornamentation. "The
vessel," he suggests, " after being thrown upon the wheel,
would be allowed to become somewhat firm, but only sufiiciently
so for the purpose of the lathe. In the indented ware, the
indenting would have to be performed with the vessel in as
pliable a state as it could be taken from the lathe. A thick
slip of the same body would then be procured, and the
omamenter would proceed by dipping the thuml) or a round
mounted instrument into the slip. The vessels, on which are
246 URICONIUM.
displayed a variety of hunting subjects, representations of
fishes, scrolls, and human figures, were all glazed after the
figures were laid on ; where, however, the decorations are
white, the vessels were glazed before the ornaments were added.
Ornamenting with figures of animals was afi"ected by means of
sharp and blunt skewer instruments and a slip of suitable con-
sistency. These instruments seem to have been of two kinds :
one thick enough to carry sufiicient slip for the nose, neck,
body, and front thigh ; the other of a more dehcate kind, for
a thinner slip for the tongue, lower jaws, eye, fore, and hind
legs, and tail. There seems to have been no re-touching
after the slip trailed from the instrument. Field sports seem
to have been favourite subjects with our Eomano-British artists.
The representations of deer and hare hunts are good and
spirited ; the courage and energy of the hounds, and the dis-
tress of the hunted animals, are given with great skill and
fidelity, especially when the simple and ofi"-handed process
by which they must have been executed, is taken into
consideration. "
From the costume of the human figures on this pottery, it
has been concluded that it belongs to a rather late date ; but
at whatever period of the Eoman occupation of our island the
potteries of Durobrivse were established, they must have been
very extensive, and have produced an immense quantity of
the ware. Mr. Axtis traced the site of the potteries over an
extent of more than twenty miles ; and he estimated the
number of hands who must have been employed at once in
them at not less than two thousand.
It may be remarked further that the use of this description
of pottery was certainly not confined to Britain, for it is found
in great quantities in France, especially in HoUand, Belgium,
and Flanders. It is not improbable that the earthenware of
Durobrivee may have been an article of export from Britain.
The cut on the next page represents a vessel of this pottery
which was found at Bredene in the department of the Lys.
UEICONITJM. 247
The favourite subjects of hunting the stag and the hare figure
upon it, but there are some charact-
eristics in the ornamentation which
seem to distinguish the workman-
ship from that of the Durobrivian
ware. However, among the frag-
ments of Durobrivian ware met
with at Wroxeter, there are some
which bear a resemblance to this
example found in Flanders.
There is another description of
Durobrivian Pottery from Flanders. .^ f ii -n ■ i
earthenw^are oi the Koman period,
of which the potteries, covering a great extent of ground, have
been found in our island. A short distance above the mouth
of the Medway, the southern bank, for a considerable distance,
is formed of low flat land, which is called marshes, though at
present it has no particular claim to that name. The action of
the tide of the sea has gradually formed creeks which penetrate
to a considerable distance inland, and have exposed to view
the true character of the ground in this locality. Originally —
at least, in Eoman times — it was a mass of clay, of a kind
very favourable for the manufacture of pottery. It had been
taken possession of by a settlement of potters, who erected
kilns of apparently the same description as those discovered at
Castor by Mr. Artis, and used up the clay gradually as they
advanced, throwing upon the exhausted ground behind them
their refuse of spoilt and broken vessels. After the Roman
times, through some unexplained (perhaps) geological movement,
the ground seems to have sunk below its former level, so as to
be overflowed by the sea. It appears to have remained in this
condition long enough to allow the formation of alluvial soil of
from two to three feet thick ; after which some other movement
must have taken place which raised the level again to a certain
height above the sea-level at high water. Since that period the
sea has cut these creeks into it which discover a state of things
248 URICONIUM.
seemingly justifying the foregoing explanation. The bed of
the creeks is formed of the original clay in a liquid state,
forming a very tenacious mud. The banks of these creeks are
in some parts perpendicular, while in others they slope rather
abruptly. In these banks we find a regular layer of broken
pottery, about a foot thick, resting upon the clay, and, above
this, the hard alluvial earth. The liquid mud forming the bed
of the creek is full of this pottery, which may be cbawn out by
handfuUs. The immense extent of these potteries may be
judged from the fact, that they have been traced continuously
in a line along the coast to a distance of not less than seven or
eight miles, and that their site extends in the transverse
direction as much as three miles, so that they must have
covered, reckoning some of the ground which has no doubt
been carried away by the sea, an extent of considerably more
than twenty square miles. A great quantity of pottery must
have been manufactured to leave a bed of refuse twenty miles
square and a foot thick ; and we need not be surprised if we
find this class of pottery so commonly among the remains of
the Eoman period.'""
The predominating colour of this pottery is a blue-black,
exactly similar to that of the Durobrivian pottery, and imparted
by the process of sufi"ocating the vessels with the smoke of
Examples of Upchurch Pottery unoruamented.
vegetable substances in the kilns to which Mr. Artis gave the
name of smother-kilns. The varieties of shape are extremely
♦ A visit to the Upchurch marshes, with a description of the 'locality and pottery found
there, forms one of the chapters of my Wanderings of an Antiquary, 8vo., 1854, pp. 162 — 171.
An excellent paper on the same subject, by Mr. Eoach Smith, from whom I have borrowed
largely, will be found in the Journal of the British Archseological Association, vol. ii. p. 12S.
See also The Odt, the Soman, and the Saxon, p. 212.
URICONITJM. 249
numerous and equally varied, and they seem to have been
designed for almost every possible purpose. They are aU elegant
in their forms, which an experienced eye recognizes at once as
purely Roman. A few examples are given in the foregoing cut
of the commoner and less ornamented types.
Besides the blue-black vases, many fragments have been
found of a red ware, made of the same kind of clay, but sub-
jected to a stronger degree of heat in the burning, which had
the effect of destroying the black and imparting a red colour
in its place. This variety of the ware has been found chiefly
in Otterham creek and its immediate neighbourhood. It was
used especially in the manufacture of vessels having the form
of an amphora, with narrow mouths, and handles, two examples
of which are given in the preceding group. The accompanjdng
cut represents a remarkably interesting example of a vessel of
Vessel of Upchnrch Ware
this form met with in the railway excavations some years ago
at Chichester, and supposed to have been manufactured in the
Upchurch potteries. It is of a dark clay, with the ornamental
patterns in white, and is seven inches in height. Fragments
of vessels of the same form, of the Upchurch ware, have been
found at Wroxeter.
250
URICONIUM.
Our next cut represents a group of vessels in the ornamented
ware made at Upchurch, the forms of which are equally
characteristic. The ornament sometimes consists of bands of
Ornamented Pottery maniafactured at Upchurch.
half-circles, made with compasses ; and in many instances lines
are drawn from these half-circles down to the bottom of the
vessel. Other vessels exhibit various patterns of wa"vy, inter-
secting, and zigzag lines. An example of the wavy lines is
given to the right of our cut, and in another in the first
example in our next group. Another kind of ornament con-
sisted of raised points, sometimes forming bands round the
vessel, at others grouped into squares, diamond patterns, and
circles. Some of these are shewn in our next group of vessels
from the potteries at Upchurch. Another favourite pattern
consisted of straight lines intersecting so as to form a bed of
Ornamented Ware from the Upchurch Potteries.
diamonds. Numerous fragments of this pottery have been
found at Wroxeter, and some will be found in the Museum.
I have to remark further on this subject, that we have as yet
no clue to the name which this locality bore in Roman times.
UEICONIUM. 251
Yet it must have been a place of great celebrity, and well
known for its potteiy over the whole of Britain. Moreover,
large quantities of a ware so like it that we can hardly doubt
its identity have been found amongst the Roman remains
at Boulogne ; so that we are justified in assuming that there
was a considerable export of this pottery also into Gaul.
We have by no means exhausted the varieties of Eoman
pottery found at Wroxeter, but most of those I have not
described are less important and doubtful as to the place in
which they were made. But two classes of pottery of the
Eoman period have been discovered here which are apparently
new, and which are of greater importance to us as belonging,
we beheve, to our own locality. One of these is a white ware,
which experiments made by my friend Dr. Henry Johnson, of
Shrewsbury, have proved, beyond doubt, to be formed of what
is now known as the Broseley clay. Broseley is well known
as a town on the banks of the river Severn, a few miles
below Shrewsbury, and its clay in modern times has been
employed chiefly for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes. The
pottery I am aUuding to is of rather coarse texture, but
the vessels formed of it display the same elegance of form by
which aU the Eoman pottery is distinguished. The greater
number of the vessels made of this ware are tastefully formed
jugs, and dishes made for the same culinary purposes as our
modern mortars, and called by the Eomans mortaria. The
internal surface of these latter is covered with small grains of
flint, or other very hard stone, which aided in the process of
triturition. None of the vessels of either of these classes have
yet been found whole, but fragments of the same vessel are
met with in sufl&cient numbers to enable us to restore these
forms. Eather numerous fragments have also been found of
bowls of this ware, painted with stripes of red and yellow.
Perhaps the potteries in which this ware was made will one
day be discovered, and it is not improbable that they may have
been located in Uriconium itself.
252
UEICONIUM.
The other Romano-Salopian pottery found at Wroxeter is a
red ware, differing in tint from most of the Roman red wares
before known, and of a finer textm-e than the white ware just
described. It is also made from one of the clays of the Severn
Valley. Among the vessels formed of this ware are jugs, not
unlike the white-ware jugs in shape, but distinguished by
some peculiarity of form in the neck and mouth. A fragment
of one of these vessels is given in the accompanying cut to the
left. The next cut to the right represents one of the several
Bomano-Salopian Ware from Wroxeter.
Cullender of Komano-Salopiau Ware.
simdar vessels made of this ware found in the excavations,
which are pierced with small holes, and have evidently served
the purpose of cullenders. The pottery of both these wares
seems to have been in very common'use in'ancient Uriconium.
The three examples here given are rather common types of
Examples of Jugs In White Ware.
jug-formed vessels in this white ware which are met with
frequently on Roman sites in this island. The two first are
URICONIUM.
253
each of them seven inches and a quarter high ; the other, five
inches. It is only necessary to call attention to one other
example of the pottery found at Wroxeter, and now preserved
in the Museum at Shrewsbury, and that on account of its
singular shape. This vessel — which was broken into frag-
ments, but most of the pieces found Ipng together, and
have been carefully joined — is represented in our cut, which
will give a far better notion of it than any verbal description.
It appears to have had a second button-
formed handle on the left side as seen in
the cut, and some sort of mouth has
])' en attached to the circular hole in
liont, which, it may be added, is the
only opening into the interior of the
\ ssel.
From the description already given,
tlie reader will, without difficulty, form
a picture of the character of the pottery
11 -ed at table by the inhabitants of Eo-
man Uriconium, as weU as of that which
served the purposes of the kitchen.
The variety of the different wares is
quite remarkable, and it wlU not be beside our purpose if
we present a few groups showing how this variety prevailed
all over the island ; and in whatever part of it we trace a
Eoman site of any extent, we usually find there examples
of nearly all the difierent wares employed in Britain, however
distant it may be from the locahty of the potteries in which
the difierent varieties were made. This reveals to us a regular
and perfect system of communication between difierent parts
of Britain during the Roman period which requires evidence
of this description to be understood.
The pottery we find on the site of a Eoman town, or of a
Eoman villa, had no doubt been collected during a long period
of years, and we should not be justified in assuming that any
Vessel in Earthenware, from
Uriconiiun
254
URICONIUM.
number of particular examples found in the same place had
been in use at the same time ; but there are other circum-
stances under which the pottery is met with which are in this
respect of a more satisfactory nature. The Eomans buried
pottery with their dead, (a practice of which I shall have to
say more in a subsequent chapter), not only sepulchral urns,
but vessels of almost every description, many which no doubt
contained fluids of difi'erent kinds placed as affectionate
oblations in the grave, and others had been used as receptacles
for the cinders of the deceased. These vessels, of course,
were all contemporary, and in use not only at the same
time, but in the same family, and a single grave sometimes
contains a considerable number. Two or three examples of
such " finds " will hardly be uninteresting. It is well known
that the abbey church of St. Albans occupies a part of the
extensive cemetery of the Eoman city of Verulamium.
Some twenty years ago, in digging in a meadow near the
Pottery from the Boman cemetery of St. Albans.
church, the labourers came upon an interment from which
were taken about a dozen earthen vessels, half of them of a
rather common description, but among them were those
represented in the accompanying cut. The two in front, I
need hardly state, are good examples of the Durobrivian ware.
UEICONIUM.
255
with the scroll ornament. The two others, one of which has
a cover, are ornamented with a pattern which antiquariest term
" engine-turned," and which has been found by Mr. Artis in the
potteries of Durobrivse. The two large vessels in the back-
ground are ordinary burial urns, the largest ten inches and a
half high. About the same time as that of the discovery just
mentioned, a sepulchral interment of the Eoman period was
found near the town of Billericay in Essex, which produced a
considerable number of examples of pottery, the most inter-
esting of which are represented in our next cut. In this the
Pottery from a Roman Cemetery at Billericay in Essex.
three small vessels grouped in front are Samian ware of the
commoner and less ornamented description, one being quite
plain, and the two others only ornamented with the ivy leaf.
The fragment to the right, representing a human face, belongs
to a class of Eoman pottery which is of extreme rarity. The
broken vessel behind it, and the one to the extreme left, are
Upchurch ware. That in the middle Ls an example of the
Durobrivian indented ornamentation. The two large urns
behind are again sepulchral Examples of Samian ware exactly
resembling these have been found at Wroxeter.*
A Eoman road crossed the river Lea in the parish of Poplar
• Both these groups of pottery discovered in sepulchral interments are taken fr vrj t1i«
Jonmal of the British ArohEological Association, toI. iii. pp. 250 and 331.
256 TJEICONIUM.
in Middlesex, at a spot which is called the Old Ford, where
there was no doubt some sort of a Eoman settlement, and
close to it was discovered some years ago a Eoman burial place.
From it were taken the examples of pottery represented in the
accompanying cut.* We have here an example of the Up-
church pottery in the vessel in front, which is of dark clay,
with white ornament. It is three inches in height. The vessel
Koman Pottery from Sepulchral interment at Poplar in Middlesex.
to the extreme left, ornamented Avith circles, is also of dark
clay, seven inches in height. The jug, with the mouth
moulded into the form of a human face, of which examples
are found not very commonly, is of a hght red colour.
Behind it is a burial urn, mth a Hd, eight and a half inches
high, and made of black clay. The large jug- shaped vessel
standing beside it is ten inches in height, and the bowl in
front of it, five inches, both of yellow pottery.
I will add one other example of the varieties of pottery
found in the Roman sepulchral deposits. They were taken
from a burial place discovered in the Hoo Marshes, on the
banks of the Medway, in Kent. The largest vessel is an
example of one form of the amphora, or vessel for holding
wine ; it is eighteen inches and a half in height, and seventeen
inches in diameter, and has lost one of its handles. It had
• Taken from the Journal of the British Archseological Association, vol. iv. p. 393.
XJRICONIUM.
257
been used for the purpose of a burial urn, and the cup of
Samian ware to the right of our cut had been placed in its
mouth, and was found lodged in the neck. This cup was two
inches and a half in height, and four inches in diameter. The
small bottle-shaped vessel was found close by the side of
Pottery from the Hoo Murslies.
the large ujn. The vessel to the left, which is four inches
and three quarters in height, is a good specimen of Durobri-
vian ware. Another urn found in the same burial place,
contained a dish of Samian ware nine inches in diameter,
and a glazed vessel three inches and a half in height, the
ornamentation of which had been scratched on the glaze.
The cemetery of Uriconium has furnished us with a con-
siderable cjuantity of objects not only in pottery, but of glass.
Some examples of both are given in the cut on the next page.
All the objects represented in it are drawn on a scale of
three inches to a foot. The large flat dish at the back is made
of the light red ware found rather plentifully among the Eoman
ruins at Wroxeter, which appears to have been manufactured
in the district. The fractured vessel to the right has been
a very handsome bowl of Samian ware. The vessel to the
E
258
TJRICONItJM.
extreme left furnishes an example of a much more uncommon
ware ; it is small and slightly made, three inches and a half
high, and of a lemon-yellow drab colour, and ornamented with
rows of small knobs.
i.'-f
a
S
o
Pii
No object in the Museum at Shrewsbury is more worthy of
TJRICONIUM. 259
remark than the great variety of Roman glass, which is usually
of fine manufacture, and some of it could not be excelled at the
present day. There appears no reason to doubt that glass, as
well as pottery, was manufactured in our island under the
Romans, but the sites of the manufactories have not yet been
traced, though some facts have been discovered, leading us
to suspect that there were Roman glass works on the coast
of Sussex. ■^^ Unfortunately, glass is a very brittle material,
and it is mostly found in a very fragmentary state, except in
sepulchral interments, where it has remained unmoved and pro-
tected. Such is the case mostly with the glass from Wroxeter.
The Roman glass found in Britain is very varied and often beau-
tiful in colour, and in many cases it is richly adorned with
ornament in relief. It consists most largely of cups and jug-
shaped vessels of various forms. The handsome glass bowl in
the middle of our last cut, which was taken from one of the
graves in the cemetery of Uriconium, presents a type which is
by no means uncommon in Britain. It is Avhat is called pillar-
moulded, a process which our practical glass manufacturers, as
we learn from Mr. Apsley Pellatt, look upon as one of the great
modem inventions in glass-making, yet we here discover that
it was well known and largely practised in Britain in the
remote period of Roman rule. The glass bowl in our cut is
five inches and a half in diameter. Among the glass from
Wroxeter. are several fragments of what have been very hand-
some jugs and bottles. The small glass phials, of which
several examples are given in our cut, are found in great num-
bers, but they are almost exclusively confined to the burial-
places. I shall give a more particular account of them in a
subsequent chapter.
It wiU have been seen that at least some of the pottery
described in the foregoing pages belonged to the kitchen rather
than to the dining table. Among these, many fragments of
• On this subject, see my book, "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," p. 229.
260 XJEICONIUM.
which have been found in the course of the excavations, two
are remarkable for several reasons. One of these classes of
kitchen utensils is a cullender, or strainer, of earthenware, the
bottom of which is pierced with a great number of small
holes. An example of these cuUenders has already been given
in p. 252. The other object to which we allude is the morta-
rium, or mortar, a strong basin-skaped vessel, used no doubt
for pounding various objects used in cookery. It is usually
made of a light coloured pottery, and the surface of the
interior is "studded with diminutive fragments of silicious stone
and other hard materials, designed, no doubt, to assist in the
process of pounding. Fragments of these mortaria, from
Wroxeter, will be found in the Museum at Shrewsbury. They
are very common in most of the Eoman sites in Britain, and
on the continent. Another vessel belonging to this class, is
the amphora, or vessel used to hold Avine. These were
strongly made, generally of a light coloured pottery, and of
considerable dimensions. The commoner form was a long
slender shaped vessel ; the other is much more spherical, and
more capacious. Both are pointed at the bottom, for the pur-
pose, it is said, of aflSxing them in the ground. Their
forms are so well known that it is hardly necessary to give
pictures of them here. Fragments of these aniphorcB are
found in abundance in digging on the site of Uriconium ; and
they are plentiful wherever we explore the sites of Roman
towns or country houses in our islands. This circumstance
leaves no room for doubt that the use of wine was very general
and extensive in Roman Britain.
The abundance of the mortaria and earthenware strainers is
also a curious fact illustrative of one part of the character of
domestic life among the Romano-Britons. People are accus-
tomed to suppose that in these remote ages the diet was sim-
ple and plain, and that it consisted chiefly of joints or pieces
of flesh meat boiled or roasted. The presence of these cookery
UEICONIUM. 261
vessels in si\ch large numbers, lead us to the conclusion,
that, on the contrary, the inhabitants of this country, in
the Eoman period, indulged very extensively in the use of
made dishes, and the epicurism of the table, which prevailed
to such an extravagant extent in Italy and Gaul, had no doubt
found its way into our island. The subject of the diet of the
Eomans in Britain receives illustration from another class of
relics which are foimd in great abundance, the bones of ani-
mals and birdsj and the shells of molluscs, and even the bones
of some fishes. An immense quantity of these articles have
been collected at Wroxeter, and are carefuUy preserved, but
hitherto they have not undergone that careful examination
they require. It is evident that the Eoman inhabitants of
Uriconium and its neighbourhood indulged greatly in the
pleasures of the chase, and that .there were in this part of the
country kinds of wild beasts which have long ceased to exist in
England. Among these were th&,wild boar, the elk, and several
varieties of the deer, one at least of .which is stated to be
extinct. The varieties of animal bones found in the course of
the excavations are also extremely numerous, and contain some
extinct varieties. Foremost among these is the bos longifrons,
a very large variety of ox, which is now claimed as belonging
to the domain of the geologist. Yet we have here, the evi-
dence that they existed abundantly during the Eoman period,
in the numerous examples of their massive skulls, wdth the
large long foreheads, from which they take "their scientific
name, and of theii thighs and other bones. That they were a
common article of food there can be no doubt, for in some
cases the forehead of the ski^U is broken in by the blow
of the axe with which the Uriconian butcher slew it for the
market. There is said also to have been traced among these
bones, remains of an extinct variety of the sheep. The
varieties of birds, the bones of which have been met with in
the excavations, are quite as numerous as those of animals,
262 UKICONIUM.
and equally interesting to the naturalist who wiU undertake
the examination of them. Among the domestic fowls, the
remains of which were thus brought to light, I must not omit
mentioning that rather numerous legs of the fighting cock were
found, with remarkably large natural spurs, which would seem
to show that cock-fighting was a favourite amusement among
the inhabitants of this ancient city. Among the shells are
those of the oyster in abundance, as well as those of whelks,
cockles, muscles, and others.
Among the group represented in our last cut are two other
objects of earthenware, or terra-cotta, which are found in
Eoman sites in great abundance. These are lamps, and they
introduce us to another part of the economy of the interior of
the house, that of lighting it. The Eoman writer Apuleius, in
describing the operations of a party of robbers in a house they
were plundering, and the eQ"ect of an accident which roused
the people of the house, says that the latter assembled
"with tcBd(B (torches), lucernce (lamps), cerei (wax tapers),
sehacei (candles of tallow), and the other instruments of noc-
turnal light."'"' We have here a distinct enumeration of the
four ordinary means of producing a portable light — -torches,
lamps, candles of wax, and candles of tallow. Of the
first of these we can of course expect to find no remains
among the objects met with in our excavations.
As I have already stated, terra-cotta lamps are found in
considerable numbers, and, in fact, when used to give light to a
room, it would require a considerable number of them to light
it sufiiciently. Their general form is nearly uniform. The body
of the lamp is usually circular, from two inches and a half to
three inches in diameter, with a small handle on one side, and
a spout with a hole for the wick on the other. A hole, or
sometimes two or even three holes, in the circular face allowed
• Nee mora, cum numerosffi familias frequentia domus tota oompletur, tiedis, lucernis, cereis,
sebafris, et ceteris iioctiirni lumiuis instramentis clarescuut tenebr*. Atmleii Metamornlio-
aeon, lib. iv.p. 281, ed. Odendorf, dto, Lug. Bat. 1786.
UEICONIUM. '263
the air to pass, and the spout was sometimes double or treble,
to admit two or three separate wicks. This circular surface, or
field, although sometimes plain, was usually ornamented with
pictures in relief resembling those on the Samian ware, but
still more varied in their description. This description will be
better understood by the accompanying cut of a terra-eotta
lamp found at Colchester, which is here drawn on a scale of
Ten-a-cotta Lamp, fl'om Colcliester.
one half the actual size. It has in its field the representation
of a caduceus between two cornucopias, which latter termi-
nate in heads of animals. The three represented in our plate
were found at Wroxeter, and are preserved in the Museum.
The first has in the field a figure of a dolphin ; the second, the
head of Hercules, enveloped in the skin of the Nemean lion ;
the thirds a man in a kneeling posture. The lamp was some-
times made of bronze, or other metal, and then it often
assumed more fantastic forms, and is sometimes found with
a chain attached for suspension. But these bronze lamps
are comparatively rare. When employed for domestic pur-
poses, the lamp was placed on a candelabrum, or small disc,
raised on a shaft. Two leaden stands, with handles, for carrying
lamps about, were found in York, the Koman Eburacum.
264 UKTCONIUM. ^ J
In the earlier part of our excavations at Wroxeter, we found ^ ^ ^
a rather singular object, which is represented in the accom-
panying cut. The notion of its being a candlestick, or of its
being like one, struck me for a moment ; but
nobody had seen a Roman candlestick like it
before, and it was found under some circum-
stances which seemed to contradict this sup-
position. It lay on the floor of the Basilica,
and not far from a piece of strong chain,
Avhich might have served for the purpose of
chaining prisoners, and hence the prevailing
opinion seemed to be that it had been fixed
by its socket on the head of a staff, and that
it had thus perhaps formed one of the insignia
of public office. Nothing further was thought
""^A^^oxete."'™ of it till last ycar, when my friend Mr. Roach
Smith gave in the Gentleman's Magazine
for March, (1867), an account of a similar object preserved in
the JMuseum of Andover in Hampshire, and found among
other objects on the site of a Roman villa at Abbot's Ann in
that neighbourhood, which he judged to be a candlestick. The
Andover relic is represented in the cut on the next page, and a
comparison of it with that found at Wroxeter will be sufficient
to show that they are identical in the objects for which they
were made.
Mr. Roach Smith is right, and no doubt these objects are
candlesticks. Another example has since been found at Wrox-
eter, so that now there are two preserved in the Museum at
Shrewsbury. The second is somewhat more mutilated. The
Andover example had, like those from Wroxeter, three legs, but
one of them has been broken ofl'. The socket appears as shown
in the cut on the next page, a hollow notch, not circular, but
open on two sides. It is five inches high. The Wroxeter can-
dlestick is, like that in the Museum at Andover, made of
URJCONJUM.
2€5
iron, and differs little in size, being four inches and three
quarters high, instead of five inches. The diameter of the
Koman Candlestick from Hampsliire.
socket, which is ferule-formed, is about an inch, and the legs
are splayed two inches apart.
In the same communication to the Gentleman's Magazine,
Mr. Eoach Smith has described another example of the Roman
candlestick, in this case made of copper. It was " discovered
in Belgium on the site of a Roman villa, at Petit Fresin, and
published in a very recent Bulletin
of the Commissions Roy ales d'Art
et d'Archeologie of Belgium, from
■jvhich the wood-cut here given has
been copied The size is not given.
It is called a three-footed cande-
labrum similar to another from the
Dry Tommes of Fresin, and the
material copper plated with tin, or silver, rather, as a further
examination seems to decide. M. Schuerman remarks that
every doubt on the destination of this object to the purpose
Roman Candlestick from Belgium.
266 UKIOONIUM.
of a candlestick is removed by this specimen, which retains
almost intact the point to which the candela was fixed ; the
engraving, however, from which the cut is copied, does not
show a sharp point."
The point for fixing the candle was probably intended for a
wax candle (cereus) ; but I am able to add to this curious
example of the ordinary Eoman candlestick, the discovery,
within the limits of our county, of Roman candles, and those of
tallow, the humbler class of the means of furnishing light
enumerated by Apuleius. Juvenal marks strongly the dis-
tinction of the rich man with his " aenea lampas," and the
poor man, who is satisfied with his candle, and arranges and
moderates its wick so as to economize it : —
Me, quam luna solet deducere, vel breve lumen
CandelcB, cujus dispense et tempero filum,
Contenipnifc. Juvenal, Sat. iii. 286.
The remains of the Roman lead-mines on Shelve Hill, the
property of Mr. More, of Linley Hall, have been described in
a former part of this volume,* and I have stated how the
modern cuttings cross or open into the ancient works. A few
years ago, the miners, in crossing unexpectedly into one of
the old Eoman galleries, found candles, which have every
appearance of being coeval with the period when those mines
were worked. The ignorant men carried them home to their
cottages ; and after trying in vain first to light them, and
afterwards to make them useful in greasing their boots, threw
them away as worthless. Mr. More had heard of these disco v-,
eries too late to recover the curious objects thus brought to
light, but he subsequently succeeded in obtaining other speci-
mens ; two of which are now in his possession, one of which is
represented in the annexed cut. As will be seen, it bears a
close resemblance to a modern tallow candle ; and we can
hardly doubt, from an examination, that the material of
* See before, pp. 49—52.
UEICONIUM.
26^
which they were made was originally tallow, but it has
undergone the change into adipocere, which frequently takes
place in fatty substances during exposure for a very long time
to certain atmospheric actions, and by which it has become
Eoman Candle from Lead Mine at Shelve. •
extremely hard and almost chalky in its character. The wicks
appear to be of flax. Pliny (Hist. Nat. Ub. xvi. c. 70), tells us
that the pith of a kind of rush was commonly used for making
wicks to candles. It has been supposed that these candles
were not made like our dips, but that they were formed by
rolling a sheet of tallow or wax round the wick, from the cir-
cumstance that there appears upon the side of each of Mr.
More's examples (which are carefully preserved at Linley HaU)
the appearance of a slight indentation as though marking the
extremity of the sheet where it joined with the rest of the
material in folding round. We know, however, from the
ancient writers that the substance with which the Eomans made
their ordinary candles was sebum, or tallow, and that their
phrase for making a candle was sebare candelam, meaning
literally to smear it with tallow. Columella* enumerates
among the works which the rustic population might lawfully
do on the ferice, or hoHdays, during which all agricultural
labours were forbidden, the making of the two implements
necessary for furnishing lights under different circumstances,
torches and candles, which he expresses by the words faces
incidere, candelas sebare. The very form of the phrase
seems to imply that the candle was made in the same manner
as at present, by dipping in the melted tallow ; and a fracture
in the side of one of Mr. More's examples, the one here engra-
ved, reveals an inner core, which would arise from its being
formed by two successive dippings in the melted tallow.
» De Be liustica, lib. ii. c. 21.
268 URICONIUM. f '
We could hardly expect to find among the ruins of the
Eoman buildings in Britain any objects which would throw
light on the manner in which the interior of the house was
furnished during the Eoman period, and we can only assume
that in this, as in almost every thing else, every article was
identical with, or closely imitated from, that which existed in
Italy. Most of the articles of domestic furniture in the houses
of Uriconium, were probably made of more or less perishable
materials, and, where this was not the case, they were objects
which would naturally enough attract the attention of the
plunderers, and would be carried away in the sack of the town.
The ordinary articles of domestic furniture, which were pro-
bably far from abundant in the Eomano-British houses, were, no
doubt very rare, and greatly valued among the barbarian inva-
ders, and a chair, or a table, or a bed or couch, or any object
of that kind, especially if they were adorned or strengthened
with metal, would appear in their eyes far too good to be
left behind.
One class of objects, however, or rather of part of an object,
connected with the domestic economy of the Eomans in
Britain, is not at all uncommon, that is, keys and locks. Of
these, several interesting samples have been found in the
course of the excavations at Wroxeter. The keys are much
more numerous than the locks, for the very evident reason
that door-keys and keys for many other local purposes could
be of no use to the invaders, and that the invaders, doubtless,
seldom found the keys attached to the locks of boxes and
coffers, which, in regard to their contents, they thought worth
carrying away. Those to whom they belonged no doubt car-
ried them on their persons. Some of the smaller Eoman keys
have a ring, in such a position as to show that they were
intended to be carried on the finger.
The only perfect lock which has as yet been yielded by
our excavations at Wroxeter, was found in a grave in the
URICONIUM.
269
cemetery. The contents of the coffer to which it belongs have
been described on a former occasion f it belonged, no doubt,
to a Eoman surgeon. This lock, which was the only part of
the coffer, or box, preserved, is represented in the accompany-
ing engraving. Some of the wood to which it was fixed
Roman Lock of a Coffer, from the Cemetery at Uriconium.
remained attached to it, showing the material of which the
box had been made. The dimensions of the plate of this lock
are three and three quarter inches by two and three quarters.
The works of this lock, and the key by which it was opened,
seem to have been of very simple construction. A lock
Boman Lock fonnd at Colchester.
very similar to it was found at Colchester, also in a Roman
sepulchral interment, and is represented here for the sake
* See page 165 of the present volume.
270 UEICONIUM.
of comjaarison. In this case the lock is of bronze, and
measures four inches by two and three quarters. The hasps
of the two locks are exactly similar ; the end of the Wroxeter
example is unfortunately broken ofi"; and in both cases the
key-hole had a protecting cover. Other locks, of exactly the
same design, have been found on Eoman sites in our island,
and almost always in cemeteries, and they appear to have
belonged to wooden boxes in which the funeral oiFerings
were deposited, and where they have remained undisturbed
till they have been brought to light by the antiquarian re-
searches of modern times.
The lock, among the Romans in earlier times, was merely a
latch inside, and this simple kind of fastening a^jpears to
have been in very common use down to a late period. The
key was a common latch-key, which was thrust through a
hole from the outside, and lifted up or turned, so as to raise
the latch. The two represented in the accompanying cut,
found in the same locality and at the same time with the
bronze lock above described, both of iron, and the one eight
inches in length, the other five inches and a half, are by no
means uncommon types. Two keys closely resembhng these
were found in the course of the excavations at Wroxetei',
and are deposited in the Museum. They present all the
characteristics of such latch-keys as I am describing. They
Roman Latcli-Keys found at Colchester.
could hardly be used in any other Avay than by lifting up
UEIOONIUM.
271
to raise a latch. One has an eye, and the other a hook, at
the extremity of the handle, no doubt for hanging it, pro-
bably to the girdle. This is also supposed to be generally
the use of the rings in which most of the handles of Eoinan
keys found in this country terminate. These are shown in
the group of keys given in our next cut, aU found in 1848, at
Coville Manor, near White Eothing, and here reproduced from
the Journal of the Archgeological Association for that year.
They show us a few of the forms, extremely varied, and some-
times very singular, and even grotesque, of the Eoman keys
found in Britain. Two of them have evidently been used as
latch-keys. The small example bears some resemblance to the
finger keys, except that in the latter the ring was larger, and
Koman KeTs.
usually placed so that the key lay flat along the side of the
finger. An example of a finger key will be found in the
Museum at Shrewsbur}r.
The Eoman keys hitherto found at Wroxeter are not numer-
ous, but in the earlier period of our excavations there occurred
one or two examples of an object, made of iron which
is represented in the cut to the left. The cross bars have holes
272
URICONIUM.
at the ends, which were evidently intended for the passage of a
rod. The use of this object seemed at first very problematical,
Part of a Eoman Padlock
irom Wroxeter.
A Roman Lock from Ches-
terford in Essex.
but it was suggested that it might have belonged to some
description of fastening implement, which would come under
the general term of a lock. Subsequently two examples of
the complete padlock were found wdth a great number of other
implements in iron by the late Lord Braybrooke, then the
Hon. R. C. Neville, in excavations made under his directions
at Chesterford, Essex, and they are preserved in his Museum
at Audley End. One of these, with its key, is represented in
the above engraving to the right. It will be seen at once
that this curious padlock solves the whole mystery of the
fragment of iron found at Wroxeter, for the latter evidently
represents the upper part of the bar on the right hand which
enters the box of the lock, and which sHdes along the rod
attached to the latter. This bar terminates in a bolt, which
has a strong spring of steel starting Ijack from its point.
UEICONIUM. 273
To lock it, this bar is thrust through a hole at the end
of the box of the lock, which presses the spring close to its
side until it has passed the hole into the interior, and the spring
collapses, and renders its withdrawal impossible. The whole is
then hung by the end which is here placed downwards, to the
staple of the door or other object which is to be fastened. To
open it, the key, which is here represented from the example
found at Chesterford, is inserted through a hole at the other
end of the box, and embraces the end of the bar and, being
pushed forward with sufficient force, presses the spring against
it as it proceeds, until it reaches the other end, and then the
spring is brought so close to the bar that it may be withdrawn,
and the lock is opened.
I will only add that I possess a padlock, a little different in
form, but exactly of the same construction and action as the
one here described, given me by my friend Mr. E. E. Hodges,
many years a resident in Hayti, and British Vice-Consul at
Jacmel. It is probably at least a century old, and, as he
believes, is either Spanish, or made in one of the Spanish
colonies. It is an illustration of the persistence with which
the Roman arts and forms of useful manufactures have been
preserved in the Roman provinces long after modern ingenuity
had invented implements in every way superior for the same
purpose.
274
CHAPTER VII.
THE ladies; objects of the toilette, and personal
ORNAMENT ; THE MALE SEX, ARMS AND ARMOUR.
The more we collect and compare the relics of the Eoman
period found in diiferent parts of our island, the more we
become convinced that the population which then occupied
it collectively as Romans, though known in other parts of
the empire as Britons, and which consisted in reality of
a mixture of almost all the races of mankind in the known
Avorld (as then known), had adopted Eoman civilization with-
out reserve. Their houses, their works of art, their vessels for
table or for kitchen use of whatever material, their manufac-
tures, their ornaments, are all purely Roman, and identical
with the same objects as found in Italy and in other parts of
the empire. There can be no doubt that they had also adopted
the Roman costume, for, if we possess none of their articles of
dress, we have a sufficient number of sculptures and other
pictorial representations of men and women to make us fully
acquainted with their general character and materials. As our
modern ideas of fashions did. not exist in those times, the cos-
tume appears to have been nearly uniform throughout at least
the western empire and during the whole period of its existence ;
and the clotliing of the wealthy and of those who were not
wealthy differed almost only in the richness of the materials
and in the number, beauty, and value of the personal orna-
ments. The materials of dress are especially perishable, and
URICONIUM. 275
hardly a fragment of them remains. Almost a unique exception
is furnished by the shoes, a certain numlaer of which have been
found under peculiar circumstances. Mr. Roach Smith pos-
sessed, in his museum which has now been transferred to the
British Museum, a number of Roman sandals. They were found
with other objects, imbedded at a considerable depth in soil of
a description which was impervious to the air, and which in
other respects was especially favourable to their preservation.
The upper leathers of these shoes were punched into orna-
mental open-work in very elegant patterns, and were looped to
receive strings for drawing them tight together, and tying
over the instep or across the leg. The soles, which were all
right and left, were formed of four layers of leather, and were
fastened together without stitching, by nails, which had large
projecting heads. In some examples, and this was probably the
common practice, the whole under-surface of the sole was
covered with these nail heads.* The soles of the Roman shoes
have been found elsewhere in our island, sometimes in sepul-
chral cists, and they are always covered with these large
heads of nails, which indeed seem to have been their pecu-
liar characteristic, for they are alluded to by the classical
writers. Juvenal, describing the inequality existing between
the people and the soldiers, and the partiality shown to the
latter in the courts, and warning the former that by attempting
to resist any of the military they would only expose themselves
to so many more kicks, tells them that they have only two legs
to expose to so many thousands of shoe-nails. —
Signum erit ergo
Declamatoris mulino corde Vagelli,
Quum duo crura habeas, offendere tot caligas tot
Millia clavorum. Juvenal, Satir. xiv, 1. 22,
I dwell longer upon this circumstance of the nails, because
these shoe-nails of the Romans in Britain appear under other
* Several examples of these shoes are engraved in Mr. Eoach Smith's " IlluBtrfilions of
Eoman London," pp. 131 — 1.35, with a full account of the circumstances under which thoy
were found.
276 TJEICONIUM.
n,nd rather cvirious circumstances. The structure of the
Roman tiles has been already described/^ In the process of
making, they were not baked or burnt, but dried in the sun,
and during the long period they were exposed to the air for
this purpose, they appear to have been occasionally walked
over not only by dogs, sheep, pigs, and other animals,
but by man also, and, according to the softness of the clay, all
these left the impressions of their feet more or less deeply
marked in them. Roman tiles thus marked occur very fre-
quently. The shoe-soles found impressed on the Roman tiles
are always characterized by the large heads of nails just descri-
bed. Some tUes marked with the impressions of men's feet
have l^een already mentioned in the present volume t as
found in the Roman villa at Acton Scott; and they have also
been found at Wroxeter, and examples are preserved in the
museum at Shrewsbury.
No remains of Roman dress of any kind have been yet
discovered at Wroxeter, but the number of personal ornaments
which have been met with at different times, and which may be
seen in the museum, is very considerable. Among the most
common of the personal ornaments, for they are all more or less
ornamental, found at Wroxeter and on other Roman sites, are the
hair pins. They were used especially for holdkig together the
knot into which the Roman ladies rolled up their hau' behind,
and they usually swell out in the middle, and diminish again
towards the head, which Avas no doubt intended to prevent
the pins from slipping out of the knot of hair. The material of
which they were made was usually bronze or bone, but they
were not unfrequently made of silver, and sometimes of wood.
Those made of the precious metals were much more richly orna-
mented than those of commoner materials ; several hair-pins
of silver haA'e l:ieen found in Britain, and one, at least, had a
* See before pafie 187.
1 See before p. 32 of tlie present volume.
UEICONIUM.
277
diminutive statuette for its lietid. The heads of the bronze
hair-pins are also frequently very elegant, sometimes worked
into the form of human heads and l)usts. Those found at
Wroxeter are of a common
description, most of them
of bone, with two or three
of wood. A selection of
them is given in the ac-
companying cut, in which
they are drawn about half
the size of the originals-
Of course wooden hair-
pins, under ordinary cir-
cumstances, would have
perished long ago, but
those found at Wroxeter had been perfectly saturated with od,
which was no doubt the cause of their preservation. We are
justified in assuming from this circumstance that the inhabi-
tants of Uriconium were in the habit of using oil upon their
hair very profusely ; and it helps to explain a brief epigram on
a golden hair-pin (axus aurea) by IMartial, in which we
are told that the hair-pin was thrust through the ladies' locks,
to hold them up, least, when damp (with oil of course), they
would fall upon the dress of dehcate sdk and spoil it : —
Koman Haii'-pins found at Wroxeter.
Tenuia ne madidi violent bombycina crines,
Kgat acus tortas sustineatque comas.
Martial, Ep. lib. xiv. ep. 24.
It is pleasant to l)e thus able to illustrate and explain the
language of the classical writers of Kome by objects dug up in
our own county. At Wroxeter the hair-pins are found most
abundantly in the pubhc baths, where we might naturally
suppose that the female bathers would have them with them
for their toilette. Perhaps supphes were kept there for sale.
278
URICONIUM.
The Eomans appear to have used the comb (pectenj, as we
do, for the two different purposes of combing the hair, and of
holding the hair in a form which has been artificially given to
it. We learn from the ancient writers that the first of these
was usually made of box-wood, and the use of this material
was so general, that the name of the wood fbuxusj was em-
ployed as a synonym for a comb. Wood is, of course, a
perishable material, and we could hardly expect the wooden
combs to be preserved to the present day. But examples
have been found of more durable materials, such as bone
and metals, both on the Continent and in Britain, and these
are commonly made, as now, with a double row of teeth.
The other class of combs were made of richer materials, and
were more ornamental. Two combs found at Wroxeter,
both made of bone, are represented in our cut, of the same
Eom.m Combs, found at Wroxeter.
size as the originals,
The one above is only a portion of the
original comb, which has been broken. It consisted of a plain
piece, in which the teeth were cut, and on each side of which
an ornamental piece of bone was fastened by means of iron
rivets. The smaller comb is complete, except that it wants
URICONIUM. 279
some of its teeth, and its form is by no means devoid of
elegance. Among other objects connected with the toilette
found commonly among Eoman remains are small tweezers,
usually of bronze, called in Latin volsellce, which were no
doubt employed in plucking superfluous hairs from the body.
In those ages when the modern system of varying fashions
in the make of dress was unknown, and its form remained uni-
form, the costume of different ranks and individuals differing
only in the richness and beauty of the materials, and the pride
or wealth of an individual was shown in a great display of
personal ornaments. The more precious of such ornaments
would be objects of plunder to the barbarians who overran
the Eoman provinces in the later days of imperial rule, and
are therefore now seldom found on Eoman sites, except in
sepulchral interments ; but the commoner articles of this
description are met with in abundance, as the museum at
Shrewsbury will sufiiciently testify. Among the most common
of these are the brooches, or, as the Eomans called them,
JihulcB. The dress of the Eoman of either sex, consisted in
great part, not of close-fitting garments, but of pieces of cloth,
ornamented with fringes, &c., which were wrapped round or
over the body, and fastened with these fibulae. Virgil intro-
duces Dido wearing a purple vest fastened by a fibula of gold.
Tandem progreditur, magna stipante caterva,
Sidoniam picto oMamydem circumdata limbo ;
Cui pharetra ex auro, crines uodantur in aurum,
Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem.
Virgil. ZSn. iv. 136.
The fibulae found on Eoman sites in Britain are usually of
bronze, but sometimes of silver, or even of gold. The bronze
fibulae were often, if not mostly, thickly gilt, so that to the eye
they appeared like gold. They present two distinct classes,
each uniform in its general shape, but differing considerably in
detail. Our cut on the next page represents six examples of the
first of these classes, which is usually termed bow-shaped, sq-
280
UEICONIDM.
lected from those found at Wroxeter, and will give a sufficient
idea of their general character. They are all of bronze. No. 1,
which is seen in front, is one of the least ornamented. No. 2 is
rather a common form, but it appears to have been a favourite,
for it has been found I believe more than once in England, of
large dimensions, and made of solid pure gold. A large gold
fibula of this type was found at Odiham in Hampshire, in 1844.
Roman Fibulce from Wroxeter.
The ornamentation of this class of fibute is extremely varied,
and it becomes often c[uite grotesque. Figs. 3 and 4 present
examples of ornamental fibulse selected from those found at
Wroxeter ; and fig. 6, from the same collection, is curiously
grotesque. It presents the rude figure of a dog, and is probably
of rather late woi'kmanship, and the *maker appears to have
been so well satisfied with his work that he has stamped his
name upon it, though the name itself disappeared.
The fibula was fastened into the dress by a pin on the back,
which sometimes moved on a hinge, and sometimes acted as a
spring. As this pin was more fragile than the fibula itself,
and was sometimes made of iron or steel, it is often wanting
in those found in the course of excavations, and this is the
UEICONIUM.
281
case in the examples from Wroxeter given above. The fibula
represented in the accompanying cut, found at SHchester
in Hampshire (the Eoman Calleva) is perfect, and it is
shown both sideways and in front, in order to display its
construction as well as its ornamentation. A fibula of rather
a different character, but belonging to the same class I am
^tcscribing, is shewn in the next cut. It was found among
Eoman remains at East Farleigh, near Maidstone in Kent, in
Koman Fibula from
Silchester.
Roman Fibula from Kent.
1841. The metal of this fibula was an alloy of tin, which is
of far less common occurrence than bronze.
One of the fibulae in the preceding group from Wroxeter,
which has not yet been described, presents another interesting-
feature in the character of the Eomano-British personal orna-
ments. The circular face divided by rings, is enamelled. The
art of enamel appears to have been introduced, with that of
neillo, at a rather early period into the north of Gaul and
Britain, and we are justified by the quantity of examples
found among Eoman remains in assuming that it was practised
in our island to a considerable extent during the later Eoman
period. I have ventured to suppose that we have found in
282 UEICONIUM.
Uriconium the workshop of a practiser of both these arts.*
In the fibula from Wroxeter (fig. 5), the enamel is iirranged in
two concentric rings, with a centre, of which the latter is green,
the inner ring blue, and the outer ring brown. The fibula repre-
sented in our next cut was found in the suburbs of Colchester,
the Roman Camulodunum, on the side
towards Lexden, and affords another
very good perfect example of an orna-
ment of this description. The semicir-
cular space in front is set with green
enamel.
The second class of fibulae spoken of
before, which are of a perfectly circular
Roman Fibula from Colchester. £qj.j^^ ^^^ ^^^^ frequently enamelled
than the others, and are oftener made of the precious metals.
The pin behind for fastening exactly resembles that of the
other class. They are sometimes small, not much larger than
a common button, but often of more considerable dimensions.
The exact manner in which the fibulae of the first class were
used is not known with any great certainty, but they
seem to have been employed more by females than by the
other sex. In a Eomano-Gallic sculptured monument found
at Mayence (the Roman Maguntiacum), representing a Roman
family of that city, the lady, who was evidently a " belle, "
appears to have at least two of these fibulae on her breast.
The circular fibulae is seen more frequently on the figures in
coins and sculptures, and one of its principal uses appears to
have been to fasten the pallium on the shoulder. These were
no doubt the larger and richer articles of this class. Two of
the smaller round fibulae found at Wroxeter are beautifully
enamelled. One has a centre of enamelled ornament, alter-
nately of scarlet and blue, surrounded by a circle of triangles
filled with blue enainel. Studs and buttons are also found
* See page 163 of the present volume.
URICONIUM.
283
among the Roman remains of Britain, but the particular man-
ner in wliich they were employed on the dress is not well
known. They are like the circular fibulae, sometimes perfectly
flat, and at others convex. Several of these studs or buttons
have been found at Wroxeter. A very elegant example of
steel damaskeened was found in the room supposed to be an
enameUer's workshop. One of the buttons or studs found at
Wroxeter is made of jet.
Another class of ornaments connected with the dress are the
buckles, which of course were used for attaching girdles and
belts. They are of sufficiently common occurrence among
Eoman remains in this country, and resemble closely in form
the buckles of modern times. Two examples are shown in our
next group of personal ornaments of the Eoman period found
at Wroxeter, figs. 7 and 8. They are both of bronze, offering
nothing calling for particular remark in their ornamentation,
but one wants the tongue.
Koman Eings and Buckles from Wroxeter.
A few rings found in the excavations at Wroxeter are here
grouped with the buckles. Finger rings appear to have been
worn in great profusion among the Romans, and they are
284 URICONIUM. ■ ■■- • •
found rather abundantly in excavations on Koman sites. They
are often made of gold and silver, but their forms are so varied
that it would be impossible to give a general description.
Those found at Wroxeter are for the most part of a rather
ordinary description. There is, in the Shrewsbury Museum, a
fragment of one of jet; and at least one is of silver; it is repre-
sented in fig. 4 of our group. The rest are of bronze. I have
stated before that small keys, no doubt belonging to coffers,
were often attached to rings, that they might be carried on the
hand ; the key usually stands at right angles to the plane of
the ring, so that it lay flat to the finger. Fig. 2, in the pre-
ceding group, represents one of these key-rings. Another
example in the museum of Wroxeter antiquities at Shrews-
bury is a plain ring made of twisted bronze and iron wire. In
the ring was not unfrequently set a gem, or an intaglio, and
examples have been found at Wroxeter of rings which have
preserved their settings.
The Eomans not only covered their fingers with rings, but
they loved to wear on their ams bracelets (armillcB), an article
of rather frequent occurrence among objects of antiquity found
on Eoman sites. Gold and silver were more frequently em-
ployed in bracelets than in the fibulee, but those hitherto
found at Wroxeter are of inferior character. The bronze
armillce are sometimes of large dimensions, and very richly
ornamented, but their forms are extremely varied. The
cut on the next page represents two very elegant Eoman
bracelets of silver, found at Castlethoi'pe in Buckinghamshire,
in an urn filled with Eoman coins, which all belonged to the
earlier empire. The bracelets are here given of the size of the
originals. The Eomans wore a collar of metal round the neck,
as well as a bracelet round the arm ; they called this a torques,
or torquis. As the torques, at least during the earlier period,
Avas usually made of gold, and was of very considerable weight,
it was not so likely to be lost as other articles of personal
'■.-r'
URICONIUM.
285
ornament, and it is therefore more seldom found in antiqua-
rian explorations. A torques of gold, described as being
twisted and -wreathed, found at Pattingham in Staffordshire, in
1700, weighed three pounds two oimces ; and one found in
Needwood Forest, in the same county, in 1848, weighed a
- I i . -1 I . I ' il i.i- i ir-fg :-
Pioman ArmiUcs from Castletliorpe.
pound and nearlj- two ounces. I am not aware that any per-
fect torques has been found at Wroseter, but one or two
fragments of ornamental bronze have been picked up, which,
on account of their peculiar cur^^e, were judged to have been
parts of torques.
The torques was considered among the Eomans, as an orna-
ment of the person used by men, rather than by females, and it
was understood to have belonged originally to the barbarians,
and especially to the Gauls, from whom the Eomans derived
it. Dio Cassius, however, describes queen Boadicea as wearing
a torques of gold round her neck, and, as some ornament very
hke a torques is traceable in figures of females on sculptures,
it may have been adopted by women in the later part of the
Roman period. Tlie Eoman ladies wore more usually instead
of the collar of metal, a necklace of beads. Beads are found
286
UEICONIXJM.
very abundantly among Koman antiquities in our island, so
that they must have been in universal use. They are made of
several materials, of which the most common is earthenware.
But the glass beads are hardly less numerous — I believe that,
as far as Wroxeter is concerned, I may say much more numer-
ous. In either material, the beads are very commonly of mixed
colours, which are worked together with great skUl. A very-
usual form of the glass bead is that of a ribbed sphere. A bead
of this form, of red earth, no less than an inch and a quarter
in diameter, was found at Wroxeter. Another common form
of the glass bead is represented in the accompanjdng cut,
which is of the exact size of the original.
This kind of bead is not uncommon,
and it used to be known by the ridicu-
lous and very incorrect name of " druid's
beads," arising from a notion that it
had some connection with the druidieal
superstitions. Jet, or Kimmeridge coal,
was also used extensively in the manu-
facture of beads. The two beads descri-
bed above are of unusually large dimen-
sions. Those found at Wroxeter are
generally much smaller and present no
features which require particular descrip-
tion. The glass bead, of which the en-
graving is here given, was found near Southampton.
From the dress of the women, we naturally turn to that of
the other sex, but of this we have less to say. That which
would interest us most would be their arms and armour, but
it is a very remarkable circumstance that among the vast
quantities of Roman antiquities found in Britain, a weapon
made of steel or iron is very rarely found, and that a sword
is almost unknown. This might, to a certain degree, be
explained by the circumstance that the Romans did not, like
Eomau Glass Bead, from
Southampton.
URICONIUM. - ' 287
the Anglo-Saxons, bury their arms with the dead; and
weapons of war were so highly valued by the barbarians who
overran the Roman provinces, that they would naturally carry
them off among plunder, in preference to many other things.
StUl, this is but an unsatisfactory explanation ; and if weapons
of iron were in common use among the Eoman troops in Bri-
tain, it cannot but be considered as very extraordinary that
none of them are now found.
In face of this we have another circumstance, equally worthy
of attention. Weapons of various descriptions, swords, dag-
gers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads, are found throughout Bri-
tain, in great abundance, but made of another metal — bronze.
These bronze weapons are assumed by a new school of archae-
ology, which has been recently formed, to be " prehistoric, "
that is, to belong to another people, if not race, who lived here
ages before either Eomans or Britons, and who Avere acquainted
with no other metal than bronze. One cannot but be startled
at the notion of the existence of a people ia our island, at
such a remote period, who possessed the skUl and artistic
taste to produce such beautifully shaped objects as these bronze
weapons of which I am speaking, and who were at the same
time so numerous and warhke that they left the ground fiUed
with their weapons of bronze, while the Romans have left us
hardly a single example of their weapons of iron. I wiU
repeat, on this subject, some remarks which I made in an ad-
dress delivered before the British Archaeological Association,
as one of its vice-presidents, in the opening meeting of the
session of 1867.*
" Bronze is a mixed metal, and not one of simple or easy
formation. It was no doubt invented in Greece and the
East, where iron did not exist, or where, at least, it was not
* Printed in the Journal of the British Archjeological Association for that year, p. 60. See
also my paper " On the True Assignation of the Bronze Weapons, &c., supposed to indicate a
Bronze Age in Western and Northern Europe," in the Transactions of the Ethnological Society,
vol. iv. p. 176.
288 URICONIUM.
known until a comparatively late date, and where, therefore,
people in a tolerably advanced state of civilization had to
find a mixture of metals which would be hard enough to
serve the purposes for which iron was afterwards used. For
a long period, bronze was the only metal employed for such
purposes in Greece and Italy ; no doubt it was communicated
from thence to the Gauls, when the intercourse between
these peoples became intimate, and through them it would
in time reach the Britons. But long before the natives of
Britain could have reached that knowledge of metallurgy
which would have enabled them to invent bronze, they must
have become acquainted with iron and with all its utility.
At the time when Caesar invaded our island, although the
Britons worked iron, they had no bronze of their own, and
all they had was imported, no doubt from Gaul. The
quantity of it was probably small. But the advocates of the
new system of periods appeal to a certain number of objects in
bronze found in Britain, as well as in Gaul, Germany, and
other parts of Northern Europe, consisting principally of
swords, spear-heads, daggers, and chisel-formed implements
Avhich are commonly known by the name of " celts", as being
older than the invention of iron, and as belonging to a
bronze period. In fact, it is upon the existence of these
objects that the whole belief in such a period is founded.
These objects are inet with under circumstances which asso-
ciate them so closely together, that they undoubtedly belong
to the same period. I believe them to be all Eoman. I
cannot, on an occasion like this, enter into an examination
of the cjuestion in its various bearings, but I will state it
briefly in regard to the most important of these implements,
and that on which the advocates of the system of periods
insist most, the sword. ■^■'
* I would refer, for a more extended examination of the arguments used by the supp ortera
of this system, to my paper, " On the true Assignation of the Bronze Weapons," in the
Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, vol. iw p. 176.
TJKICONIUM. 289
" It is hardly necessary to remark that the sword is uot a
weapon which belongs to a low state of social development.
The savage is essentially a coward. He tries to hurt his
enemy from a distance, and, if possible, from behind a tree,
or a rock, or other shelter, that he may be out of reach of
hurt himself. Your wild men of the " stone me," would no
doubt ia the earher times fight by pelting their enemies with
stones. As they advanced in civilisation (if we may apply
the term to them), and gained courage to fight hand to hand,
they would jDrobably use a club, or a long staff -ndth a stone
tied to the end of it, with which they could still strike at a
little distance. When metal was introduced, the first weapons
were similarly the spear and the dart, and when the sword
was brought into use, it was a long heavy sword, still intended
for striking at a cUstance. In the heroic ages of Greece, the
spear and the javelin were the favourite arms. It is to the
Romans we must look for the more refined and discijolined
use of the sword, which was the weapon of the legion. When
we read in Cgesar, or Tacitus, of Liwy, or Polybius, or any of
the historians of the Eoman wars, of their combats with
barbarians, whether Germans, or Gauls, or Caledonians, or
others, we meet always the same feature, — the advantage of
the Eoman consisted in fighting at close cjuarters with a short,
poiated sword, intended for stabbing, against men who were
armed only with long swords without points, intended for
striking. The Eoman manner of fightiag requu-ed a very
high degree both of courage and discipline ; but it is evident
that when he once closed in with his opponent, the long
sword was useless, and the man wlio carried it lay at his
mercy. That the Eoman legionaiy was armed with a short
sharp-pointed sword, is, therefore, a notorious fact.
" Now, let us look at the Eoman monuments, and incj^uire
what information they give us on this subject : and first
T
Coin of Caius Senilius.
290 XJEICONIUM.
among these we will take the most interesting of the Eoman
coins, those of the consular series. In these we find numerous
representations of the Roman holding his sword. I will only
call your attention to one example : it is a coin of Caius
Rervilius, a contemporary of
Julius Caesar, and on its
reverse we see two military
figures, each holding a sword.
These swords are short and
pointed, and their form is
that which is commonly described as leaf-shaped. The same
form of sword is found on others of the consular coins ;
while some of them represent swords, still short and pointed,
but with straight edges, tapering towards the point, or parallel
until they are brought suddenly to a point. When we look
to other monuments, we find the same form of sword, down to
a rather late date. This leaf-shaped sword is seen in the
hands of the Eoman soldiers in the sculptures on the Arch
of Constantine at Eome. The same form of sword occurs
on many sculptures of the Eoman period, found in various
j)arts of the Eoman empire, several of which are engraved
in Moutfaucon. I give a group of swords from rather rude
sculptures on Eoman sepulchral monuments at Constantine
in Algeria, which show us both the leaf-shaped sword and the
sword with parallel edges. If we look, again, at the Eoman wall-
paintings at Eompeii or elsewhere, at the Etruscan pottery,
at almost any pictorial monuments of Eoman antiquity which
are in sufficient number, we shall find continually recurring
this same short leaf-shaped sword."'" It appears, indeed, to
have been the sword of the ancient Greeks, which had been
* In looldng over the diiferent collections of Greek and Etruscan vases, we see that
tlic cmiimon weapons were the spear and javelin. The sword is of much rarer occurrence ;
but it is almost always the short leaf-shaped weapon, and it has the fonn of sheath usually
found on Homan monuments. In B'Hancarville, vol. ii., plate 30, we have a figure of a
wanior drawing the leaf-shaped sword from its scahbard. A good figure of the sword in
its sheath will he found on plate 41 of the same volume.
URICONIUM.
291
brought by them into Italy, and had become the uatioual
weapon of the Ilomans, the sword of the Roman legionaries.
Eoman Swords from Canstantine in Algeria,
" It becomes, then, a fair question. Are all traces of the
sword of the Eoman legionary lost ? Among the vast quantity
of Eoman antiquities which have been at various periods
brought to light, and which are laid up in so many museums,
is there not a single example of it preserved "? I answer,
there is ; and I have no hesitation in pointing to the four
swords represented in the group on the next page as the re-
presentations of that sword. They are the swords which the
advocates of the new system of periods ascribe to a bronze age.
" The objection which has been raised consists chiefly in
the metal ; and yet this apj)ears to me to have no good
foundation. We know that in earlier times, both in Greece
and Italy, the sword was made of bronze, and the Eoman
sword under the kings was certainly of bronze. We have no
authority for stating that the metal of the short sword of
the legionary was changed at any subsequent period. For
292
UKICONIUM.
such a sword, used for stabbing and not for striking, bronze
was almost as effective a metal as iron, and it offered several
advantages. As the metal only required melting in a mould,
the sword could, when wanted, be made or re-made easily
without the trouble of forges and anvils. On the other hand,
Examples of Bronze Swords.
whenever we find the bronze swords within the limits of
the Eoman provinces, it is almost invariably under circum-
stances Yvliich must lead us to presume that they are Eoman.
Such is the case certainly in Britain. I may mention a
Ijronzc sword fouud in Silchester, the Eoman city of Calleva,
an account of which is given in the first volume of the
Journal of the British Archaeological Association, (p. 14). In
two instances in France, recorded by the antic|uary Mongez,
they were found with Eoman imperial coins, in one case of the
Emperor Caracalla, in the other of Maxentius, which would be
nearly contemporary with the Eoman sculptures alluded to
above. I have no doubt that further discoveries will furnish
abundant evidence in confirmation of the Eoman character of
these objects. The Emperor Napoleon III. informs us, in the
second volume of his Tlistoire de Jules Cesar, that ten spear-
heads, two axes (I suppose he means what are among us called
UEICONIUM. 29.1
" celts"), and two swords, all of bronze, were found deposited
in the fosse of Caesar's line of circumvallation round the
Gaulish oppidum of Alesia. A little research amono- the
scattered and forgotten records of discoveries in past times
would no doubt bring to light many cases in which these
bronze weapons and other implements have been found in
former times with objects of undoubted Roman manufacture,
and even with Roman coins. In the time of Borlase, bronze
"celts" were found at Karn-bre in Cornwall, along with
Roman corns, some of which Borlase obtained, and has
described.* One of these Avas of the Emperor Constantius
which is curious as bringing them to the date of the sculptures
and bronze swords akeady mentioned. Borlase tells us
that they had also been found along with Roman coins at
Aldborough in Yorkshire, the site of the Roman city of
Isurium :f although this went against his own opinions on
the subject, he speaks of it as a fact too well ascertained to
admit of a doubt ; but he seeks to ex2:)lain it by supj)osiug
that the Romans of the province had adopted the older
weapons of the Britons, and that thus they had continued in
use, while he urged as an objection to their being Roman,
what he believed to be the fact, that they had not been found
in Italy. In this, however, he was mistaJven. They did exist
in Italian collections ] and I have recently received a series
of privately printed engravings of a small collection of in-
teresting antiquities in the possession of Hodder JM. Westropp,
Esq., of Bookhurst, near Cork, among which there are no
* *' In tlie year 174-i, in the side of Kam-bre FTiU, were dug up several hollow insti-uments
of brass, of different sizes, called '' celts," whose shape is most easily apprehended from tlie
drawings of two of them" [he has given a i)late of them], "with others fi-om diilorent
parts of the kingdom, placed together for the better illustration of one another. AYith
these instruments were found several Koman coins, six of which came into my hands.
One of ANTONiNVS AVG. ; No. 2, uncertain ; No. 3, divo constantio pig ; reverse, memoria
FELIX; No. 4, defaced; No, 5, severvs Alexander ; No. 6, defaced." — Boi'lase, Antiquities of
Cornwall, p. 281 ; second edition, 1769.
+ " They are found here at Kam-bre, and have been found at Aldborough (the ancient
Iimrinw) in Yorkshii-e, in company with many Koman coins." — Bnrlase, p. 28.3.
294 URicoNiUM.
less than five bronze "celts," found in difierent parts of
Southern Italy, and apparently of Roman manufacture/'^
" Ail the objections which have been raised to the Roman
oiigui of these bronze weapons and implements appear to
me either very trivial or founded merely in error. They rest
i-hicfly on weak negative evidence. No direct evidence has
yet been shewn that they are not Roman, much less that
they belong to any other people. One of these objections,
for instance, was founded on the small size of the handles
which, it was alleged, could only be held by very small men ;
whereas, the objectors represented, if we judge of the ancient
l^y the modern Romans, they were large men ; and this was
considered as a proof that the people who had used these
swords was an oriental race. Of course, such a statement
could only have arisen from a want of knowledge ; for, on
the contrary, the ancient writers are sufficiently explicit in
stating that the Romans were a race of small men, and we
have only to appeal to the evidence of Csesar himself In
descril^ing the siege of the oppidum of the Aduatuci {Namur),
he tells us that, generally, the Romans Avere objects of con-
tempt to the Gauls on account of the smallness of their
stature; t and as, in his account of Britain, he tells us that the
Britons were bigger men than the Gauls, and we know that the
Britons w&te not giants, we can have no doubt of the small-
ness of the Romans. Besides, a sword used only for stabbing
does not require the same strength or weight of handle as
one for striking with the edge. A much greater apparent
difficulty arises from the circumstance of the bronze swords
and celts being found in great numbers in the countries into
* " Collectanea Antiqica, in the possession of Plodder M. Westropp, Esq., Kookhurst,
Cork." Large 4to.
t CfBsar's words are, — " Ubi, vineis actis, aggere exstnicto, turrim procul constitui
viderant, primnm inridere ex mui'o atque mcrepitare vocibus, quo tanta macbiuatio ab tanto
spatio institueretur ? quibusnam manUms, aut qr.ibus viiibus, jjra'sertim lwmin£9 tantula^
staturce {iii\.va 2)leruinque bommibus Grallis pro? magnitudinc corporum suorura brevitas nostra
contemtiii est) tanti oncris turrim in niui'os sese conlocare ooniiderent ? " — Ca?sar, J)e Bello
GaUico, lib. ii, c. 30.
UEICONIUM. 295
which the Romans never penetrated, such as Scandinavia ;
but this, too, now admits of an easy explanation. It is true
that these bronze swords are found in nearly all the countries
outside the Roman provinces to the north and north-west,
in Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, and even in Hungary ; but
they all bear so close a resemblance to each other that we
cannot reasonably doubt that, they must have been all carried
from one common centre. The accounts of all the ancient
writers shew most satisfactorily that, when the Romans first
came in contact with any of these peoples, they did not find
them using weapons of this description ; but we can easily
understand that, when the barbarians did become acquainted
with the Romans, they would on one hand be glad to obtain
articles of Roman manufacture, whUe on the other, Roman
dealers would be ecj^ually glad to make a profit out of them
by selling. These bronze swords, by their form and ornament,
were just the things to attract the attention of the barbarians ;
and it is not improbable that they rather wore them as
ornamental weapons {des armes de luxe) than used them in
war, for they seem never to have displaced the old long sword
of the Celts and Germans. In a paper on this subject, read
before another Society,^' I have called attention to the numer-
ous traces of dealers of this description which are found in
the Roman provinces, and which leave no doubt that there
was a very extensive traffic carried on in these bronze imple-
ments by men who wandered over distant lands, like the
mediaeval pedlars, taking with them their implements for
casting them. Thus these bronze swords and spear-heads and
dago-ers and " celts" were of Roman origin, but were carried
into distant countries by travelling merchants or manufac-
turers ; and perhaps natives of those countries would in
course of time learn to make them for themselves. Of the
• See my paper, " On the true Assignation of tlie Bronze Wtnpoiis," ijuoteJ in a former
note, and " The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," p. 73, '2nd edit.
296 XJRICONIXJM.
four swords represented in our group, the first was found in
the valley of the Somme in France (it is one of those
described hj Mongez), the second was found in the Lake of
Neufchatel in Switzerland, the third in Sweden, and the last
also in some part of Scandinavia. The further objection,
that no Roman coins, or other objects known to be Eoman,
accompany these swords when found in Scandinavia or other
countries beyond the limits of the Roman power, it is hardly
worth discussing, because it is exactly what might be expected
to be the case. A man's buying a foreign sword does not
imply the necessity of his buying some other foreign objects
to store up Avith it, especially if those objects had no relation-
ship to the weapon, and were of no use to him ; for what
use could Roman coins be in countries where there was no
monetary circulation ? And why should the barbarians, when
they bought bronze weapons from the Romans, be obliged to
buy some Roman coins to bury with them, in order that
people who happened, after many centuries, to dig them up,
should know whence they obtained them 1
" We have thus, in sufficient abundance, all the evidence
necessary in such a case. We have bronze swords answering
exactly in form and size to those of the Roman legionaries, and
they are found deposited with other undoubted Eoman remains."
After the swords, the most remarkable of these bronze
weapons are the daggers, which have an interest more closely
connected with our city of Uriconium. The shape of the
bronze dagger is toleraljly uniform wherever it is found,
whether in Gaul, or in Britain, or in Ireland, or in the north,
which is in itself a sufficient cause for supposing that it must
have belonged to a period when there was an easy mode of
commiinication between all those countries. To show more
strongly the identity of these daggers, I give in the cut on
next page an example from the farthest point west — a bronze
dagger from Ireland, because, at all events, the difference in
URICONIUM.
297
form between it and anything Roman found in Italy, must be
the greatest possible. It is, like all the daggers of this class,
broad-bladed, the blade ribbed, with chamfered edges. The
blade, of course, is the characteristic part of either dagger or
sword, and where we find the handles, which
is less frequently, as they were no doubt
commonly made of wood, they differ some-
what in different localities. In the present
instance it is of a very Irish character, of a
style of art bearing to that barbaric style
which probably existed in the sister island
during the latter part of the Eoman period,
and through the early Christian period, per-
haps I may say down to the ninth or tenth
century. Now let us turn to Rome itself,
and inquire what was the form of daggers
there, and the question is immediately
answered, by a class of monuments of
extreme interest, the consular coins, on which daggers occur
not unfrequently, and they are all, as near as can be pic-
tured on so small a scale, of this same peculiar character,
broad-bladed, and ribbed, and with handles of the same
general character. I will give an example which presents
It is a coin of Junius Brutus,
the celebrated patriot who slew
Julius Csesar with his dag-
ger, and no doubt represents
the form of the weapon with
which that memorable deed was
performed. It is engraved from
the original coin preserved in the numismatic collection in the
British Museum. On the obverse we have the name l. plaet.
CEST, i. e. Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus, one of the ofiicers of
Brutus, by whose order the coin was struck, and who gives to
Bronze Dagger
from Ireland
a very peculiar interest.
Coin of Junius Bmtus.
298 UEICONITJM.
his chief the title brvt . imp., i.e., Brutus imperator. On the
reverse appear the terrible emblems, the pileus (or cap of
liberty) in the middle, a dagger on each side, broad-bladed and
ribbed, and under them the words eid. mar,, i.e. Eidus (the
archaic form of Idus) Martioe, the day on which the deed
was done. A glance at this curious coin is sufficient to con-
vince us that the dagger with which Caesar was slam was
identical in form with those which are so often found in our
excavations in Britain. But I am able to bring home still
more directly to our county of Salop and to our ancient city
of Uriconium this curious question. My friend the late Eev.
Charles Henry Hartshorne gave me a drawing of a bronze
dagger which, at the time he made the drawing, in 1838, was
in the possession of William Anstice, Esq., of Madeley Wood,
and was preserved there as without any doubt having been
found within the site of Wroxeter. We are of course no
longer able to interrogate the individual who found this curious
relic, but I know no reason whatever to doulDt the truth of
the statement. I give a cut of it here from Mr. Hartshorne's
drawing, with the caution, that the drawing
was made in outline, and I fear that the
rather high relief of the central part may be
ascribed in some degree to the imagination
of my engraver. It will be seen that it
presents the same form as the other bronze
daggers, the broad ribbed blade which pierced
the heart of the great Dictator.
, Our neighbourhood, at least, has furnished
us with further evidence of the Ptoman charac-
V * ter of these bronze implements. A great part
of the trade and manufactures of the middle
Bronze Dagger from ■ n i i n
Wroxeter. agcs was camcd on through a system oi
pedlars, who travelled about from place to place, carrying with
them articles of commerce, or materials and implements for
making them. It was one of the necessities of the condition
UEICONIUM. 299
of society, when intercommunication between different parts
of tlie country was slow and uncertain. Tliis was so strictly
the case, that, long after the invention of gunpowder, men
who were skilled in making it travelled about the country
from one great town to another, carrying mth them the
materials which could not be obtained locally, and the people
of the different towns, and all others who wanted the gun-
powder, awaited their arrival, with the commoner ingredi-
ents of it ready prepared. Any one who wdl examine the
local records of the town of Southampton will find sufficient
evidence of this practice in regard to gunpowder. This
medieeval custom, like so many of the other forms of medi-
aeval society, was no doubt derived directly from the Eomans ;
and, curiously enough, we find abundant traces of this practice
in relation to the bronze weapons and implements. They
consist in discoveries of deposits, usually of an earthen vessel
for melting bronze, of which there is sometimes a residuum at
the bottom, of moulds for casting, and generally of some frag-
ments of broken swords or other bronze implements, no doubt
intended as metal to be melted down, and of similar articles
entire, constituting stock-in-trade. These deposits are almost
always found near a Eoman road, or in the neighbourhood of
a Roman station, and we are therefore justified in considering
that they belonged to Eoman subjects, who had travelled as
manufacturers of these Ijronze implements along the Eoman
roads, and halted at those spots for personal or local reasons
which are unknown to us. Discoveries of such deposits
have been very numerous in Britain, Gaul, Switzerland, and
Germany.
The first example I will give of such discoveries was made in
the immediate neighbourhood of Uriconium. Some years ago,
one of such deposits was found near the foot of the Wrekin,
not far from the great Roman road known as the Watling-
Street ; it consisted of a quantity of bronze celts, some entire
and others broken. I believe that another similar discovery
300 URICONIUM.
was made near the remains of a Roman villa at Pontesford in
Shropshire, on the border of the great Eoman lead-mining
district. Other such deposits under similar circumstances have
been found in different parts of the island. One was found at
Sittingbourne, on the Kentish portion of the Watling-Street,
among which there were fragments of a bronze sword ; another,
consisting of bronze punches, chisels, and other implements,
with several pieces of unused metal, one of which was evi-
dently the residuum of the melting pot, at Attleborough in
Norfolk, on the Roman road between Thetford and Norwich;
another, again, consisting of sixty bronze chisels, &c., with a
portion of a bronze sword , and a piece of bronze which appeared
similarly to be the residue from melting, all contained in an
earthen ]3ot, at AVeston in Yorkshire, on the Roman road from
Old Malton, where there are the remains of a Roman town, to
York. It is unnecessary to adduce further examples, and I
can only imagine one fact that can be drawn from them. It
was the Roman itinerant manufacturers who made the bronze
weapons and bronze imj^lements of which there has been so
much talk.
So general was the use of bronze for the manufacture of
arms and armour among the Greeks and Romans in the earlier
times, that the person of the warrior, when he presented him-
self, was said poetically to glitter with bronze. This was called
in Greek (by Homer) auge chalkeie, a bronzy shine, and in
Latin lux aena, a bronzy light. Thus, in Virgil, when Pyrrhus
presents himself in full armour :
Vestibulum ante ipsum pvinioque in limine Pyrrlius
Exultat, telis et luce coruscus aena.
Virr/il. ^n. ii. 4G9.
Within the limits of our own border, too, has been found
an object connected with the accoutrement of the Roman
soldier of much greater rarity. This was a portion of the
lorica, the warrior's armour or mail. The earliest Roman
URICONIUM. 301
armour made of metal appears to have been scale mail,
the scales of which were formed of flexible bauds of steel.
This was the lorica squamata, of which a description is
given by the early glossator, Isidore of Seville, according to
whom it was "made of steel or bronze plates chained
together in the nianner of the scales of a fish, and receives
its name from the brightness as well as the resemblance of the
scales."* Some scales belonging to this description of armour
were found among the large deposit of articles of Eoman
manufacture in metal found at Hod HUl, in Dorsetshire, by
Mr. Burden, and are engraved in one of the plates to the
description of these antic[uities by my friend Mr. C. Eoach
Smith, in the sixth volume of his Cf)llectanea Antiqua.f
These scales were of bronze silvered, which must of course
have given them the brightness described by Isidore, and
they were fastened to each other by rings or hooks at the sides
and tops, in rows, the lower extremity of one row overlapping
the upper part of that beneath, thus resembling the scales of
fish, and the whole appears to have been originally sewed to
leather or linen. As IMr. Smith informs us, other examples of
this kind of armour have been found at Pompeii ; in the ruins
of the amphitheatre of Avenches in Swit-
zerland ; and, among antiquities of the
Eoman period, at Catteiick in Yorkshire,
the site of the Eoman station of Catar-
actonmm. My friend has also given at the
page quoted an engraving of three of the
squamcB found at Catterick, which I gladly ^°Tom''catteriS'°"
transfer hither.
Mr. Eoach Smith himself possessed in his museum several
collections of rings of brass, or bronze, which were found
* Squama est lorica ferrea ex laminis ferreis vel a^reis concatenata in modum squamarum
piscis et ex ipso splendore squamanua et simiJitudiiie nuncupata est. Iddori Origines, ed.
Colon, p. 158.
+ C. Eoach Smith, Collectanea Antiqva, vol. \i. pi. iii, and page 8 of the text.
302 URICONIUM.
among unquestionable Roman remains in excavations made in
Eastclieap at London, and which have evidently belonged to
armour. They were all in lengths made of four welded together
at the edges, and they seem, like the scales, to have been
made to be attached to leather or some other suljstance. Two
of these lengths are represented in the accom-
panying cut. Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick saw other
examples of Roman rings, exactly resembling
in character those just mentioned, in the col-
lection of Lord Prudhoe.
Those however to which I would more par-
ticularly^ call attention as having been found
on the Welsh border were in Sir Samuel
Meyrick's O'Wti collection. We gather from foom\o™on.'
the classical writers that the armour which seems to have
been most valued by the Romans, and probably, was most
fashionable, was chain-mail. These suits of armour were
called in Greek alysidotous thoracas, hauberks made of chains
or linked rings. They were worn especially by the Roman
hastati. According to Athenseus,* at the magnificent games
celebrated by King Antiochus at Daphne, the grand proces-
sion was led by men armed in the Roman fashion, in
breastplates of chain armour, all men in the flower of youth,
to the number of four thousand. Virgil more than once speaks
of mail as being formed of rings hooked or linked into one
another. Among the arms of Neoptolemus, Avere : —
Loricaui cousertam liamis auroque trilicem.
Virgil. JEn. lib. iii, /. 4G7.
Similarly, among the prizes given by iEneas at his games,
was : —
Levibus huio hamis consertam auroque trilicem
Lorioam.
^n. Ub. V, /. 259.
* AtJtenwi Deipnosojfldst . lib. v. c. 22.
URTCONIUM.
303
and so, on another occasion, in the Avar with Turnus, one of
the heroes : —
Hie galeam teoUs trepidus rapit ; ille fremeiites
Ad juga cogit equos, clypeumque auroque trilicem
Loricam iuduitur, fidoque accingitur enso.
yEii. lib. vii. I. 637.
In the earlier days of the British Archgeological Association,
Sir Samuel Meyrick exhibited at one of the meetings an object
which is represented, front and back, in the accompanying cuts,
Eoman Chain Armour found at
Kuardean ; front.
Roman Cliain Armour found at
Euardean ; back
and of which he gave the follo^ving account. * It was obtained
from the neighbourhood of Euardean, on the immediate border of
the counties of Hereford and Gloucester, and was said to have
been originally found in some church in that neighbourhood, but
this seemed to be rather an uncertain tradition of something
like thirty years old. It was made of steel ; and had fallen
into the possession of a rope-maker, who used it, by rubbing
violently up and down, to smooth down the little rough pro-
jections caused in the making of the rope, and Ijy this process
it had been considerably worn. Sir Samuel saw at once that
it had formed part of a suit of ring armour, but he imagined
it to be mediseval, and rather hastily assigned it to the
reign of Edward II. When, however, it was shown to
■ See the .Journal of the British Archseological Association, vol. i. p. 142.
304 URICOKIUM.
Mr. Roach Smith, he at once claimed it as Eoman, and pro-
duced evidence which convinced Sir Samuel himself that this
was correct. In fact, it agrees very well, as will be seen by
the cut, with the epithets applied to the lorica by VirgU.
Since that time (April, 1846), Mr. Eoach Smith has engraved
in one of the plates to the second volume of his Collectanea
Antiqua a fragment of chain armour of precisely the same
description, which he purchased with other antiquities at
Cologne, and which were afterwards deposited in the fine
museum of Lord Londesborough at Grimston Park in York-
shire. All the objects obtained by Mr. Eoach Smith on this
occasion were stated to have been found in an early Frankish
grave, or barrow, in the immediate neighbourhood of Cologne,
and they consisted of a mixture of objects, Frankish and
Eoman, which is generally the case m. the Frankish, and in
the early Anglo-Saxon graves. It was quite natural for a
Frankish chieftain to be in possession of a Eoman lorica.
305
CHAPTER VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS FOUND AT WROXETER.
It is not my intention to give a catalogue of the miscella-
neous objects found among the ruins of Uriconium, and
preserved in the Museum at Slirewsbury. It could only be a
very imperfect list, and "would be of little use in a volume like
the present, for we can easily understand how, in the tumultu-
ous plundering of a great city like Uriconium, a vast number of
miscellaneous objects of almost every description must have
been left scattered over the floors and in the streets, and how
every new step in advance in exploring the site adds to our
collection. In fact, we rarely make even a small excavation, if
of sufficient depth, within the circuit of the ancient walls,
without bringing to light some object of Eoman workmanship.
Of course, many of these are the ordinary implements of com-
mon use, such as knives, choppers, nails, &c., most of them of
rather common workmanship, resembling in forms the same
classes of objects foimd abundantly on other Eoman sites, and
not differing very greatly in their character from similar imple-
ments made in modern times. They are all interesting as
illustrative of the character of domestic and industrial life in
our island under Eoman rule, but some here and there are
of more especial interest as illustrating peculiarities of that
life with which we should not otherwise become acquainted.
Many of these have formed the subjects of the preceding chap-
ters ; and I will now only notice a few of thou which did not
u
306 URICONIUM.
appear to come very easily under any other general head than
that of miscellaneous.
One of the first classes of objects which here attracts our
attention comprises those connected with the trades and
manufactures of the Roman period. These have to us a spe-
cial interest, because there can be no doubt that we derive
from the Romans our system of trades, the general character of
our older commerce, and especially our trade corporations. In
regard to many of these objects, the persistence with which
their forms are traced as continuing through so many centuries
is very remarkable. We may quote as an example the imple-
ments used for weighing, all which we appear to derive from
the Romans. The common balance, or scales, (libra or hilanx),
was we know in common use among the Romans, as it is
mentioned by their writers, and frequently pictured on monu-
ments, but it is not commonly found among Roman monu-
ments, and especially in excavations in this country. However,
it is found in the Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period,
and in these cases its Roman character is proved by the skill
and delicacy displayed in its construction. When found in
the grave, Roman or Anglo-Saxon, it appears usually to have
belonged to a dealer in money, or in ingredients for medicine,
or in some objects more or less precious, and is of diminutive
form. It is not the implement for weighing used in ordinary
trade, This was the statera, or trutina, which is called in
English of the present day a steelyard. The steelyard con-
sists, as every reader knows, of a beam of metal, suspended
on a pivot near its one end, to the short arm of which the
object to be weighed is suspended, while the longer arm is
graduated to fractional parts of a pound, and has suspended
upon it a constant weight. The form of the Roman statera
is exactly similar to this, and both the beam and the weight,
separately, are frequently found on Roman sites. One of the
lieams, which closely resemble each other, has been found
UEICONIUM.
307
at Wroxeter, and may be seen in the Museum at Shrewsbury.
It is notcbed and half-notched, with further fractional divisions
marked on it. Two others, rather more perfect, were found
at Eichborough, (the Eoman Rutupice), so carefully excavated
some years ago under the care of Mr. Eoach Smith and his
friend IMr. Eolfe of Sand\vich, and are figured in Mr. Eoach
Smith's volume, " The Antiquities of Eichborough, Eeculver,
and Lymne," from which I have borrowed them in the accom-
panying cut.'"
Boman Steelyards, from Eichborough.
The origin of the modern English word steelyard appears
to be very uncertain, and it is perhaps a mere corruption.
We have no direct indication of the existence of this form of
balance under the Anglo-Saxons, and it was probably known
chiefly among the traders in the towns. There existed in the
city of London from an unknown period down to the sixteenth
century a trade corporation of considerable importance known
as the Merchants of the Steelyard, who were perhaps derived
from Eoman Londinium. The French have preserved the
tradition of the Eoman origin of the steelyard down to the
present day by the name it has borne in French from an early
period of a romaine. It was also called in the French of the
* It may be well to remark that, by a mistake of the ai-tist, the upper example is here
draiTO the wrong way upward.
308 URICONIUM.
days of old Cotgrave the lexicographer, that is in the time of
our James I. and Charles I., a crochet, under which word
Cotgrave explains it in his Dictionary in English as " a
Romane beame, or stelleere." This latter word is perhaps the
old form of our modern word steelyard.
There was one characteristic of the Roman steelyard which
is especially entitled to our notice. The weight suspended to
it was remarkable for the artistic elegance of its forms. The
weight to the Roman steelyard from Richborough given
above is of a less ornamental character than usual ; but
it was often formed into the heads of animals, such as a dog,
or a lion, or of birds, as in two given in Mr. Roach Smith's Anti-
c^uities of Richborough representing a cock and a goose, or into
busts of nymphs or divinities, or ot Roman emperors and other
historical personages, all executed in a very good style of
art. Two examples given in my book, " The Celt, the Roman,
and the Saxon," represent one, an ordinary female bust, the
other, a bust of the goddess Diana. I am enabled to give
two other good examples of these Roman steelyard weights
found on Roman sites in England. The first is in the form
of a male bust, which was found at Silchester in Hampshire,
Eoman Steelyard
Weiglit, found ut
Silchester.
Eoman Steelyard
Weight from Essex.
within the walls of the Roman city of Calleva. It was exhibited
before the British Archteological Association in 1845 by Mr.
TJRICONIUM. 309
Fairholt. The other is also a bust, perhaps of a Roman
senator, found in the Essex marshes near Grayes, where other
Eoman remains have been met with, and which was also
exhibited by its possessor to the British Archgeological Associ-
ation. I am not aware that any of the weights of the
steelyard have yet been found at Wroxeter.
AVe have hitherto been occupied mainly in exploring the
buildings of Uriconium which were more or less of a public
character ; but as the excavations proceed over the sites of the
domestic buildings of the ancient city — among the citizens —
the number and variety of objects of a miscellaneous cha-
racter will no doubt increase rapidly, and our knowledge of
social life in Roman Britain will be proportionally enlarged.
Among the articles abeady assembled in the Museum at
Shrewsbury, are a considerable variety of knives, choppers,
and other ciitting instruments. Several axes and picks present
forms not unlike those of modern times. One or two present
the appearance of gardening tools. Nads were found also in
abundance, and the Museum contams one hammer, which is of
a cylindrical form, and, curiously enough, is made of lead.
One of the nails in the Museum is made of bronze. Of course
the district bordering upon Uriconium is the country of lead,
and we need not be surprised at finding that metal in common
use here, which is not usual on other Roman sites. Among
leaden implements in the Museum will be seen a little bowl,
or cup, about three inches in diameter, and of not inelegant
form. Another metal, of very rare occurrence among early
remains, whether Roman or other, has been found here. It
is a handle, seven inches in length, perhaps of a culinary
vessel, made of block tin, a
fragment of the vessel to
which it belonged remaining
attached to it. It is represen-
ted in our cut. The other
HifiuUe of Block Tin, from ^Vl■oxttez■.
310 tPJOONIUM.
cut represents an implement found at Wroxeter years ago,
Avhich was in the private possession of some person in the
neighbourhood of Wroxeter.
The drawing of it was given
to me by the late Eev. C. H.
Hartshorne ; the engraver to
whom I entrasted it, lost the g^^^^ topl^ent from wroxeter.
di'awing on which the in-
scription was written, but, to the best of my recollection, it
was of large dimensions, and made of stone. Stone, as a
material, appears to have been used for many purposes in
ancient Uriconium. Among the objects in the Museum we
have a stone handle of a knife.
Another material, used very extensively, was bone. It was
a material wliich was, as may be supposed, in very common
use among the Eomans, in aU parts of the world, and it
will be rememljered that in the market-place of Uriconium
we found in one of the chambers a depot of animal bones
under circumstances which seemed to show that they were
materials for sale.'"' Eoman needles made of bone have been
fouud at Wroxeter, and may be seen in the Museum ; and
among other objects is a very curious bone handle, apparently
of a sword.
Among the domestic utensils more frequently found on
Eoman sites are the spoon, which appears under two forms, —
one large bowled, the cochlear of the Eomans, and the small deli-
cately formed spoon which was called a ligula. The handle of
the former usually ended in a point, which appears to have
been commonly used for picking periwinkles, or snails, out of
their shells, for we know that the Eomans were passionately
fond of these delicacies. Martial's epigram on the cochlear is
well known, in which he speaks of its double use for picking
* See before, page 191.
DEICONIUM.
311
out periwinkles with one end, and for ecating eggs with
the other :
Sum cochleis habilis, sed nee minus utilis ovis,
Numquid scis potius cur coclileare vocer 1
Martial, Lib. xvi. ep. 121.
The ligula was a much smaller and more dehcate form of
spoon, which is supposed to have been used for taking omt-
ment and other similar objects from the long-necked bottles.
Two o-ood examples of Eoman ligulce, found at the Eoman
station of Richborough, near Sandwich, are represented in
the accompanying cut. The spoons of both descriptions
=31t=3aat=lKt
JTH
Roman Ligulse and Stylus, from Eicliborougli.
have been found at Wroxeter, and may be seen in the
Museum, but the UgulcB are not quite so good as those here
given.
The object between the two ligulcB in the preceding cut,
which is usually made of l^ronze, and of which more than
one example has been founid in Wroxeter, introduces us to
another phase of social life. It is the Roman stylus. People
in general among the Romans, all except those who were
professed scribes, did not use pen and ink in writing,
but wrote upon tablets (tabulce), upon which was laid a
layer of wax, with an implement usually made of bronze,
one end of which finished in a sharp point, while the other
spread out into a flat broad shape as here represented. This
was called a stylus, a name which holds a rather remarkaljle
place not only in literary but even in political histoiy. This
312 URIDONIUM.
stylus, or, as it was called by another name, grapMum, when
of tolerable size, is a sufficiently formidable weapon, and
when Julius Caesar \^'as attacked by the conspirators, he
had one of them in his hand, and it was with it that he
wounded Cassius before he was assassinated. It is from the
name of this instrument that we use the expression of style
in ■writing. Styli of bronze and iron have been found at
Wroxeter, so that they were no doubt in generaluse among the
inhabitants of Uriconium. The mode of literary correspond-
ence at that perio'd was as follows : An individual wrote his
letter on the waxen tablet with the pointed end of his stylus,
and sent it closed up to his correspondent ; the latter read it,
erased it, smoothed the wax with the broad end of the stylus,
and then wrote his answer on the same wax, closed it, and
returned it by the same bearer.
Among other miscellaneous objects fou.nd on the site of
Uriconium, we may notice a horse's bit and a spur. Both are
of bronze, but they present no very striking peculiarity. The
latter is, like all the early spurs, a prick-spur, with rather a
short prick. The rowel-spur is a comparatively modern
invention. In the neighbourhood of the market were also
found the remains of a chariot, which are deposited in the
Museum. These consist of the iron tire of a wheel, three feet
three inches in diameter, and an inch and a half in breadth,
and of two iron hoops, which appear to have belonged to the
nave of the same wheel.
In the same neighbourhood was obtained another object of
some curiosity. In one of the walled recesses on the eastern
side of the market place, which had been conjectured to have
formed shops, a small round box of iron was picked up, with
a flat lid, but it had become hermetically sealed by the
decomposition of the metal The lid, however, has been sawed
off, and it appeared to have contained some description of un-
guent, but it was no longer possible to discover of what it
URICONIUM. '" -_ 313
' was composed. "We may also mention, among other miscel-
laneous objects, a small leaden figure of a cock, which is
supposed to have been a child's toy ; and a number of roun-
dels, formed chiefly out of the bottoms of earthenware vessels,
which seem to have been used for some game. We often
find, on Koman sites, traces of the love of the Romano-Britons
for gambling. The larger examples are about an inch and a
half in diameter, but others are smaller, and the last especially
arc often made of bone, and have holes in the centre, whence
they are supposed to have served for buttons.
We will now tmm to another class of objects, many of
which have been found on the site of Uriconium, but they
are unfortunately of a character which causes them to be
eagerly picked up and carried away, and their local interest
is forgotten in their more or less value as works of art. I
mean the cameos and intaglios.
The art of engraving on precious stones, or glyptography,
as it is usually termed, appears to have been practised at a
very early period among the Egyptians ; but it was carried to
its greatest perfection by the Greeks and Eomans. Among
the latter people especially such engraved stones were in
very common use, and great importance appears to have been
attached to them : and this fashion extended through the
empire into its most distant provinces. Pliny speaks of the
love of precious stones as being in his time a "universal
passion." Besides their extreme beauty, and that value which
is always conferred by rarity and great dearness, these pre-
cious stones were the objects also of superstitious feelino-s ;
for people were rather naturally led to beheve that objects
in which nature had crowded so much beauty and value in
^so small a space, must also possess hidden virtues which
were not shared by ordinary objects. By working upon this
first idea, they began to associate special quahties with the
particular colour, or shape, or degree of brilliancy, of the stone
314 URICONIUM.
itself. Thus the possession of one stone gave the wearer
fortitude and courage, another preserved him from danger, a
third gave him health, a fourth might ensure fidehty in his
engagements. People sought to increase the force of these
various virtues by engraving upon them figures and subjects
which they imagined to have some mysterious relationship
with those qualities, under circumstances favourable to their
development. Thus the figm-e of Mars engraved on a par-
ticular stone, and commenced at an hour of the day when
the heavens were in a particular astrological position, was
supposed to ensure to the wearer victory in battle. It was
from such feehngs, apparently, that the art of glyptics took
its rise.
It was thus, too, that these engraved gems came into use
as signets, and were set in rings for the convenience of
carrying them on the fingers. A letter or other object,
sealed ^Adth an engraved stone, was believed to derive from
that circumstance a certain character of authority and sacred-
ness which it would not otherwise possess. Moreover, par-
ticular rings became characteristic of particular persons, and
were used as tokens in which entire trust might be placed,
in confidential communications. The personal history of the
ring, indeed, would be a very curious one, and the materials
for it are abundant. It was a common belief that the great
powers possessed by remarkable individuals in eloquence,
in influencing people's minds, in commanding fortune, in
conciliating love, and even in ruling over the hidden powers
of the spiritual world, were contained in a ring. According
to the eastern and mediaeval stories, it was a magical ring
which gave Solomon power over the demons and genii. One
day, when Solomon laid down his ring to enter his bath, it
was carried away by an evil l^eing, who threw it into the
sea. The wise king overcome with grief at the loss of his
power over the supernatural world, made a vow never to
UEICONIUM. 315
sit again upon his throne until he had reaovered his ring ;
and at the end of forty days, on opening a large fish which
was served at the royal table, the precious jewel was found
in its beUy. This story is similar to that told by the
ancients of Polycrates of Samos, who, alarmed by his long
run of uniform good fortune, lest it might be followed by
some great and disastrous change, sought to appease the
fickle goddess by subjecting himself to voluntary loss ; and,
with this view, he threw away into the sea his ring, in which
was a precious stone which he looked upon as one of the
most valuable of his treasures. The ring was immediately
swallowed by a large fish, which was soon afterwards caught;
and, being purchased for the table of Polycrates, the ring
was found in its belly, and restored to its right owner.
The ring, with its engraved stone, sometimes possessed the
power of rendering its owner invisible at wiU. Such was
the ring of Gyges the Lydian, which he employed to gain
secret access to the queen of Candaules, and seduce her affec-
tions, — an intrigue, the result of which Avas the murder of
Candaules, and the elevation of Gyges to his throne.
But to return to the more authentic stories of the use of
engraved stones, Pliny (lib. xxxvii, cap. 3) tells us that
king Pyrrhus possessed an agate on which was engxaved
by nature the figure of Apollo and the Nine Muses. The
same writer records the subjects of some of the engraved
stones possessed by men of celebrity. The dictator SyUa
used for his signet a stone on which was represented the
surrender of Jugurtha. The emperor Augustus was in the
habit first of using the figure of a Sphinx for his signet, one
of two engraved stones presenting the same subject which
he found among his mother's jewels. As this device gave
rise to jokes on the enigmatical language in which he used
to write, Augustus subsequently abandoned the sphinx, and
adopted as his signet a stone engraved with the head of
316 TJRICONIUM.
Alexander the Great. A frog was engraved on the signet
of his minister, Maecenas. AVealthy individuals began soon
to make collections of engraved stones; and, at a very early
period in the history of the empire, it was a subject of
great pride at Eome to possess a well-stocked dactyliotheca.
The eagerness for the possession of engraved stones, and
the value set upon them, seemed to increase as the empire
declined ; and they were no less highly prized by the bar-
barians who settled upon its ruins, and who considered
them as a valuable part of their plunder. The art, too,
was continued, although in a very debased state. As we
have seen, in the earlier period, the engraved stones pos-
sessed two distinct values : one for their extreme beauty, for
they belonged to the highest class of ancient art, and were
executed by men celebrated for their talent ; the other, on
account of their supposed occult qualities. The first of these
qualities was gradually neglected and lost ; while people set
so much increasing importance on the latter quality, that
they were satisfied if the figures were only sufficiently Avell
drawn to indicate what they meant. The engraved stones
executed in the later times of the Eoman empire, were
almost entirely amulets and talismans, the works of astro-
logers and magicians. The art had, indeed, descended so low
that, shortly afterwards, when the empire had sunk into
mediaeval Europe, the beautiful intaglios dug up so fre-
quently upon ancient sites seemed so extraordinary and
inexplicable, that people believed that they were not the
work of human hands, and invented all sorts of singular
interpretations for them. In this all were agreed, that they
were endowed with powerful and mysterious virtues, and
they tried to discover these virtues through conjectural in-
terpretations of the figures. According to these interpreta-
tions, many of them acted as powerful cures for diseases ;
others gave courage and success in battle ; others again
URICONIUM.
317
protected from evil influences ; and the rest were similarly in
possession of other beneficent quahties. The monks and other
ecclesiastics of the middle ages, believing in all these quali-
ties, collected diligently the ancient intaglios which the
plough or spade frequently turned up on Eoman sites ; and
many of the. monastic treasuries became thus enriched with
beautiful specimens of this art, which have since become
the pride of modem museums. And they must at one time
have been in very common use even in this distant pro-
vince of Roman Britain, from the frequency with which they .
are stiU found in excavations among Roman remains in all
parts of the island, but they have been generally carried
away and lost sight of The example given in
the accompanying cut was found some years
ago at Caerleon, and was exhibited before the
British Archfeological Association. It thus belongs
to our border, but whither it has passed at pre-
sent I am not able to say. It represents Venus intagUo found
Victrix, and no doubt was believed to possess
its "virtues." No doubt, considerable numbers of intagUos
have in past times been found on the site of Eoman Uriconium,
which were thus carried away and soon lost all connection mth
the locality whence they were derived. I had collected in the
accompanying plate aU those which I was able to assure
myself were kno^vn as found at Wroxeter. They are not
numerous, but they are of very different styles of workman-
ship, and belong evidently to several periods of the history
of glyptic art.
The first example given in the plate, fig. 1, which was
found in 1840, is in the possession of W. H. Oatley, Esq., of
Wroxeter. It is engraved on a black stone, with a vem of
pure white upon its face, and the cutting shows up a black
figure. The workmanship is rather inferior.
Fig 2 is also of inferior workmanship, and both probably
are works of rather a late period. It is engraved on a bright
318 URicomuM.
red stone, and is here given from an impression in wax ; but
I am not aware in whose possession the original is now to
be found.
Fig 3. This is the first engraved stone we found in the
course of our present excavations. It is very diminutive,
but not ill executed, and the subject is full of fancy and
imagination : it represents a fawn springing out of a nautilus
shell. The nautilus was a favourite emblem among the anci-
ents, and occurs not unfrequently in intaglios. A rather
curious circumstance connected with this stone is, that it is
set in a small ring of iron, which is not a metal frequently
used for such a purpose ; but I think that I have read some-
where, in the mystical directions on this subject, that the
magical virtues of some stones are strengthened by setting
them in iron rings. This intaglio with its ring, as found,
may now be seen in the Museum of Wroxeter Antiquities in
Shrewsbury.
Fig. 4 belonged formerly, with one or two other intaglios, to
the Rev. W. G. Rowland, of Shrewsbury, and a drawing of it had
Ijeen preserved by Mr. Farmer Dukes, the well-known Shrews-
bury antiquary. Mr. Rowland's collection was dispersed after
his death, and it was not known where they were preserved ;
but some time ago. Dr. Kendrick, of Warrington, kindly sent
me an impression in gutta percha of this identical seal, as still
existing in a private collection, and from this impression it is
here engraved. It represents a huntsman on horseback flying
from the pursuit of a lion, and is perhaps the best, certainly
the most spirited, of them all in artistic execution.
Fig. 5 is a small figure of a bacchante^ carrying a thirsus
over her shoulder.
Fig. 6, as AveU as the next, is only known to me through a
drawing by Mr. Farmer Dukes, from which they are engraved
in a plate in a volume of the Transactioiis of the Gloucester
Congress of the British Archaeological Association. It repre-
sents the hippocampus, or sea-horse, an imaginary animal, of
URICONIDM. ■ aw
frequent occurrence on Eoman monuments of all kinds and in
all parts. It is by no means an unusual figure on Eoman
monuments found in our island.
Fig. 7. This also is rather a favourite idea among the
playful subjects on Eoman works of art. One Cupid, having
placed an enormous tragic mask over his head or shoulders,
is trjT.ng in this disguise to frighten a fellow Cupid, who
appears to be somewhat taken by surprise. In an intaglio in
one of the continental collections, in which the same subject
is treated a little differently, the second Cupid is so frightened
that he is falling over on his back.
We see at one glance that these intaglios, though few in
number, are not only very diverse in subjects, but that they
belong to different and distinct styles of art. They present
no examples either of the best style of glyptic art, or of the
worst ; but they fairly represent, as far as they go, the history
of that art as it was known in Eoman Britain. Examples
have been found in our island much superior to any of these,
and many have been met with much inferior to them. When
we consider the variety of such monuments found in Britain,
and the numbers, — not forgetting that the mere fact of so
many being found amounts to a proof that they were in very
common use, — it leads us naturally to raise the question. Was
the glyptic art itself established in this distant province ? It
would require more space than I have now at my disposal to
discuss this question as it ought to be discussed ; but I am
inclined to answer it in the afiirmative, and to avow my belief
that glyptography was practised in Eoman Britain ; as, indeed,
were nearly aU the arts and manufactures of the Eomans. At
first, no doubt, the conquerors of the island, and their com-
panions and followers, brought with them the beautiful intag-
lios of their native country ; and they, no doubt, continued to
be imported into Britain. But examples of such fine Italian
work are certainly of rare occurrence ; and there is a certain
;}20 UEICONIUM.
character stamped ou most of the engraved stones we find
here, which seems to mark them as belonging to provincial
art. If this were the case, the interest of these relics would
be much increased, as we might read in them the history of
one branch of Eoman art as it was transplanted to Britain ;
and some of the examples which are found hei'e are so
extremely rude in design and execution, that we may conclude
the art was practised in our island down to a very late period.
Another class of small objects of art found commonly on
Roman sites are the statuettes in bronze, with which the Eoman
house, in our island, as elsewhere, was evidently well furnished.
Many of them represent the lares, or household gods, which
possessed many of the characteristics of the different classes of
fairies of more modern superstition, and w^hose favour all
sought to conciliate, and for this purpose they distributed
their figures in conspicuous places in different parts of the
house. Others are figures of the various deities of the
ancient mythology, which were perhaps placed in positions
of the house where the passer by might pay his reverence
to them, and at the same time they served for ornament.
Others of the smaller bronze images were, we can hardly
doubt, children's toys. These statuettes, when found in exca-
vations, are even more than the intaglios liable to be carried
away and dispersed, and as this is not usually done openly,
the articles are not easily traced or with any certainty, and
dishonest dealers pass bronzes as coming from this or that
locality merely to give them a price. Frequently bronze statu-
ettes have been shewn to me which were stated to have come
from Wroxeter, w'ithout the least evidence that that was the
case. Many, no doubt, have been found there, but two only
are preserved in the Museum at Shrewsbury, one a figure
of Venus, representing in attitude the Venus de Medici, the
other a Mercury. Mr. Oatley, of Wroxeter, possesses a
partially mutilated bronze statuette of Diana.
URICONIUM. 32 i
I will speak briefly of another class of remains wliich occur
in great abundance over every part of the site of the Eoman
city, to a degree, indeed, which is not easily explained. These
are the bones of animals, which no doubt had been eaten.
A large heap of these bones has been collected on the field of our
inclosure at Wroxeter, and a few selected examples are depos-
ited in the Museum ; and it is very desirable that they should
all be carefully examined l)y a skilful and experienced physiolo-
gist. Such an examination would throw hght on the character
of the table of the Komano-Briton, which was evidently well
furnished -with great variety of dishes. The people of Uri-
conium were no doubt much given to hunting, and we find
in abundance the bones of all kinds of game, both birds
and quadrupeds. Among the latter are bones of the roe,
the red deer (Cervus elephas), and fragments of the horn of
a species allied to the elk of Ireland {Strongylocerus spelceus).
Nor did the chase stop here, for there have been found
numerous remains of the wild boar, and I believe also
some of the wolf. Among the skulls of the dog, one be-
longs to a dog of the mastiJf kind, which is considered to
be a species now unknown. Extinct species of some other
animals are said to be indicated by the bones found here.
Among these are crania of the Bos longifrons, one of Avhich,
now in the Museum, bears on its spacious forehead the mark
of the blow of the butcher's axe by which it was slaughtered.
Bones of another species of ox are found which is said not
to be now known, and I am told that there are indications
of an extinct species of the sheep. We find here also indi-
cations of the extreme love of the Romans for sheU-fisli,
which extended even to snails. The shells of oysters, mus-
sels, cockles, periwinkles, and whilks, are common. Another
of the animal remains found here is curiously characteristic.
In the course of the excavations it has Ijeen not at all an
uncommon occurrence to meet with the legs of the fighting
322 UEICONIUM.
cock, which are generally furnished with very large natural
spurs. Several examples may be seen in the Museum. The
citizens of Uriconium must have been great lovers of cock-
fighting, which indeed is known to have been a favourite
sport among the Romans.
From the bones of animals we may turn to those of the
human race, which present many points of equal interest.
Independently of the regular interments in the Eoman
cemeteries of Uriconium, human remains are found scat-
tered here and there among the ruins of the city. The
state of these ruins, and all the circumstances connected
with them, prove beyond doubt that Uriconium was taken
by some of the barbarians who assisted in tearing to pieces
the enfeebled body of the Roman empire, that a frightful
massacre of the inhabitants followed its capture, and that the
plunderers set fire to it before they abandoned it. It was
found, as stated before, in excavating the extensive mass
of buildings in the middle of the city, consisting chiefly of
the basilica and the public baths, that many of the terrified
inhabitants, pursued by the barbarians, when they were masters
of the city, had evidently sought refuge in these build-
ings, which were full of hypocausts, and other places difficult
of access, and not very likely to be explored even by the
victorious savages, almost as eager of blood as of plunder.
In what appeared to be an entrance court of the baths, one
or two skeletons of men were found where they had evidently
been overtaken by their pursuers and slain. In the corner of
the same court the skuU and some of the bones of an infant
of the age when children are carried in the arms, was found
under circumstances which would lead us to imagine that its
mother had been perhaps overtaken in the room above, at
the top of a staircase which, now uncovered, still leads down
to the hypocausts, whither she was probably flying to conceal
herself, and her child snatched from her, murdered, and tossed
IDEICONIUM. 323
out through a window into the yard. In one of the hypo-
causts, which had been approached from the large inner court
of the baths, three skeletons were found near together, under
rather curious circumstances. In another hypocaust, to the
eastward of that containing these three skeletons, another
skeleton was found, which shows that in the midst of the terror
with which the population of Uriconium was overwhelmed
in this terrible moment, there was a general impulse to seek
concealment in the hypocausts. Other bodies, including more
than one child, were found in different parts of the ruins,
and in the supposed market place were found the remains
of six dogs, which appeared also to have been massacred
by the merciless invaders of the town.
Of these numerous victims, the bones, and especially the
skulls, were generally so much broken and decayed that
very few of the latter could be preserved and deposited in
the Wroxeter Museum, at Shrewsbury. To judge, however
from the small number of examples which admitted of examin-
ation, they presented no peculiarities which might not be
found in any civUized town, and nobody who has examined
the remains of Eoman Uriconium which have been brought
to light, win doubt that it was a town in a high state of
civilization. The skull of the old man, found in the hypo-
caust, was remarkably weU formed.
But we now come to the most remarkable, if not the most
important, part of this subject. At a corner where what is
now called the Watling Street road, or at least a branch from
it, turned down to the river Severn, and crossed it by a
ford, is a large open field extending on a level to the
edge of the high bank, or cliff, which overlooks the Severn.
In the course of trenching this field for the purpose of
ascertaining if there were remains of buildings under it,
we found, not far from the turn of the AVatling Street
road, a series of regular interments )l human bodies. The
32i URIC'ONIUM.
ground is an orchard planted with a few fruit trees, and
covered with grass. The bodies were laid on their backs,
stretched out, with their arms extended by their sides, or in
one or tM'o cases, one arm bent across the body, and parallel
to each other east and west, but without indications which
would lead us to conjecture the age to which they belong. Of
five skulls first taken up, four were singularly and uniformly
deformed, having an unnatural twist which causes one eye to
advance before the other, and gives an obliquity to the face.
Further trenching of the ground brought to light ten other
skuUs, three of which presented the same deformity, while
three were not deformed, and the other four were in too
imperfect a condition to be satisfactorily examined, though
some of the fragments seemed to have belonged to similarly
deformed skulls. Thus, out of eleven skulls which could be
examined, seven presented the same remarkable deformity,
with this only difi"erence, that in one or two instances the
twist is in the contrary direction from that in the others.
There has arisen a difference of opinion on the subject of these
skulls, whether the deformity existed before death, or whether
it has arisen from posthumous causes ; and the question does
not appear yet to have been satisfactorily, or at all events
finally decided. It is not my intention to enter into it anv
further than to state one or two facts relating to the circum-
stances under which the skulls were found, which wUl require
to be attended to in any physiological discussion.
The field in which they lay is within the limits of the town,
on a height above the river, and near a probable entrance to
the town, but where I believe the river itself was the only
defence. As it struck me, at first sight, that the deformity
might have been produced artificially in infancy by the
pressure of two boards, and as Ave know that some of the
barbarians, the Huns for example, did produce such defor-
mity in their children, I thought that these might possibly
UKICONIUM. 325
tave been the remains of some of the attacking party, who
had been slain on this spat, and who had been buried by their
companions before they left ; for it appears to have been an
open place without any buildings. But this was a mere hasty
conjecture, which I am not at all inclined to sustain. On the
contrary, I am now disposed to suspect that these bodies
belong to a later period than was at first supposed. The soil
in which they are interred was mixed, both above them and
below, with Roman debris, which could only be the case in
earth which had been formed upon the surface of the Roman
level, and this formation would have required a considerable
period of time. At the date of the destruction of the town,
these bodies, which w^ere when discovered only from about
a foot to eighteen inches below the surface, would have
been above ground. Moreover, there is a very suspicious
proximity to the modern churchyard, from which this field is
only separated by a road. At the same time, it must be
remarked that this road is the Watling Street road, and that
it must therefore have been older than the period at which
these bodies were iaterred.
My friend Dr. Henry Johnson, in a very able paper read
before the Royal Society, has endeavoured to show that
there are chemical elements in the earth in which these remains
lay, which might have so far affected the substance of the bone
as to render it pliable and capable of being thus deformed
after deatL But, supposing this to be the case, we seem to
want entirely the mechanical causes of deformation. They
were not buried sufficiently deep to have a weight of earth
upon them — in fact, when buried, their graves must have been
very shallow ; no weight of buildings or of ruins has lain upon
them, but, on the contrary, from the quantity of small fibres
of roots which are mixed with the earth, I suspect that during
the middle ages the place had been covered with low brush-
wood, which, indeed, was generally the case with deserted ruins.
326 UEICONTUM.
Again, we can hardly understand why such a cause affecting
bones in this field, should not equally affect the skulls of the
bodies interred in the adjacent churchyard, or why all the
deformed skuUs in this field should have the same deformity,
or why the other bones of the body should not be similarly
affected. The skulls of the Eoman inhabitants, which are
found with a great weight of ruins over them, have, in no
instance yet observed, undergone any similar deformity. It
must be added that the few skulls not deformed which were
found among these deformed skulls in the orchard, are compa-
ratively good types of skulls, and that one is well developed
and finely formed. It is perhaps to be desired, as calculated
to throw further Light on the real history of these skulls, that
the whole of the ground should be carefully explored by
trenching.
327
CHAPTER IX.
COINS FOUND AT WEOXETER.
It is a frequent subject of wonder why, whenever we dig
upon a Eoman site, we almost invariably find the Eoman
money scattered about everywhere. This is eminently the
case at Wroseter, where, for centuries the Roman coins
have been picked up in abundance by the peasantry, who
gave them the local name of dinders, which represents the
Anglo-Norman denier, and the Latin denarius. The word
itself is a proof of the length of time during which it
has been customary to pick up the Eoman coins here, for
no doubt it was derived from the Anglo-Norman language,
when that language was commonly talked on our border.
In many parts of England the peasantry were so surprised
at finding the Roman coins thus scattered about, that it
became a part of their superstitions, and they called them
fairy money. At the first glance, indeed, one is almost led
to suppose that, before the Romans left the place, they
amused themselves with throwing their money about. A little
reflection, however, will perhaps enable us to explain this
circumstance without much difficulty.
The Romans had nothing like our system of banks for the
deposit of their money, and they were obhged to keep it at
home. The usual receptacle for it was an ordinary earthen
vessel, more or less capacious, according to the quantity it was
required to hold. So much of the money as was not in use
appears to have been generally concealed by burying the
328 URICONIDM.
vessel a little depth under the ground, either within the house,
or in its court. The owners probably sometimes died far away
from home, and their treasures were forgotten, or they were
obliged to leave under circumstances which prevented them
from carrying them away. In the course of ages, during the
various operations of agriculture, the earthen vessels have been
broken, and the money spread widely tlirough the ground.
Again, the barbarians who overran the Roman provinces were
generally unacquainted with the use of money, and when they
plundered a town, or a viUa in the country, they probably
placed no value on the coins, unless they were made of the
precious metals which they knew how to appreciate, and they
threw them away in order to load themselves with other objects
which seemed to them more useful. Most of the coins picked
up under the circumstances of which I am speaking are of
copper or brass.
Vessels of earthenware — crocks, as the country people call
them, — such as those just mentioned, filled with Roman coins,
are frequently found in different parts of our island, so that the
practice of burying them must have been very general. Such
discoveries had already attracted the attention of our Anglo-
Saxon forefathers, and given rise apparently to theories and
conjectures ; for whoever wrote this part of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle tells us, under the year 418, "In tlais year the
Romans collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and
hid some in the earlb, that no man might afterwards find
them, and conveyed some mth them into Gaul." Yet, at the
time when this paragraph was written, the practice of deposit-
ing money by burial in the ground can have been no novelty,
for it was continued during the middle ages, and we actually
find, by his own Diary, worthy Samuel Pepys, in the reign
of Charles II., laying by his money in the same manner by
burying it in his garden in London. A singular example of
the practice occurred in Ireland in the earlier part of the
URICONIUM. 329
fourteenth century, and became the cause of family troubles
of a rather remarkable character. At the beginning of that
century there lived at Kilkenny a rich usurer named William
Outlaw, who had received in deposit from one Adam le Blond
a sum of money to the amount of three thousand pounds,
which with a hundred pounds of his own he buried in the
ground within his house as in a place of safety ; but
WUUam Kiteler, sheriff of Kilkenny, a relative of Outlaw's
wife, Alice Kiteler, went with force one night, entereil the
house, dug up the money, and carried it all away. When
the Outlaws took proceedings for the recovery of their pro-
perty, the plunderers set up the plea that it was treasure trove^
as it was found buried under the ground, and that it belonged
to the king. The affair led to a series of strange proceedings,
which show the turbulent and lawless condition of Ireland
under the first of the Edwards, and finally developed itself into
a grave charge of sorcery against Alice Kiteler. '^^
Crocks of coins, which have been thus buried, have been
found at Wroxeter, and the last discovery of this class occurred
under circumstances curiously illustrative of popular sentiments.
Such crocks appear also to have been used as common recept-
acles for money in the house. The coins found at the entrance
to what we have called the enameller's shop appeared to
have been carried in a small earthen vessel, the fragments of
which were found near them. The coins found near the skele-
ton of the old man in the hypocaust had been contained in a
small box or coffer of wood. However, there were other ways
of carrying money in the house, or perhaps out of the house
the evidence of one of which has been found in the course
of our excavations. This was a curious skiff-shaped vessel,
with a circular handle, resembling a basket, made of bronze,
which might, from its appearance, have been intended to be
* I edited the records of these extraordinaiy proceedings years ago in a volume for the
Camden Society, and a full account of the prosecution for mtchcraft wUl be found in my
" Stories of Sorcery and Magic," vol. i. p. 25.
330 URIOONIUM.
carried by a lady in her hand, or suspended to her arm. The
basket part had a lid, fastened by a small flat bolt, and
when found it is said to have contained some coins. A
vessel exactly similar", filled with Eoman coins, was found
concealed in a cleft in the rock, in an ancient quarry near
Thorngrafton in Northumberland, in the year 1837, and both
the coins and their receptacle are engraved by Dr. Colling-
wood Bruce in his excellent work on " The Eoman Wall."
I am afraid no note was made of the coins found in the little
basket at Wroxeter, but those in the Thorngrafton vessel were
of gold and silver, the latest of which was of the emperor
Hadrian. We may perhaps, therefore, conclude, that this was
the sort of receptacle in which the Eoman ladies carried their
money in the earlier half of the second century after Christ.
Instances occur from time to time of much more curious recept-
acles for the preserving of Eoman coins. John Leland tells of
the discovery by a shepherd in his time of the shank-bone of
a horse, the mouth closed with a peg, which was filled with
Eoman silver coins ; and in much more recent times, a shepherd
boy found, in the neighbourhood of High Wycombe in Buck-
inghamshu-e, ten British gold coins inclosed in a hollow flint.
These singular methods of keeping money appear to have
prevailed to a comparatively recent period. At the close of
the month of May, 1863, a workman employed in excavations
at the Castlegate, in the town of Malton in Yorkshire, found
the remains of a beast's horn, which appeared to have been
fUled with coins of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, for
amonff those examined were some from the mints of kings
John, Edward I., and Edward H. But let us return to the
story of the last crock of money found at Wroxeter.
There lived in Wroxeter some years ago — I know not if
she be still alive — a village woman named Betty Fox, the
wife of a wheelwright, who was much given to grubbing
about within the limits of the Eoman town and to dreaming
URICONIUM. 331
of finding treasures. For a while her researches met with no
success, and of course her fellow villagers laughed at her, but
§he was not discouraged. At length, one night. Mother Fox, as
she was called by her neighbours, had a very important dream,
inasmuch as it was revealed to her that there was a crock of
money buried at a certain spot, near an alder bush, in the bank
at one side of the lane leading from Wroxeter to the Horse Shoe
inn. Anybody who has visited Wroxeter will remember that
this lane is cut rather deep through an elevated part of the
ground on which the ancient town stood, and which we know
to have been covered with some of the best houses, and the
bank on each side of the road, near the scene of Betty Fox's
adventures, are very high, and descend much below the level
of the Eoman floors. The good wife awoke, and told her
husband of her dream, but he only laughed at her, and
recommended her to go to sleep again. She did so, and the
same dream was repeated, so, rising quietly and dressing her-
self, she took one of the tools out of her husband's basket,
and trudged away towards the scene of her dream. It was
about three o'clock in the morning, and of course there were
not many people about, but a cottager's Avife was roused by
the noise she made, went to her window, and asked Mother
Fox whither she was going. " Ah," she said, " I've dreamt it
at last ! " and hurried onwards. When she reached the lane,
she proceeded to the first alder bush which offered any resem-
blance to that seen in her dream, and set vigorously to work,
and, surely enough, she had not gone far before she came upon
a Eoman vessel of earthenware, which she broke to pieces
with a blow of the implement with which she was digging
before she saw it. The vessel had been filled with Eoman
silver coins, which had no doubt been deposited there by the
Eoman proprietor of the house which had stood above, for
the place in which it lay would lie a little below the founda-
tions. Betty Fox, in great joy, gathered the coins into her
332 URICONITJM. ■
apron, and hastened home with them. As she passed the
cottage of the villager's wife just mentioned, the latter, who
had heard her approach, was again at the window, and, to
her inquiry, received the answer, " I have found it." On
arriving at her own cottage, Mother Fox emptied her coins
into what is called in Shropshire a " twopenny dish," and
then said to her husband, who had called her a fool before
she started, " Fool or no fool, Fve found the coins," It was a
large parcel of coins, and in very good condition. Mr. Oatley
of Wroxeter, who told me that he had the first choice of
them, bought a hundred at a shilling each ; other persons in
the neighbourhood purchased some of them ; and I have been
told that the remainder were carried to Wellington and sold
there.* The old woman realized altogether by the sale of them
twenty-eight pounds. It is a curious story. Betty Fox had
a son, who inherited from bis mother the faculty of dreaming
of treasures. He was employed in our excavations on the
site of the cemetery, which will be described in the next
chapter, and continually gave us trouble by quitting the spot
in which he was ordered to dig, and being found digging in
another spot of his own choosing. It turned out always on
inquiry that the night before he had dreamt of finding a
treasure in the locality of his choice I
It is hardly necessary to inform the reader that coins are
objects of especial value in these explorations, because they
enable us to fix dates, sometimes with great exactness, though
generally they only fix a date backwards, for we can be
certain that a coin was not deposited in any given place
before it came from the mint. In former times the coinage
was never called in, so that a coin of any reign may have been
deposited in any place at any period after it was struck, until
it were worn out. A curious instance of the value of coins in
this respect has occurred at Wroxeter. In the year 1841, a
waggoner's lad, in grubbing about the Old Wall, puUed out a
■^ The eon etates the crock coutamed 402 bilvcr tlfnarll. One of the coins hdviug three heacls upon the
one side of it. This was no doubt the I'everee of the coin of Septinjins Sevcnia, I'Elicitas saec\'li, haying
the fTill-faccd head of Julia Domna hctAvcen those of Caracalla and Geta.
URICONIUM. ci33
piece of the morter, or rather concrete, from the interior of
the wall, in which was imbedded a coin of the emperor
Trajan. This coin, which is now in the possession of my friend
Mr. Samuel Wood, is of large, or as it is called by numis-
matists, first brass, having the inscription s. p. q. k. optimo
PRINCIPI, with a figure of the emperor on horseback darting a
javelin at a prostrate foe, who appears by his bonnet and trou-
sers to be a Dacian. It is ia a perfect state of preservation,
and, as it is known to have come from the mint in the year
105, it affords good evidence to the fact that the Old Wall
at Wroxeter cannot have been bmlt before that year. As its
appearance shows that the coin had not been long in circula-
tion, the building of the wall may have taken place soon
afterwards.
Julius Caesar has told us himseK that, at the period of his
first invasion of our island, the Britons had no coinage of
their own, and that their only medium in its place consisted
of pieces of metal the value of which was determined by
weighing. The information given by Csesar is in general
extremely accurate, and we cannot see how, in this case, he can
easily have been deceived ; for if a coinage existed in Britain,
it must have been ia those very parts which he visited, and
he could hardly have been unacquainted with it. Yet some
modem antiquaries have disputed Ceesar's authority on this
point, and insisted that the Britons had a coinage of their own.
Yet the evidence they bring forward, I confess, appears to me
to cany very little force, and I still adhere to the opinion that
Csdsav was correct. The coins which can be identified as
British are generally inscribed in Eoman characters, and we
know were struck by chieftains in alliance with the Romans.
Though they belong to an early date, they no doubt continued
in circulation down to an indefinite period, that is until they
were lost, or worn out, or melted down to use the metal for
other purposes. There was no doubt an earlier coinage in
334 URICONIUM.
Gaul, which was in circulation in Britain along with the British
coinage during the early Koman period, and it is often found
in deposits in different parts of our island. I am only aware
of one example of the Celtic coinage which has been found in
Wroxeter. It is in the possession of Mr. W. H. Oatley, and
is of the same type with some gold coins found in Kent, and
engraved by Mr. Roach Smith, in his " Collectanea Antiqua,"
vol i., plate 7, figs. 1 to 6. They are probably Gaulish, but,
as the coin possessed by Mr. Oatley may have been brought
to Uriconium long after it was minted, it cannot be taken as
furnishing any evidence in favour of the great antiquity of
the town, though we may perhaps conjecture from its presence
here that Uriconium was a place of some commercial impor-
tance early in the Roman period. At the same time it leads
us to think that no British coinage was known in our city of
Uriconium.
At Wroxeter, as elsewhere, the Roman coinage is found
in now tolerable well known proportions of the different
periods, which perhaps represent to a certain degree the
comparative issues from the mint, but which also no doubt
arise from political circumstances of Avhich we have but an
imperfect knowledge. As I have said, the whole of the
Roman coinage, as far as it existed, was in circulation during
the whole Roman period. In the earlier period of Roman
colonization, the want of money in the distant provinces may
be supposed to have been not great, and therefore we cannot
expect to find much of the money of the republic or of the
earlier empire ; but this assumption would not hold good
entirely, because early coins might come in with those of a
later date. This is the case, and we find at Wroxeter coins
of the Roman consuls, though the Romans only came into our
island at the beginning of the empire. The number of the
earlier coins in circulation would naturally diminish in the
course of time, and we find in the two parcels of coins in
URICONIUM. 335
possession of individuals who lived at the latest period of the
existence of Uriconium/''" in one out of a hundred and thirty-
two coins only two coins older than the time of the Constantine
family, one of the usurper Tetricus and one of Claudius
Gothicus, and in the other no coin older than the reign of
Caracalla.
There are reasons for believing that, among the causes of
the turbulent condition of the Eoman provinces in the latter
part of the third century after Christ, one of the more impor-
tant was the want of a supply of coins of small value. In
the year 287 of the Christian era, a Eoman officer in Britain,
named Carausius, usurped the imperial purple, and for two
years reigned here as emperor. It was under Carausius that,
for the first time, Roman coins were struck in our island.
The coins of Carausius found on the border of Wales are
rather numerous, but, singularly, on the site of Uriconium,
where we might suppose that a monetary circulation at that
period was very necessary, they are rare. However, to coun-
terbalance this defect, there has been found here one of the
most remarkable coins of the whole Eoman series. In 18.51,
long before the excavations were commenced, Mr. Eoach Smith
visited Wroxeter, and obtained from its excellent vicar, the
Eev. Edward Egremont, a coin of Carausius which is perfectly
unique. It is well known that on the Eoman imperial coinage,
the head of the emperor is always given in profile and either
laureated, or helmeted, or radiated. In this extremely inter-
estinp- coin, which is of very artistic workmanship, we have a
portrait of the usurper in a front face, with the head entirely
bare. The reverse is one of the ordinary reverses of the coins
of Carausius. This unique and very remarkable coin is now,
with the rest of my friend's collection, in the British Museum.
Carausius was murdered in 293 by his officer AUectus, who
caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, and reigned here
' See before, pp 68, 69.
336 uEicoNiUM.
durina' three years. The coins of Allectus, also struck in
Britain, are numerous ; but in 293, Constantius, who was
destined soon afterwards to be emperor of Eome, overthrew
Allectus, and restored the province of Britain to the empire.
Constantius was the father of Constantine the Great, and this
seems to have given to our island a special importance in the
eyes of the subsequent Eoman emperors.
The want of money in the Eoman provinces seems to have
been supplied by various means, some of which are curious
enough. The Constantine family of emperors appear to have
understood the wants of their time, and they endeavoured to
supply it by an unusually large issue of copper coinage.
Under this dynasty, there were undoubtedly provincial mints.
Many of the Eoman coins of this period have in the exergue
the letters p. lon, which is supposed to be an abbreviation of
pecunia Londinensis, London money, just as other money of
the same period is marked as coming from Treves, or from
Lyons (Lugdunum), or from other great provincial towns. It is
evident that at this time Britain was well supplied with money,
and it is believed that there were in Gaul large imperial
depots of the small coinage whence it was sent over to the
island when wanted.
The Eomans had found other methods of suppljdng money
in the provinces, or rather of debasing it. This was simply
by forgery, but it was in this case the silver coinage, and not
that of copper, which was tampered with. The quantity of
spurious money in circulation during the Eoman period, as
shown by the remains, is very remarkable. We sometimes
find coins which are made of iron, and some other metals of
small value, and merely silvered over, to make them pass as
silver. But the more ingenious method of forging, and, to
judge from the numerous traces we find of it, probably the
most common, was by casting in moulds made from other
coins. Eemains of establishments at which this forgery was-
URICONIUM. 337
practiced have been found at different places in Britain and in
Gaul, and there are reasons for believing that the forgers were
in the direct employ of the imperial government. It could
boast moreover of being a very ingenious deception, as the
forged coins that were thus manufactured did not represent
the reigning emperor, but emperors who had reigned at a
previous time, so that if the fraud were discovered, the odium
might fall upon them. Thus the fact of the continued cir-
culation of the coinage through an indefinite period was turned
to advantage. Impressions were taken in fine clay off genuine
sUver coins of the emperors of the past, and a number of these
clay impressions were packed up so as to form a mould, into
which veiy debased metal was run, and thus a coinage of little
worth in comparison with that which it represented was made
and sent into circulation. The remains of these moulds, of
the implements used in melting, and the coins themselves, have
been found at Lingwell Gate, near Wakefield in Yorkshire, at
Caster in Northamptonshire, the site of the Eoman town of
Durohrivce, and at other places in Britain, in such quantities
as to leave no doubt that during the Eoman period they must
have been very abundant. Eemains of these coin-moulds
have been found at Wroxeter, and one is preserved in the
Museum at Shrewsbury. It is an impression of a coin of
Juha Domna, the wife of the emperor Severus. It was found
at the southern extremity of the site of Uriconium, near what
I believe was one of the principal gates of the ancient city.
When the imperial government was withdrawn from Britain,
the island was deprived of any further supply of money from
the continent, and the towns, each now left to its own resour-
ces, appear to have soon felt the want of a small coinage of
copper. Under these circumstances they made dies and coined
money for themselves, considerable quantities of which have
been found on some Eoman sites. These coins, which are
all made of brass, are very rude copies of the Eoman coins
w
338 TJRICONIUM.
of the Constantine dynasty, which were those chiefly in cir-
culation at the close of the Eoman period, and, from their
very small size, munimatists have given them the name of
minimi. The subsequent Anglo-Saxon coinage was also a rude
imitation of that of the Eomans, but it differed entirely from
these minimi, it being always
of silver, whereas the minimi
are invariably of brass. They
are found on the sites of towns
which had existed for a time
after the withdrawal of the Eo-
man power. At Eichborough, the
Minimi toiind at Wroseter. Eoman RutupicB, the existcuce
of which was continued into
the Anglo-Saxon period, the minimi are found in considerable
numbers, and Anglo-Saxon coins also. Mr. Eoach Smith, in
his book on the Antiquities of Eichborough, enumerates two
hundred minimi found there, which he had examined. I have
described two small sums of money which were in the posses-
sion of individuals in Uriconium at the time of the destruction
of the town. In one of these, consisting of 132 coins, all of
copper or brass, there were six minimi ; in the other, consisting
of thirty-eight coins, three of which were of silver or plated,
there was one. No Saxon coins have been found at Wroxeter.
Two of these minimi, found at Wroxeter, are represented in
the accompanying cut. The lower is the one last men-
tioned. They are barbaric imitations of two very common
types of the later Eoman series. One, a soldier bearing a
victorious standard in his march, with the inscription gloria
ROMANORVM ; the other, two soldiers holding standards and
trophies, with the inscription gloria exercitvs. Both occur
on coins of Constantine, and are repeated on those of later
emperors. The heads are crowned, and in the style of the
coins of Tetricus and of the last of the dynasty.
339
CHAPTEE X.
THE CEMETERY OF URICONIUM ; THE SEPULCHEAL INSCRIPTIONS.
The invariable custom of the Romans, founded upon religious
as well as sanitary motives, forbade the burial of the dead
within the limits of a town. This rule is found to have been
strictly adhered to in all the Roman towns in Britain the sites
of which have been hitherto explored. Perhaps I might say
that all the ground just beyond the walls, or other limits or
boundaries of the town was good for burial purposes, but the
word Cemetery as here used must not be taken strictly in its
modern sense, as a piece of ground enclosed for the sole purpose
of burial, but merely as signifying the locality where the sepul-
chral interments were located together. The Romans did not
consecrate pieces of ground in this manner, but the family of
the deceased, if they were inhabitants of a town, bought a
small piece of ground to bury him wherever they could obtain
it to their own satisfaction, provided it were not within the
walls of a town. The possessor of a villa in the country appears,
from the discoveries made in aU parts of our island, to have
had his burial place within the precincts of his own house.
In the former case, where the inhabitant of a town bought a
piece of ground outside the walls, it became consecrated by
the circumstance of its being the repository of the dead, and
to trespass upon it was regarded as sacrilege. Nevertheless,
the ground adjoining the grave might be employed for any
340 URICONIUM.
other purpose ; and suburban houses and villas might be
intermixed with the tombs, as was the case in Pompeii.
Indeed the Eoman seems, even when dead, to have still courted
the proximity of the living, for he always sought by prefer-
ence to establish his last home as near as possible to the
most frequented road ; and the inscriptions on his roadside
tomb often contained appeals to the passers by — in terms
such as — siSTE VIATOR (stay, traveller), or tv qvisqvis es
Qvi TEANSis (whoever thou art, passenger) — to think on the
departed. The epitaph on a Roman named Lollius, published
hj Grllter, concludes with the following words, which inti-
mate that he was placed by the roadside, in order that those
who passed by might say, " Farewell, Lollius ! "
HIC . PROPTER . VIAM . POSITVS
VT . DICANT . PEATEREVNTES
LOLLI . VALE.
This feeling existed in Eoman Britain no less than in Italy.
In most of the Roman towns in this island we find that the
principal cemetery lay outside the gates on the road leading
to the chief town in the province. The principal cemetery of
Uriconium was without the eastern gateway, bordering the
famous road so well known by the name of the Watling
Street, which led towards Londinium, now London. Another
motive might be pointed out for selecting this locahty at
Uriconium, in the circumstance that it was the highest ground
round the city, and the least exposed to be overflowed by the
floods of the river Severn. The site of the cemetery is now
covered by open fields, and will be better understood by
the plan on the next page, in which the letter i marks
the site of the eastern gate of the city of Uriconium,
the dark line representing the line of the town walls. The
Watling Street, as will be seen, runs from it in nearly an
easterly direction. To the south the ground rises froin the
road in a gentle bank, the brow of which, in the field where
URICONIUM.
341
the excavations have been chiefly carried on, is marked by
the shading from D to E. Attention had formerly been called
to this locality by the accidental discovery, it is supposed not
far from the spot marked e, of three slabs of stone bearing
interesting sepulchral inscriptions, which are still preserved
Site of the Cemetery of Uriconium.
in the library of Shrewsbury School. This field was ex-
plored very extensively during the year 1861. Trenches were
carried from the hedge which separates it from the WatHng
Street road over the whole extent of the bank, and further
over the field to some distance to the south. Early in the
course of these researches, at the sjoot marked b on the plan,
low down on the slope of the bank, the excavators found a
thick slab of stone, lying on its face ; and, when raised, it was
found to bear on its face a sepulchral inscription, partly in Latin
verse, to the memory of a Roman soldier named Flaminius
Titus. Further exploration showed that the whole of this end
of the bank was filled with interments, consisting of cinerary
342 URICONIUM.
urns and their usual accompaniments, which appeared to have
been put into the ground in rows. These interments covered
the ground marked in our plan with dots. Trenches carried
further towards the ancient town wall, or beyond the bank
across the field, gave no traces of burials, so that this appears
to have been the extremity in one direction of the burial
ground towards the town. The site of the cemetery probably
extended over the next field, f, but this has not yet been
examined. The excavators were subsequently employed in
the field, H, on the other side of Watling Street, in the farm of
Mr. Bayley of Norton, but no discoveries were made there,
and the cemetery would thus appear to have been confined to
the southern side of the road. But an accidental discovery
led to the examination of the garden of Miss BytheU in the
hamlet of Norton, at G in our plan, and there was found one
well defined interment, besides traces of others. It is not
improbable, therefore, that the tombs of the citizens were
scattered over the ground outside the walls along the greater
part of their extent.
We know that the Romans had two methods of burying
their dead, by interring the body entire, when it was inclosed
in a sarcophagus of stone or in a chest of lead, and by burning
the body and reducing it to ashes, which were deposited in an
urn or other vessel. In the age of the Antonines the practice
of cremation was finally abolished in Italy, but the imperial
ordinances appear to have had but little efi"ect in the distant
provinces, where the two forms of burial stiU continued to
exist simultaneously. Eoman interments of the entire body
in this manner have been found in many parts of England,
and especially in London, at York, at Colchester, and in
several places in Kent, but it is a curious fact that no instance
has yet been found at Wroxeter. We know that this great
city flourished till the end of the Roman period, yet every
case of interment yet found has exhibited to us the body
TJRICONIUM. 343
burnt, and the ashes buried in an urn. We can hardly doubt
from this circumstance, that the religion of Christ never pre-
vailed in Eoman Uriconium.
To explain the various objects which arc found in the
Eoman graves, it wdl be necessary to give a brief sketch of
the formalities which attended death and burial among the
ancient Romans. The last duty to the dying man was to
close his eyes, which was usually performed by his children,
or by his nearest relatives, who, after he had breathed his last,
caused Ms body first to be washed with warm water, and
afterwards to be anointed. Those who performed the ofiice
last mentioned were called poUinctores. The corpse was
afterwards dressed, and placed on a litter in the hall of the
house with its feet towards the entrance door, and it was
to remain there during seven days. This ceremony was
termed colloccUio, and the object of it is said to have been
to show that the deceased had died a natural death, and
that he had not been murdered. In accordance with the old
popular superstition, a small piece of money was placed in
the dead man's mouth, which it was supposed would be re-
quired to pay the boatman Charon for the passage across the
river Styx. In the case of persons of substance, incense was
burnt in the hall, and the latter was often decked with branches
of cypress, whUe a keeper was appointed who did not quit
the body until the funeral was completed. The public having
been invited by proclamation to attend the funeral, the body
was taken out on the seventh day, and carried in proces-
sion, attended by the relatives, friends, and whoever chose
to attend, accompanied by musicians, and sometimes l^y dan-
cers, mountebanks, and performers of various descriptions.
With people of wealth and honour, the images of their ances-
tors were carried in the procession, which always passed through
the Forum on its way to the place of burial, and sometimes
a friend mounted the rostrum and pronounced a funeral
344 TJRICONIUM.
oration. In the earlier times, the burial always took place
by night, and was attended by persons carrying lamps, or
torches, but this practice seems to have been afterwards neg-
lected ; though the lamps still continued to be carried in
the procession. Women, who were called 'prceficos, were
employed not only to howl their lamentations over the de-
ceased, and chant his praises, like the Irish keeners, but also
to cry; and their tears, it is understood, were collected into
small vessels of glass, and this is termed, in some of the
inscriptions found on the Continent, being "buried with tears,"
— sepultus cum lacrymis, — and the tomb is spoken of as
being " full of tears," tvmvl lacrim . plen.
The next ceremony was that of burning the body. The
funeral pile, pyra, was built of the most inflammable woods,
to which pitch was added, and other articles, which often
rendered this part of the ceremony very expensive. An in-
scription, preserved by Grtiter, speaks of some persons whose
property was only sufficient to pay for the funeral pile and the
pitch to burn their bodies — nee ex eorum bonis plus inven-
tum est quam quod sufficeret ad emendam pyram et picem
quibus corpora cremarentur. It had been ordered by a law
of the Twelve Tables that the funeral pile must be formed
of timber which was rough and untouched by the axe, but
this rule was probably not very closely adhered to in later
times.
When the body was laid on the pile, the latter was
sprinkled with wine and other liquors, and incense, and
various unguents and odoriferous spices were tlirown upon
it. It was now, according to some accounts, that the nau-
lum, or coin for the payment of the passage over the Styx,
was placed in the mouth of the corpse, and at the same
time the eyes were opened. Fire was applied to the pile by
the nearest relatives of the deceased, who, in doing this,
turned their faces from it while it was burning ; the kins-
DRICONIUM. 345
men and friends often threw into the fire various objects,
such as personal ornaments, and even favourite animals and
birds. When the whole was reduced to ashes, these were
sprinkled with wine (and sometimes with mUk), accompanied
with an invocation to the manes, or spirit of the dead. The
reader will call to mind the lines of Virgil :• —
" Post^iiam collapsi cineres, et flanima quievit,
. . Eelliquias vino et bibulam lavere favillam,
Ossaque lecta cado texit Corynajus aeno."
^n. vi, 226.
The next proceeding indeed, was to collect what remained
of the bones from the ashes, which was the duty of the
mother of the deceased, or if the parents were not living, of
the children, and was followed by a new ofi"ering of tears.
Some of the old writers speak of the difficulty of separating
the remains of the burnt bones from the wood ashes, and we
accordingly find them usually mixed together. When col-
lected, the bones were deposited in an urn, which was made of
various materials. The urn, in Virgil, was made of brass, or
perhaps of bronze. Instances are mentioned of silver, and
even gold, being used for this purpose, as well as of marble,
and those found in Britain are often of glass ; but the more
common material was earthenware. One of the performers m.
the ceremony, whose duty this was, then purified the attend-
ants by sprinkHng them thrice with water, with an olive
branch, if that could be obtained, and the prceficoe pronounced
the word Hicet (said to be a contraction of Ire licet, you
may go.) Those who had attended the funeral thrice addressed
the word Vale (farewell) to the manes of the dead, and de-
parted. A sumptuous supper was usually given after the
funeral to the relatives and friends.
In the case of people of better rank, the body was burnt
on the ground which had been purchased for the sepulchre, but
for the poorer people there was a public burning place, which
346 URICONIUM.
was called the ustrina, where the process was probably much
less expensive, and whence the urn, containing the remains
(relliquicBj of the deceased was carried to be interred. The
tombs of rich families were often large and even splendid
edifices, with rooms inside, in the walls of which were small
recesses, where the different urns were placed. None of the
buildings of the tombs remain at Wroxeter, or, indeed, in any
Eoman cemetery ia our island, but we can hardly doubt that
such tombs did exist in the cemetery of Uriconium, and that they
were scattered along the side of the Watling Street. At the
spot marked A on our plan, the foundations of a small building
were met with, which appeared to have consisted of an oblong
square, with a rectangular recess behind, but the western por-
tion of it has been destroyed by the process of draining.
When opened, ashes and fragments of an urn were found in
the inclosed space, so that it is not improbable that this may
have been a tomb with a room. The inscribed stone found
at B, not far from this spot, bears evidence, in its form and
especially in the appearance of its reverse side, of having been
fixed against a wall, probably over an entrance door ; and the
other inscribed stones, found here in the last century, had
perhaps been placed in similar positions. The urn was perhaps
here interred beneath the floor of the room.
In more than one case in the cemetery of Uriconium, the
corpse was certainly burnt on the spot where the ashes were
to be buried. At the place marked c in our plan, we
found undoubted evidence of cremation in the grave. A
square pit had been made, on the floor of which the funeral
pile had been laid. My friend Mr. Samuel Wood, Avho was
present when this pit was opened, remarked that the remains
of the timber of the funeral pile still remained as it had sunk
on the floor, and that the ends were unconsumed, and the
earth underneath quite red from burning. Mr. Wood gathered
up some fragments of melted glass among the ashes, the
URICONIUM. 347
remains of some of the small vessels containiug aromatics or
unguents, which were thrown into the funeral fire, and he
adds, in a letter on the subject written at the time of the
discovery, " One curious point I noticed, that you could posi-
tively tell from which direction the wind was blowing at the
time of combustion, as one side of the hole was quite burnt
with all the wood ; whereas on the opposite side, the ends of
the fuel were there, with the one end only charred. The wind
was in the west, W.S.W. This, of course, is quite unimpor-
tant ; but one might venture a guess that it occurred in
autumn, when the prevailing wind is from the west, or south-
west." At the spot marked G in our plan, where considerable
traces of Roman sepulchral interments were found in the
garden of a cottage occupied by Miss Bythell, a similar pit
was found, with this difference in its circumstances ; in the
former case, the soil into which the pit was cut is a clayey
loam, which would itself form a tolerably firm wall ; but the
soil on the site of Miss Bythell's garden was a light and sharp
sand which would crumble in unless supported. In this case,
therefore, the pit, which was somewhat more that six feet
square, was lined with clay, both bottom and sides, to a thick-
ness of twelve or fourteen inches ; and the heat of the fire
had been so great, that the clay was baked quite through, and
even the sand beyond it showed, in its changed colour and
appearance, evident marks of the action of fire. Mr. Wood,
who was also present immediately after this grave was opened,
described it to me as having somewhat the appearance of a
large square baked vessel. The remains of the corpse had
been collected and deposited in a very large urn, which was
placed upon some flat tiles, and supported and surrounded
with clay and broken flue tiles. Under it was found a coin
of the emperor Trajan, of the description termed by numis-
matists second brass.
In most of the other cases of interment yet discovered in
the cemetery of Uriconium, a small hole or pit appears to
348 URICONIXJM.
have been sunk in the ground, and the urn, as it had been no
doubt brought from the ustrina, was placed in it and covered
up. These interments were not far distant from each other,
and, as I have already remarked, appear to have been placed
in rows, nearly parallel to the road. Perhaps the ground
here may have been bought for this purpose in common by
associations of the townsmen — such as trade corporations ; or
it may have been set aside for burial purposes by the muni-
cipal authorities, and sold in small portions to individuals,
as the practice now exists in modern cemeteries. It may be
remarked that the accumulation of soil above the Eomau level
is here very much less than in the interior of the ancient city,
where we have frequently to dig from ten to twelve feet to
reach it. The top of the clay walls of the pit in Miss BytheU's
garden was from fourteen to sixteen inches below the present
surface, and the inscribed commemorative of Flaminius
Titus, which was found lying on its face, on what was pro-
bably the original level of the ground, or very near it, was
met with at about eighteen inches below the present surface.
We may, therefore, probably reckon the accumulation of earth
on the site of the cemetery at from eighteen inches to two
feet. The average depth at which the urns have been found
is somewhat less than four feet, so the Romans appear to
have dug pits about two feet deep for their reception.
These excavations in the cemetery contributed a consider-
able number of sepulchral urns, many of them perfect, and
others only so broken as to be easily put together, and taken
to the Museum in Shrewsbury. A few examples, with some
of the jug-shaped earthen vessels also found in the graves, are
given in the cut on next page The urns, which are of baked
earthenware, of different shades of colour, but mostly brown
or red, are of coarse substance, but always more or less well-
shaped, and they vary very much in size. The largest we
have yet found is about eighteen inches high. The jug-shaped
earthen vessels were perhaps used to contain some liquids
URICONIUM.
349
which were interred with the remains of the dead ; but when
found they were filled Avith earth.
O
J
.8
o
S
a
o
p
-a
The examples here engraved present most of the usual
forms of the sepulchral urn; but we sometimes meet with one
350 URICONITJM.
of a rarer and more curious shape. The cut given below,
to the left, represents a fragment of a sepulchral urn pierced
at the bottom with six holes, somewhat like a colander. It
was found at a place called Burleigh, near Minchinhampton,
in Gloucestershire, about the year 1845, and was broken by
the workmen. When found it was filled with burnt bones
and charcoal. Another curious urn was dug up at Colchester
in the earlier part of the year 1845, which presented the pecu-
liarity of having a lid. It was of a coarse greenish-grey
pottery, and also contained calcined bones. This urn is repre-
sented in our next cut given below, to the right. But a
Roman Um from Koman Urn from
Gloucestershire. Colchester.
rather remarkable peculiarity connected with this urn was the
character of its receptacle. I have stated that usually the
sepulchral urn, when filled, Avas merely placed in a hole in the
ground, and covered mth earth. Now and then we meet with
a curious exception to this rule. In the Wroxeter Museum
at Shrewsbury we have a sepulchral urn inclosed in a case
made of lead, just like a man's hat in a hat box. This Col-
chester urn was found in the interior of a Roman amphora.
This amphora, which was of large size, is represented in the
cut in the margin of the next page. The upper part had been
broken off, as shown by the line in the cut, and had been
replaced after the urn and other articles were deposited in it,
and the lower part of a broken sepulchral urn had been used
UKICOmUM.
351
Roman Amphora from
Colchester.
as a cover to it. The articles found in the interiQr were the
urn just described, one of the vessels commonly called a
lachrymatory, of pale green glass ; a
small lamp of coarse earthenware of a
brick-red colour ; another lamp, of finer
material, and of a pale red colour ; a
number of fragments of oxidized iron,
which appeared to have been nails ; and
a coin of the second brass, bearing the
head of Faustina junior. In more than
one instance, as at Avisford in Sussex,
in 1817, the urn has been found inclosed
in a sarcophagus of stone, such as those
usually employed for the burial of corpses
without cremation. A stUl more singular
contrivance was found at Cirencester in the year 1848, and is
represented in our cut. What oflfers
the appearance of a portion of a shaft
of a column, made of calcareous free-
stone, appears as if cut through, and
then the lower part had been hollowed
in the centre so as to form a recept-
acle for the urn. The latter con-
tained burnt bones.
Certain other objects were by
custom buried with the remains of the
dead. In a former chapter f I have
given a group of glass vessels and
other articles found in the cemetery of
Uriconium. We know, from allusions in some of the ancient
writers, as from monumental inscriptions, that tears, unguents,
and aromatics, were sometimes thrown on the funeral pile, and
sometimes interred with the dead, deposited, as it may be sup-
+ See before p. 358 of the present volume.
Homan Urn from Cirencester.
352 UEICONIUM.
posed, in small vessels of glass. An inscription in Grliter
describes the deceased as being "moistened with tears and
balsam,"- — evm . lachrimis . et . opobalsamo . vdvm. My
readers will call to mind, also, the lines of TibuUus (Eleg.
lib. ui, El. ii, Hne 1 9), in which he speaks of depositing with
the dead the precious products of Arabia and Assyria, as well
as the tears of relations and friends : —
"Et primum annoso spargant colleota Lyaeo,
Mox etiam niveo fundere lacte parent.
Post hao carbaseis humorem tollere ventis,
Atque in marmorea ponere sicca domo.
Illic quas niittit dives Panchaia merces,
Eoique Aiabes, dives et Assyria.
Et nostri memores lacrimas fundantur eodeni ;
Sic ego componi versus in ossa velim."
These precious objects are supposed to have been contained
in the small narrow glass phials which are so commonly found
in the Eoman graves, and to which, in the belief that they had
contained only the tears of the mourners, antiquaries have
given the name of lachrymatories. Experiments made by
my friend Dr. Henry Johnson of Shrewsbury, upon the
earth contained in some of these glass vessels which we dug
up in the cemetery of Uriconium, seemed to confirm the belief
that they were not merely receptacles of teai's. In one of his
letters to me at that time he writes : — " Respecting the lachry-
matories, I have lately seen rather a confirmation of what you
said of these having been filled with unguents, incense, or
something of that kind, which would by heat yield much car-
bon or charcoal. I took two of these little glass vessels, which
had dark matter in them, and which had never been emptied.
I put some of the dark matter under the microscope, and I
conld see pure red grains of the sand of the field,* and inter-
mixed with these many visible particles of pure black carbon,
♦ To explain tMs, it must be stated that the soil of the field, which is hardly two feet deep,
lies upon a deep hcd of pure saiid, and that the interments had all been made in the sand, in
which the urns and other objects were found.
URIOONIUM. 353
evidently introduced artificially into the sand. On putting
some of the soil into a platinum crucible, and heating it red-hot
for a few minutes, all the charcoal was burnt away, and I got
a pure red sand, like that of the cemetery. The contents of
these two vessels were quite black, though I have no doubt
they were found deeper than the superficial covering of black
mould. One of them had evidently been subjected to fire, so
that the supposition that this had been filled with some
unctuous oblation, and then acted on by heat in the funeral
pile, is not at all improbable."
These glass vessels help to demonstrate that the same forms
were observed by the Eomans in Britain in their performance
of the sepuLAral rites as in Italy. Some of them are found
greatly affected by fire, and have no doubt been on the
funeral pde; others, on the contrary, are perfect, and have evi-
dently never been in the fire, but were no doubt deposited with
the urn. I have given examples of them in iDoth conditions in
the group above alluded to as presented in a former page. The
one in the middle of the three to the right in the cut has
been thus afi"ected by the heat, in a less degree ; but the other,
lying on the ground beneath it, has been so much melted as
to have lost its original shape.
A very usual accompaniment of Eoman interments is the
lamp, usually made of terra-cotta. There can be no doubt
that, under the influence of sentiments with which we are but
imperfectly acquainted, lamps were among the usual oflerings
to the dead, and that, when ofi'ered, they were filled with od
and hghted. Lamps were found in the tombs at Pompeii,
where they appear to have been placed in the recesses of the
walls by the side of the urns of the dead. Their frequent
occurrence under such circumstances has given rise to a num-
ber of old legends of the finding of lamps stiU burning in the
tombs of the ancients, who, according to mediaeval story, had
354 UEICONITJM.
invented a material for the lamp which, once lighted, would
burn for ever. I might quote various proofs of the import-
ance v^hich was placed in the circumstance of burying a
lamp with the dead. One epitaph, found at Salerno, and
given in Grtiter, which commemorates a lady named Septima,
expresses, in what appears to have been intended for elegiac
verse, the wish that whoever contributed a burning lamp
to her tomb, might have a "golden soil" to cover his ashes: —
HAVE . SEPTIMA . SIT . TIBI
TERRA . LEVIS . QVISQ
HVIC . TVMVLO . POSVir
ARDENTEM . LVCERWAM
ILLIVS . CINERES . AVREA
TERRA . TEGAT.
The lamp was no doubt burning when it was placed in the
grave with the urn. Two lamps only have been found m our
excavations in the cemetery of Uriconium. They are repre-
sented in our cut at page 258, and are of the same form which
the Eoman terra-cotta lamp almost invariably presents. In
one of them the field is plain ; in the other it is ornamented
mth the figure of a dolphin.
The same rarity which characterises the lamps in the Eoman
interments in our island, is also to be remarked in the Eoman
coins, of which only one has yet been met with in the ceme-
tery by the Watling Street, a second brass of the emperor
Claudius ; and two in Miss BytheU's garden, one of Trajan,
and the other of Hadrian. The coin of Trajan was found
under the urn, and must therefore have belonged to the inter-
ment, and, as it bore distinct marks of having been exposed
to the flames, it had evidently been burnt with the corpse.
The early date of these coins is worthy of remark, and, though
it does not necessarily prove the early date of the interment,
it mny perhaps assist in explaining their rarity. However
URICONIUM. 355'
large may have been the amount of true Roman and Italian
blood among the founders of the town, the number of the
inhabitants was no doubt kept up and probably increased in
after times by recruits from other countries, perhaps much
of it German; and these strangers to Eoman sentiments,
when they accepted Eoman manners and customs, may have
neglected many of their minor details. Perhaps they were
not convinced of the necessity of exporting the current coin
of the realm, in however small quantities, to Hades, and they
may have deliberately retained Charon's passage-fare. They
may have also discontinued the practice of placing lamps in
the grave, or it may only have been observed occasionally.
It must at the same time be remarked, that single coins are
the objects of all others most likely to escape the notice of
the excavators.
Nearly all the graves, however, which were opened in the
cemetery of Uriconium appeared to have contained the urns
and small glass phials ; and in some there were other vessels
of glass and earthenware, and among the latter some inter-
esting examples of the well-known Samian ware. A few of
these are given in our engraving on page 258, just referred
to. All these vessels have no doubt contained the offerings
of the living to the Manes.
It may be worthy of remark, that the comparatively slow
accumulation of earth on the site of the cemetery explains
easily the almost total disappearance of its monuments which
stood above ground. We learn from early writers, such as
the historian Bede, that people resorted to the sites of the
Roman cemeteries to seek for materials long before they Ijeo-an
to break up the towns themselves, and as these materials
must have lain for ages visible on the surface of the ground,
and at the same time consisted probably of large and u.seful
stones, they held out a stronger temptation to such depreda-
tors. Fortunately, the stones most likely to escape were those
356 - TJRICONIUM.
which contained inscriptions, because the people who had
succeeded the Romans entertained a profound feeling of dread
of all inscriptions which they could not read, believing them
to be dangerous magical charms. Hence we find, here and
there, a single inscribed stone lying where it was thrown or
dropped, when every other fragment of the monument to
which in had belonged has disappeared. In some instances
the inscription has been intentionally damaged or partly erased
in the hope of destroying the charm.
I now proceed to describe all the known sepulchral inscrip-
tions found at Wroxeter.
In the year 1752, men employed in digging a drain on the
side of the bank of the cemetery, found the three inscribed
stones represented at the top of our plate (figs. 1, 2, and 3).
They are now carefully preserved in the library of Shrewsbury
School. The first two, we are told, had been fastened by
tenons into mortices cut into other stones that lay flat within,
and they had been buried into the ground up to the tablets
containing the inscriptions. The first of these inscriptions may
be read without any difficulty, as follows :
c.MANNivs Cams Mannius,
t! . F . POL . SECv Caii filius, Vollia, Seen
NDVS . POLLEN ndus, Polleufoa,
MIL . LEG . XX miles legionis xx,
ANOPvV . Lii annoru75i lii,
STip . xxxi stipenc?^or^i«^ xxxi,
BEN . LEG . PR heneficiarius hgati Tpvincipalis,
H . s . y,. hie situs est.
It should probably be traiUslated, "' Caius Mannius Secundus,
son of Gains, of the PoUiau tribe, of PoUentia, a soldier of the
twentieth legion, fifty-two years of age, having served thirty-
one years, a beneficiary of the principal legate, lies here.'"'*
* In tlie intei'pretation of this inscription I adopt tLe snf;gestion of Dr. M'Caul, the presi-
dent of University College, Toronto, who pnhlished in the Canadian Journal, a series of papers
upon Latin inscriptions found in Britain, wliich are well worthy of the attention of our anti-
quaries. Dr. M'Caul remarks upon one of the terms employed in this inscription, " The word
uEicomuM. 357
The second of these inscriptions may be read as follows :
M . PETEONivs Marcus Petronius,
L . F . MEN hucii fiKus, Woiienia,
VIC . ANN vicsit armis
XXXVIII XXXVIII,
■ MIL . LEG miles legionis
xiiii . GEM xiiii gemince,
MiLiTAViT militavit
ANN . XVIII annis xviii,
, SIGN . FviT signifer fuit,
H . s . E. hie &itus est.
It may be translated, " Marcus Petronius, son of Lucius, of the
Menenian tribe, lived thirty-eight years, a soldier of the four-
teenth legion called Gemina ; he served as a soldier eighteen
years, and ■n'as a standard-bearer ; he lies here." It must be
remarked that the sixth line is now almost defaced by the
fracture of the stone ; and not only has the x entirely disap-
peared, but the space would allow of xx.
Our third inscription is, perhaps, the most curious of them
all, because it has been the ground of some rather considerable
errors, arising partly from its not very perfect condition. It is
divided into three columns or compartments, as wiU be seen in
the engraving, the first of which appears to be as follows ;
T> .M
Diis Manibus.
PLACIDA
Placida,
AN . LV
smnorum LV,
CVE . AG
curam agente
CONI . A
conjuge annorum
XXX.
XXX.
ie., *'To the gods of the Manes. Placida, aged fifty-five ^
* principal,' as ordinarily used in EngUsh does not convey the meaning oi principalis is applied
to a Roman soldier. The Latin term means that the person so styled -n'as one of the prlncipalea-
a designation given to suh-officers or of&cials, in contradistinction to munifices or greqarii,
wiiich denoted the common soldiers or privates. (Vide Veget. de Be MiUtaH, lib, ii, c, 7.}''
358 URICONIUM.
raised by the care of her husband, who had been her husband
thirty years."
Former antiquaries have misinterpreted cvr.ag, as standing
for curator agrorum, and have thus created a municipal officer
unknown from any other authority. The error has been
pointed out by Dr. M'Caul in the paper akeady alluded to ;
and it cannot be doubted that he is in the right. There may
l)e some doubt with regard to the last two lines, as they are
rather indistinct ; but we shall perhaps be justified in retain-
ing the A at the end of the fifth line, and the xxx in the sixth
line, because, when the stone was first found, and the copy of
the inscription made, these letters may have been more
distinct than they are now.
The second column of this inscription may read —
D . M
Dm Manihus.
DEVCCV
Deuccu
S . AN . XV
s, Siunorum xv.
CVR . AG
cwxam agente
KATEE.
fvatve.
i.e., " To the gods of the Manes. Deuccus, aged fifteen years ;
raised l)y the care of his brother." It has been suggested
that the n at the beginning of the last line is a p (patre) ;
in which case it was the father of Deuccus, the husband of
Placida, who had also buried his young son, and who thus
might have left the third column blank for the reception of
Ills own name, when he should have been laid beside his
family. But the stone seems to present distinctly an r; and
Ave may suppose that Deuccus had an elder brother, and
that, dying while his father was perhaps absent or dead in
some distant region, he was buried by his brother's care
instead of that of his father.
Another inscribed stone (fig. 4 of our plate), but more
broken than the others, was found, in 1810, on the side of
TJRICONIUM. 359
the same bank which furnished the three others, and is pre-
served with them in the library of Shrewsbury School. It
may be read without much difficulty.
TIB . CLAVD . TER Tiherius Claudms Tere
NTivs . EQ . COH ntius, eqwes cohortis
THEACVM . AK Thracum, ami
OKVM . LVii . STiP oruni lvii, stip
ENDIORVM endiorum
H . s. hie situs est.
i.e., " Tiberius Claudius Terentius, a horseman of the cohort
of Thracians, aged fifty-seven years, having served , lies
here. " The letters which indicated the length of this man's
service are no longer visible on the stone, which has suflfered
much injury. It has been assumed from this inscription, that
the cohort of Thracian cavalry belonged to Uriconium ; but,
I think, without sufficient grounds. It would be very rash to
take, at any time, the presence of a single tomb-stone as a
proof that the body of troops to which the deceased had
belonged, was stationed at tliat place, unless we had some
other information to confirm it. Uriconium appears to have
been a large city, which must have been frequented by
strangers and visitors from aU parts, some of whom no doubt
died and were buried here. Our first inscription commemo-
rates a soldier of the twentieth legion, which we know had its
head-quarters at Deva (Chester) ; the second was raised over
the body of a soldier of the fourteenth legion, Avhich most
probably was at that time on the continent. The tombstone
of a horseman of this same body of Thracians has been found
at Cirencester, the site of the Eoman town of Corinium ; and
it is hardly probable that it was stationed at both places.
The fifth inscription on our plate is preserved in the Museum
of the Shropshire and North AVales Natural History and
360 UEICONIUM.
Antiquarian Society at Shrewsbury. Its history has not been
very clearly ascertained ; but there is reason for believing that
it was brought from Italy, and that it has therefore no relation
to Wroxeter. The letters are sufficiently distinct, and the
words are unusually free of contractions. It may be read ; —
D . M
ANTONIAE
GEMELLAE
DIADVMENVS
PIENTISSIMAE
FECIT.
VIXIT . ANNIS . XXXIII.
i.e., " To the gods of the Manes. Diadumenus erected this
to Antonia Gemella, a most affectionate [wife]. She lived
thirty-three years."
Fig. 6 of our plate is a mere fragment of what appears
also to have been a sepulchral inscription ; but it would be in
vain to attempt an explanation.
The seventh inscription is also apparently a fragment,
which is preserved in the garden of the vicarage. The words
BOKA EEIPVBLIC.^ NATVS are legible upon it, and formed, per-
haps, part of an inscription commemorative of one of the later
emperors.
]\Iore recently a fragment of an inscribed stone has been
found in the excavations, having evidently been used for ma-
terials for buildino- — a circumstance of common occurrence in
the Roman buildings in this country. It is represented on fig.
8 in our plate. The letters which remain upon it are distinctly
. r> . M., under which are traced, not less clearly, letters which
appear to be isvM. The d.m would be taken at once as indi-
cating a tombstone ; but it is still possible that these two
letters may stand for deo maximo ; and that this fragment
URICONIUM. 361
may have belonged to an altar dedicated to Jupiter, Jovi
SYumo, though the formula is more usually d . o . M., i.e., deo
Optimo maxima.
But the most interesting of the inscriptions found at Wrox-
eter remains to be described. A.s I have already before stated,
in the course of our excavations on the site of the cemetery of
Uriconium in the autumn of 1861, the men came upon a large
slab of stone which had e^ddently formed part of a sepulchral
monument. It was the stone of the monument on which the
inscription was cut, and above it had been a figure sculptm'ed
in high relief, of which the feet only remain. The inscription
itself, which is now in the Museum at Shrewsbury, has been
unfortunately much defaced, especially in the lower part,
but, with conjectures at two or three of the letters, it has
been partly read as follows :
AMINIVS . T . POL . F . A
NOEVMXXXXVSTIPXXII . MIL . LEG
IIGEM . MILITAVITAQNVNC HIC SII
LEGITE . ET . FELICES . VITA . PLVS . MIN
IVSTAOMNI . QVA
TANAHA . DITIS . VIVITE . DVM
VITAE . DAT . TEMPVS . HONES
The first three lines may be read without much difiiculty — it
is assumed that the two first letters were those of the word
Flaminius, as Aminius is not found elsewhere as a Koman
name.
i^'Zaminius Titi Pollionis iilius an
norum xxxxv, stijiendiorum xxii, miles legionis
FII gemince, militavit aquili/er, nunc hie situs est
We learn from it that this was the tomb of Flaminius, son of
Titus PoUio, a soldier of the seventh legion. The rest of the
inscription is more diflficult, for some of the letters are erased,
362 URIOONIUM
and several are very doubtful. It may be seen at once that it
consists of hexameters, and professor M'Caul of Toronto has
proposed the following reading :
Perlegite et felices vita plus minus justa ;
Omnibus eequa lege iter est ad Tsenara Ditis.
Vivite, dum Stygius vitae dat tempus honeste.
363
CHAPTER XL
THE MOST RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT WROXETER.
After the discoveries described in the preceding chapters,
the excavations were discontinued during several years,
chiefly in consequence of want of funds. This state of
things continued until the summer of the year 1867. In
the autumn of that year the British Archaeological Associa-
tion held its annual congress at Ludlow, and in anticipation
of that event my esteemed and liberal friend, Mr. Joseph
Mayer, of Liverpool, whose services to archaeology are so
well kno"ftTi, sent a contribution of fifty pounds towards
new excavations at Wroxeter, which had been selected as
the place to be visited by the Association on one of the
days of the meeting. The results of the researches pursued
with Mr. Mayer's gift, possess considerable interest. They
will be better understood by reference to the following
plan, drawn by our artist, Mr. Hillary Davies.
In a former chapter,* I have described traces of a room
adjoining that which we called the Enameller's Shop, and I
have there stated the reason which had induced us to leave
it unexplored. It was my wish that we shoald begin the
new excavation by uncovering this room, and this was agreed
to, and a few men were set to work upon it. They soon
found that it was a square room, of nearly the same dimen-
sions as the Enameller's Shop, and closely resembling it in
* See before p. 164 oi the present Tolume.
364
URICONIUM.
other particulars. In the annexed plan the Enameller's
Shop is marked by the letters aa, while cc marks the
^
1
room to which I am now calling attention. It extended
from the northern wall of the former to the sonttiern
URICONIUM. 365
boundary wall of the Basilica, (the continuation of the Old
Wall), which formed its northern side. This room also
proved to have been a workshop of objects in metal, and
has in its centre a square platform of masonry similar in
dimensions and character, and no doubt intended for the
same purpose, as that in the middle of the Enameller's
Shop. In one corner of this room we find the remains of
a low flight of steps, which appear to have been connected
with some raised -place for work, and at the other end of
this side of the apartment, at f, there is an irregular block
of building, which has evidently been a furnace. Here
many fragments of vitrified earthy and metallic substances,
or slag, were found scattered about, and not far from the
furnace lay the bowl end of an iron ladle, which had evi-
dently been used for melting. The present floor of this apart-
ment consists, as was the case at least in a great part of the
former chamber, of pure red sand, over which lay formerly
another floor of concrete, about eight inches thick, which,
however, has been removed. Fragments of pottery, and
various other objects of little importance, were found in
digging into this apartment, and among them several Eoman
coins in large bronze, including specimens of the emperors
Trajan and Hadrian and of the empress Faustina. This
room is marked cc in the plan.
Adjoining this room, to the east, was a long room (gg in
the plan), which had been opened to some extent in our
former excavations, but it was now entirely cleared out. It
is five feet wide at one end and six at the other, and
seventy-one feet long. It separates the room I have been
describing from the room which has been supposed to repre-
sent pubHc latrinse.* About fifteen feet from the narrowest
end of the inclosure gg, and two feet six inches below the
level of the adjoining chamber, there is a singular opening
* See pp. 147, 148, of the present volume.
366 URICONIDM.
in the wall, ten inches high and six inches wide. "The
contents of this chamber or pit," Dr. Johnson observes,
" were very peculiar, and unlike common soil. On analysis,
they yielded distinct traces of ammonia, and a considerable
quantity of alkaline phosphates. Traces of ammonia and
phosphates might be expected in garden soU or in that
of the surface of a well-manured field ; but I think the
abundant presence of these matters in earth taken from a
depth of several feet is almost a proof of my conjecture
that this was a cess-pool ; and it is another confirmation
of this conclusion that it would receive the overflowings of
the adjacent latrinae by the opening which I have described.
In this pit, or cess-pool, if I may so designate it, many
curious things were picked up. Among them was a bronze
head of a lion, very well made, which had probably been
the hilt of a sword or dagger; and a beautiful red cornelian
signet-ring, with an engraved device, in intaglio." This
device will be seen in the accompanying cut. It represents
two parrots standing on blocks or perches, Avith their beaks
approaching each other over a vase placed in the centre of
the design.*
After opening out this ancient cess-pool, the
excavation in the latrinse was continued, and
the results have fuUy comfirmed the justice of
the name we formerly gave to this part of gj^^t j;ijj„ jo^^^
the buildings. The long interrupted black line atwroxeter.
in the plan marks the division between the ground excavated
on the former occasion, and that which was uncov-
ered in these more recent excavations. I will here
again speak in the words of Dr. Johnson, who was a
much more continuous observer of these new operations
than myself. " On the one side of the paved floor (the
* It ia to be regretted that this signet ring was stealthily carried away from the Museum at
Shrewsbury by a i-isitor who happened to be present when it was brought, before it could be
placed in the case designed for it.
UKICONIUM.
367
herring-bone pavement described before), and at a lower
level, there is a very well formed and deep narrow drain
(iij, part of which was discovered and laid open in our
excavations. After it was made, there appears to have been
some alteration or repair necessary, and a cross-wall has
been built right across it CjJ, and it is not easy to discover
how or where it emptied itself. But to our great surprise^
we found, on digging down towards the foundation of the
wall of the Basilica at bb, at a depth of about nine feet,
that instead of a solid wall we got into a regular drain or
sewer, so large that one might creep up it for some dis-
tance each way. There is no doubt that the drain (iiJ just
mentioned, and one which was discovered and still remains
open in the Public Baths, have both terminated in this great
trunk. On the other side of the herring-bone pavement, deep
in this ground, we traced a small wall running near the
outer wall of this apartment. There is no doubt, therefore
that there was a drain on this side as on the other, and I
have already stated that there is a free passage from this
drain into the great cess-pool bb. Before making the recent
excavations, no doorway to the latrinse (hh) was known, but
now a good and wide one, with two well-made steps, much
worn, has been uncovered (jj). Some other walls to the east
of this building, especially about mm, have been laid open,
but nothing definite has been made out."
I had formerly supposed that the latrinae had been entered
from the passage on the south side of the Basilica, by a door-
way which we discovered in the walls, with its step, at an
earher period of our excavations. It is now shown, how-
ever, that this doorway, which has been uncovered at K, led
into what seems to be a prolongation of the Ambulatorium
of the Baths, and that it was from this open space that
the latrinee were entered by the steps and passages at it.
Such are, briefly described, the results of the last exca-
368 UKICONIUM.
vations on the site of Uriconium. The buildings which
now remain uncovered, and which we have permission to
keep open permanently, may thus be described as follows.
They cover a square piece of ground nearly 260 feet from
east to west, and about 180 from north to south. To the
north it is bounded by the wall of the Eoman Basilica, and
southward it was separated by a street from the masses
of private habitations. All the eastern portion of the
inclosed space forming nearly a square of little less than
200 feet, constituted no doubt the public baths of Eoman
Uriconium. The line of walls forming the western boundary
of the buildings uncovered, and running along the line of
the Watling Street Eoad, formed the eastern side of the
Eoman Forum, and the space between this line and the
buildings of the Baths, contained first, on the south, a
Market Place, which has been fvilly described in a former
chapter ; next, an opening surrounded apparently with walls
but which has not yet been uncovered ; beyond this, the
two shops described in this present chapter, the last of which
joined to the walls of the Basilica ; and, finally, the public
latrinse and other conveniences which filled up the space
between the shops and the walls of the Baths. In all this
we have a very wonderful illustration of the history and
condition of a great town in Britain under the Eoman
government, and one, the importance of which, in the light
it throws upon the political and social history of our island
under the Eomans, cannot be over-estimated. But we have
stUl only a small part of the historical information which
we shall, no doubt, gain as the excavations on the site of
the ancient city advance further.
END.
APPENDICES,
Y
371
APPENDIX No. I.
ON" THE DATE OF THE DESTEUCTION OF UEICONIUM,
AND ON THE POET LLYWARCH HEN.
(See p. 70 of the present volume).
SoilE portion of the text of the present volume to which this
Appendix refers, was printed a few years ago as an extract in
one of the volumes of the Archmologia Gamlreiisis, where it
provoked a rather rude attack from, the pen of Mr. Stephens, of
Merthyr Tydvil. Mr. Stephens applied to my arguments an elaborate
criticism couched in terms and in a form which provoked me to
be a little more severe in my reply than is customary with me,
but I think it well to reprint it here nearly as it was written.
I will not enter into any examination of Mr. Stephens's introductory
remarks on the principles of criticism, because there are many ques-
tions involved in them. A wise man believes in nothing until he has
satisfied himself that it is truth. This is the ground of all criticism.
When a Uterary production professing to be ancient, is found only
in a modern manuscript, it has always been assumed that the test of
its authenticity must be sought in internal evidence; and that is
the only test to which I appeal. The e^ddence which I have
adduced against the poem of Llywarch Hen would have been fatal to
any book pretending to be an authentic monument of classical anti-
quity. Perhaps Mr. Stephens has forgotten that there was a certain
Greek of late date, who took into his head to personate the tyrant
Phalaris, and to write letters in his name, in which people believed
:372 UBTOONIUM.
until the mask was torn from the imposter in a very satisfactory
manner by one of onr greatest classical scholars. It is one of many
cases in point. We shall see how far Mr. Stephens has weakened
my evidence against Lly warch Hen by his examination of it. I will
also pass over his remarks on the antiquity of rhymes, because I do
not think he has added anything new to the subject, and I had
not adopted it as a part of the argument I adduced against the poem
in question. With this same desire of saving space, I offer no
introductory remarks of my own, but will proceed at once to the
examination of the strictures of Mr. Stephens on my evidence, which
rested chiefly on the fact that the writer of this poem knew localities
only by the modern forms of their Anglo-Saxon names, and that he
misunderstood and mistranslated these in a manner which could
only be done by one living about the beginning of the fifteenth
century, or perhaps a little earlier. I cannot say that Mr. Stephens
is very fortunate in the first case he handles. He saj's —
" ]Mr. Wright asserts that ' Y drev Wen,' or ' white town,' of the
poem, is a translation from Wittington ; and that the latter does not
signify a 'white town,' but the residence of a family of Withingas or
AVittiugas. For this we have only the assertion of Mr. Wright, and
are asked to accept that as being all-sufficient ; but I for one de-
siderate something more. The correspondence between the Welsh
and English names far outweighs, in my judgment, the denial of
]\Ir. Wright ; and renders it of but little, if any, value unless he
can support it h-j specific evidence that there were Wittingas in
this locality. He must, moreover, prove them to have been numer-
ous ; for there are similar names in many other places, and Ave
should have to conclude that not only two other places in Shrop-
shire, Whitchurch, and Whittington, near Oswestry, but also Whitby,
Whitehaven, Whithern, and Whitchurch, in Glamorganshire, and
many other places, are so called from families of Wittingas. Several
of these names occur where the Saxons never were ; of others we
know the origin to be quite different ; and with reference to the
case in question, we happen to have a parallel instance where there
can be no doubt of the priority of the Welsh name. When Howel
Dda was about to revise the laws of Wales, he summoned the
learned men of the Principality to meet at Y Ty Gwyn ar Dav.
This irame appears in the oldest MS. of the Welsh Laws, Avhich is
UEICONIUM.
373
affirmed by Mr. Anevirin Owen to be as old as the early part of
the tweKth century —iu fact, the oldest Welsh in existeirce (Preface,
p. xxyi. Laws pp. iii. and iv.) ; but the place is now only known
under the English name of Whitland. Here it is evident that the
Flemish settlers in Pembrokeshire have translated the older Kymric
name ; and it is to me equally clear that Wittington, ' between the
Tern and Eodington" [the Eoden ?], is a Saxon name for
' Y drev wen rhwng Tren a ThrocUvydd.' "
I feel a little difficulty in meeting this first assault on my posi-
tion. If you should tell a person who had not been instructed in
astronomy that an eclipse of the moon was caused by the position
of the earth between its sateUite and the sun, and he should reply
that he had only "your assertion" for it, which he would not ac-
cept, you might perhaps thinlc the reply rather rude, but would
probably recommend him to learn astronomy. I am sorry to say
that, in the present case, it is the best answer I can give to Mr.
Stephens. Let him go and learn the subject ; and for this purpose I
can recommend him very conscientiously the chapter on "The Mark"
in Kemble's Saxons hi England. Any one acquainted with the
Anglo-Saxon language and the antiquities of the Anglo-Saxons,
knows that all these names ending in "-ington," "-ingham," etc.,
are formed of patronymics of families or clans, and form a very
important characteristic of the primitive Teutonic system in the
distribution of land. I have said nothing about any "Wittington,"
for there is no place so called between the Tern and the Eoden.
The place alluded to by the composer of this Welsh Elegy is With-
ington. It is a name which, like that of Whittington also, has
no relation whatever to Whitchurch, or Whitby, or Whitehaven,
or Whitland, or any name of place which is designated by the
epithet "white," although it is evident that this Welsh translator
of it thought that it had. His mistake was one into which
most people fell during the centuries which followed the Norman
period; but Mr. Stephens is mistaken in supposing tliat I am
answerable for the discovery of the truth. The error was excusable ^
in the pretended Llywarch Hen, as he had nobody to teach him
better; but it is not excusable in his modern champion, who
could so easily have made himself acquainted with the truth,
374 TJEICONIUM.
" Withington" signifies the "tun" or inclosed place (residence or
not) of the Withingas ; " Whittingham," the home or manor house
of the Wittingas. Kemble, in his tables of " Marks," has both
these names. The Withingas are found in places named -With-
ington in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Lan-
cashire, and Staffordshire ; the Wittingas in places named Whitting-
ton in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire,
Shroxjshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Derbyshire, and Norfolk;
and in Whittingham in Lancashire and Northumberland. In this
first case, therefore, instead of " having disposed of my arguments,"
as he asserts rather confidently, Mr. Stephens has run his head into
a blunder by rashly engaging in a subject with which he had not
first made himself acquainted. Tliere can be no doubt whatever
that the so-called Llywarch Hen's " Y drev Wen" is a mere mis-
translation of Withington.
In my remarks to which Mr. Stephens's criticisms refer, I had
said : ■>
" Tlie writer of this Elegy further tells us that ' the sod of ErcaU
is on the ashes of fierce men of the progeny of Morial ' :
' Tywar, cen Ercal ar ar dywal
■^ Wyr, edwedd Morial.'
This is also an Anglo-Saxon name, and the bard seems not to
have been aware that the modern Ercal was only a corruption of
the original name of Ercalewe or Arcalewe,— meaning, of course,
Erca's ' low' ; and this name is constantly found from the time of
the Domesday Survey to near the end of the fourteenth century,
before which period the corrupted form of the word could hardly
have been used. A -wTiter of the age ascribed to Llywarch Hen
could not have known the name at all ; and if he had written at
any time after the name existed, and before the fourteenth century,
he would have known it better."
To this I added in a note, —
" It is probable, from the name, that there was a large ' low,' or
sepulchral tumulus, at Ercal, which gave rise to the minstrel's
notice of the " fierce men " having been buried there ; bu.t in all
probability it was a, Eoman barrow."
It appears to me that the meaning of these lines is sufficiently
clear, and I cannot imagine how aiiybody could make out of them
URICONIUM. 375
the confusion and nonsense which are contained in the following cri-
ticism : a confusion which I will not attempt to unravel any further
than by observing that Mr. Stephens has made me find things in
Domesday, and make other statements, of which I Dever dreamt : —
"Mr. Wright remarks that Ercal is an Anglo-Saxon name; that
it is a corruption of Erca's-low, or burial-mound ; that Erca's-low
was not really Erca's-low at aU, but a Eonian barrow ; and that this
name Erca, or Area (Mr. Wright uses both), is frequently found
in the time of the Domesday Survey, and from thence to the end
of the fourteenth century, ' before which period the corrupted form
of the word could hardly have been used' by the author of Mm-wnad
Cyndyllan. Let us examine these assertions. We are first told
that Ercal in its entirety, including the final I, is an Anglo-Saxon
name ; then, in the same breath, that it is not a true Saxon name,
but a corruption of an imaginary Saxon phrase ; which phrase, in
its turn, is assumed to be an imaginary and erroneous description
of an imaginary Eoman barrow; and finally, that Erca and Ercal
are identical names ! After this curious reasoning and final begging
of the cpestion, Mr. Wright takes a leap of four centuries, and
finds the name Ercad, not Ercal, in the Domesday Survey. Thence
he concludes the name is Saxon, that it could not have been
British, and that it coidd not have been named by Llywarch Hen.
This, again, is very singular argument. It is as cogent as if we
were to say that the name David occurs as the author of the Psalms,
that David Jones is a common name in Wales ; ergo, that David
is an exclusively Welsh name, and that the Psalms are forgeries.
But to meet Mr. Wright more directly. I deny that the names
Erca and Ercal are identical, and that the occurrence of the name
Erca in Domesday Book is conclusive evidence of its Saxon character.
The presumption is, that neither Erca nor Ercal were Saxon names ;
for during the six centuries of Saxon domination these names do
not once occur," etc., etc.
I can go on copying no longer matter so wide of the question,
"or so Little matter of fact. As will be seen in my original observa-
tions upon Ercal, I have found none of these names in Domesday
Book; and when Mr. Stephens examines that record he wUl not
find them there. He says that there was a Welsh chief named
Aircol, and that there was another called Airgol. I may add thai
376 T7EIC0NIUM.
there is a chief called the Duke of Argyll at the present day, who
has quite as much to do with the name of Ercall as the two
worthies mentioned by Mr. Stephens. The latter goes on to say, —
" Moreover, Mr. Wright is involved in this further dif&culty. The
poet says that ' the sod of Ercal covers the ashes of brave men' ;
but cremation was not practised after the Norman conquest, neither
were men buried under tumuli. He has endeavoured to evade the
force of this objection by saying that the barrow was probably
Eoman; but he thereby destroys his own argument. And further,
there must have been two Eoman barrows, and both misnamed ;
for there are two Ercals in Shropshire, — High Ercal and ChUd's
Ercal. Here again Mr. Wright misses the mark."
Why Mr. Stephens supposes that I believe in cremation " after
the ISTorman conquest," I cannot even guess ; but I am quite aware
that there are two Ercalls, and I could even oblige Mr. Stephens
with a third ; though I am not aware that there is anything remark-
able in the fact of several places bearing the same name. And I
have no objection to the two barrows ; for I believe there may
have been more than two within these two Ercalls, inasmuch as
there was a place called Shurlow in High Ercall. As Mr. Stephens
appears to be astonished at the variations in forms of names, I have
no objection to indulge him in a few more. At various dates the
name of High Ercall appears in records under the following forms.
I have only selected a few examples from many:
Archelou, Domesday Herkelawe, 1208 Erkalue, 1256
- Ercalou, llth cent. Hercalewe, 1229 Erkalwe, 1271
Harchaloua, 1141 Ercalue, 1235 Erkelewe, 1272
Herchaluu, 1160 Ercalew, 1240 Ercalwe, 1300
Arcalun, 11G4 Erkalewe, 1245 Ercaluwe, 1315
Ercalew, 1175, 1186 Ercalowe, 1249 Ercalwe, 1331
Erkalewe, 12>th cent. Ercalew, 1253 Ercalowe, 1387
Harcalua, 1212 Hercalue, 1255 Ercalwe, 1397
I think it necessary to give a still smaller selection of examples
witli regard to Little or ChUd's Ercall :
Arcalun, Domesday Hercalewe, 1255 Erkalewe, 1280
Arkelau, 1200 Erkalue, 1272 Ercalewe 1339
TJRICONIUM. 377
The Arcalun of 1164 in the first list, and of the Domesday Survey
in the second, are no doubt eiTors of the Norman scribes, who
mistook a u for an n. Now anybody who has even but a small
acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon language, and any acquaintance
with the topographical monienclature of Shropshire and Hereford-
shire, knows that all these forms represent a pure Anglo-Saxon
form like Erce-hlsew or Erca-hhew. Tlie meaning of the second
part of this compound word is indisputable ; and it is, in its English
form "low," one of the most common terminations of oiu- local
names, such as Ludlow, Munslow, Wormlow, etc. Such names are
very common in Shropshire and Herefordshire, because the large
sepulchral mounds from which they arose, were and are scattered
thickly over those two counties. As far as my researches have
gone, I believe them to be aU of the Eoman period. With the
first part of the word there is more diflficulty, which is often the
case vfith the attempt to explain these early names of places : but
when Mr. Stephens asserts so positively that it is not Saxon, I fear
he oversteps a little the limits of his knowledge ; for the first book
I take up, Kemble's Codex Anglo-Saxonicus, gives me an Anglo-
Saxon charter which mentions a place named Erce-combe in the
heart of the kingdom of Wessex. The circumstances which gave
rise to the name are now often forgotten. Wormlow means the
"dragon's tumulus"; and there was no doubt connected with it a
legend of a dragon. Ludlow was supposed to be the " mound of
the people," either because a rather numerous population had settled
round, or because people resorted (perhaps for some sort of celebra-
tions) to the hrU. on which it stood ; but it has now been discovered
that the Saxon name of the place was L^idc, and that its name
signifies the " low of Lude." The first part of our name may have
been ere or arc, a chest or coffer (an ark). I Ijelieve that many, if
not most, of the sepulchral deposits in these " lows" have been
originally placed ia wooden chests Avhich have perished through
the effects of time ; and the discovery of the chest in a barrow
might have given it its distinctive name. But still I am more
inclined to think that Erca or Area represents a man's name, which
la&y be that of some early proprietor of the spot, or a mythic name.
Mr. Stephens assumes very wrongly that I imagined it to be the
name of the man who was buried in it. This, however, is plain,
378 UEICONIUM.
that Ercall is only a late corruption of the mediaeval name, and
that the compiler of the Elegy only knew it in this late corrupted
form.
Mr. Stephens goes on to say :
"The next objection is to the name 'Frank,' where the poet says,
' the Frank would not have a word of peace from the mouth of
Caranmael.' These Franks, says Mr. Wright, were the Frenchmen
or Anglo-Normans. This passage has always occasioned doubts as
to the antiquity of this verse ; but it is by no means so assailable
as it seems. The Franks and Saxons in their early incursions were
alivays in alliance. Carausius, it wiU be found, was appointed to
defend the coasts of Britain from the attacks of both ; and when
he usurped the empire of Britain, he took them into his service.
He reigned chiefly by the help of Frankish warriors. (Lappenberg,
History of England, i. 45.) Again, his successor, Allectus, availed
himself largely of these allies, as we learn from Eumenius' address
to Constantius :
" ' Such, invincible Cassar, was the consent of the inmiortal gods
upon your achievements, that your destruction of the enemy, and
especially of those of them who were Franlcs, became most signal
and complete ; for when those of your soldiers, who had been
separated Ijy a fog from the others, arrived at the town of London,
they put to death in the streets of that city a large number of
that mercenary midtitude who had fled thither from the battle, and
hoped to escape and bear with them the plunder of that city.'
" The defeat of Allectus took place in the West, probably at
Campus jElecti, or Maesaleg in Monmouthshire. Would it be an
absurdity to suppose that some of them fled northward and settled
themselves on the Welsh border ? Half a century later, namely
in 364, we find that the Franks and Saxons infested the coast
of Gaul (Ammian. Marcellin., xxvii. 8), and prolahly of Britain also.
If they did this during the Eoman occupation, would they be
less likely to do so when the legions were withdrawn ? As they
had been in alliance M'ith the Saxons up to that time, would thej- not
be likely to participate with them in the conquest of Britain ?
Lappenlierg thinks they did. ' Of the participation of the Franks
there exist sonie, tjiough not sufficiently specific accounts. Tlie
same may lie obscr^'ed of the Longoliards. Little doubt can, how-
URICONIUM. 379
ever, be entertained regarding either the one or the other, as we
elsewhere, in similar undertakings, find Saxons united with Franks
and Longohards.' {History of England, i. 99.) As a necessary
consequence, the earlier settlers would be forced westwards, and we
accordingly ought not to be surprised to find Franks on the Welsh
border. That there was such a settlement in Shropshire is all but
certain ; for do we not find even noiu a Franktoiun, — an English
Frankton and a Welsh Frankton — in the very district to which
the Elegy of Cynddylan refers. The occurrence of the name Frank
indicates an unsuspected historic fact. It is not a reason for deny-
ing the antiquity of the poem."
There is so much confusion and historical blunder in all this,
that I have thought it best to repeat Mr. Stephens's observatioDS
in full ; and I wdl endeavour to give him a little more information
than he seems to possess about the Franks. Dr. Lappenberg did
think that the Franks took some part in the invasion of Britain ; but
he would not have thought so if he had examined his authorities
more carefully ; and Mr. Stephens has made a number of state-
ments which Lappenberg cotdd not have made, and for which there
is no authority whatever. In the time of Carausius the Franks had
only newly advanced from the interior of Europe, had reached the
banks of the Ehine, and were pressing hard upon the frontier of
the Eoman province of Gaid. The Eomans, according to their
practice iu the decline of the empire, endeavoured to avert their
hostility by taking them into their pay and giving them lands, and
only made them more dangerous. It is hardly necessary to say
that the Franks were not seamen ; but when they carae upon the
Ehiae and the Scheldt they soon saw the advantage of predatory
excursions in boats, by which they cordd come quickly and unex-
pectedly on any point of attack ; and they were very glad to ally
themselves with the Saxons, who were the best and boldest sailors in
the world, and thus extend their ravages along the coasts of Gaul,
which was the province on which their eyes were riveted. The empe-
ror appoiuted Carausius to the command of a fleet to protect the
coasts of Belgian and Armorican Gaul against these attacks. Eutro-
pius says: "Per tractum Belgicce et Armoriccc ...quod Franei ct Sax-
ones infestabant" ; and Orosius, " Oceani littora, qncc tunc Franei et
Baxones infestabant." " Oceani littora" of course meant the coasts of
380 TJRICONIUM.
the Continent. The naval station of Carausius for this purpose was
Boulogne. There is not the slightest intimation that the coasts of
Britain were attacked or threatened ; and it is not likely that the
Franks, who were unaccustomed to the sea, should go out upon it in
search of adventures, when all their designs were upon Gaul. Mr.
Stephens seems to forget that the empire usurped by Carausius in-
cluded Gaul as well as Britain ; and that in fact Gaul, in face of Eome,
formed at first the most important part of it. He had there naturally
taken the Franks into his pay ; and it was there, if anywhere, that he
reigned chiefly by them, "^^^len he was driven from Boulogne by
Constantius, it appears from the account of Eumenius that he car-
ried with him to Britain a body of Frankish troops, which remained
"with his murderer and successor, Allectus. The naval station, and
the head quarters of these usurpers, was in the Southampton "\*^ater,
— no doubt at Bittern, — and it was there that Constantius went to
seek them. The notion that the battle took place to the west, in
Monmouthshire, is a mere stroke of the imagination. It is quite
clear from the narrative of Eumenius, who lived at the time, and
must have been perfectly well acquainted with these transactions,
that Allectus retreated from Southampton towards London, with the
intention of plundering that city, and then escaping to the Conti-
nent ; that he was o^'ert-aken before he reached that place ; and
that the battle took place so near to it that the victorious troops
of Constantius entered the town along with, or immediately after,
the fugitives. The former appear to have wreaked theii vengeance
especially upon the Frankish auxiliaries of the usurper ; and this
is the only known instance of Franks having Ijeen introduced into
this island during the Pioman period. There is no authority what-
ever for stating that the Franks and Saxons had been ahcai/s in
alliance, or that they had ever joined in the invasion of Britain.
But Mr. Stephens finds a proof of their presence on the Welsh
border in the name of Franktown. I can add to his evidence on
this point, that there is a Frankwell (anciently and correctly Frank-
ville) adjoining to Shrewsbury; and I am afraid, if we trace the
Franks by such names, we might find them all over the island.
But Mr. Stephens has fallen into a very singular mistake ; and I
fear that I must venture upon offering him a little information on
medireval antiquities. The feudal princes and great barons of the
URICONIUM. , 381
middle ages soon learnt to appreciate tlie value to tlieir treasuries
of encouraging commerce on their domains. It was tlie best way
of obtaining that rare and important article in the middle ages —
cash. Hence they tried to draw merchants to their lauds by estab-
lishing little towns with freedom and privileges, either commercial
or sometiaies municipal, hj which they might be attracted; and
such places were usually denominated in France by the name of a
francheviUe, or free town. In England, where the Anglo-Norman
dialect and the English were oddly intermixed, the form which the
name took was Frankville or Frankton. On the borders of Wales,
where two hostile races met, and at the same time felt the need
of commercial intercourse, such privileged towns were especially
necessary ; and Frankwell held such a position in regard to
Shrewsbury, and Frankton for Ellesmere. The latter is called Fran-
chetone in the Bomesdaij Survey. The names had not the slightest
relation to any Franks who had come from Germany with the
Anglo-Saxons, and who had helped to destroy Uriconium. Much
more absurd would it be to suppose that there were Frankish troops
engaged in Shropshire against the Welsh in the sixth century,
when, according to some, Llywarch Hen flourished ; or in the
seventh, when he flourished, according to Mr. Stephens. Moreover,
it is evident from the Elegy that these were permanent and much
hated enemies.
But if Mr. Stephens will take the trouble to look over the Domes-
day Survey for the border counties, he wiLL understand how the
Franks came on the borders of Wales ; and in the Welsh records
of the three or four centuries following, he will see whom the
Welsh understood by the Franks they hated so much. I need only
refer to almost every page of the useful edition of the Chronicle of
Caradoc of Lkmcarvan, given with the same number of the
Archosologia C'ambrensis, in which Mr. Stephens's remarks appear.
It is quite evident that when the composer of this Elegy used
the name of Franks, he was thinking of the Norman barons ;
and that he could not, therefore, be a man who lived in the sixth
or seventh century.
We may draw from all this a moral which might, perhaps,
deserve the attention of Mr. Stephens, that any one who intends
to write critically should not take his autorities at second hand.
382 DRICONIUM.
and on the representations of others, but study them with care in
the originals.
Mr. Stephens has discovered that the Tren of the composer of
the Elegy is a different place from XJriconium. He asks, — " As Uri-
conium is on the hanks of the Severn, would not the author of the
poem have named it Havren rather than Tren; the latter river
being further from it, — in fact, half a mile away ?" I answer, with-
out hesitation, No ! Towns rarely took their names from a large
river, unless they stood at its mouth ; but usually from a small one.
A large river like the Severn gives no name distinctive of the
locality of the town; and there might be twenty different places
Trtdth an equal claim to the same name. But the objection is met
at once by the fact that nearly all our old topographers speak of
Uriconium as standing near, or at, the confluence of the Tern with
the Severn ; and that was evidently the reason why the composer
of the legend called it Tren. After some other remarks of no
importance, Mr. Stephens proceeds :
" Mr. Wright has here fallen into three errors ; for it so happens
that the poet did know Uriconium under its proper designation ;
that he names Tren as a distinct and different town ; and that he
locates it to the north and west of the Tern, and not half a
mile southward. He gives us to understand that the enemy who
destroyed Tren crossed, or came through, the Tern, — evidently from
the east. Here, then, the critic, so far from convicting the poet
of ignorance, has only exliibited his own mistakes. He has more-
over missed a conclusive argument in favour of his own view of
the date of the destruction of Uriconium; for not only did the
poet know this Eoman town by its proper designation, but he
also bears distinct testimony to the fact that it was then a ruin, —
that in the first half of the seventh century Uriconium was a city
of the past. It is singular that so significant a verse as the
following should have been overlooked :
" 'ISTeur Syllais o Ddinlle Vrecon
Freuer werydre
Hiraeth am danunorth brodyrdde.'
Have I not gazed from the site of the city of Wrecon
Upon the lands of Freuer,
"With sorrow for brotherly support.
UEICONIUM. 883
I cau assure Mr. Stephens that I had not overlooked these
verses ; but I was fully convinced, as I am still convinced, that
they had no relation to Uriconium. Bin-lie, says Mr. Stephens,
means a place where a city had been. If he wiU take the trouble
of going up to the top of the Wrekin, which is enclosed with
ancient and strong entrenchments, he will have no difficulty in
understanding what the composer of the Elegy meant by " the site
of the city," and why the composer chose that spot for overlooking
the lands of anybody which lay within a considerable distance
around. I am not aware what Welsh name there may be for the
Wrekin ; but it is singular enough that the bard who has per-
sonated Llywarch Hen has got hold of the Anglo-Saxon name of
it, which was Wrecon and Wrecen. This is surely a reply to Mr-
Stephens's odd remark in an earlier part of this paper, — " Welsh-
men do not know any difficulties of pronunciation. They can
sound Wrekin without dropping the iy, and pronouncing it 'Eekin';
and old Llywarch Hen could do what most Englishmen cannot,
viz. sound ' Uricon ' as a word of two syllables." I think there
can be no doubt that the Tren of the Elegy was intended to
represent Uriconium. Knowing the course of the river, I confess
I have a difficulty in conceiving what can have been the shape or
magnitude of a town which stood "to the north and west of the
Tern," unless it formed an immense crescent two or three miles in
extent ; nor can I understand why the enemy " evidently came from
the east." It seems, on the contrary quite clear that fighting is
intimated to have taken place at ErcaU (High ErcaU) and at
Withington ; and I hardly need say that these two places are
nearly in a line north from Wroxeter, — the direction of invasion
by the Northumbrian Angles which must have been most familiar
in the old Welsh traditions. Now in this direction from ErcaU,
you cross the Eoden to Withington, and from Withington yoio
cross the, Tern to Wroxeter. It seems to me that Mr. Stephens
has rather lost himself among my " errors " and " mistakes."
, Let us now proceed to Mr, Stephens's notable story about Bassa
and his church. I have said that Bassa is an Anglo-Saxon name,
and that Bassa's church was an Anglo-Saxon foundation; and argue,
therefore, as Christianity was only introduced into Mercia in 655,
this church could not have existed %vithin a hundred years after
384 URICONIUM.
the period when Llywarch Hen is usually understood to have
written. In addition to this instance of the name of Bassa occur-
ring in Mercia, we find it in the seventh century in ISTorthumbria
and in Kent. Mr. Stephens denies that Bassa was an Anglo-Saxon
name; but let us hear what he has to say on the subject:
" In the Anglo-Saxon Chronich we read thus : ' a.d. 699. — This
year King Egbert (of Kent) gave Eeculver to Bass, the mass-priest
that he might buUd a minster thereon' This Bas, whom Gaimar's
Chronicle names Bas, viay have been the 'Bassus miles ^duini'
who fled with Paulinus from Northumbria to Kent, on the death of
Edwin, in 633. Beinff the friend of Pauliaus he mai/ have been, as
the name indicates, a Eoman or Italian, and way have come over with
him in 601. As the missionaries soon after separated, and found
independent spheres of labour, — Mellitus and Justice to the East
Saxons and Eochester in 604, and Paulinus to the Northumbrians
in 625, — so Bassus may have fixed himself on the Welsh border
at an early period, and have emigrated northward to join Paulinus,
after the fall of Cynddylan, and on the outbreak of hostilities
between Edwin and Cadwallon. Bede's statement that Bassus was
a soldier of Edwin's laeks the appearanee of truth, and may be
simply a conjecture, as it seems to be at variance with the statement
of the A.-S. Chron. The Mercian Bassa may have been named in
honour of the Itahan ; and as the latter was a church builder in
his old age, so in his earlier years he m,ay have been ambitious to
found a Eoman church on the Welsh border."
The words printed in italics are all either statements without any
foundation, or equally unfounded suppositions, originating only in
Mr. Stephens's rather fertile imagination. Not one of these " may-
bes" has the slightest shadow of a fact to rest on. But why Bede's
statement should be questioned is to me a complete mystery. Bede
is imiversally acknowledged to be one of the most careful and
accurate historians the middle ages have left to us. He was writing
about his own coimtry, Northumbria, with the affairs of which he
was especially well acquainted ; and these events were then so
recent that he was no doubt acquainted with people who had
been eye-witnesses or lived at the time. He was an ecclesiastic
writing ecclesiastical history; and it is ridiculous to suppose that, in
such a case, he could have mistaken an ecclesiastic for a warrior;
UKICONIUM. 385
and it must be further remarked that his account is perfectly coherent
and natural. After the slaughter of king Edwin in the fatal battle of
Haethfeld in 633, there was no safety in Northumbria for any of the
members of his family, and accordingly the queen Ethelburga fled
to Kent with Paulinus, to whose charge her father had entrusted
her, and who was her spiritual adviser. And Bede goes on to say
that they travelled under the conduct of a most powerful warrior
of king Edwin's, named Bassus, who was carrying away from
danger the royal children, ( Venit aittcm illuc duce Basso, militc
regis JEduini fortissimo.) The use of the word dux coupled with
miles, is sufficient to shew that Bassus and his followers formed a
military escort; and Bede says not a word to make us suppose that
he was a friend of Paulinus, or that there was any acquaintance
between them beyond that whicli would naturally exist between
two men of distinction living at the same court; it is a mere
fancy of Mr. Stephens. I cannot see how this can le at variance
with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which states, under the year 669
(not 699, as Mr. Stephens gives it), that king Egbert of Kent gave
Eeculver to a priest named Bass, "to buUd a monastery thereon."
It is quite evident that Bassus of Northumbria, and Bass the Kentish
priest, were two different persons ; and Mr. Stephens's notion that
the Kentish Bass was the man who went to the borders of "Wales to
found Baschurch, is not worth a moment's consideration. The Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle does not tell us that he was an old man, or that
he was a church-builder, or that his ambition in church-building
lay in the direction of the border of Wales. It simply represents
him as a pious Anglo-Saxon priest who wanted to found a monastic
establishment (a very common practice in those times) in what
was then a solitary place. We thus find the name of Bass in
Northumberland, again in Kent, and a third time in Mercia ; in
three very different localities, and among three different branches
of the Anglo-Saxon race. Surely this is a clear proof that the
name is Anglo-Saxon. But there is another and very decisive
j)roof, which Mr. Stephens has entirely overlooked. We find two
forms of the name, Bas and Bass, with its patronymic, among the
Anglo-Saxon settlers in this island ; for the Basingas hf ve left
their name at Basing and Basingstoke in Hampshire, and at Bas-
ingwerk in Flintshire; and the Bassingas at Bassingbourn in Cam-
z
386 URICONIUM.
bridgesliire, Bassingfield in Nottinghamshire, Bassingham and Bass-
ingthorpe in Lincohishire, and Bassington in JSTorthumberland.
Mr. Stephens has a theoiy about Baschurch T\4jich I can only
consider as childish. He propounds a doctrine which I cannot un-
derstand, that, supposing the Mercians were only converted to
Christianity in 655, "we are to reckon backwards from 655, and not
forward, if we wish to find Christians who might have built the
church," and illustrates it by some very irrelevant comparisons. He
says " it was a protected church in a Christian country," but gives no
authority for such a statement. In fact, there is no reason what-
ever for supposing that the church of Baschurch was as old as the
seventh century; for the earliest mention of it is the information
that it had been given, Ijefore the compilation of Domesday Book,
by earl Pioger de Montgomery to Shrewsbury Abbey. But Mr.
Stephens seems to assume, upon this notion of its being a "pro-
tected" church, that it was formded by some fugitive Anglian
Christian l:)efore the Mercians had made themselves masters of this
country. And then he has another theory, according to which he
places the death of Cynddylan, conmiemorated in this Elegy, in
the year 613 ; and thinks that the old bard may have lived on to
be a witness of the conversion of the Mercians in 655. This unlucky
bard, Ll}^varch Hen, would seem, by the manner in which he
gets from one date to another, to have been one of those slippery
individuals of whom the less said the better.
I think thus that aU my objections to the authenticity of
Llywarcli Hen's Elegy have been strengthened rather than weakened
by Mr. Stephens's attack. It is evident that the writer or com-
poser of it knew Withington only by its Anglo-Saxon name, and
that he mistranslated it as it could be mistranslated only at a
comparatively late period ; that he knew Ercall only by its late
and corrupted name; that he l^lundered equally in his allusion to
Baschurch ; that he knew nothing about the real history of the
destruction of Uriconium, and that he was even ignorant of its
name ; and that, to crown all, in his bitter feehng against the
Franks, or Norman lords marchers, he was betrayed into an allusion
to them which shews that he lived in their time, and not in that
of Cynddylan.
UETCONIUM. 387
These remarks received no reply ; but much more recently, in
1868 and 1869, they were attacked in a still more violent tone
by the Eev. E. Harries Jones, vicar of Llanidloes, in the first and
second volumes of the " Collections, Historical and Archceological,"
issued by an excellent association, the Powys-Land Club. I was
induced to offer some further remarks in defence of my opinion on
the character of the Elegy of Llywarch Hen, which it wHl perhaps be
well also to preserve here, and I therefore reprint them, with the
simple omission of most of that which owed its iatroduction only to a
little feeling of resentment at the uncourteous tone in which the
attack was conducted.
My long and rather careful investigations on the site of the
Eoman city of Uriconium, at Wroxeter, had led me to the opinion
that that city was destroyed in the earlier half of the fifth century
by some of the barbarians who had thrown themselves upon the
distant provinces of the Eoman Empire. The preceding remarks,
in reply to Mr. Stephens, had provoked the anger of the vicar of
Llanidloes. It is not my intention now to go again regularly into
the subject, but I wiU. try and give a little satisfaction to my
new and fiercer assailant. He may think, and be perfectly sure,
that there was no such place as Penguern, or Shrewsbury, in exist-
ence at the time when Uriconium was destroyed. Other allusions
might be pointed out which are equally unjustified, but I will
confine myself to names and allusions where the evidence is more
substantial, or ma^ be further displayed.
And first, as to the question about Baschurch, — the church, or
churches, of Bass, or Bassa, — I had asserted that Bassa was the
name of an Anglo-Saxon, and that our Baschurch was a Saxon
foundation, and therefore of a date subsequent to the Saxon Conquest.
Mr. Harries Jones himself, who seems to exult over his own
superior knowledge of Welsh, does not, as far as I can see, say
that it is a Welsh name; and supposing it were derived from
Eoman, it would have become purely Saxon long before the period
of Llywarch Hen. I beg to say that Bassa is, to all appearance,
a very good Anglo-Saxon name, to which, I believe, no Anglo-Saxon
would have objected, and I am sorry that in what I said upon this
name I seem to have failed to be fully understood by Mr. Harries
Jones. I will try to explain it more clearly and simply.
388 URICONIUM.
If our friend will recall his Greek, he will remember that there
was an individual, tolerably well known, who was called sometimes
Achilkus (Achilles), and sometimes Pdeides (the son of Peleus),
the first, the name given him at birth and distinguishing him
personally ; the other, teUing from whom he was descended, and
distinguishing him, as we should say, aristocratically. Another of
the heroes of Greek romance was called Odysseus, and Laertiades>
the latter name meaning the son of Laertes. Except in particiilar
cases, the second of these names was no doubt looked upon as
the most heroic, that is, the most aristocratic — and a freeman
prided himself, first of aU things, upon his descent. This aristo-
cratic feeling was very strong among aU the Teutonic race, and
especially among the Anglo-Saxons.* The same which was ex-
pressed by the Greek termination ides, or iades, was exactly
rendered in the Teutonic dialects by iiig. I need hardly say that
every prince of the first dynasty of the Franks, the descend-
ants of ]\Ieroveus (as he is called in Latin) was a Mero^dng,
and that every one of the family of Charlemagne was a Caiio^dng.
In the same way, the great Athelstan, and every other son, or
direct descendant, of king Alfred, was an Alfreding; and any prince
of royal blood generally was an atheling, because a'tJiel was the word
Avhich distinguislied royalty of descent. I may cite another well-
known example of the use of the patronymic. The Teutonic name
f(,)r war was vng, and a wanior was, in the Anglo-Saxon form, a
wic/a. Hence those who took to war as a profession received the
uauie of wifjings, literally children of war, or of the warrior, a
name which was given especially to those who conducted the pira-
tical expeditions, whether Danes or others. These, too, have left us a
a local name on our border, which appears to have been a favoiuite
resort, as it gave them a convenient sea-board, both to the north and
south. A well-known localitj^ in Llerefordshire formed perhaps a con-
venient central place for their encampment, and from this circum-
stance it received the name of Wiginga-mere, which, to judge from
the modern form of the word, signified probably the moor of
the Wigings. In the summer of 921, king Edward, the son of the
great Alfred, built a fortress here to put a check upon their inva-
* The same feeling 13 stUl in existence among us, and shows itself when we speak of
any one, however distinguished individually, as heing a Herbert, or a Howard, or a Percy,
but we have lost tli'^ patronymic.
UEICONITJM. 389
sions, and, as the Chronicle tells us, it did good service before the
summer was over. The original name has been in course of time
corrupted to Wigmore. No one, entitled among our Anglo-Saxon
forefathers to that termination, could be otherwise than Teutonic,
or, at the least, in the not very likely case that he belonged to
another race, he must have been thoroughly Saxonised, and have
gone through a long initiation, perhaps of more than one generation,
before he could have obtained the aristocratic right of giving the
patronymic to his family. I therefore said that the fact of 'finding
the name of Bassa in, at least, two branches and dialects of
the Anglo-Saxon family, is a tolerably good proof that it -was
an Anglo-Saxon name ; but that a still, stronger proof of this is
found in its possessing, from apparently a very early period, an
Anglo-Saxon patronymic in the families, or houses of the Bassin-
gas, and Basingas. I do not expect that Mr. Harries Jones wiU
make it out to be a Welsh name. But he has found out what
appears to me rather a childish difficulty : it was Bassa's churches,
he says, and not Bassa's church. There was more than one church
in " the same churchyard, therefore it was an early Welsh church.
I confess that I do not feel the weight of the argument, inasmuch
as I have seen churchyards ia England containing more than one
church, doubtless of pure English and Anglo-Saxon growth, and I
think, if it were worth the trouble, I could make out perhaps
as long a list as that he gives of the duplicate, or triplicate,
Welsh churches.
And now I will gladly leave our friend Bassa, for another knot
which Mr. Harries Jones has got entangled in, and which again
belongs to this question of Anglo-Saxon patronymics. There comes
another place into this notable Elegy, A^'hich, no doubt, derives its
name from an Anglo-Saxon lord, Ijut which the writer of the Elegy
misunderstood, and in a manner which points out a much later
date. As I have said, the Teutonic aristocratic feeling was very
strong among the Anglo-Saxons. Each great chieftain who at the
time of the early invasions, came here to conquer a settlement,
collected around him as many companions as he could, all, no
doubt, men of good famity, who came each with his own follo^^'er,«,
prepared to share the dangers, and to share the settlement. They
were exactly those younger sons of aristocratic families, who separ-
390 UKiCONICTM.
ated from their patriarchal home with the ambition of founding
families of their own. When the war and invasion of conquest
were over, each of these received his portion of land— often a good
large slice — and, as the distribution was no doubt made by lot,
one of them sometimes obtained two or three pieces of land, and
thus gained a settlement in more than one locality. On this groimd
lie immediately established his ham, or home ; or, if he happened
to have a taste for agriculture, or was more inclined to war, and
to be a man of power, he raised his tun, or inclosure, either an
inclosure of gardens and farmyard, or a fortified residence. (A ttm
was not always a place of residence.) This became the seat of
his family, after his death, as long as the family lasted, at least,
in his direct line ; and there is much evidence that the holding of
these family estates continued direct in the family, in many instances,
almost, if not qviite, down to the Iforman Conquest. Multitudes
of these estates are known even to the present day by the names of
the families whose founder obtained them in the original conquest.
The great pride of these primeval Anglo-Saxon chieftains was,
indeed, that of founding a family, to form a part of the new aristoc-
racy cf their race in Britain ; and the names which the estates
took were aU characteristic of this feeling ; of cou.rse, while the
first possessors held them, they must have borne their names ; but,
perliaps even Ijefore — at aU events, after their death — they were
considered as the family estate, and as belonging to the sons and
descendants. Thus some adventurous chieftain, named Wela, or
WeUa, obtained possession of estates in Shropshire, and established
a family honie wdtliin an inclosure of some kind or other, which
became, called from him, the tun, or inclosure, of the family, or sons,
of Wella, the WeUingas, or, in pure Anglo-Saxon, Wellinga-tun,
Wellington. Another chieftain, named Beorm, a fine Anglo-Saxon
name, established a family in a neighbouring county, and their
estates were in the same manner named from the piatronymic of
the family — Beorminga-ham, the home of the Beormingas, or sons
of Beorm — Birmingham. As I have said, one of the conquering
chieftains sometimes oljtained more than one share, and, probably,
sometimes chieftains of the same name joined in different expedi-
tions, and obtained lands in different parts of the island ; or
jiitIuijis, after gaining land in o))e part, the same cliieftain joined
URICONTUM. 391
personally another expedition, and gained land in another. Hence
the same local name occurs in different parts. Thus we have, at
least, four Wellingtons in England — one in our own county, just
mentioned ; another in Herefordshire, another in Sussex, and a fourth
in Somersetshire, from which last our great duke took his title.
I can give another example of this plurality of the same name,
beginning with our own county. Some chieftain, or perhaps more
than one chieftain, named Hwita, or Hwitta (or, as we should write
it in modernised form. White, or Whitt), obtained estates in several
localities. They have left the name in those of Whittingham
(Hwittinga-ham, the home of the Whittingas), in JsToithumberland ;
Whittington, near Oswestry, in Shropshire, a place famous in feudal
times ; Whittington, in Staffordshire ; Whittington, in Worcester-
shire ; Whittington, in Gloucestershire ; and, again, Whittington, in
ISTorthumberland, where we have already formd the Hwittingas at
Whittingham. Kobody who knows anything of Anglo-Saxon history,
or of the Anglo-Saxon language, can for a moment doubt the origin
and meaning of all these names. One of them, Withington, perhaps
only another form of Whittington, belongs to our subject, for
it is introduced, as I had remarked, into this Elegy of Llywarch
Hen long before there cordd have been any place with such a name
in Shropshire, or any wdiere near it ; and, which is worse, the supposed
writer of it had misunderstood the word in a manner in which it
could only have been misunderstood several centuries after he is
pretended to have -m-itten. He translates it the TVJdte Town !
Now, somebody has told ]\Ir. Harries Jones that these names ending
in ington may be corruptions. I have no objection to this plea.
Of course, it is a natural consequence when there is a certain
general rule of forms, that other forms, not very dissimilar, shoidd
be drawn erroneously, or accidentally, into the same form; every
law has its exception, for it is generally held that the exception is
the proof of the law ; but such an objection can only be admitted
when brought forward by those who can point out the corruption
itself and its causes. The case adduced is that of Huntingdon,
which is stated to be a corruption of Huntandun, meaning the
hunter's hill. Upon the strength of this we are told, as I understand
it, that Wliittington is not AVhittington, lait tliat it is a corruption
of something else, and that therefore, it, or Withington, nnist
392 URicoisritJM.
have been a Welsh establishment, which was veiy properly known
to our friend Llywarch Hen.
Kow, let us consider these pretended corruptions, and especially
this example of Huntingdon. In the first place, let me remark;
that a dun, a hill, is neither a ham (home) nor a tun (enclosed
residence), so that the case is not very well chosen. The objec-
tors say that Huntingdon is a corruption of Huntan-dun, the
hunter's hill. On the same principle, as I suppose, we are to
suppose that Wliittington is a corruption of Whitan-tun. I have
considerable doubt as to the corruption in the first place, nor can
I easily explain, if such were the case, why the name of Huntingdon
is found in full at a very early period : we find it, indeed, in the
history of Henry of Huntingdon, who "OTote in the earlier half of
the twelfth century, and who is, I believe, the first who gives this
explanation of it. He says that " Huntingdon" meant the "hill of the
hunters," which, of course, could not be correct, as it wordd mean " the
hill of the sous of the hunter."* But Henry of Huntingdon lived at the
time when everything Anglo-Saxon was most despised — people, or
manners, or language — and he himself not unfrecpiently mistranslates?
when taking the material of his history from the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. He goes on to say that Huntingdon stood on the site
of Godmanchester, " once a famous city, but now only a pleasant
village on Ijoth sides of the river."
Xow, on this rj^uestion of names, let me make a remark not to
be forgotten in this discussion. Among the Anglo-Saxons, the
man indi\'iduaILy derived his name from personal considerations,
and it was either given hiin at his birth, or he took it afterwards ;
sometimes from circumstances which pleased himself or struck other
people. Giving the widest limit we can to this suggestion of
corruption, and supposing that the original name were Huntan-dun,
it would signify in Anglo-Saxon the hill of Hunta, a name meaning
literally a hunter ; but it was just one of those names which would
V)e assumed by a Saxon chieftain, some great hunter, of lieasts or of
uien. Hunta would be a good Anglo-Saxon name, answering, though
* Heniy of Huntingdon's words are (p. 207, in Savili-'s Scrlptores post Bcdam, ei. 1.576)
HunUndoiaa vera, id est mons venatonim. Tlie form of tlie word, no douljt tliat riven in
the manuscript, miglit admit of a doubt, if liis translation in tlie genitive plural did not
show that he knew the word as Huntinga-dun. In Domesday Boolt, which heloncs to the
previous century, the name is written Ihinttdun, which is probably only one of the numerous
corrupt speUings by the Norman scribes in taking down the names from the mouths of the
baxon witnesses. The town is constantly called huntingdone, in the Himdi-ed BoUs, which
belong to the thirteenth centurj-.
URICONIUM. 393
perhaps more dignified, to Mr. Hunter of our modern English, which
we know is not a very uncommon name. Now, Huntingdon is a
very early town, foimded upon the ruins of the Eoman town of
Ihirolipons, and therefore not very likely to have been a hunting
station; and we may, perhaps, think it more probable that Hunta,
the Anglo-Saxon chieftain, had gained the estate in the original
distribution, that he kept the designation of dun, instead of ttm,
or ham, and that he left to it, as the home of the family, the
name of Huntinga-dun, or Huntingdon. As I have already remarked,
the family residence at the beginning would naturally be called
Huntandun, and afterwards Huntingadun, and, as it is found in
this form in early records, the modern name may, in all probability,
be no corruption at all.
And now let us turn to Mr. Harries Jones's other corruption.
As I understand him, I suppose he considers that Whittington
or Hwittinga-tun, was, like Huntingdon, only a corruption of Hwit-
tau-tun. Let him have his way : no doubt the founder of the
estate and family was Hwitta, or Hwita, and this was his tun, or
inclosure, and in his time it might be known as Hwittan-tun, or
Hwitan-tun, though afterwards it would be the head seat of his
family, and would be known generally as the tun or residence
of the HTOttingas, or family of Hwitta — Whittington. But I do
not see what Mr. Harries Jones is to gain by this. Probably
the chieftain Hwitta had made himself known by some white
mark of distinction, either on his person, or in some other
way, for the name means the white-one ; and, to explain it all
more simply, it would respond (to descend from high things to
low) to our modern name of Mr. White, which, as Mr. Harries Jones
no doubt knows, is not a very uncommon name among our Eng-
lishmen ; and the difference of the two forms of the name would
only be whether it be viewed in the light of the house of Mr.
White or the house of Mr. White's family. Perhaps the vicar of
Llanidloes will inform us what there is more of Welsh and less
of English in the phrase " Mr. White's house," than in that of
" Mr. White's family's house." It is perfectly clear that the name
of Whittington belonged to a later date than that of the Prince
Cynddylan, and the ^vriter of this Elegy upon him, ascribed to
Llywarch Hen, did not even know what the word meant, and
394 URICONIUM.
mistranslated it in such a way as none in the time of Cynddy-
lan, or long after, could have done.
I think my readers "will now understand, better than Mr. Harries
Jones seems to have done, my reasons against the authenticity of the
poem of Llywarch Hen. I think what I have already said ought
to be enough to show that his arguments are not quite so over-
whelming as he seems to suppose, and I have no great desire to
follow him any further; but still there remain one or two points
on which I may venture to offer a remark.
Mr. Harries Jones is evidently not very perfectly acquainted with
the history of verse, but he wotild be innocent indeed if he ex-
pected to find written monuments of Welsh or Anglo-Saxon poetiy
of the sixth century. Poetry was the literature of the people, of
the nation, and it was only after the people had risen to a con-
siderable state of artificial refinement that it was preserved in any
other manner than by the memory. Thus it lived on from genera-
tion to generation, from century to century, bu.t let nobody suppose
that it was thus continued unchanged ; on the contrary, the min-
strel, the songster, was, to a certain degree, the poet also, and it
was his business to form and modify his song to the character and
requirements of the time in which he sang. Hence it would be
vain indeed to suppose that we find any poetry of these early ages in
anything like the form in which it was originally composed, or that
it has any degree of historical value, except for the date to which
the written copy belongs. The Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Beowulf
is of late in the tenth century, or of the beginning of the eleventh,
yet, though the poem certainly belongs to a very far earlier period,
it is a question of discussion whether, in its present form, it be a
poem belonging to the Anglo race before it came to Britain, and
modified by course of time, or a Danish or Scandinavian poem
translated into Anglo-Saxon. In the same way the Welsh poetry
would be preserved by the minstrels, was thus legendary, and
must have been continually undergoing change. From time to
time, some temporary cause of excitement, some national movement,
brought this poetry out into stronger relief, and of course, pro-
duced new modifications and new creations. Such an outburst of
nationality certainly occurred among the Welsh in the earlier half
of the fifteenth century, and, as all acquainted with the literary
URICONIUM. 395
history of that period know, there was at that time a far greater
tendency than even before, during the middle ages, to commit this
poetry to writing. It was on the eve of the introduction of printing.
As might he expected, the poems thus produced, purporting to be
of early date, of which there wou.ld of course be many, can have
no historical value whatever, because, at the best, they could only
be founded upon old popular legends, and represent popular feeUngs
of the day when they were now published. During the feudal
period the national feeling in Wales was bitter against the Anglo-
Norman border barons, who were known as Franks or Frenchmen,
and I had pointed out how this feehng was expressed in this poem
ascribed to Llj^varch Hen, how it was easy to be understood at
the time when the poem was published, but how it had no meaning
at all at the date at which Llywarch Hen is said to have lived.
If the poem were altogether a new invention, or if it were built
upon an old popular legend, we can easily understand how the
destruction of Uriconium was dragged into it. Even at the beginning
of the fifteenth century the site of Uriconium presented, no doubt, a
mass of ruins with the traces of burning, which would furnish material
for any story you liked, — in fact there were legends of Uriconium
of an earlier date which contained nothing about Cynddylan or any
of his kin. But, as I have said in reply to Mr. Stephens, the intro-
duction of the Franks, i.e., the Norman barons, points at once
to the later date of the poem. It has been attempted to insist
that these French barons were Franks of the sixth century, who
came over with the Saxons ; but I think that I have said enough
on this subject in reply to Mr. Stephens. The vicar of Llanid-
loes, however, has returned to it.
Mr. Stephens pretended that the Franks had been introduced
by Carausius, and that these Franks had settled on the Welsh
border and preserved their name to the time of Llywarch Hen, a
theory which was contrary to probability, and had no foundation
in historical facts of any kind. Mr. Stephens's error, I thought,
I had sufficiently demonstrated ; but Mr. Harries Jones, as I under-
stand him, advances another step. He seems to think that the
Franks were in England with the Anglo-Saxons, and he fiUs some
pages with quotations to prove that the Franks and Saxons were
close allies, and usually acted together, a fact whicli is known to
396 URICONtUM.
everybody who knows anything about mediseval history. But I fear
he has here fallen iuto another blunder, for he seems to think that
the Saxons who were in alliance with the Franks were the Anglo-
Saxons, whereas they were the Saxons of Germany, a totally different
people. But his remarks on this subject are really not worth any
serious discussion, Amongst the tribes who infested the frontiers
of Eoman Gaul, at the same time with the Franks, were the
German Saxons. As we all know, all these invaders were
always ready to take Ptoman service and Eoman pay, and when
Carausius, wlio had assumed the empire in Gaul as well as in
Britain, moved from Gaul into this island, he hired a body of
Frankish warriors as part of his army, and he had them with
him in his camp at Southampton. But the history of this body
of warriors is well known; they did not remain in this island,
except so far as their corpses found a burial place at London.
The Franks of the Continent established an empire of their own
in Gaul, and planted their name there, which was softened down at
a far later period into French. "William the Norman conquered
England with an army of Franks, according to the popular lan-
guage of that time ; and the Anglo-Norman barons were called
Franks by the English people as well as by the Welsh. This term
was continued to the barons of the "Welsh border, the Lords
Marchers. Of course these were objects of great hatred to the
Welsh, and we can easily understand the introduction of this
word in a poem written to keep up the national feelings of the
Welsh in an age like that in which Owen Glendwr lived.
In what he says about the name of Ercal, Mr. Harries Jones is
so entirely wrong, and shows so complete an ignorance of the sub-
ject he is talking about, that it is quite unnecessary for me to enter
upon a discussion of it. In fact, I liaA'e no inclination to go on
farther. It is of no use arguing with a writer who believes that
Shrewsbury, or Penguern, and Uriconium were standing at the same
time, and tallvs of Uriconium as the Windsor of Penguern ' Why,
Shrewsbury within its walls, was a very little town in comparison
to Uriconiimi. The latter was douljle the size of the Shrewsbury
of the present day, and its destruction in the sixth century would
have been an event of such an extraordinary importance that it
cannot have escaped mention in the annals of the Anglo-Saxons.
UEICONIUM. 397
Any antiquary who has examined the remains as I have, will not
doubt for an instant that Uriconium Avas a mass of ruins long
before that date.
APPENDIX No. II.
ON SOME SHEOPSHIEE ANTIQUITIES.
The following remarks um^e first ]}rinte,d as a communication
to the " Sheewsbuey Cheonicle," ctt the close of the month of
November, 1862.
In the course of compiling my book on Uriconium, I have met
with two Anglo-Saxon charters, which are cif considerable impor-
tance for the early history of our county. Both are printed in
Kemble's " Codex Anglo-Saxonicus." The first, dated at Oswestry
in the year 855, is a grant of laud by the unfortunate Burhred,
who was eventually deprived of his kingdom of Mercia by the
Danes, to the monks of Worcester ; and it informs us that Burhred
was then (no doubt with the Mercian army) at Oswaldes-dun
(Oswestry), because the pagans, or Danes, were on Wreocen-setum,
in the country of the Wreocen-setas or Wrekin-dwellers. The other
charter is a century more modern, being a grant by king Eadgar,
in the year 9G3, of two estates in 'p^'ovincia Wrocen-setnct, in the
province of the Wrocau-setas, called Plcsc ct Eastun. I feel little
doubt that Plesc is the manor of Plaish, or Plash, in the parish of
Cardington ; and Eastun may be any place named Aston, possibly
that in Munslow. In the Anglo-Saxon period, territorial rights
were proved by witnesses who could speak to the line of
boimdary of the estate, of which the iahabitants at certain times
made a formal perambulation. It is said that the school-boys of
the locality were taken on such perambulations, and that at each
particular boundary mark they were severely flogged, by way of
strongly impressing the fact on their memory ; and this, perhaps,
398 URICONIUM.
is the reason why still, in our old towns, the parish school-boys
are at certain periods made to walk the bounds, though the flogging
is dispensed with. In the Anglo-Saxon charters the bounds are
always given in the vernacular tongue, but as they naturally
contain a good deal of local dialectic forms and local names of
objects, they are not always translated with ease. One or two
words in the bounds of Plesc and Eastuu come under this predica-
ment, but the whole may be translated without much difficulty.
I give the text with the translation :
" Sunt autem haec praedicta rura circumcinta istis terminis.
^rest of Diuwuces psedhe on LilsiBtna gemeere ; andlang brocks
on eotan ford ; of eotan forda on dhone gretan air ; of dham aire
on dhone micclan die ; of dham dice on dha haran dene ; of
dhsere haran dene in dhone deopan mor ; andlang midles dhtes
mores in aeslices ford ; of ajslices forda andlang mores on hina
gemeera ; of hina gemaera on dha threo dicas ; of dham dican in
dhfene longan thorn ; of dham thorn in dhass dices geat ; of dhajs
dices geate on dha bradan rseue ; of dhsere bradan rseue on mser-
sic; of mfersice on mperdic ; andlang mterdices on Wiggerdes
treo ; of Wiggerdes treo dhtet asft on Diowuces pedh."
Translation : — " And these foresaid lands are inclosed by these
bounds. Fii-st, from Diuwuc's path to the bounds of the Lilssetas ;
along the brook to the giant's ford ; from the giant's ford to the
great alder ; from the alder to the big dike (or embankment) ; from
the dike to the hare's valley ; from the hare's valley to the deep
moor ; along the middle of the moor to ^slic's (?) ford ; from
^sHc's ford along the moor to Hina's (?) bounds ; from Hina's bounds
to the three dilves ; from the dike to the long thorn ; from the
thorn to the gate, or pass, of the dike ; from the dike's gate to the
broad row (?) ; from the broad row to the great furrow (or water-
course) ; from the great furrow to the great dike ; along the great
dike to Wiggerd's tree ; from Wiggerd's tree back again to Diowuc's
path."
These are the boundaries of the estate of Eastune ; those of
Plesc are as follows :
"Dhera?fter synt dha laud-gemaero to Plesc. ./Erst of Phesc in
dhone broc; of dham brajce in thfelbricge; of thaslbricge to dhone
heh-strfete ; of dhasra heh strajte to strea-wyllan ; of strea-wajllan
URICONIUM. 399
to dham litlau dice ; of dhain dice to hare daiiie ; of hare dene to
dham stanhifete ; of dham stanhifete upp to dham hedhe ; of dham
Eedhe to dham sice ; andlang sice to mfenelege : of maenelege to
dham brajce; of dham brajcaj dasht aift in Plesc."
Translation: — "Hereafter are the hmd boundaries at Plesc. First,
from Plesc to the brook; from the brook to the plank bridge; from
the plank bridge to the high street ; from the high street to straw-
well ; from straw- weU to the little dike ; from the dike to hare vaUey ;
from hare vaUey to the stone-quarry ; from the stone-quarry up
to the heath ; from the heath to the furrow (or water-course) ; along
the furrow to bad lea ; from bad lea to the brook ; from the brook
back again to Plesc."
Perhaps some of my readers in the districts to which these
documents relate may be able to trace some of these names still
existing in the obscure local names of fields, brooks, or other
objects. Unfortunately, they are mostly such objects as the space
of nine hundred years would easily clear away, yet some of them
are of a more durable nature. The high-street was certainly a
Eoman road, and there are, I believe, traces of more than one
Eoman road in the parish of Cardington, or within no great distance.
The expression of going up from the stone-quarry to the heath,
shows that the one was on the side of a hill and the other at the
top of it ; and we can easUy understand in Shropshire what are the
furrows (sicas) caused by water-courses among the hills. The dikes
were no doubt ancient embankments, of which also some traces
may remain; and the Eotan-ford, or Giant's ford (it is a name
belonging to the primeval mythology of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers)
was probably a PbOman ford over a stream, attached to which were
ancient remains so remarkable as to be believed to have been the
work of giants. Local names, even when taken from very transitory
circumstances, often endure through centuries, and even such an
appellation as " mene lege," meaning, apparently, the bad or mean
lea, may remain in such a name as Mainley, or Menley; and so
" haran-dene" might continue to exist in such a name as Harden,
just as " haran-lege," or the hare's lea, is represented hj Harley.
We see in aU the boundaries, as given in the Anglo-Saxon charters,
how observant our early forefathers were of trees, as of all kinds of
natural objects. But great alders and long thorns are not very
400 URICONIUM.
lone-lived, and their memory is not likely to survive nine hundred
years. Yet we have plenty of evidence how long the names given
to trees last, even in our own part of the country, in such names
as " Oswaldes-tree," which gave name to the important town of
Oswestry; and " Almodes-tree," now Aymestry, the latter of which
individuals, Almod, appears to have been as obscure as those who gave
their names to the Wiggerd's tree or the Diowuc's path of our
charter.
The interest of these Anglo-Saxon charters is not, however, con-
fined to the mere identification of obscure local names. One
circumstance strikes me with particular force, the great extent
which must have been embraced in what is called the country or
" province " of the Wreocen-setas. It is evident that in king
Burhred's charter, the statement that the Danes were on Wreocen-
setum was ecj^uivalent to saying that they were in possession of
Shropshire ; and the in iwovincia Wrocen-sctna of Eadgar's charter
e\ddently meant the great part of what we now call Shropshire,
if not the whole. It seems pretty clear, from the general context,
that, at least in king Burhred's time, Shrewsbury did not exist
as a place of any importance. For some reason or other, the
Wrekin had struck the first of the Teutonic invaders who occupied
this country so much that they gave its name to the whole
territory around ; and, but for the extraordinary importance and
power of the Norman earldom of Shrewsburj^, it is very probable
that, instead of Shropshire, our county would now have been called
Wrekinsetshire, like Somersetshire and Dorsetshire. The spirit of
the name which the county would thus have borne lives in our
county toast of " All friends round the Wrekin," by which we
mean all the peo[)le of Shropshire, a toast which, these discoveries,
if they are worth calling discoveries, show to have a far more
remote origin than has been hitherto supposed, and which receives
a new importance from them. May it long continue to bind us
together in friendly feelings !
401
APPENDIX, No. III.
EARLY EENTAL OP WROXETER.
{Reprinted from the Journal of the British Archceological Association.)
A curious document, at present in the possession of C. L. Prince,
Esq., has been communicated to me by a friend (M. A. Lower, Esq.,
of Lewes in Sussex) ; it is a rent-roll of the manor of Wroxeter
in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Edward III. (a.d. 1350),
and appears to me in many respects worthy of being printed. It
wlU appear at once that a very small portion of the acreage of
the parish, which is now estimated at 4774 acres, two roods, and
thirty perches, was then under cultivation ; for, reckoning the
virgate at sixty acres (I believe the ordinary estimate in this
pai-t of the country), and the noca or quarter of a virgate, at
fifteen, we can hardly account for more than six or seven hundred
acres, including a considerable quantity of waste. I am informed,
moreover, that some of the land mentioned in this document is
not now included in the parish. It is evident that a great part of
the land was then waste,— the ground at Norton was a heath,
which must have been extensive. Probably a part at least of the
site of Uriconium was so covered on the surface with the ruins
of buildings as to be left wild. One of the residents bears the
very significant name of Johanms attc Walk, or John at the
Wall, which was in all probability given to him because his
messuage was adjacent to a part of the ancieirt town wall. The
whole parish at this time appears to have contained twenty-two
messuagia, or houses of men holding generally about thii-ty acres
of land, and eleven cottages. By the census of 1821, the latest to
which I can at present refer, there were a hundred and twelve
houses in the present parish. Tlie dominus, or feudal lord, was
the earl of Arundel.
There is one local name in this record which is interesting.
Hugh Maunseil held a piece of pasture " called le Eowemelne,"
melne. laeing of course the usual old English word for a mill. It
2 A
402 iTElCONItrM.
may perhaps be allowable to conjecture that the first part of the
word is some corruption of Kome or Roman, and that the pasture
received its name from the ruins of a Roman mill, or the tradition
that there had been one there. There is, I am informed, a field
through which the Bell Brook runs, on the right hand of the
Watling-street road as we go to the Horse-slwe inn, which is still
called Rue-mill, and which is no doubt the pasture in question.
Perhaps the Romans had a mill on the Bell Brook, within the town.
It is also worthy of remark that, of four pieces of pasture held
by the tenants in common, two have names compounded of the ^
word gdc, or gate. Chestergete may mean the gate of the Chester,
or ancient city, from which the place received its modern name ;
and its position is thus not defined. Bowegete may possibly mean
the southern gate, from the curve which, according to the plan,
its waUs seem to have made. Pole may have been named from a
pool of water, and Wyggestan, from some remarkable monument
of stone.
RElvTAL OF WEOXETER, A.D. 1350.
Bentale dc Wro.vccterc, factum super com]]otum ilidcm ad festurti sancti
Michaelis anno regrii regis Edwardi tcrtii post con. xxiiij°.
Abbas de Haghmoun tenet per cartam unam placeam vasti juxta
Tyi-ne, fossato inclusam. . . reddit vj. s. ad terminum
Michaelis.
Abbas de LilleshuDe pro attachiamento stagui molendini de TjTne.
r. vj. d. ad eundem terminum.
Dominus Rogerus Corbet tenet Hadeley pro dimidio feodo militis.
r. j. spervarium sorum ad dictum festimi sancti Michaelis.
Johannes de Westoun Coyne tenet Westoun Coyne pro dimidio
feodo, r. vj. s. viij. d. ad festum Annunciationis, pro omni
servitio.
Johannes le Poynotir tenet j. messuagium et dimidiam virgatam
terrce, et debet sumonere omnes Hberos tenentes curife de Upton,
et districtiones et attachiamenta facere super eosdem.
Idem tenet per cartam domini unam placeam brusseti vocatam le
Lee, et xxv. acras et dimidiam regales vasti, super brueram de
UEICONIUM. 403
Nortoun. r. inde per annum ad festa sancti Michaelis et
Annimciationis, per aequales portiones, xxviij. s. xj. d'
Thomas de Smethecote tenet xxx. acras regales vasti super brueram
de Nortoun. r. per annum ad ij. terminos prtedictos xxx. s.
et sectam curife de Wroxcestre.
Eogerus de Golynghale tenet super eandem brueram xij, acras.
r. per annum ad ij. terminos prajdictos xij. s. et ij. apparenc'
ad magnam curiam ibidem.
Idem tenet iij. acras regales ibidem, r. per annum iij. s.
Hugo Maunseil tenet j. messuagium et dimidiam virgatam terras
ibidem, r. per annum ad ij. terminos praidictos v. s. et sectam
ad curiam.
Idem tenet j. placeam pasturae ex traditione seneschalli vocatam le
Eowemelne. r. ad ij. terminos prasdictos xiiij d.
Johannes de Donyntoun capellanus tenet ij. cotagia cum uno crofto,
et iiij. acras teiTffi regales super eandem brueram. r. ad ij.
terminos viij. s. vj. d.
Sibilla de Bromptoun tenet j. messuagium et dimidiam virgatam
terrffi Libere ad terminum vitas, r. ad ij. terminos pr^edictos x. s.
Eadem tenet j. acram vasti sine scripto. r. ad ij. terminos prasdictos
xij. d.
Johannes Selke tenet j. messuagium et dimidiam virgatam terras, et j.
acram super brueram, r. . . . xj. s. ad terminos.
■f-^Eicardus Ady tenet j. messuagium, dimi-
diam virgatam, et j. acram terrte super
brueram. r. . . . . . xj. s. ad eosdem terminos.
Thomas le Poynour tenet tantum, et r.
Eogerus de Wythintoun tenet tantum.
xj. s. ad eosdem terminos.
s. ad eosdem terminos.
xj. s. ad eosdem terminos-
xj. s. ad eosdem terminos.
. s. ad eosdem terminos.
xj. s. ad eosdem terminos.
Margareta le Hare tenet tantum. r. .
Johannes Wyteacre tenet tantum. r. .
Petronilla Baker tenet tantum. r.
Margeria Hare tentet tantum. r.
Eadem tenet j. placeam pasture juxta
gardinimi suum. r. ... ij.gallinasadNat'Domini.
Eogerus le Hare tenet j. messuagium,
dimidiam virgatam teiTa;, et j.
acram super brueram. r. . . . xj. s. ad. ij. terminos.
404 UKICONIUM.
-)-Jolianues Selk tenet j. messuagumi, et j.
nocam terrpe, et j. acram super brueram. r. vj. s. iiij.d. adterminos
prsedictos. Int' ad festum annunciationis a° xxvj'"
Johannes de la Grene tenet tantum. r. . vj. s. adterminos prsedictos.
Johannes Traventer tenet tantuni. r. . vj. s. adterminos prsedictos.
Idem tenet j. parvam placeam in augmento
gardini sui. r j. d. ad eosdem terminos.
Johamies atte Walle tenet j. messuagium
et j. nocam terrte. r. . . . vj. s. ad eosdem ternunos.
Idem tenet j. nocam cum gardiao juxta
grangiam domini. r. ... ij. s. ad eosdem terminos.
*^ Johannes Knotte tenet j. messuagium et j.
nocam terrte. r. . . . . vj. s. ad eosdem terminos.
Idem dat ad eosdem terminos pro j. placea
in augmento terra?. su£e . . iij. d. et j. gall' ad Nat' Domini.
Eicardus filius Eegmaldi tenet j. messua-
gium, et j. nocam terrse, j. acram vasti,
etj. acram campestrem. r. . . vj. s. vj. d. ad eosdem
terminos prasdictos.
Alicia relicta Hugonis filii Eegiiialdi tenet
j. messuagium, j. nocam terrte, et j.
acram super brueram. r. . . . vj, s. ad eosdem terminos.
*Isabella Hare tenet j. messuagium, et j.
acram super brueram, et j. placeam. r. YJ. s. viij. d.
SihiUa Jonkneros tenet j. messuagium et
dimidiam nocam terra3. r. . .iij. s. ad ij. terminos.
Eicardus de Sywaldesdoun tenet j. eotagium
et iij. acras terraj. r. . . . iij. s. ij. d. ad ij. termiaos
Thomas Wy chart tenet j. messuagium et vj.
acras terras, r. . . . . . v.s. iij. d.
Amicia le Traventer tenet j. eotagium et iij.
acras terras, r. . . . . iiij. s. ix, d.
Matnda Wychart tenet j. eotagium et iij.
acras terras, r. . . . , .iiij. s.
Idem (sic) tenet imam forgiam. r. . ■ xij. d.
* Johannes le Longe tenet j. eotagium cum
vj. acris terrfc. r vj. s. iiij. d.
URICONIUM. 405
Thomas le Clialoner tenet j. cotagium. r. ij, s.
*WiIlelmus Fishare tenet j. cotagium. r. ij. s.
Willelmus Wychart tenet j. cotagium et iij.
acras terrse. r ij. .s. x. d.
Isolda Eaynald tenet j. cotagium et iij acras
terra, r ij. s. x. d.
Jonkin le Baker tenet ^g. acras terrae domi-
nicse et j. acram vasti sine messuagio. r. iij.s.ij. d. addictosterminos
Petronilla Swetedoughter tenet j. cotagium
cum gardino. r. . . . ■ . xviij. d. ad ij. terminos.
Et prfedicti tenentes tenent quatuor placeas pasturse, videlicet
pastur' de Chestregete, Pole, Bowegete et de Wyggestan.
r. per annum ad ij. terminos . • vj- s-
•fThomas de Berewik dat pro licentia pis-
candi super Tyrne .... iij. s. uij. d. ad ij. terminos.
Et villata de Atyncliam dat pro aisiamento
habendo ad riveram de TjTue . . yj. d. ad festum sane.
Michaelis tantum.
Summa totalis redditus . xyj. li. ij. s. x. d.
r Ad festum sancti Michaelis . viij. li. xiiij. d.
1 Ad festum Annunciationis . viij. li. xvj. d.
Item, ad Nativitatem Domini . iij. gallinas.
Item, ad Gulam Augusti . j. spervarium,vel ij. s.
{In dorso)
Item, de firma gm'gitis ibidem.
Item, de abbate de Buldewas vj. plaustratas claustruraj singulis annis
pro dicta gurgite rejiaranda ante Pascham, quandocunque domino
quEerere placuerit.
1 + In each of the cases indicated by this mark the name of one tenant is crossed
out to make way for another, the latter being the one given in the text. Thus, in
the first instance, the name of the tenant was Adam Ourry, which is crossed out, and
Eioardus Ady wiitten above ; so, in the second case, Adam de Hamegge occupied the
place of Johannes Selk, and, in the third, Stephanus de Lee de ]?restoun that of
Thomas de Berewike. Stephen de Lee had given up the fishing after the rental had
been written, and it was let out to Thomas de Benvick.
2 • Each of the sentences to which a star is prefixed, is marked vae^ {vacat) in the
margin, as being unoccupied, the tenant having quitted.
406
APPENDIX, No. IV.
LIST OF ROMAN COINS FOUND AT WBOXETER.
Weoxeter has long been celebrated for the great number of
Eoman coins which are found, not only in the course of digging
and excavating, but which are picked up almost on the surface of
the ground. In a manuscript account of Travels in England,
written in the year 1743, and preserved in the manuscripts of the
British Museum (MS. Addit, No. 15,776, fol. 167), the writer
I'emarks, speaking of Wroxeter : " They very often find Eoman
medals here. I got a very good one of Posthumus in large brass,
which was found here but a few days before." The peasantry of
the place have generally some of these medals for sale, and various
persons have at different times made collections of more or less
extent. They are locally called dinclers, a word no doubt corrupted
from the Latin denarms. The following list of Eoman coins found
at Wroxeter has been kindly communicated to me by my friend
]Mr. Samuel Wood. They are now preserved in the Museum of
Natural History and Antiquities, Shrewsbury ; and it will give
some notion both of their abundance, and of their interest.
In collating and arranging coins discovered at Wroxeter, my
friend remarks : " Many very interesting questions arise in our
mind. First, the vast numbers that have from time to time been
picked up would make it appear as if the ground had been sown
broadcast with them. Many thousands have passed through my
hands, and I am sure I speak within bounds when I say I have
seen at least a peck.
"Secondly, one is struck with the worn appearance of them, so
much so, that, generally, the legends are nearly obliterated, and in
many the emperors to whom they belong can only be made out by
a person familiar with their portraits on coins.
" Thirdly, the very small number of gold. — I have not seen more
than four or five ; the scarcity of the silver, and the vast number of
copper.
UEICONIUM. 407
"From these circumstances one would be led to the conclusion
that for a long time no Eoman mint was established in Britain,
but that the coin was brought over and circulated for many years
without any renewal. Hence specimens of the coins of the Consular
type are rare among those discovered at Wroxeter. We possess
examples of two families only. The Second and Third Brass of the
lower empire are generally in fair, and some even in fine, condition,
excepting the reigns of Tetricus, Victorinus, and Claudius Gothicus.
It would appear that the Emperors of Britain often restamped
with their own portrait and device, the coins of previous Emperors,
for we frequently find coins of Gallienus beariag the portrait of
Carausius over that of the other Emperor, and his successor Allectus
adopted the same practice. Of the coins of Carausius a remarkable
and imique one was picked up here, bearing the full face and
bare head of this Emperor. It was in fine presevation, and is
now in the British Museum. After the Piomans had left Britain,
coins were struck of the governors or generals who succeeded the
Emperors in command, for tliere are numerous coins bearing
illegible inscriptions, barbarous imitations of Tetricus, Victorinus,
Gothicus, and the Constantines, so rude in design and workman-
ship, that their origin from the barbarous successors cannot be
doubted. It is a remarkable circumstance that no Saxon coins have
been found here ; at any rate I have only seen one, a " styca," the
monarch's name not decipherable. This may have been accidently
dropped there long after the destruction of the city. The absence
of Saxon coias clearly proves, I think, that Wroxeter must have
been completely destroyed before the arrival of the Saxons, or by
these conquerors, and that it was never inhabited by them as a
city."
B'xlbtt.
CONSULAE.
ANTONIA,
ANT . AVG . IIIVIE . R . P . C. A Gaily.
LEG . XIX. Three military Standards.
POECIA.
FONT . EOMA. A GaUey, with three rows of Oars, a Pilot, and
military Standards.
P. L^CA. Winged head of Minerva, before X above EOMA.
408 URICONIUM.
TEOVOC . A citizen standing and being crowned by a military
figure, behind whom stands a lictor. The
only Consular coin found in the Wroxeter hoard.
TIBEEIUS. A.D. 14 to 37.
TI. CAESAR DIVI. AVG. F. AVGVSTUS. Laureated head of
Tiberius. (Aureus.)
PONT . MAX . Tiberius Seated as Chief High Priest,
OTHO. A.D. 69.
IMP , OTHO . CAESAE. Head to right with curled hair.
SECVEITAS . P . E . Female standing stolated, holding a garland
and hasta.
VESPASIAN. A.D. 69 to a.d. 79.
CAESAE, . VESP . AVG P.M. Laureated head.
AVGVE . TEI . POT . Pontifical Instruments.
IMP . CAESAE , VESPASIANVS . AVG. Laureated head to right.
CAESAE . AVG . F . COS . CAESAE . AVG . F . P . E . The heads of
Titu.3 and Domitian, face to face, struck to
record the honour of the first attaining his
first consulship, and the second on his being
proclaimed Prince of the Eoman Youth.
COS . ITE . TE . POT . Draped female, holding caduceus and olive
branch.
CAESAE . VESPASIAN . Laureated head.
PONTIF . MAXIM . A Caduceus.
PONT . MAX . TE . P . COS . VI . The Emperor seated, holding an
olive branch.
COS . VII . An eagle with expanded wings, holding in his talons
a thunderbolt. This device was struck in honor
of tlie Apotheosis of A'espasian.
DJEIICONIUM. 409
COS.ITEE.TE.POT. Female figure seated, holding in her right
hand an olive branch, in her left a caduceus.
TEI . POT . COS . Ill . P . P . Female figure seated, holding in her right
hand an olive branch, in her left a caduceus.
IMP . GAES . VESP .... AVG . CENS . PONTIF . MAXIM . The
Emperor seated in a curule chair. In his right
hand is a spear, in his left a palm branch.
PON. MAX.... TE. P. COS. VI. Female figure .seated. In her
right hand an olive branch, in her left some
instrument.
TITUS. A.D. 79 to A.D. 81.
IMP . TITVS . CAES . VESPASIAIST . AVG .P.M. Laureated head
of Titus.
TE . P . IX . IMP . XV . COS . VIII .P.P. Upon a stool draped a
thunderbolt. Titus was seven times consul
with his father, consequently this coin recording
his eighth consulship, and was struck in the
first year of his reign, A.D. 79.
DOMITIAN.
A.D. 79 to A.D. 96.
CAESAE . AVG . F . DOMITIANTS . COS . VII. Head of Domitian.
IWENTVTIS . PEINCEPS . A Helmet surmounted by a military
ensign. In the centre two right hands joined.
IMP . CAES . DOMIT . AVG . GEEM . P . M . TE . P . VI . Laureated
head to right.
IMP . XIIII . COS . XIII . CEWS . P . P . P . Minerva standing upon
the capital of a rostral pillar, holding a spear.
At her feet an owl.
IMP . XXI . COS . XV . CENS . P . P . P . As foregoing.
IMP . CAES , DOMIT , AVG . GEEM . COS . XV .
410 XJRICOKIUM.
FOKTUN . A . . . Female standing.
rOKTUNA.as foregoing. COS. XVI.
MONET . AVGVSTI . Equity standing, with attributes.
TRAJAK
A.D. 98 to 117.
IMP . CAES . NERVA . TEAIAE" . G-ERM . Laureated head.
PONT.MAX.TR.POT.COS.il. Veiled figure, seated, holding
a patera.
P . M . TR P . COS . II . PP . Stolated female, seated.
P . M . TR . P . COS . nil .P.P. Figure of Hercules standing.
P . M . TR . P . COS . nil .P.P. Victory holding a palm branch and
crown.
COS .V.P.P.S.P.Q.R. OPTIMO . PRINC . Victory standing on
a capital of a column.
COS. V.P.P.S.P.Q.R. OPTIMO PRINC . The Emperor standing,
draped, holding the cornucopia and caduceus.
S . P . Q . R . OPTMO . PRINCIPI . The Emperor standing, draped,
holding the cornucopia and caduceus.
COS .V.P.P.S.Q.R. OPTIMO . PRINC . Female figure leaning
on a column, and holding olive branch.
P . M . TR . P . COS . VI P . P S . P . Q . R . Nude figure, holding in
his right hand a patera, and in left ears of
corn.
VIA. TRAIANA . S . P . Q . R . OPTIMO . PRINCIPI . A female re-
clining against a bank and supporting a wheel.
IMP . C^SAR . NERVA . TRAIANO . AVG . GER . DAG . PM . TR .
P . COS . V. P . P . Laureated profile bust of
Trajan.
URICONIUM. 411
S . P. Q . E . OPTIMO . PPvINCIPI . A female draped figure seated
on a pile of arms, by the side of a trophy.
Same legend. — Ceres standing before an altar, holding ears of
^¥heat.
COS.V.P.P.S.P.Q.R. OPTIMO . PEINC . Across the field, AET .
AVG . A veiled female holding two urns, from
which fire ascends. We have here an example
of a votive coin struck in honour of this
popular Emperor, by order of the Senate
and people of Eome, expressing the vain
wish, " May the King live for ever."
DACICVS.COS.V.P.P.S.P.Q.E.OPTIMO.PEINC. The con-
quest of Dacia is here commemorated by a
male figure seated upon the now useless armour,
and in token of the entire subjugation of this
province, the figure has his hands tied behind
him. The conquest of Dacia, which occurred
in ] 03 A.D., cost Trajan fifteen years' war Tra-
jan, the more readily to keep the Dacians in
order, built that magnificent bridge over the
Danube, consisting of twenty arches, each 170
feet span, and sixty feet in breadth.
HADEIAN".
A.D. 117 to A.D. 138.
HADEIANVS . AVG . COS . Ill . P . P . Profile bust, bearded.
MONETA . AVG . The Goddess Moneta standing.
P . M . TE . P . COS . Ill . The Emperor standing with the hasta pura
and ears of corn.
EOMVLO . CONDITOEI . Eomulus marching to right, carrj-ing a
trophy on his left shoulder, a javelin in his
right hand.
SALVS . AVG . Hygieia standing feeding a serpent which is rising
from an altar.
412 URICONIUM.
P . M . TK . P . COSIII . Across the field, VOT . PV . A veiled
Priestess standing with upraised hands, oflering
up prayers. May have been struck to record
the general prayers which were offered up for
the recovery of Hadrian during the painful
illness which terminated his life.
ALEXAISTDEIA . A female, standing holding in her right hand
the sistrum. Eecords the travels of Hadrian.
NILVS . A colossal river god whose upper half is naked, reclining
on the bank of a stream, with a reed in his
right hand and a cornucopia on his left arm.
SABINA, WIFE OF HADEIiN".
SABINA . AVGVSTA . Profile bust of the Empress.
VENEEI . GENETEICI . An elegant female figure standing, attired
in light robes, holding a portion of her dress
with one hand, and an apple in the other.
ANTONIiTVS PIUS.
A.D. 138 to A.D. 161.
IMP . T . AEL . CAES . HADEI . ANTONINVS . Profile bust.
AVCt . PIVS . P . M . TE . P . COS . DES . II . Equity personified.
ANTTONINTS . AVG . PIVS . P . V . TE , P . XIII . Laureated bust
of Pius.
COS . IIII . Hygieia standing.
COS . IIII . Fortune standing -with attributes.
LIB. IIII. TE. POT. COS. IIII. A robed female standing, with
tessera and cornucopia.
COS . IIII . A female standing, holding ears of corn in her right
hand, her left being placed on armour.
URICONIUM. 413
VOTA . SVSCEPTA . DEC . Ill . COS . IIII . The Emperor, clothed
as Chief Priest, sacrificing.
PIETATI . AVG . COS . IIII . Faustina, holding two chHdren in her
arms, whUst two others stand at her side.
DIWS . ANTONIlSrVS . Naked head of the Emperor.
CONSECEATIO . A magnificent rogus or funeral pile.
DIVO . PIO . An altar in the centre of which is a grated door.
ANTONINVS . AVG . PIVS . P . P . TE . P . COS . Ill . Bare head of
Antoninus.
AVEELIVS . CAESAE . AVG . PII . F . COS . This very interesting
coin bears on the reverse the naked head of
the youthful Marcus Aurehus, with curly hair,
and his shoulders covered with the laticlavium
fibulated. This was minted a.d. 140, the year
in which Antoninus, having given him his
daughter Faustina in marriage, advanced Aure-
lius to the Fasces.
ITALIA . A majestic female, attired in magnificent robes, is seated
on a celestial globe; she' is crowned with
turrets, to denote the very numerous cities of
which she is the mother. In her right hand
she holds a scorpion, and in her left the wand
of divinity, by which she claims universal
power, as the "Boimtiful queen of the world."
TE.POT.XX in field, S.C. Fortune standing.
FAUSTINA, SEN.
DIVA . FAVSTINA . Draped bust of Empress, hair decorated
with pearls.
414 UEICONIUM.
AETERNITAS . A robed female standing, holding a floating veil
over her head. In her right hand she supports
a globe.
CONCOEDIA . The Emperor and Empress joining hands.
AVGVSTA . The Empress veiled, and holding in her right hand
the wand of divinity.
As foregoing, but with the addition of a torch in one hand.
AETEENITAS . Veiled female, holding an orb, and a long rudder.
FAUSTINA, JUN.
FAVSTINA. AVGVSTA. Draped bust, of Fortuna.
DIANA . LVCIF . Diana standing with long torch. Diana is here
represented in her capacity of Genetyllis.
COMMODUS.
A.D. 180 to A.D. 192.
M - AVEEL : COMOD (sic). AVG. Youthful bust of Comniodus
laureated, beardless.
TR . P . VI . IMP . II . COS .P.P. Ceres seated.
M . COMM . ANT . AVG . P . BEIT . FEL . Laureated and bearded
head of Commodus, who here takes the name
of Britannicus.
FOET . EED . IMP . T E . P . VII . COS . COS .P.P. Fortune seated
with attributes.
APOL . MONET . P . M . TE . P . XV . COS . VI . ApoHo leaning in an
easy and graceful attitude, on a column.
UEICONIUM. 415
SEVEEUS. A.D. 193 to 211,
SEVERVS . AVG . PAET . MAX . Bearded and laureated head of
Severus.
PAET . ARAB . PART . ADIAB . Two captives in oriental garb
seated at the foot of a trophy. The device here
alludes to the successes of Severus, a.d. 195,
when he crossed the Euphrates to chastise the
Osrhoeni, Adiabeni, and Arabians. He ob-
tained some success over the Parthians, but
apparently not in open warfare, since he could
not assume the title of Parthicus, which, oddly
enough, occurs three times on this coin.
S . P . Q . E . Emperor on horseback.
ADVENTVI . AVG- . FELICISSIMO . The Emperor on horseback,
with right hand raised. Struck to record the
Emperor's return to Eome, a.d. 196.
EOETVNI . EEDVCI . Draped female figure standing with cornu-
copia and olive branch.
MONETA . AVG- . Female standing with cornucopia and balance.
The silver coins were struck in the temple of
Juno Moneta, hence the device.
PM TE . P . Ill . COS . II . P . P . Jupiter marching with attributes.
P . M . TE . P . XVII . COSH .P.P. The Emperor standing with
spear and shield. (This is a Eoman forgery).
SECVEITAS . Security personified.
VICT . AVG . COS . II . P . P . Victory marching.
416 URICONIUM.
EESTITVTOE . VEBIS . The Emperor standing sacrificing. The
compliment conveyed in this reverse was well
merited by this Emperor. He found an ex-
hausted exchequer, yet he left behind him
more money than any of his predecessors, and
left the Empire strong and lasting to his sons.
VIETVS . AVG . COS . Ill . P . P . Armed male figure.
VOTA. Emperor sacrificing.
DIVO . SEVEEO . PIO . Bare head of Severus.
COJSrSECEATIO . A magnificent rogus, on the top of which is
seen a laurel crown.
JULIA DOMNA.
WIFE OE SEVERUS.
IVLIA . AVGVSTA . Profile of the Empress. The hair is curiously
braided, brought over the ears and turned up
at the back of the head.
CONCOEDIA . Seated with cornucopia and patera.
DIANA . LVCIFEEA . Diana Lucifera standing holding a long
torch. In the field the moon in crescent.
As foregoing, but without the moon.
HILAEITAS . Draped standing female figure, holding cornucopia
and palm branch.
MATEI . CASTEOEVM . Veiled female standing before an altar,
with a censer in the left, and a patera in the
right hand. Opposite the altar, two military
standards.
PVDICITIA. An elegant female figure, veiled and seated.
URICONIUM. 41V
PONTIF . TE . P. X . COS . II . The Emperor standing : at his feet
are three captives.
LATEITIA . PVBL . Fortune standing with attributes. The device
on this coin appears to record the general
rejoicings which tooli place on the passing of
an Edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which con-
ferred on aU the free inhabitants of the Empire.
"The name and privileges of Eoman Citizens."
Gibbon's Decline, vol 1., pp. 205-214.
MAES.VICTOE. Mars marching with spear and trophy.
P . M . TE . P . XVIII . CO . IIII .P.P. Aesculapius standing holding
the mystic staff and serpent, at his feet a
fflobe.
VEKVS . VICTEIX . Venus Victrix marching.
GETA.
A. D. 211 TO 212.
P. SEPT. GETA. CAES. PONT. Youthful, unlaureated head of
Geta. shoulders draped with paludamentum.
FELICITAS . P"\T3LICA . Felicity, personified by a female standing
and holding a cornucopia and caduceus. This
reverse was probably struck upon a reconcilia-
tion taking place between the brothers. Dio tells
us that when their dissensions became public
the senate ordered a sacrifice to the gods, and
particularly to Concord.
ELAGABALUS.
A. D. 218 TO 222.
IMP . ANTONINVS . PIVS . AVG . Laureated head of Emperor.
VICTOEIA . AVG . Victory flying, in her hands a thunderbolt, a
her feet two shields. In field a star. Struck
A.D. 218.
SVMMVS . SACEEDOS . AVG . The Emperor standing by an altar,
with fire on it. In his right hand he holds a
418 UEICONIUM.
patera, in his left a palm branch. In the field
a star. There are many slight differences in
the type of this reverse, a favourite device of
this Emperor, as high priest of the sun.
FIDES . EXEECITVS . A female figure magnificently robed seated
holding in her right hand a bird, and in her left
a laurel crown.
LIBERTAS . AVG . Liberty standing, holding the freed-man's cap
and a wand. A star in the field.
P . M . TR . P . Ill . COS . Ill . P . P . A female standkig, holding a
cornucopia. At her feet a globe.
P . M . TE . P . Ill . COS . Ill . P . P . The Sim marching. In his left
hand he holds a whip. A star in the field.
This dates a.d. 220, and the device is com-
plimentary to the Emperor as the high priest
of that great luminary.
P . M . TE . P . nil , COSIII .P.P. The sun marching.
SVMMVS . SACEEDOS. The Emperor sacrificing. A star in the
field.
JULIA SOAEMIAS.
(JIOTHEE OF ELAGABOLUS.)
IVLIA . SOAEMIAS . Head of this Princess. The hair neatly
dressed and bust closely draped.
VENTS . C^LESTIS . Venus Cfelestis. Astarte or Urania, in full
robes, standing. In her right hand she holds
the apple, and the lance or wand of divinity
in her left.
As foregoing. Venus or Astoreth standing, in her right hand an apple,
and in her left a palm branch.
UEICONIUM. 419
VENVS . CAELESTIS . Beautiful figuie of Venus Urania, magni-
ficently attired, seated on a throne, holding
the wand of divinity and the apple, which a
naked Cupid is catching at.
JULIA MAESA.
(geandmothee of elagaeolus.)
IVLIA . MAESA . AVa. Profile of Empress. The hair neatly
gathered into plait behind.
FOEIVNA . EEDVX . Female figure seated with attributes of
fortune.
IVNO . Juno standing with her peacock.
PIETAS . AVG- . Jidia Maesa in full robes, standing before an
altar, from which fire ascends. This lady was
a Priestess of the sn.n at Emesa, and was called
Maesa ; Mese in the Syro-Plrcenician language,
meaning sun.
SAECVLI . FELICITAS . The Empress standing at an altar, hold-
ing in her right hand a patera, in her left a
long caduceus. On her head is a chaplet. In
the field a star, having direct reference to her
office of Priestess.
ALEXANDER SEVERUS.
A.D. 222 to A,D. 235.
IMP . M . AVE . SEV . ALEXANDER . AVG . Laureated head of
Alexander Severus.
ANNONA . AVG . Ceres standing with cornucopia and ears of
wheat.
AEQVITAS . AVG . A robed female standing, holding a balance
in the right hand, and a cornucopia on the
left arm. The scales, that natural emblem of
justice, are used by Persius to express the
decision of right and wrong.
FIDES . MILITVM . A female, standing and holding two standards.
420 URIOONIUM.
10 VI . VLTOEI . Noble figure of Jupiter, the avenger seated, hold-
ing in his right hand victory, in his left the hasta.
LIBERALITAS . AVG- . Liberty standing, a holding cornucopia and
a tessera. Minted a.d.. 222.
MAES . VLTOR . Mars marching, with spear and shield.
P . M . TE . P . COS . The Emperor seated on a chair, and holding
the sacred patera.
P.M. TE . P . COS . Hygeia seated, feeding a serpent out of a
petera.
P.M. TE . P . COS . Mars holding the hasta pui'a and an olive
branch.
P . M . TE . P . V . COS . II . P . P . Ceres standing sacrificing at an
altar.
P . ]\I . TE . P . VI . COS . II . P . P . Equity standing with attributes
P. M.TR. P. VIII. COS. III. P. P. Mars marching with spear
and shield.
P . M . TR . P . X . COS . AVG . ApoUo standing, holding a globe.
PEOVIDENTIA . AVG . Ceres standing with her attributes, before
an altar.
SPES . PVBLICA . Hope personified, in her right hand is a lotus
flower, whilst she holds back her robe with the
left.
VICTOEIA . AVG . Victory marching. This device alludes to the
Emperor's victory over Artaxerxes, king of
Persia.
VIRTVS.AVG. The Emperor standing, his right foot raised. In
his right hand he holds a globe, and in his left
the hasta.
UEICONIUM. 421
lOVI . PEOPVGN-ATOEI . Jupiter.
MARTI . PACIFERO . Mars standing, holding in his right hand an
olive branch, and in his left the hasta.
BAEBIA OEBIANA, a.d. 22G.
SALL . BAEBIA . OEBIAISrA . AVG . Bust of the Empress, with the
hair closely and elaborately dressed.
CONCOEDIA . AVGG- . A stately female figure seated on a throne,
with patera in her right hand, and supporting a
double cornucopia on her left arm.
JULIA MAMAEA, a.d. 235.
IVLIA . ]\'IAMAEA . AVG . The Empress with her hair neatly dres-
sed and bound 'WT.th an anaderaa.
FELICITAS . PVBLICA . Female figure in elegant attire, seated,
with a caducous in one hand, typical of celestial
benefits, and in the other a cornucopia sym-
bolical of earthly enjoyment.
VEKEEI . FELICI . Mamaea attired as Venus : in her right hand
she holds the rod of divinity, whilst on her
left arm she supports an infant.
VESTA. Veiled female supporting a figure, probably the idol which
was supposed to confer universal rule upon
those who kept it; and was consequently
committed to the custody of one vestal only.
VESTA. The goddess standing, holding the hasta pura and a
patera.
MAXIMINUS.
From A.D. 235 to 238.
IMP . MAXIMINVS . PIVS . AVG . Laureated head of Emperor.
SALVS . AVGVSTI , Hygeia standing, feeding a serpent out of a
patera.
422 URICONIUM.
FIDES . MILITVM . The Emperor standing and holding in each
hand a military standard.
GOEDIANUS.
A.D. 238 to A.D. 244.
IMP , GORDIANVS . PIVS . TEL . AVG . Head of Gordian, with
radiated crown.
AETERNITATI , AVG . Female figure standing, lifting up the right
hand ; in the left a globe.
FEL . TEMP . Draped female, holding long caduceus and cornu-
copia.
LAETITIA . AVG . N . A stolated figure standing, holding in her
right hand a wreath, in the left a sceptre.
ROMAE . AETERNAE . Roma Nicephora, seated on a throne, hold-
ing the hasta pura in the left hand, and the
figure of victory in her right. This device
alludes to the eternity promised to Rome by
all the oracles of antiquity, and echoed by all
the Latin poets.
VICTORIA . AETER . A figure of victory, at her feet a captive.
PHILIP 1st.
A.D. 243 to A.D. 249.
IMP.M.IVL.PHILIPPVS. AVG. Head of PhiUp wearing the
radiated crown.
ANNOISTA . AVGG . Anuoua standing with cornucopiae. This re-
verse records the donation of grain given by
tlie Emperor and his son, A.D. 247. Of these
devices there appears to have been Abundan-
tia, a profuse giver of all things at all times.
Copia, who seems to have been restricted to
provisions, and Armona to the management of
the sup])ly for the current year.
URICONIDM. 423
FIDES . EXERCITVS. Four legionary standards. The standards
represent the four divisions of the legions. The
Velites. Hastati. Principes and Triarii.
FIDES . MILITVM. A female, supporting two legionary standards.
lOVI . COISrSERVAT. Jupiter holding in his right hand a sceptre
and in his left a spear.
SAECVLAEES . AVGG . A cippus inscribed COS . III. This coin
was struck in the third Consulship of Philip
A.D. 248, in which j^ear he celebrated the
Secular Games, in honour of the completion of
the lOOO'th anniversary of Eome.
Same legend. A stag. In the exergue, 01.
VICTOEIA . AVG. Victory marching, holding a laurel crown in
her right, and a spear in her left hand.
Same legend. Victory marching, holding laurel crown and palm
branch.
IMAECIA OTACILIA.
WIFE OF PHILIP.
IVIAECIA . OTACILIA . SEVERA. Head of Empress.
PIETAS . AVG . IsT. Figure of a female, with an infant, standing.
PIETAS . AVGVSTAE. Piety personified, standing.
PHILIP THE YOUNGEE
A.D. 237 to A.D. 249.
M . IVL . PHILIPPVS . CAES. Youthful head of the younger Philip
crowned.
PEINCIPI . IWENTVTIS. The young Prince habited in a camp
dress holding a globe in his right hand, and
the hasta pura in his left. This distinction was
424
URICONIUM,
often the reward of merit, and at all times 3
badge of honour, as well as a symbol of
avithority. Marcellus is described by Virgil as
" pur^ juvenis qui nititur hasta."
DECIUS.
A.D. 249 to 251.
IMP . C . M . Q . TEAIANVS . DECIVS . AVG . Bust of the Emperor
crowned. The brow is wrinkled, and the face
indicative of age.
GENIVS . EXEEC . ILLYEICANI . A naked genius standing,
holding a patera in the right hand, and a cor-
nucopia on the left arm ; behind him is a
military standard. This coin was struck 249,
to shew that Decius justly enough ascribed his
advancement to the Illyrican army ; " a mili-
tibus Illyricianis Imperator factus, ab Senatu
Augustus appellatus est."
PANNONIAE ,
Two stolated and veiled females standing in the
middle of the field, the one holding a sceptre,
and the other a military standard. This inter-
esting device illustrates the ancient divisions
of the Province into superior and inferior; the
separation being made by the river Arabo.
One of the divisions is called Pannonia prima
and the other Pannonia secunda, which by the
standard is shown to have been garrisoned.
ETEUSCILLA.
WIFE OF DECIUS.
HEE . ETEVSCILLA . AVG . Profile bust of Empress, with her
hair elaborately dressed, and wearing a diadem.
PVDICITIA . AVG . A robed female seated; in her left hand she
holds a long sceptre, and with her right she
lifts the flammeum, or bridal veil, which covers
her head. Chastity was a virtue highly prized
by the Eomans.
URICONIUM. 425
■,:. . -',: :. '. ■ GALLUS.
'■ "■ A.D. 251 to A.D. 254,
IMP . CAES . C . VIB . TEEB . GALLVS . AVG- . Head of GaUus with
short hair and beard, wearing the radiated
crown.
SALVS . AVGG . Hygeia richly attired feeding a serpent out of a
patera. The malady which probably gave
occasion for the striking of this medal seems
to be that disease which travelled from Ethi-
opia, and is said to have raged for fifteen
years, destroying incredible numbers of people,
so that the altars of the gods were earnestly
resorted to, and each particular one was
invoked to arrest the plague. From the
, AVGG, for Augustorum, it is clear that his
son, Volusian, was reigning at this period as
joint Emperor.
VOLUSIANUS.
SON OF GALLUS.
A.D. 251 to 254
IMP . C . C . VIB . VOLVSIANVS . AVG . Crowned head of Volu-
sian with close-cut hair and whiskers on the
side of face only.
VIETVS . AVG . Volusian standing with spear and shield. This
was minted on the occasion of the father and
son's magnificent entry into Eome, and was
intended to shew that they obtained the throne
by valour, and not by treachery.
VALEEIANUS.
A.D. 254 TO 260.
VALEEIAISrVS .P.P. AVG . Crowned head of Valerian, with hair
cut short ; the face is fat, and neck thick, and
shoiUders draped.
426 TTRICONICrM.
OKIENS . AVGG . Figure of Apollo walking, his head radiated,
his right hand raised in command, his
garments floating behind him. This device
was, probably, minted with a view to appease
" the lord of the silver bow, ' so that the
disease (mentioned in the description of No. 1
Gallus), may be stayed. Whence Shakespeare :
"Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves
Do strike at my injustice."
PIETAS . Pontifical implements.
VIETVS . AVGG . Two military figures standing. This device was
struck in honour of his valour and probity ;
and certainly none deserved it better.
GALLIENUS.
A.D. 260 TO A.D. 268.
G-ALLIENVS . AVG . Crowned bust of Gallienus.
DIANAE . CONS . AVG. A stag standing in the exergue IX.
Besides the stag, which was sacred to Diana,
there appears a great many other animals on
the coins of Gallienus, as the lion, panther,
wolf, bull, goat, boar, hippocampus ; there are
also the eagle, ibis, and stork, and the mon-
sters, centaur, griffin, Capricorn, &c. These
were all sacred to the tutular deities, to whom
Gallienus offered so many supplications, that
he obtained the title of " Conservator Pietatis."
FELICITAS . TEMP . A female figure standing. From history it
would appear that his chief happiness consisted
in gluttony.
FOETVNA . AVG . Fortune standing with rudder placed on a
globe, and other attributes.
VIETVS . AVG . A soldier holding a shield in his right hand, and
in his left a spear.
URICONIUM. 427
SALONINA.
WIFE OF GALLIENUS.
SALONIKA . AVG- . Head of Salonina, with hair neatly dressed
and wearing a diadem.
FECVKDITAS . AVG . Elegant figure of the Empress, standing,
holding a cornucopia, at her feet a child. In
the field, L.
IVNO . REG-INA . A veiled female standing, with the sacred virga
in her left hand, and a patera in her right.
This is in compliment to an Empress, " moribus
Sanctis," as a mark of decorum and decency.
SALONINUS.
A.D. 253 TO A.D. 259.
P . C . L . VALERIAJSrVS . NOB . CAES . An interesting head of the
youthful Prince crowned.
PRINCIPI . IWENT . A young warrior bare-headed, standing in
a graceful attitude, on his right hand he sup-
ports a globe, whilst in his left he holds a
spear with its point to the ground; the first
shewing the world ruled, and the other that
arms were ready against such as disturb the
public peace.
POSTUMUS. (In BiUon.)
A.D. 258 TO A.D. 267.
IMP . C . POSTVMVS . P . P . V . G . Fine profile of Postumus, head
crowned, and bust draped.
HEEC . DEVSONIENSI . Spirited figure of Hercules standing naked,
with club and lion's skin.
PAX . AVG . Peace standing. In the field, O .
IMP . POSTVMVS .P.P. AVG . Head of Postumus.
LAETITIA . A galley. In the exergue, S . C . This device records
the rejoicing which took place on his German
victories.
428 URICONIUM.
VIOTOEINUS.
A.D. 266 TO 267.
(Billon.)
IMP . C . VICTOKINVS . P . F . AVG . Profile of Victorinus, with a
full beard, shoulders draped, and head crowned.
INVICTVS . The sun marching. This invincible man was mur-
dered after a reign of only two years.
PAX . AVG . Peace standiag with olive branch and spear.
PAX . AVG . Peace standing with the olive branch and spear.
PIETAS . AVG . A female figure standing. Minted to record
his sacrifices to the gods on attaining to the
sovereign power.
VIETVS . AVG . A soldier standing, holding in his right hand a
shield, in his left a spear.
TETPJCUS.
A.D. 267 TO 272.
(Billon.)
IMP.PES.TETPJCVS.P.r.AVG. Crowned head of Tetricus,
with flowing beard.
Legend on reverse defaced. Female figure standing.
HILAEITAS . AVGG . A female figure standing, with cornucopia
and palm branch. This device indicative of
general joy, with peace and plenty, would from
the letter G being doubled indicating two
Emperors, be intended, no doubt, to record the
general rejoicings which took place upon the
younger Tetricaus being elected Augustus
with his father.
VALENS.
A.D. 364 TO A.D. 378.
D . N .VALENS . P . F . AVG . Draped profile bust of Valens, wearing
a diadem.
UEICONIUM. 429
EESTITVTOE.KEIPVBLICAE. The Emperor standing, holding in
his right hand the labarum, whilst his left
supports a winged victory towards which he
is looking. In the exergue, TES.
SALVS . EEIP . The Emperor standing in a military habit, hold-
ing the standard of the cross, and a victory
standing on a globe, his right foot is placed upon
a kneeling captive. Two stars in the field. In the
exergue, SMTES .
VEBS . EOMA . Eome personified seated, holding in her right hand
victory, in her left the hasta pura. In the
exergue TE . PS.
GLQEIA . EOMANOEVM . A military figure holding in his left
hand the labarum, and dragging a captive by
his hair. In the exergue, P . COIST .
GEATIANUS.
A.D. 375 TO A,D. 383.
D.N. GEATIANTS .P.P. AVG . Bust of Gratian, wearing a dia-
dem, and draped with paludamentum.
GLOEIA . NO VI . SAECLI . (Sic.) The Emperor with the labarum
and resting his hand on a shield. In the
exergue, P . CON .
VIETVS . EOMANOEVM . The Emperor seated in a chair of state
holding in his right hand a globe, significant of
universal power, and in his left, the hasta pura,
emblematical of mercy. In the exergue, TE.P.S.
VEBS . EOMA . Eome seated, holding a victory. In exergue, T. E . PS.
430 URICONTUM.
EOMAN BRASS COINS.
1st BEASS.
POMPEY THE GEEAT.
B.C. 106 TO B.C. 48.
MGN. Double head of Janus. Eeverse ; prow of ship. Above
PIVS. Below IMP.
2nd BEASS.
AUGUSTUS.
B.C. 48 TO A.D. 14.
AVGVSTVS . TEIBVmC . POTEST . Within a garland. C.N.
PISO.C.lSr.F.E.A.A.A.F.F. Signifying,
ex-Auro, Argento, Aere, Flando Feriundo. In
the centre an archaic S . C . Cneius Piso was
Consul under Augustus.
AVGVSTVS . Bare head of Augustus. Eeverse ; an eagle with
expanded wings, standing on a globe. In
field, S . C.
AYGVST . PONT . MAX . TEIBVNIC . PO. Bare head of Augustus.
M . MAECILIVS . TVLLVS . Ill . VIE . A . A . A . E . F . In the centre
of the field, S . C.
DIVVS . AVGVSTVS . PATEE . Eadiated head of Augustus . S . C .
A veiled female seated.
1st BEASS.
ANTONIA.
B.C. 38 TO A.D. 38.
ANTONIA . AVGVSTA .
TI . CLAVDIVS . CAESAE . AVG . P . M . TE . P . IMP. Male figure
standing between the letters S . C.
URICONIUM. 431
1st BEASS.
GEEMANICVS.
B.C. 15 TO A.D. 19.
GEEMANICVS . CAESAE . TI . AVG . F . DIVI . AVG . Bare head
of Germanicvs.
TI . CAESAE . DIVI . AVGVST . PEON . AVG . P . M . TE . P . IIII.
In centre, S . C.
1st BEASS.
CLAUDIUS.
A.D. 41 TO A.D. 54.
TI.CLAVDIVS . CAESAE. AVG. P. M.TE. P. IMP. P. P. Bare
head of Claudius. Behind the head a counter-
mark, (countermarks are often seen on Eoman
coins, and were used to render them current
in other states.)
EX . S . C . OB . GIVES . SEEVATOS . Inscribed within in an oaken
garland. This honour appears to have been
awarded to Claudius for his recalling those
who had been banished by Caligula without
sufficient cause.
2nd BPuASS.
CLAUDIUS.
TI . CLAVDIVS . CAESAE . AVG . TE . P . P . Bare head of
Claudius,
LIBEETVS . AVGVSTA . Liberty personified, holding the freed-
man's cap in her right hand. In field, S . C.
3rd BEASS.
TI . CLAVDIVS . CASESAE . AVG . An altar.
IMP . COS . DES . II . PON . M . TE . P . In centre of field, S . C.
1st BEASS.
NEEO.
NEEO . CLAVDIVS . CAESAE . AVG . GEE . P . M .TE. P . IMP .P.P.
Laureated head of Nero.
EOMA . In exergue, S . C . In field, a galeated female of majestic
aspect; intended to represent Eome.
432 UEICONIUM.
2nd BEASS.
NERO . CESAR . (Sic) AVG . GERM . IMP . Laiireated head of
Emperor.
PACE . P . E . VBIQ . PARTA . lANVM . CLVSIT . The temple
of Janus, with closed doors. In the field, S . C .
VESPASIAlSr.
1st BRASS.
IMP . CAES .VESPASIAN . AVG . PM . TR . P . PP . COS . Ill . The
head of the Emperor laureated. The stern and
fixed features of Vespasian are strongly marked.
IVDAEA . CARTA . The Emperor standing : in his right hand a
spear ; his right foot on a helmet : in the
centre of the device stands a palm tree ; at
the foot of which is seated in an attitude of
grief, a weeping female. In the exergue, S. C_
Perhaps to us this coin, the Judea Capta
of Vespasian, is one of the most interestiag,
and serves to show how vividly single facts in
history are proved by the devices on coins.
There are several varieties of this particular
type, all are of universal interest, relating as
they do to the destruction of the Holy City
Jerusalem and the conquest of Judea by Titus
the son of Vespasian, the theme of so much
thought and of so much song. All these coins
bear on the reverse a Palm tree, the distinguis-
ing product of the country. Some like the
present have the Emperor and sedent female
figure, others the fettered Jewish Chief Simon
and under the palm tree sits a weeping and
downcast Jewish Maiden with an expression
of unutterable woe. Simon held out against
the power of Rome with great obstinacy, and the
city was only ceded bit by bit, the Jews retiring
within the second and third wall only as their
numbers were so thinned by slaughter that^
they could not longer defend the larger space.
UEICONIDM. 433
VESPASIAK
2nd EEASS.
IMP . VESPASIAN . AUG . COS . Ill . Laureated head of Vespasian.
S. C. An eagle with expanded wings.
DOMITIAK
1st BEASS.
IMP . CAES . DOMITIAN. AVG . GEEM . COS . XI . Laureated head.
lOVI . CONSEEVAT. Jupiter standing between the letters S . C .
In his right hand a thunderbolt ; in the left
a lance.
DOMITIAN.
2nd BEASS.
IMP . CAESAE . DOMIT . AVG . GEEM . COS . XV. Laureated head
of Domitian.
FOETVNA. A female standing in an easy and very graceful attitude.
In field, S.C.
As above COS . XXI.
MONETA . AVGVSTI . Equity standing with balance and cornu-
copia. In field, S.C.
NEEVA.
2nd BEASS.
IMP . NEEVA . CAES . AVG . GEEM . COS . XII . CENS . PEE .P.P.
Laureated profile of the Emperor.
AVGVST . In the field, S.C. A female standing, holding a
cornucopia.
TEAJAN.
1st BEASS.
IMP . CAES . NEEVA . TEAIANO . AVG . GEE . D AC . P . M . T . E .
P . COS . V . P . P . Fine laureated profile bust of
Trajan. This coin is in fine preservation, and
covered with light green patina.
S . P . Q . E . OPTIMO , PEINCIPI . In the exergue, S.C.
C2
434 UEICONITJM.
Legend on obverse and reverse as foregoing, Ceres standing before
an altar holding in her right hand ears of corn,
and in her left the hasta puia.
EOMAE AETEEKAE. A dignified female figure, wearing helmet
and armotir, is seated on a pile of arms ; in her
left hand she holds the hasta pura, whilst her
right supports a winged victory. In the field, S.C.
S . P . Q . E . OPTIMO . PEINCIPI . In ex. S.C. The Emperor on
a richly-caparisoned horse, darting a javelin
at a prostrate foe, who by his trousers is known
to represent a T)acian. A coin of this type
Avas found emloedded in the mortar of that
portion of wall still standing at Wroxeter. The
date of minting was in the Fifth Considship
of Trajan, which corresponds with A.D. 105.
2nd BEASS.
i:\IP . NEEVA . CAES . TEAIAK . AVG . GEE . Crowned or radiated
head of Emperor.
TE . P . Female, seated on Curule chair, composed of a double
cornucopia. In exergue, S.C.
HADEIAN.
1st BEASS.
IMP . CAES . TEAIAN . HADEI . P . M . TE . P . COS . Lameated
head of Hadrian.
EESTITVTOEI . OEBIS . TEEEAEVM . The Emperor raising up
a prostrate female. In exergue, S.C.
HADEIAISrVS . AVGVSTVS . Laureated head of Emperor.
COS. III. A female figure, standing in a graceful attitude, holding
the hasta pura.
2nd BEASS.
HxiDEIANVS . AVGVSTVS . Laureated head of Hadrian.
FELICITATI . AVG . COS . ITT .P.P. A galley with the Gubernator
ami six rowers.
URICONIUM. 435
ANTONINYS . AVG . PIVS . P . P . TR . P . COS . Ill . Laiireated
head of Emperor.
ANTONINVS PIVS.
1st BEASS.
ANTONINVS . AUG . In exergue, COS . IIII . Stolated female
figure standing. Between the letters, S . C . In
her right hand the caduceus. In her left an
olive branch.
EOMAE.ATEENAE. In field, S.C. A dignified female, with
helmet and military vestments, seated in a com-
manding attitude on a pile of armour ; her left
hand holds the hasta pura, on her right she
supports a winged victory, which presents a
laurel wreath to the " Eternal IMistress."
Legend obliterated. Laureated head of Antoninus Pivs.
TE.POT.XX. Infield, S.C. Fortune personified.
2nd BEASS.
ANTONINVS . AVCt . PIVS . P . P . TE . P . COS . HIT . Head of
Emperor.
GENIO . SEJSTATVS. Figure of Genius standing between the letters
S.C. In his right hand a laurel wreath ; in
his left a sceptre.
ANTONINVS . AVG . PIVS .P.P. TEP . The wolf suckhng Eomulus
and Eemus.
FAVSTINA.
1st BEASS.
WIFE OF PR'S.
DIVA . FAVSTIlSrA . Head of Empress, with the hair magnificently
decorated with pearls.
AVGVSTA. Ceres standing holding a torch and ears of corn. In
the field, S.C.
436 TJRICONIUM.
MARCVS AVRELIVS.
1st BRASS.
AVRELIVS . CAESAR . ANTON . AVG . PII . E . Bare head of
Aurelivs.
TR . POT . X . COS . Ill . Minerva standing.
FAVSTINA, JuN.
WIFE OF M. AVEELIVS.
FAVSTINA . AVG . PII . AVG . FILIA . Beautiful head of Eavstina
crowned.
VENEEI . GENETEICI . The Empress standing half dressed. In
field, S . C .
CARACALLA.
IMP. C.M.AVR.ANTONIN^^S. PONT. AVG. Extremely fine
head of CaracaUa, laureated.
SECVRITAS . PUBLICA . Security personified.
IMP . C A.ES . M . AVR . ANT . AVG . P . TE . P . II . Laureated bust.
SPES . PVBLICA. Hope walking, (off?)
SALVS . ANTONINI . AVG . Hygeia standing feeding a serpent out
of a petera.
GALLIENUS.
GALLIENVS . AVGG . Head of Emperor crowned.
DIANAE . CONS . A stag.
LIBERO . P . CONS . AVG . A panther. In exergue, E ,
TETEICUS
IMP . TETRICVS .P.P. AVG .
Reverse imperfect, figure standing.
URICONIUM. 437
SALVS . AVG- . Hygeia standing feeding a serpent out of a patera.
Struck to propitiate tire gods during tlie
Emperor's illness.
SALVS . AVG . Hope walking, holding in her right hand a flower
whilst her left is employed to hold up her robes,
so as not to impede her onward progress. This
elegant device of Hope appears to have been
a great favourite, as it is found on the coins
of many of the Eoman emperors.
VBEETTAS . AVGG- . A female standing, holding a cornucopia and
a purse.
VICTOEIA . AVG . Victory marching.
TETEICUS, (JuN.)
A.D. 267 TO A.D. 272.
C . PIVEVS . TET . CAES . Crowned head of the younger Tetricus.
Youthful countenance.
SEES . AVG . Hope walking.
CLAUDIUS II. (Gothicus.)
A.D. 268 TO A.D. 270.
IMP . CLAVDIVS . AVG . A^ery characteristic head of Emperor
wearing the radiated crown.
CONSEEVAT . AVG . The Emperor standing armed, in his right
hand he holds a figure of victory. This device
was, probably, meant to record his victory
over the Goths, Avhence his surname.
lOVI . COITSEEVAT . Jupiter standing with attributes
VBEEITAS . AVG . Eemale, standing v/ith cornucopia.
VIETVS . AVG . Female figure standing
438 URICONIUM.
VIETVS . A.VG- . A soldier ; in his right hand a laurel branch, in
his left a spear, at his feet a shield.
VIETVS . AVG . A soldier walking ; in his right hand a spear, and
carrying a trophy over his left shoulder.
CONCOK . AVG- . Two veiled women, each holding a torch, and
ears of corn.
TACITUS.
A. D. 275.
IMP . C . M . CL . TACITVS . AVG . Crowned bust of Tacitus.
CLEMTIA . (Sic.) AVG . Mars Pacifer marching. In the exergue,
XXIZ.
TEMPORVM . FELICITAS . Felicity standing with cornucopia
and long caduceus. In the field, A.A.
CAEAUSIUS.
A.D. 287 TO A.D. 293.
ADVEXTVS . AVG . The Emperor on horseback ; his right hand
raised holding a globe. In the exergue, M . L .
COiSrCOED . AVGG . Two figures joining hands. In the exergue, C .
This device probably alludes to the acknow-
ledgment of his title by Maximian, when the
wily admiral by depriving him of his fleet had
put it out of his power to punish hini.
DINE . (Sic.) CONS . A stag. In the exergue, XX .
EIDES . MILITVM . A woman holding two standards.
LAETITIA . AVG . Female standing with ears of corn. In the
field, S . P .
LEG . II . AVG . Capricorn. lu the exergue, M . L .
UEICONIUM. 439
MAES . Mars marcliing;.
OEIENS . AVG,. Sun marching, with whip.
PAX . AVG . Female standing with olive branch and hasta. In
exergue, M . L .
Same legend. Peace personified. In field, P .
Same legend. — Peace standing witli olive branch.
PAX . AVG . Female draped ; in her left hand an olive branch,
and in her right a spear. In the field, S . P .
Same legend.— Female standing between the letters, S . P . In the
exergue, MLXXI.
PROVIDENTIA . A female figure standing holding in her right
hand a globe, and in her left a spear. In the
field, E . E.
IMP . CAEAVSIVS . P . F . AVG . A Full faced bust of Carausius,
bare headed ; the hair cut square across the
forehead.
SALVS . AVG , A female figure holding the hasta pura, standing
by an altar feeduig a snake.
The history of this fine and unique coin is as
follows. It was found, years ago, at Wroxeter ;
and presented to Mr. Eoach Smith, F.S.A.,
who engraved it for the second volume of his
" Collectanea Antiqua," (from which the fol-
lowing account is given) ; and subsequently it
was ceded with his London Collection to the
British Museum, where it now is.
"It is the portrait which gives value to tliis
remarkable piece. The gold, silver and brass
coins of Carausius have uniformly a profile ;
,•' and in no instance, save in this specimen, is
440
URICONIUM.
the head bare. It is either laureated, or hel-
meted, or radiated. Upon contemporary coins
moreover it was not the practice to give a
front face ; and the exceptions are few. This
fact coupled with that of the superior work-
manship of our new specimen, suggests a
belief that the portrait is the result of a care-
ful and successful attempt by the artist to
produce a portrait. Those who are familiar with
the portraits of Carausius in the better preserved
specimens, will recognise in the front face the
peculiar character of the former with an expres-
sion of countenance indicative of decision and
benignity which the side face does not always
convey."
ALLECTUS.
A.D. 296.
niT . ALLECTVS . P . F . AVG . Laureated head of AEectus. The
shoulders draped.
FIDES . MILITVM . A female figure standing and holding an
ensign in each hand. In the field, S . P . In
exergue, C .
Same legend. — C . L . in the exergue.
10 VI . COiN^SEEVATOPJ . Jupiter standing holding the hasta and
a thunderbolt. In the field, S . P .
LAETITIA . AVG . A woman standing, holding in her right hand
a branch, and in her left a javelin. In the
field, C.
PAX . AVG . Peace standing, holding a flower in her right hand
and the hasta pura in her left. In the field,
S . P In exergue, C ,
UKICONIUM. 441
PEOVIDENTIA . AVG . Female standing, holding a globe and
hasta pura. In field, S . P . In exergue, C.
VIETVS . AVG . A gaUey. In exergue, S . C .
CONSTANTIUS 1st, {Ghlonis)
A.D. 305 TO 306.
CONSTANTIVS . NOB . CAES . Head of Constantius.
FIDES. MILITVM.AVGG.ET.OAESS.N.N. A female figure
standing between two ensigns, A . Q . P . In
FOETVNAE . EEDVCI . AVGG . NN . Fortune standing. In field,
B. and a star. In exergue, TE.
GENIO . POPVLI . EOMAjSTI . Figure standing at an altar ; right
hand holding patera, left cornucopia.
GENIO . POPVLI . EOMANI . Genius standing with his attributes.
GLOEIA . EXEECITVS . A military ensign between two soldiers
with spears and shields. In exergue, PLC .
HEEGVLI . VICTOEI . Hercules, standing ; his right hand on his
club, his left holding the apples of Hesperides,
the lion's skin thrown over his arm. In field,
VI . In exergue, SIS . .
10 VI . COXSEEVAT . Jupiter standing, holding a victory on a
globe, and the hasta pura. In field, VI. In
exergue, SIS . B .
10 VI . CONSEEVATOEI . A similar type. At the foot of Jupiter
an eagle. In field, Z . In exergue, S M K .
VIETVS . AVGG . ET . CAESS . N . N . The Emperor on horseback
riding over two prostrate figures. In exergue,
Q . S.
442 URICONIUM.
PIETAS . AVG . The Emperor raising up a woman, who kneels
at his feet. In field, G. In exergue, P . TE.
ViSTDIQUE . VICTOEES . The Emperor standing in a military habit,
holding a victory and a spear. In field, B .
HELEN"A.
BOEN 248, DIED 328.
FL . HELENA . AVGVSTA. Head of Empress.
PIETAS . AVGVSTAE . Female figure with two chHdren.
PEOVIDEISTTIA . AVGG . The Prcetorian Camp.
MAXIMINUS DAZA.
A.D. 308 TO 313.
IMP.MAXIMINTS.P.F.AVG. Youthful head of Maximus,
laureated, shoulders draped.
GENIO . CAESAEIS . Genius standing holding a patera and
cornucopia. In field, a star and A . In exergue,
SM . TS.
CONCOED . IMPEEII . Female holding hasta pura. In field, VI.
In exergue, SIS . V .
GENIO . POP . EOM . Genius standing holding a patera and cor-
nucopia. In field, T . F . In exergue, S . TE .
VIETVS , EXEECITVS . A military figure marching, with trophy
In field, a star and A . In exergue, ANT .
LICINIUS.
A.D. 307 TO A.D. 324.
IMP . LICINIVS . P . F . AVG . Laureated head of Licinius.
GENIO . POP . EOM . Genius personified. In exergue, VTE .
URicomuM. 443
SOLI.mVICTO.COMITI. The sun marching. In the exergue,
SVE . L . Others with PLN . in exergue.
CONSTANTINUS MAGNUS.
A.D. 306 TO A.D. 337.
ADVENTVS.AVG.N". The Emperor on horseback, before him a
captive, seated on the ground. A star in tire
field. In exergue, PLN.
GENIO . AVGVSTI . Genius standing, holding a patera and a
cornucopia. In the field, a crescent and A .
In exergue, SIS .
GENIO . CAESAPJS . A simUar type. In field, KA . F. In exergue,
ALE.
TEMPOEVM . FELICITAS. EeHcity standing. In exergue, P. L. C.
VIETVS . PEEPETVA . AVG . Hercules strangling the Nemasan
lion, his club on the ground. In exergue, P. T .
PEINCIPI . IVVENTVTIS . The Emperor standing laureated, as
Prince of the Eoman youth, holding two
standards. In field, S . A . In exergue, P. T . E .
GLOEIA . EXEECITVS . Before two soldiers stand two military
standards ; others with A . S . TES . Various
exergue.
Same legend, but with laurel crown between the standards. In
exergue, P . CONST .
GENIO . POPVLI . EOMANI . Figure standing, holding a patera
and cornucopia. In exergue, SMAE.
FELICITAS . TEMP . EEPAEATIO . A military figure on horse-
back, about to cast a javelin at a prostrate foe.
SOLI . INVICTO . COMITI . Apollo standing. In the field, T . F
In exergue PLN.
444 URICONITJM.
Same legend and device. In exergue, Q . AEL . Others with A. F .
TES.PLON.S.P. and various letters, in the
field and exenjue.
GLOEIA . EEIPVBLICAE . A winged victory marching with palm
branch. In exergue, SEAQ .
GLOEIA . EXEECITVS . Two soldiers standing ; between them is
the labarum or sacred standard charged with
the monogram of Christ. In the exergue
P . CONS . The labarum is described as a
long pike, intersected by a transverse beam
from which depended a silken veil charged
with the sacred syinbol. It is recorded by
Eusebius that one evening as Constantine was
meditating on the dangers of his position, he
implored Divine assistance. It was then, as
the sun was declining, that there suddenly
appeared a pillar of light in the heavens, in
the fashion of a cross with an inscription in
Greek, " In this oveecojie."
Such an event caused the greatest astonish-
ment in the Emperor and his whole army.
Constantine the day following caused a royal
standard to be made like that he had seen
in the heavens, and commanded it to be
carried before him In his wars, as an ensign
of victory and celestial protection. He then
embraced Christianity and made a public
avowal of that sacred persuasion. The same
symbol sanctified the arms of his soldiers,
the cross glittered on their helmets, was
engraved on their shields, and interwoven into
tlieir banners; and the consecrated emblems
which adorned the person of the Emperor
himself were distinguished only by richer
materials and more exquisite workmanship.
URICONIUM. 445
FVNDAT . PACIS . An armed figure bearing a trophy, and dragging
a captive by tlie hair. In exergue, EP . or ES
or ET.
LIBEETAS . PVBLICA . Victory standing on a galley. In field
B . In exergue, COJSTS .
MAETI . CONSEEVAT . Mars standing. In exergue, P . TE .
EEL. TEMP. EEPAEATIO. A soldier standing in a ship; in his
right hand a globe, in his left a spear, a
captive kneeling at his feet.
PEHSrCIPI . IVYENTVTIS . The Emperor standing, holding two
ensigns. A star in field. In exergue, P . LN
Same device. In field, S . E . In exergue, P . TE
PEOVIDENTIA . AVG . An altar supporting a globe inscribed
VOTIS . XXX . In exergue, P . LON" .
SOLI . INVICTO . COMITI . Figure standing, holding a globe and
patera. In field, T . F . Another with P . IN
Inscribed within a garland VOTIS . XX . In exergue, E . P .
SAEMATIA.DEVICTA. An armed victory running; in her
right hand a caduceus, in her left a palm
branch.
SPES . EEIPVBL . The Emperor on horseback, trampling on a
captive. In exergue, P . LIST .
VICTOEIA . LAETAE . PEINCPII . (Sic) . Two victories standing
supporting a shield resting on a cippus, and
ins cribed OT . P . E . In exergue, S . TE .
VIETVS . EXEECIT . A magnificent trophy, at the foot of which
are two captives. This device in all proba-
bility records the victories of Constantino over
his rivals Maximinus and Licinius.
446 UBICONIUM.
Same legend. A trophy inscribed VOT . XX . at the foot of which
are two captives seated on the ground. In
field, E . S . In exergue, P . LC .
BEATA . TEANQVILITAS . An altar inscribed VOTIS . XX . Upon
it one large star; above are three small stars.
In exergue, P . TE .
CONSTANTINUS MAGISTVS.
Coins inscribed CONSTANXmOPOLIS, &c.
COlSrSTAlSrTINOPOLIS . Helmeted and armed female bust, with
hasta pura over her shoulders, intended to
represent the new city, Constantinople.
Eeverse. A winged victory marching with spear and shield. In
the field, a star. In exergue, A . Q . F .
Another with P . CONS . in the exergue
Others with TE . P . TE . S . and other letters in exergue.
POP . EO]\IANA^S . A youthful head laureated.
CONS . V . and a star within a garland. There are others with CON'S
B . CONS . T . CONS . E . and other letters.
POP . EOAIANVS . Shmlar head.
CONS . C . or E . and other letters. A bridge with towers at the
ends, restincf on boats.
VEBS . EOMA . Helmeted head of Eome.
Without legend. Eomulus and Eemus suckled by the wolf In the
field, two stars. In the exergue, * P . L . C .
Others with TAP . TEP* . TES . TSIS . and other letters in the
exergue.
CEISPUS.
D.N. CEISPVS . NOB . CAES . Head of Crispus wearing hehnet.
BEATA . TEANQVILITAS . A globe charged with three stars and
placed on a cippus inscribed VOTIS . XX .
In the exergue, PL . C . Constantine after
having murdered his son, here wishes him a
comfortable repose !
UEICONItJM. 447
lOVI . CONSEEVATOEI . CAES . Jupiter standing. In the field
a garland and E . In exergue, SMK .
SAECVLI . EELICITAS . A cippus : above a buckler, inscribed
AVCt . In field, P . E . In exergue, E . Q .
IVL . CEISPVS . NOB . C . Hebneted bead of Crispus.
CAESAEVM . NOSTEOEVM . Within a ^^eath VOT . X . In
exergue, P . T . S .
Others with P . LOND . and ST . and other letters in exergue.
VIC . Two victories standing, on either side a cippus holding a
buckler inscribed OT . P . E .
VIErS'S . EXEECITVS . Two captives seated at the foot of a
spear, from which is suspended a square
standard inscribed VOT . XX . In the exergue
P . L . N . This device is probably intended
to record the splendid daring and victory of
Crispus over Licinius, at Byzantium, when he
commanded the fleet of Constantine, and after
two days' fighting forced the passage of the
Hellespont. In this engagement one hundred
and thirty vessels were destroyed, and five
thousand men slain.
CONSTANTINUS II.
A.D. 335 to 340.
COISTSTANTINVS . IVIST . NOB . C . Bust of the younger Constantine
laureated, holding a globe surmounted by a
victory.
BEATA . TEANQVILITAS . An altar, on which stands a globe
inscribed VOTIS . XX . above, three stars.
Another with P.LON. in exergue.
448 UEICONIUM.
CAESAEVM . NOSTROEVM . A laurel wreath, in which is in-
scribed VOT . X . In exergue, V . SIS . *** .
GLOEIA . EXEECITVS . Two soldiers standing, between them are
two standards. In exergue, P . E . S . Another
has TE . S .
Same legend. A wreath between two standards. In exergue, S .
CONS.
lOVI . CONSEEVATOEI . CAESS . Jupiter standing, holding a
victory and the hasta. A captive at his feet.
In field, B. Constantine the Great embraced
Christianity a.d. 311, and here, on coins of
his son struck probably about 335, we see a
Pagan device.
VOTA . PVBLICA . Isis standing.
Same legend. Anubis standing.
VOT.XV.ET.XI.F.ET. within a laurel garland.
CONSTATS.
A.D. 335 to 350. 2nd BEASS.
D.N". CONSTANS . P . E . AVG . Diademed bust of Constans.
EEL . TEMP . EEPAEATIO . The Emperor standing on the deck
of a galley, holding a victory in his right
hand, and in his left, the labarum charged
with the monogram of our Saviour; at his
feet is a larger figure of victory kneeling. In
the exergue, T . E . S . We here have a Chris-
tian device, whilst about the same year his
brother's coins bare Pagan. (See above.)
Same legend. A male figure in complete armour, at his feet a
a figure kneeling, behind whom is a tree.
URICONIUM. 449
3rd BEASS.
FL . CONSTATS . NOB . CAES . Laureated head of Coiistans.
GLOEIA.EXEECITVS. Two soldiers, between them a standard.
In exergue, SMNA.
CONSTANS . P . F . A . V . Diademed head of Emperor.
Eeverse, no legend. Victory marching.
EEL . TEMP . EEPAEATIO . A globe surmounted by a Phrenix,
around whose head is a nimbus. In exergue,
TE.S.
VICTOEIA . DD . NN . AVGG . Two victories holding laurel crowns.
In the field, P. On this coin we have both
legend and device doubled, shewing the associa-
tion of the two brothers in the event intended
to be recorded.
CONSTANTIUS 11.
A.D. 335 to A.D. 361.
F . IVL . CONSTANTIVS . NOB . CAES . Profile bust of Constantius
wearing diadem.
FEL . TEMP . EEPAEATIO . A globe, on which stands a Phcenix,
his head surrounded by a nimbus. In the
exergue, TE . P . Others, TE . S . in exergue.
GLOEIA . EXEECITVS . Two soldiers standing, between them
two military standards.
GLOEIA . POPVLI . EOMANI . Female figure standing at an altar,
holding a patera in right hand, and cornu-
copia on left arm.
HOC , SIGNO . VICTOE. EEIS . The Emperor in a military habit
standing, holding in his right hand the
standard of the cross. Victory placing a gar-
laud on his head. In field, A. In exergue,
2d
450 - TJRICONItJM.
A. SIS. Another, T . SIS . This remarkable
device shews that the standard of the cross
was considered invincible by the Emperors
who succeeded Constantino the Great, and as
such, used by them.
VICTOEIA , AVGG. Victoiy marching with garland and palm
branch. In iield, monogram of Christ. In
exergue, B . SIS . *
MAGNENTIUS.
A.D. 350 to A.D. 353.
D . N . FL .aiAGNENTIVS . P . E . AVG . Profile head of Magnentius.
EEL . TEMP . EEPAEATIO . Magnentius standing on the deck of
a galley, holding a victory and a spear ; a
winged genius kneeling at his feet. In the
field, A . In the exergue, TE . E .
SALVS.D. AVG.ET.CAES. The monogram of Christ between
the letters alpha and omega. In the exergue,
L.P.
This revei-se alludes to his having created his brother Decentius
Cffisar, at Milan, a.d. 351.
VICTOEIA . AVG . LIB . EOMANOE . Magnentius in a military
habit holding the standard of the cross and a
laurel branch ; a captive kneeling at his feet.
In field, N . In the exergue, P . E .
DECENTIUS.
A.D. 351 to A.D. 353.
D.N. DECENTIVS . NOB . CAES . Profile bust of Decentius.
VICTOEIA . AVG . Victory, with garland and palm branch, a captive
at her feet.
JULIANUS II. (The Apostate.)
AD. 360 TO A.D. 373.
D.N. IVLIANVS .P.P. AVG . Diademed profile head of Emperor.
SPES . EEIPVBLICAE . A military figure standing, holding a globe
and spear. In exergue, CONS . A .
URICONIUM. 451
VOTA . PUBLICA . Isis and Osiris, their forms terminating iu
serpents.
VALENTINIANUS.
A.D. 364 TO A.D. 375.
D.N. VALENTINIAlSrVS .P.P. AVG . Profile bust of Valentinian,
wearing a diadem.
GLOEIA . EOMANOEVM . The Emperor standing ; in his left hand
he holds the labarum, whilst with his right he
presses down a kneeling captive. In the field,
Q . and K . In exergue, B . SIS . EV. Other
reverses have S. CONS. S . MA . T . SIS. P. CON.
In exergue, F . E . A ., and other letters in the
field.
SECVEITAS . EEIPVBLICAE. Victory marching with laurel wreath.
In exergue, S . CON . Another has OE . II . in
field, another has E. E. P . In exergue, SIS . C. S.
VICTOEIA . AVGG- . A soldier marching ; in his right hand he
carries the labarum, whUst his left supports a
globe. In exergue, S . LVG.
VOTA . PV . B . The Praetorian Camp, beneath the Porta, .
VOTA . PVBLICA . Isis seated on a dog, holding the sistrum and
the hasta.
VALENS.
A.D. 364 TO A.D. 378.
D.N. VALENS .P.P. AVG . Head of Valens, crowned with a diadem.
GLOEIA . EOMANOEVM . A soldier standing ; in his left hand the
labarum, charged with the monogram of Christ ;
with his right hand he holds a captive by the
neck. In the field, OF . II . Another, OF . I .
Same legend. Victory marching, in her right hand a laurel crown ;
in her left a palm branch. In exergxie, TE . P .
Another P . CON .
SECVEITAS . EEIPVBLICAE . Victory marching, in her hand a
laurel wreath. In exergue, P . CONS .
452 UEICONIUM.
Others, witli Victory holding laurel crown and palm branch OF . I .
toten letters in field ; and SMAQP. in exergued
and other letters.
VOX . XX . MVLT. XXX . Within a laurel wreath. This device is very
common, with various letters in the exergue.
VOTA . PVBLICA. Isis seated, suckling Orus.
GEATIAlSr.
A.D. 375 TO A.D. 381.
D.N. GEATIANA^S . P . F . AVG . Diademed head of Gratian.
GLORIA , EO^NIANOEVM . A soldier walking, and carrying in his
left hand the standard of the Cross, whilst he
seizes a prostrate captive by the hair with his
right. In the field, X P. Another has T . SISC
in exergue
D . X . GEATIANVS . AVG . G . AVG . Head as on former coin.
Various interpretations have been given to this
legend. It is generally supposed to be GEA-
TIAXVS . AVGVSTI . GEXEE . AVGVSTVS.
I think a better reading would be Augustorum
Augustus. He gave the title of Augustus to
Valentinian the younger, and to Pendovius the
Great. He may have calLecl himself, as we
woidd translate it. Emperor of the Emperors.
GLOEIA . XOVI . SAECVL . A military figure standing, holding the
standard of the Cross, and resting his hand upon
a shield. Another reverse has OF. III. in field.
EEPAEATIO . EEIPVB The Emperor bearir.g a victory in his left
hand, is raising a prostrate female, with a crown
on her head. In exergue, P . COX . Another
has S . in field, and LVG . S . in exergue.
SECVEITAS . EEIPVBLICAE . Victory marching. In the exergue,
T . COX . Others have P . COX . ET . and other
letters.
VOTA . PVBILICA . Isis holding the hasta and a vase.
URICONIUM.
453
ABBREVIATIOI^S ON ROMAN COINS,
As some of our readers may be curious, and wish to understand
the apparently cabalistic letters on the coins here described, we
have added for their information a list of the usual abbreviations
occurring on the coins of the Eomans. This, it is hoped, will render
the legends and exergual marks and letters more intelligible, and
also assist the reader to decipher any coin that may, by chance,
come into his possession from this or other Eoman stations.
A.A. A.F.F.
A . or A . N .
A.D.V.
AED.
AED.P.
AED . S .
AED.CVE.
AED. PL.
AEM.
AET.
ANN.AVG.
ANT.
AEAB . ADQ .
AVG.
AVG . DF .
AVGG .
AVGGG .
B or BEAT .
B. E.P.NAT.
CO.
CENS . P .
CONS . SVO .
CVE , X . F .
D.D.
Auro Argento Aere Flando Feriundo.
Annus.
Adventus.
^des.
^dilitia Potestate.
^des Sacra.
^dilis Curulis.
^dilis Plebis.
/R inib' nfi.
iEternitas.
Annona Augusti.
Antonius or Antoninus.
Arabia Adquisita.
Angus, Augusta or Aixgustus.
Augustus Divi Filius.
Two Augusti.
Three Augusti.
Beatissimus.
Bono Eepublicffi Nato.
Caesares.
Censor Perpetuus.
Conservatori Suo.
Curavit Denarium Faciendum.
Decreto Decurioruui.
454
UPvICONITJM.
D.N.
Dominus Noster.
EX . S . C .
Ex Senatus Consiilto.
FORT . EED .
Fortuna reduci.
FOE.
Fortissimus.
FVL.
Fulvius.
FVLG.
Fulgerator.
G.
Gneius, Genius.
G.D.
Germanicus Daccius.
GEJSr.
Genius.
GEEM.
Germanicus.
GL . E . E .
Gloria Exercitus Eomani.
GL . P . E .
Gloria Populi Eomani.
G.P.E.
Genio Populi Eomani.
IMP.
Imperator.
IMPP .
Imperatores.
I.S.M.E.
luno Sospita Mater Eegina.
ITE.
Iterum.
IVL.
Julius or Julia.
lYST.
Justus.
II . VIE .
Duum yiri.
Ill . VIE . E . P . C .
Triumviri Eeipublica ConstituendBe.
IIII.VIE.A.P.F.
Quatuorvir or Quartuorviri, Auro or
Argento, or Aere, Publico Feriundo.
IVN.
Junior.
T,EG . I . &c.
Legio Prima.
LIB . PVB .
Libertas Publica.
LIB.
Liberator.
LVC or LVCIP .
Lucifera.
LVD . CIE .
Ludi Circenses.
LVD . EQ .
Ludi Equestres.
LVD.SAEC.F.
Ludi Saculares Fecit.
M.C.
Mater Castrorum.
M.F.
Marci Filius.
MON . or MONET .
Monetae.
MAE . VLT .
Marti Ultari.
N.C.
Nobilissimus Caesar.
NEP . EED .
Neptimo Eeduci.
NOB.
NobUissimus.
0.
Optimo.
URICONIUM.
455
OB.C.S.
P . or POT .
PAET.
P.F.
P.P.
P.E.
PEINC . IVVENT .
E.
P.M.
E.P.C.
SAEC . PEL .
SAEM.
S.C.
SEC . OEB .
SEC . PEEP .
SEC . TEMP .
S.M.
S.P.Q.E.
TE . MIL .
TE . P .
VOT.X.
MVLT . XX
Ob Cives Servatos.
Potestate.
Parthicus.
Pius Pelix or Pii Eilius.
Pater Patriae.
Populus Eomanus.
Princeps Juventutis.
Eoma.
Pontifex Maximus.
Eei Publica Constituendas.
Sseculi Felicitas.
Sarmaticus.
Senatus Consulto.
Secirritas Orbis.
Securitas Perpetua.
■ Temporum.
Signata Moneta.
Senatus Populiisque Eomanus.
Tribunes Militares.
Tribunitia Potestate.
> Votis Decenalibus.
v-Multiplicatis.
-' Vicennalibus.
Decern or Denarius.
ABBREVIATIONS IN THE EXEEGUE.
A . OFFICINA ,
ALE.
AMB.
AP.L.
AQ . . B . F .
AQ.S.
A.AE.AEL.
A . SISC .
B . SIEM .
Prima.
Alexandria.
Antiocheusis Moneta Secundse
Officinse.
Prima Percussa Lugduni.
AquUeise Officinse Secundae Fabrica.
AquUeise Signata.
Arelate.
Prima in Officina Sisciaj.
Secunda Sirmii.
456
URICONIUM.
CON or CONS ,
L.LON.
L.P.
LVG . P . S .
M.L.
M.O.S.TT.
M.S.TE.
PAEL.
P . LON .
P . LVG .
P.R.
P.T.
E . EO . EOM .
EOPS.
SIS.
SS.P.
SISC.V.
SMA .
S.M.N.
S . M . E .
S.T.
TESOB .
TE.
TEOB .
Constantiiiopoli.
Londini.
Lugdunensisvel Londinensis Pecunia
Lugdun Pecunia Signata.
Moneta Londinensis vel Lugdunensis
Moneta Officinas Secundse Trevero-
riun.
Moneta Signata Treveris.
Percussa or Pecunia Arelate.
Pecunia Londinensis.
Pecunia Lugdunensis.
Pecunia Eoma or Percussa Eoma.
Pecunia Treverensis.
Eoma.
Eomae Pecunia Signata.
Siscise.
Sisciensis Pecunia.
Siscia Urbis.
Signata Moneta Antiochiffi
Signata Moneta Niconiedii3e.
Signeta Moneta Eom^e.
Signata Treveris.
TessalonicEe Of&cina Secunda.
Treveris.
Treveris Officina Secunda,
3. 0. SANDrOEE, PBINTEE, HIOH STREET, BHEEWSBUEl