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<title>The Ruins of the Roman City of Uriconium, at Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, by Thomas Wright</title>
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<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 62425 ***</div>
<p>Transcribed from the fourth, 1863, edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org</p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/cover.jpg">
<img alt=
"Book cover"
title=
"Book cover"
src="images/cover.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h1><span class="GutSmall">THE</span><br />
RUINS OF THE ROMAN CITY<br />
<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br />
<span class='gutoutline'>Uriconium</span>,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">AT</span><br />
WROXETER, NEAR SHREWSBURY.</h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br
/>
THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A.</p>
<div class="gapspace"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">Fourth Edition,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.</span></p>
<div class="gapspace"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">SHREWSBURY: J. O. SANDFORD,
HIGH-STREET.<br />
<span class="GutSmall">LONDON: KENT & CO.,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">1863.</p>
<h2><a name="pageiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
iii</span>PREFACE.</h2>
<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is the aim of the following
pages to give the degree and kind of popular information believed
to be wanted by the numerous visitors to the excavations at
Wroxeter, who have no Guide to explain what they see, and are not
possessed of that amount of minute antiquarian knowledge which
would enable them to understand everything without such
explanation. It is the first instance in which there has
been, in this country, the chance of penetrating into a city of
more than fourteen centuries ago, on so large a scale, and with
such extensive remains of its former condition; and when the
visitor has walked over the floors which had been trodden last,
before they were thus uncovered, by the Roman inhabitants of this
island, he will appreciate more justly, and with greater
interest, the objects which have been discovered, and are
deposited in the Museum, at Shrewsbury; and he will learn to look
forward with hope to the light which a continuance of these
excavations must throw upon the condition and history of this
country at so remote a period. Whatever this light may be,
it must not be <a name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
iv</span>forgotten that we shall be indebted for it, in the first
place, to his Grace the Duke of Cleveland, who has shown a
generous public feeling in giving permission and encouragement to
the excavations on his land, and to the late B. Botfield, Esq.,
M.P., through whose zeal and liberality in the undertaking the
excavators were set at work, when as yet it was uncertain if
their labours would be attended with any success. I have
endeavoured to fulfil literally the title of this little book,
and to give the visitor such information as he would seek from a
professional Guide, whilst I have gladly left the description of
the Museum, and especially of those rather numerous human remains
which form so remarkable a part of our discoveries, to one best
qualified for that task, Dr. Henry Johnson, who has so ably and
zealously directed the excavations on the spot, and who has thus,
unremunerated, given to the service of the public so much of his
valuable time.</p>
<p style="text-align: right">T. W.</p>
<h2><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. v</span>TO
VISITORS.</h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Parties</span> from a distance wishing to
visit the ruins of the ancient <span
class="smcap">Uriconium</span>, at Wroxeter, will find every
comfort and accommodation at the Lion, the Raven, the George, and
the Crown Hotels, Shrewsbury.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span> is a little more than five
miles from Shrewsbury. Conveyances may be obtained at the
Railway Station, Shrewsbury; at any of the above-named Hotels;
and at Howells’s Livery Stables, Cross Hill. Parties
of any reasonable number may be conveyed by either of the latter,
on giving them two days’ notice by letter.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Upton Magna</span>, on the Shrewsbury and
Wellington Joint Line of Railway, is the nearest Station to
Wroxeter, from whence it is distant about two miles and a half, a
pleasant walk for an active person.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">The Museum</span> of the Shropshire and
North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society, College
Hill, where all the moveable articles from Wroxeter are
deposited, is open <span class="GutSmall">DAILY</span> to
visitors, from 10 till 4, on payment of sixpence each, and by an
order from a Subscriber <span
class="GutSmall">GRATUITOUSLY</span>.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Donations</span> to the Wroxeter Fund will
be gladly received by the Honorary Secretary, <span
class="smcap">Dr. H. Johnson</span>, Dogpole, Shrewsbury.</p>
<h2><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vii</span>List
of Plates.</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">FROM
DRAWINGS BY MR. HILLARY DAVIES, OF SHREWSBURY.</span></p>
<table>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><p style="text-align: right"><span
class="GutSmall">PLATE</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>The North Side of the Old Wall, at Wroxeter</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Wroxeter Church, Shropshire (Vignette)</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>First Roman Hypocaust discovered at Uriconium in 1859</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Roman Tile-Roof, Roman Flag-Roof, Section of Roman
Hypocaust, &c.</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Plan of Walls, discovered by the Excavations at Wroxeter,
Salop, from February 3rd to September, 1863</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Column in the Garden of W. H. Oatley, Esq., Wroxeter</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Ancient Stone Font in Wroxeter Church</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Capitals found at Uriconium</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Samian, Upchurch, and Romano-Salopian Pottery</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Rings and Combs (actual size)</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hair Pins, &c. (actual size)</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Skulls from Wroxeter</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Roman Remains from Wroxeter, in the possession of Samuel
Wood, Esq., and Mask, in the Museum, Shrewsbury.</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Upchurch Pottery, Adz, Spear Head, and Romano-Salopian
(Red) Ware</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Carved Stone Fragments from Uriconium, in the Garden of
Edward Stanier, Esq., Wroxeter</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">15</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Sepulchral Stone</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>The
Ruins of Uriconium.</h2>
<p><span class="smcap">If</span> we leave Shrewsbury by its long
eastern suburb, known, from the important monastic house which
formerly stood at its commencement, as the Abbey Foregate,
passing the more modern monument erected at its extremity, Lord
Hill’s Column, our way lies for about two miles along the
London road, bounded on each side by rich and fertile
fields. At the distance just mentioned, this road
approaches close to the river Severn, and continues to run along
its banks, to the great improvement of the scenery, until we
arrive at the prettily-situated village of Atcham, with Atcham
Church in face of us, and the river winding under its stone
bridge in the foreground. Atcham is three miles from
Shrewsbury. Crossing the bridge, we leave the river, which
here takes a long sweep to the southward, and follow the road,
which skirts for more <a name="page10"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 10</span>than half a mile the extensive park
of Attingham. We here approach another river, the Tern,
which at this point spreads into a fair expanse of water, and
forms, with the mansion of Attingham to the left, and the copses
which skirt it, a scene of striking beauty, while to the right it
divides into two branches which empty themselves into the Severn,
a little lower down. Crossing Tern Bridge, and proceeding a
short distance, still skirting the park, we reach a point where,
opposite the entrance to Attingham Park, a branch road turns off
to the right from the old London road. We must take this
branch road, which will lead us to the village of Wroxeter.
We soon cross a small stream, which is known by the name of the
Bell Brook, and after we have passed this brook, the visitor will
hardly fail to remark, wherever his eye rests upon ploughed
ground, the extraordinary blackness of the soil in comparison
with that of the land over which he has previously passed.</p>
<p>In fact he has now entered upon the site of an ancient Roman
city, which is known, from the circumstance of its being
mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy, to have been standing here
as early as the beginning of the second century, when it was
called Viroconium,—a name which appears to have been
changed in the later Romano-British period to Uriconium; at least
this is the form under which the <a name="page11"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 11</span>name occurs in the later geographers,
and which has been generally adopted by modern antiquaries.
From the point at which we have now arrived, the line of the
ancient town-wall may be traced by a continuous low mound, which
runs southward towards the Severn, the banks of which it follows
for some distance, and, after passing between the river and the
modern village of Wroxeter, turns eastwardly behind the
vicarage-house, and makes a long sweep till it reaches the hamlet
of Norton to the north, whence it turns to the westward again,
and reaches the point from which we started, forming an irregular
oval, rather more than three miles in circumference. A
portion of the Bell Brook runs through the Roman city.
After crossing this brook, we approach ground which rises gently,
and nearly at the highest point we see to the left a
smith’s shop. At this spot, which is rather more than
five miles from Shrewsbury, the road which has brought us from
that town crosses another road, which turns down to the right, to
the village of Wroxeter, not quite half a mile distant.
Wroxeter is an Anglo-Saxon name, the first part of which is
probably corrupted from that of the ancient Roman city of the
site of which it occupies the southern extremity. The road
which has led us to it is called the Watling Street road, and
there is every reason for believing that it occupies in a part of
its course the line of one of the <a name="page12"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 12</span>principal streets of Uriconium.
It crosses the river Severn immediately below the village, where
there was doubtless a bridge in Roman times, for it is in the
highest degree improbable that in approaching a town of such
importance, the Romans would cross a river like the Severn only
by a ford.</p>
<p>On arriving at the smith’s shop just alluded to, the
attention of the visitor will be attracted by a solid mass of
masonry, which forms a very imposing object, and presents those
unmistakable characteristics of Roman work,—the long
string-courses of large flat red bricks. This mass of
masonry, the only portion of the buildings of Uriconium which
remains standing above ground, is upwards of twenty feet high,
and seventy-two feet long, with a uniform thickness of three
feet, and has been long known by the name of “The Old
Wall.” It stands nearly in the centre of the ancient
city, which occupied the highest ground within the walls,—a
commanding position, with the bold isolated form of the Wrekin in
the rear, and in front a panorama of mountains formed by the
Wenlock and Stretton Hills, Caer Caradoc, the Longmynd, the
Breidden, and the still more distant mountains of Wales.
With the exception of this wall, all that remained of the Roman
city, if as some people might perhaps have doubted, anything did
remain,—has been long buried beneath the soil. At the
close of the year 1858, however, <a name="page13"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 13</span>it was resolved to ascertain what
these remains were, and an Excavation Committee was formed at
Shrewsbury, for the purpose of carrying this design into effect
by means of a public subscription. Excavations were,
accordingly, commenced on the 3rd of February, 1859, and they
have already led to results of the most satisfactory
description. But, perhaps, before we proceed to describe
the ruins which have thus been uncovered, it would be well to
tell our readers something of the general character of the Roman
towns in this island, and to explain how some of them were
destroyed, and from what cases and by what circumstances their
remains present themselves in the conditions in which we now find
them.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><span class="smcap">Fifteen</span> hundred years ago, this
island, with the exception of the highlands of Scotland, was
covered with flourishing towns, many of them known to have been
of considerable magnitude, situated on numerous public
roads,—these latter of such excellent construction, that
they have remained to the present day the foundation of most of
our great English high roads. These towns, like those in
other parts of the empire, enjoyed free municipal <a
name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>institutions
(from which our own mediæval municipal institutions are
derived), and in all but certain duties towards the imperial
government, formed in themselves so many little republics,
possessing all the ambitions and rivalries which seem inseparable
from republican institutions. Among the slight notices of
this island in ancient writers we learn that the towns of Britain
were remarkable for their turbulence, which was encouraged, no
doubt, by the distance of this province from Rome, and by the
peculiar character of the population of the towns, which
consisted of blood that was foreign to the soil, and which was
not uniform in character in the different towns. We know
further that, during the fourth century, these towns often
confederated together, threw off the imperial yoke, and raised
emperors of their own; and we have every reason for supposing
that, when the restraint imposed by the central power became
slackened, the towns confederated against one another, and that
domestic dissensions and contests troubled the peace of the
island. Such dissensions left the island exposed to the
invasions of its foreign enemies, which had become very frequent
and very formidable during the fourth century. The eastern
coasts were often visited by the Teutonic rovers, Saxons, and
Franks; the barbarous Caledonians, then called Picts, from the
north rushed across the borders, and carried devastation <a
name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>through the
land, in which they were assisted by the Irish, or, as they were
then called, Scots, and probably by the Armorican Celts, or
Britons from Gaul. The towns of Britain united would, no
doubt, have presented a force sufficient to meet any of these
invasions, but their very constitution rendered such a union
difficult, except for a short period. Besides their
independence of each other, the towns had only been expected to
defend themselves, while the defence of the province was more
especially the duty of the legions, and on their withdrawal, the
towns seem to have followed their old practice in case of
invasion, and shut themselves within their walls, or, at most,
opposed the invaders without any union, thus leaving the open
country to easy destruction.</p>
<p>The history of the conquest of the Roman provinces by the
barbarians is, in general, simply the successive reduction of one
town after another. Such was eminently the case in Britain,
and the traditionary annals of the early Saxon period present
little more than a list of conquered towns. Sometimes a
town was taken by stratagem or force, and then it was plundered
or destroyed, but in the far greater number of cases the town was
too strong for the assailants and only submitted by composition,
by which it paid a tribute to the conqueror and retained its old
independent municipal institutions. We all <a
name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>know how many
of our old cities and early municipal towns are thus the
representatives of the cities of the Romans. In some parts
of the island the destruction was greater than in others, and on
the Welsh border, through the whole space between Chester (called
by the Romans Deva), and Gloucester (which the Romans called
Glevum), the towns seem to have been all ruined. One of the
largest of these towns was no doubt that of Uriconium. We
can only judge by implication, and by a comparison of what
occurred in other places, of the manner in which a town like
Uriconium was treated, when it was overcome by the
barbarians. We know that these invaders were influenced by
a love of plunder, but a love of destruction—we may perhaps
call it an impulse of destruction—was still greater; and it
is probable that the plundering of a town like Uriconium was a
hasty and imperfect operation, and that the plunderers carried
off chiefly objects made of the precious metals, or articles of
dress and arms, or other objects on which they set considerable
value, as they moved about rapidly, and could not be provided
very extensively with the means of conveyance. (We are here
speaking of the earlier plundering invasions of the barbarians,
such as the Picts and Scots, in which perhaps Uriconium perished,
towards the middle of the fifth century, for it is hardly
probable that the Angles or Saxons could have reached this <a
name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>part of the
island at so early a period.) The first impulse of the
plunderers was to apply fire to the buildings, and the progress
of the conflagration would hasten their departure. Where
the inhabitants of the conquered town had not made their escape
and abandoned it before it was taken—which was perhaps the
case in some of the smaller towns—there would no doubt be a
dreadful massacre, and the survivors would be dragged away into
captivity, for the various peoples who preyed upon the carcass of
the mighty empire of Rome, whether German or Celt, or Tartar or
Arab, ambitioned, almost above other plunder, the possession of
numerous slaves. Thus the plundered town was left without
inhabitants, and in flames, of which the latter, as may be judged
on the spot from the massive character of the walls of the
houses, were probably partial in their effect, destroying chiefly
the timber and roofs.</p>
<p>Thus the town was left an extensive mass of blackened walls;
and such was the condition in which the ruined Roman towns
remained during several centuries. Roman walls, we all
know, were too strongly built to fall down, and various
circumstances combined for their preservation. In the first
place, the population of the country must have been greatly
reduced, and this part of the island especially was probably very
thinly inhabited after it had been ravaged by the invaders.
The ruins themselves <a name="page18"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 18</span>would in time be overgrown with
plants and trees and would become the haunt of wild beasts, which
were then abundant, thus offering very little encouragement to
anybody to enter them. But they were protected in a still
greater degree by the strong superstitious feelings with which
such ruins were regarded by the people who now occupied the
land. The Teutonic invaders had not only a prejudice
against towns in general, but they believed that all the deserted
buildings of the previous lords of the soil were taken possession
of by powerful evil spirits, on whose limits it was in the
highest degree dangerous to trespass. They imagined,
moreover, that the Romans had the power of casting spells over
buildings, which were no less dangerous than the evil spirits
themselves. It will be remembered how, when Augustine and
his brother missionaries came to convert the Anglo-Saxons to
Christianity, the Kentish king and his court gave them their
first audience in the open air; because, as we are told, the
Anglo-Saxons were afraid that, should they be received in a
covered chamber in the palace, the strangers from Rome would be
able to cast a spell upon them. It is a remarkable proof of
the strength of this superstitious feeling, that all the
Benedictionals of the Anglo-Saxon period contain forms for
blessing the vessels of metal or earthenware found in ancient
sites, and relieving them from the spells which had <a
name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>been cast
upon them by the “pagans,” in order that the finders
might be enabled to make use of these vessels without any
personal danger. When the people of the middle ages,
whether Christians or not, found the beautiful bronze figures on
which we set so much store, they were in the greatest
apprehension of personal danger until they had mutilated them so
as to break the charm or spell which they believed to be laid
upon them, for they looked upon these images as the more general
instruments of the ancient magicians. When thus mutilated
they usually threw them into the nearest river. The
numerous bronzes dredged up from the bed of the Thames at London
are almost all mutilated in this manner. This was the case
also with the inscriptions, for the successors of the Romans had
no other notion of an ancient inscription than that it was a
magical charm. This superstition has continued to exist
until very recent times, for it appears that, within the memory
of man, the peasantry of Northumberland, on the line of the great
wall of Hadrian, were accustomed, when they found an inscribed
stone—and inscribed stones are there very abundant—to
hew out at least a part of the letters of the inscription with a
pick or axe, in order to destroy the charm.</p>
<p>We thus understand how a ruined city—like that at
Wroxeter—was allowed to remain untouched for
centuries. Many of these ruined towns became <a
name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>the subject
of romantic legends. One of these legends relating to an
ancient ruined city in this neighbourhood, is told in the curious
history of the Fitz-Warines, composed in the thirteenth century,
in Anglo-Norman, no doubt by a border writer. This writer
is describing a visit supposed to have been made by William the
Conqueror to the Welsh border in order to distribute the land to
his followers.</p>
<blockquote><p>“When King William approached the hills and
valleys of Wales he saw a very large town, formerly enclosed 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. Then the king inquired of a Briton
what was the name of the town, and how it came to be so
ruined. ‘Sire,’ 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 still retains its name, and many others derived
from the lineage of Troy, and none inhabited these parts except
very foul people, great giants, whose king was called
Geomagog. These heard of the arrival of Brutus, and sent
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
<a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>try
Geomagog’s strength. The giant, on 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 into 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 afterwards, 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 every thing 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 essay the marvel. Payn
Peverel armed himself very richly, and took his shield, shining
with gold, with a cross of azure indented, and fifteen knights
and other attendants, and went into the highest palace, and took
up his lodging there. And when it was night the weather
became so foul, black, dark, and such a tempest of lightning and
thunder, that all those who were there became so terrified that
they could not for fear move hand or foot, but lay on the ground
like dead men. The proud Payn was very much frightened <a
name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>but he put
his trust in God, whose sign of the cross he carried with him,
and saw that he could 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 cast fire and smoke, with which the
whole town was illuminated. Payn had a good hope in God,
and signed himself with a 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; then 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 what you do in this town, I
conjure you, 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 how, when Geomagog was
dead, he immediately rendered his soul to Beelzebub, their
prince, and he entered the body of Geomagog, and <a
name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>came in his
semblance into these parts, and kept the great treasure which
Geomagog had collected and put into a house he had made
underground in that town. Payn demanded of him, ‘What
kind of creature he was?’ and he said, ‘He was
formerly an angel, but now is, by his forfeit, a diabolical
spirit.’ ‘What treasure,’ said Payn,
‘had Geomagog?’ ‘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 all this
country was called ‘The White Land.’ And I and
my companion inclosed the land with a high wall and deep fosse,
so that there was no entrance except through this town, which was
full of evil spirits.’ ‘Now, you shall 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; but
you shall be lord of all this honour.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And so the vanquished fiend goes on to tell him the future
fortunes of his house; and after King William had been duly
informed of this adventure, and they had thrown the body of
Geomagog into a great pit, they proceeded on their way to
Oswestry.</p>
<p>In my edition of this history of the Fitz-Warines <a
name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>I have
offered some conjectures on the spot to which this legend refers;
but on comparing all the circumstances connected with it, I have
since been led to the conclusion that the “burnt and
ruined” city which had thus been taken possession of by the
evil spirits was no other than the ruins of the ancient
Uriconium. This story implies that the walls of the town
and houses of Uriconium were still standing above ground as late
as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and very likely a great
portion of them remained thus standing at the time when the
author of the History of the Fitz-Warines wrote. But during
the centuries which had passed since the city of the Romans
became a ruin, it had been undergoing a gradual but continual
change from the accumulation of earth. This rising of the
level of the ground is always found to have taken place under
such circumstances, and may be explained by several causes.
In the first place, the floors must have been covered by a mass
of rubbish formed by the falling in of the roofs and more
perishable parts of the buildings. Vegetation, too, would
in the course of years arise, 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 experience to be
considerable. It is now little more than three centuries
since the dissolution of the monasteries, and we have all had
opportunities <a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
25</span>of observing the depth of earth under which the floors
of the monastic ruins now lie, sometimes amounting to as much as
three or four feet. What, then, must it have been on an
extensive ruin like that of Uriconium, which had stood in that
ruined and deserted condition from the middle of the fifth
century to the middle of the twelfth?</p>
<p>It was at this latter period that the Roman buildings began to
be systematically destroyed. It appears that still in the
twelfth century, England was covered with the remains of Roman
ruined towns and villas standing above ground, as they are still
seen, though on a larger scale, in the countries which formed the
Roman province in Northern Africa. We have seen the
superstitious feelings which prevented people approaching these
ruins in our island, and it required nothing less than the hand
of the Church to interfere and break the charm which kept the
rest of society aloof. We learn from the history of the
abbots of St Alban’s, written in the thirteenth century by
Matthew Paris, that already in the eleventh century the abbots of
that great religious house had begun to break the ruins of the
Roman city of Verulamium, in order to use them as building
materials. This practice became very general in the twelfth
century, and from that time the Roman ruins were pillaged on an
extensive scale whenever a monastery or a <a
name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>church was to
be built. The ancient city at Wroxeter was probably one of
the great quarries from which the builders of Haughmond Abbey
were supplied, and no doubt it contributed materials to other
monastic houses in this part of the country. The church of
Atcham, the adjoining parish, and that of Wroxeter itself, bear
evidence to this appropriation of building materials taken from
ancient Uriconium. At the time when this inroad was made
upon the ruins, the ground, as explained before, was already
raised several feet above the Roman floors; and the
mediæval 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, that is,
remaining tolerably perfect just up to the height of what was the
level of the ground, at the time the rest was destroyed.
The difference between the tops of the walls as they now exist
under ground, and the present surface of the ground, is the
accumulation of earth which has taken place since this
destruction. It was the destruction of the buildings which
first caused this accumulation, by scattering about the 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 <a
name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>and cleared,
such accumulation went on much more slowly.</p>
<p>The sites of the ancient towns, thus cleared, and the spell
which held their invaders at bay having been broken by the
ecclesiastics, became exposed to a new class of
depredators. Coins and objects of some value were no doubt
discovered from time to time by accident, and were greatly
exaggerated by common report, during ages when the existence of
hidden treasure 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 mediæval
forefathers, and the same superstitious feelings were connected
with it that were attached to all the remains of more ancient
peoples. 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 evil spirits
were believed still to haunt the ruins underground, and it was
hoped that by the power of the conjuror they might not only be
rendered harmless, but be made to give information as to the
exact spot where the treasure lay. Numerous examples might
be quoted of such mediæval treasure-hunting on the Welsh
border, but it will be sufficient <a name="page28"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 28</span>to give one which appears to belong
to the very site on which we are now seeking treasures of another
description. An old manuscript chronicle of the monks of
Worcester, which is printed in Warton’s Anglia Sacra, and
has preserved numerous notices of events which occurred on this
border, informs us that in the year 1287, at a place by Wroxeter,
(that is near the village), called “Bilebury,” 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 described by the false Geomagog, though
not the material, the numerous figures in bronze which are from
time to time found on Roman sites; and the arms and ship may
perhaps admit of as easy an explanation. The
treasure-digger had to encounter sometimes a worse opponent even
than 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 unfortunate 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 learned historian of this county,
Mr. Eyton, has met with a record from which we learn that some
individuals towards the close of the thirteenth century were thus
caught <a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
29</span>“digging” for a treasure at Wroxeter, and
that they were 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 liberty. This process of
treasure-hunting had an effect injurious to the object of our
researches. The mediæval excavator cared very little
about antiquities as monuments of the past, and when, in digging
a hole into the ground, he came upon a pavement, he broke it up
without any scruple. It is to this cause, perhaps, that we
must ascribe in many cases the damaged state in which we find the
floors of the Roman houses, even when they lie at a considerable
depth.</p>
<p>I have thus endeavoured to explain the manner in which a Roman
town like Uriconium was ruined; how its ruin remained several
centuries untouched, while a depth of earth was accumulating on
the floors; how at a later period the ruins themselves began to
be cleared away, and a new accumulation of earth was formed over
the lower part of the walls which had been left, until these
could no longer be traced on the surface, except by the
appearance of the crops in long periods of dry weather.
This double accumulation of the debris of buildings has often led
people to form erroneous conclusions, and in the account of a
former partial <a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
30</span>excavation at Wroxeter, published by the Society of
Antiquaries, the writer has fallen upon the rather odd notion
that the Roman town had been burnt twice,—that he saw the
layers of burnt materials from two successive burnings.</p>
<p>The effects of all these causes may be seen in the excavations
at Wroxeter,—the floor sometimes perfect and sometimes
broken up; the walls of the houses remaining to the height of two
or three feet or more, as they were left by the mediæval
builders, when they carried away the upper part of these walls
for material; the original level of the Roman town on which its
inhabitants trod, strewed with roof-tiles and slates and other
material which had fallen in during the conflagration under which
the town sank into ruin, and the upper part of the soil mixed up
with fragments of plaster and cement, bricks and mortar, which
had been scattered about when the walls were broken up.</p>
<p>The site of Uriconium presents one great advantage to the
antiquarian explorer, that only a small and not very important
portion of the area has been exposed to the most destructive of
all encroachments on its sanctity, modern buildings; while the
situation and nature of the ground has not required the deep
draining which would have cut through the ancient floors, and
these lie too far beneath the surface to be touched by the
plough. It will be easily <a name="page31"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 31</span>understood that the preservation of
such remains depends much on the depth of soil which covers
them. The Rev. T. F. More has discovered and made
considerable excavations in a very extensive and most interesting
Roman villa, which occupies part of his beautiful park at Linley
Hall, near Bishop’s Castle, but there the position of the
site, and perhaps other circumstances, have caused the earth to
accumulate much less rapidly, and the floors lay so near to the
surface that they have all been destroyed. Where a fragment
of the concrete of the floor remained, it was hardly six inches
under the ground.</p>
<p>Our means of observation have hitherto been so imperfect, that
we can only form vague conjectures as to the internal aspect and
distribution of the buildings of a Roman town in Britain.
At the close of the Roman period the towns were usually, if not
always, surrounded with defensive walls; but there are several
reasons for believing that the Roman towns in this island were
not walled until a comparatively late date, perhaps not till the
domestic dissensions and foreign invasions of the fourth
century. These town walls, when closely examined into, are
often found to contain materials taken from older buildings of
another kind, which older materials themselves present the
debased style of architecture which belonged to the declining age
of the Roman power. The long straggling line of wall <a
name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>which
surrounded Uriconium as we may conclude from its very
irregularity, can only have been built at a late date, after the
city had gone on for ages increasing in its extent. We are
naturally led to suppose that the public buildings would occupy
the central, or at least the more elevated part of the town, and
this has in several instances proved to be the case. The
discoveries made by Sir Christopher Wren, seem to leave no doubt
that a Roman temple occupied the site of the modern cathedral of
St. Paul’s, in London. But buildings of all sorts
would seem to have been mixed very confusedly together; for we
believe that in London, more recent excavations have brought to
light remains of potter’s kilns in close proximity to this
temple. In one or two instances, as at Aldborough, in
Yorkshire, (the Roman Isurium), and in some of the small towns on
the line of Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, masses of
the small houses have been uncovered, and their appearance leads
us to believe that the houses of a Roman town in Britain were
grouped thickly together, that they were mostly separated by
narrow alleys, and that there were in general few streets of any
magnitude.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span><span
class="smcap">We</span> will now return to the spot where the
visitor has halted in view of the imposing mass of Roman masonry,
called the Old Wall, situated, as has been stated, in a large
triangular field formed by the divergence of the two roads.
The Old Wall stands not quite east and west, but sufficiently
near it to allow us for sake of convenience to call it east and
west. Its northern side is evidently the outside of a
building, while there could be no doubt that the southern side,
on which the springings of transverse walls and vaulted ceilings
are visible, was the interior. The excavations were begun
on the 3rd of February, 1859, on the northern side, or outside,
of this wall, partly with the object of ascertaining the depth at
which the floors and the foundations of the buildings lay under
the present surface of the ground, which, as we have said before,
was an important fact to ascertain. The bottom of the Old
Wall was found at a depth of fourteen feet, the last ten feet of
which were sunk in the natural substratum of sand, so that the
walls of the buildings in this spot must have had originally very
deep foundations. It was found that this wall was continued
underground to the west, and excavations directed towards the
north brought to light successively three walls running parallel,
or nearly parallel, to this first wall, the first of these
parallel walls being at a uniform distance of fourteen feet from
the Old Wall, <a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
34</span>the next at a distance, also uniform, of thirty feet
from this wall, and the third at a distance from the second of
fourteen feet at the western and sixteen at the eastern end, so
that, as the transverse wall at the eastern end of these walls
was not quite at right angles to them, this large building was a
little out of square. This building, therefore, consisted
of three divisions, of which the central enclosure was 226 feet
long by 30 feet wide, and appears to have been paved in its whole
extent with small bricks, three inches long by one inch broad,
set in zig-zags, or, as it is more technically called,
herring-bone fashion. This description of pavement appears
generally to have been used in passages and in open courts, and
it seems probable, even from the magnitude of this enclosure,
that it was not roofed. Nothing was discovered in it to
throw any light on the object of so extensive a paved enclosure,
but there could be little doubt that it must have been a public
building of some importance. Portions of the capitals,
bases, and shafts of columns were found scattered about in
different parts of the area, which show that it was not wanting
in architectural decoration, and on one of the pieces of
wall-stucco, picked up in this part of the excavations, where
three letters of what had been an inscription in large
characters. Among other objects found here were a fragment
of a very strong iron chain, the head of an axe, and an iron
implement <a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
35</span>which appears to have been a trident, and to have been
originally placed on a staff, perhaps an ensign of office.
The appearance of the face of the Old Wall, which formed part of
one side of the long narrow enclosure on the south of this
central apartment, would lead us to suppose that this was an open
alley, and this is confirmed by the other circumstances connected
with it. In the continuation of the Old Wall to the
westward, the lower parts of two doorways were found, which were
approached from this alley each by a step formed of a single
squared stone, which, therefore, may have been supposed to have
led from an exterior into an interior. The corresponding
long passage to the north of the central apartment presented
characteristics of another kind. At the eastern end were
found pavements of rather fine mosaic, of which specimens and
admirable drawings, by Mr. George Maw, of Broseley, are preserved
in the Museum. Mosaic of this description was not made to
be exposed to the air, and the building here must not only have
been roofed, but we have reason to suppose that there must have
been a room or rooms of a character on which elegant
ornamentation would be bestowed.</p>
<p>The walls of this building, as we find them under ground,
present from time to time discontinuations, or breaches, caused
no doubt by the breaking up of the walls for materials by the
mediæval builders, who <a name="page36"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 36</span>sometimes went deeper for them than
usual; and it is very likely that this may have been caused, in
some instances at least, by the circumstance that on the site of
these breaches were doors or passages, the jambs and ornamental
parts of which were formed of large stones which were more
tempting to the old excavators. With the exception of these
breaches, there are no traces of doorways from one apartment of
this building to the other. About the middle of the
northernmost wall there is a very wide breach of this kind, which
perhaps represents a grand entrance from the north.
Moreover, in carrying the excavations further towards the north,
it was found that this northernmost wall of the building formed
the side of a street, which was paved in the middle with round
stones, not much unlike the pavements of some of the streets in
Shrewsbury and other old towns as they remain at the present
day. The northern wall just alluded to was traced
eastwardly until the edge of the field in which the excavations
are carried on prevented the workmen from going any
further. Immediately to the east of the building we have
been describing was a not quite rectangular inclosure, which,
from the appearance of the walls, was probably a
court-yard. A doorway, approached by a stone step within
the great inclosure to the west, led into it. Beyond this,
to the eastward, was a much larger inclosure, which as far as it
was explored, had <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
37</span>no tracings of walls or pavement within, and may
possibly have been a garden. At the western end of the
great building, about the middle of the extremity of the great
central inclosure, indications were discovered which probably
belonged also to an entrance. These indications consisted
of two original openings in the wall, within which were found,
evidently in their original position, in one a large squared
stone, and in the other two similarly squared stones placed one
upon another. One of these was bevelled off at the outer
edge into a plain moulding, and their general appearance led to
the belief that they had formed the basis of
something—perhaps of large columns. Here, therefore,
may perhaps have been the principal entrance into the long and
extensive area which occupied the middle of this building.
It faced the modern Watling Street Road, which evidently
represents another street; and it thus seems to admit of no doubt
that this building formed the corner of two principal streets of
the Roman city of Uriconium.</p>
<p>We will now return to the long alley, as we have ventured to
call it, on the southern side of the building we have been
describing. It has been already stated that there were
found in this alley two steps, formed each of a large squared
stone, attached to two doorways in the western continuation of
the Old Wall. The more western of these two <a
name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>steps was
very much worn by the feet of the people who had passed over it,
as though it had led to some place of public resort. It was
at the more easterly of these doorways that the excavations were
carried to the southward of the Old Wall. This doorway
apparently led into some open court which communicated with
domestic apartments. A trench carried directly southward
from the doorway, brought the excavators to the semicircular end
of a hypocaust, which had warmed a considerable room thirty-seven
feet long, by twenty-five feet wide, and which was in a state of
very perfect preservation when opened, although the floor which
once covered it had entirely disappeared. The pillars,
which were formed of Roman square bricks, placed one upon another
without mortar, and of which 120 were counted, were above three
feet high. This room has now been completely laid open, and
on the western side has a complicated arrangement of walls, which
evidently served some purpose connected with the heating of the
hypocausts. A considerable quantity of unburnt coal was
found here. The northern end of this hypocaust, the wall of
which remained to the height of several feet, presents an
imposing mass of masonry, and we learn from it the interesting
fact that the Roman houses were plastered and painted externally
as well as internally. The exterior of the semicircular
wall at the north end of this <a name="page39"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 39</span>hypocaust was painted red, with
stripes of yellow. Near it lay an immense stone, hewn into
the shape to fit the semicircular wall of the hypocaust, which
had evidently formed part of a massive band of such stones at
some height in the wall. A strong piece of iron is soldered
into it with lead, for the purpose of attaching something to the
building externally. A little alley, considerably wider
than the spaces between the pillars of bricks, ran across this
hypocaust, and through an opening in the wall, into another
hypocaust, which was entered from without by a large archway, and
this again was approached by a flight of three steps, each step
composed of one large well-squared stone, descending from a
square platform, which was apparently on a level with the
original floors of the rooms. When the steps were
uncovered, a broken shaft of a large column was found lying
across them. The platform at the bottom of the steps, or at
least the corner of it farthest from the arched entrance to the
hypocaust, seems to have been used by the last occupiers of this
building as a receptacle for the dust swept from floors and
passages, for the earth, for about a foot deep on the floor, was
literally filled with coins, hair-pins, fibulæ, broken
pottery and glass, bones of birds and animals which had been
eaten, and a variety of other such objects.</p>
<p>To the east of the entrance to the hypocausts, a small room
only eight feet square was found, which <a
name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>had a
herring-bone pavement like that of the great inclosure to the
north of the Old Wall. A rather wide passage through the
eastern wall of this small room led into another room with a
hypocaust, the floor of which is also gone. The pillars of
this hypocaust were rather more neatly constructed, but they seem
to have been considerably lower than those of the hypocausts
previously opened. This hypocaust was the scene of a very
interesting discovery. Abundant traces of burning in all
parts of the site leave no doubt that the city of Uriconium was
plundered, and afterwards burnt by some of the barbarian invaders
of Roman Britain at the close of the Romano-British period, that
is, towards the middle of the fifth century. The human
remains which have been met with in different parts, bear
testimony to a frightful massacre of the inhabitants. It
would seem that a number of persons had been pursued to the
buildings immediately to the south of the line of the Old Wall,
and slaughtered there; for in trenching across what were perhaps
open courts to the south and south-east of the door through the
continuation of the Old Wall, remains of at least four or five
skeletons were found, and in what appears to have been a corner
of a yard, outside the semicircular end of the hypocaust first
discovered, lay the skull and some of the bones of a very young
child. In the last of the hypocausts we have been
describing, <a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
41</span>three skeletons were found, that of a person who appears
to have died in a crouching position in one of the corners, and
two others stretched on the ground by the side of the wall.
An examination of the skull of the person in the corner leaves no
room for doubting that he was a very old man. One at least
of the others was a female. Near the old man lay a little
heap of Roman coins, in such a manner as to show that they must
have been contained in a confined receptacle, and a number of
small iron nails scattered among them, with traces of decomposed
wood, prove that this was a little box, or coffer. The
remains of the wood are still attached to two or three of the
coins. We are justified from all these circumstances in
concluding that, in the midst of the massacre of Roman Uriconium,
these three persons—perhaps an old man and two terrified
women—had sought to conceal themselves by creeping into the
hypocaust; and perhaps they were suffocated there, or, when the
house was delivered to the flames, the falling rubbish may have
blocked up the outlet so as to make it impossible for them to
escape. It is not likely that they would have been followed
into such a place as this hypocaust. These coins were 132
in number, and the following description of them has been given
by Mr. C. Roach Smith:—</p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Tetricus</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p>One much worn, of the <i>Fides Militum</i> type</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Claudius</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p>One, <i>rev.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">CONSECRATIO</span>; an eagle</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
42</span>Constantine the Elder.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">CONSTANTINVS. MAX .
AVG</span>. Head diademed, or wreathed, to the right.
<i>Rev.</i> <span class="GutSmall">GLORIA EXERCITVS</span>.
Two soldiers with spears and shields, standing; between them two
standards; or (in three instances) a single standard.</p>
<p><i>Mint Marks</i> (exergual letters): <span class="GutSmall">P
. CONST.</span>, 3; <span class="GutSmall">TR . P.</span>, 6;
<span class="GutSmall">S . L . C.</span> 1; illegible, 3;
total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Constans</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> Much worn or decayed. <i>Rev.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">FEL . TEMP . REPARATIO</span>. The emperor
holding a globe and a standard, standing in a galley rowed by a
Victory. This coin is altogether much worn. It
possibly may have been plated</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Constantine</span> II.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">CONSTANTINVS . IVN .
NOB . C.</span> Laureated head, to the right; bust in
armour. <i>Rev.</i> <span class="GutSmall">GLORIA
EXERCITVS</span>. Two soldiers standing; between them two
standards, and on the same a wreath, or other object, in the
field.</p>
<p><i>Exergual letters</i>: <span class="GutSmall">TR . P.</span>
or <span class="GutSmall">TR . S.</span>, 15; <span
class="GutSmall">P . L . C.</span>, 9; <span
class="GutSmall">CONST.</span>, 3; illegible, 9; total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">36</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Constantius</span> II.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">T . L . IVL .
CONSTANTIVS . NOB . C.</span> Laureated head, to the right;
bust in armour. <i>Rev.</i> <span class="GutSmall">GLORIA
EXERCITVS</span>. Two soldiers, &c., as on the coins of
the preceding.</p>
<p><i>Exergual letters</i>: <span class="GutSmall">TR .
S.</span>, 3; <span class="GutSmall">P.</span>, 1; <span
class="GutSmall">SMTS</span>, 1; total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Julian</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p>A plated denarius. <i>Obv.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">FL . CL . IVLIANVS</span>: <span
class="GutSmall">P. F. AVG</span>. Diademed head to the
right. <i>Rev.</i> <span class="GutSmall">VOTIS V MULTT .
XX</span>, within a wreath</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Helena</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">T . L . IVL . HELENAE
AVG</span>. Head to the right. <i>Rev.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">PAX PVBLICA</span>. A female figure
standing and holding in the right hand a branch, and in the left
hand a <i>hasta pura</i>. In the field, a cross; in the
exergue, <span class="GutSmall">TR . P</span>. Another
without the cross. Total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
43</span><span class="smcap">Theodora</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">FL . THEODORAE
AVG</span>. Head to the right. <i>Rev.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">PIETAS ROMANA</span>. A female standing
suckling an infant: in the exergue, <span class="GutSmall">TR .
P.</span></p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Urbs Roma</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">VRBS
ROMA</span>. Galeated head of Rome, to the left.
<i>Rev.</i> Romulus and Remus nursed by the wolf; above, two
stars: on two, two stars and a wreath.</p>
<p>In the exergue: <span class="GutSmall">PL . C.</span>, 11;
<span class="GutSmall">TR . P .</span> or <span
class="GutSmall">TR . S.</span>, 10; illegible, 3; total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Constantinopolis</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">CONSTANTINOPOLIS</span>. Bust of
personified Constantinople, helmed, and holding a sceptre, to the
left. <i>Rev.</i> A winged Victory, with <i>hasta pura</i>
and shield; her feet upon the prow of the galley, to the
left.</p>
<p><i>Exergual letters</i>: <span class="GutSmall">TR .
P.</span>, 20; <span class="GutSmall">P . L . C .</span> or <span
class="GutSmall">S . L . C.</span>, 9; <span class="GutSmall">O .
SIS</span>, 1; <span class="GutSmall">S . CONST.</span>, 1;
illegible, 3; total</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="smcap">Valens</span>.</p>
</td>
<td><p><i>Obv.</i> <span class="GutSmall">D . N . VALENS</span> .
. . Diademed head, to the right. <i>Rev.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">SECVRITAS</span> . . . Victory with wreath
and palm branch, marching to the left. Much corroded</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><p>Rude copies of some of the foregoing</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><p>Extremely corroded</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">Total number</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: right">132</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>This is, I believe, the first instance which has occurred in
this country, in which we have had the opportunity of
ascertaining what particular coins, as being then in daily
circulation, an inhabitant of a Roman town in Britain, at the
moment when the Roman domination in this country was expiring,
carried about with him. Mr. Roach Smith, speaking <a
name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>of the great
majority of these coins, these of the Constantine family, remarks
to me—“I suspect these coins were sent into Britain
even after the time of Valens, because they are all comparatively
sharp and fresh. It is not improbable that the procurators
at Treves and at Lugdunum may have had large stores of these
coins by them, which they sent out at intervals.” A
consideration of these coins gives us an approximation, at least,
towards the date at which Uriconium must have been destroyed; Mr.
Roach Smith agrees in the opinion that a comparison of them
points to the very latest period previous to the establishment of
the Anglo-Saxons. At a later period the freshly struck
coins of the Constantine family could not have been brought
over. They shew us that at that time the great mass of the
circulating medium consisted of coins of the Constantine family,
which again explains to us why the first coinage of the
Anglo-Saxons was nearly all copied from the coins of the emperors
of that family. Again, the care with which these small
copper coins (for only one is of plated silver) seem to have been
hoarded up, and the anxiety of their possessors to preserve them
in the midst of a frightful calamity, may perhaps assist us in
forming an estimate of the relative value of money at this
period.</p>
<p>The rooms which joined up to the south side of the Old Wall,
and which have been more recently <a name="page45"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 45</span>uncovered, were five in number, and
it appears from the remains, which are distinctly visible on the
face of the Old Wall, that they had vaulted roofs of the kind
technically called barrel roofs. In one of these rooms was
found a quantity of burnt wheat, which would lead us to suppose
that this might have been a store room. The most easterly
of these rooms has had the interior surface of its walls
ornamented with tessellated work instead of fresco-painting; the
lower edge of which, consisting of a guilloche border, still
remains. The floor below has a plain pavement of small
white tessellæ, and is apparently that of a bath. To
the south of these rooms a long passage was discovered, which
appears to have communicated at one end with the floor of the
room in the hypocaust of which the skeletons were found. In
this passage was a square pit of very good masonry, through which
a drain runs, nearly north and south. The stucco of the
southern face of the wall, forming the southern side of the
passage just alluded to, presented an inscription scrawled in
large straggling characters incised with some sharp pointed
instrument, and closely resembling in character similar
inscriptions which have been found on walls in Pompeii.
When first uncovered, two lines of this inscription, perhaps the
whole of it, seemed to have been perfectly well <a
name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>preserved,
but before anybody had had the opportunity of examining it, two
casual visitors, with walking sticks, amused themselves with
breaking off the plaster, in order apparently to try its
strength, and 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, though just enough
remained to show that it must have been written in Latin.
Even this small remnant was nearly destroyed during the
interruption of the excavations, and not a trace of it can now be
seen. Thus all the advantages of a discovery which might
have been singularly important for our knowledge of the state of
Britain at this period, have been lost through mischievous
wantonness.</p>
<p>During the month of May, 1859, the work of the excavators was
interrupted; when it was resumed, they proceeded to explore the
building to which these hypocausts belonged, beginning from the
side of the field adjoining to the Watling Street
Road,—that is, from the side of one of the main streets of
the old Roman town,—and they found walls in the line, or
nearly in the line, of the western wall of the great public
building just described. Another street has since been
discovered to the south, running east and west, parallel to that
met with to the north of the buildings first excavated. The
excavations have since <a name="page47"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 47</span>that time been followed in various
parts of the two acres first inclosed by the Excavation
Committee, and a large extent of ruins is now laid open.
But I will here interrupt my narrative, while I give an account
of the general character of the buildings, the ruins of which
have already been brought to light.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p>As yet, the excavations on the site of Uriconium have not been
carried far enough to enable us to form any idea of the general
distribution of the Roman town, but it is evident that the
buildings on which the excavators are employed were inclosed by
three main streets, crossing at right angles, forming a square
mass. It has been stated that the few discoveries hitherto
made as to the character of the streets in the Roman towns in
Britain would lead us to think that they were little more than
narrow alleys, but this was certainly not the case with these
three streets of Roman Uriconium, which seem to have been fine
wide streets, and in the one to the north, the pavement of small
round stones appears to have occupied only the middle part of the
street, designed probably for carriages and horses. A
tolerably wide space on each side seems, as far as can be traced,
to have been <a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
48</span>unpaved. But, although we have as yet made little
advance towards discovering the general character of Uriconium as
a city, and the manner in which the houses were distributed over
the Roman town, we had found sufficient fragments of different
kinds to give us a tolerable notion of the houses themselves.</p>
<p>The average thickness of the walls of a house, even where they
only separated one small room from another, was three feet.
They are rarely less than this, and it is only in one or two
cases of what appeared to be very important walls that they
exceed it, when they reach the thickness of four feet. This
measure of three feet was no doubt a well understood one for the
wall of a house, and it was continued in the middle ages, when,
in ordinary dwellings, only the division walls between house and
house were of solid masonry. Municipal regulations then
fixed these partition walls at a minimum of three feet in
thickness, the cause of which limitation was probably the fear of
fires; and in these mediæval municipal regulations, it was
further ordered, that closets or cupboards in the wall should in
no case be made more than one foot deep, so that if your own
cupboard and your neighbour’s happened to back each other,
there would still be a foot of solid masonry between the two
houses. And <a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
49</span>the masonry of the Romans may well be called
solid. Its character may be seen perhaps to most advantage
in the Old Wall above ground. The process of building seems
to have been to raise first, gradually, the facings of
neatly-squared stones, supported no doubt between frames of
woodwork, the supports of which left holes which are still seen
in the face of the wall. The interior was then filled up
with rubble mixed with liquid and apparently hot cement, which
formed the mass of the wall, and in setting has become in course
of time harder than the stones themselves. After a certain
number of rows of facing-stones, the Roman builders almost
invariably placed a string-course of broad thin bricks, the
object of which is not at all evident, for they do not go through
the wall so as to form real bonding-courses. The Old Wall
still standing in probably nearly its original height, will also
give us a notion of the elevation of the principal houses of the
Roman towns.</p>
<p>In spite, however, of this rather considerable elevation,
which, reckoning for dilapidation at the top and the portion
buried under ground, cannot have been much less than thirty feet,
it seems nearly certain that the Roman houses in Britain had no
upper stories, and that all the rooms were on the ground
floor. No traces of a staircase have ever been found, <a
name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>and all the
fragments which are met with, indicate that the rooms were open
to the roof. These roofs appear to have been of substantial
construction, and were probably supported on a strong frame of
woodwork. The common coverings of the Roman houses of this
island consisted of large square tiles with strongly flanged
edges, and these tiles being joined side to side, a curved tile
forming the half of a cylinder was placed over the flanges of the
two tiles which joined, thus holding them together, and at the
same time protecting the juncture so that rain could not pass
through it. These tiles, and the manner in which they were
arranged, will be understood by our figures, (<i>pl</i>. <span
class="GutSmall">IV.</span>, <i>figs.</i> 1, 2, 3). The
Roman houses were also very commonly roofed with slates, or
rather flags, and this appears to have been the more usual
description of roofing in Uriconium. These roof-flags are
found scattered about abundantly on the floors, sometimes
unbroken. They are formed of a micaceous laminated
sandstone, which is found on the edge of the north Staffordshire
and Shropshire coalfield, at no great distance from Wroxeter, and
must have produced a glittering appearance in the sunshine.
Their form is represented in our cut, (<i>pl</i>. <span
class="GutSmall">IV.</span>, <i>fig.</i> 5); it was that of an
elongated hexagon, with a hole at one end, through which an iron
nail was passed to fix it to the wooden frame-work. The
nail is often found still remaining in the hole. These
flags, <a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
51</span>which are very thick and heavy, were placed to lap over
each other, and thus formed a roof in lozenges or diamonds, as
represented in <i>fig.</i> 6. Slates forming one half of
the hexagon (<i>fig.</i> 4), were placed at the top of the roof,
so as to make a strictly horizontal line. It is a curious
circumstance, that in the illuminations of Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts we find roofs of houses which evidently represent
both these methods, and which appear, therefore, to have been
continued long after the Roman period. In fact they are
still used in Yorkshire, and perhaps in other counties, and have
been used very recently on the Welsh border. In the towns
which were the head-quarters of a legion, as at Caerleon,
Chester, and York, or which had been occupied for some length of
time by legionary detachments, we often find the name and number
of the legion stamped on the roof-tiles. These roof-tiles
were frequently used for other purposes. They are sometimes
employed in the string-courses in walls, when the builders appear
to have run short of the ordinary square tiles or flat bricks;
and they are still more frequently used to form the beds of
drains and aqueducts, when the flanged edges were turned up and,
set in the cement, formed the side of the water-course. A
very good example of this use of the roof-tiles may be seen in
the drain at Wroxeter mentioned above.</p>
<p><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
52</span>Internally, the walls of the Roman houses were covered
with fine hard cement, which was painted in fresco, that is, the
colours were laid on the cement while it was wet, and they thus
set with it, and became almost imperishable. In some of the
houses in Roman Britain, and especially in the large villas, the
internal walls were covered with fine historical subjects as in
the walls at Pompeii, and sufficient remains have been found in
this island to show that they were here also executed in no mean
style of art. Nothing of this kind has yet been discovered
in Uriconium; but numerous fragments are picked up in the
diggings, on which the colouring is perfectly fresh, and which
exhibit portions of designs which are always elegant and in good
taste. In one case a piece of the stucco from the internal
surface of a wall contained some letters of an inscription.
One of the walls near the hypocaust where the three skeletons
were found presented a singular and rather laborious method of
ornamenting its interior surface. Instead of being painted,
it was tessellated, the surface being covered with
tessellæ, one half of an inch by three-fifths in dimension,
set in the cement, alternately of dark and light colours, in
horizontal lines, so as to produce somewhat the appearance of
chequer-work. Perhaps, when entire, it presented an
ornamental pattern. I have already stated that a similarly
tessellated wall <a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
53</span>was found in the easternmost part of this line of
rooms. Circumstances have come to light which show that the
exterior of the walls of houses were also plastered and
painted. The exterior of the semicircular end of the
largest hypocaust yet opened was thus plastered over, and painted
red with stripes of yellow.</p>
<p>It is worthy of remark that in the walls, to the certainly not
very great elevation they now generally reach, few doorways are
discovered, a circumstance which is by no means easily
explained. Small rooms are found without any apparent means
of access. Perhaps, in such cases, the doorway was at a
certain elevation in the wall, and was approached on both sides
by wooden steps, which have long perished, and left no traces of
the means of entrance. Of course none of the walls of the
houses remain sufficiently high to enable us to judge of the
manner in which light was admitted into the rooms, whether from
side windows, or from openings in the roof. Probability,
however, is in favour of roof-windows being in common use, and an
interesting circumstance connected with the excavations at
Wroxeter seems decisive as to the material of the windows.
Considerable quantities of fine window glass have been found
scattered over the floors of the houses, of an average thickness
of full one-eighth of an inch, which have been duly deposited in
the Museum at Shrewsbury. <a name="page54"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 54</span>It is the more curious as it has been
the common opinion, until recently, that the Romans, especially
in this distant province, did not use window-glass; and the
fragments of window-glass which have been found more recently in
the excavations on the sites of Roman villas have been much
thinner than that found at Wroxeter, and of very inferior
quality. It is evident, that some of the rooms, all the
walls of which were only walls of separation from other rooms,
must have received light from above, or have been quite dark.</p>
<p>I must now describe a peculiar characteristic of the domestic
economy of a Roman house in Britain, and in the other western and
northern provinces of the empire. The Romans did not warm
their apartments by fire lighted in them, as was the case in the
middle ages, and in modern times, but by hot air circulated in
the walls. The floor of the house, formed of a considerable
thickness of cement, was laid upon a number of short pillars,
formed usually of square Roman tiles placed one upon another, and
from two to three feet high. Those of the largest of the
hypocausts yet found at Wroxeter were rather more than three feet
high. Sometimes these supports were of stone, and in one or
two cases in discoveries made in this country, they were
round. They were placed near to each other, and in rows,
and upon them were lain first larger tiles, and over these a <a
name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>thick mass of
cement, which formed the floor, and upon the surface of which the
tessellated pavements were set. Sometimes small parallel
walls, forming flues instead of rows of columns, supported the
floors, of which an example has already been found in the
excavations at Wroxeter. Flue-tiles,—that is, square
tubes made of baked clay, with a hole on one side, or sometimes
on two sides,—were placed against the walls end-ways, one
upon another, so as to run up the walls. These
arrangements,—which were called hypocausts, from two Greek
words, signifying <i>heat underneath</i>, and were used in Italy
and Greece chiefly for warming baths, are represented in
<i>plate</i> <span class="GutSmall">IV.</span>, <i>fig.</i> 7,
where <span class="GutSmall">AA</span> is the floor of cement,
<span class="GutSmall">BB</span> the pillars supporting it, and
<span class="GutSmall">CC</span> the flue-tiles running up the
wall of the room. They had an entrance from the outside,
somewhat like the mouth of an oven, and fires being lighted here,
the hot air was driven inward, and not only filled the space
under the floor, but entered the flue-tiles by the holes in the
sides, was carried by them up the inside of the wall, and no
doubt had some way of escape at the roof. The ashes and
soot of the fires have been found in the hypocausts at Uriconium,
just as they were left when the city was overthrown and ruined by
the barbarians. The ashes are chiefly those of wood, but
considerable remains of mineral coal have been discovered.
These hypocausts must sometimes have <a name="page56"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 56</span>become clogged and out of order, and
it would be necessary to cleanse them, as people in aftertimes
cleansed chimneys. A sort of alley across the middle of the
large hypocaust last-mentioned was probably intended for this
purpose. It communicated with another hypocaust adjoining
it to the north by a doorway, and this other hypocaust was
entered by a rather large archway at the foot of the steps
already mentioned. People appear to have been sometimes
satisfied with having the hot air merely under the floor, and the
flue-tiles were not always used. Comparatively few of them,
indeed, have been yet found in the hypocausts of Uriconium.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> requirements of agriculture
have rendered it necessary to cover up again all the excavations
to the north of the Old Wall, and the walls of the great public
building at the corner of the two streets can no longer be seen
by the visitor. A piece of ground, however, immediately to
the south of the Old Wall has been taken by the Excavation
Committee at Shrewsbury upon a rent, and in this piece of ground
the excavations are now carried on. It forms a
parallelogram, 319 feet long, by 279 feet wide, containing an
area of exactly two acres, including <a name="page57"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 57</span>the Old Wall at its northern
edge. This piece of ground has been strongly fenced round
with hurdles, and it is entered by a gate from the Watling Street
Road. By the liberality of the Excavation Committee the
public are admitted to this inclosure freely, and it is to be
hoped that the visitors will acknowledge this liberality by
carefully abstaining from committing any injury on the Roman
remains, or by walking upon or entering into the parts in the
course of excavation.</p>
<p>The plan annexed (<i>pl.</i> 5) of the excavations now in
progress will enable me to explain them to the visitor. The
darkly-shaded mass <i>a a</i> represents the Old Wall, or portion
of Roman masonry standing above ground; to the north of which lay
the extensive building formed by the walls <i>b b</i>, <i>c
c</i>, <i>d d</i>, running parallel to the Old Wall. The
wall <i>d d</i>, bordered upon a wide street. To the east
of these walls lay an inclosure, e, perhaps a court-yard, and a
large space, <i>f</i>, which has been conjectured to have been a
garden, but which has been very imperfectly explored. All
these remains have been explained above; they have been buried
again, and the ground is now covered with crops. The Old
Wall, which stands just within the north-eastern corner of the
space separated from the rest of the field by a fence of hurdles,
now forms the northern boundary of the excavations.</p>
<p><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>The
visitor is introduced into this space by a gateway from the road,
nearly at its north-western corner. Opposite this gateway
he will see an apartment, which the excavators are now in the
course of exploring. It is nearly a square, and is about
thirty-four feet in its longest dimension. The side towards
the street seems to have been open, or at least the masonry of
the wall presents the appearance of having had wide folding
doors, or a framework of wood of some kind in two compartments 6,
6. In the centre of the room is a large pier of masonry
(1), perhaps a table for workmen. More towards the
north-western corner, a sort of furnace or forge (2) was found,
built of red clay, with a hole or cavity in the upper part
sufficiently large for a man to thrust his head in. As the
surface of the cavity, internally, is completely vitrified, and
as there was much charcoal strewed about, there can be no doubt
that the cavity had been occupied by a very fierce fire. A
low wall has been traced, running across the room east and west
in a line with this furnace; and two transverse low walls of
similar character. Upon the low wall a little behind the
forge (at 3), the excavators came upon what was supposed to be
the lower part of a column with its base; but it is formed
roughly, and I think it more probable that it was a stone table
for the use of the workman at the furnace. It was at first
supposed that this might belong to a colonnade running along the
wall; but no trace of such a colonnade <a name="page59"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 59</span>has been found, although a large
piece of a shaft of a column lies in the middle of the
room. This column, however, is of larger dimensions than
the supposed base (3). Had such a colonnade existed, it
seems so little in accordance with the existence of a forge, that
we might be led to suspect that the room had, at some late
period, been diverted from its original purpose, and occupied by
a worker in metals, or even in glass, as fine specimens of glass
were found scattered about, and also many fragments of
metal. But objects of all kinds seem to have been thrown
about in such a manner, when the town was plundered, that it
would be unsafe to argue upon the purpose of any particular
building, merely from moveable articles found in it. Among
other things found in this room were nearly a dozen hair-pins,
two of which were much more ornamental than any we had found
before; a much greater quantity of fragments of Samian ware, and
of higher artistic merit, than had previously been met with in
one spot; a portion of a large bronze fibula; a number of coins,
and other things. One of the vessels of Samian ware is a
fine bowl, with figures in high relief, representing a
stag-hunt. Upon the low wall of the sill (6) a number of
copper Roman coins (about sixty) were found together; and near
them the fragment of a small earthen vessel, in which probably
they had been carried by some one who dropped them here as he was
hurrying out of the place. Turning from the gate of the
field to the right, or south, <a name="page60"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 60</span>along the inside of the hedge, the
visitor will come to a portion of uncovered wall, <i>h h</i>,
running north and south, upwards of eighty feet, in which there
are two entrance gateways, <i>i</i>, <i>p</i>. The first of
these is about twelve feet wide, and was approached by a sort of
inclined plane, formed of three large squared masses of stone,
each about four feet square by eleven inches in thickness.
The other entrance which was only five feet wide, was approached
by two steps, each similarly formed of one mass of stone; of
which the lower step is worn very much at its south-west corner,
in a manner to lead us to believe that the great majority of the
people who passed through this entrance came up the street from
the south. The upper step, or stone, is so much worn by the
feet of those who passed over it, that it broke into three pieces
under the workmen’s picks. On one side of it there is
a deep hollow, representing nearly the form of a small human
foot, which seems to have been scooped into the stone for some
purpose with which we are not acquainted. These two
entrances lead into one square court, the floor of which, proved
by the steps and inclined plane to have been on a higher level
than the street without, was paved with small bricks laid in
herring-bone work, like the great inclosure to the north of the
Old Wall. It is found to have been much damaged and mended
in ancient times, which seems to countenance the supposition <a
name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>that the wide
entrance and the inclined plane by which it was approached were
intended for horses and perhaps for carts or for heavy
barrows. Among the objects found in excavating here was a
portion of a horse-shoe. On each side of this court a row
of chambers is found, <i>m m m</i>, four on the north side and
four on the south, from ten to twelve feet square. The
westernmost of these chambers, on the north side of the court,
has been cleared out, and was found to be ten feet deep, with a
low transverse wall at the bottom, the object of which is at
present quite inexplicable. A quantity of charcoal was
found in this room, as though it had been a store-room for that
article. One of the other rooms, on each side of the court,
seemed to have been a receptacle for bones, horns, &c.; and
as some of these had evidently been sawn and cut, and others
partly turned on a lathe, they suggested the idea of having
belonged to manufacturers of the various objects made of this
material which are found so commonly in the course of the
excavations. They may, therefore, have been the magazines
of manufacturers and tradesmen, a notion which is somewhat
confirmed by the circumstance of several weights of different
sizes having been found in this part of the excavations; or they
may have been mere depots for the stores and refuse of a large
mansion or other establishment. These rooms are, perhaps,
all deep <a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
62</span>like the one already cleared out, but it is remarkable
that, as high as the walls remain, that is, about two feet above
the floor of the court, there is no trace of entrances to them,
which must, therefore, have been rather high in the wall, and
they were entered perhaps by a ladder.</p>
<p>The back part of this court consists of a long narrow
inclosure, which is divided into compartments by four transverse
walls proceeding from the western wall about halfway across the
inclosure, thus leaving a passage along the eastern side.
These compartments have much the appearance of small shops or
stalls for selling, and seem to confirm the notion that this
building may have been a market-place. The workmen, finding
a doorway in the wall of the back of this inclosure, at <i>n</i>
in the plan, a trench was carried through the ground to the
eastward. At about twelve feet from the opening at
<i>n</i>, they came upon a wall at <i>h</i>, running parallel to
the wall <i>o o</i> of the court, and beyond this they found
first a narrow passage, and then a rise with a pavement of cement
which extended some four or five feet, and then suddenly sank to
a floor of large flag-stones, at a depth of upwards of four feet
from the floor of cement. This flagged floor, the position
of which is marked by the letter <i>q</i> in the plan, was
perhaps a reservoir of water; the bottom was found covered with
black earth filled with broken pottery and other things, such as
may <a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>easily
have been supposed to have been thrown into a pond. The
water appears to have been only between two and three feet deep,
as the floor on the opposite side runs about level with the ledge
or step just mentioned, and is continued eastward until, at
<i>r</i>, we come upon the rather massive walls of a building,
the nature of which cannot be determined without further
investigation. At a short distance within this wall, at a
depth of about three feet below the cement floor, we find a floor
at <i>s</i>, about ten feet wide by thirty long, formed of flat
Roman tiles, twelve inches by eighteen inches square. This
floor has been uncovered, and as there was an indentation in the
middle which seemed to indicate that it was hollow underneath, a
hole was made there, but it led to no discovery. This seems
also to have been a tank of water, perhaps a cold water
bath. The cement floor was continued easterly until it was
terminated by a wall, <i>t</i>, which ran at right angles to the
eastern end of the Old Wall, and appears to be the eastern
termination of the buildings now in course of exploration.
The earth and rubbish from the excavations have been here thrown
into a great mound, from the top of which the visitor can enjoy a
bird’s eye view of the excavations. A few yards to
the north, he will come to the important line of excavations
nearer to the Old Wall. A small chamber, about eight feet
square, with a herring-bone pavement in very good <a
name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>preservation,
projects beyond the line of this eastern wall at <i>u</i> in our
plan. To the west of this is a small hypocaust <i>v</i>,
the floor of which has been a little lower than that of the room
<i>u</i>. In this hypocaust were found the remains of two
skeletons, one of which was that of a young person. The
northern wall of the room <i>v</i> is particularly interesting,
because in its whole height of full nine feet, it presents the
remains of the lines of flue-tiles which ran up it, hardly an
inch apart, and which show that this room must have been intended
to be very much heated. It was, perhaps, a
<i>sudatorium</i> or sweating room. The opening from
<i>u</i> to <i>v</i> occupies nearly the whole width of the
former room, and was perhaps closed by a wooden door. On
the western side of the hypocaust, at <i>w</i>, the wall has a
sort of basement, formed of large stones scooped out in a
singular manner, the object of which is by no means
evident. We here come upon a series of passages, <i>x</i>,
to the north of which were four rooms, <i>z z z z</i>, extending
to the Old Wall. On the face of the Old Wall, we can
distinctly trace the springing not only of the walls of division,
the lower parts of which are found underground, but of the
vaulting, from which it appears that these rooms had what are
technically called barrel-roofs of masonry. They were
slightly explored at the beginning of the excavations, and in one
of them was found a quantity of burnt wheat, as though it had
been a store-room.</p>
<p><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>In the
passages alluded to, there is at <i>y</i>, a square pit, somewhat
like what might be a cess-pool, of very good and substantial
masonry, at the bottom of which runs north and south a very well
formed drain, the bed of which is formed of large
roof-tiles. To the south of this is a hypocaust, <span
class="GutSmall">A</span>, which differs from the other
hypocausts yet opened in being partly formed of low parallel
walls instead of rows of pillars. On the wall of the
passage leading to this hypocaust from the east was found the
inscription mentioned at page <span class="indexpageno"><a
href="#page45">45</a></span>. Westward from the hypocaust
<span class="GutSmall">A</span>, but without any apparent
communication between them, was another hypocaust, <span
class="GutSmall">B</span>, which had been constructed in the
usual manner, the floor supported by rows of low columns formed
of square thin bricks. It was in this hypocaust that the
three skeletons mentioned before (<i>p.</i> 41,) were found, the
man who possessed the money crouching in the north-west corner,
and the two persons supposed to be women, extended along the side
of the northern wall. The opening into this hypocaust was
through its southern wall, from the interior court, so that the
fugitives must have crept along the whole length of the hypocaust
to reach their place of concealment. The part of this
interior court, immediately adjacent to this hypocaust, which has
been excavated to some extent, presents several interesting
features. A breach in the eastern boundary wall had been
newly repaired with much inferior <a name="page66"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 66</span>masonry at the time when the city of
Uriconium was taken and destroyed; and it is a curious
circumstance that some large pieces of stone lie here on the
floor of the court, unfinished by the masons, as though repairs
and alterations in the buildings were going on at the very moment
of the final catastrophe. Adjoining to this hypocaust, at
its north-west corner, is a square room, c, with the herring-bone
pavement, exactly like that at <i>u</i> in character and
dimensions, which had opened into the room above the hypocaust
<span class="GutSmall">B</span>, much in the same manner as
<i>u</i> opened in the room <i>v</i>. Separated from this
room by a wall, but apparently without any communication with it,
is an interesting staircase <span class="GutSmall">D</span>,
leading down, to the entrance to a larger and apparently more
important series of hypocausts. This staircase descended
from a square room, about the same size as the room <span
class="GutSmall">C</span>, which had a smooth pavement of
cement. It is composed of three steps each formed of a
large squared stone. A part of the space at the bottom, the
north-eastern corner, appears to have been used by the later
Roman inhabitants of this building as a receptacle for the
sweeping of the floors, and when it was first opened the earth,
to the height of about sixteen or eighteen inches from the floor,
was filled with all kinds of objects, such as coins, hair-pins,
fibulæ, needles in bone, nails, various articles in iron,
bronze, and lead, glass, broken pottery, bones of edible animals
and <a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>birds,
stags’ horns, tusks and hoofs of wild boars, oyster shells,
in one of which lay the shell of a large nut, &c. A
large shaft of a column lay across the steps. The Roman
masonry here is very good. To the right hand, towards the
south, a rather large arch, turned in Roman bricks, led into the
hypocaust <span class="GutSmall">E</span>, a doorway in the
southern wall of which formed the communication between this
hypocaust and the still larger hypocaust <span
class="GutSmall">F</span>. The latter had supported what
must have been a handsome room, which was about fifty feet long,
including the semicircular northern end, by thirty-five feet in
breadth. When first opened, this hypocaust was in a state
of preservation in which such buildings are seldom found in this
country. A hundred and twenty columns of bricks were
counted, most of them at their original height of rather more
than three feet. At the north-eastern corner, the columns
supported a small portion of the floor in its original
position. It is a mass of cement, eight inches thick, with
the upper surface, which no doubt had formed the floor, perfectly
smooth. During the time that the Excavation Committee were
excluded from the field, all the pillars of this interesting
hypocaust were thrown to the ground, and a great part of the
bricks which formed the supporting columns were broken to
pieces—even the piece of the floor and its supports at the
north-east corner were overthrown. A very exact drawing of
the <a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
68</span>latter, however, had been preserved, which served as a
pattern for restoring it; and it is to the ingenuity and labour
of Dr. Henry Johnson that the public owes the restoration of this
hypocaust as far as it was possible to restore it.</p>
<p>Returning to the steps by which these hypocausts were entered,
at <span class="GutSmall">D</span>, the floor from which we
descended appears to have an opening of some kind to the west,
which looked down upon a court outside the semicircular end of
the hypocaust <span class="GutSmall">F</span>, which from this
point presents to the view an imposing mass of masonry. In
the corner just under this opening the remains of a very young
child were found, which we might almost imagine to have been
slaughtered in the room above, and thrown out into the
court. This court, or open space, seems to have been
continued to the wall <i>a a</i>, and to have been entered by a
doorway in that wall at <i>g</i>, which was approached from the
passage to the north by a step formed by a large squared
stone. On the outside of the semicircular end of the
hypocaust <span class="GutSmall">F</span>, lay, as if it had
fallen or been thrown down, an immense stone, carefully worked
into the shape of the arc of a circle, and no doubt forming one
of a course at some unknown elevation in the wall. On the
outward side of it, a large iron pin was soldered into it with
lead, evidently for the purpose of attaching some weighty object
on the outer side of the building.</p>
<p><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>Another
step and doorway in the wall <i>a a</i> was found at <i>h</i>,
which must have been much more frequented than the other, for the
stone which formed the step was worn in an extraordinary degree
by the rubbing of footsteps. It led to an inclosure <span
class="GutSmall">P</span>, which presents the appearance of
having formed public <i>latrinæ</i>; and which is separated
by a long narrow inclosure from the room already described as
apparently the shop of a worker in metals.</p>
<p>Such is a brief and general description of the ruins of
Uriconium, at present open to the visitor. The real
character of the buildings we have been describing appeared for a
while very doubtful. The first discoveries led to the
belief that it was a great mansion, perhaps the principal mansion
in the Roman city, the residence of the chief municipal officer;
but in this case we might have expected to find some very fine
Mosaic or tessellated pavement, specimens of which had been met
with in other parts of the area of the town. On the
contrary, all the floors yet discovered to the south of the Old
Wall, with the exception of those of herring-bone brickwork, and
that of a supposed bath, seemed to have been of mere smoothed
cement. This led us to suppose that we were still exploring
buildings erected for some public purpose. A comparison of
the character of these various buildings leaves no room for
doubting that they belonged to the public baths of Uriconium; and
further <a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
70</span>excavations to the south and west shewed that they
formed an extensive square (<i>k</i>, <i>k</i>, <i>k</i>,
<i>k</i>), the northern side of which was formed by the Old Wall
and its continuation westward; and the southern side of which
bordered upon the other street running east and west, the
pavement of which, similar to that of the street at <i>l</i>, has
been uncovered in its whole extent along the line, <span
class="GutSmall">L L.</span> The western and southern sides
of the square were formed by a wide gallery or cloister
(<i>k</i>, <i>k</i>, <i>k</i>), no doubt the ambulatory, which
was considered as an important part of the public baths of the
Romans. The ground to the eastward, in which no buildings
could be traced, may have been gardens, which were also usually
attached to the baths of the Romans.</p>
<p>Having once decided that the building we have thus explored,
is the public baths, another equally interesting question arises
out of it. The public baths of the Roman towns in Britain
are not unfrequently mentioned in inscriptions commemorating the
repairing or rebuilding of them; but it is a circumstance of some
importance that this building is combined with the basilica, or
town hall. Both seem to have participated in the same
accidents, and to have undergone decay together. Thus an
inscription found at Lanchester in Cumberland (supposed to be the
Roman town of Epiacum) speaks of the baths and basilica (<span
class="GutSmall">BALNEVM CVM BASILICA</span>); and at Ribchester,
in Lancashire, the baths and basilica (<span
class="GutSmall">BALINEVM ET BASILICAM</span>) <a
name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>were rebuilt
after having fallen into ruin through age. We are
therefore, I think, justified in concluding that the two great
public buildings, the baths and the basilica, usually joined each
other; and I think we may venture further to assume that the
large building to the north of the Old Wall, the remains of which
are now covered up, was the basilica of Uriconium. The
proportions of this building are rather extraordinary, and cannot
be easily explained; but it is probable that in a provincial town
the basilica served a variety of purposes. An inscription
found at Netherby in Cumberland, speaks of a basilica for
practice in riding (<span class="GutSmall">BASILICAM EQVESTREM
EXERCITATORIAM</span>.)</p>
<p>We may now proceed a little further in identifying the
topography of the ancient town. The line of the buildings
we have traced parallel to the Watling Street Road is at some
distance within the hedge of the field; and I believe that, when
the farm buildings were erected on the opposite side of the road,
what appeared to be the front of buildings facing the opposite
direction, were found likewise at some distance within the
field. This, with the road, would make a very wide space;
very much wider than either of the two transverse streets.
Moreover, a glance at the plan will shew that, beyond the
transverse street to the south, this wide space became
considerably narrowed; and in fact it seems to have been reduced
to the width of an ordinary street. It is my belief that
this wide <a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
72</span>space was the forum of Uriconium; and in that case it is
rather remarkable that the basilica held here exactly the same
place, in regard to the forum, as at Pompeii.</p>
<p>We have thus already brought to light a very interesting
portion of the ancient Roman town, and have learnt something more
than we knew before of the character and economy of the Roman
towns in Britain. The basilica, as we have seen, came up to
the front of the street, and formed the side of a transverse
street; but this was not the case with the baths, for a space of
some width between them and the forum was occupied by other
buildings, which I have already described.</p>
<p>Other apartments surrounding the metal-worker’s shop are
in course of exploration, and will, I think, make us better
acquainted with the character of the whole of this line of
buildings which looked upon the open space which I have supposed
to be the forum. I have already said that this open space
contracts to the south of the transverse street <span
class="GutSmall">L L</span>, in what has been no more than the
breadth of an ordinary street, which ran down towards the
river. A gutter, very well made, of carefully squared
stones, and remarkably well preserved, runs near the houses on
the eastern side of the street; the only side which at present
can be explored, as it is near the hedge of the Watling Street
Road. It runs very near the walls of the houses, is a foot
wide, and about a foot deep, and from place to place square <a
name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>stones are
laid in lozenge-fashion, apparently intended for stepping stones,
but they must have stopped the current of water down the
channel. The buildings at this corner consist of small
rooms, and were probably private houses. The existence of
walls running parallel and transverse to the street <span
class="GutSmall">L L</span> has been ascertained along the whole
length of its southern side; but they have not yet been
sufficiently explored even to be laid down in the plan.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> objects of antiquity found in
the course of the excavations have been so often alluded to, that
the visitor will no doubt expect at least a brief and general
description of them. I have already described those which
illustrate the building and construction of a house, and we
naturally continue the description by turning to those articles
which belong especially to domestic life. Of this class,
the most numerous division, and that which strikes us first, is
the pottery,—of which certainly the most remarkable to the
general observer is the ware resembling in colour and general
appearance bright red sealing wax, known commonly as Samian ware,
a name the propriety of which has been disputed. The Roman
writers speak of an earthenware much used at table, <a
name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>and said to
have received its name from having been originally made at
Samos. It is described as being of a red colour, as being
of more value than the common pottery, and as being proverbial
for its brittleness, all which characteristics belonged to the
red ware found in this country, which was covered with tasteful
subjects of all kinds in relief, and was evidently much valued,
as we often find vessels in this ware which had been carefully
mended, and the brittleness of which was such that we seldom find
a specimen unbroken. Such mendings, chiefly by means of
metal rivets, are exhibited in specimens of Samian ware found in
the excavations at Wroxeter, and deposited in the Museum at
Shrewsbury, where there are also several pieces of this pottery,
presenting subjects which are interesting and by no means of
common occurrence. It may be further observed that the
Samian ware in this country resembles a Roman ware of which the
potteries have been found at Aretium, the modern Arezzo, in
Tuscany, but this ware was much superior, especially in the
degree of artistic talent displayed in its ornamentation, to that
which was in use in this island, and which no doubt was imported
from Gaul, where, especially on the banks of the Rhine, the
potteries in which it was made have been found.</p>
<p>Extensive potteries have also been found in this island,
especially at Castor, in Northamptonshire, <a
name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>where there
was a Roman town named Durobrivæ, and on the banks of the
Medway, at Upchurch, in Kent. The ware from both these
potteries is of a blue or slate colour, produced by imperfect
firing in what is called a <i>smother-kiln</i>; that is, the air
being excluded and the heat being insufficient thoroughly to bake
the pottery, it retains so much carbonaceous matter as to give it
a black colour. The pottery of these two establishments is
distinguished by the difference of shapes. The
ornamentation of the Upchurch ware is in general of a very simple
character; that of the pottery from Castor is much more
elaborate, and often consists of hunting scenes and other
subjects, laid on in a white substance after the pottery had been
baked. Specimens of both these wares are found at
Wroxeter.</p>
<p>The excavations at Wroxeter have brought to light at least two
new classes of Roman pottery, both evidently made in
Shropshire. The first is a white ware, made of what is
known as the Broseley clay, and consisting chiefly of very
elegantly formed jugs, with narrow necks; mortaria, or vessels
for rubbing or pounding objects in cookery, the interior surface
of which is covered with grains of hard stone; and bowls, which
are often painted with stripes of red and yellow. The other
Romano-Salopian pottery is a red ware, differing in shade from
the red Roman wares usually found, and also made from one of the
<a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>clays of
the Severn valley. Among the vessels in this ware are bowls
pierced all over with small holes, so as to have served the
purpose of colanders. We find also some very curious
specimens of an imitation of the Samian ware; but we have as yet
no means of ascertaining where it was made.</p>
<p>Many very interesting fragments of glass vessels have also
been found in the excavations at Wroxeter. Two or three
other objects intended for domestic purposes have been met with,
such as a small bowl or cup made of lead, and what appears to
have been the handle of some larger vessel, made of block tin,
neither of which metals, used for such purpose, are of common
occurrence among Roman remains in this country. A ladle and
several knives have also been found, and a handle of a knife made
of stone, as well as several whet-stones.</p>
<p>Of personal ornaments the most numerous are the hair-pins,
most of which are made of bone, though there are a few of bronze,
and one of wood. Their use was to hold together the knot
into which the Roman women rolled up their hair behind the head,
and through which the pin was thrust. They are, on an
average, about three inches long, with a large head rudely
ornamented; and it will be remarked that the shank is thicker in
the middle, and that it becomes generally thinner near the head,
no doubt to prevent the pin from slipping out of the <a
name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>hair.
Some of these pins had evidently been saturated with an oily
substance, which shews that the ladies in Roman Britain applied
oil to their hair. Several fibulæ of the common Roman
forms, have been met with; they are all of bronze, of superior
workmanship to the hair pins, and most of those hitherto found at
Wroxeter are, or have been, enamelled. Their use was to
fasten the mantle and other parts of the clothing. Among
the personal ornaments found already in the excavations are a
number of buttons, finger rings, bracelets, glass beads, and
other objects, of which it is not necessary here to give a
particular description. Of two combs, both of bone, one is
remarkably neat in its form and make. Several bone needles
may also be mentioned, and a pair of bronze tweezers for
eradicating superfluous hairs.</p>
<p>Roman coins are found in considerable numbers, but many of
them are so worn and defaced that it is no longer possible to
decide to what emperor they belonged. The earliest met with
during the present excavations is of the emperor Domitian.
A great number are small coins of the Constantine family of
emperors. Only two silver coins have yet been found, the
others are of bronze or brass. The peasantry call them
<i>dinders</i>, a name which, though it represents the Latin
<i>denarius</i>, was no doubt derived from the Anglo-Norman
<i>denier</i>.</p>
<p>Many objects of a more miscellaneous character <a
name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>have also
been found during the present excavations; or have found their
way into the Museum from former discoveries. Among these
are three artists’ pallettes, for using colour; several
weights, some marked with Roman numerals; a steelyard; several
keys; portions of iron chains; styli, for writing on wax tablets;
an iron trident, which may perhaps have been the head of a staff
of office or authority; one or two spear heads; a strigil for
scraping the skin in the sweating baths; a portion of an iron
horse-shoe; and two or three very nice statuettes in
bronze. The most curious, however, of these miscellaneous
objects is a medicine stamp, intended to mark packets or bottles
of what, in modern times, would be called patent medicines.
A certain number of these Roman medicine stamps have been found
in Britain and on the Continent, and they are all, like this
stamp found at Wroxeter, for salves or washes for the eyes,
diseases of the eyes having been apparently very common among the
inhabitants of the western provinces of the Roman empire.
The Wroxeter stamp, intended for a collyrium or salve for the
eyes called <i>dialebanum</i> or <i>dialibanum</i>, gives us in
all probability the name of a physician resident in
Uriconium. The inscription may be read as follows, filling
up the abbreviations:—<span
class="GutSmall">TIB</span><i>erii</i> <span
class="GutSmall">CL</span><i>audii</i> <span
class="GutSmall">M</span><i>edici</i> <span
class="GutSmall">DIALIBA</span><i>num</i> <span
class="GutSmall">AD OMNE</span> <span
class="GutSmall">VIT</span><i>ium</i> <span
class="GutSmall">O</span><i>culorum</i> <span class="GutSmall">EX
O</span><i>vo</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, the dialebanum of Tiberius
Claudius the <a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
79</span>physician, for all complaints of the eyes, to be used
with egg.</p>
<p>A few stones, with Roman inscriptions, chiefly of a sepulchral
character, have been dug up at Wroxeter in the course of
accidental excavations. Three of these were found in 1752,
and are preserved in the library of Shrewsbury School. The
first inscription may be read thus:—</p>
<blockquote><p>C. MANNIVS<br />
C. F. POL . SECV<br />
NDVS . POLLEN<br />
MIL . LEG . XX<br />
ANORV . LII<br />
STIP . XXXI<br />
BEN . LEG . PR<br />
H . S . E.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>intimating that it marked the grave of a soldier of the
twentieth legion (which was stationed at Chester, the Roman Deva)
named Caius Mannius, of the Pollian tribe. Another
commemorated a soldier of the fourteenth legion, and has been
supposed to belong to a very early period, as that legion was
withdrawn from Britain before <span class="GutSmall">A.D.</span>
68. It was the legion which suffered so much in the war
against Boadicea, and this soldier may perhaps have been engaged
in that war, although his having died in Britain does not
necessarily imply that the legion to which he had belonged was
there at the time, or indeed that it had ever been there, unless
we had some other <a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
80</span>reasons for supposing that it had been there. His
name was Marcus Petronius, the son of Lucius, of the Menenian
tribe, and the inscription may be read as follows:—</p>
<blockquote><p>M. PETRONIVS<br />
L. F. MEN<br />
VIC . ANN<br />
XXXVIII<br />
MIL. LEG<br />
XIIII . GEM<br />
MILITAVIT<br />
ANN. XVIII<br />
SIGN . FVIT<br />
H . S . E.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The third of these inscribed monuments was divided into three
columns or tables, commemorating three members of the family of a
citizen of Uriconium, named Deuccus. The inscription on the
third column is entirely erased, but the two others may be read
as follows:</p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><p>D. M<br />
PLACIDA<br />
AN . LV<br />
CVR . AG<br />
CONI . A<br />
XXX</p>
</td>
<td><p>D. M<br />
DEVCCV<br />
S . AN . XV<br />
CVR . AG<br />
RATRE</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Another sepulchral stone, also preserved in the Library of
Shrewsbury School, was found in 1810, and bore an inscription
commemorative of Tiberius Claudius Terentius, a soldier of the
cohort of Thracian cavalry, which may be read as
follows:—</p>
<blockquote><p>TIB . CLAVD . TRE<br />
NTIVS . EQ . COH<br />
THRACVM . AN<br />
ORVM . LVII. STIP<br />
ENDIORVM<br />
H . S.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>In the
excavations on the site of the cemetery, in the autumn of 1862, a
sepulchral stone was found, which had not improbably been placed
over the door of a sepulchral chamber of masonry. There had
been a figure above, the lower part of the legs and feet of which
alone remain. The slab bears the following inscription,
which from the damage the stone has sustained is very difficult
to decipher, but I owe this reading to the knowledge and
acuteness of my friend Mr. Roach Smith. I may add that some
of the letters are extremely doubtful</p>
<blockquote><p>AMINIVS . T . POL . F . A<br />
NORVMXXXXVSTIPXXII . MIL . LEG.<br />
IIGEM . MILITAVITAQNVNC HIC SII<br />
LEGITE . ET . FELICES . VITA . FLVS . MINV<br />
IVSTAVINIERAQVATIEGIIIE . INTV<br />
TANARA . DITIS . VIVITE . DVMSPI . . .<br />
VITAE . DAT . TEMPVS . HONESTE.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is clear, at a glance, that the latter part of this
inscription contains three lines in hexameter verse;
unfortunately they are the lines most rubbed and most difficult
to make out. Dr. Mc. Caul, president of the University of
Toronto, in Canada, in his recent work on “Britanno-Romano
Inscriptions,” suggests that they may be—</p>
<blockquote><p>Perlegite et felices vitâ plus minus
jutâ;<br />
Omnibus æqua lege iter est ad Tænara Ditis.<br />
Vivite, dum Stygius vitæ dat tempus, honeste.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The two last words of the first line are extremely doubtful,
and I confess that I do not believe in <a name="page82"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 82</span>Dr. Mc Caul’s reading, which,
of course is but conjectural. The second does not appear at
all to answer to what remains of the original, with the exception
of the last words Tænara Ditis. But of the last line,
Mr. Smith’s reading is much the best, and indeed appears to
me to be the correct one,—</p>
<blockquote><p>Vivite, dum spatium vitæ dat tempus,
honeste.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The part preceding the verses may be read—</p>
<blockquote><p>Aminius (perhaps Flaminius), T<i>iti</i>
Pol<i>lioni</i> F<i>ilius</i>, annorum xxxxv.,
stip<i>endiorum</i> xxii, mil<i>es</i> leg<i>ionis</i> vii
g<i>e</i>m<i>inæ</i>. Militavit
aq<i>uilifer</i>. Nunc hic si<i>tus est</i>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It may be remarked that in many respects this is one of the
most curious Roman inscriptions found in this island, and that it
appears to be of rather an early date.</p>
<p>Another mere fragment of a stone, of the present existence of
which I can learn nothing, is said to have contained the
letters:—</p>
<blockquote><p>LERT<br />
FGAI<br />
...TILES.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lastly, a monument of stone, which, during the middle ages had
been formed into a holy water stoop, and which is now in the
vicarage garden, presents what has formed part of a Roman
inscription—</p>
<blockquote><p>BONA . REI<br />
PVBLICÆ<br />
NATVS.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has probably been a dedication to one of the emperors, or
an inscription commemorative of him.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span><span
class="smcap">It</span> has been stated before, that the site of
Uriconium is of very great extent. If the visitor, after
having examined the excavations, would seek an agreeable walk, he
may turn off by the smith’s shop already mentioned, along
the northerly continuation of the Watling Street Road, which soon
becomes a deep and pretty country lane, and crosses the Bell
Brook. Soon afterwards, on the rise of a bank, we come to a
spot where the ancient town wall crossed this road, and where
there are said to be traces of one of the gateway entrances to
Uriconium. At the latter part of the year 1862, excavations
were made in an adjoining field to trace the line of the town
wall, which was found remaining to a height of three or four
feet; but it was of very rough construction, built merely of
small stone boulders mixed with clay, and had evidently been
raised hurriedly, at a late period of the history of Uriconium,
to meet some sudden emergency. There had evidently been an
entrance opening here, but there were no traces of gateway
buildings, which were perhaps only of timber. Outside the
walls, on the bank to the right, was one of the principal
cemeteries, and here the sepulchral inscriptions mentioned above
were found. Successful excavations were made in 1862 on the
site of this <a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
84</span>cemetery, and many Roman graves were opened which
furnished the Museum in Shrewsbury with another inscribed
monument of great interest, a number of sepulchral urns and
vessels of glass, and various other objects.</p>
<p>If, instead of going northward, the visitor follows the
Watling Street Road towards the south, he will soon reach the
village of Wroxeter, and may examine its church. A new gate
to the churchyard has recently been erected, and Mr. W. H.
Oatley, of Wroxeter, who holds the office of churchwarden, has
contributed a shaft of a Roman column, and two Roman capitals,
which, together with another shaft given by the Rev. E. Egremont,
are now placed on each side of this gateway. The two
capitals, which were dragged out of the river Severn, are worthy
of particular attention. They are singularly rich in
ornament, and mark that late period of Roman architecture which
became the model of the mediæval Byzantine and
Romanesque. I cannot help wishing that they were safely
deposited in the Museum at Shrewsbury, and I think that the Roman
columns would serve as well for gateway supports without the
capitals, which probably did not belong to them. The church
of Wroxeter is a substantial Norman building, with later
alterations, and on the outside of the southern wall of the
chancel are the remains of a very interesting Norman doorway,
which has been built up.</p>
<p><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>The
chancel internally is chiefly remarkable for some fine monuments
with effigies of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth
centuries, interesting especially for their costume. It has
at present a low flat whitewashed ceiling, but there is a fine
old timber roof above, and it is greatly to be regretted that the
unsightly ceiling has not been removed, so that the chancel might
again be open to its lofty roof of timber. At the western
end of the church is an early font, <i>pl.</i> 7, which has been
formed of a very large Roman capital, taken from some important
building in the city of Uriconium. Such applications of
Roman monuments to later ecclesiastical purposes are by no means
uncommon. In the garden of the vicarage, which adjoins the
churchyard, are a few fragments of Roman architecture and
sculpture, which have been carefully preserved by the present
vicar, the Rev. E. Egremont.</p>
<p>Near the churchyard stands the residence of Mr. Oatley, who
has also collected in his garden a few fragments from the ancient
city and its neighbourhood. Among these is a cylindrical
stone, which at first sight might be taken for part of a column,
but which appears, from a few remaining letters of an
inscription, to have been more probably a Roman milliarium or
mile-stone. Mr. Oatley has placed a Roman capital on the
top of it, and both are represented in <i>pl.</i> 6.
Several architectural fragments are <a name="page86"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 86</span>also preserved in the garden of Mr.
Stanier. Two of the most interesting of these, belonging to
the shaft of the same column, or to those of two similar columns
are represented in <i>pl.</i> 15.</p>
<p>The Watling Street Road leads us direct from the gateway of
the churchyard to the river Severn, which is here crossed at
present by a ford. On the right is a large rugged field
overlooking the river, and occupied by Mr. Oatley, which has been
trenched in several directions, but nothing was discovered except
a Roman well, ten feet deep, which is kept open, and is now
partly filled with clear spring water. In an orchard at the
corner of this field, near the road, were found a number of human
skeletons, attended with some remarkable circumstances, for an
account of which I refer the reader to Dr. Johnson’s
remarks at the end of this little volume. On the other side
of the Watling Street Road, the ground rises to a little knoll,
which looks down upon the river, and seems to have formed the
southern corner of the inclosure of the city of Uriconium.
The top of this knoll has been carefully explored, and the walls
of a square building, perhaps of a tower, were uncovered.
Among the objects found on this spot were a head sculptured in
stone, and a mould for casting Roman coins, both of which are
deposited in the Museum at Shrewsbury. The impress on the
coin-mould is that of a coin of Julia <a name="page87"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 87</span>Domna, the wife of the emperor
Severus, (the commencement of the third century); and it is
rather a curious circumstance that a silver coin of this empress,
which fits the impress exactly, has been found in the excavations
near the Old Wall. This method of multiplying the imperial
coinage by casts seems to have been very common in these distant
provinces, and was perhaps exercised by the imperial or municipal
officers. Another coin-mould, also with the impress of
Julia Domna, was found at Wroxeter in 1747, and two, one of
Severus himself, and the other of Plautilla, in 1722.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> conclusion, I may perhaps be
allowed to make a remark on some of the various points on which
the excavations on the site of Uriconium have already thrown more
or less illustrative light during the short period in which they
have as yet been carried on. We see how, by examining their
buildings and comparing the objects that are turned up by the
pick and the spade, we get an insight into the condition of the
inhabitants of Roman Britain, and learn to what degree they
enjoyed the luxuries and comforts of life. We see that they
possessed a great majority <a name="page88"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 88</span>of the refinements of modern
society—far more than can be traced among the population of
the middle ages. We are taught even the character of their
food by remains of edible animals. The comparison of other
objects enables us to judge to a great degree of the state and
extent of manufactures and commerce. We learn from
inscriptions on their sepulchral monuments and altars the names
and occupations of some of the inhabitants of the ancient town,
and the races to which they belonged; and from this partial
information we are enabled by induction to obtain a general view
of the whole. We are thus enabled to form a truer notion of
the manner in which this country had been inhabited and governed
during nearly four centuries; and we have the further hope of
eventually discovering monuments which will throw some light on
the more particular history of this neighbourhood in these remote
ages. We learn, finally, from the condition in which the
ruins of Uriconium are now seen, and especially from the numerous
remains of human beings which are found scattered over its
long-deserted floors, the sad fate under which it finally sank
into ruin, and thus we are made vividly acquainted with the
character and events of a period of history which has hitherto
been but dimly seen through the vague traditions of writers who
at best knew them only by hearsay.</p>
<h2><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
89</span>Catalogue of Wroxeter Antiquities in the Museum at
Shrewsbury.</h2>
<h3>I.<br />
<span class="GutSmall">OBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE ARRANGEMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS.</span></h3>
<p>1. Roofing flags, of micaceous sandstone, form generally
hexagonal, with a hole for the nail.—<i>See pl.</i> <span
class="GutSmall">IV</span>., <i>fig.</i> 1.</p>
<p>2. Tiles of various kinds:—small square tiles,
flue-tiles, roof-tiles, &c. Large oblong square tiles
for bonding-courses in the walls, &c. Square tiles for
making the pillars in the hypocausts.</p>
<p>3. Specimens of the concrete which covered the
hypocaust, to the depth of eight inches or more, forming the
floor of the apartment.</p>
<p>4. Eight different specimens of the tessellated, or
mosaic, pavement, taken up as it was found, and framed.</p>
<p>5. Drawings of the same, made by Mr. George Maw, of
Broseley, and presented by that gentleman to the Museum.</p>
<p><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
90</span>6. Sculpture in sandstone; a head of late Roman
art, which appears to have formed part of the architectural
ornamentation of a building.</p>
<p>7. Bases, capitals, and shafts of columns.</p>
<p>8. Stucco, covering the walls, coloured, plain, and with
some formal patterns. One specimen, bearing the letters A.
R. C. A., having formed part of an inscription on the wall.
Tessellated ornamentation of the surface of a wall, dark and
light tesseræ, so as to form an irregular pattern.</p>
<p>9. <i>Umbilicus</i>, or hinge for a door.</p>
<p>10. Iron bolts,
<a href="images/p90b.jpg">
<img alt=
"T shaped image"
title=
"T shaped image"
src="images/p90s.jpg" />
</a> shaped iron stancheons, and nails, for fixing roof and
flue-tiles upon the walls.</p>
<p>11. Many tiles bearing the impression of the foot of
domestic or wild animals,—some of the dog; other, of the
sheep, pig, horse, and ox.</p>
<h3>II.<br />
<span class="GutSmall">OBJECTS FOR DOMESTIC PURPOSES.</span></h3>
<p>1. <span class="smcap">Pottery</span>:—</p>
<p><i>a</i>. Samian ware.</p>
<p><i>b</i>. Upchurch pottery.</p>
<p><i>c</i>. Durobrivian pottery.</p>
<p><i>d</i>. Romano-Salopian ware, made of clay obtained
from Broseley.</p>
<p><i>e</i>. Pieces of red earthenware, probably made in
Shropshire.</p>
<p>2. <span class="smcap">Glass</span>:—</p>
<p><i>a</i>. Fragments of flat or window glass.</p>
<p><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
91</span><i>b</i>. Portions of bottles, &c., generally
coloured, some opalescent.</p>
<p><i>c</i>. Fragments of a cup, ornamented with spots of
deep purple glass.</p>
<p><i>d</i>. One green glass bottle, 6½ inches high,
with narrow neck, found in the cemetery, quite entire.</p>
<p><i>e</i>. A green glass jar, with wide mouth, about 5
inches high and 6 inches wide, also found in the cemetery.
It was full of soil, everywhere penetrated by roots of
plants.</p>
<p><i>f</i>. Two metallic mirrors or <i>specula</i>, one in
fragments, the other entire. They are of white metal, a
compound of tin and copper, with a large proportion of the
former.—(Cemetery.)</p>
<p><i>g</i>. Three very pretty lamps. One bears the
figure of Hercules, another that of a dolphin, a third that of a
boy kneeling.—(Cemetery.)</p>
<p><i>h</i>. A silver fibulæ.</p>
<p>3. Bronze statuette of Venus and Mercury.</p>
<p>4. A <i>strigil</i>, (fragment.)</p>
<p>5. Part of an iron horse-shoe. Iron bit of a
bridle. Iron spur.</p>
<p>6. Two masks, one made of terra cotta, the other of
pottery.</p>
<p>7. Anomalous earthenware vessel.</p>
<h3>III.<br />
<span class="GutSmall">IMPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS.</span></h3>
<p>1. Weights: one in lead, 20¼oz.; another in
stone, 11½oz.</p>
<p><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>Weight
in lead, marked ii., weighs 2¼oz.; another also in lead,
weighs 2½oz.</p>
<p>2. Ladle; and neck of some vessel made of block tin.</p>
<p>3. Several keys, of different forms. Iron
padlock.</p>
<p>4. Large shackles, chains, &c., of iron.</p>
<p>5. Knives, spear-heads, and portions of other
weapons. Two axe-heads. Bone handle of a sword,
<i>very curious</i>.</p>
<p>6. Several whet-stones. Stone handle to a
knife. Touchstone.</p>
<p>7. Iron trident.</p>
<p>8. Rings of iron, bronze, and lead.</p>
<p>9. <i>Styli</i> of bronze and iron; bronze tweezers;
bronze and iron spoons; steelyard.</p>
<p>10. Small cup of lead; ditto of thin copper.</p>
<p>11. Large plates of lead, purpose unknown.</p>
<p>12. Cock made of lead, a child’s toy.</p>
<p>13. Fragment of a lamp in red pottery.</p>
<p>14. Three painters’ pallettes.</p>
<p>15. A curious iron box—(ointment box?)</p>
<p>16. Iron trowel.</p>
<p>17. Bronze lancet (?)</p>
<h3>IV.</h3>
<h4><span class="GutSmall">PERSONAL ORNAMENTS.</span></h4>
<p>1. Hair pins, in great variety; more than 30 specimens
<a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>have been
found made usually of bone; with some of bronze, but these are
much more slender. <i>Pl.</i> 11.</p>
<p>2. Bodkins or needles made of bone.</p>
<p>3. Fibulæ, and buckles in great variety.</p>
<p>4. Bracelets or armlets, and brooch.</p>
<p>5. Bronze studs or buttons, some flat, and others very
convex.</p>
<p>6. Finger rings:—<i>a</i>. silver; <i>b</i>.
yellow bronze; <i>c</i>. bronze, with iron wire; <i>d</i>.
bronze, with open work on one side; <i>e</i>. fragment of one of
wood; <i>f</i>. iron signet ring: device engraved upon a blue
stone, a fawn coming out of a nautilus shell.</p>
<p>7. Combs made of bone, one much ornamented.
<i>Pl.</i> 10, <i>figs.</i> 5, 6.</p>
<p>8. Beads of glass of various sizes, some large to
suspend round the neck, others to string together upon a
thread.</p>
<p>9. Bronze bracelet of twisted work.</p>
<h4>COINS.</h4>
<p>1. Coins found in the present excavations at
Wroxeter.</p>
<p>2. Coins found at Wroxeter, at different times, and
given to the Museum.</p>
<p>3. The coins found with a skeleton in the hypocaust.</p>
<p>4. Coining-mould of baked clay. Julia Domna.</p>
<h4><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
94</span>CINERARY URNS.</h4>
<p>1. Large red earthenware urn, containing human hones
(burnt), inclosed in an outer urn of lead, which was brought from
Wroxeter many years ago.</p>
<p>2. Another Cinerary urn of black pottery, containing
burnt human bones, found in a field adjoining the cemetery, and
outside the town walls. Purchased by the secretary.</p>
<p>3. A large Cinerary urn, found in the recent
excavations, ten inches high, and thirty in circumference, almost
entire, containing bones, but not human.—<i>See pl.</i> 13,
<i>fig.</i> 2.</p>
<p>4. Cinerary urns in red and black pottery of various
sizes, from 4 to 12 inches high. Some contained burnt human
bones and unguent bottles.—(Cemetery.) Many small
flask-shaped bottles were found, some broken, some entire, some
which had evidently been exposed to heat. Oily matter was
detected in one; hence they have been termed unguent
bottles.—(Cemetery.)</p>
<h3>V.<br />
<span class="GutSmall">MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS.</span></h3>
<p><span class="smcap">Medicine Stamp</span>, found at Wroxeter
in 1808, by Mr. Upton; purchased from his family in 1859, by the
late Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P., who presented it to the
Museum.</p>
<p><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
95</span>1. Oyster shells in great number; shells of some
nut found in an oyster shell.</p>
<p>2. Remains of small animals and birds.</p>
<p>3. Nondescript articles in iron, shapeless masses of
lead, innumerable fragments of pottery, bone, &c.</p>
<p>4. Fragments of horn and bone which have been cut with a
saw or other tool.</p>
<p>5. Fragments of bone, which have been turned in a
lathe.</p>
<p>6. Inscribed sepulchral stone with Latin inscription,
partly legible. There has been a statue on the
top.—(Cemetery.)</p>
<p>7. A skiff-shaped vessel in bronze, with round handle,
and a lid which closed with a catch.</p>
<p>8. Several legs of the fighting cock, with very large
natural spurs.</p>
<p>9. Roundels, formed chiefly from the bottoms of
earthenware vessels, perhaps used in some game; others made with
a hole in the centre.</p>
<p>10. Skulls of the dog; one, that of a dog of the mastiff
kind, of an unknown species. Bones of horse, ox, roe, and
red deer, (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>); also fragments of the horn of
a species allied to the elk of Ireland, (<i>Strongylocerus
spelæus</i>.) Very numerous remains of the wild boar,
including bones of the hoof, jaw, and tusks.</p>
<p>Among other bones of the ox are some of a very large kind, now
unknown in this country.</p>
<p><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>Also,
the crania of the <i>Bos longifrons</i>, more than one bearing
evident marks of the fatal blow of the axe on the forehead.</p>
<p>11. Specimens of <i>mended</i> pottery:—1.
Samian ware. 2. Upchurch. 3. Romano-British
pottery.</p>
<p>12. Slabs of stone for grinding or mixing colours,
painters’ pallettes.</p>
<p>13. Specimen of Hepatic iron ore. Ditto of Barytes
or heavy spar.</p>
<p>14. Iron tire of a wheel, 3ft. 3ins. in diameter,
1½ inch in breadth. Two iron hoops, supposed to have
belonged to the nave of the same wheel.</p>
<p>15. Two hoops of another nave, with the wood remaining
between them.</p>
<h3>Human Remains.</h3>
<p>1. <span class="smcap">Parts</span> of three human
skeletons found in the hypocaust <span
class="GutSmall">B</span>. Two of the skulls are almost
entire, and one is broken into fragments. The latter is
remarkable for its great thickness. One of the two former
from its form, is most probably the head of a female, and the
bones of the pelvis of one skeleton are also characteristic of
the female sex. One jaw-bone must have belonged to a very
old person, as not only the teeth but even <a
name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>the sockets
are gone. One hundred and thirty-two coins were found in
the hypocaust with these skeletons. See page <span
class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>.</p>
<p>2. Five human heads, and other parts of human skeletons,
were first dug up in the orchard, near the river. Of these,
<i>four</i> were singularly deformed,—the one eye being in
advance of the other and the face oblique. Ten other skulls
have since been found in the same place, and have been arranged
in the Museum. Of the ten above-mentioned <i>three</i> are
deformed like the others, four are so broken and defective that
their form cannot be ascertained, three are not deformed.
One of the latter is a very large skull, well formed, but with
very strong projecting cheek (<i>malar</i>) bones, and a
projecting occiput.</p>
<p>3. The principal bones of a skeleton (female?) belonging
to one of the skulls, stretched on a board (as well as could be
done <i>on the spot</i>) just as it lay in the ground.</p>
<p>The circumstances under which these skeletons were found are
full of interest. The greater part of them (at least twenty
have been found, but not all in a state to be taken up) were
evidently put into the ground with a certain degree of attention,
that is, <i>buried</i>. They were not thrown heedlessly
into a pit, but carefully deposited at full length, and generally
near together, the legs and arms for the most part extended, or,
as in the <a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
98</span>case above described, one arm lying across the
body. In general, nothing particular has been found near
them, but only the usual contents of the soil, such as stones,
roots, and fragments of pottery. In one instance an iron
ring, in another, some nails were met with, and in a third a
single coin of Claudius Gothicus. But all these might have
occurred accidentally in the neighbourhood of the bodies, in an
old Roman site, and not have been buried with them. No
vestiges of wood derived from coffins, or of apparel, were
discovered. There were no traces of weapons or articles of
domestic use, which were generally buried by the Romans with
their friends, and the place where these remains were found is
within the walls, and could not, therefore, be a Roman
cemetery.</p>
<p>4. In more than one instance, bones of very young
children have been found; but in one instance, alluded to at page
<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, almost
an entire skeleton of a child was found, which has been
preserved, and is in the Museum. This was found outside the
semicircular end of the great hypocaust, where there must have
been a small court. From the smallness of the bones of the
skeleton, and from the circumstance of the teeth being still
contained within the jaw-bone, it may be inferred that this was a
very young infant—perhaps still in arms.</p>
<p>5. A thigh bone has been found, which, having been
fractured, has become united during life.</p>
<p><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>The
most interesting circumstance connected with the human remains
found at Wroxeter, is the large relative proportion of deformed
skulls. Of the nineteen crania found in the orchard and
since deposited in the Museum, eleven are more or less
crooked. It has been supposed, and indeed the opinion is
still entertained by some antiquarians, that this deformity was
<i>congenital</i> and not <i>posthumous</i>, that is to say, that
the persons to whom these skulls belonged lived and died with
deformed heads. And this was my own view before I had
learned that bones are capable of being bent by pressure in the
ground. There can be little doubt that the deformity has
been produced by posthumous pressure, aided by moisture and the
solvent action of certain acids that always exist in vegetable
mould. <a name="citation99a"></a><a href="#footnote99a"
class="citation">[99a]</a> Other instances of a like effect
have been described by Dr. Sherman, <a name="citation99b"></a><a
href="#footnote99b" class="citation">[99b]</a> and, in America,
by the Rev. D. Wilson. <a name="citation99c"></a><a
href="#footnote99c" class="citation">[99c]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: right">H. J.</p>
<h2><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
100</span>APPENDIX.</h2>
<p><span class="smcap">On</span> November the 11th, 1858, at the
General Meeting of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History
and Antiquarian Society, held at the Museum, Shrewsbury, the
President, Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P., proposed that excavations
should be commenced at Wroxeter. He had written to the Duke
of Cleveland, and obtained his Grace’s consent to do
so. He also made the very liberal offer to give fifty
guineas towards the expenses, provided that fifty other gentlemen
could be found willing to subscribe one guinea each. A
Committee was formed, consisting of the following noblemen and
gentlemen to carry on the work:—</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. the Earl of Powis, Powis
Castle</p>
<p class="gutindent">Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., Decker
Hill</p>
<p class="gutindent">R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P., Walford Manor</p>
<p class="gutindent">Rev. B. H. Kennedy, D.D., Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">Rev. E. Egremont, Wroxeter</p>
<p class="gutindent">Rev. R. W. Eyton, Ruyton, Shiffnal</p>
<p class="gutindent">Rev. H. M. Scarth, Bathwick</p>
<p class="gutindent">Samuel Ashdown, Esq., Uppington</p>
<p class="gutindent">W. H. Bayley, Esq., Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">William F. F. Foulkes, Esq., Stanley Place,
Chester</p>
<p class="gutindent">Henry Johnson, Esq., M.D., Hon. Sec.,
Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">George Stanton, Esq., Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">Albert Way, Esq., Worham Manor</p>
<p class="gutindent">Samuel Wood, Esq., Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., Brompton</p>
<p>A Metropolitan Committee has since been thought desirable, and
held its first meeting August 3rd. It consists of the
following distinguished noblemen and gentlemen:—</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. Earl Stanhope, President of
the Royal Society of Antiquaries</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. Viscount Hill, Lord
Lieutenant of Shropshire</p>
<p class="gutindent"><a name="page101"></a><span
class="pagenum">p. 101</span>The Right Hon. Lord Braybrooke</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. Lord Talbot de Malahide</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. Lord Lindsay</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. Lord Newport, M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Right Hon. the Lord Chief Baron</p>
<p class="gutindent">Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Hon. Rowland C. Hill, M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">R. Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">C. Octavius S. Morgan, Esq., M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">H. Danby Seymour, Esq., M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">W. Tite, Esq., M.P.</p>
<p class="gutindent">C. C. Babington, Esq., F.R.S., St.
John’s Coll., Cambridge</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. E. L. Barnwell, General Secretary
of the Cambrian Archæological Association</p>
<p class="gutindent">Sir John P. Boileau, Bart., F.R.S.,
V.P.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. Dr. Bosworth, F.R.S., F.S.A.,
Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. Dr. J. Collingwood Bruce, F.S.A.,
Hon. Sec. of the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne</p>
<p class="gutindent">Talbot Bury, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., A.I.C.E.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Esq., F.R.S.,
F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Robert Chambers, Esq., Edinburgh</p>
<p class="gutindent">Sir James Clarke, Bart., F.R.S.</p>
<p class="gutindent">James Dearden, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">C. Wentworth Dilke, Esq.</p>
<p class="gutindent">J. Hepworth Dixon, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Joseph Durham, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. E. Egremont, Vicar of Wroxeter</p>
<p class="gutindent">F. W. Fairholt, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Augustus Guest, Esq., L.L.D., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">S. Carter Hall, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">J. O. Halliwell, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.S.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. C. H. Hartshorne</p>
<p class="gutindent">Fredk. Hindmarsh, Esq., F.R.G.S., F.G.S.,
Hon. Sec.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. T. Hugo, F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Dr. Henry Johnson, Hon. Sec. of the
Excavation Committee, Shrewsbury</p>
<p class="gutindent">Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A., Liverpool</p>
<p class="gutindent">Sir Roderick I. Murchison, F.R.S.,
&c.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Frederick Ouvry, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">The Rev. H. M. Scarth</p>
<p class="gutindent">Charles Roach Smith, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Vice-Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">W. S. W. Vaux, Esq., F.S.A., President of
the Numismatic Society</p>
<p class="gutindent">Albert Way, Esq., F.S.A.</p>
<p class="gutindent">Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., Treasurer.</p>
<div class="gapspace"> </div>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">J. O.
SANDFORD, PRINTER, SHREWSBURY.</span></p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h2>PLATES.</h2>
<h3>Plate 1: The north side of the Old Wall at Wroxeter</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/fp1b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 1. The north side of the Old Wall at Wroxeter"
title=
"Plate 1. The north side of the Old Wall at Wroxeter"
src="images/fp1s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 2: Wroxeter Church, Shropshire (Vignette)</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/fp2b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 2: Wroxeter Church, Shropshire (Vignette)"
title=
"Plate 2: Wroxeter Church, Shropshire (Vignette)"
src="images/fp2s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 3: First Roman Hypocaust Discovered at Uriconium
1859</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl3b.jpg">
<img alt=
"First Roman Hypocaust Discovered at Uriconium"
title=
"First Roman Hypocaust Discovered at Uriconium"
src="images/pl3s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 4: Roman Tile-Roof, Roman Flag-Roof, Section of Roman
Hypocaust, &c.</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl4b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Figures 1, 2, 3, 4: Roman Tile Roof; Figures 5 and 6: Roman Flag
Roof; Figure 7: Section of Roman Hypocaust"
title=
"Figures 1, 2, 3, 4: Roman Tile Roof; Figures 5 and 6: Roman Flag
Roof; Figure 7: Section of Roman Hypocaust"
src="images/pl4s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 5: Plan of Walls, discovered by the Excavations at
Wroxeter, Salop, from February 3rd to September, 1863.</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl5b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plan of Walls, discovered by the Excavations at Wroxeter, Salop,
from February 3rd to September, 1863"
title=
"Plan of Walls, discovered by the Excavations at Wroxeter, Salop,
from February 3rd to September, 1863"
src="images/pl5s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 6: Column in the garden of W. H. Oatley Esq.,
Wroxeter</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl6b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Column in the garden of W. H. Oatley Esq., Wroxeter"
title=
"Column in the garden of W. H. Oatley Esq., Wroxeter"
src="images/pl6s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 7: Ancient Stone Font in Wroxeter Church</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl7b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 7: Ancient Stone Font in Wroxeter Church"
title=
"Plate 7: Ancient Stone Font in Wroxeter Church"
src="images/pl7s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 8: Capitals found at Uriconium</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl8b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 8: Capitals found at Uriconium"
title=
"Plate 8: Capitals found at Uriconium"
src="images/pl8s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 9: Samian, Upchurch, and Romano-Salopian Pottery</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl9b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 9: Samian, Upchurch, and Romano-Salopian Pottery"
title=
"Plate 9: Samian, Upchurch, and Romano-Salopian Pottery"
src="images/pl9s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 10: Rings and Combs</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl10b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Rings and Combs (actual size)"
title=
"Rings and Combs (actual size)"
src="images/pl10s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 11: Hair Pins &c.</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl11b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Hair Pins &c. (actual size)"
title=
"Hair Pins &c. (actual size)"
src="images/pl11s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 12: Skulls from Wroxeter</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl12b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Skulls from Wroxeter"
title=
"Skulls from Wroxeter"
src="images/pl12s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 13: Roman Remains from Wroxeter</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl13b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 13: Roman Remains from Wroxeter, in the possession of
Samuel Wood, Esq., and Mask,. in the Museum, Shrewsbury"
title=
"Plate 13: Roman Remains from Wroxeter, in the possession of
Samuel Wood, Esq., and Mask,. in the Museum, Shrewsbury"
src="images/pl13s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 14: Upchurch Pottery, Adz, Spear Head, and
Romano-Salopian (Red) Ware</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl14b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Plate 14: Upchurch Pottery, Adz, Spear Head, and Romano-Salopian
(Red) Ware"
title=
"Plate 14: Upchurch Pottery, Adz, Spear Head, and Romano-Salopian
(Red) Ware"
src="images/pl14s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 15: Carved stone fragments from Uriconium, in the
Garden of Edward Stanier, Esq., Wroxeter</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl15b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Carved stone fragments from Uriconium, in the Garden of Edward
Stanier, Esq., Wroxeter"
title=
"Carved stone fragments from Uriconium, in the Garden of Edward
Stanier, Esq., Wroxeter"
src="images/pl15s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<h3>Plate 16: Sepulchral Stone</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/pl16b.jpg">
<img alt=
"Sepulchral Stone from in the Cemetery, Wroxeter"
title=
"Sepulchral Stone from in the Cemetery, Wroxeter"
src="images/pl16s.jpg" />
</a></p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h2>ADVERTISEMENTS. <a name="citation102"></a><a
href="#footnote102" class="citation">[102]</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: center">J. O. SANDFORD.</p>
<div class="gapmediumline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">CARTE DE VISITE ALBUMS.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">PRESENTATION BOOKS.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><span
class='gutoutline'>STATIONARY.</span></p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">North and South Wales Guides.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">TOURISTS CASES.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">SHREWSBURY
AND WROXETER</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES.</p>
<div class="gapmediumline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>25 High-Street,
Shrewsbury</b>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">J. O. SANDFORD.</p>
<div class="gapmediumline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class='gutoutline'>DRAWING
MATERIALS,</span><br />
<span class="GutSmall">COMPRISING</span><br />
WINSOR & NEWTON’S, & ROWNEY’S</p>
<p style="text-align: center">COLOURS,</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">IN CAKES,
TUBES, AND PANS.</span><br />
BRISTOL AND LONDON BOARDS.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">Whatman’s Drawing Papers.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>SKETCH BLOCKS &
BOOKS,</b><br />
<span class="GutSmall">OF VARIOUS SIZES.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">PENCILS & BRUSHES.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">CRAYON PAPERS.</p>
<div class="gapmediumline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>25, High-Street,
Shrewsbury</b>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h3>WATERPROOF TWEED CLOAKS.</h3>
<div class="gapshortdoubleline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">J. E. & W. PHILLIPS,</p>
<p style="text-align: center">TAILORS,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br />
<span class='gutoutline'>HABIT MAKERS,</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">37, HIGH STREET, SHREWSBURY,</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">ARE THE
ORIGINAL MAKERS OF THE</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>WATERPROOF TWEED CLOAKS</b></p>
<p style="text-align: center">FOR LADIES,</p>
<p style="text-align: center">Which they continue to supply of
the same quality<br />
which obtained for them their European reputation.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">GENTLEMEN’S OVER COATS<br />
<span class="GutSmall">OF THE SAME MATERIAL.</span></p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">Patterns of Material, and
directions for Measurement<br />
sent (post free) on application.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h3><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>LION
HOTEL,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">SHREWSBURY.</span></h3>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Nobility, Gentry, and Public of
Shrewsbury and its Vicinity, are respectfully informed that this
old-established and well-known Hotel, has undergone considerable
renovation and change in every department, and that nothing will
be spared to make it the most complete and comfortable Hotel in
the county. An entirely new tariff of charges has been
arranged (including servants’ fees) on the most reasonable
charges.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><i>N.B.—The Lion Omnibus runs
in connection with all the Trains to</i><br />
<i>and from the Railway Station</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">POST HORSES ALWAYS IN READINESS.<br
/>
Weddings, funerals, &c. as usual.<br />
<b>ALL ORDERS FOR POST HORSES,</b><br />
<b>FLYS, &c.</b><br />
<span class="GutSmall">TO BE ADDRESSED TO</span><br />
AUGUSTUS LUCAS, <span class="smcap">Proprietor</span>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><i>Just published</i>, <i>price</i>
1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> <i>cloth</i>; 1<i>s.</i> <i>paper</i>,</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">AN
HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATED</span><br />
<b>Handbook</b><br />
<span class="GutSmall">FOR</span><br />
THE TOWN OF SHREWSBURY:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span
class="GutSmall">BEING</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">A GENERAL
GUIDE TO ITS CHURCHES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, WALKS,</span><br />
<span class="GutSmall">AND OTHER REMARKABLE OBJECTS; TO WHICH IS
ADDED,</span><br />
<span class="GutSmall">EXCURSIONS IN THE VICINITY,</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br
/>
HENRY PIDGEON, ESQ.,<br />
<i>Treasurer of the Corporation of Shrewsbury</i>, <i>Author
of</i> “<i>Memorials of</i><br />
<i>Shrewsbury</i>,” <i>&c.</i> <i>&c.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">SHREWSBURY:
J. O. SANDFORD, HIGH STREET.</span></p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h3><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
104</span>LONDON JEWELLERY<br />
<span class="GutSmall">ESTABLISHMENT,</span><br />
38, HIGH-STREET, SHREWSBURY.</h3>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>J. KENT</b>,<br />
(SUCCESSOR TO J. T. NIGHTINGALE,)<br />
<b>PROPRIETOR</b>.</p>
<div class="gapmediumline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center">KENT’S LONDON AND GENEVA
WATCHES,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">ENGLISH AND FOREIGN</span><br />
<span class='gutoutline'>CLOCKS AND TIMEPIECES,</span></p>
<p>Manufactured to order, expressly for his own sale, by the most
celebrated makers, are warranted to keep accurate time, <i>and
every attention given to them for the first two years free of
charge</i>, unless broken or injured by accident.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">WEDDING AND GUARD RINGS,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">Of 12, 15, 18, & 22 Carat Gold,
</span><span class="GutSmall"><i>Hall-marked</i></span><span
class="GutSmall">.</span><br />
<b>GUARD AND ALBERT CHAINS</b><br />
of the newest London design, and guaranteed as to quality and<br
/>
workmanship.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">HAIR JEWELLERY,</p>
<p>In Brooches, Bracelets, Shawl-pins, Earrings, Lockets,
Necklets, Guard or Albert Chains, Rings, Studs, Sleeve-links,
Scarf-pins, Charms, &c., of the most novel and artistic
designs, made to order, <i>from the hair supplied by the
parties</i>, on the shortest possible notice.</p>
<p>In order to meet the requirement of his increasing connection,
J. K. respectfully announces that, having <i>now on the
premises</i> experienced first-class London Workmen, he can
execute</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><i>Repairs in Jewellery</i>,
<i>Watches</i>, <i>Clocks</i>, <i>Spectacles</i>,<br />
<i>Plated Goods</i>, <i>Cutlery</i>, <i>&c.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">IN A FEW
HOURS.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">J. KENT,<br />
<span class="GutSmall">LATE J. T. NIGHTINGALE,</span><br />
MOURNING JEWELLER, OPTICIAN, &c.<br />
<b>38</b>, <b>HIGH STREET</b>, <b>SHREWSBURY</b>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h3>Shrewsbury & Wroxeter Illustrated.</h3>
<p style="text-align: center"><i>A Series of Views for the
Stereoscope</i>, <i>by</i> F. <span class="smcap">Bedford</span>.
1s. <i>each</i>.</p>
<p>1. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>,
Ireland’s Mansion.</p>
<p>2. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Market
House.</p>
<p>3. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Market
Square.</p>
<p>4. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Statue of
Clive, in the Market Place.</p>
<p>5. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Elizabethan
Houses, in the Market Place.</p>
<p>6. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Cross Keys
Tavern, High Street.</p>
<p>7. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Old House,
Princess Street, Market Place.</p>
<p>8. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>,
Shearman’s Hall, and Old Post Office Inn.</p>
<p>9. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Old Houses, in
the Wyle Cop.</p>
<p>10. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Old Timber
Houses, in the Abbey Foregate.</p>
<p>11. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Gate Way to
Council House, St. Nicholas’ Chapel.</p>
<p>12. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, in the Court
Yard to the Council House.</p>
<p>13. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Royal
Grammar School.</p>
<p>14. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Castle,
Garden Front.</p>
<p>15. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Castle,
from the Entrance Gateway.</p>
<p>16. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the last
remaining Tower of the Old Walls.</p>
<p>17. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, English
Bridge.</p>
<p>18. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Giles’s Church.</p>
<p>19. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Old Church of
St. Giles.</p>
<p>20. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Abbey,
from the South East.</p>
<p>21. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Abbey,
West Front.</p>
<p>22. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Old St.
Chad’s Church.</p>
<p>23. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Mary’s Church, view from South West.</p>
<p>24. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Mary’s Church, South Porch.</p>
<p>25. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Mary’s Church, from the Infirmary.</p>
<p>26. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Julian’s Church, and Spire of St. Alkmond.</p>
<p>27. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Chad’s Church.</p>
<p>28. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Portal to
the Shoemaker’s Arbour, Kingsland.</p>
<p>29. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Lord
Hill’s Column.</p>
<p>30. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Stone
Pulpit.</p>
<p>31. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, St.
Mary’s Watergate.</p>
<p>32. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Ferry and
House of Industry.</p>
<p>33. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, Avenue in the
Quarry.</p>
<p>34. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the Dingle in
the Quarry.</p>
<p>35. <span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, the
Whitehall.</p>
<p>36. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, remains of
Floor in the Baths.</p>
<p>37. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, supposed
Enameller’s Shop.</p>
<p>38. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, Public Baths,
looking West.</p>
<p>39. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, the Old Wall,
and Hypocaust.</p>
<p>40. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, Public Baths,
from the S.W.</p>
<p>41. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, the principal
Hypocaust.</p>
<p>42. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, Public Baths,
looking East.</p>
<p>43. <span class="smcap">Wroxeter</span>, the
Excavations, seen from W.N.W.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><i>Published by CATHERALL &
PRICHARD</i>, <i>Eastgate-row</i>,<br />
<i>Chester</i>, <i>and sold by all dealers in slides</i>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h3>VINCENT CRUMP,</h3>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY SPECIAL
APPOINTMENT</span></p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><p style="text-align: center">Bride, Citron,<br />
and<br />
Desert Cakes.</p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: center">
<a href="images/armsb.jpg">
<img alt=
"Royal coat of Arms"
title=
"Royal coat of Arms"
src="images/armss.jpg" />
</a></p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align: center">Simmels in<br />
the<br />
Season.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p style="text-align: center"><span
class='gutoutline'><b>CONFECTIONER</b></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center">To Her Majesty the Queen,</p>
<p style="text-align: center">WYLE COP AND PRIDE HILL,</p>
<p style="text-align: center">SHREWSBURY.</p>
<div class="gapshortline"> </div>
<p style="text-align: center"><b>ROYAL SHREWSBURY CAKES</b>.</p>
<div class="gapline"> </div>
<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2>
<p><a name="footnote99a"></a><a href="#citation99a"
class="footnote">[99a]</a> See Abstract of Proceedings of
Royal Society, June, 1862.</p>
<p><a name="footnote99b"></a><a href="#citation99b"
class="footnote">[99b]</a> Crania Britannia.</p>
<p><a name="footnote99c"></a><a href="#citation99c"
class="footnote">[99c]</a> Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii. p.
306, &c. &c.</p>
<p><a name="footnote102"></a><a href="#citation102"
class="footnote">[102]</a> In this transcription the
advertisements have been moved to the end of the book. In
the original the first two (J. O. Sandford) come before the
frontispiece. The rest then follow after the Appendix and
come before the Plates with the exception of the last two
(Shrewsbury and Wroxeter Illustrated; Vincent Crump) which came
after the plates.—DP.</p>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 62425 ***</div>
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