by which these tiles were fastened to the rafters generally remained in the holes drilled through their upper angles. Very strong timber must have been needed to carry such a roof, the tiles averaging in weight at least 5 lbs. They measured about a foot in width, and eighteen inches in length. It is remarkable that the Roman builders should have preferred to employ the heavy tilestone of the coal formation which had to be fetched from a distance of at least fifteen miles, instead of that of the lighter Forest-marble beds, which might have been quarried close by, and which has been exclusively used for roofing purposes in the neighbourhood in modern times. The same kind of stone-tile and of the same hexagonal pattern seems to have been employed by them at Uriconium, according to the recent discoveries of Mr. Wright. The roofs were topped by a ridge crest of stone hollowed out, each piece fitting into its neighbour like the modern drain-pipes. Some of these were found entire, and several in fragments. The apex of the gables, as has been said, seems to have been capped by an ornamental pinnacle. At the distance of about sixty yards outside the western boundary of the group of buildings hitherto described, indications of walls induced a search which led to the discovery of the foundations of four or five contiguous chambers, measuring inside about twelve feet by seven; the outer walls of the neighbouring chambers being separated by a narrow interval, or pathway, from 18 inches to two feet wide. Within these inclosures the earth had evidently been disturbed. On digging within the central chamber the workmen came upon an oblong hole excavated in the rock, and containing at the depth of six feet an entire skeleton doubled up, as well as a number of iron nails. This was evidently a grave in which a body had been interred in a wooden coffin that had been at some time broken up. In an adjoining chamber to the north another similar grave was found, in which at the depth of five feet lay a skeleton apparently undisturbed in a direction nearly east and west, the head being to the west. In this grave there were no nails or other indications of a coffin, except that several broad slab-stones, of no great size however, had been placed edge ways on either side of the body. In a third chamber to the south of the two first mentioned, a large flat stone was found at the depth of two feet from the surface of the ground. This proved to be a moiety of the cover of a full-sized stone coffin, or sarcophagus upon which it rested in its proper position; the other half, to which it had been once evidently joined by iron cramps, having been removed. (Pl. iv. fig. 9.) The sarcophagus itself was, however, entire; as was likewise the skeleton of the body it had enclosed, although doubled up beneath the remaining half of the stone lid. The sarcophagus lay N. and S. nearly. It measures externally eight feet in length by three in height and width, and two in internal depth. The thickness of the sides is from five to seven inches. It is quite sound, ringing like a bell on being struck, and is cut out of one solid block of the coarse freestone of the neighbourhood. There is neither inscription nor sculpture upon any part of it. Indeed the rough chisel marks have not been effaced over its whole outer or inner surfaces. It affords, however, as perfect and fine an example of a stone coffin of the Roman Era as any, I believe, that has been discovered in any part of the west of England. In the neighbouring compartment to this the labourers came upon large fragments of what had evidently been the cover of a similar sarcophagus, and this, no doubt, was the site from which, as has been already mentioned, was taken up at the beginning of the century, the stone coffin which gave its name to the field. Indeed this supposition was confirmed by the evidence of a labourer who had at that time worked upon the farm. On the exterior of this last chamber, and in the angle of two walls, which once formed part of another, a heavy squared stone was found lying horizontally at the depth of about two feet, measuring four feet by three, and fifteen inches thick. In the centre of the upper side was a circular cavity fifteen inches in diameter and a foot in depth. (Pl. iv. fig. 10.) It seems probable that this cavity once held a cinerary Urn, and was covered by another stone at top. A few fragments of coarse red earthenware and small pieces of charred bones which were scattered through the earth around, seemed to confirm this conjecture. It had certainly been disturbed. No further discoveries were made in this cemetery. But the above account shews that within the small area of about fifty feet. by twenty, we have here examples of three (if not four) different modes of interment, viz: 1. Two bodies buried at full length within stone sarcophagi fitted with heavy covers, the skeletons lying N. and S. 2. Two buried at full length and lying E. and W. in graves dug five feet deep in the rock, one of them inclosed in a wooden coffin, the other in a sort of cist of separate upright stone slabs. 3. The ashes of one body inclosed in a cinerary Urn within a cavity excavated in a massive stone. Each of these several interments were separately inclosed in a walled chamber. The foundation walls of these different chambers are not parallel to each other; some of them resting at an angle upon those of the neighbouring inclosure; a circumstance which seems to indicate a certain lapse of time between the building of the several tombs. That all are of Roman age, and connected with the inhabitants of the neighbouring building there can be no reason to doubt. Throughout the course of the excavations which uncovered these buildings, and especially in parts where the black colour of the earth indicated spots that had been used for rubbish-pits, there were found a great number of fragments of pottery of various kinds. The black, blue, and brown wares predominated. A certain number were met with of the Durobrivian kind, having raised white scrolls or flowers upon a bluish or brown ground. There were also very many of the fine red or Samian kind. A few of these were of superior quality, and had been embossed with elegant patterns. One large fragment of a flat dish or saucer of Samian ware still shews the rivet-holes by aid of which it had been once mended. Many fragments of glass vessels also, and some of flat glass perhaps used in the windows. From twenty four to thirty coins were met with in different parts of the excavated area; among them was one finely preserved first bronze medal of Trajan, two of Callectus, one of Maxentius, some of Tacitus and Gratianus, very many of Constantine, Constantinus, &c. Two small but elegant bronze fibulas, the pin of one still retaining its elasticity, several bronze rings, two spoons, two or three styli or writing pencils in the same metal, several ivory and bone hair-pins, were also found, as well as a large iron key, chisels, knives, cramps, large headed nails and other iron instruments, a few thin pieces of marble, several of heavy spar, and some polished pebbles which would seem to have been employed for grinding down grain or other substances within the "mortaria" already mentioned. Bones in great number were found of cattle, swine, deer and oxen, with many oyster-shells. There were also nearly a dozen boar's tusks, and of these one very large pair were united in an elegant crescent-shaped ornament by means of a bronze sheath or mounting, upon which were the figures in relief of three animals. (Pl. iv. fig. 11.) The central animal was, from the division of its hoofs, clearly a boar, the one to the left either a wolf or large dog. The third, upon the right tusk of the crescent, was unluckily missing, the rivet which had fastened it to the tusk remaining however, to shew unmistakeably that it had corresponded exactly in position with its counterpart on the opposite tusk. The central portion of the mounting had been double, composed of an inner and an outer case, one fitting into the other, and seemingly fastened there (perhaps also to a leather strap for the purpose of suspension) by two ornamented bronze pins which fitted into holes penetrating both the bronze sheath and the tusk itself. The dimensions of the two tusks are very large. One of them measures nearly nine inches from point to root, round the outer curve. This ornament is of an interesting character, and there is reason to believe that no other similar one is to be met with in any of the collections of Roman Antiquities found in this country, or perhaps even on the continent, I shall proceed to shew, however, that the use of such ornaments was not uncommon among the Romans. It struck me, indeed, on the first examination that it must have been employed to decorate the chest of either a man or horse; and Canon Jackson, to whom I shewed it, having described it to Mr. Akerman, the late indefatigable Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, he was immediately reminded by it of a precisely similar ornament which he possessed himself. He had obtained it as a gift from Mr. Barker, son of our consul at Beyrout, to whom it was presented by an Arab Chieftain who wore it on the front of his horse's chest, as a protection against the evil eye. It is a crescent composed of two boar's tusks, joined by a silver sheath just in the same manner as the Roman one found at Wraxhall, but with the addition of three ornamental disks like coins suspended from it. It was hung by a cord round the horse's neck. (Pl. iv. fig. 12.) On my communicating this remarkable parallel example to Mr. Franks of the British Museum, he recollected being struck by a passage in a classical poet, Calpurnius Siculus, to which he referred me, where a favorite stag is represented as adorned by a crescent ornament of this very kind, made, that is, of boar's tusks. The description, as will be seen, corresponds most accurately with the object. Calpurnius Siculus. Ecloga v. 1. 43. i.e. ......" rutilo-que monilia torque Extrema cervice nitent, ubi pendulus apri "Around his throat the twisted necklace shines, Whence hanging the boar's tusks sit on his breast, But there is more than this. In a note to the edition of Calpurnius Siculus which I consulted, reference is made to another passage from Statius in which a similar ornament is described as attached to a horse's breast. Statius. Book ix. 686. .... "nemorisque notæ sub pectore primo Jactantur niveo lunata monilia dente." "On his front breast is tossed A crescent necklace formed of snowy teeth." In both cases although the word dens (tooth or tusk) is used in the singular number, the ornament must, to produce a crescent form, have been composed of two tusks joined together, as in the example before us. Here then is evidence that two boar's tusks so framed into a crescent were occasionally employed by the Romans as an orna |