the following account of the relics and coins found amongst the debris of the Hadstock villa.
Of fictilia, the customary assemblage of fragments of the various kinds of ware, "Samian," and Romano-British, were disinterred; two urns were found in a perfect state; they were ollæ of dark-coloured ware, and of forms frequently occurring amongst remains of the Roman period. One fragment of the finer ware bore the potter's impress,—ROPPVS. FE. In the list of marks occurring on "Samian" ware found on the site of the Royal Exchange, London, and now preserved in the Museum of the Corporation of London, as described by Mr. Thompson in his interesting "Descriptive Catalogue," two specimens are noticed, marked—ROIPVS F. and there is also this impress—of RO . . .[1] The reading Roipus may possibly be attributed to the stamp being indistinctly impressed. Mr. Roach Smith, in his "Collectanea Antiqua," has given—ROPPVS. FE. from Samian discovered in London, as on the fragment at Hadstock. He gives likewise ROPVSI FE.[2]
Several flue-tiles were found, some having square, and others circular apertures at the sides for the diffusion of heat. Examples with the circular perforation have been noticed, found at Kaer Sws, co. Montgomery,[3] and amongst Roman remains in East Cheap, London, decribed by the late Mr. Kempe.[4] In the last instance there are two such lateral apertures on each of the opposite sides of the tile.
Of objects formed of metal may be enumerated,—a plain bronze ring, a portion of a chain, a pair of tweezers, or rolsellæ, with a ring passed through the end of them, probably for the attachment of some other little implements, as in another pair, in Mr. Neville's museum, found at Chesterford, the same purpose is effected by a loop of small wire. (See woodcuts given in the Journal, vol. v., p. 236.) There was also found a bronze key, and a large bronze buckle, which, although discovered so nearly connected with relics of Roman times, may be of questionable date.
Of iron, the only objects deserving of mention are a
- ↑ Descriptive Catalogue of Antiquities found in the Excavations at the New Royal Exchange, preserved in the Museum of the Corporation of London. With Introductory Observations by William Tite, Esq., F.S.A. 8vo. Lond., 1848.
- ↑ Collectanea Antiqua, Vol. I., p. 154. 1848.
- ↑ Camden's Brit. ed. Gough, 1804, Vol. III., pl. ix., p. 164.
- ↑ Archaeologia, Vol. XXIV., pl. xlv.
