Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/147

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ANTIQUITIES FOUND AT WOODPERRY, OXON.
125

and Claudius Gothicus. A second brass of Nero was discovered in the beginning of 1842, in a ploughed field called Upper Stafford Grove[1], near the line of the Roman road, the stones of which, the farmer, with little reverence for antiquity, was then removing. During the continuance of the same operation, and not far from the same spot, scarcely a foot under the surface of the ground, the labourers came upon a human skeleton. It lay parallel to the Roman road, about forty yards from it, and was deposited north and south, the head towards the south, but presented nothing remarkable either in size or otherwise, being that of a person of low stature.

In this part of the subject it should be mentioned, as connected with the neighbourhood, that a silver coin of the gens Plautia was picked up near a footpath, in an adjoining parish, a few months since; and very lately, a third brass of Constantine, not far from the course of the Roman road through Beckley. Holton has afforded many specimens; but the greatest discovery was made at Shotover, upon the estate of G. V. Drury, Esq., in the month of May, 1842, when 560 coins were at once disclosed by the wheel of a waggon breaking the pot in which they had been deposited. They were given up to the proprietor.

The consideration of ecclesiastical remains may not be thought to belong so properly to our pages as to a work dedicated expressly to that subject[2], but having been favoured with the use of the plates, some few notices respecting the objects they represent may not be unacceptable.

Woodperry, now a hamlet of Stanton St. John, as has been already stated, appears originally to have been a distinct, though small, parish. By what means or at what period it became united to its neighbour, is unknown, nor have the records of the diocese of Lincoln, within which it was once comprised, thrown any light upon the point. It is usual to commence topographical inquiries by a reference to the Norman Survey; and a conjecture has been advanced that Woodperry may be found noticed in that record under the designation of PEREGIE, holden by Rogerius of the bishop of Bayeux[3], Waterperry being admitted to be described as PEREIVN. One reason for this idea, and that of but little weight, is, that Peregie occurs immediately after the mention of Fostel or Forest-hill; it may be more to

  1. Mr. Hussey's R. Road, pp. 11, 12.
  2. Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford.
  3. Fol. 156. a.