Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/167

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENX'E. 149 safely concluded in the affirmative, as the upper and lower Salt-way ran from Droitwich towards the extremities of the kingdom, and they are generally admitted to have been British'^, "At the south end of the tunnel of the Wolverhampton, Worcester, and Oxford railway, at Rainbow Hill, close by Worcester, portions of lead and wood, which apparently had formed a little reliquary or chest, were lately found by the excavators in a mass of earth, which fell down into the ex- cavation. This box is said to have lain about eight or ten feet deep in the earth. It measured, taking the largest piece of lead as a guide, twelve inches long, and seven inches broad ; it may, however, be questionable whether the smaller plate of lead was an end piece or a plate at the top of the box. Its length exactly corresponds with the breadth of the largest piece. The box possibly may have been the depository of a heart. The lead is perforated with an immense quantity of nails, by which it was attached to the wooden box, the thickness of which was considerable. A few days after the workmen had brought me the remains of the box, one of them furnished me with a silver coin of Queen Mary, found, as he stated, in the mass of earth which had fallen down with the box : there is, however, no evidence that the box and the coin are of the same age." Repeated enquiries have subsequently been made by Mr. Allies, but without resvdt, in order to ascertain whether any coins or other valuable objects had been found by the workmen in this little chest, and secretly sold. It may deserve notice that the Saxon coins and ornaments discovered in Cuerdale, as also the collection of coins of the Conqueror, found at Bea- worth, Hants, had been deposited in small leaden cists. Several instances might be cited of the interment of a human heart in such a receptacle, in medieval times, and similar sepulchral deposits, of more remote antiquity, have been found in England. A cubical leaden cist, measuring eighteen inches square, was discovered in the parish of Donnington, Sussex, during the formation of the canal between the river Arun and Portsmouth. Within it was found enclosed a glass vessel, containing bones and ashes. Inter- ments of an analogous character have been noticed in the north-western parts of France. PERIOD OF GOTHIC ART. The brass matrix of the curious seal here repre- sented s in the possession of a lady at Darlington, and is supposed to have been found near Pierse- bridge, in the vicinity of that .town. It is a good example of the custom M'hich long prevailed, of adopting as devices on personal seals the instru- ments of the owners' craft. In this particular in- Sec Mr. Hatcher's Observations on the Salt-ways, in his Conuncntary on Richard of Cirencester, p. llCi, and the Introduction to the Beauties of England, p. Gl.