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"Samian" ware of fine quality, especially interesting as bearing the Christian symbol of the Cross. Of this curious relic, exhibited at this meeting, we are enabled here by his kindness to offer a representation. The ornament is in relief, according to the usual mode of fabrication of this ware; the Cross is en- closed in a circular compartment; it is of the Greek form, with limbs of equal length, each terminating with a kind of gradated ornament, which recalls to mind crosses of the Anglo-Saxon age. (Compare, with respect to this feature, the Cross upon which Canute lays his hand, in the drawing copied by Strutt from the Register of Hyde Abbey).[1] It does not appear that any other example of a Christian symbol had been noticed on "Samian" ware: Mr. Thomas Kent, of Padstow, Cornwall, discovered some years since in the sands near that place, on a site which he considers to have been occupied by a Roman town or village, some curious fragments of fictile ware, marked with Crosses impressed. Roman coins, fibulæ, and other remains were found at the spot. Mr. Kent very kindly sent some of these fragments for comparison with the specimen found at Catterick: they are of a dull red ware, not "Samian," but certainly, as he believes, of the same period. By long exposure to the weather the surface has become decayed, and it is difficult to form any decided conclusion in regard to the ornaments in question, or their claim to be regarded as Christian devices.
The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, Vicar of Bitton, Gloucestershire, presented to the Institute drawings of three bronze torcs, found in 1846, near Heath House, a hamlet in the Moors, in the parish of Wedmore, Somerset, six feet below the surface. They lay all together; a few amber beads strung on a wire, and two celts were found with them. The metal resembles brass, or rather, as Mr. Ellacombe observed, what the old Dutch brass-workers in his neighbourhood call latten. These curious relics are in the possession of Robert Phippen, Esq., of Badgeworth Court. Two of them, of the solid funicular type, closely resemble the torc represented in the Archaeologia, vol. xiv., Pl. 23, both in general form and the hooked fastening; but that specimen, found on the Quantock Hills, Somerset, is considerably larger and more massive, weighing nearly 2 lbs., whereas, the one found near Heath House weighs half a pound, and the other 2 ozs. The third is formed of a flat slip of bronze, simply twisted, like a wreathed riband, and hooked at the extremities. Weight 112oz. This type of bronze torc is not uncommon.
Mr. A. W. Franks exhibited a drawing of a decorative tile, found in the
- ↑ Strutt's Horda, vol. i. pl. 28.
