Some indication of this crypt had previously been noticed in the appearance of a small doorway in the eastern wall of the church, and of a descent from it. Subsequent investigation has brought to light other vestiges, with the foundations of the Chapel of St. Ursula, forming a kind of transept on the south side; also portions of tile-pavement and details which, on the conclusion of this interesting examination, will be more fully described, with the plan kindly presented to the Institute by Mr. Dyson. The remains of the crypt were considered to be of the Early English period, but fragments of tracery and mouldings found in it, probably the debris of the superstructure (the Lady Chapel), were of a later style.
Antiquities and Works of Art exhibited.
Found near Shefford. Original size. |
Tessera of clay. Original size. |
By the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.—A bronze fibula, of Roman workmanship, with enamel of red and blue colour inlaid on the central boss, A fibula of similar fashion, but varied in the enamelled design, may be seen in Montfaucon, Ant. tome iii. pl. 29. A bronze fibula, of the harp shape, found with Roman remains at Stanford Bury, near Shefford, Bedfordshire, in 1834. An account of the discoveries there made, is given in the Transactions of the Cambridge Society, in a Memoir by Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., p. 20. A curious fibula, formed of one piece of brass wire, 512 inches in length, the elastic spring of the acus being contrived by four convolutions of the wire. It was found at Pirton, Bedfordshire (Ib., p. 21.) Two round white stones, or pellets of vitreous paste, convex at top, the under side flat. Four of a white colour, and one black one were discovered together, with various Roman remains, " Samian" ware, &c., at Stanford Bury, near Shefford. The late Mr. Inskip supposed that they had been used for some game. In a fresco at Pompeii, representing Medea meditating the murder of her children, they appear playing with black and white calculi on a table resembling our draught-board. They may, however, have been used for the abacus or counting-board. The representation here given is of the same size as the original. Also a tessera (?) or round counter, impressed with the letter E, and Roman numerals XII. It is of burnt clay, of a red colour, and well compacted. Numerous round counters of this description have been found in various places, and occasionally with Roman remains. On one found in Northamptonshire, and communicated by the Rev. Abner Brown, of Pytchley, the like initial E appears over the numeral III. There are several in the Museum of the Hon. Richard Neville. Their true age and intention remain to be determined.
With these antiquities were also exhibited two very interesting circular fibula), of the "saucer" form, found by the late Mr. Inskip at Shefford.[1] They have been supposed to belong to the Anglo-Saxon period, and were discovered in an ancient cemetery, in which numerous Anglo-Roman vases and remains were found, but the interments were probably of successive periods of occu-
- ↑ See Memoir by Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., Transactions of the Cambridge Society, p. 12.
