Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/268

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188
PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF

188 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF of the modern manufacture with the ancient ; notwithstanding the very great ditference in appearance that existed between the modern ruby ghiss and the ancient of that early period. It appears useless to copy Early English windows so long as this ditierence between the modern and ancient ruby glass existed. In proof of this, Mr. Winston referred, without making any exception, to the modern windows placed, within the last few- years, in Ely Cathedral. In conclusion, Mr. Winston called attention to a piece of modern ruby glass, made by blowing, in express imitation of some ancient glass of the thirteenth and early part of the fourteenth century, in March last, by Mr. Hartley of Newcastle, at the instigation of Mr. Ward, the glass painter. This was, as Mr. Winston believed, the first instance of such an imitation ; and although the glass produced was not identical with the original model, yet it certainly came nearer to it than any other substitute. The Rev. William Dyke gave the following account of an ancient tumulus near Monmouth. — On the north-west side of Dixton Church, in a field adjoining the turnpike-road, is a mound of rather large dimensions, measuring from north to south 114 feet ; from cast to west, 142 feet ; in circumference, (taken along the middle of the ditch,) 420 feet, and in height from the bottom of the ditch, about 7 feet. In the map in Coxe's History of Monmouthshire it is marked as a camp ; in the town of Monmouth the field in which it stands is known as " the Camp -field," but as " Clapper's" in the map of the estate. The local tradition is that the mound was occupied as a battery by Cromwell, On Aug. 17th, 1849, Mr. Dyke, accompanied by the Rev. William Oakley and the Rev. John Wilson, with the kind permission of Miss Grifiin, the proprietor, and Mr. Humphreys the tenant, commenced an examination by opening a trench, about two-thirds of the height on the south-east side. At about three feet deep they met with fragments of Roman pottery and a small piece of iron. A few inches deeper, on a layer of burnt wood and ashes, in thickness from one to three inches, were found a piece of iron three inches, and an iron stud of one inch in length. The ashes were lying on a rough bed of stones and iron slag, which seemed to have been disposed on the original surface of the ground as a floor of the funeral pile. The pottery was of various thicknesses and degrees of hardness, and exhibited very different applications of art and skill in attempering it. Some pieces were thick, dark, and rough ; some thin, red, and more or less glazed; one glazed piece, of an inch and a quarter wide, and of a greenish hue, has indented edges, and may have formed part of a handle of a vessel. All the pottery is turned in a lathe, and with few exceptions well burnt in the fire ; one small piece is of that bright red ware called " Samian," Following the ashes towards the centre of the mound, on the surface a number of stones set on edge was found, and an opportunity afl^orded of examining the mode of construction. On the ashes lying on the original surface of the soil, the upper surface of what is now the trench was regularly disposed to the thickness of twelve to fifteen inches of red clay, on this was a layer of darker mould about six inches, and above this a keen gravel, making (of the artificially raised soil) six feet in the centre, and three where the excavation connnenccd. Slightly to the west of the centre of the mound the ashes were found to cease ; and as their thickness was greater towards the east, they were traced in that direction for twenty feet from the extreme westerly point of excavation. In this part were found considerable portions of broken pottery, bones of birds, an iron blade three