A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE of dots enclosed in triangles. It is of dark ware, about 3! inches high, and in a hole made through the bottom a piece of greenish glass, about the size of a shilling, was inserted before the vessel was fired. Mr. J. M. Kemble drew attention to a similar vessel found on the Elbe near Bardewick, Liineburg, which had had two pieces of green glass, probably of Roman manufacture, let into the bottom and side ; but the nearest parallel in this country is a vase found at Richborough, though in this case the pieces of glass were fixed on, and not in, the body of the vessel. Another skeleton found shortly afterwards in the same field at Kempston had several thin discs of metal about the neck ; but as Roman remains have also been found there, this burial may have belonged to the earlier period. An urn that resembles that just described in having groups of dots enclosed in triangles or chevrons is preserved in the library of Clare Hall, Cambridge. 1 It is said to have been found at Dunstable, and probably contained cremated human remains. Another cinerary urn of remarkable size (see fig.), 2 the ornament on the body of which is not by any means unusual, was found in 1850 near Caesar's Camp, Sandy, not on the Roman site at the foot of the hill, but to one side of it, near the railway bridge. This urn and another 3 were 9 inches high and 3 feet in circumference, and in the same place were found wooden coffins and a (l size)' skeleton, on the chest of which had been placed a shallow vessel of lead, perhaps a chalice. Two such vessels of lead or pewter have in fact been found in what were no doubt the graves of Christian priests near Canterbury and at Reading. 4 From Sandy comes also a well made bronze bowl in the British Museum, but no particulars of its discovery are available. It seems to belong to the earliest Anglo-Saxon period, if not to the close of the Roman occupation, and may be the work of a British craftsman, though a larger specimen was found in the Anglian cemetery at Sleaford, Lincolnshire. 6 It is 9*3 inches in diameter and quite plain, with the edge turned inwards at an angle and slightly thickened, evidently belonging to the same class as several found at Irchester, 8 in the adjoining county of Northampton, and not far from the Bedfordshire border ; also at Stur- mere in the north-west corner of Essex. 7 It has been suggested that they were used for libations or other ceremonial purposes, and their discovery in sets with strainers lends support to the view. It is clear they were never intended for cooking, and examples of this type retain 1 Coll. Antiq. ii. 233, pi. liv. fig. 2. 2 Figured in Proc. Soc. Antiq. ii. 109 ; for the site see Rep. Assoc. Archit. Soc. Beds, 1853, p. 427, and Coll. Antiq. ii. 234. 3 Probably that in the Library at Bedford. A smaller cinerary urn is in the British Museum,
- V.C.H. Berkshire, i. ' Anglo-Saxon Remains.'
r ' Arch. 1. 395. 6 Assoc. Archit. Soc. Northants, 1875, p. 90 ; V.C.H. Northants, i. 239. 7 Arch. xvi. 364, pi. lxix. 184
