Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/268

A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE forest stone, 'joined with admirable mortar ' ; very narrow, without a parapet of any kind, and much overgrown with moss and weeds. Throsby considered that they were undoubtedly Roman [Views of Leu. ii, 519-20]. CROXTON KERRIAL. One or two small Roman coins (bronze) were found here with a British arrow-head, &c., in a field called 'Egypt' [Leic. Arch. Soc. iii, 423]. EASTON MAGNA. Roman pottery was exhibited to the Leicestershire Archaeological Society in 1858, which was thought to come from here [Information from Mr. Freer; Leic. Arch. Soc. i, 176]. EDMONDTHORPE. A great variety of potsherds have been found here, and in the neighbouring villages of Cottesmore and Barrow (Rutland) [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xix, 194]. Between the villages of Edmondthorpe and Teign a hoard of Roman coins was found in 1797, in a square hole formed in the rock, 3 ft. below the surface. The coins were of Marcus Antoninus (B.C. 44-30), Trajan (A.D. 98-117), Constantius (A.D. 291-306), Constantine II (A.D. 317-40), Magnentius (A.D. 350-3), Valentinian (A.D. 364-75), Valens (A.D. 364-78), Gratian (A.D. 375-83) [Gent. Mag. 1797, i, 95]. ELMESTHORPE. A stone coffin with a lid was found near the infirmary, Elmesthope, and is now in the Leicester Museum [Rep. Com. Leic. Mus.}. GLEN PARVA. Several specimens of pottery, including a small Roman mortarium and part of a square flue tile, were found here [Leic. Arch. Soc. iv, 187]. GOADBY. A piece of gold, a gold ring, a fibula, and various coins found in a mound in Goadby Park were exhibited in the temporary museum at Melton Mowbray in 1865. It is also said that numerous coins and human bones have been discovered in the locality [Leic. Arch. Soc. iii, 39]. HALLATON. There are two so-called ' camps ' at Hallaton (post, ' Ancient Earthworks '). ' Castle Hill Camp,' to the west of the village, is a large conical mound, 630 ft. in circumference at the base, 118 ft. in diameter at the top. Evidences of Roman occupation have been found, fragments of cinerary urns and other pottery, crucibles, smelted iron ore, &c., but it has not afforded decided tokens of earlier occupation, though the generally received opinion has been that it was British [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), vii, 317 ; Leic. Arch. Soc. v, 75]. On the Ordnance Survey map it is marked 'Saxon'; a considerable quantity of pottery and other remains, Danish, Saxon, and Norman, have been found [Leic. Arch. Soc. v. 75 ; Hill, History oj Gartree, 284 ; Leic. and. Rutl. N. and Q- ' I 73] < Excavations were made in 1878 without any very striking results being obtained. No traces of building or building material were discovered, no weapons, coins, or human bones [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), vii, 316-21]. There is a smaller rectangular camp, about 1,600 ft., to the west of 'Castle Hill,' which measures 300 ft. by 220 ft. An uninscribed gold coin of early date was found in 1848, about 500 yds. from the place [ante, ' Early Man' ; Arch. Journ. vi, 403 ; Evans, Anct. Brit. Coins, 75-6]. In 1856, on the property of Lord Berners, on a spot where it appears that two ancient roads crossed (indications of these roads can be seen), remains, probably sepulchral, were found. They occupied a space of about 5 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in. There were no indications of a barrow, but they had evidently been inclosed in a wooden cist, and were found encrusted together in a mass, with some bones [Midi. Hist. Coll. ii, 66, 154]. The articles found were : four green glass vessels or lachrymatories, one perfect, the others in fragments ; fragments of a ribbed green glass bowl, and of a long-necked dark blue glass bottle ; several pieces of Samian bowls and paterae of different shapes, without potters' marks, in a much broken condition ; a bronze patella, the only entire vessel found ; portions of a jug with a foliated ornament round the neck; a bronze ladle, and several handles, one representing a youth dancing, and one terminating in a ram's head, like those found at Sheffbrd in Bedfordshire, and at Bartlow and Topesfield in Essex [Arch. Journ. xiii, 409 ; Leic. Arch. Soc. i, 75 ; Brayley, Graphic and Hist. Illustrator, 344 ; Arch, xvi, 24]. There are said to be traces of a Roman encampment on an adjacent hill called ' The Ram's Head,' in the parish of Keythorpe [Arch. Journ. xiii, 409]. HICHAM ON THE HILL. A find was made in 1607 on the Watling Street, which passes through Higham ; a large square stone was lifted, and under it lay two or three silver coins of Trajan (A.D. 98-117), with coins and other relics of a later date. Burton suggests that this was an altar stone, dedicated to Trajan' [Burton, Descr. Leic. 131-2; Thompson, Assoc. Arch. PATELLA OF BRONZE, FOUND AT HALLATON GLASS BOWL, FOUND AT HALLATON BRONZE HANDLE, FOUND AT HALLATON 212