Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/138

A HISTORY OF RUTLAND Systematic excavations have taken place from time to time, the first discoveries being made by Mr. Christopher Bennett in 1863-6, in two fields on the site of the settlement, one called ' The Wong,' the other known as ' The Black Holmes,' and also in a stone-pit called ' Kirk Hole.' The opening of the last-named pointed to the existence of a cemetery, as the pit contained numerous skeletons and bones [Lc/V. and Rut. N. and Q. iii, 34 ; Proc. Sac. Antlq. (Ser. 2), xix, 192]. Unfortunately in recording the finds from the two fields, the distinction of the sites has not always been clearly observed ; but the following two discoveries were certainly rpide on the settlement site : (1) Three so-called 'fire-places' (probably the remains of a pillared hypocaust), one covered with layers of flat stones. (2) In 1866 a capital of the Corinthian order, measuring 3 ft. 8 in. in diameter, and 9 in. in height, and weighing 6 cwt. The material appears to be a hard shelly oolite, called Clipsham stone ; the column is semicircular, and the capital square with dovetail holes in the back, probably for the purpose of fixing it to a wall. It is described as having serrations appearing to represent the usual acanthus ornament [Le'ic. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 39 ; Leic. and Rut. N. and Q. iii, 34 ; Gent. Mag. 1866, ii, 609 {Ro>n.-Bnt. Rem. , 262) ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xix, 194; Rut. Mag. and Hist. Rec. i, 22, 136]. The font in the church has been described as an inverted Roman capital of similar type, but if Roman at all, it is, like that of VVroxeter in Shropshire (Cranage, Churches of Shrops. pt. vii, 658), an inverted base, and only the upper rim preserves its original form, the lower part of the basin having been re-modelled in the Norman period ; the base of the font is certainly mediaeval. The two baluster-shafts with plain caps and bases, on each side of the . churchyard stile, have also been thought Roman ; ' but they may equally well have been the mid-wall shafts of windows in a late Saxon church. As now placed, they are inverted. The smaller finds include coins, pottery of Gaulish and Castor ware, querns, brooches, pins, rings, keys, styli, and other articles in bronze and bone, a short sword with curved bone handle, knife with bone handle, three steelyards, one of which is illustrated in fig. 4, a hand-mill, iron clamps, and hypocaust tiles. Among them were also a silver spoon, a ring with the letters MISV, and a perfect circular bronze brooch found in 1866, about half an inch in diameter, the centre being inlaid with silver and blue and green enamel in the form of a star. The pottery included an abundance of plain and ornamented Gaulish red ware, and specimens of the local Castor ware with figures of animals (see fig. 2); among the former were pieces of bowls of Form (Dragen- dorff) 37,* with mythological subjects, such as Hercules Bronze and Enamelled Brooch ;„ the garden of the Hesperides, and Mercury, as well as (Market Overton) animals and vine patterns. Among the potters' stamps re- corded are caratilli (Form, DragendorfF, 33 ; see fig. 5), DOVECCi, and qvintim, all Lezoux names of the 2nd century ; servilio ofi and of r . . . (Form, DragendorfF, 18) ; sabiniani (Form, Dragendorff, 32, a German potter) ; also cabian (r), doc, and vxoPiLLi. The coins numbered some three hundred, ranging from Claudius (a.d. 41) to Gratian (a.d. 383), and including two 'third brass' of Carausius (a.d. 287), a coin of Lucius Verus (a.d. 161), and one of Constantine the Great with constantinopolis (a.d. 336). Many of these objects were exhibited at Melton Mowbray in 1865 ; they were for some time in the possession of Mr. Bennett, and some now belong to Mr. Phillips of Oakham, others to < Mr. W. H. Wing and Mr. V. B. Crowther-Beynon of Edith Weston, to whom we are much indebted for photographs and information [Gent. Mag. 1865, ii, 144; 1866, i, 700 ; ii, 609 {Rom.-Brit. Rem. i, 262); Leic. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 39 ; Leic. and Rut. N. and Q. iii, 31-33 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. xix, 192-4 ; Arch. Journ. xxxv, 288 ; Grantham Journ. 4 Oct. 1 899 (T. G. Bennett) ; Oakham Almanack for 1900 (illustrations of pottery, &c.)]. In 1884 excavations of the Black Holmes' site yielded the base of a Roman column, 3 ft. 8 in. across and 9 in. high ; also Roman pottery, including a fragment stamped briccim, and part of a mortarium with ra . . . on the rim ; denarii of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222-35) and Constantius II (a.d. 317-40), and small brass coins of Constans (a.d. 351-4), Magnentius (a.d. 350-3), and Honorius (395-423), with other debris, all about two feet below the surface [Arch. 'Journ. xli, 219]. In 1900 more systematic excavations were conducted on the site of the settlement, in which portions of eight vases, objects of bronze and bone, keys, fibulae, knives, hair-pins, an auriscalpium or ear-pick, fragments of a glass necklace, and the left arm of a bronze statuette ' For Roman shafts of this type compare an example from the Roman fort at Kannstadt in South Germany {Obergermanisch-Raetische Limes Jes Romerreichs, xxiii, pi. v, fig. 32). ' See y.C.H. London, i, ' Romano-British Remains.' 92