22d KnniERIDGE COAL-MONEY. 



objects of the shale have been found, manifesting in their 

 make an advancement in the mechanical appliances of art, 

 they have always been associated with indubitable proofs of 

 Boman occupancy. 



** I will now detail a few other facts of a different kind bearing 

 on the same point, which are worth recording, I tliink, as 

 additions to our stock. In excavations made on the site of a 

 Roman villa, in the meadows adjacent to the cemetery near 

 Preston, in 1845, were found several slabs of shale 8 inches 

 square and 2 inches thick, with blocks of hard chalk of similar 

 dimensions, which had probably been used in the flooring of 

 some apartment. The resemblance which it bears to wood in 

 its hard compact natui'e, was likely enough to suggest its 

 applicability for the construction of articles of household 

 fui'niture, and we have, I think a proof, of its having been 

 BO applied. 



"In the collection of Charles Hall, Esq. there is a piece of 

 shale about one foot in length, rudely carved Tvdth a leopard's 

 or lion's face, which undoubtedly had formed part of the 

 support of a chair or table. This very interesting relic was 

 found at Frampton, near which place a magnificent Roman 

 pavement had been many years previously discovered. From 

 the Preston Cemetery was obtained a piece of shale, six or 

 eight inches long, having a smooth surface with linear and 

 semicircular markings upon it, evidently drawn with rule and 

 compass, which seemed to be a fragment of some larger piece 

 of ornamented furnitm-e, or cornice. From the same deposi- 

 tory was disinterred a most curious and unique panel or 

 tablet of the shale, (PI. xxiii,) which was found in a grave 

 with a skeleton ; the skeleton lay on its right side, and near 

 the shoulders was placed this tablet ; standing on its surface 

 were found a small cup of black ware with handle, a bowl of 

 blaek ware, and a small dish of Samian ware with the 

 Potter's name; round its outside were placed five other small 

 bowls of Vor.v ^"-o pr>^i an earthen bottle stood near the 



