68 Geology of the Shore of the Severn. 



point hf which is called the Dumhle, is a bank composed of a 

 subfluvial forest, being in the thickest part from sixteen to 

 twenty feet in depth below the wall erected to resist the incur- 

 sions of the tide. At the top of this bank of roots, branches, 

 &c., to the depth of a foot below its surface, I have found hazel- 

 nuts in great abundance ; and at the bottom of it, reposing on 

 the blue Has, lie the trunks of large trees, retaining their shape 

 and bark, but easily to be broken asunder, being thoroughly 

 saturated with water. 



The only remains found in the alluvium, near the point 1c, 

 or Bream's Pile, are those of the teeth of horse, deer, ox, and 

 dog, in a mixture of mould and clay, besides the jaw-bones 

 and teeth, with other bones, of deer, stag, ox, and hog, dis- 

 covered amidst ashes*, pottery, &c., and one tooth of deer 

 amidst iron-slag ; these teeth exactly corresponding with others 

 found in the subjacent diluvial gravel. 



From the point A: to m are cliffs of red marl, varying from 

 about twenty to eighty feet in height, against the base of which 

 the tide beats at high water, covering the shore with detached 

 fragments of the cliff. These are again oftentimes buried 



* In one of my walks along the shore of the Severn, near the point k, I was 

 struck with the appearance of layers of ashes on the side of the bank, which had 

 been exposed to view by a late fall of the earth, occasioned by the action of a 

 high tide. On digging down into the bank, from the surface, I came at once 

 upon a sort of burying-place, in which, mixed with ashes, the bones above 

 mentioned, and carbonized wood, were several large iron nails, much corroded, 

 fragments of black and red pottery, and the greater part of an ancient quern, or 

 hand-mill, in gritstone. At about the distance of two miles from this spot, between 

 the points i and k, the bank of the river, for a considerable length, is one con- 

 tinuous line of ashes, cinders, and iron-slag, mixed with fragments of similar 

 pottery. In the adjoining forest of Deane, are many undoubted remains of iron- 

 mines, which are commonly reported to have been worked by the Romans. The 

 antiquity of these is mentioned by Pepys, in his Memoirs, vol. i. p. 157. He is 

 recording a discourse which he held with Commissioner Pett, " most of which," 

 he observes, " was concerning the forest of Deane, and the timber there, and iron- 

 works, with their great antiquity, and the vast heaps of cinders which they find, 

 and are now of great value, being necessary for the working of iron at this day, 

 and without which they cannot work." The spot on the river, where this bed of 

 ashes, &c., is found, is distant about five miles from the parish of Lidney, where 

 are to be seen, in the park of the Right Hon. C. B. Bathurst, the remains of a 

 Roman station, where have been dug up coins of the several Roman emperors, 

 from Augustus to Honorius. In this gentleman's extensive collection of antiqui- 

 ties, discovered there, are fragments of pottery and querns, exactly similar to 

 those found at Awre. Not far from the river, in the same parish of Awre, it may 

 be remarked, are two large barrows, marked nn in the drawing. Under all the 

 circumstances, I am induced to conclude, that Awre was a Roman-British village 

 or settlement, and that the iron-ore, which was dug from the mines, in the neigh- 

 Ijouring forest of Deane, was conveyed to the banks of the Severn, in the parish of 

 Awre, where it was smelted and shipped from thence to Glovemia; the ancient city 

 of Gloucester, ^d to other parts of the country. 



