DUFFIELD CASTLE. 1 45 



vessels, with overlapping edges, and a grooved spout in front. 



At the bottom of perfect 

 specimens are sharp, an- 

 gular pebbles sticking up, 

 embedded in the ware, 

 and placed there by 

 design, probably for the 

 purpose of triturating vege- 

 Flg- "• table substances. They 



are^ generally of a pale yellow or creamy white paste, resem- 

 bling modern stone-ware. In size they are about four inches 

 deep, and vary in diameter from seven inches to twenty-three. 

 Some of the best specimens found in England came from Lyons, 

 several bearing the stamp of that city. The paste of this fragment 

 seems to be precisely similar to Gaul examples that we have ex- 

 amined, and we have no doubt that it came from there. They 

 were sometimes made of white Broseley clay in England, and 

 quite recently a considerable number of these mortaria, whole and 

 in pieces, have been found at a Roman kiln in Colchester. 



The chief sites where the Romans made pottery in this country, 

 or taught the trade under their supervision to the conquered 

 inhabitants, were at Castor, Northamptonshire, on the Nen ; at 

 Broseley, Salop, on the Severn ; and at Upchurch, Kent, on the 

 Medway. But further investigation proves that there were other 

 localities suitable for the trade, which were thus used by the 

 Romans, those masters of the fictile art. Specimen pieces that 

 experts assign to all the varying known Roman centres of the pot 

 trade, have been identified in the debris from Dufheld castle 

 hill. * 



* On the subject of Roman British Pottery, and early pottery in general, see 

 Llewellynn Jewitt's Ceramic Art; also a good introductory chapter to 

 Chaffer's Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain ; 7th Edition, 1886. 

 But the best book is Birch's History of Ancient Pottery. 



