82 RELICS OF THE ROMAN OCCUPATION, LITTLE CHESTER, DERBY. 



Duffield Road, who has quite a large collection of similar 

 objects, mostly found when the foundations of the Great 

 Northern Railway Company's bridge at Little Chester were 

 laid. A recent visit of Mr. Keys to Little Chester, has led to 

 the probable discovery of the Roman cemetery, across which he 

 intends cutting a trench next Spring. 



The POTTERY must first claim our attention. The beautiful 

 Continental Samian ware, held in the highest repute by the 

 Romans and the most widely diffused of their pottery, is re- 

 presented in these "finds" by about twenty or thirty fragments. 

 Several of these fragments have the usual " festoon and tassel " 

 ornament, one has a draped female figure, another a winged 

 Cupid — all, as usual, in relief But the majority are quite plain, 

 and obviously formed part of bowls and saucer-shaped vessels of 

 graceful form and smooth sealing-wax-like surface. 



A similar number of fragments, apparently of one make, are 

 thin, porous, light in weight, sonorous when struck, dirty white 

 in paste, and with semi-lustrous or waxy-looking surfaces, range- 

 ing in colour from a light ruddy chocolate to black, the tint often 

 varying upon the same piece. Some are quite plain, others 

 "engine-turned," or perhaps better expressed as hatched or 

 milled, several have scroll patterns in relief, not moulded, how- 

 ever, hke those of the Samian, but trailed on in slip, and one 

 has a simple " frill " ornamentation. Many of these fragments 

 belong to covered vessels, or rather boxes, elaborately " engine- 

 turned." Mr. Williams has a large piece of one of the lids; it is 

 slightly conical, about 8 inches in diameter, and was probably 

 surmounted with a knob. No illustration of this class of vessel 

 is given in Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain, but there is 

 one in his Grave Mounds and their Cojitetits (fig. 268). The rest 

 seem to have belonged to tall vase-like vessels, one at least being 

 " indented " — that is, with its ^xAt.'s, pushed in when still plastic, to 

 form undulations or flutings round the body of the vessel. 

 "There is nothing new under the sun "—the writer is informed 

 that a firm of potters not many miles fro.ii this town have a 

 patent for this very process ! 



