ON SOMIi DIGGINGS NEAR BRASSINGTON, DERUVSHIRE. II7 



village-site at Wetton, Staffordshire, reported upon by the 

 late Mr. Carrington in "Ten Years' Diggings" (pages 193-203), 

 he makes mention, more than once, of the intermixture of 

 coarse with fine potsherds, and compares the former to British 

 sepulchral pottery. A similar intermixture was found in a well- 

 defined class of Derbyshire-Staffordshire barrows described in that 

 work, and in the " Vestiges." These barrows were of Romano- 

 British origin, usually of earth, their floors ashy, and their 

 interments unprotected deposits of burnt human bones. One 

 peculiarity was the presence of potsherds, placed where they were 

 found S.5 pofs/ierds, and not perfect vessels, as in the older barrows. 

 Many, perhaps most, of these potsherds were hard and wheel-made, 

 and, in one case, Samian ; others coarse and hand-made, but 

 Mr. Bateman unfortunately did not describe their ornamentation. 

 Flint implements and flakes were common, and bronze and iron 

 objects occasionally present. A similar burial and intermixtuie 

 of potsherds were noticed by General Pitt Rivers in several of the 

 Rushmore barrows, particularly in Barrow Pleck, and the shapes 

 and ornamentation of many of the hand-made specimens are strik- 

 ingly like those of Harborough. In the next case, a village site at 

 Smerrill Grange, near Youlgrave ("Vestiges," page 129), no wheel- 

 made ware was found, but "in all places where the soil was 

 removed were found numerous fragments of pottery, animal 

 bones, pieces of sandstone and slate, many of which had been 

 subjected to heat. The pottery is of much firmer texture than 

 the sepulchral vessels of the Britons, and is much coarser than 

 the generality of Roman manufacture, but its antiquity is 

 unquestionable." Again, the shapes and ornamentation are 

 omitted, but the description given might be equally well applied 

 to the Harborough ware ; and Mr. Bateman, presuming that this 

 pottery could not be of Roman date, makes it late British. There 

 is no reason to doubt that all these are Romano-British : Roman 

 influence having almost quite ousted native civilization in the 

 Wiltshire villages, and partially so in the earth-barrows and at 

 Wetton, while Harborough and Smerrill were either so early in 

 date, or remotely situated that this influence was scarcely felt at 



