PREBENDAL HOUSES AT LITTLE CHESTER. 1 75 



pared the drawings with others to which we have access, we tliink 

 there is no doubt about the Roman origin of the walls, and we 

 are confirmed in this opinion by Dr. Cox, who has recently 

 examined them. Whether this can be one of the " vaults " men- 

 tioned by Dr. Stukeley, we are unable to assert ; but it appears to 

 be the same house of which he states that " Mr. Ford's cellar is 

 built on a side of the wall, which is three yards thick." The east 

 wall of this house, now Mr. Dickens', does rest on the part shown 

 in Fig. 2. It will be seen, however, that all the walls of the 

 cellar are partly of concrete, so that it must have been a room of 

 some kind. Dr. Stukeley says the station, as traced by him in 

 1 72 1, was square, and that he saw some vaults along the side of 

 the wall.* That a Roman residence of importance stood on this 

 site is certain, from the fragments of very choice pottery dis- 

 covered in 1888 during the excavation of the ground necessary in 

 building a grains tank, and which were in possession of Mr. J. 

 Keys.t A great number of coins have been found at different 

 times, ranging in date between the years a.d. 14 to 318, and when 

 the Great Northern Railway, or one of the roads in Strutt's Park 

 was made, we saw several brass coins in possession of a man, and 

 on questioning him, were told that a man had found a lot in a pot 

 which also contained a parchment on which was writing. "But 

 yer know, sir, it wer that kind er riting nobory on earth cud read 

 so hey chucked it i't fire an' burnt it ! " The coins he had were 

 filed quite bright, so that nothing could be made out. Doubtless 

 a good many things of value to the antiquary have in like manner 

 been "chucked," but there is much yet that would reward 

 intelligent search. :{: If the Manor Farm stands on the site 

 or near to a temple, as Dr. Stukeley conjectured, that may 



* Pilkington, Vol. II., pp. 199 and 200. 



t See Vols. X. and XL, pp. 159 and 81, of this Journal, in which notices 

 appear of pottery, &c., found by Messrs. S. Haslam and Keys. Some of these 

 fragments are of the finest quality and design. 



J See Volume VII., pp. 76-7, for an interesting account of Finds by the 

 late Rev. S. B. Brasher, in the vicarage garden ; one of the walls must have 

 been nearly parallel with it, but some distance further north according to 

 Stukeley's plan. 



