PREBENDAL HOUSES AT LITTLE CHESTER. 1 79 



ever, this conjecture must be abandoned as being too hazardous. 

 Then what can the place have been made for ? Is there any 

 known instance of such a constructed mediaeval wine cellar ? It 

 must be of that age judging from the diagonal chiselling of some 

 of tlie stones ; though some of the large stones about the alcove 

 appear much older and may be of Roman origin, and the thought 

 suggests itself, could this have been the burial place of the chief 

 man of the city? and aie these niches in the walls colu7nbaria, 

 in which were deposited tlie cinerary urns ? In Adams' "Roman 

 Antiquities "* there is an engraving of a columbarium discovered 

 in Pompeii, known as the tomb of Noevoleia. It is a square, 

 vaulted chamber, above ground ; it has a solid bench round it, 

 on which urns were placed, and also arched recesses in it for the 

 same purpose, and above, all round the walls, are similar niches 

 to those in the cellar under notice, also containing urns. There 

 are no benches in this cellar, but there are indications of another 

 row of niches having had a place above those now .seen, part of 

 one remaining just in the corner coming down the steps. The 

 stone walls have been higher than they are now, several courses 

 of stone being gone ; so that if this cellar has ever been a com- 

 plete and separate building, the roof would be some feet above 

 the ground, and it may have been vaulted, according to Stukeley's 

 plan of Roman Little Chester, of which an enlarged copy has been 

 lent us by Mr. Keys. This building was within the walls at the 

 side of the road now called Old Chester Road, which runs 

 through the centre of the city down to the edge of the river 

 Derwent, so that it would be quite close to the west wall. 



The burning and burying of the dead was prohibited in Roman 

 cities, and so far no interments that can fairly be called Roman 

 have been found in Little Chester. Probably in such a case as 

 this they would not make any objection to a receptacle for urns, 

 especially since, though burials were forbidden in cities, no objec- 

 tion was made to a street of tombs coming up quite close to the 

 walls. This was so with the Via Latina and the Via Appia, 



* Adams' " Roni.in Antiijuides," p. 420. 



