11 
or Claybrook. I have been informed by Mr. J. T. Burgess, editor of | 
the Leamington Courier, who has been for some years. industriously 
engaged in exploring the local antiquities of this neighbourhood, that 
in a railway cutting at that place, the workmen passed through an 
ancient burial ground in which the remains of the bodies were found 
like those at Warwick, laid in graves filled with fine sand. There ig 
no doubt that Clayster had been a Roman station, not only from its 
name and history, but likewise from the number of Roman relics found 
there. I should have said before, that similar relics of Roman occupa- 
tion had been found in a railway cutting not far from this Priory 
garden. Several of these relics are deposited in the Warwick Museum. 
There is abundant, evidence that sand had been used in this manner in 
Roman sepulture in many places in England, and that it was brought 
from considerable distances for that purpose. Mr. George Moore, of 
Bath, one of the most distinguished of our provincial geologists, tells 
Mr. Burgess, in a letter lately received from him, that he has found 
fine sand in Roman stone coffins, near Bath, and that from its com- 
position, he has no doubt that it must have been brought from the 
Mendip Hills. My belief, therefore, is that this was a pre-Christian 
burial ground, most probably Roman. I have been strengthened in 
this opinion, since my attention was directed to an old Sandstone 
quarry close by, in which the rock had been cut vertically about 
thirty feet deep. In the exposed face of this escarpment several 
curious excavations may be seen, In some of these I found still 
remaining pieces of burnt bones mixed with ashes and charcoal; 
supporting the idea that the remains of human bodies had been 
deposited in these recesses after cremation. Could this place have 
been the ancient Roman “ Presidium” said to have been at Warwick? 
‘It is undoubtedly the highest and the most commanding position in 
the town, or neighbourhood, and the most eligible for a military camp. 
My sole object in making this communication to the society is simply 
to have a public and local record made of this interesting antiquarian 
discovery. 
*,* Since this paper of Dr. O’Callaghan’s was read, a further exploration of the 
excavations in the quarry have been made, under the superintendance of Mr. Lloyd 
and the Author, and a large quantity of burnt bones, mixed with charred wood and 
ashes, were found. But the most interesting discoveries made on this occasion, were 
the fragments of large earthen vases, which no doubt have been sepulchral. 
