36 On Roman Remains found at Holbury, near Dean. 
was occupied four days in the month of March in last year, and which 
resulted in the discovery of at least a cart-load of broken pottery, 
the whole of which I have preserved in my parochial museum at 
West Dean. Judging from the number of bases and so on, there 
must have been fragments of more than a thousand separate vessels, 
a fair proportion of entire and uninjured ones being found among 
them. The question at once arose, to what were we to attribute 
this vast collection? The quantity of the debris, the occurrence of 
unbroken amongst the broken vessels, the absence of all accompany- 
ing relics of human habitation, not a single bone, oyster shell, or 
other similar article (with the exception of a few coins and a small 
bronze object, to be hereafter described,) being discovered amongst 
the fragments, seemed to point to a manufactory rather than a 
dwelling. On the other hand, the nature of the soil—a deep bed 
of yellow sand—affording no possible material for the purpose, the 
situation of the spot—upon the edge of an artificial military em- 
bankment—and the fact that all the vessels, whether fragmentary 
or entire, bore marks of long wear and usage, gave conclusive 
evidence, we thought, in favor of another conjecture, that the place 
was the rubbish-hole of a great Roman Camp, and that the presence 
of uninjured vessels amongst the broken ones might be explained, 
perhaps, upon the supposition that they were purposely hidden, upon 
some sudden break-up of the encampment, with a view to their 
possible recovery at a future time. Upon this point, however, as 
upon some others connected with this investigation, I shall be 
‘grateful for such suggestions or corrections as the superior know- 
ledge of any member of our Society may enable him to afford. 
Some of the best specimens of the pottery are before you. They 
are of at least four kinds of clay, ranging from the coarse brown 
unglazed jars used for culinary purposes, to the so-called Samian 
ware; this last, however, as is usually the case, in fragments, and 
with the edges much abraded. Of intermediate kinds, some are of 
a light sand-colour, unglazed, and very porous; others of a harder 
clay not unlike that of which blacking-bottles are made; and others 
again of a more fragile nature, and of a reddish colour. 
The coarser vessels consist chiefly of ollz or jars, used for cooking 
