128 



The water was slowly coming in, and though this was not enough to prevent our 

 going on, yet the workman found, by pushing his rule between the interstices of 

 the steening, that the backing had been drawn by water into the well, so as to 

 leave a space of something like two feet. This filtering in of the soil was the 

 cause evidently of the wet sand of which I spoke ; and I judged from this that 

 we had not yet reached the true bottom of the well. B\it the hazard of the whole 

 thing tumbling in now became so great that it was impossible to proceed. 



At the mouth the well measured 2 feet 4 inches one way, by 2 feet 6 inches 

 another. At 14 feet from the surface the diameter had increased to 3 feet 6 inches, 

 roughly, and then it increased very rapidly, so that at about twenty feet of depth 

 the man working was able to stand under the projecting sides so as not to be seen 

 from the top. Then it narrowed again until, at 3G feet, where we left off, it was 

 only 2 feet 6 inches. I am particular in giving you these details of size in order 

 to convey to you an idea of the strength of the construction, and also for a specific 

 reason which I will mention presently. 



But there was a somewhat remarkable feature in this construction besides 

 its want of uniformity in the enclosed space. At 30 feet from the ground there 

 appeared on the west side of the well a narrow opening in the steening of about 

 9 inches in width. The wall was tied above it by two large stones, apparently 

 rather more dressed than the rest of the stone work, one of 22, and the other of 

 24 inches in length. This opening went on increasing in width and in depth, 

 being carefully steened on the two sides which sloped to meet one another, so that 

 6 feet lower than where we first came upon it— that is when we stopped digging — 

 it was 2 feet 4 inches wide by 2 feet C inches deep ; forming a triangular recess in 

 the side of the well. The bones of \animals found comprised, so Mr. Moore, who 

 examined them, tells me, those of oxen, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, and probably 

 of deer. None of them appeared to be human. 



I am sorry to say that all the remains of pottery that we found were simply 

 fragments. These consisted of a great many small bits of vessels. There was 

 one piece of highly glazed ware, such as I believe is called Samian, the foot of 

 some jar or urn. Of the more common red ware, there were portions of the lips 

 of two urns, in all probability. Cinerary urns, one of which gave a diameter of 7, 

 the other of 45 inches as that of their opening at the mouth. Of the dark 

 coloured, or what is known as the Upchurch ware, there were similar lips, giving 

 respectively, 6, 6| 7, 9J, and 14 inches as the diameters. 



Of stone remains there were only two. One is the segment of a circular 

 stone used as the upper stone of a quern. I have not got the dimensions of this 

 stone, but it is to be seen, as are the few bits of pottery, in our Museum. The 

 other is apparently part of the lower stone of a small hand quern in which an 

 upper one revolved. Besides these we found three pieces of rudely baked and 

 fashioned utensils. These Mr. Clarke vi^as good enough to take with him to the 

 British Museum and show to Mr. Franks there. He was informed by that 

 gentleman that they were portions of such amphorje as the Romans were ac- 

 customed to import oil or wine in from the islands of the Levant. He saw a perfect 

 specimen of one of these jars standing about five feet high. This had come 



