165 



10. A piece of ware made of fine white clay, faced with a 

 dull blue or olive colour, and having on its surface the figure 

 of a hare, with a bordering of detached points, "appliques" 

 in high reHef. The salient points, of the ornament are wiped 

 clear of the colouring, which produces a very good effect. One 

 or two other pieces have a sort of dark copper-coloured facing, 

 and are ornamented by indentations on the surface. These 

 appear to have come from Durobrivse, (Castor in Northampton- 

 shire) where the Eoman works extended over many miles. 



11. The fine foreign ware called "Samian."* A great 

 quantity of this beautiful material occurs in the waste heap ; 

 some of the fragments bearing figures of animals or birds, and 

 some those of Hercules, Venus, and other deities. The mould- 

 ings are almost all of the " egg and tongue " pattern, and some 

 pieces are ornamented with the beautiful pointed honeysuckle 

 leaf, which may almost be called the Roman "trade-mark." Six 

 of the fragments bear potters' names. 



Among the pieces of Samian ware are portions of two 

 Mortaria ; vessels with quartz imbedded in the bottom, to afford 

 a rough surface for triturating or mashing vegetables. They 

 are kitchen utensils, and are ordinarily made of coarse clay. 



I have also a portion of a statuette of Venus Anadyomene, 

 made of pipe-clay, not unlike Parian in appearance. Professor 

 Church identifies it as made in the same mould with one dis- 

 covered at Cirencester. They were manufactured in Gaul. 



These pieces of earthenware make but a dull list on paper ; 

 yet they have a poetry of their own, which refuses to be either 

 numbered or catalogued. Time has done for them, figuratively, 

 just what it effects with the bits of buried window-glass, which 

 the decay of eighteen centuries has covered with silver and gold 

 and all beautiful colours of the rainbow. These Samian vases, 

 these bottles of perfume, were common-place realities to the 

 men and women who lived when they were yet unbroken ; and 



• • Made in several parts of the Continent. Some of the kilns have been 

 discovered in the Vosges. By an amusing affectation, antiquaries usually seem 

 to consider themselves bound to say that the word " jSo»»iiaTi" is inappropriate. 

 They might with as good reason quibble at the term " Chitia" as inapplicable 

 to ware made at Worcester or at Sevres ! 



