168 Excavation of a Roman Well near Silbury Hill. 
A fragment of the “nether”’ stone of a quern, completely worn 
through, a large double hook of iron (such ag is now used in 
butchers’ shops), together with several pieces of red brick tiles, 
were also found. It may be noted in passing that broken tiles of 
a similar character are to be found freely strewn over the surface of 
the field in which the well is situated. Several large sarsen stones 
and flints were taken out, some of the former no doubt forming the 
steining of the well. One stone in particular had a round hole 
about 1}in. in diameter bored through it, having been worked from 
both sides. This appears to have been used as one of the supports 
for the windlass. 
On the second day we came upon some large sarsen stones, 
weighing several hundredweights each. These greatly retarded 
progress, as they had first to be securely lashed with ropes, and for 
safety the workers in the well had to climb out before the stones 
could be raised. Each stone was in turn hauled to the surface, one 
of them—the largest—requiring the combined efforts of seven men 
and four of the Marlborough College students to land it on terra 
Jirma. Immediately beneath these stones we came upon water, 
and after a short while further progress was found to be impossible. 
Among the principal finds of this day’s work were the second 
bronze coin already mentioned, three massive Romano-British 
pitcher handles, one blade of a species of shears, a small iron stylus 
with its flattened end in good preservation, and the teeth of horse, 
fox, pig, &e. 
On leaving off work the total depth excavated was 193ft., 2ft. of 
which was filled with water. 
On the third day we fixed up a hand-pump with a 2in. suction 
pipe, and, although our first efforts were fairly successful and the 
depth of water was reduced a few inches, it soon began to run in as 
fast as we could pump it out. Finding our efforts in this direction 
useless we gave up pumping, and all our exertions were devoted to 
raising some of the large sarsen stones, which we succeeded in — 
doing. After clearing out a few bucketsfull of loose rubbish, the — 
water remaining about 2ft. deep, we raised some more large stones, 
two of which showed evident signs of having been cut and squared, 
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