SEPULCHRAL REMAINS IN BATH. 67 
lt will not be well to bring this notice to a conclusion, 
without mentioning an interesting discovery of a stone 
coffin, or Roman sarcophagus, which was made on the 
24th May, 1853, in London, during excavations for the 
foundation of a warehouse, near Haydon Square, Minories. 
This sepulchral chest, which measures about five feet, 
by two feet one inch, the depth being about three feet, 
is now in the British Museum. The lid, which is 
ridged, is sculptured with foliage, and firmly fastened 
down by iron clamps ; one side of the chest is left plain, 
as if the sarcophagus had been formed to be placed 
against a wall; on the other side, and at the ends, are 
sculptures. When the coffin was opened, a leaden one was 
found within, the lid ornamented with lines of a beaded 
pattern, in relief, and escalop shells at intervals. Within this 
were found the remains of a child, supposed to be about eight 
years old, surrounded by a layer of soft matter, but not 
sufhicient to cover the bones. This was considered to result 
from the decomposition of the body, and presented no 
analogy to the bed of lime noticed in the Ro:nan interments 
at York. 
Leaden coffins of the Roman period are not unfrequent 
in this country; but in no case, it is believed, have they 
been found placed in a receptacle of stone. 
A learned antiquary, who gave an account of this disco- 
very to the Archxological Institute, at one of the monthly 
meetings, to which I am indebted for this information, — 
although I have myself seen and examined the sarcophagus 
—considers that both the stone and lead coffins had been 
used previously. Clamps of iron seem to be peculiar to 
the later Roman period, as is shewn by a rude, unsculptured 
sarcophagus, in the York Museum. The clamping seems, 
in the present case, to have been added at a later period. 
