MINING OPERATIONS OF THE ROMANS. 21 



went. Accorcling to the exact descripticm of this tonib, 

 given by Mr. Octavius Morgan,* it consisted of an outer 

 rectangular Chamber, constructed with large slabs of stone, 

 and containing a ponderous stone coffin. The space, sur- 

 rounding this coffin and intervening between it and the 

 inner sides of the Chamber, was filled with small coal, un- 

 burnt, and rammed down so as to be tight and hard. The 

 inside of the stone coffin was lined with lead, fitting closely 

 all round, soldered at the corners, and covered with a piain 

 oblong sheet of lead. Mr. Morgan concludes, from the 

 locality and the mode of interment, that the man, wliose 

 bones were found in this leaden coffin, was a person of dis- 

 tinction in Venta Silurum. Mr. Roach Smith (1. c.) 

 shows that Roman leaden coffins have been not unfre- 

 quently discovered in Normandy. It seems that the faci- 

 lity of procuring lead at that time induced the wealthy 

 and powerful to use leaden coffins more frequently in Eng- 

 land and the opposite part of Gaul than in other parts of 

 the world. 



The connection appears so obvious between articles of 

 the same class found in the opposite provinces of Britain 

 and Gaul, that no apology appears necessary for intro- 

 dncing here some account of three pigs of Roman lead 

 discovered in France. 



The Abbe Cochet, of Dieppe, to whose kindness I am 

 indebted for this information, states, that a part, probably 

 about half of one, was found in 1840 among the ruins of 

 the theatre at Lillebonne, the ancient Julia Bona, near the 

 mouth of the Seine. This specimen is now preserved in 

 the Museum at Rouen. It weighs 43 kilogrammea, and 5 

 hectogrammes. It is at the widest part, which M. Cochet 

 properly calls the top, 12 centimctres broad by 28 long, so 

 # Arch<tolo<jicnl Journal, XU., 7fi-78. ArcJi<vologia, vol. xxxvi. 



