A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



which was certainly never intended by the Romans for iron smelting.' 

 More has been recorded about a find made on the other side of the 

 wood, in its south-west corner, called St. John's Wood, close to the 

 Kingscliffe road. Here, in the spring of 1841 (not 1844), were found 

 by accident two headless and legless torsos, the one 29 inches high, the 

 other 32 inches, carved in local Barnack rag, and representing two 

 youths in short tunics, each grasping a whip and obviously forming a 

 pair (fig. 17). With them was discovered a large full-bellied urn of 



Fic. 17. Statues fovnd in Bedford Purlieus, 1844. 



local clay, 30 inches high and twice as much in circumference, which 

 contained human bones, some glass, Samian ware (avitima, metti-m, rvifima) 

 and a characteristic piece of Castor ware ornamented with hunting scenes, 

 partly broken, partly perfect (fig. 18).^ The interpretation of these 

 remains is not easy. The pottery and ashes must however represent 

 a burial, and it is possible that the statues formed flanking figures to 

 some largish funeral monument, which was not discovered, or at least 

 not recognized, in 1841. What precisely they denoted, whether 

 charioteer servants of the dead, I do not know, nor can I discover any 



' Communications to the Spalding Club, 1710-50, printed in Nichols' Bib/. Topogr. Brit. iii. 

 91 ; Artis, Durobrivae, map of Castor and vicinity, 1828. I assume that these two references concern 

 the same remains, though the earlier record is vague about the exact locality. With respect to the iron 

 works see p. 206. 



2 Gentleman"! Magazine (1841), ii. 528 ; Proceedings of Soc. cf Antiquaries, ser. i, i. 151 ; C. Roach 

 Smith, Collectanea Antiqun, iv. 90 (plates of pottery) ; Architohgia, xxxii. 1-13, with plates of statues 

 and pottery ; A. H. Smith, Catalogue of the Sculpture at Woburn Abbey, Nos. 70, 76. The statues are 

 now at Woburn, where, by the kindness of the Duke of Bedford, I have examined them. 



190 



