ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



fined to this locality. Pottery which is practically identical with it occurs 

 freely on many Romano-British sites, especially in central and eastern 

 England, and is said to be abundant across the sea in Holland and Belgium.' 

 Some of this pottery must have been made at Castor and exported thence. 

 Some perhaps was made elsewhere ; thus Mr. Arthur Evans has noted 

 unfinished specimens of Castor ware in a Roman kiln near Oxford.* In 

 particular the abundance of this ware found in the Low Countries has 

 suggested to several writers that it may have been manufactured there as 

 well as in Britain. We seem even to possess an indication that it was 

 occasionally exported thence to Britain. The well known Colchester 

 vase might well be of foreign fabric. In addition to its hunting scene 

 and bear fight and gladiators' combat, it bears an inscription which 

 mentions the Thirtieth Legion, and appears to imply that the games 

 depicted on its circumference refer to games celebrated in the canton- 

 ments of that legion. That legion was posted on the lower Rhine, and 

 the Colchester vase may have been made in Belgium.^ Such a vase is 

 however an exception. In general our knowledge of many details is 

 still far too slight to justify even a guess how extensively and on how 

 many sites Castor ware was produced. We must be content with saying 

 that it was well known both in Britain and in northern Gaul, and that 

 Castor was beyond question a most important centre of its manufacture.* 

 The Castor ware does not stand alone. In various points it ap- 

 proaches closely to other wares of western Europe. In Britain the dark- 

 coloured ' thumb vases ' made in the New Forest resemble very nearly 

 the ' thumb vases ' of Castor. The New Forest products are harder in 

 texture, more purple or maroon in external colouring and more frequently 

 ornamented with leaf patterns, but they have been neither infrequently nor 

 inexcusably confused with Castor products." On the continent we find 

 a parallel in a group of vases which is indeed not seldom represented 

 in our own island. These vases are small, black-coloured, round-bellied 

 little jars or cups, ornamented in white with foliate patterns and often 

 with Roman inscriptions connected with drinking — misce (mix the bowl), 

 reple (fill up), vitam tibi (your good health). These are sometimes styled 

 Castor ware.' But it does not appear that they have been found in or 

 near the kilns at Castor, and artistically they differ widely from the true 

 Castor ware.^ Indeed it is perhaps by a comparison with this black 

 inscribed ware that we may best learn the nature of our Castor products. 

 The black ware is not only Roman in its inscriptions. Its ornamentation 



' For instance, in the Isle of Walcheren, and at Clemskerke and Breedene near Ostende : see 

 de But's Recutil iTantiquiUs romaines tnuvies dam la Flandre (Gand. 1 808), pi. x. xi. 

 ^ Jrchttokgical Journal, xliv. 349. 

 •* C. Roach Smith, Collect. Antique, iv. pi. ixi. ; Corpus Inscript. Latinarum, vii. 1,335. 



* The same problem arises concerning the ' Upchurch ware.' That was certainly made in Kent 

 and occurs on the opposite continent. It is not clear whether we should suppose export from Britain 

 only or two places of manu&cture. 



* yictoria County Hist, of Hampshire, i. 326-8. 



* As in Archttohpa, Ivii. 103-5. 



' The vessels decorated with white paint, described above (p. 2o8), come nearest them. But these, 

 though made at Castor, do not appear to be true Castor ware, and even they arc less conventionally 

 classical than the black inscribed ware. 



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