216 TJie New Forest : its History and its Seenery. 



the coarsest kind, principally pieces of bowls and shallow dishes, 

 and, perhaps, though of a different age, not so unlike as might 

 at first sight be supposed to the 



" Sympuvium Numae, nigrumque catinum, 

 Et Vaticano fragiles de monte patellar." 



These appear to be the only kilns which, perhaps from the 

 unfitness of the clay, were worked in this part of the Forest, 

 and were used only in manufacturing the most necessary utensils 

 in daily life. 



Of far greater extent are the works at Sloden, covering 

 several acres. All that remains of these, too, are, I am sorry 

 to say, mere fragments of a coarse black earthenware. And 

 although I opened the ground at various points, I never could 

 meet with anything perfect. Yet the spot is not without great 

 interest. The character and nature of the south-western slope 

 exactly coincide with Colt Hoare's description of Knook Down 

 and the Stockton Works.* Here are the same irregularities in 

 the ground, the same black mould, the same coarse pottery, the 

 same banks, and mounds, and entrenchments, all indicating 

 the settlement of a Romano-British population. Half-way down 

 the hill, not far from two large mounds marking the sites of 

 kilns, stretch trenches and banks showing the spaces within 

 which, perhaps, the potters' huts stood, or where the cultivated 



* See, too, Mr. Carrington's " Account of a Romano-British Settlement 

 near AVctton, Staffordshire," in Bateman's Ten Yeai-s' Diggings^ pp. 194- 

 200. I have never found any stone floors, but this may be accounted for 

 by the difficulty of procuring paving-stones in the district. The best guide 

 which I know for discovering any ancient settlements is the presence of 

 nettles and duckweed, which, like the American " Jersey-weed," always 

 accompany the footsteps of man. These plants are very conspicuous in the 

 lower parts of Sloden, as also at the Crocule and Island Thorn potteries. 



210 



