A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Still more isolated is a discovery made in December, 1839, at 

 Second Alder Carr between Mileham and Longham — a square silver 

 dish, measuring i 5 inches each v/ay and weighing 69 ounces, now pre- 

 served in the British Museum. It is fine, if not quite the finest work, 

 and though only a single piece, is well worthy to be put beside the other 

 silver plate which has been found in Roman Britain (fig. 24). Unfortu- 

 nately the ornament does not give any certain clue to its date, nor can we 

 tell how it came to Mileham, whether lost or stolen. Archaeologists have 

 indeed professed to see some Roman earthworks at Mileham, and one recent 

 writer connects them with other works or supposed works as illustrating 



Fig. 25. Ornament and Inscription on Pewter Dish from Welnev. 



the progress of the Roman conquest of Norfolk. But nothing Roman 

 has ever been found in these earthworks, and there is no real reason to 

 call them Roman. ^ 



A similar but less precious find, is a large pewter dish found in 

 1864, 14 inches below the surface about 200 yards east of the New 

 Bedford river (the Hundredfoot river) near Welney. It is a dish 

 29 inches in diameter and 30 lb. in weight, made of an admixture of 80 

 parts of tin to i8"5 of lead, with a few traces of iron (fig. 25). Round 



^ Archaohgia, xxix. 389 (plate not quite accurate). For the earthworks see Norfolk Archaology, 

 viii. 12 ; Architolo^cal Journal, xlvi. 208, 342. 



310 



