A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



among them a good specimen of an indented Castor-ware pot about 7 in. in 

 height, and it is said that some black and white tesserae were found here 

 in 1885. Adjoining the Abbey Meadow in Oxford Street, some distance 

 outside the line of the south wall, a large glass jug was found in 1865 

 covering a deposit of burnt bones. It contained a solution of salts of lime, 

 and its mouth was closed by a leaden cap firmly fixed with hard cement, and 

 a piece of syenite had been placed upon this covering. The vessel was of 

 an unusual hexagonal shape, and had the ordinary handle on one side. A 

 similar glass vessel 88 was found in the grounds of the abbey in 1830. Both 

 vessels are now in the Leicester Museum. 69 In Newarke Street in the same 

 district many burials have been found. In 1840, whilst excavating for the 

 foundations of a warehouse, there was discovered an urn of coarse, dark ware 

 4 in. high and 7 in. diameter, with a crimped border below the rim. 70 

 Later, six skeletons were found, each with a large stone over it, and round 

 the neck of one was a brass chain. Some 2 ft. or 3 ft. below the skeletons, 

 which may have been of a later date, a Roman pot was discovered. Other 

 skeletons and urns have been found, notably a cinerary urn containing bones 

 and ashes, 9 in. high by 10 in. in diameter, covered with a broken tile, under 

 the Drill Hall, 7 ft. from the surface. But what is perhaps of more interest is 

 a series of Roman lead coffins found here and in Millstone Lane at different 

 times. In 1873 tnree f these coffins were discovered just outside the site 

 of the south wall, under 15, Newarke Street, about 7 ft. from the surface. 

 The first was empty, and Mr. C. Roach Smith, who examined it, was 

 doubtful, but probably without sufficient cause, as to its being Roman. 

 Two others discovered later on the same spot contained skeletons, and were 

 associated with fragments of Roman pottery and glass. 71 Other similar 

 coffins are said to have been found on this site at different times, and in July, 

 1899, one was found at the corner of Marble Street in Millstone Lane 

 containing a skeleton and associated with Samian, Castor, and other kinds of 

 Roman pottery and a small brass of Hadrian (A.D. 117 38). 73 These coffins 

 were formed out of a large sheet of lead J in. thick, which was cut to the 

 required shape, and the sides and ends bent up and hammered together, 

 apparently without the use of solder. The lid, which was supported by 

 three iron bars, was bent down over this about 2 in. all round. One coffin 

 at least had been inclosed in a wooden chest. 73 



Burials have been disinterred outside the East Gate, and it has been 

 suggested that there was another Roman cemetery on this site. Skeletons 

 were discovered lying north and south associated with brass fibulae, and an 

 armlet and sword blades which may have been Saxon, though the pottery 

 which was found at the same time was undoubtedly Roman. 74 Some coins 

 were also found, one of which was of the time of Domitian (A.D. 8196). 

 A cinerary urn and other pottery were discovered with a leaden coffin 

 containing a skeleton at Humberstone Gate in 1783." Also urns with 



68 Glass vessels of a similar shape have been found at Barnwell, near Cambridge (now in the Brit. Mus.), 

 and in St. Stephen's Churchyard, St. Albans. 



* Arch. Journ. xxiii, 70 ; AUK. Arch. See. viii, ad ; Leu. Arch. Sac. iii, 1 1 2. 



70 Lite. Arch. Soc. vi, 113. 



71 Ibid, iv, 246 ; Illui. Land. Netct, Ixiii, 326 ; Assoc. Arch. Soc. xii, xli. 



" Leu. Arch. Soc. is, 15, 16. n Ibid. 



" Bickerstaffe, in Nichols, Hist. Leu. i, 5. " Ibid, and i, pt. ii, 619. 



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