2 WINTERBORNE KINGSTON ROMAN WELL. 



removed when the well was filled up. Its contents consisted of a 

 dark-coloured mould, with a nearly uniform admixture of flints, 

 also a mass of coarse broken pottery and a few sherds of Samian 

 and Forest-ware, glass, iron nails, bronze fibulae, bronze ornaments, 

 pieces of Kimmeridge-shale, a mutilated quern, and a shallow vase 

 of Purbeck marble, also a small, dark-coloured, oval-shaped blood- 

 stone, three-eighths of an inch long and five-eighths broad ; on 

 its polished face the figure of a fly was artistically and faithfully 

 engraved, its wings and legs distended. This very interesting relic 

 unfortunately fell out of the case in which I had deposited it and 

 is irretrievably lost. 



The diameter of the well's mouth was 3 feet 8 inches, which 

 at a depth of 73 feet increased to 4 feet 4 inches, and where the 

 highest water-mark was reached ; the workmen first arrived at water 

 at a depth of 85 feet. Between these two points the well became 

 much enlarged and irregular in shape, through the action of the 

 water as it rose and fell at different periods. From the above it 

 may be inferred that the rainfall upon Kingston Down and the 

 neighbourhood has not materially altered, which is probable, when 

 we consider its close proximity to the sea-coast and, nothing 

 intervening, to deflect the moist Atlantic vapours as they passed 

 over this Roman village. 



The pottery found in the well was fragmentary, the larger 

 portion having no ornamentation, some few are marked with 

 horizontal and crossed lines. The rims usually have a simple out- 

 ward hollow curve ; all the vessels are lathe-turned, many having 

 eyelet holes for suspension. Vessels with similar eyelets are still 

 in use here by the labourers for carrying them to the fields. Only 

 a few pieces of Samian-ware of good quality, fragments of Forest- 

 ware and thin glass, were brought up. 



Among the other objects of interest in the well was a portion of 

 a shallow mortar of Purbeck-marble, 6| inches in diameter and 

 1 J inch deep, with projections at the side. There would have been 

 four of these projections had the mortar been complete ; the portion 

 recovered has two only. There were a few bronze ornaments, 



