186 KIMMERIDGE COAL-MONEY. 



quarter of the village, eight in the central, nine in the mainrditch, 

 two in the main-rampart, five in the outlying quarters, and three 

 uncertain. The fragment of a tablet from Kotherly, fractured 

 unfortunately across the centre, is one of the most interesting of 

 the relics. It is of Kimmeridge shale, and if complete it 

 would have been 12f inches long, 14 inches broad, and 0.54 inch 

 thick. It was found in a cutting, assumed to be the foundation 

 of a square hut in the south quarter : as this was the only in- 

 dication of a square building in Kotherly, it was presum- 

 ably the dwelling of a superior class of resident. There were 

 with it several other objects, including coins of Hadrian and 

 Trajan. After a critical survey of the possible use of the tablet, 

 and comparing it with four others of the same material from the 

 neighbourhood of Jordan Hill, Weymouth, General Pitt-Rivers 

 suggests the possibility of its having been used as a writing tablet ; 

 but the absence of any rim which is usually found in tablets to 

 guard the wax he considered might be an objection. In conclusion 

 General Pitt-Rivers says " for whatever purpose the Kimmeridge 

 shale tablets may have been used, they appear to have been peculiar 

 to this Dorset region." A shallow one-handled saucer, or stand of 

 Kimmeridge shale material, was found at Povington, which appears 

 to be an unfinished lamp-stand, or possibly a lamp. A remarkable 

 and skilfully made cup of Kimmeridge shale was found in a 

 tumulus at Broad Down, near Honiton ; its height 3| inch, and its 

 greatest diameter, which is at the mouth, is three inches. Of cups 

 turned by the lathe Sir John Evans says they had probably been 

 made by the simple instrument known as the pole-lathe, of which he 

 gives the following description : " On the bed of the lathe, which 

 usually consists of two pieces of square wood, nailed to two standards, 

 fixed in the ground, are two wooden heads, both furnished with 

 pointed screws passing through them, to form the centres on which 

 the piece of wood to be turned revolves. This piece of wood is 

 chopped into an approximate cylindrical form and placed between 

 the two centres, and above the lathe is fixed a long elastic pole of 

 wood, to the end of which a cord is attached, connecting it to the 



