NORTH t SOUTH 



EAST h WEST 



NATURAL 

 SURTACC 



BASEMENT 

 ROCK 



YELLOW 



SAND 



5 10 



SECTIONS or A CAVITY CONTAINING ROMAN REMAINS, FOUND AT 

 STONE, BUCKS. 



ROMANO-BRITISH BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



pottery [Rtc. of Bucks, iv, 122 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (Ser. 2), ii, 116]. A pit or well 

 was discovered in the field where the County Lunatic Asylum now stands. At a depth of 8 ft. 

 the workmen came to a stratum of hard blue stone, a foot in thickness, through which a circular 

 hole had been made. Im- 

 mediately beneath a chamber 

 was found in which were dis- 

 covered many fragments of 

 cinerary urns made of dark 

 slate-coloured clay, some of 

 which contained human 

 bones, the bones of some 

 large animal, and portions 

 of burnt oak and beech. 

 Through the centre of the 

 chamber the perpendicular 

 shaft was continued for 1 1 ft. 

 to another and thicker stra- 

 tum of rock. Beneath this, 

 again, a second chamber was 

 discovered and cleared out. 

 The contents were similar, 

 with the addition of the skull, 

 teeth, and one horn of an 

 ox, a portion of skin, tanned 

 and preserved by the action 

 of the sulphurous acid of 

 the blue clay below, and 



wood burnt, unburnt and partially consumed, twelve urns of various forms and sizes, two 

 bronze rings, apparently formed for armillat, of the rudest construction, 2j in. in diameter, 

 and a bucket with iron hoops and elects for the handle, which could not be found. About 

 50 yds. north-west of the pit, 2 ft. below the surface, were a double-handled urn, one of smaller 

 size, an urn with a single handle, and a smaller one of dark clay. Thirty yards south-west of 

 the pit were several fragments of urns, 2 ft. below the surface, of the coarsest fabric [Journ. 

 Brit. Arch. Assoc. xx, 276-7 ; Arch, xxxiv, 26 ; xlvi, 447 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. ii, 101 ; Arch. 

 Journ. viii, 95]. Near the same spot were two coins in middle brass of Domitian (A.D. 81-96) 

 (reverse, fig. of Spes) and Vespasian (A.D. 70-9) (reverse, altar between letters S.C.). 

 STONY STRATFORD. A Roman villa has been discovered in the parish of Paulerspury near Stony 

 Stratford, close to the course ofWatling Street. In 1850 it was recorded that 'a fine tessellated 

 pavement is already cleared ' \lllm. Land. News, 1850, i, 214]. It has perhaps been sufficiently 

 proved that Towcester, and not Stony Stratford, occupies the site of Lactodurum, though the 

 opinion hitherto held by the majority of antiquaries was that the latter marked the site of the 

 Roman town. An urn found in 1835 was exhibited in the Loan Exhibition at Aylesbury, 

 1905. In 1789 Roman silver plates and other articles in silver and brass were found in an 

 urn at Windmill Field near Stony Stratford [MS. Min. Soc. Antiq. xxxiii, 306, June 1813]. 

 Lysons describes them in the MS. Minutes as ' a considerable number of plates of silver, of a base 

 quality in form of leaves, much resembling those at Barkway, together with many other articles 

 of silver and brass of various shapes,' and suggests that they were parts of Roman military 

 standards. Lysons states that the following inscription is on one of the silver plates, which, 

 though very slightly cut, may be read thus : 



DEO IOVI ET VOLGA 



VASSINVS 



CVM VELLINT 



ME CONSACRATVM 



CONSERVAAE PRO 



MISI DENARIOS SEX 



PRO VOTO 



The remainder of the last line is obliterated except the final three letters, which seem to be 

 LIT. Drawings, together with the most remarkable of the antiquities, were exhibited to the 

 Society of Antiquaries. The originals are now in the British Museum and have been copied 

 by Prof. Hubncr (Corp. Inter. Lot. vii, Nos. 80, 81, 82). Lysons mentions a thin piece of 

 brass worked in a conical form with several appendages of the same metal fastened to it with 



II 



