VOL. XLIX.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. J 7 



CVIIL On a Drawing of two Large Pieces of Lead^ with Roman Inscriptions 

 on theniy found several Years since in Yorkshire. By John ff^ardy LL.D. 

 Rhet. Prof Gresh. and V, P. R. S. 686. 



Some time since a draught of two large pieces of lead, similar to each other, 

 was communicated to this Society by a worthy member, Henry Stuart Stevens, 

 Esq. The account then given of them, which accompanied the draught, was 

 that " they were found in February 1734, a foot and a half under ground, on 

 Hayshaw Moor, belonging to Sir John Ingilby, hart, in the manor of Dacre, 

 near Pateley bridge, in the west riding of Yorkshire. The weight of each piece 

 is 1 cwt. 1 qr. 1 6 lb." The larger inscription, placed on the top, may be thus 

 read in words at length : 



Imperatore Ccesare Domitiano Augusto^ Consule vii. 



And the lesser, on the side : Brigantum. 



Dr. W. apprehends that those pieces of lead were part of the tax, which at 

 that time was paid to the Romans out of the lead-mines in Britain,* and pro- 

 bably cast about the year 80, when Agricola was governor in Britain. And it is 

 observable that the method now made use of in our lead-mines is not much dif- 

 ferent from this. For the metal, while liquid, is cast in an iron mould into large 

 pieces, which from the shape of them are usually called pigs, of nearly the same 

 shape, and on an average nearly the same weight, with that specified in the 

 draught. And they are likewise commonly marked with the initial letters of the 

 name of the smelter, or factor, and sometimes both, before they are sent from 

 the mines. 



CIX. Two Essays addressed to the Rev. James Bradley, D.D., and Astrovi. 

 Reg. By Mr. Charles IValmesley^'f- F.R.S. Dated Rome, Dec. 3, IJbQ. 

 Translated from the Latin, p. 700. 



I have. Rev. Sir, addressed to you 2 little essays, that relate to astronomy ; 

 for as no one is more master of that science than yourself, you can best judge of 



* After this paper was written. Dr. W. found that another draught of those pieces of lead, with a 

 brief account of them, had formerly been communicated to the Society, not long after they were 

 discovered j and published in their Transactions, vol. xli. No. 439. That account differs very little 

 from this, either as to the form, dimensions, and weight of the two pieces of lead ; or the time and 

 place of their discovery. But no attempt is there offered to explain the design for which they were 

 made. — Orig, 



-|- Dr. Charles Walmesley was an English Benedictine monk, and Roman Catholic bishop of Rome, 

 also senior bishop and vicar apostolic of the western district, as well as a doctor of theology in the 

 Sorbonne. He died at Bath in 1797, in the 76th year of his age, and the 41st of his episcopacy. 

 Dr. W. was the last survivor of those eminent mathematicians who were concerned in regulating the 

 chronological style in England, which produced the change of the style in this country in the year 

 1752. Besides this article, and some other ingenious works of a similar kind, in the Phil. Trans , 



VOL. XI. D 



