138 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol.. U., No. 26. 



occasion the ditch that surrounded the fortified 

 Roman town was laid bare, formed out of the 

 natural bed of a little brook, and in it tliese 

 and mau3' other curious relics were found. 

 These ancient Roman shoes are singalarl}' like 

 modern ones in pattern and mode of fabrica- 

 tion ; and, in consideration of their wonderful 

 state of preservation, they would seem to jus- 

 tifj^ the cobbler's proverb, ' There's nothing 

 like leather-' 



Among the ' medieval remains,' we find 

 figured and described ' a bronze eagle with up- 

 lifted head and open mouth.' The bird, how- 

 ever, strongly resembles one represented in 

 Archaeologia, vol. 46, pi. 17, that was discov- 

 ered in the recent excavations at Silchester in 

 1870. This, the late John Richard Green, in 

 his Making of England, calls " a legionarj' 

 eagle, hidden awa3', as it would seem, in some 

 secret recess, and there buried for ages to tell 

 the pathetic tale of the fall of Silchester." In 

 Horsley's Britannia romana, there is also 

 figured a similar bronze eagle discovered in 

 England. It is true, that the Roman eagles 

 that are delineated upon Trajan's Column and 

 upon the Arch of Constantine are represented 

 with expanded wings, and that Montfau9on 

 and recent writers upon classical antiquitj', 

 copying him, have stated that they were invari- 

 ably made in this manner. All three of these 

 birds, however, have their wings folded, froto 

 which we may infer that the other fashion of 

 representing them may have arisen in part 

 from the exigencies of pictorial art. 



We have an example gi^'en of one of those 

 singular seals, in the shape of a monkey 

 perched upon a cube, made of a peculiar kind 

 of porcelain, and bearing an inscription in an- 

 cient Chinese characters, such as are occasion- 

 allj' found in the bogs in various parts of 

 Ireland. At first they were believed to be of 

 remote antiquit}' ; and it was even supposed 

 that they had been brought into the country' 

 by the Phoenicians, since it was asserted that 

 they are not to be found in China at the present 

 time. But this is not the case, as thej' can 

 now occasionally be procured of the dealers in 

 curiosities in that country-. The inscriptions 

 are engraved in an antique character, now only 

 employed for seals, and known as the ' seal 

 character.' Frequently thej' consist of some 

 poetic quotation hke the one given : ' When the 

 water falls, the rocks appear.' Their presence 

 is undoubtedly due to modern commerce, 

 though not of a very recent period. In this 

 particular they resemble the little Chinese bot- 

 tles used for holding snuff, which are found 

 in ancient Egyptian tombs, one of which is 



preserved in the museum at Alnwick. They 

 are about two inches in height, and have on 

 one side a flower, and on the other an inscrip- 

 tion, which on several specimens reads, • The 

 flower opens ; lo ! another year ! ' This is 

 known to be a (luotation from a poet who 

 lived in the eighth centuiy P.C., and the ob- 

 ject evidently was intended for a New- Year's 

 gift. Instead of proving, as Rosellini sup- 

 posed, the existence of a commerce between 

 the two countries in Pharaonic, or at all events 

 in Ptolemaic times, it is now known that they 

 were brought to Egy |)t in the middle ages by car- 

 avans from western China. They are not of ex- 

 ceeding rarity, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson states 

 that he has seen more than twenty of them, 

 found in the tombs at Thebes and other places, 

 and the writer has half adozen obtained in Cairo. 

 Unquestionably the most pleasing object de- 

 lineated in the volume, and one of the glories 

 of the collection, is the well-known ' Rudge 

 cup.' This is a little bronze vessel, about four 

 inches in diameter and three in height, of a 

 simple bowl shape, and adorned in the most 

 tasteful manner with different colored enamels, 

 in the style called champlevS. In this, the 

 metallic field is cut awaj^ so as to produce cav- 

 ities, in which is inserted the paste that be- 

 comes vitrified upon being subjected to heat. 

 The ornamentation consists of a series of pan- 

 els made up of four squares of various colors, 

 alternating with compartments containing four 

 crescents of different hues, set back to back. 

 The colors are turquoise and dark blue, beauti- 

 fullj' contrasted with a narrow border of pale 

 red, which outlines and separates the several 

 compartments. Around the top ruus an in- 

 scription which is supposed to contain the 

 names of several localities l^'ing along the line 

 of the Roman wall, but which has thus far 

 proved a puzzle to the interpreters. It was 

 found in the year 1725, at a place called 

 Rudge Coppice, near Froxfleld, in Wiltshire, 

 in a well near the site of some Roman ruins. 

 The well was filled with rubbish ; and in it were 

 also found four or five human skeletons, some 

 animal bones, and several coins of the lower 

 empire. It is described as merely ' a remark- 

 able relic of the Roman limes ; ' but this would 

 appear to be a very unmeaning designation, 

 when we call to mind the fact that ' relics ' of 

 this description are never discovered in Italy. 

 It ma}' be worth the while to give a brief 

 account of the more important specimens of 

 ancient champleve enamelling that have come 

 to light in Europe, and to state what is known 

 or surmised in regard to their probable origin 

 and place of fabrication. 



