BY THE EEY. DR. HOOPPELL. 127 



side of the water of Tyne, near South Shields, in the territory 

 which now belongs to the Prior of Durham." See the Collec- 

 tanea, Vol. II., pp. 370, 371 ; also pp. 396, 397. 



With these ancient testimonies agree more modern ones. 

 !N'early two hundred years ago a very large and handsome Eoman 

 altar was discovered at the ' ' Lawe, ' ' which created great inte- 

 rest at the time. It was the subject of a communication laid 

 before the Eoyal Society in 1682 by Dr. Lister, who had by 

 great exertions obtained possession of it. It was figured and 

 described in Gibson's Camden. Its history is told in other works 

 of the early part of the last century. Por a long time afterwards 

 it was lost, but Professor Hiibner found it again at Oxford, and 

 at the expense of J. C. Stevenson, Esq., M.P., it has been beauti- 

 fully figured in Dr. Bruce's noble work, the ''Lapidarium Sep- 

 tentrionale." Another altar was found subsequent to this one, 

 and very many Eoman coins have been picked up by women and 

 others working in the fields from time to time ; one, as particu- 

 larly interesting, I may specify, a first brass of the Emperor An- 

 toninus, with inscriptions in Greek characters, — AYTK. M. 

 AYP. ANTONEINO^. B., on the obverse, and E^E^ION. A. 

 NEOKOPON, on the reverse.^' 



When the new streets began to be made by the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners several gentlemen resident in South Shields, to 

 whom the past history of the Lawe was more or less fully known, 

 watched with lively interest the progress of the workmen. Their 

 vigilance was rewarded. In the course of the excavations ne- 

 cessary to make Baring Street, numerous pieces of Samian ware 

 were turned up, (near b, on the General Plan, Plate V., and at 

 many other points) ; some of these were beautifully figured, and 

 others had potters' marks plainly legible upon them. Then a 

 paved road was come to, (near c, c, Plate Y.), the road I believe 

 from Menevia to Tince Ostia, and close beside it a striking sculp- 

 tured stone, which was conjectured with great probability to 



* This extremely interesting coin, after boin^ in tl>c possession of Mr. George Nichol- 

 son for some years, was presented by that gentleman to the Museum of (ho Free LiL)rary, 

 South Shields. 



