A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



roofing tiles. Within the tomb was the well-preserved skeleton of an adult 

 male. On the right-hand side of the skull were the bones of a bird, and 

 near the right hip the fragments of a small pot with some pieces of burnt 

 matter. The presence of numerous iron nails and some decayed wood 

 indicated that the body had been interred in a coffin. What was possibly 

 the foundation of a similar grave was opened by the writer in the same field 

 in 1893. I* consisted of a layer of ordinary Roman tiles covering about 

 6 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft., about 2 ft. from the surface, upon which lay a number of 

 smaller tiles. Some hypocaust and roofing tiles were also found, together 

 with an iron nail and many bones, none of which, however, appeared to be 

 human. At one end were discovered the nether stones of two Roman 

 querns or hand mills 1 5 in. in diameter, some fragments of pottery, one of 

 which was ornamented with a human mask.*' In digging for the founda- 

 tions of the houses along the east end of King Harry Lane, and in laying 

 out their gardens, numerous cinerary urns (Pl.vii) were discovered on either side 

 of Watling Street, the paving of which was here found. On the opposite side 

 of St. Stephen's Hill several cinerary urns have also been found in St. Stephen's 

 churchyard. In 1848 a Roman grave was discovered in the churchyard 

 containing a greenish glass hexagonal jug or bottle (14 in. high, 9f in. 

 diameter) with reeded handle, used as a cinerary urn and containing calcined 

 bones, a small glass unguentarium (6 in. high), a one-handled jug of ordinary 

 Romano-British ware (6jin. high, \\\x\. diameter), a Samian patera and 

 two pots and an earthenware lamp of ordinary Roman type.'* A skeleton 

 was discovered about 1850 outside the south side of Verulamium and around 

 it were seven pots containing ashes. At the left shoulder was a bronze 

 fibula of open-work design but much corroded." 



With regard to the second group of interments, Mr. Roach Smith in 

 1847 exhibited to the Archaeological Association some drawings of Roman 

 cinerary urns, filled with burnt human bones, in the collection of Mr. George 

 Gwilt, which had been discovered some years previously in a meadow lying 

 ' from one to two furlongs ' from the south-west angle of the nave of the 

 abbey church. Other cinerary urns were discovered about the same time 

 by the Rev. Dr. Nicholson, rector of St. Albans,*' and some of them are 

 now preserved in the Watching Loft in the abbey church. Fragments of 

 Roman pottery have been found in the town of St. Albans, but there is not 

 sufficient evidence to show whether they were associated with burials.*' 



Of the third group of burials a stone coffin, now preserved in 

 St. Michael's Church, was found in 1 8 1 3 at a considerable depth in a field 

 behind Kingsbury Manor House. Within it, besides the skeleton, were 

 three greenish glass vessels of the usual square jug shape with handles, which 

 are now in the possession of the Earl of Verulam.** Not far from this spot 



^3 The objects found are now in the Hertford County Museum, St. Albans. 



8* Pamphlet published by the St. Albans Arch. Soc. On Snme Roman Sepulchral Remains discovered 

 in the Churchyard of Si. Stephen's, near St. Albans (1849), by Mr. H. Bloxam. The vessels are now 

 preserved in the vestry of St. Stephen's Church. 



^^ Arch. Journ. 1850, p. 398. 



8S Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1847), iii, 331 ; Arch, xxxiii, 262. 



"' In Dagnall Street numerous fragments of pottery have been found. In George Street many 

 potsherds and pieces of Roman brick were apparently carried with earth from the Roman site of Venilam to 

 fill up a hollow. 



^ Arch, xvii, 336. 



