CELTIC AND ROMANO-BRITISH HERTFORDSHIRE 



ings, and part of another with a different ornament and a long cylinder-shaped bead ; several 

 bone pins ; greenish window glass ^\ in. thick, the bottom of a brown glass vessel with a bluish- 

 white spiral pattern (PI. xiv, no. 47), and part of a green glass rim. In pottery a Samian 

 mortarium, probably Drag, shape 6 (no. 52) ; some imitation Samian, glazed, with wheel patterns, 

 semicircles and semicircles with radial lines stamped on them, rather like Dech. ii, 327, pi. xiii, 

 and of a late character [one shown in Walters, Cat. of Roman Pottery in Brit. Mus. no. M. 2475] ; 

 the Hp of a pale-red unglazed urn with indentations on it ; pieces of a large red urn about 

 II in. in diameter, with its rim set back for a lid and ornamented with engine-turning, probably 

 an ointment or other pot resembHng that shown by Artis [Durobrivag (1828), pi. xlix, 4] ; 

 part of a lid of an engine-turned vessel with bronze slip and coloured black inside [Walters, 

 Cat. of Roman Pottery in Brit. Mus. no. M. 2733), probably the lid of a vessel similar to the 

 last ; several other pieces in red and black, many painted in red and white [Walters, ibid. 

 no. M. 2593], one on the bottom of a patera (no. 46), some with white slip in foliate and hunting 

 patterns ; a chocolate-coloured thumbed vessel with engine-turning ; a vessel of the same 

 colour decorated with overlapping scales [cf. Ludowici, Romische Topfer in Rheinzabern, 

 ii, 261, fig. 72] ; hght grey ware with lattice-work ; a red frilled incense cup (no. 48), a type 

 supposed to be early ; some flat saucers of grey ware (nos. 50-1) ; three red-grey mortaria after 

 the style of Drag, type 38, with white scroll pattern on the flange (nos. 53-5); and two stone- 

 coloured mortaria, one with a thick and the other with a wide flange just below the lip 

 (nos. 56-7). Two fragments, one red glazed black with a circular mark in the centre, and 

 the other grey and perforated, were probably chess or draughts-men ; the horns of cervus 

 eUphas, boars' tusks, oyster and mussel shells, &c. The coins from this site are not recorded 

 separately from the others, except that ' a barbarous imitation ' was found above the orna- 

 mented pavement, which would seem to show that it was still in existence, if not occupied, 

 at the end of the period, while the pottery is of all dates, though there is nothing very 

 early. The building appears to have fallen into ruins rather than to have been destroyed 

 by violence ; the accumulation of flint and mortar-rubbish from the walls made it difficult 

 to trace even the foundations. But, unless this represents only a small part of a much 

 larger building not yet opened, it can never have been anything but a very small and poor 

 sort of dwelling, planned, however, after the corridor type of house and furnished with 

 ornamental pavements and frescoed walls. It is just possible that it is to be connected with 

 building No. 2, and that both belonged to a very large courtyard type of house ; but if so, 

 it is curious that so Uttle of it has been hitherto found or noticed. [Sir John Evans in Arch. 

 XXXV, 56, extra copies of which, with plan and additional illustrations, were published for 

 private distribution ; notice in MS. Min. Soc. Antiq. xxxvii, 203 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. i), 

 ii, 191, 295 ; Journ. of Arch. Inst, x, 4 ; site marked on the 6-in. O.S. Map, sheet 

 xxxiii, S.E.]. Some of the pottery is in the British Museum. 



(2) The second building, or part of it, was also opened in the same year in the station- 

 master's garden at Boxmoor, north of the railway hne and in the parish of Hemel Hemp- 

 stead. It consisted of a small room with flint walls, plastered inside and coloured red. 

 More of this building could not be traced because it extended beneath the road leading to 

 the station and on the opposite side of it, where the ground had been raised for the railway 

 embankment. Trial trenches were dug on the southern side of the railway Hne, but no 

 trace of any building could be found here. A few yards from the foundation a rubbish pit, 

 14 ft. deep, was opened. Its upper part consisted of a thick black mould, its lower part 

 of a chalky marl with layers of vegetable matter, the bottom 8 ft. being below water-level. 

 It contained (PL xiii, nos. 1-14) a denarius of Nero, rev. salvs (a.d. 54-67) ; a bronze bolt ; five 

 small studs for leather ; part of an armilla ; an iron knife with a hollow shank and some bits 

 of sheet iron ; parts of two handles of light green small glass vessels ; a piece of greenish 

 glass and two light blue ribbed beads ; two bits of Samian bowls. Drag, shape 37, one 

 with a hunting pattern on it (no. 2), a cup 2 in. high of Drag, shape 27 (no. 16) and parts 

 of twenty cups unstamped ; a saucer 6 in. in diam. of Drag, shape 18 (no. 18) ; two bowls 

 with turned-out rims decorated with barbotine, Drag, shape 35 (nos. 15,17), 4 in. and 5 J m. m 

 diameter, and five or six other barbotine vessels and much more Samian ; part of a grey 

 urn, 5 in. diameter, ornamented with panels of rows of dark brown roundels slightly m 

 relief (no. 5), resembhng an Upchurch vase shown in Walters, Cat. of Roman Pottery m 

 Brit. Mus. no. M. 2644 ; pieces of wood and stick ; the sole of a sandal 8 m. long ; a bone 

 pin [Sir John Evans, Arch, xxxiv, 394, with figs. ; xxxv, 56, and more figs, in the privately 

 published copies ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. i), ii, 191]. Some of the pottery is now m the 

 British Museum. . , 



(3) Some burials were dug up in August and September 1837, most appropriately in 

 the burial ground of the Independent chapel. Box Lane, about 50 yds. due west of the hrst 



