Archceologia. 391 



to a much later period than has hitherto been supposed. Imme- 

 diately under this bed is another thinner stratum of blue marl or 

 silt, with numerous petrified roots of Equiseta and other fresh- water 

 plants, and among these have been found Saxon and Norman coins, 

 and other objects belonging to those periods. This rests upon a 

 thicker bed of forest bog soil, thickly filled with trees and shrubs, 

 with many stumps of large forest trees, and here and there pros- 

 trate stumps. The animal remains in this bed include the deer, ox, 

 horse, and wild boar, with land and fresh-water shells. The manu- 

 factured objects found in this bed are chiefly Roman, with a few 

 articles, such as a coin, which are undoubtedly Saxon, and in the 

 lower portions a few arrow-heads of flint, stone, and shell. Under 

 this bed we come to one of about the same thickness of blue marl, 

 containing remains of Bos Primigenius, and Megaceros Hiber- 

 nicus, and Cetacea?, but no traces of man's existence, except a few 

 " primeval flints." 



These various successive beds bear evidence to great changes 

 which have taken place in this coast during a known period. 

 During the Roman period, this district, now buried in sand, was 

 covered by thick forests, which ran out far into what is now sea, 

 and corresponded no doubt to the forests of which similar remains 

 are found on the coast of North Wales. Opposite the Dove Point 

 there was a considerable and elevated promontory, on which was a 

 seaport in Roman and Saxon times, and upon Hilbre, or Helbre 

 island, which was then much more extensive than at present, there 

 was another Roman settlement, the site of which was occupied in the 

 middle ages by a small monastic establishment. The objects of 

 antiquity found during the past year on this coast, as enumerated 

 by Mr. Ecroyd Smith, are about half a dozen Roman coins, two of 

 which are of the Emperor Claudius Gothicus and Constantine the 

 Great, and one of the small coins which numismatists call minimi, 

 and which appear to belong to the close of the Roman period ; a 

 Roman brooch of the common harp-shape, and two pins of brooches, 

 all in bronze, and the brooch enamelled. The mediaeval objects 

 are, a silver penny of Edward II., a pin with globular head, a 

 needle two inches long, with the eye in a pointed head, a portion of 

 a radiated thread-winder, part of a triangular needle, five plain and 

 three ornamented studs of straps or belts, all of the mixed metal 

 called in old English latten ; a girdle-hasp of steel, and a portion of 

 a large buckle, a flat ring of iron, and a quantity of fragments of 

 pottery, ranging in date from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. 

 Of later date were a shilling of James I., and several heads of clay 

 pipes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 



Very interesting discoveries have been made of late years near 

 the village of Wetton in Staflbrd shire, close on the limits of Derby- 

 shire, where numerous tumuli were formerly opened by Mr. Samuel 

 Carrington and the late Mr. Bateman ; but more recently much 

 more extensive excavations made by the former gentleman have 

 brought to view the floors and other remains of an extensive assem- 

 blage of residences evidently belonging to the 'Roman period and 

 to people of a low class in society, possibly families connected with 

 the Roman mining operations, as some lead ore were found. The 



