The Roman Cemetery of Uriconium. 89 



In the case of people of better rank, the body was burnt 

 on the ground which had been purchased for the sepulchre, but 

 for the poorer people there was a public burning-place, which 

 was called the ustrina, where the process was probably much 

 less expensive, and whence the urn, with the remains (relliquice) 

 of the deceased, was carried to be interred. The tombs of rich 

 families were often large and even splendid edifices, with rooms 

 inside, in the walls of which were small recesses, where the 

 urns were placed. None of the buildings remain at Wroxeter, 

 or, indeed, in any Roman cemetery in our island, but we can 

 hardly doubt that such tombs did exist in the cemetery of 

 Uriconium, and that they were scattered along the side of the 

 Watling Street. At the spot marked A on our plan, the 

 foundations of a small building were met with, which appeared 

 to have consisted of an oblong square, with a rectangular 

 recess behind, but the western portion of it has been destroyed 

 by the process of draining. When opened, ashes and frag- 

 ments of an urn were found in the inclosed space, so that it 

 is not improbable that this may have been a tomb with a room. 

 The inscribed stone already mentioned, which was found not 

 far from this spot, bears evidence, in the appearance of its 

 reverse side and in its form, of having been fixed against a 

 wall, probably over a door; and the other inscribed stones, 

 found in the last century, had probably been placed in similar 

 positions. The urn was perhaps here interred beneath the floor 

 of the room. 



In more than one case in the cemetery of Uriconium, the 

 dead body was certainly burnt on the spot where it was to be 

 buried. At the spot marked in our plan, we found undoubted 

 evidence of cremation in the grave. A square pit had been 

 dug, on the floor of which the funeral pile had been laid. My 

 friend, Mr. Samuel Wood, of Shrewsbury, who was present when 

 this pit was opened, remarked that the remains of the timber 

 of the funeral pile still remained as it had sunk on the floor, 

 the ends of which were unconsumed, and the earth under- 

 neath quite red from burning. Mr. Wood gathered up some 

 fragments of melted glass among the ashes, the remains of 

 some of the small vessels containing aromatics or unguents, 

 which were thrown into the fire ; and, he adds, in a letter on 

 the subject, written at the time of the discovery, " One curious 

 point I noticed, that you could positively tell from which direc- 

 tion the wind was blowing at the time of combustion, as one 

 side of the hole was quite burnt and all the wood ; whereas on 

 the opposite side, the ends of the fuel were there, with the one 

 end only charred. The wind was in the west, or W.S.W. This, 

 of course, is quite unimportant ; but one might venture a guess 

 that it occurred in autumn, when the prevailing wind is from 



