Archceologia, 225 



Prebendary Scartli thinks may have been the basement of an elevated 

 part of the building, such as we find preserved in the wall-paintings 

 preserved at Pompeii, and which appears to have consisted usually 

 of a square turret, from which the whole of the farm-buildings could 

 be over-looked. This arrangement, he adds, is followed to the 

 present day in Italian villas, and we find the same in mediaeval 

 buildings, as at the abbot's house at Wenlock, Salop, and in the 

 Deanery at Wells. The usual relics found on the sites of Roman 

 buildings were met with in abundance, such as tiles, roofing slates, 

 fragments of frescoes from the walls, and a portion of the leg of a 

 small marble statue ; as well as abundance of pottery, including 

 Samian ware ; good specimens of glass ; bones of animals, and tips 

 of the antlers of deer, some bearing marks of the cutting tool, and 

 bone hair-pins, and other small objects. As usual, oyster-shells 

 were found scattered about. The coins, which were all of copper, 

 with the exception of one silver one, were numerous, and ranged 

 from a.d. 270 to 455, the latter a very late date for a Roman coin 

 found in Britain, and Mr. Scarth thinks that we may conclude from 

 it that the villa " was occupied by a Romano-British master till the 

 time of the Saxon conquest, when it shared the fate of the many 

 Roman villas which once stood around Bath." This villa, he con- 

 siders, from the appearance of the remains, to have formed a plain 

 oblong, similar to that found at North Wraxall. Remarks were 

 made by several of those present at the meeting, chiefly on questions 

 relating to the cultivation of gardens by the Romans in Britain, and 

 on the use of window-glass. Now, however, so many examples of 

 window-glass, thick and thin, have been found on Roman sites in 

 this island, that there can be no doubt whatever of its having been 

 in use here in Roman times. The cromlech, too, was a singular 

 object to find in this juxta-position with a Roman villa, and caused 

 considerable surprise. One of the speakers suggested that it was 

 the dog-kennel of the house. 



Much has been heard of late of the forgery of antiquities, and 

 especially of Forged Flint Implements, for which East Yorkshire has 

 become rather notorious. Some interest has just now been excited 

 by the circumstance that the principal, if not sole author of these 

 forgeries, whose name was Edward Simpson, of Sleights, near 

 Whitby, but who was better known by the nickname of " Flint 

 Jack," and sometimes by that of " Cockney Bill," has just been con- 

 victed of theft at Bedford, and is now confined in Bedford gaol for 

 twelve months. Forgery of this kind is, of course, closety allied to 

 dishonesty of all other kinds. In a recent number of the Malton 

 Messenger, the history of this man's career appears to be traced still 

 farther back, and Simpson appears not to have been -his original 

 name, but he is stated to have been first known as Jerry Taylor, 

 and to have been a small farmer, residing at Billery Dale, the scene 

 of his earlier forgeries, which he had been in the habit of carrying 

 to Whitby for sale, for some years previous to 1855. He also took to 

 forging British urns, and so cleverly, that many people were deceived. 

 We are told that, under his name of Cockney Bill, he one day sold 

 some urns to a gentleman at Bridlington, one of which fell out of 

 VOL. XI. NO. III. Q 



