1870.] Archaeology. 387 



dition that this portion of it is haunted still survives in the recol- 

 lections of the rustics, one of whom told Dr. Eolleston that, although 

 he had never seen one himself, ghosts were supposed to be parti- 

 cularly likely to he seen at a single thorn-bush which stood some 

 time back close to the site of these graves. 



Dr. Eolleston is not the first who has devoted his attention to 

 this fruitful spot. Mr. Akerman had, in 1865, furnished an account 

 of excavations in this same locality to the Society of Antiquaries. 



But the present is by far the most complete and exhaustive me- 

 moir yet published, giving, as it does, a careful account of the ex- 

 humation in a more or less complete state of 123 separate individuals, 

 probably the largest number ever yet examined by any one savant 

 from a single locality. The exploration of the ground has resulted 

 in the discovery of Eoman remains in lead coffins, Komano-British 

 remains in ordinary graves, and Anglo-Saxon skeletons having 

 ornaments associated with them belonging to that period, also un- 

 doubted Anglo-Saxon cinerary urns containing half-calcined human 

 bones. Dr. Eolleston has discovered that these numerous interments, 

 representing several separate periods of time, are also placed at dif- 

 ferent levels in the soil, the Anglo-Saxon cinerary urns having been 

 so slightly interred as to have, in one instance, been actually cut 

 by the ploughshare. 



In spite of the ravages of fire, in the cases of cremation, and the 

 all but equally destructive working of the water, containing carbonic 

 and other acids, upon inhumation in ground with the rock (Coral- 

 line Oolite) within an average distance of about a yard from the 

 surface, it has been found possible to identify the sex and age in all 

 but about a sixth of the skeletons, or parts of the skeletons examined. 

 Many skeletons, however, and many urns have been lost to science 

 during the various quarrying operations carried on previously to 

 Mr. Akerman's report in 1865. 



Great numbers of Koman coins have been and still are found 

 by agricultural labourers, when at work, all round this spot ; and 

 also fragments of very many varieties of Eoman pottery. There 

 is much other evidence to show that Eoman civilization had taken 

 firm root in this locality ; for not only have three or four Eoman 

 leaden coffins been found containing human skeletons and coins 

 (of Constantine jr., Yalens, and Gratian, a.d. 383), but about a 

 couple of hundred yards distant from the cemetery, having observed 

 the greater greenness and strength of the crops upon two patches 

 of ground, Mr. William Aldworth, the liberal owner of the soil, 

 permitted the ground to be opened with the result of finding for a 

 depth of ten feet or more, an aggregation of fragments of pottery 

 of the most varied patterns and degrees of fineness mixed up with 

 similarly fragmentary bones of the ox, sheep, pig, and dog, and 

 with other articles, such as a key, a spoon, knives, a bronze ring, a 



