By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 223 



give a satisfactory delineation of it. It was discovered in a meadow 

 adjoining Marlborough, called St. Margaret's Mead, which is situ- 

 ate just beyond the first milestone on the road leading to London. 

 According to the original drawing presented to me by Mr. Francis, 

 and drawn upon a scale of three inches to one, the vessel must have 

 been two feet in breadth, and twenty-one inches in height. It was 

 formed of substantial oak wood, 1 bound with iron hoops, had two 

 handles of the same, and a hollow bar of iron was placed across the 

 mouth of the vessel, and affixed to the two square upright pieces 

 projecting from the circle. It was plated with thin brass, 2 and 

 ornamented with embossed representations of grotesque human 

 heads and animals. The deposit of human burnt bones which it 

 contained proved it to have been originally destined to sepulchral 

 purposes, but I am at a loss even to conjecture the period to which 

 it ought to be attributed. The labourers employed in digging 

 gravel for the roads in this mead frequently meet with coins, 

 pottery, animal bones, &c, which indicate its having been known 

 to the Romans. To Mr. Francis I am indebted for a beautiful 

 little cup of bronze-coloured pottery, with six indentures on it 3 3 

 and in the collection of the same gentleman I observed many coins 

 of the lower Empire and some fragments of the fine red-glazed, 

 (Samian,) pottery." 



The following letter, hitherto unpublished (now in the possession 

 of the Society), contains further information on the subject:— 



" Mildenhall, May 21st, 1812. 

 " I should have been much mortified if your stay at Marlbro' would not have 

 allowed me to fulfil your wish, that Mr. Crocker might take a draft of the 

 fragments of the vessel, a drawing of which you were so kind to accept * That 

 drawing was made on the spot, by a scale of, I think, one inch draft to three 

 inches the object, while it was entire, and freed from the surrounding earth, so 

 that we had a perfect view of it. As the vessel must have perished if it had 

 been left where it was found, I was very desirous of removing and possessing it 



1 Microscopic examination has proved the wood to be coniferous— fir— not 

 oak.— W.C. 



3 This has been chemically examined, and found to be bronze.— W.C. 

 3 The Koman ampulla which is engraved on the title-page to the 44 Roman 

 ^Era," Ancient Wilts, vol. ii., was also found in St. Margaret's mead. 



• This, the original drawing by Tuck, is also in tne Society'e library. 



