By the Rev. G. S. Master. 



279 



sank by its own weight into something soft underneath. Investi- 

 gation here brought to light a cist or coffer, formed of hard Roman 

 cement, 4ft. 3in. long by 3ft. 3 in. broad, and about 2ft. in depth, 

 buried in the natural clay at a depth of about 2ft. from the surface, 

 and filled with fine white lime, as pungent to the taste as though 

 made yesterday. Nearly adjoining it was a second receptacle of 

 the same dimensions, precisely similar in all respects to the first. 

 Both lay undisturbed, and, as it were, hermetically sealed in their 

 clay beds — no particle of the lime having escaped beyond the cases 

 which contained it. We extracted all the lime from the first case, 

 and hoped to be able to raise it, entire, for preservation in my 

 parochial museum, but rain unfortunately coming on, it succumbed 

 to the influence of the atmosphere, and became a mass of ruin. The 

 second cist was actually raised, with all its contents, weighing nearly 

 a ton, and placed in a cart, but the elements were again unpropitious, 

 and I have not been able to do more than preserve portions of the 

 casing, and a sample of its contents, for future reference and ex- 

 amination. I am unable to hazard a conjecture as to the purpose 

 for which these deposits of lime were made and preserved. I do 

 not think that the cases were made previously, and filled, before 

 they were buried ; but that more probably a basin of the required 

 size was excavated in the clay, lined with a hard coating of cement, 

 and then the lime was " run 33 into it, as is now done for modern 

 plastering, a lid of harder material supplied, and the whole buried 

 for future use. The perfect condition of the deposits precludes the 

 supposition that they were mere surplus material, left accidentally 

 from an adjacent building, but points rather to the notion that they 

 were reservoirs or stores of lime, either abandoned hastily, or 

 purposely reserved for exportation or employment on the spot. 



The Heliotype Illustration should properly have accompanied 

 a previous paper, for which see p. 33 of this volume, where the 

 vessels are described in detail. They were all found in one spot, 

 upon an elevated ridge in Holbury Copse, but the stag's horn and 

 objects of bronze and iron, with a single exception, at or near the 

 site of the Roman building now described. 



