4 
art, and there is evidence, I think, to show that the ground 
was being used during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, in 
the beginning of the second century of our era. No trace of 
an ustrmum , or the paved square on which the bodies were 
burnt, has as yet been discovered. The disuse of the custom 
of burning the bodies of the dead is ascribed to the influence of 
Christianity, and, no doubt, with truth. Still it is probable 
that during the period of the Homan occupation of Britain 
the practice of cremation was never wholly disused. Outside 
this enclosure, of which I have been speaking, we find burnt 
and unburnt bodies in close proximity, but irregularly laid, 
and, for the most part, without any crowding, as if the space 
had been originally an open field, where each person might 
choose his own burial place. At some five or six feet below 
the present surface you come to the bones. At the depth of 
eighteen inches or two feet you reach the old Homan surface, 
and in the space towards the river it is easy to see that this was 
a promenade and playground. Fragments of vessels and other 
things are tossing about. A number of rounded bases of Samian 
vessels tell us that the Homan boys used to play here at some¬ 
thing like our present game of hopscotch—the quality of the 
clay always making even a fragment of the vessel prized, and 
the colour making it discernible among the grass. In one 
instance the roundlet had been inverted, and in the hollow 
cavity some Homan youngster had put his minium , or red paint, 
which still comes off when you touch it with your finger. All 
this was done among the graves of the dead. Other days come 
back to us with a vivid freshness. We seem also to see the 
process of levelling the inequalities of the ground, just as it 
may be observed at the present day on the other side of the 
river. At a particular place not very far from the Scarbro’ 
Hailway Bridge, we found the debris of some Homan house 
which had been carted away out of Eburacum and utilised 
here. Numerous specimens of stucco, or wall-painting, were 
discovered, mingled with pieces of tesselated pavement and 
other things as well, just as they were shot out by the Homan 
carters, fifteen hundred years since. I have stated already 
that the westernmost portion of the cemetery of which we have 
