Seine. M. Hugo in tlie Archseologia (vol. xxxviii. 128) has 
figured a number found in the Thames. Being of lead they would 
not, when once in the mud, be liable to oxydation, but the question 
is “ How came they there in such numbers ? ” As both in London 
and Paris these deposits occur near ancient bridges, it has been 
conjectured, that shops in which they were sold formerly stood on 
these bridges, and that when they were pulled down their contents 
may have been thrown into the river. 
JiJXE 1.—The Eev. J. Keneick read a notice of two inscribed 
bricks in the Museum, brought from Italy by the late Sir Gr. 
Strickland. They are not ordinary bricks of construction, being 
smaller, square, not rectangular, and of finer clay. The inscription 
upon them, Opus Doliaee, seems to refer them to the class of 
pottery rather than brick. They served the double purpose of 
recording the date of the erection of the building in which they are 
found and the property (praedium) from which the clay was obtained. 
ThesQ properties frequently belonged to members of the Imperial 
family. The name of the maker (figulus) is also frequently 
recorded. In an example in the British Museum the word Depos 
follows the name of the Emperor Antoninus, and the date thus 
obtained .serves to correct erroneous estimates of the age of the 
buildings in which the bricks occur. Thus those from the so-called 
Baths of Titus at Pome, figured in the work of He Pomanis,'*' 
show that a large part of what passes by that name is really of 
the age of Trajan. No trace of this practice appears in the 
republican times, now in any building out of Italy. The oldest 
date which has been found is a. d. 107, the tenth year of the 
reign of Trajan, the latest, A. d. 222, the first year of Alexander 
Severus. But bricks with the maker’s name impressed, though 
without a date, are found in buildings of later erection. In the 
Temple Collection in the British Museum there is a brick from 
Puteoli, inscribed Narsis Yir excellentissimus eecit, a name 
which indicates a late epoch. In the same place a brick was foimd 
bearing the Christian monogram. 
There is no difficulty in the inscription on one of the bricks in 
our collection; it is Opus Doliaee ex Peed. Domixi Aug. indicating 
that the brick was made on a farm of the Emperor. The second 
reads Exped p f lucillae Odol Peg Mape Lael Caes ii p Coel 
* Le Camere Esquiline, dette comnmnamente Terme di Tito, 
