2 
holy Grod), and Deo tiitelari genio loci (the protecting Grod). 
The most remarkable feature, however, connected with this 
altar is the omission of the names of the dedicator. If the four 
last letters, the common formula in such offerings, had been 
left out, the inscription would have been complete, but the 
words so/nY, lihens^ merito, seem to reqiure a nominative 
case expressed rather than understood. This, however, is not 
a solitary instance of the omission. At Aldborough, in par¬ 
ticular, there is an altar with only D. M.—Y. S. L. M. upon it. 
The letters, however, may be intei’preted wtum solvitur lihens 
merito, which removes the dithculty at once. It is cuiious to 
observe how the sculptor has spread out his inscription by 
putting stops between letters where they are not due. The 
altar was fomid standing on some cobbles, not far from the 
head of a skeleton. It is not probable, I think, that it was 
placed there by design. 
I shall now direct your attention to a portion of a tablet of 
limestone, which has been fastened to a wall or pillar. The 
upper edging, you vill observe, is chamfered off in what we may 
call a kind of vandyked pattern. About the inscription, which, 
even as far as the stone goes, is slightly mutilated, there can be 
little or no doubt. It runs thus, supplying two or three letters. 
]\ I E M 0 E IA E 
BASSAEI. IV LI 
ET FELICIS FILI. SVI 
DYLCISSIMI. 
‘ To the memory of Bassaeus Julius, and of Felix, his sweetest 
son.’ Two or tlmee lines, at least, are probably missing, and I 
think they would have contained the names of a Avidow and a 
mother, from whom the tender epithet of dulcissimiis would most 
appropriately come. Mr. Kenrick, in his book on Homan 
Sepulcliial Inscriptions, has spoken of the affection displayed 
on tombs. Y^e shall have another instance of it directly. 
We have aniinae innocentisshnae, and conjiigi carissiuw in oui’ ovm 
musemn. In the Dean and Chapter’s library at Diuham, 
there is an inscription, brought from the Homan Wall, set up 
by a father and a mother for a daughter;— fliae chiicissimae they 
call her. 
