IV. 
AN ACCOUNT OF BRITISH AND ROMAN REMAINS FOUND IN 
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF HITCHIN. 
By William Hansom, F.L.S. 
Read at Hertford, 18 th March, 1886. 
PLATES II-V. 
In the spring of 1879 my attention was drawn to a slightly- 
raised circular plot of ground on Pegsdon Common, at the foot of 
the Chalk downs, about four miles from Hitchin. I had it opened 
in company with a friend, Mr. E. Latchmore. Trenches were 
dug across it, and at a depth of about a foot from the surface we 
came upon a considerable number of broken urns of brown pottery 
of the usual type found in Homan burying-places, some of them 
being in a fair state of preservation, and containing cremated human 
bones. There were also several pieces of the red ware, formerly 
called Samian, but now supposed to have been made at Arezzo in 
Italy, and at other manufactories in France and Germany, while 
the finest quality only came from the island of Samos. Pliny tells 
us that Arretum, or Arezzo as it is now called, was famous for its 
dinner-services, and Surrentum, the present Sorrento, for its cups. 
In a few cases the Samian ware bore traces of having been mended 
with rivets of lead or other metal, in the same manner as we were 
accustomed to repair valuable old china until the discovery of 
*’ diamond cement,’ indicating the great value attached to this de¬ 
scription of pottery. The brittleness of this ware is frequently 
referred to by classic writers. 
Under these Homan remains, from 2ft. to 2ft. 6ins. in the ground, 
were a large number of ruder urns of very coarse material, about 
fth of an inch in thickness, and extremely friable, so that it was 
impossible to remove them from the earth without their crumbling 
to pieces. They were probably British, of an earlier manufacture, 
and were hand-formed, not turned on a wheel like the Homan 
ware, and they were probably merely sun-dried, or very slightly 
baked. Like those above them, they contained human ashes, 
mixed with pieces of wood and charcoal, and iron nails. These 
would be gathered up with the bones after the body had been 
burned on the funeral pyre. 
A few feet from this spot was a mound of greater elevation, on 
digging into which we came upon a perfect human skeleton in a 
slightly sitting posture. Judging from the unusual length of the 
bones, the skeleton must have been that of a man not less than 
6ft. 4ins. in height, and the skull was of a superior type. An iron 
knife close by had evidently fallen from his left hand. From his 
weapon being buried with him, and also from the shape of the skull, 
I have no doubt but that he was a Saxon, and a man of some note. 
The Romans did not usually bury their implements of warfare with 
the dead, whether cremation was practised or not. A special 
interest attaching to this discovery is, that the three races should 
