40 
AY. RANSOM-BRITISH AND ROMAN 
have chosen the same place for hurial, indicating a superstitions 
feeling connected therewith, and it is a little strange to our ideas 
to find the ashes of the conquerors resting upon those of the con¬ 
quered, yet suggesting the happy thought that after death all 
former difference is at an end. The Icknield Way is about half 
a mile from this site. 
In a field near, known as Dane’s field, there were found about 
forty-five years ago a large number of human skeletons, and also 
those of horses, with several fragments of iron and bronze. These 
were probably of more recent date than the cinerary urns found in 
the cemetery already described. The bodies might have been those 
of men killed in battle, and hurriedly buried without the usual 
care bestowed upon an ordinary interment. Within a short distance 
an almost perfect Roman amphora three feet high has been dug 
out, and a variety of other vessels have since been found there. It 
may be interesting to note by the way that the pretty purple 
Anemone Pulsatilla, known as Danes’-blood, grows abundantly on 
the hill-slopes around, covering the scanty herbage with its purple 
blossoms in the early spring. It is an object of attraction to our 
botanical friends far and near. 
Three or four miles eastward, near Astwick, in digging for copro- 
lites, a large number of human skeletons were disinterred, and near 
these were ten Samian vessels, all quite perfect, with the potters’ 
names distinctly legible on most of them. Three of the names had 
not previously been recorded. The large howl exhibited, with a 
raised pattern of fishes, etc., running round it, is an unusually fine 
specimen of its kind. These vessels are additionally interesting 
from having the impression of the tips of the maker’s fingers, made 
after he had applied the glaze, distinctly visible underneath each, 
thus indicating the exact position in which they were held on 
placing them in the oven to harden. A sword and a number of 
spear-heads, with divided haft, indicative of Saxon workmanship 
as distinguished from the usually welded haft of the Roman weapons, 
were also found. One of these is of a very unusual type. There 
was also a boss of a shield, which was in fragments, but, when 
cleaned, the pieces were easily put together. 
In 1878 a number of bronze celts were found about two feet 
below the surface in a field near Cumberlow Green, and with them 
a quantity of rough metal for casting into implements. They are 
of similar character to those which are distributed almost all over 
Europe. They are almost as hard as steel, and they would, with 
their sharp edge, prove formidable weapons. These are pre-Roman, 
belonging to a period antecedent to the use of iron in England. 
On the 6th of March, 1882, a workman, whilst engaged in draining 
land near Great Wymondley, a mile and a half east of Hitchin, 
turned up an earthen vessel of Roman ware. This induced me to 
make further search, and we soon discovered the first distinct trace 
that is known of a Roman settlement in that immediate neighbour¬ 
hood. "Within a space of five yards by seven yards were disinterred 
forty-three cinerary urns of various sizes, shapes, and colours, from 
