Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/191

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE.
163

pasta, uncut, and en cabochon; the other with a paste formed of two layers; the upper being of a dull smalt colour, the lower dark brown.

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The device engraved or impressed upon it is, apparently. an ear of corn. These rings bear a considerable resemblance to one exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries by Lord Albert Conyngham, in 1842, and discovered in Ireland, with other gold ornaments. near the entrance of the caves at New Grange; a denarius of Geta was found near the same spot[1]. Another ring, very similar in workmanship, is represented amongst Roman Antiquities in Gough's edition of Camden: it was found on Stanmore Common[2].

A notice of the discovery of numerous antiquities in the part of Cheshire which lies at the mouth of the Dee, was communicated by the Rev. Abraham Hume. L.L.D., Local Secretary of the Institute at Liverpool. These vestiges of the various races which peopled the shores of that river in succession, present the greatest variety, both as regards their nature, and the period to which they may be assigned. The collection formed by Dr. Hume comprises numerous ornaments of dress or personal use, implements, and curious specimens of ancient workmanship, chiefly in metal: fragments of earthenware, and a few objects evidently of modern date. A number of Roman and Saxon coins have been found, the latter being generally subdivided into halves and quarters. We hope to be enabled to give, at some future occasion, a more detailed account of some of the curious antiquities which had been accumulated in the alluvial deposit at the mouth of the Dee.

SAXON PERIOD.

In the second volume of the Archæological Journal, p. 239, we gave a short account and plan of the remarkable crypt beneath the site of the nave of Hexham church, Northumberland. We then observed that it might probably be the identical subterranean oratory constructed by St. Wilfrid, and suggested the propriety of comparing its plan with that of the crypt of Ripon cathedral, originally one of Wilfrid's foundations. Mr. Fairless, of Hexham, to whom we were indebted for the materials of that notice, has since re-examined the Hexham crypt, and obtained a plan of that at Ripon, from which it appears that the design is the same in both buildings. Mr. Fairless remarks, that almost all the stones of which the Hexham crypt is constructed are sculptured, and, as we suggested, of apparently Roman workmanship. This circumstance induced him to examine the church at Corbridge, about four miles from Hexham. half a mile to the west of which

  1. Archæologia, vol. xxx. pl. xii. p. 137.
  2. Gough's Camden, vol. i. p. cxx.