Beginning at the extremity, we soon came upon a kiln, which, like the others discovered by Mr. Bartlett, only showed its presence by the crumbling red brick earth. An enormous old oak-stump had grown close beside it, and around the bole were heaped the drinking-vessels and oil-flasks, which its now rotten roots had once pierced.
Nothing could better show, as the excavation proceeded, the former state of the works. Here were imbedded in the stiff yellow putty-like clay, of which they were made, masses
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/The_New_Forest_its_history_and_its_scenery_-_page_218a.png/600px-The_New_Forest_its_history_and_its_scenery_-_page_218a.png)
of earthenware, the charcoal, with which they were fired, still sticking to their sides—pieces of vitreous-looking slag, and a grey line of cinders mixed with the red brick earth of the kiln. The ware remained just as it was cast aside by the
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/The_New_Forest_its_history_and_its_scenery_-_page_218b.png/600px-The_New_Forest_its_history_and_its_scenery_-_page_218b.png)
potter. You might tell by the bulging of the sides, and the bright metallic glaze of the vessels, how the workman had overheated the kiln;—see, too, by the crookedness of the lines,