Page:VCH London 1.djvu/185

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ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON Royal Exchange. — Gold ring found in 1767, not necessarily Roman [Soc. Antiq. MS. Min. x, 350]. Excavation on the site in 1841 (Plan €,91) showed in the centre well-constructed walls running north-east to north-west, 30 ft. to the west of which was a mass of masonry of tiles and mortar, 6 ft. square, two sides of which retained fresco paintings on stucco. Beneath was a layer of 2 ft. of gravel covering a pit full of animal and vegetable matter (Plan C, 90), in which were miscellaneous objects, including coins of Vespasian, Domitian, and Severus,^* and several well-preserved sandals. This was apparently a refuse heap, covered in when a building was subsequently erected on the spot ; the evidence of the coins enables us to place this event about the middle of the third century. On one of the fragments of leather was the stamp s • p • Q • R ; iron instruments were also found, including two knives, one with olondvs • F on the blade, the other with P'PAS ... f on the handle [///;«. Rom. Land. pi. 37, p. 140 ; Cat. Lond. Antiq. 73; Corp. Inscr. Latin, vii, 1298; now in Brit. Mus.] ; also wooden implements apparently for spinning or weaving [^Illus. Rom. Lond. 143] and a strigil [ibid. 129]. Some of these objects appear to be in the Guildhall, where there are numerous finds from this site (shoes, hairpins, tools, writing tablets, tiles, and pottery ; Plan C, 92) [Jrch. xxix, 267 ff. ; xxxix, 497 ; II/us. Rom. Lond. 12 ; Roach Smith, Retrospections, i, 129 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. vii, 82; Archaeologist, i, 220; Tite, Cat. Antiq. Roy. Exch. (1848); Soc. Antiq. MS. Min. xxxviii, 189, 195; above, p. 7 7] . In the space in front of the Exchange, where Bank Buildings formerly stood (Plan C, 89), a Roman wall was found running in the direction of the Bank ; near this was unearthed the fine vase now in the British Museum {see p. 99 under Cornhill). The pottery in the Guildhall includes a ' frilled ' flower vase, two Gaulish bowls with figures, of form 37, dating about a.d. 70, and a second-century bowl (form 31) with stamp CELsiNVS • F [Cat. 5390, 461, 582) ; there are also two clay lamps, one with a bust of Diana or Luna, the other with her emblem the crescent [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, viii, 56 ; Tite, Cat. Antiq. Roy. Exch. 10, No. I ; Guildhall Mus. Cat. 33, 43]. Pottery from this site in the British Museum includes stamps of Macer, Cinnamus, and Paullus, the two latter of the second century ; also a clay lamp with two nozzles [Illus. Rom. Lond. no ; Cat. Lond. Antiq. 23, No. 89], circular bronze brooch, iron shears and knife with bone handle (Roach Smith), a leaf from a wooden writing tablet [Illus. Rom. Lond. 137], and a bronze figure of a cock enamelled ["Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xii, 97 ; Mayhew Coll. (1899)]. Sir William Tite, in his Catalogue of Antiquities found on this site (1848 ; Plan C, 92), gives the following list : (i) tiles (1—6) ; (2) plain pottery (1-31), including a mortarium with CRACivsF ; (3) lamps (1-12), one with head of Diana (see above), another with stamp of Eucaris (? Eucarpus; cf. p. 128) ; (4) Gaulish pottery (1—4 ' slip ' wares ; 5—6 with stampsoiM and ivnal ; 7 fragments with figures) ; (5) a long list of potters' marks "^ ; (6) glass (l-6) ; (7) writing materials (tablets 1-8, styli 1-19) ; (8) articles of dress, toilet implements, &c. (1-32) ; (9) tools (1-14) ; (10) sandals and shoes of leather ; (i i) coins, from Augustus to Gratian. Saddlers Place, London Wall. — Pottery in British Museum (E. B. Price) : fragment with stamp of Borillus, and one of Castor ware. St. Antholin's Church, site of, see Watling Street. St. Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange (Plan C, 95). — Pottery found on the site of this church when it was pulled down in 184 1 is now in the British Museum (Roach Smith) ; it includes Gaulish fragments with stamps of Donnaucus and Miccio, and black glazed ' Rhenish ' ware with painted inscriptions. See also Bartholomew Lane. St. Bartholomew's Hospital. — Plain pottery in Guildhall [Cat. 122, 123). Two stone coffins containing skeletons found in 1877 [Arch. Journ. xxxiv, 197; Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, v. 293 ; see above, pp. 12, 17, 22]. They were 1 1 ft. below the surface, each 7 ft. long, of coarse oolitic stone, with massive lids. One contained the skeletons of a man and woman, the other a female skeleton in a leaden coffin with bead-moulding ornament (cf. that found in Seacoal Lane, p. 102). The date is subsequent to a.d. 250. Both are now on the staircase of the new library of the hospital. For an altar possibly from this site, see below, p. 135. St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate. — ' On the rebuilding of Bishopsgate Church about the year 1725, several urns, paterae, and other remains of Roman antiquities were discovered, together with a coin of Antoninus Pius, and a vault arched with equilateral Roman bricks, fourteen feet deep, and within it two skeletons. Dr. Stukeley also saw there in 1726 a Roman grave '^ A coin of Gratian (a.d. 374) is also said to have been found. ^'Including Acutillus, Alius, Amabilis, Carbo, Calvus, Crestius, Firmus, Memor, Montanus, Passenus, Patricus, Ponteius, Primulus, Roppus, Sabinus, Severus, Virilis, Vitalis. I 121 i6