Page:VCH London 1.djvu/188

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A HISTORY OF LONDON some painted bright red {^Arch. xxiv. 190, pis. 43-5, with list of potters' marks ; Herbert, Hist, of St. Michael's, 19]. It was thought that this church stood on the site of a Roman temple [see also Herbert, Hist, of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, passim; Gent. Mag. (1831), i, 494, and Soc. Antiq. MS. Min. xxxvi, 145]. Mr. Kempe also mentions a ' singularly formed urn,' or 'thumb-pot,' 10 in. high, found with two coins of Vespasian, and a shallow earthen- ware bowl containing ashes [Arch, xxix, 199, pi. 44, fig. 8 ; the vase of black ware illustrated in fig. 12 is probably mediaeval, as are the others] ; and, finally, a supposed cinerary urn of stone-coloured clay, coated inside with resin [Hist, of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, 29, pi. I, fig. 4 ; see above, p. 6]. St. Nicholas Olave Churchyard. — See Bread Street Hill. St. Olave, Old Jewry (Plan C, 127). — Roman vase in Guildhall Museum [C(7/. 303], * of dark grey earthenware, covered with lozengy pattern,' found in pulling down this church, 1889, at about 13 ft. below the surface. It appears to belong to the 1st century [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2, xii, 402]. In 1888 an infant's coffin of chalk and a cinerary urn were found on the same site [now in Guildhall Museum, Cat. 11]. They are probably however mediaeval, not Roman. Mr. F. W. Reader states that at the same time a Roman pavement was found on this site, at a depth of 16 ft., composed of red tesserae, and measuring 20 ft. by 3 ft. There was also a wall running parallel with the present line of frontage, 12 ft. below the surface, 12 ft. high and 3 ft. thick., but the foundations were not reached. Much of the soil was black mud, and contained Roman pottery and other relics. St. Paul's Churchyard. — The most noteworthy discovery here was that of the Roman pottery kilns (Figs. 55, 56), found when digging foundations at the north-west corner of the cathedral (Plan C, 194) in 1672, described in a MS. of John Conyers (Brit. Mus. SloaneMSS. 958, fol. 105). The depth is stated to have been 26 ft. ; there were four kilns of the usual domical form, which are described as ' made in the sandy loam, in the fashion of a cross foundation, of which only the one sketched was left standing. It was 5 ft. from top to bottom and of the same width, and had no other matter for its form and building but the outward loam, naturally crusted hardish by the heat burning the loam red, like brick ; the floor in the middle supported by, and cut out of, loam, and helped with old-fashioned Roman tyles' shards, but very kw, and such as I have seen •'"' ' used for repositories for urns, in the fashion of and like ovens. The kiln Fig. 55. — Plan of was full of the coarser sort of pots, so that few were saved whole, viz.. Kiln lamps, bottles, urns and dishes.' Drawings of some of these were given, and one jar at least, of a dark grey ware, appears to be of ist century date [I //us. Rom. Land. 79 ; Co/l. Antiq. vi, 185 ; Walters, Ancient Pottery, ii, 444 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xvi, 42 ; Stow, Survey (ed. Strype), ii, App. i, 23]. Strype gives the additional statement, which, if trustworthy, is not without significance, that ' likewise thereabouts were found several moulds of Earth, some exhibiting Figures of Men, of Lions, of Leaves of Trees, and other Things. These were used to make Impressions of those things upon the Vessels.' He also states that on the south side of the church (Plan C, 193), were found ' several scalps of Oxen, and a large quantity of Boars' Tusks, with divers earthen Vessels, especially Paterae of different Shapes.' Camden refers to a similar discovery of ox-scalps or ox-heads in the reign of Edward I, and refers them to the Taurobolia celebrated in honour of Diana. He states that the precincts are called in the church records Camera Dianae, and it has always been a tradition that the site of St. Paul's represents that of a temple to that deity [Gough, Camden, ' Middlesex,' ii, 3 ; see also Malcolm, Lond. Rediv. iii, 509 ; Milman, St. PauTs, p. 1^. ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxviii, 142, 237^']. Malcolm, quoting from a MS. dissertation of Dr. Woodward, relates the discovery, to the south-west of the cathedral, of a bronze statuette of Diana, 2k in. high, in the habit of a huntress, with elaborately-plaited hair, and carrying a quiver [see also Allen, Hist, of Lond. i, 22, and pi. opp. p. 32]. Wren's account of the finds described by Strype is as follows: — 'The Surveyor gSive but little Credit to the com- mon Story, that a Temple had been here to Diana . . . meeting with no such Indications in all his Searches ; but Fig. 56. — Potter's Kiln in St. Paul's Churchyard {S/oane MSS.) that the North-side of this Ground had been very anciently " Discussing a bust found in the City, said to represent Diana, or more probably Julia Domna. 124