Page:VCH London 1.djvu/189

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON a great Burying-place was manifest, for upon the digging the Foundations of the present Fabrick of St. Paul's, he found under the Graves of the latter Ages' [Saxon, British, and Roman]. 'In the same row' (with the British) 'and deeper were Roman Urns intermixed. This was eighteen feet deep or more, and belonged to the Colony when Romans and Britatns lived and died together. The most remarkable Roman Urns, Lamps, Lachrymatories, and Fragments of Sacrificing-vessels, etc., were found deep in the ground, towards the north-east corner of St. PauPs Church, near Cheapside ; these were generally well wrought and embossed with various Figures and Devices, of the Colour of the modern red Portugal ware some brighter like Coral, and of a Hardness equal to China ware, and as well glaz'd. Among divers Pieces which happened to have been preserved are a Fragment of a Vessel, in Shape of a Bason, whereon Charon is represented with his Oar in his Hand receiving a naked Ghost ; a Patera Sacrificalis with an Inscription pater • CLO, a remarkable small Urn of a fine hard Earth and leaden Colour, containing about half a Pint ; many pieces of Urns with the names of the Potters embossed on the Bottoms, such as, for instance, alevci, m. victorinvs, pater, F • Mossi • M, OF NiGRi, ADMAPiLii • M, etc, a Sepulchral earthen Lamp . . . supposed Christian ; and two lachrymatories of glass' [Parentalia, p. 265 ff. ; see p. 24 and figs. 9, 10]. A 'piece of patera' found under St. Paul's was reported in 1731 [Soc. Antiq. MS. Min. i, 270]. The above account gives no hint of any actual burial here; but in 1869 a female skeleton, nearly perfect, was unearthed close to the cathedral ; by its side were bronze armlets, and a ring ornamented with a crescent [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxviii, 193]. See also p. 24. Milman considers that the site, on account of its height, was well suited for a temple, and also that ' there is good reason to believe that a Roman praetorian camp stood here.' He quotes from Dugdale a legend that during the persecution of Diocletian the church here was destroyed, and a temple built in its place, while at Thorney (Westminster) there was a kindred shrine to Apollo, these two supplanting St. Paul and St. Peter. The Diana tradition seems, however, to be based only on the discovery in the reign of Edward I already mentioned, and even Wren was sceptical about it. But the neighbouring altar found at the Goldsmiths' Hall (p. 103) is a factor in the question that cannot quite be ignored. At the north-east corner of the churchyard (Plan C, 196) in 1841, a 'domestic building' of some size was unearthed. At a depth of 1 8 ft. was a hypocaust with pillars of tiles, supporting a tessellated pavement (since destroyed) on a substratum of mortar. The pavement had a variegated pattern of rosettes on a white ground. Coins of Constans, Constantius, Magnentius, Decentius, and Valens, were also reported [Arch, xxix, 272 ; Archaeologist, i, 220 ; Morgan, Rom.-Brit. Mosaic Pavements, 185]. Another account, presumably of the same find, states that the depth was 19 ft. or 20 ft., and also that fragments of ornamented Gaulish ware, a ' richly-glazed jug,' and copper coins of Carausius, Claudius, Nerva, Domitian, Antoninus, and Faustina were found [Gent. Mag. (1841), ii, 263 ; Rom.-Brit. Rem. i, 216]. Further excava- tions produced, at a depth of 10 ft. or 12 ft., human remains, a bone pin terminating in a grotesque head, and lower down, fragments of Gaulish pottery ; to the west of this, part of a ' circular dish with lotus-leaf,' presumably one of the ordinary red bowls with slip decoration, a small clay ' crucible,' and coins of Hadrian, Faustina, Severus Alexander, Constantine, and Crispus (the last-named with the London mint mark, plon) [ibid. (1843), ii, 532 ; Rom. Brit. Rem. i, 202]. Pottery in British Museum (Roach Smith and E. B. Price), with stamps of Rufus, Cirrus, Doeccus, and Regalis ; also a fragment with 'slip' decoration, and a lamp with name of maker, carto (1854) ; a fragment of bowl (form 37) in Bethnal Green Museum. 'An olla of blackened clay,' reported in 1883 [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxxix, 91]. A bronze figure from this site mentioned by Lee in his Isca Silurum, 148, as in the museum there. See also Cannon Street and Paternoster Row. St. Peter's Hill, Upper Thames Street (Plan C, 62). — Mr. Black, in 1863, 'saw workmen casting up portions of Roman brick and concrete, and subsequent investigations disclosed a wall' [Arch. xl. 48]. See also Lambeth Hill, Upper Thames Street. St. Swithin's Lane. — Gaulish pottery in British Museum (stamps of Niger, Agedillus, Nertius, Ritogenus, and Viducos) ; also two lamps, one with a pair of busts, the other with maker's name, commvnis (from North Italy). From St. Swithin's Church (Plan C, 132), fragments with stamps of Rufinus and Virilis (Rutenian potters ; found in 1838). St. Thomas Apostle, Great (?) (Plan C, 160). — Pavement seen by Roach Smith, 29 October, 1847, 7 ft- below street level, a kw yards from Queen Street ; it had a pattern in red, white, yellow, and black tesserae, and probably formed the border of a large pavement ; it was subsequently destroyed [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii, 350]. At the close of 1848 sewerage excavations disclosed massive chalk walls, bricks, stucco with frescoes, tiles, and flue-pipes, part 125