Page:VCH London 1.djvu/47

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ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON as doubtful. In Holborn, on the site of the Birkbeck Bank (Plan A, lo), almost opposite Gray's Inn Road, a cinerary urn and bowl of black pottery have been found ; *° and a burial in an urn 8 J in. high has been found some- where in Broad Street,^^ but whether within or without the Wall is quite uncertain. Sepulchral remains including urns with bones, coins, etc. were found on or near the line of the Wall in excavations for the hall of Christ's Hospital (Plan A, ii) in 1826 ; -^ and at the entrance to Cloth Fair, West Smithfield (Plan A, 12), the cremated remains of a child or youth have been found in an urn of dark grey ware ; while excavations for the adjoining Dead- meat and Poultry Market (Plan A, 13) in 1865 resulted in the discovery of many sepulchral relics that were unfortunately never described in detail, but evidently included a number of cremations.^^ Here must also be mentioned other cinerary urns preserved at the Guildhall,^'^ and marked on the map with rings, as the exact site of each discovery is not recorded : they come from St. Martin's-le-Grand, Broad Street (two), Coleman Street (two), and Mark Lane (Plan A, 14-17) ; and others in the same collection, now empty, may once have contained ashes. With the exception of Mark Lane and possibly St. Martin's-le-Grand, these sites are not in close proximity to any of the main Roman roads. The discovery of a sepulchral inscription on the site renders it probable that some of the urns 'found at Finsbury along the line of the London Wall ' ^* (Plan A, 18) were used as cineraries ; while those found during 1841 in Eldon Street may have belonged to the Blomfield Street cemetery^ (Plan A, 19), to be noticed in the next group. Information about cremations at Old Ford is scanty, but two cineraries are illustrated ^'^ from the site. They seem to have been found near a stone coffin of Roman date, in the neighbourhood of Saxon and Coborn Roads and 60 yds. south of the Roman highway (known as Roman Road), but the account is much confused. Urns evidently cinerary were found in Widegate Street and Artillery Lane,^ near Bishopsgate Street Without (Plan A, 20), while further south, just outside the Wall, two urns filled with bones and ashes, together with glass vessels not further described, are recorded from the south and east sides of Haydon Square, Minories (Plan A, 21)," and the district is one that has yielded such remains in con- siderable quantity. At the west end of London few such finds are recorded, but an urn with human bones, found in 1820 on the site of Mr. Rixon's house in Cockspur Street (No. i),"' must here be mentioned (Plan A, 22). The burials hitherto noticed have been those of the simplest kind, without any special protection for the cinerary vessels, with no elaborate '" Lonii. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, (new ser.), i, (1900), 258. They lay about 160 ft. from the Holborn kerbstone, just north-east of the circular counter, and were recently presented to the British Museum. " Joufn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxviii, 171 (1872). " Allen, Hist, of Lond. i, 32. " Lond. and Midd. Arch. Stc. Trans, iii, 102, 195 ; lUus. London News, 24 Feb. 1866. '^ Catalogue, p. 93, 329 ; p. 95, 381 ; p. 85, 120 ; p. 89, 236 ; p. 91, 284, and Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxiv, 289 ; Gent. Mag. 1825, ii, 245. " Arch, xxix, 146, 1 47 ; site marked as No. 7 (south of the Wall) on map in Arch. Journ. Ix, 204. " The sites are marked as distinct on the map in Arch. Journ. Ix, 204, but the accounts are not explicit {see index). "^ Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, pi. vii, figs. 7, 9. "" Gent. Mag 1843, il, 638. " Allen, Hist, of Lond. i, 29. Glass phials, apparently found with cinerary urns, are recorded from Union Street, Southwark, but the exact site is not given (Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxxi, 320). '"■ Soc. Antiq. MS. Minutes, xxxv, 348. 7