A HISTORY OF LONDON long to prepare. The same may be said of the very similar example executed in white marble, which was found in 1867 at Lower Clapton," with the feet towards the east. The discovery was made in 1853 during excavations for the London and North Western Railway Company's w^arehouses at the north-west corner of Haydon Square, 1 5 ft. from Sheppy Yard, at a depth of i 3 or i 5 ft. In , the ground above some indications of burials (probably mediaeval) were noticed, and below them, before the sarcophagus was reached, were two skeletons imbedded in lime but without any definite indications of Roman date." The sarcophagus is formed of a rather soft oolitic stone, apparently Barnack. rag, and is nearly 5 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, and with the gable cover, 22 in. in height. Flanking the medallion on the front are curved flutings (sometimes called ' strigils ') executed with considerable skill ; and the gabled ends are ornamented in relief with baskets of flowers. The cover was also ornamented on the front slope, and was fastened down by rather rude iron clamps at either end, as was also the case at Lower Clapton. The head was placed at FiG. 5. — Stone Coffin, Haydon Square, Minories the east end, thus facing the west ; and the absence of any grave-furniture in an interment of this kind suggests that the practice of placing pottery and glass vessels, lamps, and other objects in the grave had already ceased. The coin of Valens (a.d. 364—78) found near the sarcophagus may or may not have been buried at the same time, but is in any case worth mentioning as a possible indication of date. Near the Lower Clapton sarcophagus already mentioned was found a coin of Gallienus (a.d. 253-68), but two burials corresponding in so many details were probably not a century apart, and the later date (if either) must have the preference. Christian sarcophagi of the 2nd and 3rd centuries are rare, and J. E. Price illustrates a close parallel to the Clapton specimen, bearing a Greek inscription and dated a.d. 343.^* It was in connexion with the Minories sarcophagus that Roach Smith published in 1854 an instructive paper on Roman leaden coffins in Britain, supplementing it in 1880 with several illustrations in the last volume of his " Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 192, pi. iii, iv ; Gent. Mag. 1867, ii, 793. " These were 3 ft. below some tiles, probably belonging to the house of the order of St. Clare on this site. '* Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 205, fig. I. i8
