Volume 2

The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/352 (page 302)
    Common, Com. Staff., a.d. 1771, and to Mr. Green, whose accuracy in those things is well known to you, and may be thoroughly de- pended upon, for presenting us with an exact drawing of it.* This block, so perfect in all its parts, and a remnant of such remote an- tiquity, may be esteemed a most admirable curiosity. [See Note 21.] The inscription, imp. vesp. vii. t. imp. v. cos, is to be read ‘ Im- peratore Vespasiano septimum, Tito Imperatore quintum Con- sulibus.” [Huebner, p. 222.] Stafford. [1818, Part /.,/. 78.] 12-—A perfect Roman pavement was discovered about i| yards below the surface of the ground, by some workmen who were digging at the Hanging Ditch public-house, near Stafford. Uttoxeter. [1788, Part I.,pp. 210, 211.] I have sent you a drawing of the remains of a brass, or mixed metal, vessel, which was brought to me on the 14th of February last, and was found by a labourer the day before, in digging upon a common belonging to the parish of Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, ^\hich had never before been cultivated, and which is now inclosing in conse- quence of an Act of Parliament, for the purpose of aiding the poor rates, which are very high here. {See Plate II., fig. 5.) The common where the vessel was found is called the High Wood : there is a very remarkable eminence upon it, which goes by the name of Toot Hill, supposed to be a tumulus, and is upon the very highest part of the common, and is conspicuous at many miles’ distance. All the bottom part of the vessel, of which this drawing is an exact copy, is corroded away by time ; and as the Romans, when they conquered England, had several stations in this neighbourhood, I suppose it to have been a vessel in use among them, and I am the more confirmed in my supposition, as it has a very near resemblance to a Roman vessel described in the third volume of Montfaucon’s “ An- tiquities” by Humphreys, and of which there is a figure in Plate xxiv.. No. 9. According to the account there given of such vessels, I suppose it to be an epichysis for bringing wine to the table ; or, perhaps, it was ap- propriated for their sacrifices. The measure, over the top, is 3^ inches from the lid to the handle, and the handle is 5 inches to the top of the bended part. The metal seems to have been covered over, both inside and outside, with a hard and smooth enamel, where it is not corroded or chipped off, and to have been of a gray colour. The handle seems to have been richly gilt with gold ; and the labourer who found it was exceedingly elated, expecting that the whole had * Magaz., 1772, p. 558.