1831.]

MR. URBAN,

I ENCLOSE drawings of two coins, both, I believe, unpublished, and the latter unique.

The first (Plate II. Fig. 1), is a penny of King John, the obverse bearing the usual legend, JOHANNES REX; the reverse is remarkable by having WILELM. P. ON. DIV., which I am not aware occurs on any published coin until the time of Edward I. when the name of Robertus de Hadlee appears on some of the pennies. I have seen but one other penny of John bearing a similar inscription, which is in the collection of my friend George Petrie, esq. to whom I am indebted for the subject of the present drawing.

The second (Fig. 2) bears on the obverse three crowns in a shield, with a small figure of 1 over it-the legend obliterated, partly by the coin having lost somewhat of its circumference; the reverse has a star of 12 points, divided by a long cross running out to the edge of the coin, the centre of the cross forming a rose. The letters DVBL only remain of what was probably the original inscription, CIVITAS DVBLINIE. This coin is copper, and weighs above 7 and nearly 7 grains, which is the weight assigned by Simon in his Essay on Irish coins (ed. 1810) p. 21, to a coinage of brass money of Henry VI. A.D. 1459; the penny of which was to weigh 60 grains, and the eighth part of the penny 7 grs. Whether this should be referred to Henry VI. or, as the type would rather lead us to imagine, to his rival and successor Edw. IV., and to whom I am disposed to place it, I leave to more learned antiquaries.

This coin was turned up singly in the garden of the National Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Claremont near Dublin, and is now (together with the penny of John, already described), in my possession. J. H.'

THE Ring (Fig. 3) was found within the last year at Burgh in Norfolk, the Garianonum of the antiquary Ives, and is now in the possession of John Bruce, esq. F.S.A.

MR. URBAN, Long Melford, Suffolk, June 2. IN your number for April last appeared an engraving of a brass relic found beneath the pavement of MinsGENT. MAG. March, 1831.

209

ter Church in Thanet. I send for your inspection a similar article of much finer workmanship (Fig. 4). It is of silver, gilt, and in length, including the moveable ring, 24 inches, the breadth across the legend is ths of an inch, and the thickness one-eighth of an inch; the weight not quite one

ounce.

The two pins, which are supposed to have confined the end of a leathern thong, remain, firmly riveted near the extremity; the round hole underneath the quatrefoil is very distinct, and I suppose might be made for the purpose of receiving a small hook, by which the article in question and the scabbard supposed to have been annexed to it were more securely suspended from the belt; the two pins being scarcely sufficient for supporting so heavy an appendage as a sword.* The ring proceeds from the mouth of a wolf or some other animal; this is also the case with the specimen (which is now in my possession) engraved in your volume for 1818; but in that engraving the head of the animal does not appear.

I consider that the ring was fastened to the belt, and that the legend was at the end near the hilt of the sword; this idea is confirmed by the appearance of the metal near the top of the hole, on the under part, which is worn or become thin rather on one side, and I have no doubt by the friction of the hook which assisted in confining it to the belt.

Allow me to add a suggestion relative to one of the seals engraved in your number for November 1829; which represents a squirrel, and is inscribed CRECZCECEL. I think it probable that this belonged to one of the family of Creswell, who bore three squirrels for their arms, and a squirrel for their crest. Yours, &c. R. ALMACK.

MR. URBAN, Stoke Cottage, Gos

port, Nov. 4.

IN your number for July, (p. 17) your correspondent T. A. presented you with what I was preparing to of

The use of these brass ornaments not being precisely ascertained, we will not express a decided opinion; but we must confess that we rather lean to the idea of that correspondent who suggested that they were made to fasten books: see a note to the list of plates at the back of the title-page to our vol. c. part i.-EDIT.

210

fer-an account of the Roman Remains on Lancing Down, Sussex. He has therefore saved me the trouble of sending drawings of several of the articles found, as described by him, to the correctness of which I am happy to bear testimony.

I visited these interesting remains several months ago, and found they corresponded with the description given, to which I beg to offer a few additional observations.

That the building, whose foundation alone remains, was a temple, or one dedicated to religious purposes, there can be but little doubt. Its size and form prove that it was neither a villa nor a common residence; and the uncommon circumstance of its being surrounded by graves shows that it was considered a sacred spat, and set apart for sacred purposes.

That it was exclusively British, Saxon, or Roman, is not probable, since remains of all these people have been found in and about it. Several of the brooches and bone combs are exceedingly rude, and are most probably British. But there are indubitable evidences of its being chiefly of Roman workmanship. The tessera are such as are generally found in common pavements of their villas, being formed of pieces of dark grey limestone, about an inch square. There were also fragments of common black pottery, and I have in my possession a few pieces of the fine Samian ware made only by them. The coins also prove the same.

It is well known that the Belgæ had very numerous settlements on the extensive downs that are on the southern coast, and at no place are their remains more frequently found than along the range of which Lancing Down forms a part. It is therefore probable there was a colony on this spot or in the neighbourhood (in support of which I shall presently bring another proof), and that here was the edifice where their religious rites were performed. When the Romans became masters of this part of the country, and established themselves in the different camps on the heights, they improved upon the rude structure of the Britons, and formed a temple according to their own plan that would serve for the use of the neighbouring stations, which are to be seen on the west, north, and east: indeed there is evidently a narrow raised way, almost

[March,

in a straight line, from this temple to the great camp called Cissbury, (the station or camp of Cissa), about a mile to the north-west.

The room in the centre mentioned by T. A. was undoubtedly the Sanctum Sanctorum, into which the priest was accustomed to retreat from the worshippers, to hold (as he wished them to believe) more intimate communion with the Deity. The stucco on the exterior has evidently been sprinkled with some red liquid. Is it too much to suppose it to be the blood of the animals sacrificed? Boars' tusks and other bones were found.

The most interesting of the surrounding excavations is the small circular bath, the dimensions of which prove that it was used not for common purposes, but for sacred ablution, connected with the rites of the temple. The narrow bronze spoon represented among the other relics in the number for July, was undoubtedly used for the service of religion.

The small urns found at the bottom of the narrow graves (some of which are not above a foot in diameter) probably contained the ashes of the heart. That which I have in my possession is three inches wide, and two deep; a sketch of which (Fig. 5) I send you. In the grave No. 10, as represented by T. A., were the bones of a fowl, and a fibula in the shape of a cock. The bones were most likely those of that bird; as they have not unfrequently been found with the remains of the dead. At the bottom of an urn discovered in the castle bank at Lewes, formerly a Roman station, almost in a line with those near Lancing, the skeleton of a cock was found, which I saw in the splendid cabinet of G. Mantell, esq. of that place.

Mr. Medhurst has made several other interesting discoveries in the neighbourhood. About a mile from the pavement towards Cissbury, he opened a tumulus which contained a skeleton, with the right arm extended, and in the hand a curious but rudely formed small urn (Fig. 6) about three inches deep, and five wide at the projecting rim that forms the termination of the bars. This also, which is of an uncommon form, probably contained the ashes of the heart.

Being informed by him that several skeletons had been found in digging for chalk in a large pit, a quarter of a

1831.]

mile to the south of the temple, I accompanied him to the spot, and having procured suitable implements, and examining the most probable place, had the great satisfaction of disinterring a skeleton in a very decayed state, imbedded in loose chalk at the bottom of a grave two feet below the surface, cut in the solid chalk hill; the sides of which still retained the mark of the shovel in its smooth and regular form. Near the head was the blade of a knife very much corroded, of the shape and size of Fig. 7, which I have in my possession. The down where these graves were is quite level, and the only circumstance that induced us to suppose we should make the discovery was the rusty colour of the chalk in that spot, at the side of the pit which had been dug close to the foot of the grave.

Here was in all probability a British encampment; and this their place of sepulture. The knife exactly corresponds with others found at the left side of several skeletons disinterred near Lewes; one of which is given in Horsfield's History and Antiquities of that place; and confirms the account we have of a custom prevalent among some of the British tribes, of depositing a knife in the left hand of their dead.

Nearly the whole range of the Sussex Downs abounds in remains of former ages and their summits, crowned with camps and tumuli, are exceedingly interesting to the antiquary.

Mr. Medhurst, a few weeks since, found a skeleton at a short distance from the pavement, bent so as almost to encircle three urns. Yours, &c.

J. H. B.

MR. URBAN, Grove House, Brompton, March 12. THE Ring (Fig. 8) which I have the pleasure to submit to your inspection, was found in a Greek tomb, together with several other ornaments, and of a date evidently some centuries anterior to the Christian era. It is, you will observe, of very pure gold and curious workmanship; the head representing that of a grasshopper, and the circle being formed of a wire round which a smaller wire of gold is wound till near the extremity, where an attenuated thread terminates in a hook which fastens it to a small loop held in the mouth of the grasshopper.

211

I need not particularly direct your attention to the classical allusions in which this ornament is mentioned. I had thought it occurred in Anacreon; but on hastily glancing over that author I do not find what I expected, and I therefore suppose my memory was misled by some recollection of his ode Els Térriya. In Thucydides, however, the notice is very distinct, “kaì χρυσῶν τεττίγων ἐνέρσει κρώβυλον ἀναδούμενοι τῶν ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τριχών.” Wherein the Athenians are represented as wreathing their hair into a topping, which they fastened around by the insertion of golden grasshoppers." In the Knights of Aristophanes also it is said, “ ὁ δ ̓ ἐκεῖνος ὁρᾶν τεττιγοροφό ρος τῷ ἀρχαίῳ σχήματι λαμπρός. "But he was a mighty fine fellow to look at, wearing his golden grasshoppers after the olden fashion."

Lucian also is supposed to refer to the passage I have quoted from Thucydides; but I need not multiply these references. It is worthy of remark that these ornaments were very generally worn by men, as I suppose they were by women; and from the circumference of my specimen it would appear as if the hair had been gathered up in many ringlets. Yours, &c. W. JERDAN.

MR. URBAN, Winchester, Nov. 11.

WITH this I send you a drawing (Fig. 9) of a silver Ring, which has lately fallen under my inspection. It is in the possession of Dr. Littlehales of this place, and was found at Denebury Hill, near Andover.

My own observations lead me to think that it originally belonged to the Douglas family, from the representation of a heart crowned above, and winged on the sides; yet in the usual figures of the heart so crowned, the wings are pointed upwards. This change, however, might have taken place to accommodate the ring by not taking up so much room. At the back of the ring are two hands united, and issuing from a rose on each side; and from which we may be led to think there may be allusion to the union of the two houses of York and Lancaster. The ring is of very rude workmanship, especially where the two ends are united within.

The opinion of your correspondents on the above will oblige Yours, &c.

JOHN LATHAM.