same class of brick (which had been carted away with the soil and rubbish, and which I could not recover,- -one such was saved by the workman to sharpen his knife on), in the angle formed by the northeast corner of the cathedral (ie., by the junction of the nave with the transept), April 18, 1893. Six stone coffins were also found lying direct east and north. Three were opened, and contained bones only, so the other three were left undisturbed; also one coffin-lid carved on both sides, all buried outside the old Saxon church. "No. 2. Two bricks of similar character to the above, but only about half the size, found with hundreds of others under the bay of the west wall of the north transept of Peterborough Cathedral, immediately north of the arch at the east end of the north aisle of nave. Found in a ditch descending into the rock, and extending east and west in a line in front outside of north wall of nave aisle. This during the internal underpinning of the west wall of transept, 1889. "No. 3. One of two bricks found by Mr. J. T. Irvine in a ditch at Woodstone, of which no trace remained on the surface, October 1884. "What were these used for? Is it not highly probable that they were used for sowing the ground as a means of defence for tripping the enemy, when an attack was made on the old Saxon church of Peterborough, which would in part account for the great number of small fragments found in the ditch surrounding the stockade? An attack on the Saxon church was made by the Danes from the north side, from Font Hill, and these bricks standing in the ground would serve as a good defence, in the same way that General Gordon surrounded Khartoum with soda-water and other glass bottles." Mr. Oliver exhibited an oak carving from the Bateman Collection. It is of the fifteenth century, and represents the taking down of Our Lord from the Cross. It was originally preserved in Oakeley Hall, Northamptonshire. Rev. T. H. Owen, M.A., of Valle Crucis, Llangollen, read a paper on the recent excavations and discoveries on the site of the Cistercian Abbey of Valle Crucis, near Llangollen, in North Wales, which, it will be remembered, was visited during the Congress held at Llangollen in 1877. He exhibited a considerable collection of photographs of the buildings; some interesting specimens of encaustic tiles, and tiles cut in low relief with elegant patterns; an ancient key of curious shape; and also several fragments of coloured glass of destroyed windows of the monastic building; and a skull with a large orifice nearly at the summit of the cranium, bearing evident traces of a severe wound, either inflicted by the hand of an enemy, or the result of a surgical operation during life. It is hoped that this paper will be printed and illustrated in a future part of the Journal. In thanking Mr. Owen for his paper, the Chairman announced that Mr. Owen had that day been elected an Honorary Corresponding Member of the Association. Mr. Andreas Cokyane sent a rubbing from a newly discovered pig of lead, with a Roman inscription, found at Matlock. Mr. J. D. Leader, F.S.A., of Sheffield, sent a similar inscription, and Mr. R. D. Hurd, of Portland Grange, Matlock, sent a third example of the same. Upon this interesting relic of Roman times Mr. W. de Gray Birch, F.S.A., read a few remarks, as follows: : "Our member, Mr. J. D. Leader, F.S.A., of Sheffield, brings to notice a pig of the highest interest. He writes :— "A fortunate discovery, near Matlock, of a pig of lead of the Roman period has been made. The find occurred on the 24th March, on the farm of Messrs. Hurd and Son, known as Portland Grange, which lies at a height of about 500 ft. above the valley of the Derwent, to the east of the turnpike road running from Matlock to Chesterfield. PRVBRIABAS&TMĒALI·LVĪVDARES · Inscription on Leaden Pig recently found at Matlock. Messrs. Hurd have been for several years engaged in reclaiming this land, which they purchased of the Duke of Portland, and are bringing it into cultivation. On 24th March one of their labourers, in trenching a piece of the rough to a depth of about 2 ft., struck with his spade what proved to be a pig of lead. It lay face downwards, and when got out was found to bear a very finely lettered Latin inscription in raised letters, 1 in. in depth. It reads thus: PRVBRI ABASCALFITMETALLI: LVTVDARES. "The letters CAL, FIT, and ET are ligatures, but the lettering is perfectly clear. The pig weighs 175 lb. It has sloping sides, and measures along the base 22 in., along the summit 19 in. The end measurement is: base, 5 in.; summit, 3 in. Depth, 4 in. "In the latter part of the last century three pigs of lead were found in this neighbourhood-one on Matlock Moor, very near the present find, which for some years belonged to Adam Woolley, Esq., and is now in the British Museum. On each of these pigs occur the letters MET. LVD or METAL. LVTVD. Various conjectures were made as to the meaning of these contractions, but Mr. Hurd's inscription gives the words in full. The earlier part of the inscription gives us the name of the mine owner or merchant, with words following on which we do not venture as yet to record our conjectures, awaiting with interest the opinion of learned epigraphists. Messrs. Hurd deserve the highest praise for the manner in which they have taken care of the treasure that so unexpectedly fell into their hands.'-Sheffield Independent, April 3, 1894. "Mr. Leader sends also a pull from a stereotype cast, which he places at our disposal. I am, however, unable to accept the reading given above, and propose to read: P. RVBRI ABASCANTI METALLI LVTVDARES. "There is no stop in the cast after P, but from the analogy of L. Aruconi Verecundi, on the Matlock Moor pig, and c. IVL. PROTI on that found at Hargrave Park, near Mansfield, co. Nottingham, and now in the British Museum, it will not be unreasonable to suppose that the owner or farmer of the lead mines was of noble or patrician rank, and rejoiced in a full triad of names. At the same time it may be preferred that his first name should be read Prubri. After the c in the next name is a monogram, formed of an A without horizontal bar for A, and a vertical down-stroke joined to it, making with it, in my opinion, an N. The following capital T has the vertical stroke prolonged above the bar, and I read it as TI. We thus get the word ABASCANTI; but if the N is rejected the down-stroke may be an I or I., neither of which, however, appears to be so suitable a reading. The use of the genitive form in this name is in accordance with the evident rule followed in the two cases mentioned above, of L. Aruconus Verecundus, and C. Julius Protus. The pigs which bear the names of the emperors, viz., Nero, Vespasian, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Verus, give these names (when at length) in the genitive case, except in one instance, where the dative, "Domitiano. . . . cæsari" is found. "The second portion of the inscription reads METALLI LVTVDARES. The ET of the first word is a monogram formed by prolongation of the vertical line of the E upwards, and adding the bar of the T, after the manner usually found on ligatures in Roman epigraphy. The second L is small, and enclosed, so to speak, in the first, which is of full size. In the second word it is noticeable that the T between the two v's is carried up above the line. "Mr. Leader, to whom I communicated my observation on the reading abascanti, says in reply:- 66 "I have been writing a longer account, but have not yet published it, pending the preparation of a zinco drawing. The inscription, though clear as to lettering, is rather puzzling-particularly the monograms. Your suggestion, 'abascantus', seems scarcely to dispose of the 'cal fit. Then there is the difficulty of the genitive singular, metalli', with the nominative plural' Lutudares.' As regards the position of Lutudarum, it is worthy of note that the site of the present find, and those on Matlock Moor (Hübner, C. I. L., Nos. 1214 and 1215), and the one on Cromford Nether Moor (No. 1208), are all within a narrow area. There are traces of lead working, both ancient and modern, all around, and it is reported of No. 1214 that it was found near a hole or open hearth, and heaps of slag. Wirksworth has long been a centre for Derbyshire lead mining, but I do not know of any Roman remains there.' "The fixing of locality of the Metalli Lutudares, if it could be ascertained, would be an interesting addition to our knowledge of Romano-British sites. Metallus is a synonym of metallum. The itineraries give no help. The Lutudaron Mansio, or town of the Lutudares, is mentioned by Lysons as on the road between Deva (Ches. ter) and Rate (Leicester). [Hübner, C. I. L., vii, 1208]. But this is vague. There are three sites which might be intended, each of which appears to contain a corrupt form of the primeval word(1) Ludlow in Salop; Loughborough in North Leicestershire, on the border of the great forest of Charnwood, and Ludgerhall on the Watling Street, in the same county, on the south. Of these, Loughborough seems to be the most likely. It is worthy of notice that pigs bearing LVT, are found at Matlock and Wirksworth, co. Derby; Pulborough, Sussex; and Hargrave Park, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire; and LVTVD. at Matlock Moor. It would seem, therefore, that the Metalli Lutudares, which have furnished about one. third of the whole number of pigs extant, were of capacious output of metal. Of the form of this word in the singular we know nothing as yet; future discoveries will alone decide whether Lutudas, Lutudar, or Lutudaris is the true word. The site has been stated to be 'in finibus Brigantum', a somewhat broad description; and the abbreviations Lut., Lutud., have been conjecturally filled up as Lutudensia. These leaden masses are found in many places-Somerset, Derby, Cheshire, Salop, Gloucester, Stafford, Nottingham, Yorkshire, Hampshire, Sussex, which is not unexpected, for Pliny bears testimony to the frequency of lead in Britain, and the Roman knowledge of it. "The word CAPASCAS on a pig of lead has not been explained.. But it will be noticed that the second example on the table, inscribed TI. CL. TR. LVT. BR. EX. ARG., a pig of the age of Claudius, found at Matlock, consists of thirty layers; now, as CAPASCAS is used with the numeral xxx on a specimen of the age of Nero, nearly contemporary with the preceding one, it may be fairly conjectured that capasca is the word used for a layer. Whether a native British word with a Latinised form, or a word derived from capio and capax, and signifying a certain capacity, I cannot say. "The phrase EX ARG. may mean: taken from or derived from silver ores; or that which is exargentated, and had the silver removed from it. It comes to the same thing in the end, that the lead is pure and has no admixture of silver, as far as the separative processes known to the metallurgists of the time could be carried; that their knowledge in this respect was inaccurate and their methods ineffective, is well known." ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. WEDNESDAY, 2ND MAY 1894. ALLAN WYON, Esq., F.S.A., HON. TREASURER, IN THE CHAIR. The Chairman announced the ballot for the officers to be open, and appointed Messrs. J. Romilly Allen and W. E. Hughes to be scrutineers. The Chairman read the following ADDRESS. During the year ending to-day the British Archeological Association has completed its fiftieth year of existence. Reference was made to this at the Fiftieth Annual Congress, which was held at Winchester at the end of July and the beginning of August last year. That Congress was well attended, the subjects brought under the notice of those present were of much interest, and were ably described and discussed, and the whole proceedings were characterised by a most pleasant and genial spirit. The Journal of the Association has maintained its character during the past year for the variety of subjects treated upon, and for the ability with which these subjects have been dealt with. The number of illustrations has been much increased, thus enhancing the interest of the publication. Our evening meetings this session have been better attended than for many sessions past, the short social intercourse that now takes place after each meeting enabling the members to talk over various subjects in a useful and agreeable manner. Whilst thus the Association has various bright and pleasing matters to look back upon during the past year, it has also the melancholy duty of recording the loss of the following members by death: The Right Hon. The Earl of Warwick, M.A. G. Berrey, Esq. R. S. Holford, Esq. Herbert New, Esq. Algernon Peckover, Esq., F.S.A. The Rev. J. N. Simpkinson, M.A. The Rev. C. Soames, M.A. On the other hand the Association has been strengthened by the addition of the following Associates and others to its membership: ASSOCIATES. The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Winchester, D.D. |