teenth century (?), of good form, the mouth trefoil-shaped, and with handle, and glazed in imitation of old Venetian "schmelz" glass. The height is seven inches and a quarter.

After remarks upon the various exhibitions, by Messrs. Roberts, G. Wright, Grover, and Baily, Mr. H. Syer Cuming read a paper on "St. Katherine," which will be printed in a future number of the Journal.

FEBRUARY 28TH.

H. SYER CUMING, ESQ., F.S.A. Scor., V.P., IN THE CHAIR.

Thanks were returned for the following presents :

To the Society.-The Royal Dublin Society, for Journal No. xl. 8vo, Dublin, 1872.

To the Author.-James Kendrick, Esq., M.D., for "Essay on Recent Discoveries of the Roman Site at Wilderspool, near Warrington," reprinted from the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. 8vo, Liverpool, 1871.

Mr. E. Roberts exhibited the top of an earthenware jar, with part of the rim raised and pierced, probably to act as a strainer, said to have been found in Broad Street, Roman; also three bone skates, from the same locality, British.

Mr. J. W. Baily exhibited the face portion of a terra cotta bust found with a quantity of Roman pottery, in fragments, in a late excavation in the city of London; a small amphora of the peg-top shape, from an excavation at Wapping; various leathern knife-sheaths, temp. Edward II—Henry IV, some stamped and some engraved with a tool, from the city of London.

The Rev. S. M. Mayhew exhibited a water-colour drawing of a crucifix found in the churchyard, West Farleigh, Kent, and sent the following observations upon it, which were read in his absence by the Chairman :

"Farley, in Saxon Farrlega, may be interpreted the place of boars or bulls'. It is bordered by the Medway east and west, and belonged some time to the monks of Christchurch, Canterbury, to whom it yielded in the days of Edward the Confessor twelve hundred eels, for a yearly rent. The crucifix, of which I exhibit a water-colour drawing (Plate 2), was found in the churchyard of West Farleigh, about twentyfive yards north of the chancel, in a line with the east end of the church, at a depth of about six feet. I quote from a memorandum by the Rector, the late Dean of Rochester, through the kindness of whose son, the Rector of Wateringbury, the drawing of the crucifix was permitted, and the following memoir communicated:

1872

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"Barnes, the clerk, in digging a grave in the churchyard, found a crucifix, which I have had put in order. It is pronounced to be a curious relic, and probably belonged to a Knight Templar. It was found December 26th, 1832.'

"The object is a processional, or altar cross (for the figure is not repeated), and was made to fit into a socket. The workmanship appears to be Italian, of the fourteenth century. It was probably buried by the hand of a friend, in hope that the times of the English Reformation would pass away, and that it might then reoccupy its place and dignity in the worship of West Farley Church. It rested, and was found in the underground recess of an old wall, popularly considered as part of a forgotten conventual building, though no evidence exists as to monastic or conventual buildings being erected at Farley by the monks of St. Helen, Bishopgate, the possessors of the manor. The church dates from the twelfth century. The triple east and side windows of the chancel are of the same period. The rest of the church and the tower are much later, and of no particular interest. The chancel was complete in itself, and surmounted on the west by a bell turret. The sedilia and piscina are remarkable: a geometrical window has been inserted on the south side, and the thickness of the wall cut away to about eighteen inches of the flooring, where it forms a seat; and at the angle west and north is a double piscina, the intersecting shaft being of chalk, the only piece observable in the architecture of the chancel. There are no remains of rood-loft, staircase, or hagiascope. The church crucifix is of oak, covered with bronze plates, so coloured by decomposition as to resemble enamel, and repoussé. The arms are floriated, and the termination of the shaft somewhat diminished for fitting the socket. The measurements are entire height, 234 ins. (5 ins. of which are taken up by the stem for the socket); width of traverse, 15 ins. The water-colour drawing is the exact size, and as nearly as possible the colouring of the original. On each arm, and on either extremity of the shaft are four discs of enamelled glass, nearly 1 ins. diameter, representing the emblems of the four Evangelists. These are of Venetian make, and of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Above the head of the figure is a fifth of plain glass, about 1 ins. diameter, once covering a fragment of the Holy Cross-a feature which brings to mind the famous cross of Cong, made A.D. 1123. Pendent from the arms are two reliquaries, in the shape of spear-heads, forming, in the opinion of our Vice-President, Syer Cuming, Esq., depositories for drops of the Sacred blood. The reliquary, pendent from the cross, is very uncommon, nor can the writer recall a similar instance. May not the fragment of the cross have been obtained from the Sacrarium of St. Helena, London-the blood from Canterbury? The figure is of solid bronze, and has all the stiffness of early modelling. The head is

crowned with thorns and inclined, the hands and feet expanded, the spear wound diagonal to the ribs, and on the right side. The raised work of the plating appears to represent suns and stars, perhaps in allusion to the 'Sun of Righteousness' setting in blood, or the 'Star of the House of David' dimmed by the darkness of the Crucifixion, or they may point to the eternal splendours of the Resurrection; in either case this Farleigh relic is a crux stellata of surpassing interest."

Mr. E. Roberts observed that the drawing before the meeting did not indicate clearly whether the very remarkable pendants which were attached to the crucifix were of the same material as the crucifix itself, It seemed to him also, with regard to various other details, that it had been repaired; and he thought that, without an inspection of the crucifix itself, it would be impossible to judge correctly with regard to its exact date. Mr. Mayhew could, however, doubtless furnish further particulars, by which they would be able to form a more accurate opinion. Mr. H. Syer Cuming read the following observations on the Cadus exhibited by Mr. J. W. Grover at the last meeting (see ante, p. 76).

"The terra-cotta vessel produced by Mr. Grover is undoubtedly a Roman cadus, similar in every respect to other examples discovered in London, some of which have found their way into the British Museum and the Baily and Mayhew collections.

"The cadus bore a certain resemblance in contour to a boy's top (turbines cadorum, Plin. H. N. xxvii, 5); and its mouth was wont to be closed with an obturaculum or bung of cork, as recorded by Pliny (H. N. xvi, 13). Both Virgil (En. i, 199) and Martial (iv, 66, 8) speak of wine being preserved in cadi; but such vessels were also employed to hold oil, honey, preserved fruits, etc. Pliny (H. N. xv, 21) says: Where figs are in great abundance, as in Asia, for instance, huge orca are filled with them, and at Ruspina, a city of Africa, we find cadi used for a similar purpose.' And we gather from a line in Martial's Epigram on Mancinus (i, 44, 8) that the olives of Picenum, in Central Italy, were stored in cadi.

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"Vessels identical in form and material with the Roman cadi are still employed as olive jars in Spain, in verification of which I exhibit one which was brought to England in 1850, full of fruit. It is 11 ins. in height, full 22 ins. at its greatest circumference, and there is a slight spiral groove running down the tapering stem which would facilitate its fixture in a bed of sand, when required to stand upright in the manner of the amphora seria, etc., in the cella vinaria discovered under the walls of Rome in 1789. The mouth of this jar, about 2 ins. diameter, is stopped with a cork, which has been covered over with white plaster, in like way as Pliny (H. N. xviii, 73) states the bungs of grain vessels were sometimes rendered air-tight. It was also the custom in Egypt to secure the lids of amphora, etc., with resin and mortar, as is

still the custom in Portugal in respect to grape jars. The old Romans inscribed figures and letters with rubrica or red ochre, on their wine and other vessels, and this modern cadus is numbered 6168 in red, in quite a classic spirit. The interior of the jar is thickly coated with resin, giving it the appearance of being covered with a rich brown glazing. Pliny (H. N. xiv, 25, xvi, 22) mentions that the inside of dolia, etc., were treated with Bruttian pitch or resin, which was considered in Italy to be superior to that of Spain, the produce of the wild pine, which was 'bitter, dry, and of a disagreeable smell.' Many wine vessels met with in Egypt have been coated internally with a resinous matter.

"In whatever light we regard this Spanish olive jar, whether as to use, form, substance, interior coating, stopper and covering, not forgetting the rubricated numerals, it seems a memento of modes and contrivances handed down in unbroken succession from ancient to modern times."

Mr. Thomas Morgan, in support of an opinion expressed by him at the last meeting, that the objects called "hobbles" or weights exhibited by Mr. Roberts (see p. 76 ante) might have been weapons of war, read the following extract from a work, De Origine Germanorum, ex Schedis Manuscriptis, etc., Gottingen, 1750:

"Sequuntur num. ix & x duo globi lapidei perforati in Holsatiâ inventi, quorum usus in bello fuit. Fune enim alligati hostium capitibus immittebantur. Nec dissimili instrumento Johannes Ziska suo adhuc tempore usus est, ut cernere est ex figura a Majore1 in libello de migrationibus Cimbrorum producta. Ubi mireris oportet veterum patientiam in acuendis et perforandis lapidibus durissimis, quæ res etiam nobis molestiam non parvam facessit."

The general opinion, however, of the meeting was that whatever may have been the use of the objects exhibited by Mr. Roberts, they were certainly of too soft a material ever to have been employed in warfare, and Mr. J. W. Baily suggested that they may have been weights for fishing nets.

Mr. Edward Levien, Hon. Sec., in the absence of the author, read the following paper, "On further Discoveries of British Remains at Lancaster Moor," by John Harker, Esq., M.D.:

"Facts, however few or meagre they may be, which tend to the elucidation of the true history of the human race, are eagerly sought after by the anthropologists of the present day,-an excuse, I hope, for the accompanying account and description of a funeral urn recently discovered, with some other remains, on the Lancaster Moor, which may fairly be referred to the close of the stone period.

"This sepulchral urn is of the same general type as the urns of the British interments described by me and figured in our Journal for the Major. Nova lit. maris Baltici.