1832.] Roman Remains discovered in Southwark. Two well-painted portraits of the time of Elizabeth or James I. entitled Lord Hervey and Lady. The arms of Hervey are on his picture, and a sea engagement in the back part denotes a naval officer. This appears to be Sir William Hervey, Bart. created Lord Hervey of Kidbroke, co. Kent, 1628, who had greatly distinguished himself in boarding one of the vessels composing the Spanish Armada in 1588. He married, 1st, Mary, dau. of Browne, Viscount Montacute, widow of Henry Earl of Southampton; 2d, Cordelia, daughter and heir of Brian Annesley of Lee in Kent, esq. These pictures were evidently painted at different times, and by different masters. Lord Hervey's portrait is on canvas; that of the lady on panshe is probably the second wife. Yours, &c. THOS. RACKETT. nel; Mr. URBAN, THE Roman remains discovered in the course of the excavations necessary for forming the New London Bridge approaches, on the City side, having been recorded by Mr. Kempe in the Archæologia, and by Mr. Herbert, of the City Library, in his History of St. Michael's Parish; I beg leave to communicate, through the medium of your pages, an account of the interesting discoveries made during the same works on the southern side, the progress of which I have closely watched. My communication principally relates to discoveries recently made in excavating for the foundations of the Tavern, now being erected for Mr. Humphery, of which Mr. Allen is architect, and one or two other houses placed at the north-east angle of St. Saviour's Church, near the Lady Chapel; on this spot, toward the end of April, and at the beginning of the present month, numerous Roman remains have been discovered, most of which are now in my possession, consisting of fragments of the red Samian pottery, both plain and ornamented, among which were two vessels nearly perfect; one black vase of the figure usually considered to be sepulchral, with several fragments of similar vessels, varying a little in form, but always elegant; horns of animals, boars' tusks, coins (mostly imperfect); a glass vase; instruments of brass; a very remarkably formed key, of cop 399 per, in a fine state of preservation; fragments of amphoræ ; a Roman bead or amulet; and various other less perfect, though interesting remains. From all that I have seen and heard of the discoveries near this spot, I have but little doubt that a Roman temple once stood on or near the site of St. Saviour's Church; on the south side of which Mr. Gwilt discovered a beautiful tessellated pavement, and I have seen portions of others, found in the burial ground, together with similar deposits to those above named. The discoveries made a few years since, in and near King-street in the Borough, while constructing the grand sewers, plainly indicated a Roman burial place. The recent discoveries, I am inclined to think, were of a sacrificial nature, and the general appearances of the spot have led me to suppose, that here they burned their dead, which it is well known they were forbidden to do within the walls of their city. The numerous beautiful fragments of Samian pottery were perhaps vessels used at their sacrifices, which were usually offered at the time of burning the body, and the Roman ritual enjoined the use of earthenware in their religious ceremonies; in this opinion I am borne out by the nature of the accompanying deposits of horns and bones of animals, wild boars' tusks, &c. probably those of the victims Tacitus speaks of a solemn sacrifice of an ox, a sheep, and a boar, and it is remarkable that the remains here found answer this description. A few feet southward of these, I observed many fragments of burnt bricks, and a large quantity of ashes, among which were found a ring and numerous coins, decidedly Roman; but much defaced, apparently from the action of a fire. These appearances were confined to one spot, and I cannot account for them otherwise than by the supposition, that it may have been a funeral pile; for it is related, on the authority of Virgil, that abundance of presents were thrown on to the body while on the burning pile, such as costly garments, perfumes, jewels, &c.; and it is likely that coins may have been of the number, and these alone would resist the action of the flames. Of the numerous coins found, I have only seen two or three worth notice, and these were from another part of the ground. I have one of Antoninus Pius, in a fine state of preservation, on the reverse of which is a figure of Victory bearing a shield, inscribed VIC GER. The other of Domitian; reverse, a figure of Plenty, bearing in her right hand a pair of scales, and on her left arm a cornucopia. As far as my observation has gone, Roman remains are found in Southwark, usually at depths varying from 10 to 14 feet; and the reason that they were not discovered in other parts as well as on this spot, is, I conceive, that the workmen have not attained sufficient depth; here it was necessary to go to a greater depth for the extensive kitchens and cellars required for the above-named premises. The particular description of the articles referred to, with drawings of them, shall, if acceptable, form the subject of another communication. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, WILLIAM TAYLOR. Bath, April 3. I TOO (see p. 216) have been surprised that Collins should have passed over Thomas Sidney, a younger son of Sir Henry, K. G. and younger brother of Sir Philip Sidney, and of the first Sidney Earl of Leicester, with a notice of his name only, and the addition that should show that he was a knight, which he was not. The notices of his short life which have been collected by your Correspondent are valuable. But I would take the liberty to observe that he seems to have been misled by the Lansdown MS. no. 892, when he presents the notice of the three marriages of the daughter of Arthur Dakyns, as a "document," and as in fact a copy of an inscription in the church of Hark ness. The inscription is still existing, and contains a very clear account of the three marriages of Margaret Dakyns, the heiress of Harkness. What is found in the Lansdown MS. is a kind of abstract of it, and is in several particulars either deficient or erroneous. And in reference to the subject for which it was produced, and to the curious and important question which your Correspondent has raised, whether this Thomas Sidney did not have issue?-it is the variation between the abstract and the original which alone [May, affords room for such a question; the original showing that "he died without issue, the 26th day of July, 1595.” You, Mr. Urban, have printed the inscription at large in your LXXth volume, p. 739. The relict of Thomas Sidney married Sir Thomas Posthumus Hoby, whose wife she died Sept. 4, 1633. She was buried in the church of Harkness, in the grave of her parents; "so neer," in the words of her epitaph, "unto the bodies of her father and of her mother, as that all three will become but one heape of duste." A lady whose first husband was a Devereux, her second a Sidney, and her third a Hoby, and of whom there is so complete a history on the monuments of herself and her family, ought not to have been left without a notice in the Peerages. She is not mentioned even by Vincent, though he corrects Brooke for having styled Walter Devereux her husband "knight.” The marriage of Alexander Cosby (p. 214) with Dorcas Sidney appears in a pedigree of the family of Allot, compiled about the reign of Charles I. in which it is shown that the mother of Dorcas, and the wife of William Sidney of Otford, was Elizabeth Allot, a daughter of Robert Allot of Yorkshire, by Elizabeth Waad, a sister of Armigael Waad, the navigator.* In one of Aubrey's MSS. is the following curious fragment of Sidney genealogy, which may suggest to your Correspondent lines of inquiry in his search after the stray members of this peculiarly interesting family, even if he and others of your readers should agree with me in thinking that Aubrey has here, as in some other instances, given perpetuity by his pen to the floating and untrue rumours of the time. His statement is this:-Sir John Sidney, brother to Sir Philip, married a daughter of Huntley of Bonwell in Gloucestershire, esq. and had a son and a daughter. The daughter named Pembroke married Strode. The son John married a daughter of Thomas Lyte, and had a daughter, who married a yeoman, who lived near LyteCury in Wilts. The widow of Sir John Sidney married Thomas Lyte of Lyte-Cury, and had issue by him. Yours, &c. 1832.] West Door of Newton Chapel, Somerset-Isis & Osiris. I SEND you a drawing (Pl. II.) of the West Door of Newton Chapel, near North Petherton, Somerset. The figures refer to the parable of the Ten Virgins in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew, and the workmanship exhibits a mixture of Gothic with the style of the 16th century, which date appears on a richly carved cornice running round the interior of the Chapel. The chancel screen is handsome, and consists of figures supporting a cornice in the same taste as the upper part of the west door; but of this I had not time to make a correct drawing. The Chapel is on the property of Sir Thomas Acland, and was built by an ancestor of the present Baronet, for the benefit of his tenantry. It is well worthy the notice of the antiquary and the artist; and I hope some of your Correspondents will favour me with a more particular account of it than I was able to obtain. E.W. Mr. URBAN, Broomfield Hall, Bridgewater. ON a late visit to my respected neighbour, the Rev. John Poole, Rector of Enmore (known for his "Village School Improved," and other works for the education of the poor), my attention was drawn to a pair of images (Pl. II. fig. 1, 2) on whose signification it appeared the ingenuity of several friends had been vainly exercised. They had been in his family about a century, but with their history he is unacquainted. They are of fine alabaster, much yellowed by age; about twenty inches high with their pedestals; and have sustained partial injury. After some examination, I have little doubt they are representations of Isis and Osiris. But their character is, I believe, unique, and their costume and insignia singular. The sculpture is not Egyptian, as is evi-, dent from the ornamental scrolls and festoons of the pedestals, and the ge-. neral style of the figures. Isis is habited as a Syrian huntress, in a short tunic, not very unlike a boddice and kirtle, which is bound round her waist with a double row of pearls. She is also decorated with a necklace GENT. MAG. May, 1832. 401 of the same material. In her right hand she holds a bow, while her quiver full of arrows is suspended on her left side. An ample scarf floats over her shoulders. In her left hand she holds the head of her husband Osiris, who has been recently murdered by his brother Typhon, and which she has just discovered on the Phoenician coast, whither the mangled pieces of his corpse have been floated by the current from the Nile, into which they were cast by the assassin. She contemplates this sad spectacle with an aspect of sorrowful bereavement. Her right leg is brought forward over a crocodile, which is much mutilated, having lost both head and tail, but which is the symbol of Typhon, regarded by the Egyptians as the genius of evil, and here introduced to signify the destroyer. Osiris himself is sculptured as a King in a long stole, over which is a tunic, and a sort of ermined hood, very similar to those worn by old feudal dukes. He has something like a coronet on his head, which is well covered with hair, while, as an Egyptian, he is beardless. In his right hand he holds a temple porch, with its pediment and twisted columns; indicating him as the institutor of divine worship among his subjects; in the same way as royal and prelatical founders of churches were in the middle age. In his left he bears his sceptre, the top of which is broken off; as is part of a scarf to which it was attached. His robe is covered with stars, and bordered and fringed at the hem. He also wears a girdle of pearls. At his feet is Apis, his symbol, garlanded with pearls between the horns, which are curved inwardly, so as almost to form a circle, in obvious allusion to the solar orb, and corresponding with the mythological signification of Isis as the Moon, identified with the Bona Dea of the East, and the huntress Diana of Greece, and particularly of Crete. The figures may be regarded as astronomical in their design. That Osiris as well as Adonis and Thammuz personified the Sun, is a supposition warranted by ritual similarity of worship. Nor can I refrain from quoting in this connexion Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, 1. 4: "Concerning Adonis, whom sometimes ancient authors call Osiris, there are two things |