healthfulness of the capital, if our own legislature were to enact a statute for a like purpose.

The earliest of these discoveries that we are acquainted with, was made in Spittle Fields, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and it is thus fully noticed by Stow :

"On the east side of this Church-yard, [St. Mary Spittle] lyeth a large field, of old time called Lolesworth, now Spittlefield, which about ye yeere 1576, was broken up for clay to make brick: in the digging thereof many earthen pots called Vrna, were found full of ashes, and burnt bones of men, to wit, of the Romanes that inhabited here. For it was the custome of the Romanes, to burne their dead, to put their ashes in an vrne, and then burie the same with certain ceremonies, in some field appointed for that purpose neere vnto their City.

Euery of these pots had in them (with the ashes of the dead) one piece of copper money, with the inscription of the Emperour then raigning; some of them were of Claudius, some of Vespasian, some of Nero, of Anthonius Pius, of Traianus, and others. Besides those vrnes, many other pots were found in the same place, made of a white earth, with long necks, & handles, like to our stone jugs: these were emptie, but seemed to be buried full of some liquid matter, long since consumed and soaked through. For there were found diuers vials, and other fashioned glasses, some most cunningly wrought, such as I haue not seene the like, and some of Christall, all which had water in them, nothing differing in clearnes, taste, or sauour from common spring water, whatsoeuer it was at the first. Some of these glasses had oyle in them very thicke, and earthy in sauour. Some were supposed to haue balme in them,

but had lost the vertue: many of these pots and glasses were broken in cutting of the clay, so that few were taken vp whole.

"There were also found diuers dishes and cups, of a fine red coloured earth, which shewed outwardly such a shining smoothnesse, as if they had beene of Curral. Those had (in the bottomes) Romane letters printed; there were also lampes of white earth and red, artificially wrought with diuers Antiquities about them, some three or foure Images, made of white earth, about a span long each of them: one I remember was of Pallas, the rest I haue forgotten. I myself haue reserued (amongst diuers of those antiquities there) one vrne, with the ashes and bones, and one pot of white earth very small, not exceeding the quantity of a quarter of a wine pint, made in shape of a hare, squatted vpon her legs, and betweene her eares is the mouth of the pot.

There hath also beene found (in the same field) diuers coffins of stone, containing the bones of men: these I suppose to be the burials of some special persons, in time of the Brytans, or Saxons, after that the Romanes had left to gouerne here. Morequer, there were also found the sculs and bones of men, without coffins, or rather whose coffins (being of great timber) were consumed. Diuers great nayles of iron were there found, such as are vsed in the wheeles of shod carts, being each of them as bigge as a mans finger, and a quarter of a yard long, the heads two inches ouer. Those nayles were more wondred at then the rest of the things there found, and many opinions of men were there vttered of them, namely, that the men there buried, were murthered by driuing those nayles into their heads; a thing unlikely for a smaller nayle would more aptly serue to

so bad a purpose, and a more secret place would lightly be imployed for such buriall."*

Some other discoveries made in the same field, during the time of James the First, are mentioned by the learned Dr. Meric Casaubon, in his Latin tract on Credulity. He says that he went thither when a boy, and saw one of the graves newly opened, in which a large skull and some coins were found. The former had been broken in digging, and the pieces scattered, and partly taken away; but "being observed to be beyond the ordinary size, the King was acquainted with it, who appointed that the pieces should be retrieved as many as might be, and

66

*"Survey of London," edit. 1618; pp. 323, 325. Respecting the nails, Stow adds, " But to set downe what I haue obserued concerning this matter, I there beheld the bones of a man lying (as I noted) the head north, the feet south, and round about him (as thwart his head, along both his sides, and thwart his feete) such nayles were found. Wherefore I coniectured them to be the nayles of his coffin, which had beene a trough, cut out of some great tree, and the same couered with a planke of a great thickenesse, fastened with such nayles, and therefore I caused some of the nayles to be reached vp to me; and found vnder the broad heades of them, the old wood, skant turned into earth, but still retaining both the graine and proper colour. Of these nayles (with the wood vnder the head thereof) I reserued one, as also the nether iaw-bone of the man, the teeth being great, sound, & fixed, which (amongst many other monuments there found I haue yet to shew; but the nayle lying dry, is by scaling greatly wasted.”

:

set together which was done, and then being drawn out according to art, the proportion equalled a bushel in the compass of it." Casaubon conceived this to have been a giant's skull, but other persons, with far greater probability, supposed it to be that of an elephant.*

A curious Roman ossuary, or urn, of glass, which had, also, been found in Spital-fields (most probably in the ancient burial-place before mentioned) was presented to the Royal Society by Sir Christopher Wren, and is described in the "Parentalia," as sufficiently capacious to contain a gallon and a half." "It was encompassed by five parallel circles, and had a lauale and a very short, with a wide mouth, of a white metal."

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Another Cemetery was discovered in 1615, in what is now called Sun Tavern Fields, at Shadwell, where formerly gravel was dug up for ballasting ships. Here were found divers urns; a coin of Pupienus, (who associated with Balbinus against Maximus, and was slain with him, in a revolt of their own soldiers, about the year 237;) and two Coffins, one whereof, being of stone, contained the boues of a man; and the other, of lead, beautifully embellished with escallop shells, and a crotister border, contained those of a woman, at whose head and feet were placed two urns, of the height of three feet each; and at the sides divers beautiful red earthen bottles, with a number of lachrymatories of hexagon and octagon forms; and on each

VOL. I.

Strype's Stow, B. ii. p. 99.
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side of the inhumed bones were deposited two ivory sceptres, of the length of eighteen inches each; and upon the breast, the figure of a small Cupid, curiously wrought, as were likewise two pieces of jet, resembling nails, of the length of three inches."*

In excavating the ground for the foundations of the present St. Paul's Cathedral, on the north and north east sides, Sir Christopher Wren discovered the remains of another Cemetery, of which the following particulars are given in the "Parentalia" from his own

notes.

"Under the graves of the later ages, in a row below them, were the burial-places of the Saxon times. The Saxons, as it appeared, were accustomed to line their graves with chalk-stones; though some, more eminently, were entombed in coffins of whole stones. Below these were British graves, where were found ivory and wooden pins, of a hard wood, seemingly box, in abundance, of about six inches long. It seems the bodies were only wrapped up, and pinned in woollen shrouds, which being consumed, the pins remained entire. In the same and deeper, were Roman urns intermixed. This was eighteen feet, or more, and belonged to the Colony when the Romans and Britons lived and died together. The more remarkable Roman urns, lamps, lachrymatories, fragments of sacrificing vessels, &c. were found deep in the ground, towards the north-east corner, near Cheapside these were generally well wrought, and embossed with various figures and devices. Among those preserved, were a fragment of a vessel in the shape of a bason, whereon Charon is represented with his oar in

row,

* Malcolm's " Lond. Red." Vol. IV. p. 566, from Weever.