Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/416

398 whisps of hay or sedge-grass, bits of iron, pieces of lead. &c.; in others a quantity of the common snail-shell, sea-shells, &c. A hit of lead found in one has the precise shape of a pot-hook. A hall of pitch was found at the bottom of a very large amphora, a vessel capable of containing more than four gallons. Balls of pitch were thus frequently put by the Romans into their wine to give it a flavour, and the insides of amphoras were often pitched throughout for that express purpose.

"In one urn was found several balls of clay, which appear to have been kneaded by the hand, and are somewhat elongated."

Dr. Bromet read a note from Mr. H. J. Stevens, of Derby, offering to send drawings of some singular fragments of apparently early Norman work in the church-yard of St. Alkmund.

Dr. Bromet stated that, through the civility of Mr. Stevens's clerk of the works he did examine the fragments alluded to. They are of that coarse reddish gritstone which, it would seem, was employed even for sculptural purposes in Derbyshire and Yorkshire previously to the use of lime-stone. Many have been door and window-jambs, and are embellished with the various interlacings and chimerical animals sometimes found on the more ancient church-yard crosses. Two of them have on one side a series of semicircularly-arched panels, divided by short flat columns, with large flat capitals, such as we often see on ancient fonts, and as these were found in the south-east corner of the chancel, they are possibly parts of the tomb or shrine of St. Alkmund, who was killed A.D. 819.

Dr. Bromet suggested, in furtherance of the objects of this Association, that the secretary be requested to communicate with the minister and churchwardens of St. Alkmund's, and the secretary of the Derby Mechanics' Institution, recommending, in the name of the Society, that all the more ancient sculptured fragments found on pulling down the late church of St. Alkmund, be deposited either in the said Institution's museum, the town hall, or such other place easily accessible to the inhabitants of Derby as to the minister and churchwardens may seem fit.

The following letter from Mr. Charles Spence, of Devonport, was read. It was accompanied by rubbings of incised slabs, &c.:—"I transmit a few observations respecting the church of Beer Ferrers, in this county, which I recently visited. Every admirer of genius will recollect that this edifice possesses a melancholy notoriety as having been the place where Charles Stothard, the author of the 'Monumental Effigies,' was killed. In the church-yard, and against the eastern wall of the church, stands an upright stone which at once relates the manner of his death, and commemorates a man whose fame will never die while archæology has a lover, or science its votaries. The church itself is beautifully situated on the banks of the Tavy, and not far from the confluence of that river with the Tamar; it is built in the form of an exact cross, the length of the two transepts, with the intervening breadth of the nave, being exactly the same as the length of nave and chancel, viz. 90 feet. On the north side of the upper portion of the cross is the vestry room, once the chantry chapel, which according to Lysons was collegiate, and founded for six priests in the year 1328, by William de Ferrers, and endowed with the advowson of the church at Beer Ferrers. This chantry chapel is separated from the rest of the church only by the beautiful canopied monument which probably covers the remains of its founder and his lady: in form it resembles the monument of Aneline, countess of Lancaster, in Westminster