Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/86

68 from the side of a bank in which it had been buried, and had been noticed for years by labourers in going to and from their work.

The coins, all of small brass, are as follows:

Among these coins not a single new variety occurs, and but very few rare reverses. They afford, however, another example to those noted in many similar discoveries, of the usual occurrence of this and other series of coins in conformity with their accepted degrees of rarity.

A note from the Ven. Archdeacon Hill, giving an account of the discovery at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, of some urns containing burnt bones and ashes. These remains were found by the Rev. James White, during excavations for building a cottage, at a distance of about 600 yards from the sea.

Mr. Thomas Charles, of Maidstone, communicated a notice of researches now under prosecution by himself and Mr. C. T. Smythe, which he hopes will be of interest to the antiquary, as they may furnish particulars respecting the discovery of a Roman building on the banks of the Medway, close to Maidstone. The excavations, as far as they have yet proceeded, have disclosed walls, pavements of a coarse kind, fresco paintings, &c.

Mr. Fitch, of Ipswich, forwarded for exhibition an aureus of Vespasian, found at Helmingham, county of Suffolk. The reverse exhibits the Emperor, crowned by Victory; in the exergue, COS VIII.

Mr. C. R. Smith exhibited drawings, executed by Mr. Kennett Martin, of Ramsgate, shewing the positions of two human skeletons, and also of some urns, which, a few years since, were discovered during excavations for the foundations of a house on the Western Cliff, near Ramsgate.

The skeletons were deposited in a horizontal position, at a considerable distance from each other, in a basin-shaped grave, dug out of the solid chalk, and filled in with chalk rubble. This grave appears to have been of more extensive dimensions than would have been absolutely necessary for two corpses. In a recent discovery of skeletons at Stowting, in the same county, it was noticed that in a grave scooped out of the chalk soil, which was capacious enough for seven or eight bodies, only one skeleton was discovered.

The urns were found arranged in groups on either side of, and a few feet from, the grave. Some of them contained burnt bones, and with them was found a