Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/83

Rh have been considered the inclosure within lofty walls of several acres of arable land, for such it is described to be in the charter, with a view to the extension of academical education then contemplated, after the noble example recently set by Walter de Merton. A chapel and library, eastward from this spot, soon followed from the munificence of two successive bishops of Durham, Richard de Bury, and Thomas de Hatfield; and, before the expiration of the fourteenth century, the erection of four additional establishments for general study, within the walls of the city of Oxford, effected an entire revolution in the character of the University, elevating it from aularian poverty into collegiate magnificence. These circumstances are here briefly noticed, that we may bear in mind the rapid progress that may be supposed to have been made in every thing, since the time when these rude vessels may be presumed to have been manufactured, and even from the time when they seem to have been deposited in the earth as relics of a former period. They are of different heights and dimensions. The largest differs only in a slight degree from the sesquipedal measure of the ancient ampulla, for the knowledge of which we are indebted to a playful line of Horace; being in height about 17 inches and a quarter. It differs from the original ampulla or diota, in having only one handle instead of two.

Specimens of medieval pottery are supposed to be of very rare occurence. The smallest fragments of Samian ware, and the minutest relics of ancient art, connected with our classical predilections, are carefully preserved; but the rudeness of the execution, or the coarseness of the material, has generally consigned to oblivion even the sacred vessels of our barbarous ancestors. Yet our Saxon forefathers had their imperfect imitations of Roman ware—such as their ampulla, lecythus, lagena, or flagon, legitha, and crocca, or crohha;—which Dr. Bosworth does not hesitate to interpret as "chrismatories." He considers them, however, as many learned antiquaries do, to have been small vessels; though it is reasonable to suppose that they might have been of different dimensions, large or small, according to their intended use and application. There can be no mistake in this matter; as the smaller vessel, in the incorporation of our language with the Norman French, was properly distinguished by the diminutive word cruette, or cruet.