Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/568

398 and the singular position in which it was found. The foundation of the ancient city wall has lately been excavated in the ground, called The Lawn. At the place where the discovery was made it ran almost parallel with the course of the river, at the distance of a few yards from it. In the course of their operations the workmen came upon a mass of masonry, of a very different nature from that of the city wall, and, on examination, the mortar showed the usual characteristics of Roman work. In this spot it passed under the foundation of the city wall. Embedded in this masonry, the drain, or water-conduit was found. It measured 9 inches in height, and 14 in width, and is formed of freestone; the stones being in places cemented together with pitch, of which a quantity was found in different parts. The side stones are joggled into each other, and into those at the top and bottom, in a very compact and skilful manner. The work-men told me, that at a short distance from where I saw it, it had turned towards the river, which it did not quite reach, and that the mouth of it was below the present level of the river. In one part it was found to be lined with lead, of which several hundred weight was removed. It was quite choked up with a coarse gravelly sand, like the washings of a road of flint, in which was a very large admixture of shells of a sort of small Helix. There was also found in it the dried remains of a sea-fish, called a 'Pike-fish.' I shall carefully watch any further excavations that may be made, in hopes of tracing this to its other termination. I have called it a drain, or water-conduit, as the purpose for which it was intended appears uncertain. It may have been a drain for sewerage. But it does not seem likely that a mere sewer should have been lined with lead, through a part of its course; nor was the soil with which it was choked at all like the sediment of a sewer, but rather such as might have been washed into it from the river. Was it then a course for conveying water into some house or bath? Further investigation it is hoped may lead to some solution of these questions. The fact that its termination was found to be below the present level of the river, would militate as much against the supposition of its being a sewer to carry away drainage into the stream, as it would appear to favour the notion of its being a means of conveying water from the river. We may suppose that in the long lapse of ages the level of the bed of the river has been much raised; and there can hardly be a doubt that the mouth once opened upon the river."

Mr. Gunner reported subsequently that sketches of these supposed vestiges of Roman times, having been made by Mr. Colson, a talented architect residing in Winchester, which were exhibited to the meeting, it appeared that the inclination of the drain is from the river, proving that it was intended to convey water thence. Mr. Colson had carefully examined the masonry, and reported it to be Roman work.

Mr. Gunner sent also the following account of Antiquities in another part of Hampshire: "Numerous ancient remains have been found at Weston Farm, at that part of the parish of Micheldever, in this county, where the railway traverses the valley, in which the village of Stoke Charity is situate, and at the same spot in which so many other objects of interest were