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 SIR THOMAS BROWNE. 75 in fact, though so far removed from the capital of the empire, no fewer than ten imperial persons had [nsited it, viz., Caesar, Claudius, Britannicus, Ves- .pasian, Titus, Adrian, Severus, Commodus, Geta, ijtand Caracalla. I Of the precise antiquity of these reliques in Nor- ancient coins or medals enclosed within the urns, which might lead to any conjecture about the date of the interment. In some which had been dug up " in Spittlefields (Spitalfields), near London, the coins of Claudius, Vespasian, Commodus, Anto- ninus, together with lachrymatories, lamps, bottles of liquor, and other articles of affectionate super- stition," had been discovered. From the thinness I of the bones in the Norfolk urns, particularly of the skulls, the smallness of the teeth, and the slen- i derness of the ribs and thigh bones, it was not im- I probable that many of them were the remains of women, or of persons of tender age. After a very I learned dissertation upon the funeral customs of i the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Jews, the Danes, &c., he concludes in favour of crema- iion, or burning ; for, says he," to be knaved out i of our graves, to have our sculls made drinking bowls, and our bones turned into pipes, to delight and sport our enemies, are tragical abominations, escaped in burning burials." — p. 17. To this Treatise on Urn-burial, the author added another upon the Garden of Cyrus, or the Quin- cunxial Lozenge, or Net-work Plantation of the ancients. It has been well observed that some of the most pleasing literary performances have been produced by learning and genius exercised upon
 * folk, nothing could be known, for there were no