Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/204

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9*8. 1- MAR.5,*98.

ground is a thatched cottage, near which the Prodigal, in tattered raiment, is conversing with an elderly woman,

3. The Prodigal is kneeling on one knee under a vine-clad tree, beside a trough, at which five pigs are feeding. In the distance is the cottage, as in No. 2, save that more of the building is shown. Near it the Prodigal is conversing with a man.

4. The Prodigal is on both knees before his father, who is embracing him. A servant is bringing out a robe and a ring as large as a bracelet. In an open lean-to of the house another servant is flaying the fatted calf he has just killed. In the background the elder son is coming in from the field.

Unfortunately this relic has been taken to Canada by^ a cousin ; but before it went I had a loan of it, and it was photographed. An ink-photo is inserted in my ' Account of the Hallen Family,' and I enclose a copy of this relic. I have two or three copies to spare, and should be happy to send them to any one making a collection of such things. I should also be very glad to hear, directly, anything about the probable artist, or the existence of sets similarly treated.

A. W. CORNELIUS HALLEN.

Parsonage, Alloa, N.B.

ROMAN POTTERIES (9 th S. i. 68). It may interest Miss THOYTS to know that in the district of South Somerset, about three miles from Chard, there is a pottery in full swing, which stands on or very near the site of one which was worked during the Roman period. It is called the Crock Street Pottery, a most suggestive name, and my authority is the late Mr. Edward Jeboult, author of a 'History of West Somerset.' Unfor- tunately I am away from my references, so that I cannot now give complete chapter and verse for what I am about to advance. The great Fosse Road led directly through Somerset to Petherton Bridge, over the Parrett. Here it divided into two branches, that on the right hand passing a little to the north of the town of Ilminster, through Broad Way, to the vast Roman encampment at Castle Neroche. The left-hand road is not so easily traced. Its probable line of route, according to Phelps, was through the villages of Dinnington, Sea, and Crock Street, over an offshoot of the Blackdown range, into Devon- shire. The question now arises, Why have we two vicinal ways running almost parallel for such a distance within a mile or so of each other 1 The only feasible answer is, Because the potteries at Crock Street and the digging for iron ore and smelting works at White-

staunton were such important industries at that time as to require a road running in that direction. That the making of pottery at " Crock Street " is of most ancient origin can admit of no question. The word " crock " is derived from the A.-S. crocc, crocca, a pot, Danish kruik. In the tax-roll for Somerset, temp. Edward III., the name Roger le Crocker occurs as being then resident in the same parish. The surname Crocker is still to be found in the locality. In the map of Roman Somerset published by the late Prebendary Scarth traces of Roman occupation in this part are most abundant. We have Roman villas discovered at Watergore, Dinnington, Wadeford, and Whitestaunton, the last in the lawn of the manor house of Charles J. Elton, the learned author of that standard work 'The Origins of English History.' Here a quantity of Roman bricks and frag- ments of pottery can be seen, within a couple of miles as the crow flies of the pottery at Crock Street. At Dunpole, one mile distant, Roman coins have been found. The pits where the clay has been dug for these pot- teries can still be traced in field after field, and must have taken centuries to work in the ordinary course of earthenware manufac- ture. In the ' Codex Diplomaticus,' collated by Kemble, I have found references to this spot, as well as place-names round it, showing its importance in the time of the West Saxon kings.

In conclusion, I am convinced that, were a careful excavation made of the detritus of these ancient potteries by^ competent investi- gators, relics of every period from the Roman would be found, and most interesting dis- coveries made.

WILLIAM LOCKE RADFORD.

Mr. L. Jewitt, in his 'Half -Hours among some English Antiquities' CLondon, David Bogue, 1880), says, under 'Roman Pottery,' chap. vi. :

"In this locality at Castor and its neighbourhood remains of very extensive potworks, covering many acres, have been found; and several kilns, in a more or less perfect state, and containing ware

in situ, have been uncovered Other potworks

have been found at Colchester, Headington (near Oxford), Winterton, Wilderspool, London, Ashdon, York, Worcester, Marlborough, and many other places."

H. ANDREWS.

Two Roman kilns were discovered at Harts- hill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, about a year ago. One was damaged by the workmen before it was known what it was, but the other, when I saw it, a few days after it was opened up, was in a very good state of pre-