Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/361

Rh round the edge, and with a handle, was placed a smooth oval pebble, very hard, of the colour and transparency of a white currant, and of the size and exact shape of a pigeon's egg. In another saucer of the same coarse ware was placed a black hard stone, perfectly round, the size of a nutmeg. Another saucer contained a flat oyster-shell; near to which was a dish containing a thin glass lachrymatory, the size and shape of a bergamot pear, with two small glass handles. In four of the smaller dishes was a fragment of bone, of a chalkish calcined white; but the most beautiful object that stood in the centre of this service of ancient crockery consisted of an elegant flat-bottomed glass bottle, twelve inches high, by eight inches broad, of a light transparent sea-green colour, very thick, and nearly full of calcined bones: this bottle had a handle attached to one of its sides, and fastened to a circular neck about two inches and a half high, the opening of which neck would scarcely admit the hand of a child into the bottle: this hand" (sic: handle) "was beautifully reeded. At the end of this coffer were two inverted conic brackets; each stood upon an earthen lamp," (sic: the plate informs us, that the words are inverted, and that we should read, upon each stood an earthen lamp) "coarsely designed and executed: at the bottom, at the other end, were a pair of sandals, apparently for a small foot, studded all over the heels and soles with hexagonal-headed brass nails, placed similarly to those in countrymen's shoes. The subjects, excepting the sandals, are all perfect, and without stain, and appear as fresh as when new; they are all made of the same kind of ware, and are about twenty-eight in number. Neither coins nor inscription have been found in or near this extraordinary deposit ... The glass vase is a perfect specimen, and may be added to those mentioned in our account of a similar discovery at Donington (Additions to vol. I, p. 54.) ... These perfect remains are preserved in the entrance-lodge leading to Avisford House, where they may be inspected by permission of General Sir W. Houston." (Cartwright's Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, 80.) In a note to the above extract Cartwright mentions the glass vase, found at Harpenden in Hertfordshire: which C. W. Packe, Esq., M.P. presented to the British Museum in 1844. This Harpenden vase, C. says, precisely resembles that discovered at Avisford. His representation however, beside being more coarsely executed, does not exhibit so broad a lip to the Avisford vase, as the other possesses in the figure given in (Archæeol. Journ. II, 254).