Page:VCH London 1.djvu/171

 ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON Antlq. iv, 92 ; Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon, 323 ; and compare a silver statuette in British Museum, and a curious inscribed vase in Mainz, Koerber, Rom. Inschr. d. Ala'm-z. Mus (1897), 266]. In 1837 a marble female head was found on the site of the old bridge, broken from a statuette. It is described as of marble from the Loire, well executed and apparently (from the arrangement of the hair) an imitation of Greek fourth-century work _Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xiii, 317, pi. 42]. In 1846 a massive gold ring with intaglio of a seated Jupiter was reported from the same site [ibid, ii, 199]. Fragments of pottery in British Museum with stamps of Carantius and Rufinus ; in the Guildhall, a portion of a pavement [Cat. 6], and specimens of Romano-British pottery. See also Thames, Bed of, and (for land-finds near here) King William Street, &c. London Stone. — See Cannon Street. London Street, Fenchurch Street. — Gaulish pottery in British Museum, acquired 1854 (stamps of montanvs and neqvr ; also two fairly complete specimens with figures, a jar with hatched patterns, and other plain pottery, a piece of late stamped ware, part of a deversorium, a lamp, glass, and an iron bell). London Wall. — In 1837, in making the new sewer to the east of Carpenters' Buildings, opposite Finsbury Circus, an ancient sewer or culvert of Roman workmanship was cut through, embedded in a mass of rubble masonry 12 ft. wide. It ended 14 ft. south of London Wall, where it discharged into a ditch. It was constructed of thin tiles, with joints of red mortar (made of pounded tiles), the bottom formed of a double layer of large tiles. At the same time was found an aqueduct, at a depth of 19 ft., under the houses in Finsbury Circus ; it had five iron bars fastened perpendicularly into the masonry at the end, and at the southern opening was an arch of tiles, 3 ft. 6in. by 3 ft. 3 in., the spandrels filled in with ragstone. These structures seem to have been intended to carry the Walbrook through London Wall [see below). On the north side of the sewer remains of two human skeletons, bones of animals, pottery, and coins of Antoninus and Faustina have been found. The mouth of the culvert is described as being closed by three iron bars. Many vessels of black ware were found, also Gaulish pottery, knives, scissors, a gold ring with garnet setting engraved with a horse, and coins covering the period from Vespasian to M. Aurelius [Arch, xxix, p. 152, pi. 17, fig. 7 ; Kelsey, Descr. of Sewers, 138 ; Tite, Cat. Antiq.Roy.Exch. p. xxxi]. See Plan C, 29-30. To the same period belongs the discovery, in the line of the wall near Finsbury Circus (Plan A, 18), of a large number of urns, and a slab with the inscription : — D M -D(n) M{anibus) GRATA DAGO Grata Dago- BITI FiL AN XL biti fil{la) an{norum) XL SOLINVS CON SoHnus con- IVGI KAR F C jugi car{issimae) f(aciundum) c{uravit) '* It is now in the Guildhall. [Gent. Mag. (1837), ii, 361 ; Ilhcs. Rom. Lond. p. 26, pi. 2 ; Coll. Antiq. i, pi. 46, p. 134 ; Corp. Inscr. Latin, vii, 31 ; Guildhall Mus. Cat. p. 107; i?^ above, pp. 7, 27.] Three other fragmentary inscriptions may be mentioned here, though the date of their discovery is uncertain. The first two are in the British Museum [Cat. Lond. Antiq. p. 4, No. 10 ; Corp. Inscr. Latin, vii, 34^ and t], the third in the Guildhall [Cat. p. 107, No. 5]. (i). . . . (2) V R (3) On a limestone slab. enen V. II Dis manie[vs, . . . FI XV. . . In 1 866 a large area was excavated under the observation of Gen. Pitt-Rivers (Plan C, 102) in which great quantities of bones of animals were found in a layer of peat about ten to thirteen feet below the surface, including remains of -Sw longifrons, red deer, wild boars, and wild goats. A number of roughly cut piles with decayed tops were also found in the peat, some in rows, others in groups, bound together by planks, one of which had nails in it. Here were found tiles (one with p . PR . br), much Gaulish pottery, Upchurch ware, bronze pins, styli, iron knives, leather shoes and sandals, and coins of Vespasian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. The explanation of these discoveries involves some difficulties, but it is supposed that they represent pile-dwellings occupied by the Britons during Roman times [Times, 20 Oct. 1866 ; Anthropo- " 'To the Departed Spirits. Grata the daughter of Dagobitus, aged 40. Solinus had this erected to his beloved wife.' Ill