ANTIQUITIES FOUND AT WOODPl RRY, OXON. 'i:]

aignaculum of lead, on which is the inscription, aye maria GRA (fig. 17). Several small vessels of earthenware have been found at Woodperry, which may be regarded as cm-ious examples of medieval date; the Avare being wholly distinct from the remains of " Samian," or Anglo-Roman fabrication, of which beautifully ornamented fragments have occmTed ; and some even superior, though in the same style of ornament, "were discovered by the late Sir Alexander Croke, nearly six or seven years since, in the middle of a wood, now called "the New Wood," on the brow of the opi)osite hill, about a mile distant ; but these excava- tions were not pursued so far as might have l)een de- sired, and the traces of buildings were in fact but faint and inconsidera!)le. A very connnon form of these medieval vessels will be found represented in the plate, page G.2 of No. 9 of the Journal, being that of the two smallest of the four, though the neck in general is somewhat narrower. Very many fragments of them occur, and of different sizes, the ordinary height being about six inches, as near as can be guessed from the more })erfect specimens : it is, hoM'ever, to be observed of all, that they are tinted with green colour and slightly glazed, immediately below the neck. Of pottery, however, really Anglo-Roman, the varieties were very many, especially of the finest or Samian ware ; for beginning with that on which figures had been worked in relief, fragments of plain paterae were turned up of almost every degree of fineness, the best being composed of a highly coloured red clay, and other specimens presenting a fainter and fainter hue, precisely in proportion to their goodness, the palest being always the worst. Still, in every case, the clay had been admirably well tempered ; and it should be observed, by the way, tliat what is found at Brill, between four and five miles distant, is considered to be of excellent cpiality, and this had probably been procured from that quarter. Be this, however, as it may, there certainly was a Ronuni pottery five or six miles to the north, at Fencot upon Otmoor^; and if that situation did not offer the very finest materials, the establishment at least gave the opportunity of baking vessels which had been manufactured from better clay found else- vhere. In addition to what may be called, by way of dis- tinction, the red ware, other fragments of pottery discovered, ' See Mr. llus-^ev's Roman Road, already quoted, p. 3 i.