42 NOTICES OF A REMARKABLE COLLECTION OF ORNAMENTS.

have been placed, not upon one seat, as tliej appear on sculptured monuments. The chapel was below the surface of the ground, in some degree corresponding with the grottos usuall}' devoted to the ser [ce of rural divinities. (See Archteologia, vol. ii., p. 58.) For further information respect- ino- these divinities it will be well to consult the Dissertation of the Abbe Banin (Hist, de I'Acad. Roy. des Inscriptions, Vol. vii., p. 34), and a paper by Mr. Roach Smith, in the Journal of the Archaeological Association. The inscriptions which have been mentioned upon the objects in this collection cannot be explained with much certainty. All the known inscriptions referring to the Dese Matres have been upon altars or commemorative tablets, and are consequently dedicatory, affording little assistance to the elucidation of these, which are perhaps the only ones which have been made known as attached to objects of ornament or utility, which may be dedicatory, or only indicating pro- prietorship. The inscription on the handle of the vase is MATR. FAB. DYBIT. The name of Dubitatus occurs upon two inscriptions recorded by Gruter ; it may read, therefore, MATRiBYS FABIYS DYBiTATVS, dedicated to the Deae Matres, or to the use of their priestesses, by Fabius Dubitatus, or perhaps a female, Fabia Dubitata. Or it may be read, matris fabiae DYBiTAT^, declaring it to be the property of Fabia Dubitata, a priestess of the Dese Matres. It will be more conformable to the general nature of inscriptions to read it in the dedi- catory form, and consider it as dedicated to the service of the divinities mentioned. The inscription upon the ring, matrvm . cocoae, presents greater difficulties ; cocoae appears as one word, there is not any point, or mark of contraction to separate the letters into different words, or to encourage insertion. To no person, place, or office, do the indexes of Gruter or other authors apply such a name, nor any one sufficiently resembling it, to justify the conjectural emendation of a supposed error. The onh' course is to supply the marks of separation or contraction which, in ancient inscriptions, are frequently omitted, and endeavour to discover some plausible interpre- tation. It has been already stated that upon existing monu- ments relating to the Dese Matres, the names of places over which these divinities presided were frequently inserted ; and as these objects now under discussion were found in the north of England, it is reasonable to look out for some place