it may appear to the sceptical) a portion of its original contents. A similar vase was found at the opening of Bartlow hills in 1835, which has but one handle and is far inferior in point of elegance; a drawing of it is given in the Archæologia. A coin of first brass was lying close by, much corroded, bearing on the obverse an imperial head, though not corronated or laureated; on the reverse a faint impression of a Roman altar. Not far from these was found an iron stand or case for holding a lamp. Another coin of third brass in fine preservation, and covered with a beautiful patina, was found on this spot.
"Afterwards, when digging by myself, I struck my spade on a large amphora, and added many fractures to those it had received; by cementing it together, I soon restored its original shape and dimensions. It has two handles, its height exactly two feet, and its broadest diameter eighteen inches. Near to this amphora were placed three terra cotta vases of great beauty, ornamented round their margins with the usual leaf of the laurel or the lotus, or whatever else it may hereafter be determined to be. These were taken from the earth without the slightest injury, and are still perfect as when first made.
"A beautiful glass vase was the companion to these,—its size double that of a modern sugar basin, it is radiated with projecting ribs, its shape is nearly globular, it has no handles, is of a fine pale amber colour, and was doubtless used for a funereal purpose.
"A small glass funnel was found here, which is restored from fragments to its original shape. A lachrymatory, or unguentarium, was lying near, but too much mutilated to invite an attempt to mend it. On one side of the vault, and close to one of the vases, a hole had been scooped in the earth, in which was deposited a quart or perhaps three pints of seeds, charred, and still perfectly black; through the dryness of the soil they had been admirably preserved.
"At a small distance from the three beautiful vases last mentioned, was dis- covered a quantity of blue glass, which from the newness of the fractures I concluded had been just broken by the spade. I collected the pieces, and cementing them together, they formed a beautiful jug or ewer, the shape of which is the most chastely elegant that taste could design or art execute. Its graceful neck and handle, its beautiful purple colour, and the exquisite curl of its lips, so formed to prevent the spilling of the fluid, proclaim it to be one of the most splendid remains of antiquity. It is radiated longitudinally, and unites great boldness of design with delicacy of execution. In contemplating this precious relic we feel that time and a reverence for taste and antiquity, have given to it a much more sacred character than the pagan rites it may have assisted to administer. At various times numbers of Samian vases were disinterred from this spot, amounting to more than three dozen, and of great varieties of shapes; the names impressed across several were maccivs—calvinvs—lvppa—tenevm—silenvs—liberalis—silvvs—ofcoet, &c. &c.
"The ground in which the foregoing relics were discovered, like many other places of Roman sepulture, was by the way side, lying on the Iknield road in a straight line between Dunstable and Baldock, not indeed on the main street which passes through the Ichniel ford, but (as I judge) on a vicinal way, for which opinion there is strong presumption, from its passing so near to the old military station at Stanford Bury, and which road Salmon has traced as far as Cainho, from whence he says it went on to Baldock; if so, it doubtless passed through Shefford,
