PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 270 his son from the succession, and to adopt Nero, her son hy a former hushand. Britannicus was ultimately poisoned by Nero, a.d. 55. The date of this pig may therefore be placed between the years a.d. 44 and 48 or 40, and it is perhaps the most ancient object of its kind hitherto found in England. It has been questioned whether Britannicus ever had the title of Augustus, although on certain colonial coins he is thus styled — BKITA.XXICDS. AVG. and TI. CLAVDIVS. CAESAR. AVG. F. BRITANNICUS.' The correct reading, therefore, of the inscription on the pig may probably be — Britannicus Axigusti Jilius, not Augustus Lnperator, as it had been at first supposed, the last letters of the legend being unfortunately indistinct. The signification of the letters stamped upon the side remains undeter- mined. Of various reliques of the metallurgical industry of the Romans in Britain none hitherto described appeal's to present marks on the side, with the exception of the pig found in 1783 near the Broughton Brook, Stock- bridge, Hampshire, and exhibited in the Temporary Museum during the meeting of our Society at Winchester, in 1845, by Mr. J. M. Elwes, of Bossington, in whose possession it remains. This bears the date of Nero's fourth consulate, a.d. 60 — 68 ; on one side are the letters — iivl p m cos ; on the other — ex argen capa oc (?) iv, and underneath — xxx. (Monu- menta Ilistorica, Inscriptions, No. 134.) The last-mentioned portion of the inscription is thus read by Mr. Roach Smith - — ex argent — capascas XXX. Of the ancient lead-workings on the Mendip hills one other similar evidence is recorded to have been found. In the reign of Henry VIII., as we learn from Leland (Assertio Arthuri ; Lelaudi Coll. vol. v., p. 45) an " oblonga plumbi tabula " was brought to light by the plough near the source of the river OcMs or Axe, which issues from that singular cavern on the Mendip hills, called Okey or Wookey Hole. Leland states that it was taken to the house of Tliomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in London. Camden also relates this discovery at " Ochiehole ; "•* and Dr. Holland, in his translation of the " Britannia," adds that the " table of lead somewhat long — lay long at Lamhith in the Duke of Norfolkes house." No further trace of its existence can be found. It bore the name of the Emperor Claudius, and its date is ascertained to be a.d. 40. Mr. Way stated that having accidentally heard of the pig of lead found at Blagdon, the only vestige of Roman dominion in Britain, as he believed, bearing the name of Britannicus, no time was lost in the en- deavour to rescue it from the furnace. By the ready assistance of an influential friend of the Institute, Mr. Garrard, Chamberlain of Bristol, and the kind cooperation of Mr. C. Wasbrough, of Clifton, it was found to have been preserved at the shot-works before mentioned. On the first suggestion that such an object was of interest to archaeologists as an evidence of ancient mining operations, possessing also a certain his- torical value on account of the inscription which it bears, Mr. Williams forthwith expressed the wish to send it for the examination of the Insti- 1 See Eckhel, and Akerman's Roman by Gough, vol. i. pp. 82, 104. Lambarde coins, vol. i. p. 160. mentions this pig in his Topograpliieal - Sec the notice and rcpresent'ition of Dictionary, under Onky, possibly an error this pig given by Mr. C. Roach Smith in of the press for Ouky. See also CoUin- the Journal of the British Archaeological son's Hist. Somerset, vol. iii. p. 420. Association, vol. v. p. 227. Mouuraenta Historica, Inscriptions, No. ^ Britannia, edit. Ui07, p. 108 ; edit. 133. VOL. XI. O O
