it is most probably the base of an ancient cross. The Avon flows at the foot of the Terrace, and there is a ford and Cleeve Mill at the spot. Perhaps the skeletons may be those of some of the soldiers who fell in this part of the line between Kenilworth and Evesham, in the battles between the barons and Henry III.

In conclusion it is as well to remark, that the late Rev. Mr. Digby, Canon of Worcester Cathedral, informed me that one of the urns also contained gold coins of Valens, Magnus, Maximus, and Arcadius, and he gave me an account of 255 of the gold coins, and of 832 of the silver coins.

66

CROWLE.

Dr. Thomas* says, that Beortulf, King of the Mercians, gave Eadberht, Bishop of Worcester, five manses at Crohlea; and that, in the time of Canute, and of Leofsius, Bishop of Worcester, one Simund, a Dane, a soldier of Earl Leofrick's, endeavoured to dispossess the church of what they had at Crowle, for he so plagued it with suits and trespasses, that he drove away the farmers, and they were forced to grant it to him for his life, on condition that he should serve for them in the wars by sea and land, and should acknowledge the prior as his lord, by paying yearly a horse or money in lieu thereof †."

Dr. Nash, in the first volume of his "History," p. 281, says: "In a field in this parish, adjoining to Hodington, was discovered, nearly two centuries ago, a stone coffin lined with lead ‡, and containing the bones of a man, almost mouldered away, with an earthen pitcher or urn at the head of it. These were supposed to have been the remains of some Danish warrior who had fallen in battle an opinion which seems to be confirmed by the quantities of human bones frequently ploughed up around the place,

* Page A, 27 and 61 of his Survey, &c., of Worcester Cathedral. Also see Nash, Vol. i., p. 279; and, Heming's" Cartulary," pp. 345, 572.

+ Heming's "Cartulary," p. 265.

It will be observed in the account of Hadley Heath camp, in Ombersley, that a leaden chest was found there.

and the traces of fortifications till of late distinguishable, though now overgrown with woods. Dr. Thomas imagines this person was Simund the Dane. The stone of which the coffin was made so nearly resembled what is produced out of Burford quarry, in Oxfordshire, that a friend of Mr. Habingdon, a great naturalist, did not hesitate to affirm it was hewn from thence*."

BREDICOT.

As some workmen, in the summer of 1839, were excavating in the line of the Birmingham and Gloucester railroad in this parish, they found, at the depth of about two feet in the earth, under the spreading boughs of a very large and ancient pollard elm, just by Bredicot Court, a small Roman urn of red clay, four inches and one-eighth high, eleven inches and a half round the

middle, six inches round the neck, and four inches round the foot. (See woodcut thereof here represented.) In shape it resembles a skittle, and I am informed there were about 140 small copper coins in it, which were distributed amongst the workmen; but the urn and sixty-two of the coins having been procured for my inspection, by Henry Chamberlain, Esq., of the above court, I found, after clearing them of much oxidation, that they were all Roman, and that the heads upon fifty seven of them had the iron Those of the emperors I made out are as follow:-Seven of Gallienus; eleven of Claudius Gothicus; and one of Probus ; also one of Salonina, wife of Gallienus; and the following of the usurpers in Gaul and Britain:-one of Posthumus; nine of Victorinus; twenty-four of Tetricus; and four of Carausius.

crown.

In the "Universal History," the revolt of the Britons in the reign of Gallienus, and the names of the usurpers acknowledged in Britain, are stated; and it is worthy of remark that the Bredicot urn contained coins of all of them except Lollianus and

*Habingdon MSS.

+ Vol. xix., pp. 161, 162.

Allectus.

It is doubted whether a genuine coin of Lollianus has ever been found*.

The urn in question, which is quite a little history of those times, was probably deposited at Bredicot (which lies between two and three miles from the site of the ancient camp at Elbury Hill) in the civil wars between Carausius and Allectus, for I do not find that it contained any coins of the Constantine family, who succeeded them; however, as I have only seen part of the coins (the others having been carried away by the workmen), the evidence is not absolutely conclusive upon the subject. I procured the urn and about forty of the coins for the Worcestershire Museum. Bredicot is situated about four miles north-east of Worcester.

In 1846, a ring was found near Bredicot churchyard, and presented to me by the rector, the Rev. Wm. Godfery, which I sent for the inspection of the Archæological Institute, and which

+THEBAIGUTHGUTHANI

ANHT

66

is figured and thus noticed in their Journal†. The ring of base metal, plated with gold, and inscribed with a cabalistic or

Since the above was written, I find in the "Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester," p. 142, the following, in the list of Roman coins discovered there :

"Laelianus.-An usurper in the reign of Gallienus.

Base Silver. Obv.-IMP. C. LAELIANVS. P.F. AVG.

There is

Rev.-PAX. AVG. A female holding an olive branch." Lollianus and Laelianus are supposed to mean the same person. still, however, a question whether this coin of Laelianus is really genuine. + Vol. iii., pp. 267, 268. Also see p. 357 of that Vol.; and p. 78. of Vol. v.

talismanic legend, was recently dug up, near to the churchyard at Bredicot. It appears to be of the fourteenth century."—(See the woodcut of it.)

Since writing the above, I am told, the inscription, subdivided as follows, THE BAIGVTH GVTHANI, is in a dialect of the Saxon, and means, "the ring of Guthanus ;" most of the letters are English, and may have been made in imitation of an earlier model.

H

Iter III.

DROITWICH.

Ar this place was discovered an urn, supposed to be of the Roman, or Romano-British period, formed of coarse gritty clay, and of a dark colour; it is scored with lines arranged lozengewise, and measures about six inches in height, by fourteen in circumference, at the widest part. (See an engraving of it, Plate 4, No. 1.) It was found at a depth of three or four feet, at Mr. Ellins's salt works, in St. Peter's Parish, and is in the possession of the Rev. W. Lea. In the adjacent soil were found remains of a human skeleton. The urn resembles in form one found with Roman remains near Bagshot*.

Shortly afterwards further discoveries were made, the following particulars of which I communicated to the Archæological Institute+:

"In pursuing my further researches relative to the Roman occupation of various parts of Worcestershire, I was anxious to discover evidences of such occupation at Droitwich, the Salinæ, or supposed Salinæ ‡, of the ancients. In addition to the Roman urn found there during the excavations for the foundations of Mr. Ellins's salt-works, the particulars of which I communicated on a former occasion §, a fine Roman tesselated pavement has since been discovered, about eight inches beneath the surface, in Bay's Meadow, on the northern bank of the river Salwarp, close

* See "Archæologia," Vol. vii., Pl. xvi. And "Archæological Journal," Vol. iv., pp. 73, 74.

+ Vide" Archælogical Journal," Vol. iv., pp. 146 to 149.

In the country of the Dobuni.

§ See "Archæological Journal," Vol. iv., p. 73.