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Iter II.

ECKINGTON.

BETWEEN the village of Eckington and the river Avon, a Roman or Roman-British pan or basin, of whitish material, was found by the railway excavators, several feet deep in the earth. It was presented to the Worcestershire Museum by Mr. Milne, one of the contractors, who informed me that several ancient foundations of buildings were discovered at the same spot. The woodcut No. 1 represents the basin one

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sixth of the actual size. Nos. 2 and 3 are half-size sketches of two marks which are upon the rim of the basin near the spout.

A basin, nearly similar, is delineated in "Old England," Part ii., p. 44, amongst a collection entitled, "Roman Antiquities found on the site of Paul's Cross." A fragment of another, which was found about 1778, on digging at Duntocher, in Stirlingshire, together with other pottery and relics, said to be Roman, may be seen in Gough's Camden," where it is

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* Second edition, Vol. vi., Pl. vi., p. 103. Also see the edition of 1789, Vol. iii, p. 362.

described as

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a piece of a vase, like our wash-hand basins* of white clay, which has the maker's name in raised capitals on the rim,— BRVSC. F,' for 'Brusci filius.†'"

AD ANTONAM.

There has been much dispute concerning the position of this Roman station; it most probably lay near to the village of Eckington, where ancient foundations were discovered by the workmen in the line of the railway near the Avon, as before described. Upon an inspection of this spot, I found it to be about two hundred yards from the north side of the village, and within three-quarters of a mile of the river. Mr. Milne and one of the workmen pointed out to me where the relics lay, and informed me that during the cutting for the railroad they discovered there, at the depth of several feet, a great many human bones, fragments of pottery, drains, bricks, stone foundations of buildings, and a rough quoined well, about four feet wide and ten feet deep, which passed through about four feet of soil and six feet of gravel, and was filled up with earth and rubble, having fragments of the bones and horns of the ox and deer species at the bottom, which was shaped like a basin; and that two other quoined wells were discovered there, filled with blackish earth. I found some specimens of the pottery in the mound of earth and gravel which had been thrown out there, some resembling the Roman or Roman-British pan, before described, as discovered at this excavation, and others exactly like the Roman red earth pottery which I found at Kempsey. See further particulars relative to "Ad Antonam," in the account of the Rycknield Street, where the subject comes more regularly under notice.

STRENSHAM.

There is an old trench road which passes not far from the cottage where Butler, the author of "Hudibras," is said to have

*They are by some antiquaries described as "mortaria."

+ Or it may mean, Bruscus fecit.

See page 54, &c.

been born, and through a pasture on the south side of the Moat Farm-house, and up what is called Green Hill and the Park Grounds, to that part of the hill where Strensham Church stands, and from thence most probably it crossed the Avon, at one of the fords, to Eckington. G. Bryan, Esq., of the Moat Farm, and Dr. Grove, the rector of Strensham parish, kindly pointed out to me the above line of intrenchment from the pasture to near the church. Before leaving this farm, I must notice that there is a double moat, forming nearly a square, at the eastern side of the house, with a high ridge between the moats. The present old house is supposed to have been built of the materials of the ancient (perhaps baronial) seat, which no doubt stood in the centre of the moats. This property belongs to John Taylor, Esq., of Strensham Court*.

NORTON IN BREDON.

In this chapelry have been found various Anglo-Saxon relics, consisting of several iron bosses or umbos of shields, and spearheads, a knife, fragments of a sword, with part of the scabbard mounted in brass, and a blue and a reddish-yellow bead. These were presented to the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, in the year 1838, by one of the engineers em. ployed in making the Birmingham and Gloucester railway. They were discovered by the workmen whilst excavating at Norton Pitch, a place near to Bredon Hill, upon which there is the site of an ancient camp, hereafter described.

I am informed by an experienced jeweller that one of the abovementioned beads is malachite, and the other amber; they are rather flattened, and perforated in the centre. Malachite, although generally green (as the name from the Greek, “marshmallow," indicates), is still found, massive and of a smalt-blue colour, in Cornwall +.

These relics are represented in Plate 3, one-sixth of the real size, except the beads (Nos. 12 and 13), which are of the actual Strensham is supposed to be the Strengeshó in Eádgar's Charter, A.D. 972. See "Codex Dip.," No. 570.

+ Vide "An Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy," by Mr. Wm. Phillips, fourth edition, enlarged by Mr. Robert Allan, p. 320.

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Antiquities from Norton in Bredon.

J. Basire lith

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