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 333.

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 Salina, 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" Archaelogical Journal," Vol. iv., pp. 146 to 149.

In the country of the Dobuni.

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

to the town of Droitwich, and on the northern limb of the Stoke Prior branch of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway, being near the spot where that branch joins the main line.

"This branch, on entering Droitwich from Stoke Prior, passes at the back of Mr. Ellins's salt-works, and, crossing the Worcester and Birmingham turnpike road by means of a viaduct, runs along the ridge called The Vines,' which lies below Doderhill Church, and proceeds to a point a little beyond Wood's salt-works, where it is divided into two parts; a little further on, upon the northern limb of it, is the spot where the tesselated pavement was found.

"A large portion of the pavement has been presented to the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, by the gentlemen acting officially upon the line. The Rev. William Lea, of Droitwich, invited me to the spot on the 3rd of April instant (1849), where I had the satisfaction of examining the pavement, and of witnessing its removal. It measured about three yards long, and two yards and a half broad, (but there may have been more of it on each side of the cutting), and it was curiously ornamented, in compartments, with various interlaced figures, formed of white, red, and blue-coloured stones or tesseræ, a little larger than dice. The meadow was formerly a ploughed field, and the pavement lay at the bottom, between two plough lands; and the plough must, for centuries, have passed over the pavement, within a few inches of it. The cement in which the pavement was set is extremely fragile; and probably the constant action of moisture and drought which continued for so long a period in the hollow between the two lands, materially tended to render it so. At a few yards distance, towards the east, fragments of a similar pavement were dug up, of which I have sent specimens for inspection. These were found much better cemented together than the former, owing, perhaps, to their having been in a drier situation, under one of the lands. The tessera of one specimen are much smaller than any of the rest. Whether the white and blue tesseræ are composed of natural stone or artificial, I cannot pretend to determine; the red ones, evidently, are bits of brick. If they are natural,