a fair mile-stone 8 It stood upright in the ground with its crown four or five inches below the surface. I measured it soon after it was dug up. It was two feet and a half long: two of its sides were sixteen inches each, the other fourteen: its corners were chiselled, bnt its faces were very rustic; upon one of the sides was a very fair X cut." "In Barque Lands, in Southfleet, two small silver pieces were lately found. Upon one of them there is a very fine and bold profile of a woman's head, with Plautilla round it, very plainly to be read." &c. &c.

Tradition records, that many anchors were found during the past century, in the "Salt Marshes" of Swanscombe.

In "Sole Field" in the parish of Southfleet, at the close of the last century, [A.D. 1799,] some discoveries were made, and the Rev. P. Rashleigh transmitted the following account to the Society of Antiquaries:

"Southfleet, Jan. 1, 1800. A few days ago, as some men were ploughing in a field, in this parish, they perceived one of their horses feet sink in the ground, which, upon examination, proved to be in the mouth of an urn; fortunately the horse did not break it, and the men dug it up; they examined its contents, and finding no coins, but that what it contained consisted of some burnt bones and pieces of broken glass of a bluish colour and very thick, they threw them again in the hole and covered them up, bringing the urn home, which is now in my possession. It is of the rudest form, nearly spherical, of very strong red pottery, and contains twenty gallons, it has formerly had something resembling a handle, as two pieces remain one on each side of the mouth; it was covered with a very thick tile, and has, from its very rude form the appear

s This mile-stone, Hasted mentions, he removed to his own residence, St. John's, the erst Commandry of the Knights Hospitallers. 9 Now in the British Museum.-Pl. viii, fig. 1.

S

ance of great antiquity. The men informed me that they broke another urn in pieces in digging out the first, which pieces they likewise threw into the hole; its contents were similar to the first. I immediately repaired to the spot and dug up all the fragments I could collect, it differs materially in shape from that first described1 and is of smaller and thinner pottery. I have collected enough of the pieces of glass (which are extremely friable) to discover that it has been a small bottle with flat sides, and which I imagine to have been a lachrymatory.2-In making further researches in the neighbourhood of these urns, I discovered, at nine feet distance, (south) a tomb of stone covered with two very large stones, in each of which was fixed with a cement (not lead) an iron ring. The tomb contained two leaden coffins, of the most simple construction, consisting each of two pieces of lead; the bottom pieces, being turned up, formed the sides of each; and the top pieces. by being turned down at each end and a little over at the sides, formed the tops and ends of the coffins. No sodder had been used, but a slight cement was laid over the coffins, which I conclude had been enclosed in wood, by several large spike nails with flat heads being found amongst the dust in the tomb. The coffins were not at all adapted to the forms of the bodies, like our modern coffins, but were in the forms of parallelograms. Upon opening the coffins, (which was done by simply lifting up the top) we found the bones of a skeleton in each, perfect, which we conjectured to be those of children of seven or eight years old, from the age of the teeth and smallness of the bones. In one of the coffins I found only a skeleton, but in the other, a very handsome gold chain,5 ornamented with angular pieces of a bluish green stone or composition, and in the middle of each alternate link there had been pearls, which time has nearly destroyed; at the bottom of the chain was a stone set in gold, of a square form, flat, with an intaglio of an oval shape. There were likewise in the same coffin two curious rings of gold, with serpents heads at the junction, used as bracelets, likewise a small gold ring? with a jacinth set in it."

2 Ib. pl. viii, fig. 3.

ib. pl. viii, fig. 6. 4 ib. pl. viii. fig. 7.

5 This valuable relic of the past, is now in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Rashleigh, the rector of Horton Kirby, who kindly lent the objects etched in plate iv.

6 Vide pl. viii, fig. 4.

7 ib. pl. viii, fig. 5.

The skeletons desepelated from this sarcophagus, were reinterred in their leaden wrappers, in the chancel of Southfleet church, by the command of Mr. B. Rashleigh, then the rector.

In the autumn of 1801, Mr. Rashleigh pursued the explorations in Sole Field, the result will be found in the following letter, read at the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 11, 1802 :

"Southfleet, Feb, 2, 1802. As I have made some further progress in my researches in Sole Field, in which I have been successful, I take up my pen to send you some account of what I have recently discovered in the same spot; which I think will decidedly determine it to be a Roman burial place. Within a small distance of the former tomb, and at about three feet beneath the surface of the earth, I found a pavement of stone, of the common Kentish rag-stone, which being removed, I discovered under it, nearly in the centre, a sarcophagus, or massy stone, divided into two parts, top and bottom, very nicely fitted in a groove 6; upon taking off the top, I found it had been excavated in an oval form, both top and bottom with a rough or coarse stonemason's chisel; in this oval recess were placed two large glass urns or vases, containing each a considerable quantity of the remains of burnt bodies; both the urns were open at the top, but one of them, containing the lesser portion of bodies was filled to the brink with a transparent liquor, which did not appear to have diminished in the smallest degree, by evapora tion; the liquor has no taste or smell, has no acid or alkali, but is probably some mucilaginous substance. The other urn was filled about two-thirds full with the parts of bodies, and had within it some of the same liquor, much of which had been absorbed or evaporated. Between the urns, were two pairs of shoes much decayed by time, but enough of them is fortunately remaining to shew their form, and to prove that they had been very superb. and of very expensive workmanship; they were made of fine purple leather, reticulated in the form of hexagons all over, and each hexagonal division worked with gold; the dress had likewise been put into the sarcophagus, but that was reduced to tinder. On each side of

6 See pl. vi, figs. 3, 4.

7 Pl. vi, 5, 6.

8 Pl. iv.

this sarcophagus had been deposited large earthen urns, all of which were broken, and compressed flat upon the ashes they contained. by the weight of pavement. earth, &c., which had covered them.

:

• Very near the sarcophagus, and upon a level with it, was another small depôt, consisting of two earthen bottles holding about a pint each in measure, of red pottery, but empty; and two red pans standing by their sides, in one of which were two small rib bones and some ashes these were placed in a recess formed by the smooth ends of four stones, and covered by a larger one. Immediately under this had been deposited a box of wood extremely well secured by copper clamps, which were fastened by large round-headed copper nails, the wood was entirely decayed, except some parts which adhered to the clamps and nails, but entirely rotten. The stone of which the sarcophagus is made is the same kind which formed the former tomb, what I call the roe-stone, from its resemblance to the roe of fish. I have been likewise able to ascertain the foundation of the building or walls which surrounded these tombs, in extent about fifty feet square.'

About four years after Mr. Rashleigh's discoveries in Sole Field, some labourers employed by the surveyor of Southfleet parish, met with many human bonesportions of three skeletons,-in the western bank of the Watling-street, before its junction with the vicinal way to Springhead, adjoining to the angle formed by the road to Southfleet church. After irreverently exposing these remains, the men were ordered by a parochial authority "to chuck them back again into the hole."

From that time till May the 20th, 1845, no memorials of the perished races, who, in their day and generation regarded with complacency, the scenes

"That now know them no longer,"

had been remarked in this part of the parish. On that evening, Mr. Silvester, whilst riding by, observed in

See pl. v, figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.

9 Pl. v. 5, 6, 7. 8.

1 Pl. vi, 1.