PLATE I. FIG. 1. Roman Tongs, page 7. BRITAI A UTTING SC FIG. 2. Pig of Lead found near Blagdon, page 17. FIG. 3. Bronze Celt, found in a Roman coal-mine, page 26. FIG. 4. Bronze Celt-mould, found at Danesfield, page 27. C mentioned. It was found by a countryman in ploughing, and taken to the shot-works of Messrs. Williams, at Bristol. Through the exertions of Mr. Albert Way, and the kind co-operation and generosity of Mr. Williams, it was fortunately rescued from the furnace, and is now preserved in the British Museum. Its form is clearly shown in the wood-cut, Plate I, fig. 2, which also shows the form of all the above-mentioned pigs, and for the use of which I am indebted to the Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. There is a space between BRITANNIC and AVG., where the letters have been effaced. They may have expressed the name of the Emperor Claudius. On examining the object itself, I was satisfied that the last letters are FIL, which is the reading adopted by Mr. Roach Smith, and not II, or IMP., as other antiquaries have supposed. Hence, I conclude, that the inscription, which is of unusual historical interest, may be thus restored: BRITANNICI CLAVDII AVGVSTI FILII. The letters V. EIP., or V. ETP., twice impressed on the sloping side, are not explained.* At Charter-house, on the same range of hills, abundant traces of Roman mining have been observed. Together with a copper coin of Antoninus Pius, large heaps of slag have been found, still rich in lead, so as to prove that the Romans were not very successful in the extraction of the metal from its ore; also a quantity of the ore finely pounded, so as to be ready for smelting, and in the state now known by the name of slimes. The appearance of the hills around the Charter-house mines corresponds in an extraordinary degree with that which Mr. Thomas Wright *Archæological Journal, vol. XI., p. 278–280. Roach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, vol. III., p. 258. describes in the above extract. There are several grooves cut in the mountain, from which the ore was doubtless extracted. Some remarkable implements of wood, and a very powerful iron pick-axe, were found at Luxborough, not far from Dunster, where it appears that the Romans had iron-mines, and made use of the Brown Hematite. These are preserved, with the above-named specimens, in the Museum of this Society, at Taunton, and are given in Plate II. of the illustrations of this paper. Another pig of lead is referred to in Stukeley's Itinerarium Curiosum, a.d. 1723, p. 143, in the following terms: "At Longleat, in my Lord Weymouth's library, is a piece of lead weighing 50 pounds, one foot 9 inches long, two inches thick, three and a half broad, found in the Lord Fitzharding's grounds near Bruton in Somersetshire, and was discovered by digging a hole to set a gate-post in; upon it this memorable inscription, which I suppose was some trophy; communicated by Lord Winchelsea. IMP DVOR AVG ANTONINI ET VERI ARMENIACORVM This would give A.D. 163 as its date. HAMPSHIRE. A pig was found in 1783, near the Broughton Brook, Stockbridge, and belonged to the late Mr. J. M. Elwes, of Bossington. It bears the following inscription, with the date of Nero's fourth consulate, A.D. 60-68, and evidently referring to the Ceangi : NERONIS. AVG. EX. KIAN. IIII. COS. BRIT. It has letters on the sides, among which the following are important, viz., EX ARGENT., because we have already |