by many writers, is described as a Roman camp, and were evidently constructed for interment by cremation, when the body was burnt ; but whether there was formerly a tumulus, or barrow, over them it is now impossible to ascertain. Probably, however, such was the case, (if the coarse articles were ancient British), as persons of rank were generally so buried by the ancient Britons; but the tumuli have been levelled for agricultural purposes, throughout many parts of the kingdom. Some of the urns and pans in question, are of ironstone clay, very coarsely formed, badly tempered, (the gritty particles not sifted therefrom), and slightly burnt, or probably only dried in the sun; not turned at the lathe, but only at the wheel, and therefore most probably belonged to the ancient British era: whilst others, which came out of the same cist are of red clay, were turned at the lathe, as well as the wheel; were well tempered, sifted, and thoroughly burnt, and consequently belonged to the Romans, or Romanized British, but most probably to the latter; for although such vessels are made after the fashion of the Romans, yet most of them correspond in shape with those of the ancient British. There is one singularity attending the cist in question, namely, if the coarse articles therein were ancient British, (and which they most probably were), the Romans, or Romanized Britons continued to bury in the same cist; and, therefore, we may infer that the Romans located themselves at an ancient British station at Kempsey. Many of the other cists in that locality in all probability were purely Roman. A Roman coin was also found by one of the workmen at the gravel-bed, previously alluded to, at Kempsey.

The Rev. E. Rudd, of Kempsey, has in his possession a fragment of a thick slab stone, one yard long and half a yard wide, with a Latin inscription thereon, in honour of Constantine, and which was found in the Roman camp alluded to at Kempsey, in the year 1818. The following is the inscription:

Valerio Constantino Pio Felici Invicto Augusto.

The vallum of the above camp may now be easily traced; but being a mound of gravel, it has been much levelled in many places.

• To Valerius Constantinus, the pious, happy, invincible Augustus.

Mr. Rudd has also a fragment of a supposed Roman flue, and pieces of Roman tiles, which were found near the same place.

Tacitus states that the Roman Proprætor Ostorius Scapula, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius Cæsar, constructed forts on the rivers Avon and Severn; and John Ross, a writer on antiquities, who flourished in the reign of Edward IV., has reported Constantius Cæsar as the founder of Worcester, on the credit of an old British chronicle he met with; and Andrew Yarranton, in the 2nd part of his work, dated 1698, states, that he discovered the hearth of a Roman foot-blast, and a pot of Roman coin by its side, near the walls of Worcester. This is supposed to have been at what is named Cinder Point, on the east bank of the river Severn, in a place called Pitchcroft, where there is an extensive bed of iron clinkers and scoriæ, very rich in metal, (about six feet deep in the alluvial soil), imagined to be the rough and offal thrown aside in the time of the Romans, they having, at that period, only foot-blasts to smelt the iron-stone.

A Roman coin, said to be of Vespasian, was found a few years back, on the east side of the Worcestershire beacon of Malvern hill, near St. Ann's Well, in a cavity which had been made by the sheep. Roman coins were also found in the rubbish of the ancient wall which was on the river-side of the old and lately demolished St. Clement's Church, in Worcester. In the excavations which were made at the building of the house in the centre of Britanniasquare, Worcester, the foundation of what is supposed to have been a Roman circular tower, or fort, of sand-stone was found, about thirty feet in diameter, and in the rubbish a great many Roman coins were discovered, principally of Constantius and Constantine the Great, and are now in the possession of Harvey Berrow Tymbs, Esq. One of Domitian was found in the excavations for the new houses at Lark-hill Crescent, near Perry Wood; and one of Cons ( ) upon breaking up an old orchard, to make a garden, near the Infirmary: similar coins have also been found at various other places in and about the city. All the above circumstances strongly corroborate the accounts of Tacitus, Ross, and Yarranton, and appear to place beyond doubt, the fact that Worcester was a Roman station.

91

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS,

FOUND IN THE VICINITY OF CONGERSTONE, IN LEICESTERSHIRE, 1835-6; WITH PREFATORY REMARKS ON THE ADVAN

TAGES OF CULTIVATING THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY.

The numerous cheap and well-executed works on Natural History published of late years, have greatly tended to increase the facilities for the study of this delightful and instructive science, and have given an impulse to the investigation of the inexhaustible variety of natural productions with which this country abounds.

One of the advantages consequent on the zealous cultivation of this branch of science, has been the organization of Natural History. Societies, where individuals, however they may differ in their political or religious opinions, meet on neutral ground, without fear of dissension. In lieu of that asperity of manner which too often characterize opponents in mixed assemblies of the present day, men of inquiring minds, having one object in view-the advancement of science, at these occasional meetings display a kindly and liberal feeling, and act in unison.

In the midland counties, Worcestershire and Shropshire have taken the lead in establishing societies for promoting the cultivation of Natural History; and it is to be hoped men equally devoted to the cause of science will be found in this and the neighbouring counties, who will follow so laudable an example, and zealously promote the formation of similar institutions. I feel persuaded they will receive the support and assistance of those classes of society who are best able, by their education and their pecuniary resources, to promote so desirable an object. Landed proprietors would, doubtless, furnish the museum with the rarer British birds, through the medium of their keepers; a hortus siccus of the various plants, with their localities described, would speedily be formed by zealous botanists; specimens of the rocks, minerals, and fossils found in the different strata of the respective counties, would be obtained by persons devoted to geological pursuits; coins and antiquities, which are now too frequently mutilated or destroyed by ignorant workmen, not having any incentive to their preservation, would be carefully deposited with the curator of a museum, for a trifling remuneration; works on every branch of science, scattered far and wide, would be presented by liberal donors, and thus being brought into one

1

focus, would constitute a truly valuable library of reference. The student in Natural History is too often deterred, by the dry details of science, from persevering in his favourite pursuit, from the want of access to a museum and well-selected library—a reference to which would speedily remove the obstacles from his path, and incite him to further exertion.

The formation of museums in every county would, likewise, be attended with important advantages, not only to the cause of science, but in a national point of view. Deep as the investigation has gone into the natural productions of this country, its recesses would be more diligently and successfully explored if museums were formed, as on the continent, for the reception of the geological, botanical, ornithological, and other treasures, with which every county more or less abounds. Were this plan adopted throughout the kingdom, and the museums opened, under certain restrictions, to all classes, they would be not only interesting to the scientific stranger, but prove a source of instruction, and open a wide field for inquiry, to those resident in the county, who would be enabled to form some idea of its resources, if they could contemplate, in a well-arranged museum, the various natural productions to be found within its limits.

When we consider that this country contains more than ten thousand insects already named and catalogued; between fifteen and sixteen hundred indigenous plants, independent of those more minute, though not less beautiful, forms of vegetation, the mosses, which amount to three hundred; that there are four hundred and twenty lichens enumerated in the second volume of Hooker's British Flora; that the Hepatica, Algæ, and Fungi, form an immense tribe for students to investigate, independent of the numerous species of birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, fishes, and molluscous animals, whose natures, instincts, and habits, form a fertile ground for research-when we consider that minerals, or fossils, and geological specimens are to be met with, more or less, in every county, we never need be at a loss for amusement and instruction, if we would observe, and take some little trouble to surmount the difficulties of the first introduction to science.

There is, indeed, ample food in every county for an inquiring mind, whether we turn to its natural productions, or to its antiquities-the former comprising its botanical, ornithological, and other kindred subjects; the latter, its architectural and monumental remains, its ancient tumuli, barrows, and camps,-its monastic and castellated edifices-its churches, and their sculptured tombs, and

There is no neigh

stone tracery-work of various styles and ages. bourhood, probably, but what, in a circuit of a few miles, embraces some of the above objects; and with respect to its natural productions, a person may pass year after year in the same spot, and still find something new to admire-something new to investigate. In the neighbourhood where I at present reside, and of which I have made but a limited examination, (it being quite unknown to me till within the last few months, and my time being much occupied in duties of a more important nature), I have been able to discover four hundred and fifty indigenous plants, sixty species of mosses, numerous lichens, and more than forty species of the British land and fresh-water shells. Some of the rarer species of birds are, also, occasionally met with, the male and female Peregrine Falcon having both been shot in a wood in the immediate neighbourhood during the past winter; one of which is now preserved in the residence of Earl Howe, at Gopsal. Some of your readers may, perhaps, wonder at the number of British land and fresh-water shells which I have stated as found in this neighbourhood. I will, therefore, give some insight into my mode of procuring them; and as many of the specimens, though exceedingly minute, are yet most interesting objects of nature, I will preface my account by mentioning a very useful, and by no means expensive, work upon the subject; I allude to Turton's Manual of the British Land and Fresh-water Shells, with coloured figures and descriptions of one hundred and twentysix different species, the greater number admirably executed. It does not, indeed, contain the whole number hitherto discovered, as I possess three or four species which are unnamed and unalluded to in the work. One, the Assiminia Grayana, from Greenwich Marshes; also, Helix obvoluta, Cyclas pulchella, Helix pullulata, (possibly a variety of Helix nemoralis), H. globularis and cellaria; the four last from Mr. Bean's splendid and unique collection, at Scarborough, which also, I believe, contains several others not mentioned by Turton. A descriptive catalogue from Mr. Bean would be a valuable addition to our knowledge of British inland conchology. Perhaps it may not be uninteresting to some of your readers were I, in the conclusion of this paper, to enumerate the different species of shells which I have discovered during the present winter. The country around, at first sight, does not appear to be well adapted to the increase of the larger species of Helix, as there is no calcareous deposit in the neighbourhood, and it is in a limestone, chalk, or oolitic subsoil, that most of these species flourish, and are consequently found in considerable abundance. The surrounding