now so well brought out through the care bestowed upon it by all concerned in the before referred to process of what may be called "ecclesiastical denudation". These indications, as they are peculiarly of an artistic nature, I shall leave Mr. Teniswood (whom I have the pleasure to see present) to explain to you, as well as to tell you more of the nature of the painting than I am qualified to give in an æsthetic point of view.

The subject, there can be little doubt, is that of the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection; and the figures below the grand centre group, which were at first thought to represent the punishment of Purgatory, or even of Hell, are merely bodies rising from the graves at the sound of the last trump, which the two angels above are supposed to be sounding, and which the remains of a tombstone over a grave on the left hand side will pretty well confirm.

The date of the fresco is, as usual with all such mural paintings, an open question; for although there are certain ornaments, borderings, and costume (notably the Norman crown on the head of the Queen of Heaven, and of which I exhibit, through the courtesy of the worthy Vicar of Patcham, to whom so much credit is due for almost saving this fresco to us all, a full-sized copy on tracing paper), which suggest very early work, no real reliance can be placed upon such things, from the frequent habit which prevailed of continuing and elaborating the earlier designs which existed on the same walls; and in this instance we now see a fuller and no doubt much later work than the one which preceded the present picture. Still, there can be little doubt of this painting being thirteenth century work, although some, I believe, have classed it a century earlier.

I will not dilate further upon this interesting relic of early art, since I believe the subject is to form a more elaborate paper by a member' of the Royal Institute of

1 By a reference to vol. xxxvii of the Archaeological Journal, p. 205, I find Mr. C. E. Keyser read a paper "On the Recently Discovered Mural Paintings at Patcham, near Brighton", in 1880, and on which Messrs. J. G. Waller and J. T. Micklethwaite made some observations. This paper, the notice goes on to say, will appear in a future Number of the Journal; but although I searched for it in the succeeding volumes up to the close of last year (1883), I failed to find any further reference to it, so I presume it has not yet been printed in extenso.

Archæology in a short time; only as I happened to come across the fresco a few weeks since, whilst on a visit to Hollingbury Copse, the seat of our learned friend and Vice-President, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in the parish of Patcham, I thought our Association would like to have a few particulars of such a work for a record in the pages of the Journal, although it may not be thought worth while to perpetuate the present drawing, which I may add is a very accurate copy, by an engraving or outline illustration of it.

NOTES.

Size.-Segment of a circle; diameter, 18 feet at its extremities, and 7 feet from the crown to the base; centre quatrefoil, 6 feet high.

22 feet by 2 feet 7 inches high; second compartment, whole width of church.

Lowest compartment extends whole width of church, but is divided by the chancel-arch, and is about 1 foot high.

ROMAN EMBANKING AND SANITARY

PRECAUTIONS.

BY C. ROACH SMITH, ESQ., V.P., F.S.A.

(Read April 2, 1884.)

A FEW years since I communicated to the Archæologia Cantiana, vol. xii, my opinion on the origin of the Thames Embankment, founded upon a personal and complete examination from Gravesend to Cliffe, and also in districts above and below those localities. I gave reasons, which I deem irrefutable, why this stupendous barrier must be ascribed to the engineering skill and enterprise of the Romans.

Since then, Mr. Octavius Morgan has kindly sent me a copy of his account of an inscribed stone found at Goldcliff, on the shore of the Bristol Channel, near Newport in Monmouthshire, which confirms strikingly my opinion; and at the same time gives equally conclusive evidence to the correctness of Archdeacon Trollope's (now Suffragan Bishop of Nottingham) conclusions on the origin of the Car Dyke in Lincolnshire, to which I shall presently refer. The discovery recorded by Mr. Octavius Morgan is one of the most important that has ever been made in this country. It is the only one bearing on these great embankments that as yet has been brought to light; and it gives reasonable assurance that other inscribed stones are buried under the soil, and are not unlikely to be revealed by some happy accident or careful exploration.

Mr. Morgan states' that in the autumn of 1878, the stone was washed out, by the action of the tide, from a bank on the shore of the Bristol Channel at Goldcliff, near Newport, in the county of Monmouth. It is a small slab of the lias limestone, 21 inches in length; in breadth

Goldcliff and the Roman Inscribed Stone found there, 1878, by Octavius Morgan, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., President. Printed for the Monmouthshire and Caerleon Antiquarian Association, 1882. New

port.

at the top, 14 inches, and at the bottom, 11 inches. The inscription, rudely cut, is:

соні STATORI

M M I

II

As a prelude to remarks on the inscription, and to show its importance, Mr. Morgan writes as follows:

66

Along the shore of the Bristol Channel which forms the southern boundary of the county of Monmouth, on both sides of the mouth of the river Usk, there is a very wide extent of low flat level land, as will be observed by everyone who travels along the Great Western and South Wales Railway from Chepstow to Cardiff. This low tract of country has, at some very early period, been reclaimed from the Channel or Severn Sea, as it was anciently called, by a high, raised embankment, which is now called the Sea Wall', and extends along the whole distance, commencing on the west at the mouth of the river Rumney, which divides the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, and continuing eastward as far as the higher ground at Portsmouth, a few miles from the mouth of the Wye at Chepstow, being a distance of about twenty miles, with an average width of about three miles. The river Usk, which rises in the Brecknockshire mountains, and, flowing through Monmouthshire, drains all the intermediate country in its course, passes across the lowlands, and empties its waters into the Bristol Channel near Newport.

"Previous to the formation of this embankment, and consequent drainage of the land within it, this extensive tract of country must have been an immense marsh or lagoon, and quite uninhabitable, a very considerable portion of it being many feet below the level of the tide, and consequently always inundated at high water; and, but for the embankment, it would be so now, and the more elevated spots would have the appearance of flat islands. By the construction of this embankment or sea wall, the tide was prevented flowing over the land, and the marshy swamp was easily drained by means of ditches having sluices at their outfall to prevent the inflow of the Channel water at high tides; and such is the case at the present time.

"By whom, or at what period, this large tract of country was first embanked or drained has been hitherto unknown, for there is neither history nor tradition respecting it; nor has anything before this time been discovered to lead even to a surmise. My own opinion has always been that the sea-wall must have been the work of the Romans; for no other possessors of the country ever had either the power or the skill to have achieved such a work. Neither the Saxons nor the Danes had sufficient hold of the country, nor were long enough there to have attempted such a great work; and indeed the whole tract of country must have been for a very long period embanked, drained, and brought into a state fit for habitation and cultivation before the Saxons attempted to invade it, as they did in the time of Harold; and the Normans, on their arrival, found it embanked, drained, inhabited, and cultivated ready to their hands, and divided it into manors and parishes on their taking possession."

The foregoing extracts from Mr. Morgan's Paper will show how completely he and I are in accordance in respect to these great embankments. I have referred to historical evidence, proving that the Thames Embankment must have been anterior to the Saxon period, because at that time the Higham and Cliffe marshes were in a state of cultivation, and pastured cattle and sheep. Like those in Monmouthshire, they are drained by wide and deep ditches, also embanked, the banks often serving for roads. The discovery of the inscribed stone is equally important for both districts, and indeed for others. To this I now return.

The lettering upon the stone denotes that a detachment from the First Cohort, under a centurion named Stator or Statorius, executed a certain amount of work in the construction of the embankment, indicated in the third line and by the two perpendicular incisions below. It may be doubted what amount of work was intended, whether one mile or three; but probably the latter; and the first м may stand for Murus. This is of no particular importance. The great interest of the inscription lies in the fact that the military were employed; and it is perfectly clear that this Cohort was one of those composing the Second Legion stationed at Isca Silurum, now Caer