sepulchral monument, evidently Roman, and of some person above the rank of the lower order; but as the urn, which the sarcophagus inclosed, contained nothing but sand, ashes, and burnt bones, the era of interment could not be ascertained. The sarcophagus consisted of a large round stone trough, of rude workmanship, with a cover of the same; both the stone and its cover had originally been square, but the ravages of time had so worn off the angles, as to give it the appearance of rotundity. Another stone of the same kind was found near it, of a quadrangular shape, evidently used for the same purpose, but without a lid or urn.

This, with many rare fragments of antiquity, were preserved by the Rev. Dr. Gordon, the Precentor of the Cathedral; who, in a letter to Mr. Pownall, dated March 2, 1791, gives an account of - several earthen and glass urns, which were discovered in the same field, some of which were of singular shape. He also describes a room, twenty feet by sixteen, which was discovered in -a quarry, about one hundred yards west from the other; the height could not be ascertained, but the bottom was about twelve feet from the present surface. The floor was covered with black ashes, and the walls bore evident marks of fire. Two skeletons were found lying on the floor, also a large stone trough capable of holding a man, but not of sufficient depth for the purpose of a coffin. This was probably a sarcophagus, in which, as Pliny informs us, in his Nat. Hist. Lib. II, that all bodies, previous to urn-burial, were accustomed to be burnt. The Doctor thinks the room might have been appropriated for the reception of bodies that were prepared for the funereal ceremonies. Suetonius in Nerone, and some other writers, have described similar places under the name of Libitina: where dead bodies were carried previous to interment.—“ Erat porro, Romæ porta Libitina per quam cadavera ad Libitinam efferebantur*."

The same field having been broken up for the purposes of quarrying, several stone coffins of various shapes have at different times been discovered in the loose ground, which covers a substratum

* Lazius Comm. Reipub. Rom.

of

of rock. From these and other circumstances, it is highly probable, that this was a Roman burial-ground for the great contiguous Muncipium; and continued so till a different mode of burial was established by the introduction of Christianity.

Fragments of Roman pottery were found here in 1786. They consisted of fine close clay, cleared of heterogeneous sand; and so baked as to preserve an equal hardness and uniform red colour throughout. Between the Castle and Lucy tower, on the side of Fossdyke, have been found some glazed earthen pipes, two feet long, and between two and three inches diameter, fastened together by joints. These formed part of a set of conduit pipes, for the conveyance of waters to the town from a spring on the high ground near. In a field north-east of the town was discovered another supposed conduit of the same æra. About fourteen yards to the north of the Assembly Room was a large Well or cistern of very singular construction, called the Blind Well. It was built with neat walling; and at the top was eighteen feet diameter, narrowing towards the bottom. This has some years since been filled up.-Communicating with this, it appears, pipes were laid from a spring head, at the distance of forty-two chains. In a low ground, abounding with springs on the other side the hedge of Nettleham inclosure, are traces of a building, supposed a reser-voir, whence, from under a raised bank, parallel with a balk pointing to the spring head, are pipes to another such bank, forming with it an obtuse angle. In the bank, or road, to which the first series of pipes point, are in places raised parts, which bear a strong resemblance to a Roman Rampart; and a remarkable excavation is said to have been discovered in it some years since, by the breaking in of a loaded waggon. The whole length from the mound to the second pipe is sixty-three chains and forty-six links, or nearly one thousand three hundred and ninety-seven yards. The pipes are about one foot ten inches long. They have no insertions, but are joined by an exterior ring or circular course, with an introceptive process of strong cement, like the bed in which the pipes are laid. Count Caylus, in his Receuil d'Antiq.

.Tom. II.

Tom. II. describes a similar kind of aqueduct, which supplied Paris with mineral water from Chaillcot, in the time of the Romans. A plan of that at Lincoln is engraved in Gough's Camden. Within the area of the Cathedral cloisters is part of a Roman tessellated pavement, still preserved, and secured from the weather and injury by a small building erected over it.

In 1788, in the area of Lincoln Castle, was found a Roman vessel, nearly entire, three feet and a half below what appears to be the natural rock, and fourteen beneath the present surface. It was of black pottery, and one side of it was corroded. Auother fragment of a Roman vessel, found in the rubbish of a Roman building within the castle, had been apparently gilt; and was, according to Governor Pownall, who furnished the account, of a different kind of clay to any Roman earthenware he had ever seen.

From these, and other considerations, it is not improbable, that the Romans or Romanized Britons had a fortress on the site of the present castle, before its erection by the Norman Conqueror.

Sir Henry C. Englefield, in a communication to the Antiquarian Society, describes an arch opening into the ditch, in a tower still remaining amid the ruins, which had escaped the notice of Mr. King, in his account of this structure. The tower fronts the west, having in the lower part a large semicircular arch, which is sixteen feet wide in the clear, turned with forty-five stones, each of which is two feet deep. Above, to the right hand is a small doorway, now walled up, having a semicircular arch, crossed by a transom stone in the Saxon style. This is six feet six inches high, by two feet four inches and a half wide. It led from the lower to the higher floor. To the left are two loop holes, covered with single stones, cut circular at top. It appears, that nearly eight feet of the original building is now buried beneath the surface. Up a hollow part in the rock went a flight of steps, which has been destroyed. The wall of the outer arch is five feet thick, but the VOL. IX. superstructure

Q ૧

superstructure only four; having in the centre, a portcullis groove. Nearly the whole of this wall is composed of the Lincoln stone, of which a reddish and harder stratum has been selected for turning the arches both of the gateway and door above, for covering the beam holes, and for closing the loops. Its situation is precisely in the line of the Roman wall, and not far from the middle of the west side of it; and, as near as the eye can judge, is directly opposite to the site of the eastern Roman gate, which was destroyed some years since. The learned Baronet then observes, "The dimensions of the arch, its materials, its being so far below the present surface of the earth, and its situation in the line of the Roman wall, and opposite the east gate, would at once determine me to pronounce it the old gate of the Lindum of the Romans; did not some remarkable differences in this, from the north and south gates still existing, seem to discountenance the supposition. They have an impost, this has none. They are built of vast stones, this of rather small ones, (though the three thin stones on each haunch of the Newport Roman arch are very like those, which turn this arch) yet as the present castle, which was built by William the Conqueror, is evidently of more modern time than the tower, and the tower itself appears to have been of a date posterior to the arch in question, as appears by the different thickness of the walls, &c. I cannot help still thinking, that the Normans and Saxons both found this great arch built to their hands, and so, instead of destroying turned it into a postern, when they dug out the ditch and built a flight of steps to it. I must end by remarking, that the diameter of this arch is much greater than any other gate now about the city, the Newport having been only fifteen feet, and the castle great gate. thirteen feet ten inches in the clear *"

Soon after the Romans left the island, Lincoln, in common with other places of consequence, shared in the general calamities, which ensued, by the incursions of the Picts, Saxons, and Danes.

At

* Archæologia, Vol. VI. page 379.

At what period the Saxons possessed themselves of this city does not appear in history. But so early as the year 516, or according to Mathew of Westminster, 518, Arthur having been crowned King of Britain, proceeded immediately with his forces against the Saxons, who had been ravaging the country under their leader, Colgern; who, on the approach of the British Prince, fled, and passed over into Germany, where having obtained fresh supplies of troops, and aided by Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon kingdom, he again advanced, and carried on a depredatory warfare. Arthur obtaining advantages against the combined army pursued it towards Lincoln, which city was then besieged by the troops of Cerdic; who, on the arrival of the Britons, were compelled to retreat from before it.

Soon after this, from the successes which the invaders continually met with, Lincoln was probably in the possession of the Saxons. In those struggles it was that the old town was nearly destroyed, and that, as Leland thinks, "new Lincoln was made out of a piece of old Lincoln." The Saxons, for their better se curity, fortified the southern part of the hill with ditches and ramparts, walled the town, and erected gates.

A. D. 940, but according to the Saxon chronicle, A. D. 957, Edmund pursued the Danes into the north of England, defeated them, and recovered many towns; among which are mentioned Lincoln, Leicester, Stafford, Nottingham, and Derby; obliging them at the same time to swear allegiance to him, and to receive Christian baptism. Fresh supplies of troops coming over under Sweyne, the Danes over-ran the north, committed great devastations, and laid on the people most insupportable taxes. Sweyne dying at Gainsborough, was succeeded by Canute; who, A. D. 1016, laid waste the counties of Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon, Nottingham, Lincoln, and York. In this career, however, he was arrested by the valiant Edmund Ironside; but from a conspiracy in his army that prince was obliged to disband it, and seek refuge for himself under the protection of Uchtred his brother-inlaw, Earl of Northumberland; from whom he was soon obliged to retire

Qq2