“It is, however, the figured pottery of Durobrivæ, which presents some of the characteristics of the Samian ware, that possesses the greatest interest for the antiquary and the historian. The variety of subjects in the Samian ware is far greater, and they are treated in a more elaborate and more highly finished style of art, yet similar classes of subjects appear to have enjoyed greater popularity than others in the Durobrivian and Samian pottery, and we can hardly help suspecting that there was some design of imitating, or perhaps a sentiment of rivalry. Considering that they were only executed with the hand, and it would appear rapidly, the style of drawing is remarkably good and spirited. But they have another and a peculiar value; when we consider that they were certainly executed in this country, and by artists who could hardly have done otherwise than copy what was constantly before their eyes, we can have no doubt that these are all true pictures, pictures which we could hardly in any other way have obtained, of life in Britain under the Romans, and they show us, as well as could be shown in subjects capable of being represented by such artists, those occupations in which the enjoyment of life was then believed to consist. The more common of these subjects are hunting scenes and scenes taken from the amphitheatre or racecourse.” For instance, the dog hunting the hare, given in our cut ([fig. 220]) taken from an example of Durobrivian ware engraved in Artis’s plates, must be recognized at once as a greyhound, the same variety of dog which is still used for the same purpose. It has been suggested that this may be the dog to which the Romans gave the name of vertagus, and which is said to have been a British dog. Martial describes it in one of his epigrams as—
“Divisa Britannia mittit
Veloces, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos.”
Nemesiani Cynegetica, l. 123.
Fig. 217.
Fig. 218.
Fig. 219.
Fig. 220.