It has probably been a dedication to one of the emperors, or an inscription commemorative of him.
It has been stated before, that the site of Uriconium is of very great extent. If the visitor, after having examined the excavations, would seek an agreeable walk, he may turn off by the smith’s shop already mentioned, along the northerly continuation of the Watling Street Road, which soon becomes a deep and pretty country lane, and crosses the Bell Brook. Soon afterwards, on the rise of a bank, we come to a spot where the ancient town wall crossed this road, and where there are said to be traces of one of the gateway entrances to Uriconium. At the latter part of the year 1862, excavations were made in an adjoining field to trace the line of the town wall, which was found remaining to a height of three or four feet; but it was of very rough construction, built merely of small stone boulders mixed with clay, and had evidently been raised hurriedly, at a late period of the history of Uriconium, to meet some sudden emergency. There had evidently been an entrance opening here, but there were no traces of gateway buildings, which were perhaps only of timber. Outside the walls, on the bank to the right, was one of the principal cemeteries, and here the sepulchral inscriptions mentioned above were found. Successful excavations were made in 1862 on the site of this cemetery, and many Roman graves were opened which furnished the Museum in Shrewsbury with another inscribed monument of great interest, a number of sepulchral urns and vessels of glass, and various other objects.
If, instead of going northward, the visitor follows the Watling Street Road towards the south, he will soon reach the village of Wroxeter, and may examine its church. A new gate to the churchyard has recently been erected, and Mr. W. H. Oatley, of Wroxeter, who holds the office of churchwarden, has contributed a shaft of a Roman column, and two Roman capitals, which, together with another shaft given by the Rev. E. Egremont, are now placed on each side of this gateway. The two capitals, which were dragged out of the river Severn, are worthy of particular attention. They are singularly rich in ornament, and mark that late period of Roman architecture which became the model of the mediæval Byzantine and Romanesque. I cannot help wishing that they were safely deposited in the Museum at Shrewsbury, and I think that the Roman columns would serve as well for gateway supports without the capitals, which probably did not belong to them. The church of Wroxeter is a substantial Norman building, with later alterations, and on the outside of the southern wall of the chancel are the remains of a very interesting Norman doorway, which has been built up.
The chancel internally is chiefly remarkable for some fine monuments with effigies of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, interesting especially for their costume. It has at present a low flat whitewashed ceiling, but there is a fine old timber roof above, and it is greatly to be regretted that the unsightly ceiling has not been removed, so that the chancel might again be open to its lofty roof of timber. At the western end of the church is an early font, pl. 7, which has been formed of a very large Roman capital, taken from some important building in the city of Uriconium. Such applications of Roman monuments to later ecclesiastical purposes are by no means uncommon. In the garden of the vicarage, which adjoins the churchyard, are a few fragments of Roman architecture and sculpture, which have been carefully preserved by the present vicar, the Rev. E. Egremont.
Near the churchyard stands the residence of Mr. Oatley, who has also collected in his garden a few fragments from the ancient city and its neighbourhood. Among these is a cylindrical stone, which at first sight might be taken for part of a column, but which appears, from a few remaining letters of an inscription, to have been more probably a Roman milliarium or mile-stone. Mr. Oatley has placed a Roman capital on the top of it, and both are represented in pl. 6. Several architectural fragments are also preserved in the garden of Mr. Stanier. Two of the most interesting of these, belonging to the shaft of the same column, or to those of two similar columns are represented in pl. 15.
The Watling Street Road leads us direct from the gateway of the churchyard to the river Severn, which is here crossed at present by a ford. On the right is a large rugged field overlooking the river, and occupied by Mr. Oatley, which has been trenched in several directions, but nothing was discovered except a Roman well, ten feet deep, which is kept open, and is now partly filled with clear spring water. In an orchard at the corner of this field, near the road, were found a number of human skeletons, attended with some remarkable circumstances, for an account of which I refer the reader to Dr. Johnson’s remarks at the end of this little volume. On the other side of the Watling Street Road, the ground rises to a little knoll, which looks down upon the river, and seems to have formed the southern corner of the inclosure of the city of Uriconium. The top of this knoll has been carefully explored, and the walls of a square building, perhaps of a tower, were uncovered. Among the objects found on this spot were a head sculptured in stone, and a mould for casting Roman coins, both of which are deposited in the Museum at Shrewsbury. The impress on the coin-mould is that of a coin of Julia Domna, the wife of the emperor Severus, (the commencement of the third century); and it is rather a curious circumstance that a silver coin of this empress, which fits the impress exactly, has been found in the excavations near the Old Wall. This method of multiplying the imperial coinage by casts seems to have been very common in these distant provinces, and was perhaps exercised by the imperial or municipal officers. Another coin-mould, also with the impress of Julia Domna, was found at Wroxeter in 1747, and two, one of Severus himself, and the other of Plautilla, in 1722.
In conclusion, I may perhaps be allowed to make a remark on some of the various points on which the excavations on the site of Uriconium have already thrown more or less illustrative light during the short period in which they have as yet been carried on. We see how, by examining their buildings and comparing the objects that are turned up by the pick and the spade, we get an insight into the condition of the inhabitants of Roman Britain, and learn to what degree they enjoyed the luxuries and comforts of life. We see that they possessed a great majority of the refinements of modern society—far more than can be traced among the population of the middle ages. We are taught even the character of their food by remains of edible animals. The comparison of other objects enables us to judge to a great degree of the state and extent of manufactures and commerce. We learn from inscriptions on their sepulchral monuments and altars the names and occupations of some of the inhabitants of the ancient town, and the races to which they belonged; and from this partial information we are enabled by induction to obtain a general view of the whole. We are thus enabled to form a truer notion of the manner in which this country had been inhabited and governed during nearly four centuries; and we have the further hope of eventually discovering monuments which will throw some light on the more particular history of this neighbourhood in these remote ages. We learn, finally, from the condition in which the ruins of Uriconium are now seen, and especially from the numerous remains of human beings which are found scattered over its long-deserted floors, the sad fate under which it finally sank into ruin, and thus we are made vividly acquainted with the character and events of a period of history which has hitherto been but dimly seen through the vague traditions of writers who at best knew them only by hearsay.
Catalogue of Wroxeter Antiquities in the Museum at Shrewsbury.
I.
OBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS.
1. Roofing flags, of micaceous sandstone, form generally hexagonal, with a hole for the nail.—See pl. IV., fig. 1.