it to the British Museum in 1797. It measures 22 ins. by 51 ins., 34 ins. deep, and weighs 127 lb. On the face it bears the following :

IMP. CAES, HADRIANI. AVG. MET. LVT.

Hübner's expansion is as follows:

Imp(eratoris) Caes(aris) Hadriani Aug(usti) Met(allorum) Lut(udensium).

To the last word the learned German appends a query.

The third example bears, not the name of an emperor but that of a private owner, manufacturer, or merchant. It was found before the year 1783 upon Matlock Moor, probably within half a mile of the find of 1894, which I am about to describe, and under very similar circumstances. Then, as in 1894, the moor was being "ridded" or cleared for cultivation; and close to the spot where the lead lay was a "bole", or place marked by heaps of slag, and a hearth of flat stones, where in ancient times, before smelting mills were invented, lead ores were smelted. The pig was 200 ins. long by 44 ins. wide, and weighed 83 lbs. It was preserved by Adam Wolley, Esq., who gave it to the British Museum in 1797. The lettering reads thus :

L. ARVCONI. VERECVNDI. METAL LVTVD.

The letters NDI and ET are ligulates. Hübner expands the inscription thus :

L. Aruconi Verecundi Metal(lorum) Lutud(ensium). He again queries the last word, and remarks that the letters appear similar in size and form to those on an inscription bearing the name of Hadrian, and found in Shropshire. Another inscription bearing the letters LVT was found at Hexgrove Park, near Mansfield, in 1848; so that there were four examples of this contraction found in or near Derbyshire before the last discovery. It was on March 24th, 1894, that this discovery was made, and I visited the spot three days afterwards.

Messrs. R. D. Hurd and W. D. Hurd, father and son, in 1886 purchased from the Duke of Portland a large tract of moorland, lying some 500 feet above the river Derwent, and adjoining the road leading from Matlock to Chesterfield. Between the eighth and ninth mile-stones from Chesterfield, on the east side of the road, Messrs. Hurd had built a farmhouse and outbuildings, and named them Portland Grange. Their business has been to reclaim and bring the land into cultivation.

On March 24th, a labourer was trenching to the depth of two feet, when his spade struck the corner of what proved to be a pig of lead. It lay face downwards, probably on the spot where it had been cast, and the inscription was thus perfectly preserved. The whole was beautifully oxydised under the influence of time. The pig is of the usual Roman shape, broader at the base than at the face. It measures along the base 224 ins. by 54 ins, along the face 19 ins. by 31 in. The sides slope outwards, and the depth is 43 ins.; the weight is 175 lbs. The pig has been cast in layers of about a 1 in. in thickness, and it was one corner of the final layer that the spade of the labourer turned up. The moor is known as Tansley Moor, and among the names marked on the Ordnance Map thereabouts are "Slag Hills" and "Old Lead Works". In a little stream near by, I picked up in a few minutes several fragments of lead ore, and Mr. Hurd told me there was a good deal thereabout. About two hundred yards from the spot where the pig was found, runs an ancient trackway, locally called "The Roman Road", which can be traced north-westwards into Yorkshire, and south-east into Nottinghamshire. It was probably along this road that the pigs of lead were carried on pack-horses to the coast. There was

a

very considerable lead industry in Derbyshire in Roman times, as the remains that have been discovered indicate.

The labourer who found the lead communicated his discovery to his employers, and the heavy mass was carefully removed to Mr. Hurd's house, where I saw it on March 27th, and took an impression in stereotype mould of the inscription.

I at once communicated with the Society of Antiquaries, and, through Mr. Blair, of South Shields, with Dr. Hübner of Berlin. The Antiquaries wished to see the relic, and Mr. Hurd was quite ready to facilitate this arrangement. In the meantime, Dr. Hübner replied as follows to Mr. Blair :

"The new pig from Matlock you send me a note about in the newspaper and your card to-day, contains clearly the inscription (in beautiful letters of the first century, I think), P(ubli) Rubri Abascanti. Metalli Lutudares(is). We know the Metallum Lutud., or Lut., from various British pigs of lead; now for the first time the name appears nearly in full as I guess, Metallum Lutudarese (or Lutudarense). Lutudaron (the Greek form for Latin Lutudarum) appears only in the Geographus Ravennas (6th century) as a place somewhere between Deva (Chester) and Derventio (Derwent); this is evidently the place where the Roman lead mines were. curious monument."

It is a

The pig of lead was sent to London, and exhibited at the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries on May 10th, 1894. At that meeting, Mr. Haverfield, of Oxford, read some brief remarks on the inscription, and said :

"The inscription consists of 14-in, letters, and is perfect and legible. Resolving the ligatures we have :

"P.RVBRI. ABASCANTI. METALLI. LVTVDARES.

،

"The formula, as is usual on these pigs, is slightly abbreviated. "We may complete it by understanding plumbum, and render (plumbum) P. Rubri Abascanti. Metalli Lutudare(n)s(is). The lead of P. Rubrius Abascantus of the mine of Lutudarum.' Lutudares I take to be, then, short for Lutudarensis, then being omitted in common fashion, and the last syllable dropped with usual Roman arbitrariness in abbreviation."

The great interest of this inscription lies in its last word, Lutudares. Hitherto, the form has appeared as Lut and Lutud, now as Lutudares; and Mr. Haverfield, our greatest authority, expands this still further to Lutudarensis. At one time it was generally accepted that Chesterfield represented "Lutudœ"; but the fact of this pig, as well as that preserved by Mr. Wolley, being found on the site where they were cast, and that site being in the district of Wirksworth, the conclusion seems justified that Lutudarum is represented by the modern Wirksworth, still a sort of centre of mining authority. It is further worthy of note that these Derbyshire mines seem to have been worked by Greek freedmen, probably as lessees from the crown.

The pig has passed from Mr. Hurd to the British Museum, where it may be compared with the others in that fine collection.

A faithful representation of it is given in the illustration below, which is reproduced from a block kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries.

PRUBRIA BASGIMĒALLVIVDARES

Roman Pig of Lead found near Matlock, 1894.

S

ON ROMAN INSCRIBED PIGS OF LEAD
FOUND IN BRITAIN.

BY W. DE GRAY BIRCH, F.S.A., LL.D.

(Read April 18th, 1894).

IGS of lead bearing imperial and other inscriptions are among the most interesting of extant Roman remains. They introduce to our consideration many speculations upon the trade, commerce, mining and metallurgy of the people who manufactured and dealt in lead.

The

examples which had been found in Britain at various times were tabulated by the late Mr. Albert Way, in an erudite paper published in the Archæological Journal, vol. xvi, 1859. The forty years which have elapsed have added a few more to the number, and for convenience of students I have tabulated the inscriptions, weights, sizes, and other points of detail, in the accompanying list. Mr. Way's paper so fully described them that it is not necessary for me to go over his ground again. But the explanation of some of the words of the legends is unsatisfactory, and I have occasionally suggested other readings. The Emperor's name is usually in the genitive case (see Nos. 8, 10, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45), rarely in the ablative (Nos. 34, 35). Hence we should be justified in restoring defective and extending abbreviated names and titles in the genitive, not in the nominative, as Way. The formulæ embrace the names and titles only (Nos. 1, 9, 10, 11, 14-33, 37-39); the date of the consulship (Nos. 8, 34, 35), or of the tribunitial and imperial (No. 2), or of the tribunitial and consular offices (Nos. 11, 12, 13-33). The term LvT. has been read (in 3-7, 37, 45), and LVTVD. (44), as Lutudarense or of Lutudarum, a Roman station according to the