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with that of the steelyard. Some of the Roman equalarmed balances found in London, and preserved in the Guildhall Museum, are ingeniously hinged on each side of the suspending hook, so as to fold up, probably to fit into a case for carrying about on the person.

The usual type of Roman steelyard consists of the following parts: the handle or hook for suspension (ansa), the beam (jugum), the sliding weight (aquipondium), the scale-pan (lanx), with its chains for attaching it to the beam; and a hook on the beam for weighing objects hung to it, instead of being placed in the scale-pan. The beam is a rod of metal with a knob at one end to prevent the movable weight from slipping off, and three loops cast in one piece with it; the first at the opposite end to the knob, for the hook by which the scale-pan is hung; the second on the lower side of the beam, for the hook, to weigh objects suspended instead of put into the scale-pan; and the third on the upper side of the beam, for the handle to be fixed to. The longer arm of the beam between the handle and the end with the knob is marked with a scale' to give the weight by measuring its distance from the fulcrum. The handle, which is missing in the Stretton Grandison steelyard, consists of a short chain with a hook at the top for holding it in the hand or hanging it up by. The scale-pan has four loops and rings, to each of which chains are fastened, which can be brought together between the pan and the beam by means of a tightening ring. At the top of this chain is a ring which can be passed over the double hook (marked A on the Plate). The weight is hung to the beam by a chain of two links. The weight belonging to the Stretton Grandison steelyard is nearly spherical, but generally it is made in the shape of a bust of some classical god or goddess.

1 There are often two or three scales, as on the specimen found near Catterick, so that the same weight could be used for objects either put into the scale-pan or suspended by one of the hooks.

The Romans set an example, which might well be followed in the present day, of paying no small amount of attention to the artistic appearance of objects in every-day use. There is no reason why the modern English weights should be so extremely ugly. In mediæval times weights were ornamented with heraldic shields, and the Burmese make their weights in the form of a conventionalised animal. A Greek weight in the British Museum has an owl stamped in relief upon it, and some highly ornamented Scandinavian weights were discovered, with a balance, in a Viking's grave near Kiloran Bay, in the Isle of Colonsay, Scotland.

The piece of Samian ware found at Stretton Grandison has the representation of a wild boar upon it, probably forming part of a hunting scene. The appearance of the spear is clearly shown in the engraving.

The whole of the objects are drawn to one-half their natural size, so that it is unnecessary to give the dimensions.

Since writing the above, Mr. R. W. Banks has called my attention to the volume of the Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club for 1881-82, which has only just been published, containing a very valuable paper by Dr. Bull on "Credenhill Camp, Magna Castra, and the Roman Stations and Towns in Herefordshire." The following description of Stretton Grandison is given in the paper :

"CICUTIO OR CIRCUTIO.-This Roman station is not mentioned either by Ptolemy or Antonine. It is named, however, with five others, by the anonymous geographer of Ravenna, in his Chorography, as existing between Caerleon and Magna. Baxter, in his Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, placed it at Stretton Grandison, and it appears here on all the old maps. The Roman road from Magna enters that from Bravinium and Blackwardine at a right angle, and tradition assigns its place in the south-west corner, near the junction of the roads. Its exact site was not known, however, until it was accidentally discovered by Messrs. Stephen and Philip Ballard in 1842, when making the Ledbury and Hereford Canal. On the banks of the river Frome, in a flat meadow called 'Budbury', about half a mile from the Camp on the hill, it was necessary to dig a

square hole, 60 feet by 40 feet, and 12 feet deep, in order to lay the foundation for the aqueduct to carry the canal over the river. The excavation was made in the open meadow; and the large arch forming the aqueduct was first built, and the river, slightly diverted from its channel, was turned through it. Towards the bottom of the excavation black soil was met with, containing a large number of bones of sheep and cattle and horses, particularly blade-bones. On examining more closely, a pair of Roman weight-scales (which would be the modern steelyards only they are made of copper) were found with the weight attached; a Roman coin of small brass; a couple of gold bracelets, one made of coiled gold wire, and the other a flat gold band with light scrollwork upon it, each fastened with simple hooks; fragments of Samian ware with animals embossed in relief; and many pieces of coarse pottery. A round ball of stone, 2 inches in diameter, like a small cannon-ball, was also found. Budbury Meadow, at the present time, is extremely liable to be flooded by the muddy waters of the river Frome. It is below the Camp, and to the west of it, near Canon Frome Canal Wharf.

"The Camp on the hill is very extensive, and were it not for the trees upon it would command a wide view of the surrounding district. It does not at this time (1882) present any regular lines of fortification, and the 'Square Camp' spoken of by most writers is no longer apparent. On the south side a long artificial escarpment leads up toward the Camp, and near the top of the hill a deep fosse takes its place. There are also signs of a ditch near the northern end of the Camp, and scattered all about it are a number of rough single stones that do not seem to belong naturally to the situation. Its surface is covered with timber, and a clump of Scotch fir-trees growing on a mound at the highest and most prominent part of the hill very possibly marks out the signal-station of its Roman occupants.

"On the south side of the hill, in the wood near the top, is a large hollow space, from which very possibly the earth was taken to form the present road on the escarpment just mentioned. On the side of this hollow Mr. Herbert Ballard, when digging ferns among the underwood, in 1878, discovered a very curious Roman lamp at a few inches below the surface."

5TH SER., VOL. V.

15

204

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNT OF CWMHIR ABBEY, RADNORSHIRE.

BY R. W. BANKS.

A FULL account of the history of the Cistercian Monastery of Cwmhir, and of the remains of its ruined Abbey Church, has been given by the late Rev. W. Jenkin Rees in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Cambrensis; it will, therefore, be necessary to give now such an outline only of its history as will serve to render the following notes on the same subject intelligible.

The Abbey of Cwmhir was founded by Cadwallon ap Madoc, the owner of Cantred Maelienydd, in which it was situate, about the year 1143, and was subsequently endowed with large possessions by his son Howel and his grandson Meredith ap Maelgon; also by Roger Mortimer, who in the reign of King John dispossessed the previous owners of Maelienydd ;' and by Einion Clyd, the founder's brother, and owner of the adjoining Cantred Elvael.

The only record of these donations is contained in charters, 16 John, 27 Dec., Charter Rolls, p. 205; and 16 Henry III, June 1st. None of the grants to the Abbey have been preserved. From Meredith ap Maelgon the Abbey derived the manor of Gollon, and lands in the parishes of Llanbadarn Vynydd, Llanano, and Llandewy Ystradenny, with "common of pasture over the whole of Maelienydd and Kerry"; from Roger Mortimer, the manor of Dolelven, in the parish of St. Harmon, adjoining the territory of the monks of Strata Florida and the county of Montgomery, with common of pasture in Worthen, situate in the counties of Montgomery and Salop.

These grants received a further confirmation from 1 Mon. Anglic., tome ii, p. 221.

the Inspeximus Charter, 11 Edward II (Patent Rolls, m. 5), which in addition confirmed to the Abbey of Cwmhir the donation which Gwenwynwyn, son of Owen Cyfeiliog, made to the monks of the land called Cwmbuga, with its appurtenances, and Kellmeignan with its appurtenances, and "common of pasture everywhere through Arwstli and Cyfeiliog", and the lands of Garthkewyt and Eskir y maen and Eskir y vedw with all their appurtenances. This additional donation gave rise to a dispute between the Abbey of Cwmhir and the adjoining Abbey of Ystrad Marchell, which will be presently referred to.

The greater part of the land so given by Gwenwynwyn is in the parish of Llangurig, then part of Cantred Arwstly, and in the south-western portion of the county of Montgomery. Esgair y maen appears in the Ordnance Survey to be on the south side of Plinlimmon, not far from Blaen Gwy; Mynachlog, on the river Bidno, which runs into the Wye near Glan Gwy, was probably part of the same donation. The source of Afon Buga is near the summit of Plinlimmon, whence it flows eastward past Cwmbiga into Afon Clywedog, which joins the Severn at Llanidloes.

The natural features of the district are well described in the parochial account of Llangurig as mountainous, and almost covered by some of the numerous offshoots of Plinlimmon, which form a number of high, moorland tracts intersected by numerous nants, or narrow ravines, down which the mountain-torrents flow. The slopes, and in some instances the summits, of these elevated tracts are dotted with numbers of small farms, whose occupants maintain a laborious but cheerful struggle to extort a subsistence by the cultivation of the soil, or more commonly by attending to extensive sheepwalks, affording pasture to sheep of a hardy kind, and hillponies which during the winter months are removed from the higher and more exposed hills to the farms in the valleys and low grounds.1

1 History of Llangurig, by E. Hamer and Howel W. Lloyd.

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