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Briton, while the stone pots of Orkney and probably the hollowed stone of Aberdeenshire, having no means of suspension, were carried in the lappet of the savages hide-cloak, or stood in his habitation to be employed in the use for which they were fabricated. I am aware that this opinion which I have advanced concerning the ancient use of the so-called incense cups conflicts with the ideas of the eminent archæologists Sir John Lubbock and Professor Daniel Wilson, both of whom consider those vessels to have been employed as lamps, the latter writer intimating that the perforations were made to admit of their suspension. The specimens however, to which the author of the "Pre-historic Annals of Scotland" refers in that valuable work, page 424, are in the same museum which contains the stone pots from Orkney, and were with them submitted to my inspection by the curator. Of the three clay cups thus referred to, and represented in Professor Wilson's work, plate vi., fig. 78, the one found at Rolandshay, Orkney, has four perforations, one pair opposite to the other pair at the bottom. These holes, which would, according to my supposition about the use of such a vessel, serve very well for the insertion of ligaments that might lap over the outside of the cup, and suspend it and its contents safely, provided that what it held was of the consistency of pigment, would certainly allow oil or blubber, which it has been supposed was at that time used to nourish the flame of the wick, to exude. The cup found near Dunbar I observed to have only one pair of holes on one side, and so to be incapable of suspension as a lighted lamp by means of a ligament drawn through them. By this instrumentality however the vessel might have been hung up empty or full, if its contents were caked together and solid as pigment would probably be when dry; or if a small osier twig had been bent and inserted into the holes to serve as a handle, the owner might with convenience have mingled and carried paint in the vessel. The third clay cup figured in Professor Wilson's work, found at Old Penrith, Cumberland, has one pair of holes together at the bottom, and is therefore open to both the objections already stated against its use as a lighted lamp. On the other hand it might have been employed as a pigment pot, and by means of a

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ligament passed through the holes, carried about the warrior's person, or suspended in his habitation. But my supposition that the so-called incense cups served the purpose of vessels in which to mingle body-paint does not rest solely on their adaptation for that use, and their inapplicability for other uses suggested by eminent archæologists, and on the important discovery of stone pots of similar capacity, and actually containing red pigment, or traces of it, in Orkney; but appears to receive further important corroboration from the following piece of direct evidence. In a cist at Liffs, in Derbyshire, three bits of red ochre were found associated with an incense cup, as recorded in Bateman's vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, transcribed in Sir John Lubbock's Pre-historic times, page 94. On these grounds the writer of this article presumes to hope that his readers will recognize a probability in his supposition, that the Coughton cup and the so-called incense cups represent in pottery the ruder stone vessels of Orkney. In fact, we may conclude from our knowledge of the prevalence of the custom of body-painting among the primitive inhabitants of our island, that these vessels were used to contain pigment; that they would be discovered on the site of their habitations, and would also be found associated with their interments.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE.

Fig. 1.-Clay cup (actual size), found as described in this paper, near the village of Coughton, Warwickshire. Depth of cavity, 14inch; diameter of orifice, 2 inches; has red stain inside.

Fig. 2.-Stone vessel (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch; diameter of orifice, 2 inches; found in a Pict's house at the bay of Skaill, Orkney; contains red pigment.

Fig. 3.-Stone vessel (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch; diameter of orifice, 1 inch; found with vessel fig. 2, in the same Pict's house; exhibits traces of having contained red pigment.

Fig. 4. Hollowed stone (half size). Depth of cavity, inch; diameter of orifice, 1 inch; found at Udny, Aberdeenshire.

Fig. 5.-Clay cup (half size). Depth of cavity, 1 inch; diameter of orifice, 11⁄2inch; having a pair of perforations on one side; found in a cairn at foot of the hill of Benachie, Aberdeenshire.

The stone vessels, figs. 2, 3, 4, and clay cup fig. 5, are all in the Museum of Antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh. Their dimensions were taken and outlines sketched by the writer of the paper, as accurately as he was able during his visit to that Museum in 1867.

Boman Embankment at Cricklade.

By the Rev. WILLIAM ALLAN, M.A.

12N the year 1776, a Parliamentary Committee was appointed

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to enquire into the election which had taken place at Cricklade the previous year. Many very old people were examined as witnesses, as well as many younger persons. These witnesses referred to an embankment which surrounded Cricklade on all sides, and which was then generally believed to have been constructed by the Romans. John Haynes, who was born in Cricklade in 1712, said, "Inside the borough there is a bank, which is said to have been thrown up during the Roman wars, but I never understood it to be the boundary of the borough; indeed, it cuts off part of St. Mary's parish, which is deemed to be within the borough. The bank or mound extends to within about thirty yards of the eastern boundary. The general report has always been that the mound is a Roman encampment." This was corroborated by William Giles, born in 1701. Morgan Byrt, speaking of this mound, said "This bank is thought to have been formerly a fortification, it is everywhere plainly to be seen, except where the streets cross it." William Saunders, born in 1702, a witness on the other side, also referred repeatedly to this embankment. The evidence upon this particular point was so clear, that the counsel on both sides acknowledged that according to general tradition, this bank was clearly the remains of a Roman encampment.

Although, however, this tradition was so distinct in 1786, it appears to have died out during the last hundred years, for although a native of Cricklade, and much interested in its history, I had never heard of such an embankment until I read the above evidence

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