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to be demolished. Will they not at once join hand in
hand with the antiquary, and rejoice with him that every nation, and
almost every town in Europe, has its public or private collection, wherein
these relics may be safely housed, and protected from the hands of
desecrating workmen?
The neighbourhood around Murston has for years furnished us
with innumerable examples of Roman manufacture. Many objects of fictile
ware from these brickfields enriched the collection of the late Mr. Bland,
of Hartlip, which were presented by that gentleman to the Kent
Archaeological Society’s Museum, at Maidstone. Dr. Grayling, of
Sittingbourne, also possesses a few fine types.
In 1869 a Roman leaden coffin, containing a skeleton and the
fragments of a glass vase and lachrymatory, was
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found near the old church of Murston, in a field called
"Eleven Acres." This coffin was ornamented with bars of bead
moulding, arranged crosswise; the lead was of the finest quality, but of
no great thickness. It is strange that in this district, which must have
been densely populated, we scarcely ever find any
trace of the dwellings or camping rounds of its former occupants. The
whole place teems with the ashes of the dead, the ground is constantly
being excavated in every direction from Rainham to Teynham, and yet no
vestige of a Roman villa or pavement has been (during my researches)
brought to light, except the villa at Hartlip.
It is probable that in past times the vestiges of buildings
have succumbed to the plough, and to the various purposes to which we
daily see ancient buildings applied. |