The pottery of the Romano-British period, so far as relates to what is found in the grave-mounds of that people, consists, in the main, of cinerary urns, jugs (so called), pateræ, amphoræ, bowls, and vases of various kinds. Of the pottery alone of this period, sufficient interesting matter to fill a couple of goodly volumes might easily be written. It will, therefore, be at once understood that in a work like the present, which is simply intended to be a descriptive sketch of the contents of grave-mounds, elaborate accounts of the different kinds of ware made by that people, and of the modes of manufacture which they adopted, would be unnecessary. The principal divisions are the Samian ware, the Durobrivian ware, the pottery of the Upchurch marshes, the Hampshire ware, the Salopian ware, and the Yorkshire wares, and to these divisions I shall devote some few pages, and in so doing express thanks to my friend, Mr. Thomas Wright, for some excellent articles[41] on the Durobrivian, the Upchurch, and the Samian wares, which he has written. Before proceeding to speak of the different vessels found with interments, it will be well to glance at these different wares and their characteristics. [Illustration: Fig. 212.] The _Durobrivian_ or _Castor ware_, as it is variously called, is the production of the extensive Romano-British potteries on the river Nen in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, which, with settlements, are computed to have covered a district of some twenty square miles in extent. The discovery of this pottery and of the kilns in which its productions were fired, etc.--one of which is engraved on fig. 212--is due to the late Mr. Artis, who prosecuted his examination of the locality with great perseverance and skill. There are several varieties of this Durobrivian ware, and two especially have been remarked; the first, blue or slate-coloured, the other reddish-brown or of a dark copper colour. The former was coloured by a simple though curious process, which Mr. Artis was enabled to investigate in a very satisfactory manner. It will, perhaps, be best told in his own words. “During an examination of the pigments used by the Roman potters of this place,” he says, “I was led to the conclusion that the blue and slate-coloured vessels met with here in such abundance, were coloured by suffocating the fire of the kiln at the time when its contents had acquired a degree of heat sufficient to ensure uniformity of colour. I had so firmly made up my mind upon the process of manufacturing and firing this peculiar kind of earthenware, that for some time previous to the recent discovery [in 1844] I had denominated the kilns in which it had been fired _smother kilns_. The mode of manufacturing the bricks of which these kilns are made is worthy of notice. The clay was previously mixed with about one-third of rye in the chaff, which, being consumed by the fire, left cavities in the room of the grains.