Sometimes, instead of a mound of earth, a monument of stone covered the place where the sepulchral urn was deposited. This was the case at BREMENIUM, as already described (_p._ 326). With the ashes or body of the deceased, it was usual to deposit a small brass coin to answer the demands of Charon. 'This custom of burying valuables and coins with the dead is by no means extinct; the humbler Irish will pawn their clothes to provide fresh pieces of money to throw into the coffins of their departed friends.'[145] The Romans, as formerly observed, did not usually deposit either the unburnt bodies of the dead, or their ashes, within the walls of towns or stations. A curious exception to this practice has lately been noticed. In the month of October last (1850), a funereal urn was discovered within the station of BORCOVICUS, near the north-west corner. It was sunk in the earth, and was covered by an oblong flat stone, without inscription. The vase, which was of earthen-ware, and altogether devoid of ornament, was globular in its form, and of large dimensions. It measured two feet in diameter, and two feet in height. It contained ashes, amongst which was found a solitary silver coin of Hadrian. This urn is preserved at Chesters. On the slab covering the remains of the deceased person, the name and age were not unfrequently inscribed. The carving, which sometimes includes an effigy of the individual, is often very rude; the back of the stone is, for the most part, undressed. The inscriptions on these ‘frail memorials’ which in the mural region have come down to our times, and ‘implore the passing tribute of a sigh,’ almost uniformly commence [Sidenote: DII MANES.] with the letters D. M.—_diis manibus_. The shades or departed spirits are, probably, themselves intended in this address, though much confusion exists upon the subject in the works of the ancient writers. In the following lines, Ovid represents the manes as being objects of worship:— Est honor et tumulis: animas placate paternas; Parvaque in extinctas munera ferte pyras. Parva petunt MANES: pietas pro divite grata est Munere: non avidos Styx habet ima Deos. Tegula projectis satis est velata coronis; Et sparsæ fruges, parcaque mica salis. [Illustration: Sepulchral Altar to the Manes of Fabia Honorata, Cilurnum] Some of the ceremonies here referred to by the Latin poet, are still in use, as all know who have visited the cemetery of Père la Chaise, in Paris. On the sepulchral slab, death is rarely mentioned; but the number of years, months, and days, that the deceased lived, is recorded with great particularity. The altar, of which an engraving is here introduced, was found at CILURNUM, and is now in the Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham. It bears the following inscription—