The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
Of these Pots none were found above Three Quarters of a Yard in the
Ground, whereby it appeareth, that in all this Time the Earth hath
little varied its Surface, though this Ground hath been Plowed to the
utmost Memory of Man. Whereby it may be also conjectured, that this hath
not been a _Wood-Land_, as some conceive all this Part to have been; for
in such Lands they usually made no common Burying-places, except for
some special Persons in Graves, and likewise that there hath been an
Ancient Habitation about these Parts; for at _Buxton_ also, not a Mile
off, _Urnes_ have been found in my Memory, but in their Magnitude,
Figure, Colour, Posture, _etc._ there was no small Variety, some were
large and capacious, able to contain above Two Gallons, some of a
middle, others of a smaller Size; the great ones probably belonging to
greater Persons, or might be Family _Urnes_, fit to receive the Ashes
successively of their Kindred and Relations, and therefore of these,
some had Coverings of the same Matter, either fitted to them, or a thin
flat Stone, like a Grave Slate, laid over them; and therefore also great
Ones were but thinly found, but others in good Number; some were of
large wide Mouths, and Bellies proportionable, with short Necks, and
bottoms of Three Inches _Diameter_, and near an Inch thick; some small,
with Necks like Juggs, and about that Bigness; the Mouths of some few
were not round, but after the Figure of a Circle compressed; though
some had small, yet none had pointed Bottoms, according to the Figures
of those which are to be seen in _Roma Soteranea_, _Viginerus_, or
_Mascardus_.
In the Colours also there was great Variety, some were Whitish, some
Blackish, and inclining to a Blue, others Yellowish, or dark Red,
arguing the Variety of their Materials. Some Fragments, and especially
Bottoms of Vessels, which seem'd to be handsome neat Pans, were also
found of a fine _Coral_-like Red, somewhat like _Portugal_ Vessels, as
tho' they had been made out of some fine _Bolary_ Earth, and very
smooth; but the like had been found in divers Places, as Dr. _Casaubon_
hath observed about the Pots found at _Newington_ in _Kent_, and as
other Pieces do yet testifie, which are to be found at _Burrow_ Castle,
an Old _Roman_ Station, not far from _Yarmouth_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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