greyish black, with a smooth and rather shining
surface, produced by the process of firing in
"smother kilns;" but a good deal of the ware is of
a dark drab colour. The forms and sizes of the
vessels vary to a surprising extent, but they are all
characterized by a simple gracefulness and elegance
of outline, and in many instances the patterns
with which they are decorated are of peculiar and
effective design. These decorations consist in the
main of circles and semicircles; lines vertical or

08804

Figs. 146 to 150.

otherwise; bands; and an infinity of raised dots
arranged in a variety of ways. The clay used is fine,
and the vessels are light and thin and well formed.

The Castor or Durobrivian ware of the potteries on the Nen, in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is of marked character, and has been extensively used. In this locality—at Castor and its neighbourhood-remains of very extensive potworks, covering many acres in extent, have been found; and several kilns in a more or less perfect state, and containing ware in situ, have been uncovered. One of the kilns is shown in Fig. 151.

The ware of the Durobrivian potteries is superior both in style of art and in form and material to that of Upchurch, and has an especial interest over it in the fact that it bears figures and various ornaments in relief, in the same manner as on the Samian ware. The ornament, especially the scrolls, etc., is laid on "in slip." The vessel, after having been

thrown on the wheel, was allowed to become somewhat firm, but only sufficiently so for the purpose of the lathe. In the indented ware, the indenting was performed with the vessel in as pliable a state as it could be taken from the lathe. A thick slip of the same body was then procured, and the ornamentation proceeded. "The vessels-on which are displayed a variety of hunting subjects, representations

of fishes, scrolls, and human figures-were all glazed after the figures were laid on; where, however, the decorations are white, the vessels were glazed before

the ornaments were added. Ornamenting with figures of animals was effected by means of sharp and blunt skewer instruments and a slip of suitable

consistency. These instruments seem to have been of two kinds-one thick enough to carry sufficient slip for the nose, neck, body, and front thigh; the other of a more delicate kind, for a thinner slip, for the tongue, lower jaws, eye, fore and hind legs, and tail. There seems to have been no retouching, after the slip trailed from the instrument. Field sports seem to have been favourite subjects with our Romano-British artists. The representations of deer and hare hunts are good and spirited; the courage and energy of the hounds, and the distress of the hunted animals, are given with great skill and fidelity, especially when the simple and offhanded process by which they must have been executed is taken into consideration.”

Gladiatorial combats and mythological figures and groups are also frequent subjects for representation on the Castor vases. Another pleasing variety, peculiar to Castor ware, has the pattern of scrolls and flowers in white slip upon a dark bluishblack ground (Figs. 155 to 157, and 163).

Of Salopian ware two kinds especially are found in great abundance; the one white, the other of a rather light red colour. The white, which is made of what is commonly called Broseley clay, and is rather coarse in texture, consists chiefly of somewhat handsomely formed jugs or bellarmine-shaped vessels, of different sizes; of Mortaria; and of bowls of different shapes and sizes, which are often painted with stripes of red and yellow. The other variety.