XVIII. Letter from the Rev. L. Vernon Harcourt to Sir Henry Ellis, K. H. Secretary, describing several Vessels of glass and earthenware, and Ornaments, discovered near Chilgrove, in Sussex

Extract

I beg leave to present to the Society of Antiquaries the accompanying drawings, executed by Mrs. Vernon Harcourt, of some Antiquities recently discovered on the estate of Leyland Woods, Esq. near his residence at Chilgrove, in the county of Sussex, about five miles from Chichester: they consist partly of vessels intended to hold liquors, and partly of female ornaments, bracelets, and rings. Three of the Vessels are of glass (See Pl. IX.), one of which has been broken most unfortunately, for the glass is much clearer than in the others, and it is curiously ornamented with a linked pattern. The others are of coarse clay, without inscriptions, or any elaborate ornament. I am aware that vessels of this sort have been found in such abundance that they might scarcely seem to deserve the notice of the Society, were I not desirous to discuss the question which has been raised, whether they are of British or of Roman origin. The former opinion rests upon the assertion, that glass is more a British than a Roman manufacture, and that it does not occur in Roman sepulchres; that the earthenware vessels display no refinement of art, and while they are too large for lachrymatories, they are too small for cinerary urns; that the ornaments are evidently of British manufacture; for I found by an analysis of some fragments, that one hundred grains contained sixty-eight of copper and twenty-eight of tin, the rest being earth accidentally mixed with them, and zinc to the amount of less than a grain: there were traces of iron, but nothing more. Copper and tin are the chief mineral products of this island. And, lastly, that the bodies near which they were found, had been interred instead of burnt.