XXX. Governor Pownall on Roman Earthen-ware, and the Boundary-Stone of Croyland Abbey

Extract

Mr. Brander having entertained me at dinner with a desert served up in Roman earthen-ware out of his cabinet : on my mentioning this to my brother, he gave me the account [which stands in my paper, Archaeol. vol. V. p. 282.] of his having himself dragged up some pieces of Roman earthen-ware from off the Pudding-pan Sand or Rock, and showed me the three pieces there referred to, with several fragments of black earthen-ware. On examining them I observed on one the stamp Attiliani M. perfect and distinct; on the other, the traces, in the same sort of letters and stamp, of the same name, though not perfect. Whether the black sort ever had any stamp did not appear on the small fragments which I saw. I was led by this circumstance into a train of conjecture (for all that I have written on the subject deserves no better name) on the things themselves, and the place where they were found: and wrote a little memoire on them. In return to Mr. Brander's civility, I sent this paper to him, with liberty, if he pleased, of communicating it to the Society. At the same time that he communicated this paper in 1778, he exhibited six specimens of his Roman earthen-ware, said to have been fished up at the mouth of the Thames. A note referring to these pieces, and not to those on which I wrote, was, without the sanction of the Society, subjoined to this paper as published in the Archaeologia, vol. V. p. 282. 1779. I had observed that the name Attilianus only (as far as I could see) was on this earthen-ware. The note observes first, that the earthen vessels mentioned in this paper are in the cabinet of Gustavus Brander, Esq. next gives the six specimens of vessels, referred to in that note, on one only of which appears the name of Attilianus, This directly contradicts the fact which I had stated as the ground of my conjecture.