The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-09 00:00:00

BELGIAN EASTERN JUNCTION.

The adjourned special meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. C.
Waring, M.P., in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN stated that the object of the meet-
ing was to consider an agreement concluded between
this company and the Societe Generale d'Exploita-
tion, by which the entire property of the company
would be handed over to the Societe on the Ist of
January, 1868. The railway was to retain its sur-
plus lands. The result of the agreement would be
that in 1868-69 the rent would be sufficient to pay
the interest on the various loans, and 2s. per share;
in 1871 to pay 2s. 44d. per share, and in 1872-73
to pay 2s. 81d. per share ; from and after 1874 up
to the end of the concession to pay the shareholders
38. 3d. per share.
The agreement, after a short discussion, was
adopted, and a resolution was passed recommending
the meeting to be held at Brussels on the 12th inst.
to approve and sanction the agreement with the
Societe Generale d'Exploitation, and a vote of thanks
to the chairman concluded the proceedings.

The British Archaeological Association a

Uriconium.

SHREWSBURY, Wednesday.
When the programme of the annual Congress o

the British Archm3logical Association was drawn up
a special day was reserved for an examination of
the ruins of the old Ronrin city of Uriconium at
Wroxeter, near this town, and the visit was made
yesterday under the most favourable circumstances
as regards the weather. The members of the Asso-
ciation and their friends arrived at Shrewsbury
shortly after 10 o'clock and drove direct to Wroxe-
ter, where Mr. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., assumed the
guidance of the party, and a most interesting exa-
mination of this unique relic of the Roman occupa-
tion of Britain was commenced.

From Mr. Wright's explanations it appeared the
first organised and successful excavation of the
ruins in the interests of archaology was made in the
year 1859, the Duke of Cleveland, upon whose
estate liriconium stands, having given the necessary
permission, and added a donation of 50 guineas to
the excavation fund. At the time of commencing
operations all that was visible of the city which tra-
dition said was hidden beneath the earth was a
massive stone wall running east and west, on either
side of which was a cornfield. Beginning to exca-
vate on the northern side of this wall three other
walls running almost parallel with what for conve-
nience sake is called the old wall were brought to
light, the whole evidently enclosing and forming
part of a large building. This portion of the ruins
has now been filled up again, but the excavation
was continued for some distance to the south of
the old wall, and the results formed the subject of
inspection yesterday. Without describing in
detail the several apartments which have been
brought to light since the work of excavation
was commenced, it may not be uninteresting
to particularise one which attracted considerable
attention yesterday. The room in question served
in the building of which it formed a part the pur-
pose of a hypocaust, a contrivance whereby the
Romans, who do not appear to have used fires, com-
municated artificial heat to their houses and public
buildings. These hypocausts were a description of
flue built under the floors of the house, fires being
lit at the entrances, and the hot air thus generated
being driven under the door and up through the
walls of the building. The hypocausts were, of
course, hollow, the floor of the house being supported
on pillars, ranged at regular distances, and usually
standing from 2ft to 3ft high. In the bypocaust
referred to the excavators came upon the skeletons
of three human beings, one being that of an old
man, who appears to have died in a crouching posi-
tion up in one of the corners of the hypocaust, the
other two lying full length by the side of the wall.
Near the skeleton of the old man was found a small
heap of coins, 132 in number, mixed up with which
were a few small nails and traces of decomposed
wood, clearly indicating that the coins had origi-
nally been carried into the hypocaust in a box or
coffer. Bearing in mind the history of the city of
Uriconiuni, which, as far as it can be compiled,
shows it to have been assailed and plundered with
other Roman strongholds when the power of the
early conquerors waned, Mr. Wright advances the
very plausible theory that these remains are those of
persons who sought to escape from the barbarians by
hiding in the hypocaust, and that here they met their
death either by suffocation or by the rubbish of the
ruined building falling at the entrance to the hypocau.st
and obstructing their only means of exit. Be that as
it may, the finding of the skeletons has endowed this
hypocaust with a special human interest, and the old
man's coins have proved a welcome addition to
the treasures of the museum at Shrewsbury, where
they are now stored. Human remains have been
found in other portions of the ruins, some accord-
ing to Dr. Henry Johnson, having been decently
buried, others having, to all appearance, been
slaughtered at the time of the sacking of the city,
and left to moulder where they lay. It was curious,
in exhuming the remains of the old Roman settle-
ment, to come upon such evidence of human occu-
pation as the ashes of charred wood in the hypo-
causts, just as they had been left when the last fire
was kindled there many centuries ago; and in
another apartment to find particles of burnt wheat,
garnered when this island was still a tributary of
Rome. Other relics of a more enduring character
were found in abundance ; a square space at the
bottom of one of the rooms, which seemed to have
been used as a dust-bin, proving a very Golconda to
the archeologist, who found there, buried in dust to
the depth of 16 or 17 inches, scores of coins, nails,
bone needles, hair pins, broken pottery, and various
articles in iron, bronze, lead, and glass. Hair-pins

seem to have been held very cheaply by the Roman
ladies, for they have been found in great variety
lying about in all sorts of places. They are, as
may be supposed, very different in fashion from
those at present in use, consisting of •a single and
extremely substantial pin, generally made of bone,
but occasionally of bronze, and set off by a massive
head curiously carved.

The funds raised for the purpose of carrying on
the excavations in 1859 were soon exhausted, and
after bringing to light a considerable portion of the
buried city, the archaeologists were fain to rest from
their labours. By the liberality of Mr. Meyer, of
Liverpool, however, who has given a sum of £5O for
the purpose, excavations have been recommenced
within the last fortnight, and a small band of men,
under the direction of Dr. Johnson, are now busily
engaged in digging out fresh portions of the ruins.
Of course only a very small proportion of the whole
extent of the city has yet been cleared, and it is
expected that a considerable addition to the store of
archaeological knowledge will accrue from the works
now progressing at Uriconium.
With the proceedings of yesterday the annual
congress of the British Archaeological Association
finally closed, and the majority of the members and
visitors left Shrewsbury last night.