an apple tree when he came across a fine
bed of gravel. Continuing the digging, in order to find the thickness of
this deposit, his spade struck against a hard substance, which proved to
be a lead coffin. After this had been examined by others invited to
inspect it, without any satisfactory result, the present writer was
requested to conduct further investigation. The coffin was found to be
5-ft. 2-in. in length, containing the skeleton, rather shorter, of a
female. A few days later a second coffin was found, lying parallel to
the first, 5-ft. 7-in. in length, the bones of the skeleton within being
larger and evidently those of a male. Subsequently fragments of decayed
wood and long iron nails and clamps were found, showing that the leaden
coffins had originally been enclosed in wooden cases. Both these coffins
lay east and west. A description was sent to a well-known antiquarian,
the late Mr. John Bellows of Gloucester, and he stated that if the lead
had an admixture of tin they were Roman, if no tin, post-Roman. The lead
was afterwards analysed by Professor Church, of Kew, and by the
analytical chemist of Messrs. Kynoch & Co., of Birmingham, with the
result that there was found to be a percentage of 1.65 of tin to 97.08 of
lead and 1.3 of oxygen, "the metal slightly oxidised." It was thus
proved that the coffins were those of Romans, their "orientation"
implying that they were Christian. It should be added that three similar
coffins were found in the year 1872, when the foundations were being laid
of the New Jerusalem Chapel in Croft Street, within some 100 yards of the
two already described; and further, as confirmatory of their being Roman,
a lead coffin was also found in the churchyard of Baumber, on the
restoration of the church there in 1892, this being close to the Roman
road (already mentioned) between the old Roman stations Banovallum and
Lindum. Lead coffins have also been found in the Roman cemeteries at
Colchester, York, and at other places. {8}

As another interesting case of Roman relics found in Horncastle, I give
the following:--In 1894 I exhibited, at a meeting of our Archaeological
Society, some small clay pipes which had recently been dug up along with
a copper coin of the Emperor Constantine, just within the western wall of
the old castle, near the present Manor House. They were evidently very
old and of peculiar make, being short in stem with small bowl set at an
obtuse angle. They wer