An Account of two Bronze Figures discovered at the Roman Station near the Village of Benwell, in the County of Northumberland, and presented by Mr. JOHN STANTON to the Society.

EXTRACTS from Mr. Stanton's letter to the Society, which accompanied these figures:-The Priapus" was found by me, August 17th, 1813, when in company with our Treasurer, near the bottom of the inner ditch, on the east side of the station. It was so completely enveloped in verdigrise that no part of the figure was discernible, excepting where the legs were broken off by the stroke of the mattock. We sought for the feet, but without success. The back part of the head was corroded away; and the face was so much eaten with rust, that I did not attempt to recover it. The left hand, which broke off in attempting to clean it, was raised up, and the two first fingers pointed a The metal of this figure, when wet, was much softer than the coating of rust which enveloped it.

little higher than the shoulders.

:

The female Lar (see Plate IV. Fig. 2) was found by a mason in 1812, near the bottom of the outer ditch, in a line due east from the place where the Priapus was found. This figure has been protected from the action of rust by a coat of gilding, a part of which still remains it is, therefore, less corroded than the former: they were both restored by the graver. The seat upon which I have placed it is ideal, but adapted to its posture. Whether, in its original state, it was placed on something of the same kind, and which of the household deities it was intended to represent, I leave to the conjectures and determination of persons better skilled in these matters than myself."

JOHN STANTON.

An Account of an ancient Camp, in the County of Cumberland, in a Letter from Mr. G. A. DICKSON, to the Secretaries.

1

See Plate VII.

SIRS,

IN the beginning of last month, when on an excursion into Cumberland, I observed, in crossing over a wild and bleak common in the parish of West Ward, an appearance of entrenchments, which, on examining it, I found to be one of the most singular remains of antiquity I have yet met with. I believe it has not been noticed by any writer on the antiquities of Cumberland. Its dimensions are as follow:

The line i 1 is a causeway; and I conceive that the semicircular place was a temple, and the great stone at m, the altar.

This place goes by different names among the country people, being by some called "HEIGHT RIGG CAMP," by others "STONE RAISE CAMP TRENCHES." At half a mile distance, and in sight of this spot, is a tumulus; and nearly the same distance further, four very large tumuli, placed so as to form a square: they are surrounded by several others of smaller size.

G. A. DICKSON.

An Account of a Brass Coin of the Emperor HADRIAN, in a Letter from Mr. J. ADAMSON, Secretary, to the Rev. J. HODGSON, Secretary.

I SEND you, for the inspection of the Society, a coin of the Emperor Hadrian, in middle brass, which was found many years ago in one of the principal Roman stations in Northumberland; and which, I think, from the local connection between the Society and the history of Hadrian, will be interesting to the members.

The coin bears the following legend :

Obv. IMP. CAESAR. TRAIANVS. HADRIANVS. AVG.

Rev. PONT. MAX. TR. POT. COS. III. S.C.

and at the feet of the figure BRITANNIA. Eckhell, in his Doctrina Nummorum Veterum, thus describes it :

BRITANNIA. S. C. mulier sedens, dextero pede rupibus imposito; sinistra caput sustentans d. hastam gerit, cubito

in prægrandem clypeum innixo.

All the Roman coins which relate to Britain, and which form a curious historical series, are of considerable rarity, especially those on which the province is personated. Some, which I have had an opportunity of inspecting, have been in a very indifferent state of preservation, which circumstance gives additional value to that in my possession, which, although struck nearly 1700 years ago, and probably to commemorate the arrival of the Emperor in Britain, may