ing Staffordshire from Cheshire. Along the north side of what was evidently the camp or station, is an immense foss, still partly filled with water, from a copious spring within its bed, issuing from the red Sandstone Rock on which the station was elevated, and which still supplies two fish-ponds in the cavity, measuring together about one hundred and twenty yards in length. The breadth of the foss cannot have been less than twenty yards, when in an entire state. Along the rampart, on the outer side of it, appears to be the way which led by a gradual ascent from the north-east corner of the Station, to the centre, or Prætorium, over a draw-bridge; at which spot the hollow is now completely filled up for a space of twenty-five or thirty yards; and beyond that is partially filled, though clearly marked out for at least one hundred and fifty yards more. The whole extent of this intrenchment measures about three hundred and seventy yards, and it must have formed an impregnable barrier along the north side of the Station. On the east, the camp seems to have been defended by a ditch and rampart cut from the Sandstone Rock; several houses in the village, the principal being Chesterton Old Hall, now occupy the inner side of this Vallum, at intervals, for about three hundred yards in extent. The Station then turns at a right angle to the west, up a lane which appears to have been the southern Vallum, and goes over the summit of the hill on which the castle stood. The whole Station seems to have formed a parallelogram of about three hundred and seventy by three hundred yards, and to have inclosed upwards of twenty acres of ground; an area sufficient for accommodating a Roman Cohort, which contained six hundred men, with equipage, stabling, and stores. The entrenchment on the west has been levelled, and is only marked by the line of a modern fence. The surface in this direction slopes gently towards Apedale, and was not open to any sudden assault from an enemy. At the dis

ROMAN COINS FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

17

tance of about one hundred and fifty yards from the eastern rampart, is a brook, to which a road leads from the southeast angle of the camp, and which supplied convenient watering for the troops. This Station deserves the attention of men of military experience, as being, probably, the most perfect specimen of a Roman entrenched camp to be met with in the county of Stafford.

We cannot learn that Chesterton has furnished any coins, or other testimonials of its Roman origin; but we think it has been hitherto quite neglected by antiquaries, and that relics might be yet discovered by excavating the ground of the camp. This is mostly rich old pasture land, on which the plough has, probably, never passed, and round about which several venerable yews, that from their appearance may be almost coeval with the castle, mark its site, although now fast going to decay. But, though we have not heard of Roman coins being discovered here, they have been found abundantly in the neighbourhood; for, March 28, 1817, a great quantity of Roman copper coins were turned up by the plough, on a farm about three miles from Chesterton, called little Madeley Park, the property of Lord Crewe, and occupied by Mr. Joseph Taylor. They were contained in two urns, which were, unfortunately, destroyed. The coins were of great variety, principally of Constantine the Great, who succeeded to the empire of the west, on the death of his father Constantius, at York, A. D. 306, and swayed the imperial sceptre for thirty years; partly in conjunction with Licinius, and afterwards, as sole Sovereign of the Roman world. There were many coins of Licinius,—some of earlier reigns, viz. of Maximinus, and of the associate Emperors Dioclesian and Maximian, and some of the usurpers, Posthumus, Tetricus, and Victorinus, who assumed the purple in the time of Aurelian and Gallienus, between the years 260 and 280 of the Christian era. A few beautiful specimens are of Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, who was raised to the title

D

of Cæsar at the age of seventeen,* and afterwards fell under the imputation of treacherous practices against his father, A. D. 326. We have met with one of the short reign of Constantius, the father of Constantine, who was elevated to the imperial dignity 1st May, 305, and died in July, the year following, but are unable to trace this to the hoard we are speaking of. In the annexed plate are specimens of some of the most perfect of these coins, of which, however, a great number were very much corroded. The devices, on the reverse, are mostly symbolical images of the sun, whom Constantine selected as his tutelary deity, before he became a convert to the Christian faith; or else, of the Genius of the Roman people; and there being none which exhibits any Christian emblem or inscription, the period of their deposit may be fixed with great probability as anterior to the public profession of Christianity, by Constantine, on the death of Licinius, in 324; when he, by a general edict, exhorted all his subjects, without delay, to imitate the example of their Sovereign, and to embrace the divine truths of Christianity. The annexed plate contains copies of several specimens of these coins, and as the inscriptions are not very legible the following Explanations of them may be acceptable to our readers generally:

No. 1.—(Obverse),—IMP. MAXIMINUS, P. F. AVG.-The Emperor Maximinus, pious, happy, august. (Reverse).—GENIO POP. ROM. To the Genius of the Roman people. (Exergue), P. T. R., probably signifying that the Coin (pecunia) was struck at Treves.

No. 2.-(Obverse).-IMP. POSTVMVS, P. F. AVG.-The Emperor Postumus, pious, happy, august. (Reverse).-SAECVLI FELICITAS,―The Felicity of the Age. [This Coin is silvered over, and the impression on the obverse very sharp and distinct].

* Gibbon, vol. III. p. 107, 112.

+ Ibid.

P. 252.