THE following note, and the accompanying illustration from a drawing by the Rev. G. W. W. Minns, may throw light upon a point connected with the architectural history of the Cathedral, concerning which some misapprehension has existed. On the western side of the door opening from the south transept into the chancel aisle is an ornamental lock-plate of wrought iron, containing the initials, R. C., connected by a knot, and below them the letters, P. N. The engraving, showing this plate and the reverse side of the lock, will save further description; but there is a peculiarity in the construction which may be observed. The keyholes are not opposite each other, the bolt being furnished with two catches. The present fastenings are modern, and the lock could easily be taken off from the inside, but originally iron bands passed through square holes, shown in the engraving, on each side of the keyhole, and were secured on the outside.

Britton, in his Norwich Cathedral, gives a plate of the doorway and screen above, and remarks that, from the initials on the lock, "it is generally supposed that the whole was erected by the last Prior and first Dean, William Castleton." He however rightly observes, that, "although P. N. may

stand for Prior of Norwich, it is not so easy to make R. C. stand for William Castleton."

The editor of Murray's "Hand-book" to the Cathedral draws attention to this ironwork, and arbitrarily assigns the screen to Prior Robert Castleton. The Christian name of Castleton was certainly William, but the prior immediately preceding him, Robert Bronde, adopting the name of his birth-place, as was usual with ecclesiastics of the period, was called Robert Catton. In the printed lists he occurs. as Robert Bronde, but when mentioned in documents he is called Catton.1 To the period of his priorate, 1504-29, the erection of this screen may therefore reasonably be referred.2

The present notice serves to add an item to the slender stock of information on record concerning Prior Catton. In 1519, he obtained a bull from Pope Leo X., and license from Bishop Nix, his diocesan, to assume the mitre, pastoral staff, and other pontificals: 3 an unusual privilege, and one not known to have been granted to any other prior of Norwich.

In the east window of the chancel of Catton church, glazed by Prior Bronde, he placed his own effigy, holding a mitre in his hands, and supporting his pastoral staff on his shoulder, with these arms :-" Gul. an Ounce or Cat of Mountain Arg., spotted Sab., between 3 Annulets Arg. on a Chief Or, 3 Cinquefoils pierced Sab., and on the Chief a pale Az. on which a Mitre Or."4 Blomefield supposes the mitre on the pale to refer to the arms of the See; but the mitre is more likely an augmentation adopted in consequence of the privilege granted by Leo X. and mentioned above.

1 "Compous dni Roberti Catton, Prioris," &c.: 1504, 5, 11, 17, 22, 25, &c. 2 The following item occurs in Comp. ffris. Hen. Langrake, 1516: "In seris, clauibus, et aliis ferramentis ad noua ostia juxta vestiarium." If this entry refer, as it may, to the ironwork of this door, the date of the screen would be prior to 1516.

3 Reg. 1, Eccles. Cath. N. f. 91.

Blomefield, vol. ii. p. 435, fo. edit.

NOTICE OF

Roman Coins and Antiquities,

FOUND AT CAISTOR NEXT YARMOUTH,

THE Roman Camp at Caistor next Yarmouth was probably situated on the top of the hill at the north-west side of the church, which is the highest ground in the neighbourhood, and was therefore selected for the site of the Service Reservoir of the Great Yarmouth Waterworks. There are not any remains of either masonry or earthworks, and if it were not for the name, the former existence of a camp would not be suspected.

When the ground was excavated to form the reservoir, in 1855, great quantities of broken pottery were found—some of the common earth, and some of Samian ware-but no specimens in a perfect state; a small bronze head, apparently that of a Faun, very similar in size and general appearance to the head supposed to be that of Geta, discovered at Caister next Norwich, and now in the cabinet of R. Fitch, Esq.;1 a bronze pin, and numerous coins, chiefly Third Brass.

1 Figured in the Norfolk Archæology, vol. iv., p. 232.

From the quantity of oyster-shells and bones found mixed with the broken pottery, the spot would seem to have been a rubbish-hole for the camp.

Roman remains are known to have been found in this neighbourhood for a long period. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Hydriotaphia, written in 1658, observes that the most frequent discovery of urns and coins in Norfolk "is made at the two Castors by Norwich and Yarmouth, at Burgh Castle, and Brancaster."

In a field at the north-west of the church, and near the side of the Norwich road, a bricked pit, eleven feet long, seven feet wide, and about four feet in depth, was discovered in 1837: it contained bones of the ox and pig, mixed with fragments of Roman pottery and oyster-shells. This was fully described by the Rev. Thomas Clowes in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. viii., New Series, p. 518. In 1851, a Roman kiln, containing two mutilated urns, was also brought to light in this locality.2

Many skeletons have been found in the field in which the pit was discovered, and also in one south of the church, called East Bloody Burgh Furlong.

The Rev. John Gunn also has in his possession a perfect urn, which was found in a clay-pit near the church; it was buried about two feet below the surface, the mouth covered with a tile, and it contained bones and earth; he also has a fragment of Samian ware with figures representing the hunting of the hare.

Coins are very frequently turned up by the plough in the fields in the vicinity of the reservoir, and having collected all that could be obtained from the labourers in the neighbourhood, I gave them to the late Mr. Taylor, who examined and described them, and also all those in two or three private collections. He prepared the following list, intending to offer

2 Norfolk Archæology, iv., 352.

it to our Society for publication, but omitted to do so; and after his untimely death, thinking it would form an interesting companion list to those of the coins found at Caister near Norwich, (published in vol. iv., p. 234, and vol. v., p. 203, of the Norfolk Archæology) I procured it from his family, and now bring it before the Society, that his intention may be carried out.

The date of the coins identified and described extend over a period of two hundred and sixty-five years, viz., from about A.D. 80 to A.D. 370. Mr. Taylor observed that, "There are also numberless small brass coins, probably Romano-British, found in this as in other Roman stations in England. They are frequently very minute, and are extremely barbarous imitations of the coins of the Lower Empire. The greater part attempt to depict a head with radiated crown, and a very clumsy imitation of a Roman reverse. There is scarcely any legend, a letter or two only perhaps, and those scarcely recognisable. They were probably struck in the interval between the Roman evacuation and the Saxon invasion. The earlier Kentish Sceattas of the latter people are often equally rude attempts at the Roman type.”

Reverse:

1. Antoninus Pius, AR. ANTONINVS. AVG. PIVS. P. P. TR. P. XII. cos. I. Figure standing, heaping ears of corn in a modius; a plough in her left hand.

(Also an illegible coin of Ant. Pius in Middle Brass.)

2. Marcus Aurelius, Æ. i. M. ANTONINVS. AVG. TR. P. XXV. Reverse: IMP. VI. COS. III. A Victory, elate, supporting a shield on a fir tree. On the shield: VIC. GER.

This coin commemorates the victory over the Marcomanni in his third consulship.-Cooke's Medallic History of Imperial Rome,

3. Lucius Verus, Æ. i. L. AVREL. VERVS. AVG. ARMENIAC. Reverse: cos. III. Figure standing; a balance in right hand, a cornucopiæ in left.

4. Commodus, E. i. M. COMMODVS. ANTONINVS. AVG. PIVS.

Reverse: ANN.

AVG. TR. P. VIII. COS. IIII. P. P. A female figure holding a Victory