Inventorium Sepulchrale

This collection of accounts of excavations in Kent was privately printed in 1856, with a preface and introduction by Charles Roach Smith (whose Illustrations of Roman London is also reissued in this series). Its author, Bryan Faussett (1720-76), was a wealthy clergyman who used his leisure time to dig on Roman and Anglo-Saxon sites on the east Kent Downs: in all, he investigated over 750. His energy (and luck) led to some extraordinary discoveries, including (in 1771) the Kingston Down brooch, the largest gold and jewelled brooch ever discovered in Britain. Unusually for his period, he kept full records of all his finds, including the important but non-valuable grave goods and bones. His collection stayed in his family until the 1840s, when it was offered to the British Museum but rejected. His Anglo-Saxon antiquities were then purchased by Joseph Mayer, who also arranged for Smith to edit the Inventorium.