In the year 1847 I brought from the Columbaria, near the tomb of Scipio Africanus at Rome, a small collection of sepulchral fictile vessels, statuettes, &c., in terra cotta. Among these was a small figure, resembling the Athenian HermÆ, consisting of a square pillar, surmounted by the bust of a female with a peculiar head-dress and close curled coiffure. The pillar bears the following inscription:

"?S?
???
S
???
???
?."

—a translation of which would oblige me much.

Another, in the form of a small votive altar, bears the heads of the "Dii Majores" and their attributes, the thunderbolt, two-pronged spear, and trident, and the inscription—

"DIIS PROPI
M HERENNII
(i.e. vivantis). VIVNTIS" (i.e. vivantis).

Of the meaning of this I am by no means certain; and I have searched Montfaucon in vain, to discover anything similar.

A third was a figure of the Egyptian Osiris, exactly resembling in every point (save the material) the little mummy-shaped figures in bluish-green porcelain, which are found in such numbers in the catacombs of Ghizeh and Abousir. As the Columbaria were probably the places of sepulture of the freedmen, these various traces of national worship would seem to indicate that they were still allowed to retain the deities peculiar to the countries from which they came, through their master might be of a different faith.

E. S. Taylor.

Ormesby, St. Marg., Norfolk.

CHAPEL PLASTER.

In North Wilts, between Corsham and Bradford, and close to the meeting of five or six roads, there is a well-known public-house, contiguous to which is an ancient wayside chapel bearing this peculiar name. Some account of the place, with two views of the chapel, is given in the Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1835, page 143. The meaning of the word plaster has always been a puzzle to local antiquaries, and no satisfactory derivation of it has yet been given. The first and natural notion is, that some allusion is made to the material with which it may have been coated. But this is improbable, the building being of good freestone, not requiring any such external addition. Some have interpreted it to be the chapel of the plas-trew, or "woody place." But this again is very unlikely; as the place is not only as far as possible from being woody now, but can hardly ever have been otherwise than what it is. The rock comes close to the surface, and the general situation is on a bleak exposed hill, as unfavourable as can be for the growth of trees. Leland, indeed, as he rode by, took it for a hermitage, and does also say that the country beyond it "begins to be woody." But a point of meeting of five or six much frequented roads, a few miles only from Bath and other towns, would be an unsuitable spot for a hermit; besides which, the country beyond a spot, is not the spot itself. Others have thought it may have been built by a person of the name of Plaister; one which, though uncommon, is still not entirely extinct in the county. Of this, however, there is no evidence.

A derivation has occurred to me from noticing a slight variety in the spelling and statement of the name, as it is given by one of the ancient historians of Glastonbury. He calls it "the chapell of playsters," and says that, like one or two houses of a similar kind, it was built for the relief and entertainment of pilgrims resorting to the great shrine at that monastery. This indeed is the most reasonable and probable account of it, as it lies on the direct road between Malmesbury and Glastonbury, and the prevailing tradition has always been that such was the purpose for which it was used. It is fair to presume that the name has some connexion with the use.

Now, it is well known that pilgrimages were not in all respects very painful or self-denying exercises, but that, with the devotional feeling in which they took their origin, was combined, in course of time, a considerable admixture of joviality and recreation. They were often, in short, looked upon as parties for merry-making, by people of every class of life, who would leave their business and duties, on pretence of these pious expeditions, but really for a holiday, and, as Chaucer himself describes it, "to play a pilgrimage." ("The Shipmanne's Tale.") Many also were pilgrims by regular profession, as at this day in Italy, for the pleasure of an idle gad-about life at other people's expense. May not such "play-ers" of pilgrimages have been called, in the vernacular of the times, play-sters? The termination -ster, said to be derived from a Saxon noun, seems in our language to signify a habit or constant employment. A malt-ster is one whose sole business it is to make malt; a tap-ster, one whose duties are confined to the tap; a road-ster is a horse exclusively used as a hack; a game-ster, the devotee of the gaming-table. From these analogies it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the persons who made a constant habit of attending these pleasant jaunts to Glastonbury, may have been called by the now-forgotten name of play-sters. If so, "the chapell of play-sters" becomes nothing more than "the chapel of pilgrims," according to the best tradition that we have of it. Perhaps some of your readers may have met with the word in this sense?

J. E. Jackson.

Leigh Delamere.