UNKNOWN

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 83, 27 July 1876, Page 2

UNKNOWN

Those who have a fancy foi'|Hß crockery or the like may read witlHj tage the following story told in tlie|H don Globe ".:—" A practical johro gave a chipped and battered eartli«| dish to a friend of his who was ' : H collecting-old china. The dish )»Wm least a dozen centuries old, and in 0 it to his friend the cruel hoaxer.Mj that it had been found in/maMH excavations among human bones. HH thought the amateur, who had r$W the ancients in interring their dewM in the coffins some food, this nmstH of the plates on which the food wasH and in turning it about and exaffi« he found, in rudely-shaped lettewj ling and apart, the following insci<M 'P.O.M.A.N.S.' For months« over i- this, and at last 'dividing flj brought out T?.O.MAN.S,''ivliif ■ sider'ed stood for ' Publii Ovidii « sacris !' He wrote a special ;• thanks to his friend, expressing having found out the inscription™ plate, which he described at asking his friend to write him a" W of the finding of such an art e^B f that the account might he l ,re fM his study, and be appended to *"« logue or his collection. His || o 'jH dismay may be easily imagined *Jm received a reply from his friend, |» ing him as to the origin of the '■fU telling him that he could P urc f!B by the dozen off the mauufactwM Pomans, of Chateau-Thierry, VM they'were sold at 6d. each to the wm who' wanted something cheap a n(l V