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Many other discoveries made in Britain regarding this extraordinary people might be mentioned, such as images of the gods, various utensils belonging to their worship, and relics

places which had been once within the bounds of their empire, is their coins: these are continually discovered, and in various kinds of receptacles. The opinions of antiquaries are divided in assigning a cause for what may seem so useless a waste of money: but it is to be considered that most of the coins thus found are of little intrinsic value; and it has been conjectured that the barbarians who destroyed the towns or villas did not know, or despised the use of copper money, and therefore left it amongst the ruins. The Roman coins found are chiefly copper, bad and worn, and they are generally scattered equally over the surface of the ruins of the town: thus at Castor in Norfolk, the ancient Venta Icenorum, it is said they may be found after every shower. It is also an opinion that it was customary to bury money. Horace hints at this usual secretion of

treasure:

But prithee, whence the pleasure, thus by stealth
Deep in the earth to hide thy weight of wealth?

Lib. i. sat. 1.

Coins, as well as seals and medals, besides exhibiting specimens of their peculiar art, mark the progress of architecture, the different stages of which are seen also in the varied structure of sepulchral monuments; and while

of their pottery', specimens of their domestic convenience, all furnishing proofs of particular sites having been occupied by the Romans.

Some antiquaries have concluded that the buildings raised upon the tessellated pavements were slight, that they were only constructed of they severally contribute to assist each other, all unite in the illustration and embellishment of history, poetry and philosophy.-Burgess on the Study of Antiquities, p. 33. See also Addison on Medals, p. 23; and concerning the architectural ornaments of ancient seals, Warton on Spenser, vol. ii. p. 194.

A very interesting account of various Roman antiquities found near London Bridge in 1831, was communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by A. J. Kempe, Esq. It contains a list of nearly thirty potter's marks, which in several instances are the same as those found on vessels discovered in other parts of Britain, in Germany, and in Gaul. The Samian vessels, used by the Romans at table, Pliny says, were manufactured, in Italy at Arretium, Surrentum, Asta, Pollentia and Tralles; in Spain at Saguntum; and in Asia at Pergamos and Mutina. The thinness to which the clay was drawn out upon the lathe, was the test of excellency in the ancient potter's art. Tiles which were found at the same time, Mr. Kempe supposes to be the work of the Britons when they were beginning to adopt Roman arts and customs.-Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 190.

timber', and never more than one story high. Roman houses in this country, says Mr. King, consisted of a nest of small chambers, and in general contained not much more than one good room for the accommodation of a centurion, a tribune, or other resident. His opinion is, that few magnificent remains excepting of a military kind were left here by the Romans, and he doubts if any superb structures of theirs ever did exist here: the number of fragile pavements is a proof, he concludes, of the slightness of the superstructures. That learned author made it a leading principle to refer

1 Pillars of wood might be sometimes erected in the atrium of a Roman villa. Horace, writing of a splendid mansion, certainly uses the word postis, instead of columna, in Ode I. lib. iii.

Cur invidendis postibus, et novo
Sublime ritu moliar atrium ?

On columns raised in modern style

Why should I plan the lofty pile,

To rise with envied state?-Francis.

22 King's Munimenta Antiqua, 1799, vol. ii. p. 163,-a work which entitles the author to the reputation of a learned,

every ancient work to the Anglo-Saxon period of history, and rejected, without sufficient consideration, evidence which satisfied his contemporaries. That the tessellated floor merely indicated the site of a Roman general's tent, is an opinion which has been maintained, because it happens to be known that from the time of Julius Cæsar, throughout the lower empire, it was customary to pave the prætorium of the Roman camp with mosaic tiles',

-a circumstance by no means affording exclusive proof that such pavements must have been only the area of a tent3.

In the remains of a Roman villa discovered at Northleigh, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire,

able and industrious antiquary, although he sometimes deviated into speculations which he was not able to establish.

The Romans are said to have been so fond of these ornamental floors, that they even laid them in some of their ships.

2 The Rev. Thomas Warton, an elegant writer and very judicious antiquary, considered these curious pavements as decided marks of Roman houses, and strongly objected to the opinion of Hearne, who was distinguished for his ardour

in the year 1813', is a Hypocaust' almost as perfect as when it was originally built, together with its præfurnium, or place where the fire was made, and a complete specimen of the square brick funnels which lined the walls and penetrated the floor into the hypocaust, still preserved in their original state3.

A Roman Bath in perfect preservation was.

in researches of this nature, that such remains indicated the military post of a Roman general.-History of Kiddington, p. 67.

By the Rev. Walter Brown. Of this villa a plan by H. Hakewill was published in 1816; and another in Skelton's Oxfordshire, 1817, by the same gentleman.

2 A subterraneous furnace serving to heat the baths &c. of the Romans: vide p. 113 ante. This method is still used in the modern hot-house.

3 The Hypocausts, which are frequently found in this country, with their flues for the conveyance of heat, are of two kinds. A delineation fully elucidating the construction of one sort is engraved in the Vetusta Monumenta, published by the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 57, also in the Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 6. and vol. vi. p. 11; and the second kind of hypocaust will be readily understood by consulting the plates which illustrate the Antiquities of Woodchester, Nos. xxiii. xxv. and xxvii.

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