INVESTIGATIONS OF ROMAN REMAINS IN THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, BY THE HON. RICHARD C. NEVILLE, F.S.A. IN THE MONTHS OF SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1852. THE following notices of recent excavations at two sites of Roman occupation, hitherto unexplored, relate to a locality, on the borders of the counties of Essex and Cambridgeshire, of singular interest to the archaeologist, on account of its proximity to the remarkable tumuli examined so successfully by the late Mr. Gage Rokewode. The remains first to be described are those of a small villa, of which the examination, carried out under my superintendence, was completed early in September last. The building in question is situated in the parish of Ashdon, Essex, on Great Copt Hill, a part of Great Bowsers' Farm, the property of Lord Maynard. It is little more than a mile distant from the Bartlow Hills, also on Lord Maynard's estates; and the site commands a complete view of those striking sepulchral tumuli. From Sunken Church Field, Hadstock, the distance is about four miles. Such a locality was well calculated to inspire me with sanguine hopes of success: the villa at Hadstock is not more than three miles distant from the spot, so that it is altogether a Roman vicinity. I experienced no slight disappointment on finding, as the excavations advanced, that the walls of the villa, in addition to injuries sustained from the modern agriculturist, had been so rudely dealt with by the last inhabitants of the site, that sufficient vestiges only remained to indicate, with tolerable accuracy, the ground-plan, as shown in the accompanying representation. It is possible that the site may have been occupied even in Saxon times, and that the complete destruction, which the building had finally sustained, may have then taken place; since a coin of Alfred the Great was discovered in the field some years since.1 Although much must necessarily be left to conjecture, I think that a pretty accurate notion may be formed of the 1 This coin is now in the possession of the late tenant of the farm, Mr. Soward, who states that he removed a large quantity of building materials from the spot, and especially the remains of the piers, &c., in the central part of the hypocaust, No. 4. general arrangements and capacities of the house. There are no appearances about the foundation-walls which would lead to the conclusion that it had been luxuriously fitted up: there were, however, numerous fragments of painted stucco, presenting remains of varied decorative patterns. No tesseræ were found which would show the existence of mosaic pavements. Yet, from the lower tiles, the only remains of piers, still here and there discernible (No. 4, plan), so low had the edifice been razed, and existing in situ, where such piers were requisite for supporting the floor, it is beyond doubt that a suspensura existed. The hypocaust (No. 4) appears, indeed, to have been of considerable dimensions; and the flues and furnace for diffusing heat (No. 5 in the plan) are the only tolerably perfect portion of the remains. The interior arrangements may be thus briefly described: -The building, which is long and narrow, measuring about 52 ft. by 17 ft., seems to have been nearly equally divided within; the larger half having been warmed by heated air, and the smaller (consisting of the two compartments, 6 and 7 in the plan,) unprovided with any hypocaust, having rudelyformed pavements of fragments of pottery and broken brick rolled into the natural clay, which apparently would have been on a level with the floor laid on the tops of the piers in the adjoining compartment, when those supports were in their complete state. This coarse flooring of broken brick still remains; it may indeed have been possibly the work of the latest occupants; for it is hardly to be supposed that such rude internal arrangements can have originally appertained to a structure, the larger portion of which must have been so superior in constructive appliances and accommodation. It had unfortunately happened that a land-ditch has passed through what I imagine to have been the channel of communication, diagonally, between the smaller and the main hypocaust, shown in the plan (Nos. 2 and 4). The question may therefore arise, whether the breach in the foundations is entirely owing to that recent injury; or, whether the labourers, having met with obstacles in the foundation-walls, in cutting their drain, may not have shaped its course to the part where there was least impediment, which would naturally be where the passage for the flue existed. It frequently occurs, in the examination of sites of Roman villas, that many foundation walls are presented to view, running parallel to each other at short intervals, or otherwise difficult to explain, consistently with any reasonable supposition as regards the original arrangement and dimensions of the chambers above. Some of these foundationwalls may, as has been suggested by Mr. Buckler, whose practical knowledge and discernment has frequently aided me in researches of this nature, have been intended only for strengthening and binding together the principal walls of the fabric, and they may have never been carried up above the ground-line, or flooring. The building stands north and south. Only one coin was exhumed, a third brass, quite illegible, discovered amongst the ashes, in the supposed furnace (No. 5. in the plan). Numerous scored tiles were found, with fragments of pottery and glass; also an iron implement resembling a knife; and a broken ligula of bronze, an instrument sometimes regarded as having been used in mixing colours, or as a surgeon's probe, was brought to light in digging a trench four yards to the east of the building. One, found at Caerleon, not dissimilar in form, is figured in the Journal, Vol. VIII. p. 160. Near the south-west angle of the villa appeared a portion of masonry, projecting diagonally from the face of the western front, as shown in the plan. I could not, by trenching, find any indication that this offset had ever been continued further than it is here represented. The only mode of explaining the intention of this wall, appeared to be this,— that the western wall of the house, on the outside, was skirted all round with a sort of pavement of pebble-stones, evenly laid, corresponding in width to this stump of wall, which seems to form the boundary of the paved walk, towards its southern extremity. I have ascertained, by cutting trenches, that no other remains of buildings exist in the neighbourhood. The following notes may be acceptable, in further explanation of the accompanying plan : Nos. 1, 2, 3, Narrow compartments, over which appears to have been a chamber or chambers artificially heated; the remains of piers are seen near the partition walls; there is also a diagonal passage, connecting these compartments, as appears most probable, with the larger hypocaust, No. 4. Unfortunately, the land-drainer has shaped the course of a channel through the aperture, so that, as before stated, the question arises whether the breach was part of the original intention of the designers of the building. |