Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/135

Rh striped blue, green, and yellow colours, which formed parts of ribbed bowls, shew the perfection to which the Romans had attained in the art of colouring and annealing glass.

Many of the articles which individual exertion has preserved strongly illustrate their arts, manners, and customs ; and any artist engaged in attempts to revive the art of fresco-painting may derive useful hints from a close examination of the paintings from the walls of the houses of Roman London, which retain a freshness of colour as if executed only a few years ago. Many of the objects in steel, such as knives, styli, and implements, apparently modelling tools, are in an admirable fine state of preservation, to which the wet boggy soil they were taken from has materially contributed; and to the same cause we owe the conservation of leathern reticulated sandals, and other antiquities, among which may be mentioned some little wooden implements, such as are still used in the west of England for yarn-spinning, and which carry us back to the infancy of one of the greatest staple manufactures of this kingdom. C. ROACH SMITH.