Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/67



The Rev., Rector of Musbury, Devon, communicated, through the Rev. Dr. , the following account of Roman remains discovered by him in that county, and produced a coloured representation of a tesselated pavement which had been been laid open to view, in August, 1850.

"In a field, commonly called 'Church Ground,' part of Holcombe Farm in the parish of Uplyme, there is a heap of ruins overgrown with brushwood and trees, in length about 100 yards, and as far as could be ascertained only eighteen feet wide. Amidst these ruined walls, the popular notion has prevailed that an ancient church had stood, and various persons had examined the site without any satisfactory result. Having been requested by the owner of the land, Mr. Bartlett, to examine the place and make some trials within the angles of the walls, we found a horizontal stratum of mortar beneath a headway of earth, about four feet deep, which induced us to proceed at once to remove the superincumbent mass, in full assurance that we should find a Roman pavement. This anticipation was realised, and our labours on the first day brought to view enough to afford a good idea of the entire floor. On the second day, we ascertained that the room had measured eighteen feet square; more than half of the pavement was in sound condition, with the exception of some small parts where the tesseræ had been uplifted by roots of trees, or crushed in by the falling ruins. Within a broad border of two bands of ornament which ran along the four sides of the room, forming a square compartment, was inscribed a circle, about ten feet in diameter, with foliated ornaments in the spandrils, and enclosing a singular figure composed of four circles intersecting each other, with a hexagon in the centre of all. These circles as well as that enclosing them are ornamented with the guilloche pattern; this is also introduced alternately with foliated designs in the outer band of the square border surrounding the room; the inner band being formed of the looped pattern, of frequent occurrence in such pavements. The tesseræ are red, blue, white, and dove-coloured, gradually diminishing in their size towards the centre of the floor. When first exposed, the colours were clear and bright. Some fragments of pottery, a few bones which quickly crumbled to dust, some charred substances and a piece of metal which had evidently been subjected to a very strong heat, were found immediately upon the surface of the floor. There was, likewise, a great quantity of roofing-tiles, of uniform size, and of irregularly pentangular shape, scattered in confusion. We found an adjoining room floored merely with