Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/380

354 whatever ho thought proper for their protection, and they are already covered by a building adequate to guard thein for a century. Under the foundation of a narrow wall at a few feet distant from a larger wall was a layer of dovetail shaped tiles, in length 16 in., and 13 in. wide at the larger and 11 in. at the smaller extremity, with a flange or raised margin on each side about 1 in. high and 1 in. broad. They were laid on the natural bed of sand, with their broad and narrow ends alternating in a continuous line, and placed transversely under the thickness of the wall. Their edges were bedded in coarse mortar, containing narrow stones set edge-wise; and upon their surface were small stones and mortar, forming the foundation of a narrow wall.

Dr. Buckland found similar flanged tiles used for the same purpose in the Roman villa at Preston, near Weymouth, described by him in the proceedings of the Ashmolean Society, Nov. 1844; but these were laid on a natural bed of clay, and their sides were parallel, not dove-tailed; and instead of being set transversely to the line of the wall, the flanged sides of the tiles were placed parallel to it, so that when it was first discovered the workmen exclaimed they had found a fossil railway. In both these cases the use of the marginal flanges was probably to retain the mortar from being squeezed out while wet, and to save materials.

No sufficient indications of the general plan of the Wheatley villa have yet been found, but the bath and hypocaust shew it to have been a luxurious mansion, which was probably burnt on the retreat of the Romans, and the areas between the walls more or less overcast with rubbish; and this rubbish subsequently strewed over with earth for cultivation. The nearness to the surface of some foundations of the walls