Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/43

Rh extent; and supposing that the outer atrium, where the pavement has been exposed, to have been commensurate with such an establishment, there would be an atrium of from 40 ft. to 50 ft. long from east to west, which would be a very good proportion to the width of 23 ft., which is that now found between the north and south walls, and at the middle or towards the eastern portion would be found the entrance to the frigidarium, the furnace, &c. This arrangement would agree singularly with that of the thermæ near the forum at Pompeii, and would also provide space for the furnace, or true hypocaustum,for a "vestibulum balneorum,"a "latrina,"a room for the balneator, and also the præfurnium or propnigeum, for the use of the fornacatores who attended to the fires. In the floor or "suspensura" in Thames Street, there is no appearance of any pipes or other process by which the labrum would have been supplied with water, nor are there any traces of the "schola" or platform, the "pluteus" or parapet, or the "alveus" or space between the pluteus and pulvinus; it must be assumed therefore that it was a laconicum only, and that the calidarium was separate from it: the "unctuarium" or "eleothesium," an apartment for anointing after bathing, is also to be seen in all the larger thermae at Rome, and is represented too in the very curious fresco painting, found on the walls of the baths of Titus, and so repeatedly engraved as to be familiar to most people. As there was no appearance or traces of soot or fire in the hypocaustum, it is fair to presume that the furnace was at the extremity of the passage above described; this would strengthen the argument in favour of there being a separate calidarium, underneath which the furnace would have been placed to heat the water, and from thence the currents of hot air would be forced along the passage into the cells of the hypocaustum before described. It does not appear that either the tepidarium or frigidarium was furnished with a pulvinus.

The situation near the Thames would have afforded great facility for filling the "natatio" if the establishment possessed one. A fine spring of water has made its way from under the foundations of the remains.

Before closing this account, it is requisite to mention a third object, of interest laid open to view during these excavations, which although not Roman, is a curious remain of the domestic economy of our Norman forefathers. A large mass of