Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/488

 328 COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF squares and triangles, so as to fill up the whole area. Unfor- tunately a portion of this pavement does, or did extend under the adjoining mansion, by the foundations of which three circles have been destroyed ; those at the three corners preserved, contain heads of Flora, Ceres, and Pomona ; Flora, with a swallow on her shoulder, and flowers on her head and in her hand, representing Spring ; Ceres, holding her sickle, her head adorned with ripe corn, in allusion to Summer ; and Pomona, with a pruning-hook, and a head- dress of green leaves, and groups of fruit, indicative of Autumn. It may be assumed that the fourth circle contained a representation of Winter ; the assumption, moreover, is supported by the fact that, in one of the Mosaic Pavements discovered about 35 years since at Bignor, in Sussex, four circles in the four corners formed a part of the design, and the only circle remaining entire has a female bust in a dark hood, with dark drapery over the shoulders, and holding in her hand a branch of a tree devoid of leaves, doubtless intended for Winter. The designs at Bignor are extremely elaborate, but the execution of the work is coarser than at Cirencester. In one of the side circles of the Cirencester pavement is Silenus riding on his ass, and in another Actseon pursued by his own dogs ; enough of the third remains to show that it contained Bacchus and a panther ; the fourth side circle is quite destroyed. All that remains of the centre, which is surrounded by a braided guilloche, are the two fore-feet and legs of a quadruped, probably a centaur, in action ; one square has a grand head of Medusa, and another a small full length human figure; the angles are filled with devices, parts of the prevailing patterns ; five of tlic circles have each an inner border. As works in Mosaic of the peculiar kind they are very admii'able speci- mens, but the designs from which the heads and figures were executed must have possessed much of the grand in art, and have borne a striking resemblance to the works of an excellent period of Greek art. Mr, Westmacott, K.A., in alluding to the late exhibition of full sized coloured tracings* from the oi'iginals, at a meeting of the Institute, observed " that interesting as they arc as monuments of past time, these pavements have a further claim on our attention for the qualities of ai't exhibited in them, in which respect they are ■* The.se valuable tracings, mai'kiiif; every tessella, and coloured correctly, were the fruits of the industry and patience of Mr. Cox, of Cirencester.