Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/493

 HOMAN OCCUI'ATION IN BJUTAIN. .'i31 preserved in the ,ii;reat Hall at the Lateran Palace, and which without geometrical patterns, represents athletic, bathers, gladiators, &c., showing the human figure in a great variety of positions. In the Cirencester pavements, even and good as the work is, the high polish of the Roman ones is not attained, the materials of which they are formed not being capal)le of that last finish. The tessella? are all of hard stone, the dark blue or black, and the light blue or grey, are of a kind of blue lias, found in various parts of the Vale of Glou- cester ; the dark brown are of a gritty stone, found in the Forest of Dean, and also near Bristol ; the light brown or yellow are like the hard calcareous stone found at Lypiat, near Woodchester ; the white, which are polished, are of a stone very similar to that used in Mosaics in Italy, and there called "■ Palombino," I am not aware of any quarry of the kind in England ; the red tessella) are all of terra cotta. Nothing was found in connection with these apartments in Dyer Street to lead to the supposition that any of them were for the purposes of the Bath ; they appear, with most probability, to have belonged to the house of a wealthy or noble proprietor, the object of the Hypocausts being to ensure that degree of warmth and dryness so essential in the humid climate of the British Islands. It is not a little remarkable that one-half only of the larger floor was a suspensura, the remainder of the terrass being based on the solid ground. This fact seems to suggest that the two parts of the room were intended for use at different seasons of the year, and this again, that the room was the Triclinium of the iiouse, that the poi-tion over the Hypocaust was the Triclinium h^'^bernum, and the other end the Triclinium a3stivum, for use in warm weather. The subjects represented in the floor also substantiate this supposition ; there are, in the first place, representations of the four seasons of the year, indicating that it was adapted for use at all times ; then there are two subjects connected with convivial festivity, and, lastly, the Act^eon will suggest the food to be obtained in the chace. The Centaur seems to have been a favourite subject ; it is often met with in sculjiture, in fresco, and in ]Iosaic. From the second representation of Act?con in the adjoining room, it is not improbable that the owner of the residence had a taste for field sports. The archways of three flues were detected communicating with the hot-air chamber, and passing