Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/558

 410 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. of the relics of each period shouhl by degrees be ehcited. There can be no doubt hoy important the most trivial remains of Roman workmanship may prove in such a series, or how strikingly they may serve to illustrate the antiquities of the succeeding period, hitherto involved in such lamentable obscurity. The antiquary will therefore gratefully appreciate the advantage of such memorials and illustrations as have been aftbrded in the publications of the past year. It will be memorable in the annals of archaeological science by the production of the valuable monograph on Covinium, as also by the interesting work on Richborough and Lynine, achieved by Mr. Roach Smith and ^Ir. Fairholt. Their zealous researches in a district where, probably, the earliest establishments were eficcted by the Romans, have brought to light a rich display of the ornaments and personal appliances, the fictilia and elegancies of life, with many matters of even higher interest. The field, on the other hand, successfully explored at Cirencester by Professor Buckman and Mr. Newmarch, has produced a series, unique perhaps in Britain, of those interesting decorations in Mosaic-work, which so strikingly evince, in this remote colony, the power of Roman art. These tessellated pavements, however, are not unknown to many of our readers, who may have seen at various meetings of the Institute, both at London and Oxford, the remarkable facsimile drawings, of the full size of the originals, produced with gTcat skill and accuracy by Mr. Thomas Cox. It is much to be regretted that so much of their beauty has unavoidably been lost in the reduced representations, which still form a very attractive feature of the present publication. The work before us comprises also records of numerous discoveries in past years, so far as they could be rescued from oblivion. It commences appropriately with a notice of the site of Covinium, and the chain of entrenched works on the heights of Gloucestershire, vestiges of the fierce tribes displaced by the bold invader. The fortifications of the Roman city. Bronze Ariiiillx, fowiul at < irciicester. and the roads diverging from it, arc next described. The grassy mounds of the amphitheatre, adjacent to the line of the walls, and, as at Silchester, exterior to them, presents a striking demonstration of the condition of security to which the colony had attained, and of the luxurious indulgence quickly introduced. Various fragments of sculptured stone, friezes, capitals,