Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/51

Rh the brick piers; but the rooms pertaining to the baths, which were once separated by solid walls, have their tessellated floors more or less sunk in the ground, as best suited the range of apartments to which they belonged. The floor of the bath-room, at the north-west angle, is 15 inches above the common level of the interior; the depth of the bath is 3 feet 9 inches; there being five steps of brick for descent to the same, and the walls of both being finished with a skirting of cement upon a core of brick. The floor of each is tessellated, formed of a hard white stone in small pieces, irregularly shapen, and laid, without attention to regularity or neatness, in a durable bed of concrete mortar, similar in composition to that with which all the interior walls, and also the unpaved floors, were covered. The chief ingredient is pulverised brick, overlaid with a thin lime- wash; and, in this instance, the adornment of painting was superadded, but it consists of nothing more than diagonal hues in spaces formed by vertical lines, a coarse performance by way of ornament. But the painted decorations of the walls which were destroyed, judging from the numerous well-finished fragments selected from among the ruins, must have been of a superior description. The colours retain their brilliancy, and the designs appear to have been of a highly enriched character.

"The plan of one of the baths resembles the letter D; it is 9 feet wide, 6 feet 10 inches in length, to the lower step; the entire length, inside, having been 8 feet 5 inches, when the wall at the entrance was perfect. The three steps appear to have extended from side to side; these, with the walls, exhibit the same neat style of finish with cement already observed, the skirting being carried upon the ends of the steps up to the level of the floor over. The covering of the floor resembles that of the walls; but the whole was no sooner completed, as described, than an alteration in the arrangement of this underground part of the house was made, which well nigh destroyed its utility; indeed, it would seem to have been superseded by the adjoining bath, which encroached 27 inches upon its length, concealing, beneath a mass of rubble work, overlaid with a tessellated pavement, the original figure and dimensions, which were only ascertained by the removal of the intruding portion of the new bath, in pursuance of Mr. Neville's directions.