Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/53

Rh "A room beyond the baths, measuring between the walls 14 feet 10 inches by 13 feet, received the heated air in a connected line of flue on the four sides, and across the centre, in each direction, 1 foot 6 inches in depth from the floor, and 12 inches wide, floored and evenly coated on the sides with cement, like the walls, in which arc formed vertical flues, 7 inches wide, and 4 deep, arranged as if designed to contribute heat to adjoining apartments. The means by which the supply was communicated from the chamber of the hypocaust do not appear, and the same observation applies to the mode in which the water was conducted to the interior.

It has been remarked that, excepting the baths which were sunk in the ground, a level line was observed in the floor throughout the house: from the deepest sinking in the capacious chamber of the hypocaust, the height is 2 feet 7 inches, shown by the pillars of brick, the greater number of which are still standing; they are 8 inches square, raised in fourteen courses, with basements either of one or two courses 11 inches square. The pillars are thickly set, in order to sustain the tile floor of the room over, but of this only the ruins are to be found at the base. The furnace is at the outer end, the aperture between it and the heating chamber, passing through a solid wall, is 19 inches in width.

A more extended description would throw no light upon the perfect economy of the interior arrangement. It will be noticed on reference to the accompanying plan, that simply arranged apartments, in one portion of the building, now present a complicated and irregular appearance, owing to the exposure of foundations once concealed by tessellated floors; and no account can be given of the extensive wall, 3 feet 6 inches in thickness, adjoining one of nearly the same bulk at the angle of the outermost bath."

The miscellaneous relics brought to light during the examination of the extensive remains described in the fore- going narrative, were of a less interesting and valuable character than those, which on previous occasions had repaid Mr. Neville's well-directed investigation of the sites occupied by the Roman colonists of ICIANI, and its vicinity. Mr. J. Lane Oldham, who has fully participated on such occasions in the zealous interest with which these researches have been prosecuted by Mr. Neville, and who closely watched the progress and details of the late excavation, has supplied