Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/188

 was covered with the second flooring, were discovered three or four regular pillars of flag and tile, all unbroken and entire. The first was placed about 6 feet to the south of the northern wall, and the second about 17 inches to the south of that. Six feet eastward was another, and about 17 inches north of this were some remains of a fourth. They were composed of a square flag, then two layers of tile, each tile about 2 inches thick and 8 inches square, and afterwards of flag and tile in four layers alternately, all laid in mortar and pounded brick. They rose from 22 inches to 32 inches in height, closely surrounded on every side with the loose earth and clay, as it lay upon a third flooring, made of pure and unmixed mortar, 3 inches thick, and having a layer of red sand below on the natural ground. About a yard to the east was discovered:

III. A third building, but all a mere mass of confusion. In the broken ruins of it were dug up a couple of Roman coins and three round tubes of tile. These were found in the ground with their mortar adhering to the outside, each 16 inches high. They were plainly formed in moulds, and hooped with circles on the outside, and narrowed from 4 inches at one end to 2 inches at the other in diameter, and they were inserted into each other, forming a long pipe.

And these buildings were situated within the irregularly semicircular projection of the river bank, below the level of the station, and on the edge of the water.

Near the south-western angle, and along the north-eastern side of it, were found great quantities of bones heaped together, and chiefly of oxen, sheep, and cows.

Many tiles also were found in the ruins, with round holes in them, some larger, some smaller; others were made with a bend for channels. One sough was observed in the building.

In the second building several fragments of coarse tiles were found formed into hollows; also a large iron knife, with a handle of stag's horn, and an iron chisel.

In the more westerly building (I.) the beam of a balance, fitted with a hook at one end. The second and third building consisted only of one large room each, and no partitions were found in either. But they were in the first. The first building had only one flooring, and was placed so much higher than the second building. The pedestal, standing about 2 yards to the west of the first building, was evidently found in its original site, being fixed on a regular basis of red rock and clay.

On the south-western part of the projection, which has never yet been dug into, at one point was found a few years ago (1769) a great quantity of saxa rotunda de fluviis, lying in a large heap immediately under the wall, and fairly turfed over by time.

HYPOCAUST.

As a further support and demonstration that the altar erected to Fortuna Conservatrix on the borders of the Medlock refers alone to the hypocaust, and was erected on the platform in front of it with whose