Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/261

 ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE abounded. In 1780 the mosaic was taken up and used to mend the roads. In 1821 the site was re-examined with no important results. Baker estimated the whole area of the building ' as marked by the disturbed surface and discoloured vegetation ' at no more than 100 feet.' (18) Harpole, south-west of the village. Here, in a field adjoin- ing the Weedon and Northampton road on the north, near the Halfway House (Red Lion) inn and the fourth milestone, a ' villa ' was detected in 1846 and a small part uncovered in 1849. The principal discovery was a mosaic floor with a geometrical design in red, white, buff and black, which may have measured 12 by 18 feet when perfect (fig. 25). Its central ornament, a red circle divided into eight parts by four white diameters, has been taken to contain a Greek cross and hence to indicate Christianity. So far however as I can judge, this central ornament, like the whole pattern, is merely conventional and possesses no Christian or other significance. The site was not explored beyond this mosaic, but tessera of other pavements, tiles, bricks, potsherds were noticed and indeed can still be seen lying around on the surface for some little space. ^ (19) Harpole, north of the village. On the rising ground north of the village, Whellan attests the discovery of an extensive villa and in particular a floor of rough unornamented tessellation (p. 318). (20) Duston, near Northampton. Numerous remains have been found here in the south-east of the parish, a little west of the western suburb of Northampton called St. James' End, and for the most part south of the present Daventry road. Burials and Roman pottery were noticed in ' Arbourfield ' in 1849 ; a vase and some coins (a 'second brass ' of Claudius, a denarius of Severus and about thirty-five of a.d. 250-380) were found hereabouts in 1854. But the principal discoveries were made in 1860-70 when the Duston Iron Ore Company was work- ing the ironstone on land once the property of Lady Palmerston (since of Lord Cowper). The remains were found to be spread over eight acres ; the site, south of the Daventry road and near a large artificial pond, is still strewn with potsherds. No proper observations of the discoveries were kept, except to a limited extent by the late Mr. Samuel Sharp, but many of the objects unearthed were preserved and presented by him and by Lord Cowper to the Northampton Museum. The principal finds were a large number — probably more than a hundred — of burials, some inhumation and some incineration ; nails, probably from coffins ; a lamp ; pottery of all sorts, Samian, Castor and the rest ; tiles ; many ornaments, domestic utensils and implements in iron, lead and bronze ; and coins in abundance. Special mention may be made of a small silver bowl ; six large plain pewter dishes, a two-handled pewter Baker, i. 191. Guidebook, p. 148. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, i. 39, accepted the mosaic as Christian. 197
 * Morton, p. 527 and pi. xlv. 3 (hence Bridges, i. 519 ; Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 277, etc.) ;
 * Journal of the British Jrchtrohgical Association, ii. 364, v. 375, vi. 126 with plate; Wetton's