Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]
[ocr errors]

PLATE ///.

G. Poulett Scrope Esq: del.

Edw. Kite, lith.
ROMAN VILLA AT NORTH WRAXHALL, WILTS BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE THERME, OR BATHS.

or wooden folding doors, perhaps for the purpose of concentrating an extreme degree of heat in them, suitable to a Sudatorium or Sweating Bath.

In the chamber C a recess in the end wall is occupied by a water-bath hollowed out of a block of freestone. The interior measures four feet by two feet three inches, and two feet six inches in depth. The front edge of this stone-bath was found broken. The wall of the niche it occupies above the stone was plastered flush with the inside of the bath, and painted of a deep red colour. A hole on one side gave passage to the supply of water through a pipe, once perhaps of lead, bedded in cement which yet remained along its course.

The adjoining chamber D has a large semi-circular recess on the same (the western) side. The suspended floor of this apartment had been destroyed, but many of the pillars which formerly supported it were entire up to the height of two feet, and the flues between them were still coated with soot. Moreover within, or rather upon, the flue which encircled the wall of the recess were found three entire pots or pipkins of the black variety of pottery and of Roman form, (see plate x. fig. 2.) each covered with a flat circular disk of thin stone, standing upright, and, though empty, suggesting the idea that they had contained some kind of food and been placed there for culinary purposes just before the building was finally ravaged and reduced to ruin.

If the plan of this suite of chambers is examined, it will be seen that the door-ways connecting them are placed so as to make the arrangement correspond very accurately with that usually practised in Roman Thermæ, or Hot-baths, as described by Sir William Gell in his Pompeiana, and indeed as is recommended by Vitruvius the classic writer on Architecture. The innermost room of all, B, immediately adjoining the furnace E, and therefore the hottest, was probably the inner sweating-bath, the "Laconicum" in the language of Vitruvius. From this a door-way communicates with another small heated apartment A, having also a niche, the "caldarium" probably. Next to this is the bathing-room proper, C, having the "loutron," or stone-bath at the end. Then comes what

was perhaps the "Tepidarium," D, a cooler apartment, though still suspended over a hypocaust, and this opens into a larger room G, the "frigidarium" or cooling-room, only one quarter of whose area possessed warm-flues with a furnace at one angle E, to which room access was gained from without, or rather from the remainder of the building, by a long corridor (L) the "Exedra." This disposition of the several rooms would allow persons taking the baths to approach and leave the most heated chambers through several gradations of temperature; as is still practised in the East.

The walls as well of the Bath-rooms as of the other apartments seem to have been lined with stucco, coarsely painted of various colours, chiefly blue, red, and yellow, in straight stripes or trellice patterns. Some of the latter shewed a bud or small flower on alternate sides of each stripe. But no large portions of this stucco could be preserved, as it dropped from the walls in fragments on their being uncovered and exposed to the weather.

It has been already mentioned that the four or five chambers at the eastern end of the building were of rather superior masonry to the others. And the number of tessellæ found in their rubbish shewed that they had once possessed tessellated pavements, although of a coarse description. No portion of such however, remained entire and indeed the rude walling-up of some of the door-ways of these rooms seemed to indicate that they had been subjected to some alteration, perhaps owing to their temporary occupation after a first partial destruction. In one of these rooms a singular narrow recess occurs measuring three feet in depth by only eleven inches in width; and in this, which may have been a sort of cup-board or hiding-place, were found the only two entire articles of fragile materials met with in the coarse of the excavations, namely, one of those earthen-ware and lipped bowls, lined with small siliceous grains, which are known to Antiquaries by the name of " Mortaria," and seem to have been used for grating down soft grain or mixing paste, &c., and a glass funnel. (see plate). The latter utensil has it is believed been very rarely met with. The British Museum does not possess one of Roman character.

On the southern side of the bath-rooms, and at the distance of ten yards from their outer wall, the workmen cleared the foundation of a small building having outwardly an accurate hexagonal form, but circular within. It measured ten feet from angle to angle. On opening out the centre at the depth of four feet there appeared the mouth of a circular well-shaft, constructed of admirable masonry, every stone being cut to the curve of the circle, which was three feet eight inches in diameter. The upper courses of the shaft had been evidently destroyed, and the well itself filled entirely with rubbish from the neighbouring buildings. This was re-excavated, with the following results :

At the depth of about twenty five feet human bones were found, apparently the remains of a single body. At forty feet those of two more skeletons. Below this the rubbish filling the well consisted chiefly of large fragments of masonry, comprising a great many broken shafts of columns, with their capitals and bases. These latter had evidently been all turned in a lathe, and are remarkable for the number of toruses or mouldings which they present. (See pl. iv. fig. 4, 5.) Some other carved stones appear to have been pinnacles or other ornaments surmounting the ridge or gable of the roof. Their style as well as that of the columns is of a debased architecture resembling the worst examples of the Lower Empire. The diameter of the columns varied from eight inches to twelve. And as fragments were found of separate capitals to the number of twelve or more, it would appear that the adjoining buildings must have displayed a considerable amount of architectural decoration, such as it was. Several coins of the Lower Empire were also found low down in the well-shaft. At the depth of 68 feet water first appeared. And there the masonry terminated, the foundation resting on a ledge of rock. The well was originally sunk still deeper. But the influx of water has hitherto prevented further excavation. When (if ever) a dry season occurs to drain off the springs, the excavation of this well will be further prosecuted. The building hitherto described with its well stood within a walled inclosure (see plan) measuring about 220 feet by 155, which may have been a garden, or large court; and in the

VOL. VII.NO. XIX.

F

middle of the southern wall of this inclosure are the square foundations of what were probably the piers of its entrance gates. On the outer side of this the foundations were uncovered of at least two other separate ranges of building, each possessing several apartments or small courts, and the whole inclosed by other boundary walls to the south and east, the latter being the prolongation at a very obtuse angle of the eastern wall of the first described inclosure. On various points of these foundation walls several heavy squared blocks of hard stone were met with from two to three feet across, and from eighteen inches to two feet in thickness, which from their position, as well as from the mortice-holes cut into some of them would seem to have been the bases of gate-piers, and in some instances of columns, or heavy square pillars. Indeed two square bases of such pillars, with a very good oval moulding were found in one place entire. To the northern extremity of one of these ranges of building there was attached a furnace, with its ashpit, having holes on either side as if to receive iron bars for the support of the fuel.

Among the rubbish of the buildings are many well cut and squared stones formed of a Calcareous Tuff full of cavities, which was no doubt taken from the side of a neighbouring hill where it is still deposited in great abundance by a spring strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime. This stone was probably employed for the vaulting of roofs owing to its lightness, as a very similar tuff is found so employed by the old Roman builders in many parts of Italy. A good many mill-stones or hand-querns, some entire, many broken, were also dug up. They are formed of a quartzose pebbly grit, probably from the coal measures.

Many of the walls had evidently been disturbed down to their foundations on several points, and in part removed either for the sake of the building materials they afforded or because in the way of the plough. The buildings had been roofed with stone-tiles from the schistose sandstone of the coal formation of the Vale of Severn. These were neatly cut into the form of elongated hexagons, and the roof composed of them must have presented a handsome and ornamental character. (See plate iv. fig. 14.) The iron nails

« PreviousContinue »