individual features. The Rosewell finds, however, do 

 not come from the building but from a hole in the 

 ground 190 feet away from it, closer to various out- 

 buildings than to the mansion itself. Having made 

 this reservation it may seem contradictory to immedi- 

 ately proceed on the assumption that most of the 

 stone fragments did come from the house. Howexcr, 

 the quality of the stone and of the workmanship 

 thereon indicates that they belonged to a more 

 imposing structure than a kitchen, ottice, or stable. 



Fragments of two marble flooring slabs — one white 

 Purbeck measuring 10% by 1}^ inches and the other 

 black Belgian measuring 10?^ inches square — almost 

 certainly came from Rosewell's main hall. These 

 slabs immediately remind one of the entrance or 

 Middle Room at the Governor's Palace in Williams- 

 burg where similar i)lack and white slabs were used. 

 No pictures of the Rosewell floor exist, and it is 

 generally assumed that the marble was removed 

 during the Booth occupancy in the mid- 19th century. 

 However, it is now apparent that repairs to the floor 

 or the replacement of the floor became necessary as 

 early as the period 1763-1772. Any possibility that 

 these slabs were left o\'er after the laying of the marble 

 floor is removed by the e\idence of shell mortar 

 clinging to the sides and backs. 



Among the other finds arc a piece of white marble 

 that may well have come from the l)ase of a fireplace 

 mantel, a fragment from the base of a Portland stone 

 column, and numerous pieces of Portland nosings of 

 various sizes. Builders" hardware was surprisingly 

 poorly represented, comprising only a vast collection 

 of old nails ranging in length from W^ inches to 5-|- 

 inches and a brass keeper (fig. 21, no. 1) from a rim 

 lock of medium size. It could be construed from the 

 latter find that brass locks were u.sed on some of 

 Rosewell's smaller doors as well, presumably, as on 

 the large ones. 



Window glass was plentiful in the Rosewell pit, and 

 its presence can reasonably be used to add weight 

 to the belief that the pit was open at a time when 

 extensive repairs were in progress either at the 

 mansion or at its dependencies. 



Window glass was manufactured by two separate 

 methods, the results of which were known as "broad" 

 glass and "crown" glass. Broad glass, also known as 

 Lorraine glass, was made by blowing a long bubble, 

 opening the ends to create a cylinder, cutting the 

 cylinder down one side, and opening out the resulting 

 sheet onto an iron plate covered with sand. The final 

 product was frequenth' marred by distortion, \'arying 



Figure g. — Inscription scratched on fragment 

 of window glass. For possible interpretation 

 see page 178. 



thickness, and rough surface, and was limited to 

 sheets that rarely exceeded 4 square feet in area. 

 The crown glass, often termed Normandy gla.ss, was 

 created by transferring a bubble to a pontil iron and 

 rotating it so that the open mouth left by the removal 

 of the blowing iron opened out to create a disk which, 

 as the pontil iron rotated, grew larger and larger. 

 This type of window glass offered much greater 

 brilliance than the older broad glass, but the size 

 of panes derived from each crown was liinited because 

 of the thickening towards the central "buH's-eye" or 

 "bullion" to which the pontil iron had been attached. 

 The outer edges also were of little value as they were 

 too curved to be useful.*' An edge fragment and a 

 l)ullion (fig. 17) from the Rosewell pit show that John 

 or Mann Page had purchased glass by the crown 

 as well as, or instead of, by previously cut panes, the 

 more normal practice. It is not difficult to envisage 

 the possible relationship between this discovery 

 and the "Glaziers Diamond of 20/ \'aluc" pmchased 

 by John Page in 1771.** 



The need to produce a glass of even thickness and 

 extreme brilliance was constantly in the minds of 

 18th-centtu-y glassmakers. In the late 17th century 

 English makers were producing what they called 

 "blown-plate," which was simply broad glass made 



<■ H. J. I'owcU, Glassmaking in BighmL Cambridge. Cambridge 

 University Press, 1923, p. 105. 

 *^ .Yorton Pafins, op. cil. (footnote 6). p. 199. 



P.-^PER 18: EXCAVATIONS .\T ROSEWELL 



177 



