44 Mr. Victor Horsley on Roman Defences. [Feb. 3, 



Saxon forces. Ultimately the place was carried by storm, and all 

 its inhabitants massacred. 



The second example, that of the destruction of a villa, is remark- 

 ably shown by the following instance, for which I have to thank 

 Mr. Storry, the curator of the Cardiff Museum. This gentleman 

 had observed in a field which was known in the neighbourhood as 

 " the battlefield," that there was some indication of a Roman founda- 

 tion in its centre, and on examining this found the customary rough 

 masonry upon which the timber and plaster walls of a Roman villa 

 were erected. On following up the passage, which was the first part 

 of the villa opened into, he found it led into a large room with a good 

 pavement, the tesserae of which were broken and the surface indented 

 with horses' hoofs. The floor was covered by numerous human 

 skeletons and those of horses, while in the corner of the room were 

 the skeletons of two children, and across, in front of them, that of a 

 woman. Further, in three graves dug in the floor, were found the 

 skeletons of men of a larger and more powerful build than those 

 whose remains were left unburied where they fell. The evidence is 

 circumstantial but complete. The whole story is told. The unfortified 

 dwelling house, the attack by the stronger invaders, the retreat of the 

 household along the passage to its inmost room, the last stand of the 

 little garrison, the slaughter of the men, the murder of the woman, 

 and last of all the massacre of the children, in front of whom she 

 had thrown herself in a final desperate effort to save them from the 

 inevitable destruction. There are those who find the study of old 

 walls dull, and wonder that some can pore for hours over a jaw from 

 a cave, a flint from a field, or a bit of Eoman mortar, but these things 

 are the keys to the unwritten history of man, and when we find how 

 vivid a page can be restored to us from the floor of a single house, 

 one's wonder should rather be that so much still remains uncared-for 

 and unread. 



[V. H.] 



