exvill Proceedings. 
This is situated about a mile from the Farningham Road Station, 
L.C.D.R., and is close by the old Roman road connecting 
Rochester and London. The excavation was first commenced 
in 1894 after a burial of probably 1500 years, although the site 
is marked on old ordnance maps. Crossing the field close to 
the station, the party proceeded by the high road as far as the 
mill-pond, through which the river Darent flows. Here several 
interesting botanical specimens were obtained by means of wad- 
ing by an adventurous and enthusiastic member of the party. 
Among the plants found was the flowering rush, by no means a 
common plant. The path then skirted the banks of the river 
until the villa was reached. The remains are the most extensive 
yet discovered in England, and it is supposed that the villa was 
the residence of a high military officer of the Roman army of 
occupation. From east to west is an unbroken line of rooms 
and other enclosed places extending for four hundred and fifty 
feet. In front of these to the south is a corridor of the same 
length. Beyond the corridor are two courts ninety-two and 
ninety-one feet long and seventy-eight feet wide respectively. 
_ Along the east and west sides of these courts a series of rooms - 
extend for some distance. The centre of the house was occupied 
by the cold rooms for summer use. Three of these are paved 
with red tessere, the remainder with concrete and tiles. Some 
of the walls were adorned with distemper painting, but the 
colours have now almost disappeared. The winter rooms are at 
the south-east corner, and the floors of the heated chambers 
were suspended in various ways. One was laid on piles of flat 
tiles, two others were supported on flue-tiles, and a fourth on 
blocks of chalk in rows about six inches apart. Flue-pipes still 
remain in the walls. The doorways of one or two of the rooms 
had been blocked in Saxon times with herring-bone work. The 
baths are situated at the west of the summer rooms, the largest 
being forty feet long and ten feet wide, and the walls are still 
four feet high. This was reached by four steps plastered and 
rounded at the edges, but at some time during the Roman 
occupation a wall had been built across it. Two small baths, 
about seven feet square, connected with rooms probably used 
for dressing, adjoin. There are several tanks at the north 
angle, originally fitted with leaden pipes, a portion of one still 
remaining. These communicate with a water channel, dis- 
charging intoa drain. At the southern and western extremities 
of the courtyards are the remains of stables and outhouses, the 
walls of which appear to extend into the field beyond. To 
prevent inundations, a wall three hundred and forty feet in 
length had been erected between the river and the courts. The 
foundations of the villa are now from four to five feet below the 
surface. Numerous antiquities have been found, such as coins, 
a) 
