252 The Roman Villa at Box. 
It retained a small portion of the walls in the north-east angle 
above the floor-level. 
A fragment of pavement of small red, blue, and white tessere 
existed towards its west end with a considerable piece of a buff 
border. 
At its east end was a drain constructed with wide stone bottom 
having a channel 12 inches wide and 4 inches deep worked in it. 
The drain returned at slightly more than a right-anele, 3 feet from 
the north wall of the chamber, in an easterly direction. 
In this chamber was found in 1898 a small perfectly plain altar 
measuring 224 inches high by about 10 inches square. All traces 
of an inscription, if such ever existed, had been weathered or 
cut away. 
Chamber XVI. was a small lobby about 8 feet by 9 feet, from 
north to south. It retained its north wall above floor-level showing 
it had no connection with chamber XXI., unless the doorway had 
a raised sill. 
The floor has left a fragment of its border of cream tessere, 
against the north wall, which was 7 inches higher than that in 
chamber XV. 









Chamber XVII. was apparently approached from the last, and 
formed a passage leading to that part of the villa opened in 1881, 
of which more later. 
Chamber XVIII. was about 20} feet long by 11 feet wide. It 
had a wall 4 feet thick on the north side. 
The floor was covered with small tesserze which had apparently 
been removed at some time, the mortar bed upon which they 
rested being quite perfect and retained a few odd tesseree in situ. 
To the south of this chamber, judging by the dimensions given 
by Mr. Mullins im 1835, must have been the pavement discovered 
in 1831, “in making some additions to a very old building the 
workinan in sinking for a foundation struck upon the mutilated 

' This altar has been presented by Mr. Hardy to the Devizes Museum. 
