351 



it most resembles. Specimens of these road materials are sub- 

 mitted for your inspection. 



Resting on the bed I have described is another layer of finer 

 material consisting apparently of Inferior Oolite or Lias pounded 

 very fine, mixed with lime and well rammed, which we can have 

 little difficulty in identifying with the Nucleus bed of Vitruvius. 

 It is m inches deep in the centre but thinner at the sides, its 

 upper surface being rounded off very symmetrically. 



On this was laid a course of paving stones which evidently 

 formed the ancient surface of the Eoman road. It is from four to 

 five inches in thickness, and consists of the thinner beds of the 

 Lias, common in the neighbourhood. According to Vitruvius 

 this course termed Summum dorsum, was composed sometimes 

 of stones set like the paving stones in our streets, and some- 

 times of flag stones cut square, but in the Fosse road, at 

 Radstock, it consists of stones of all sizes and shapes put 

 together as random work, the lime having probably been poured 

 in afterwards. In this way the whole surface of the road was 

 so firmly cemented together, that in removing it during the 

 recent excavations, the stones more frequently split through 

 the solid than separated at a joint. 



On the day of the Society's \dsit, only 18in. or so in length of 

 this pavement had been laid bare, and oeyond the smoothness of 

 its upper surface, there was no apparent evidence of the purposes 

 to which the roads had been applied. Feeling assured, however, 

 that a close examination of a larger surface area could not fail to 

 throw lighb on this part of the subject, I afterwards had the 

 ancient surface laid bare for three or four yards in length, and I 

 was more than gratified to find two clearly defined ruts, worn in 

 the stone by the Avheels of chariots or other carriages, which it is 

 fair to assume must have passed over it during the Roman 

 occupation. These wheel tracks are two feet nine inches apart, or 

 about three feet from centre to centre, so that although the 



