regular earthen enclosure, rectangular in form, and comprising 

 within it about two acres, contained remains which would be 

 worth investigation. At the suggestion of the Secretary of 

 the Club, the Rev. H. H. Winwood, and through the kind 

 co-operation of the Rev. Mr. EUacombe, vicar of Bitton, per- 

 mission to excavate was obtained both from Mr. Davy, the 

 owner of the property, and from the occupier of the farm, 

 Mr. Mathews, both of whom contributed every assistance to 

 render the work complete. .A ccordingly, on the 1 2th October, 

 1865, excavations were begun, and foundation walls were 

 immediately come upon within the rectangular earthen 

 boundary. The walls were found to run at right angles, and 

 as the excavations proceeded, disclosed no fewer than 13 or 

 14 rooms upon the same level, two of the floors of which had 

 been provided with hypocausts, a larger and a smaller one, 

 with the heating apparatus adjoining. The floors, which 

 were once supported by the pilse of these hypocausts, were 

 found to have been broken up, but fragments of the suspen- 

 sura were found, and a few tesserae ; but the plough, and 

 former depredations for the sake of material or supposed 

 concealed wealth, were found to have destroyed both floors. 

 The pilse were of brick, of the usual height and form, but 

 older materials had also been worked up, and the portion of 

 a pilaster or small column was found used as one of the 

 supports. 



This leads to the inference that the Villa had been rebuilt 

 or enlarged, and as one side of the pilaster was weather-worn, 

 it is evident that the first building must have been of an 

 earlier date. The pilaster had been turned in a stone lathe, 

 which is the case with all the Roman pilasters found in this 

 and other neighbourhoods. At the south-east angle of the 

 Villa, where the walls had been traced to their limit, a stone 

 water-course was laid bare, and followed until its outlet was 

 ascertained. At the south-western end, the paved court was 



