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Eoman Villas which once stood around Bath, and have 

 perished by fire. The traces of burnt matter, and the stones 

 reddened by fire, attest this fact ; and a population like the 

 Saxon, inured to living in the woods, and constructing their 

 own simple habitations of timber, saw little use in the 

 preservation of these Villas, which seem to have been given 

 up to plunder, and the cattle driven off the farm. 'Mr. 

 Kemble, in his " Saxons in England," vol. ii., page 296, 

 speaking of the Saxon conquest of Britain, observes, " They 

 had not the motive, the means, or perhaps the patience, to 

 unbuild what was solidly constructed. Where it suited their 

 purpose to save the old Roman work, they used it to their 

 own advantage ; where it did not suit their views of con- 

 venience or policy to establish themselves on or near old 

 sites, they quickly left them to decay. There is not even 

 a probability that they in general took the trouble to 

 dismantle walls or houses to assist in the construction of 

 their own rude dwellings. Boards and rafters, much more 

 easily accessible, and to them much more serviceable, much 

 more easy of transport than stones and hard tiles, they very 

 likely removed." There are certain features of this Villa 

 which remain yet to be noticed. 



1. — The Rectangular Inclosure. The portion of this 

 boundary directly opposite to the part where excavations were 

 made, consisted of a broad wall of masonry, about 5 feet wide, 

 for several yards, which then ceased, and was continued in 

 a straight line at nearly the same width by an earthen 

 mound. The mound forming the inclosure was cut through 

 at different points, but did not indicate any masonry except 

 opposite to the Villa itself. 



2. — The remains of walls of the Villa appear to have been 

 of a uniform height. The' surface, when uncovered, did not 

 present a jagged or broken appearance, but as if remaining 

 in their original condition ; and this is found to be the case 



