13 



Probably, if the pieces of plaster found at the present Villa 

 had been more carefully examined, some such traces would 

 have appeared, although the fragments were so small that it 

 was difficult to infer much except the colouring and indi- 

 cations of patterns. It is not improbable that the Romans 

 introduced into Britain the style of building which we find 

 preserved in barns, out-houses, and cottages in Devonshire, 

 Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and other counties. 

 If the walls of the Villas were thus constructed, it will fully 

 account for the mass of earth and burnt matter which has 

 been found to cover the floors, and which has tended to 

 preserve the pavements below, though in a broken condition. 

 In most instances where the pavements have been found 

 entire, they are indented and crushed by the fall of the 

 timbers, and are strewed with roofing tiles. Thus, the same 

 correspondent tells me, that " in Wilts he uncovered a con- 

 siderable extent of ground, but met with no hj^pocausts, and 

 the mosaic pavements were fairly entire ; " but in Yorkshire 

 the falling in of the roofs had destroyed the pavements, 

 which he " found in fragments at the feet of the pillars, and 

 amonsf the debris were found also two human skulls." Here 

 was an evidence of the house being burnt, the heavy roof 

 falling in after the rafters had given way, and the whole 

 remaining a smouldering mass, till it burnt itself out, and 

 then became the ground-work for further accumulations of 

 vegetable matter, until the whole was coated with green- 

 sward and brushwood. The quantities of burnt matter found 

 within the walls upon the floors of the rooms at Cold Harbour, 

 seem to have indicated a sudden destruction. With respect 

 to the formation of earth walls, or cob walls, as they are called 

 in Devonshire, I am fully aware that they appear to have been 

 derived from the East, and are found among many different 

 people ; not only are they common in India, but in Africa, as 

 well as in Europe. Mixing the earth with lime and pounding 



