46 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1904 
in the clay, led to the conclusion that the stones must 
have been deposited by human agency. 
The following questions naturally arose, namely : 
When and why were the stones placed here ? 
How could such an accumulation of clay have been 
deposited over them ? 
It seems probable that the stones were placed there 
during or subsequent to the Roman occupation of 
Gloucester, some 15 or 16 centuries ago, as evidenced by 
the presence of scraps of Roman bricks, tiles, and horse- 
shoes. The scraps of roofing tiles are of precisely the same 
section as some found on the site of the Wilts and Dorset 
Bank at the Cross, Gloucester, during excavations in 
1893, at a depth of some ten or twelve feet from the pre- 
sent pavement level. The last-mentioned fragments were 
found associated with charred wood, and were evidently 
from an important Roman building, possibly a Basilica or 
Temple occupying a prominent position in the Forum 
of Glevum. The sections of the edges of the bottom 
and cover-tiles display considerable ingenuity in order to 
prevent capillary attraction, and thus to keep the flowing 
water in its required channel. 
The reason for placing the stones here may be found in 
the circumstance that the locality lies very low, and imme- 
diately adjacent to the Sudbrook, a tributary of the Severn. 
The locality was probably a marsh, with the Sudbrook 
running through it, and, for the convenience of traffic 
between Glevum, Bath, and the South, required a hard 
bed to form a ford. The deposit was evidently made 
under water, from the fact that the stones had not been 
laid in any sort of order, either as regards size or level, 
but had apparently been thrown in without care in their 
disposition. 
The stones were of varied sizes, and mixed indiscrimin- 
ately with dark clay, which evidently formed the bottom of 
the marsh. 
