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By HY. COLLEY MARCH, M.D., F.S.A. 



(Read Dec. 19th, 1899.) 



I. ROMAN PAVEMENTS. 



'OR present purposes, the tesselated Roman pavements 

 of this country may be divided into those that 

 exhibit nothing more than a general scheme 

 of decoration, and those that are set out into 

 panels or ornamental fields, which are occupied 

 on the one hand by symbols, and on the other 

 by mythological or allegorical subjects. 



Orpheus charming wild animals, the various 

 divinities of a comprehensive pantheon, the pre- 

 sentment of a popular fable, emblems of the Seasons, Nereids, 

 Dolphins, and Hippocamps : all these tell their own tale. 



But symbols have an esoteric meaning. To discover and 

 demonstrate this, let the tesselation recently exposed near 

 Dorchester serve for a text, while as illustration we possess 

 upwards of 50 others, of which the most important are at 

 Frampton, Silchester, Caerwent (Venta Silurum), London, 

 Brading, Lincoln, Leicester, Bath, Corinium or Cirencester, 

 Uriconium or Wroxeter, Great Whitcombe and Stockwood in 



