4 THE ROMAN VILLA AT HEMSWORTH. 



of an open courtyard, somewhat after the plan of the Spoonley 

 Wood, Gloucestershire, villa (Archaologia, Vol. 52, Pt. 2). 

 This form of a long-fronted house with two much shorter 

 wings does not seem at all common in villas hitherto found in 

 England. 



The building material, so far as it shows in the wall foundations 

 and debris, was of flint. Rounded dents in some of the floors 

 look as if made by capitals or other worked stone falling from a 

 height when the house was destroyed, but every scrap of stone 

 other than flint has been removed. The quality of the masonry 

 is best shown in the great hypocaust structure at the S.W. end. 

 This has been stripped of all its bridging-tiles and other portable 

 material of the suspensura, but still shows very excellent and 

 thorough workmanship in the depth, solidity and finish of the 

 flue-passages. The house was roofed with the usual large, 

 lozenge-shaped stone roof-tiles, but very few out of thousands 

 have been left on the site. 



The tesselated floors, could they have been preserved to us, 

 would no doubt have been an exceptionally valuable series in 

 number, variety, and quality. Most unfortunately the covering 

 of soil, as commonly happens in a chalk district, is so shallow as 

 to give little defence against the plough and other destructive 

 agencies, and out of some fourteen or fifteen tesselated rooms, 

 lobbies, and corridors, two only have survived except as fragments. 

 It is well that these two are remarkable, and in their subjects 

 perhaps unique in England. I will not try to improve upon 

 the accurate description of a contributor to the Dorset County 

 Chronicle, who writes thus : 



" Of the series of tesselated floors and fragments, two stand 

 out for special notice, by reason not only of their fairly perfect 

 state of preservation but also of their exceptionally elaborate 

 designs, the high degree of artistic feeling displayed in them, 

 and the excellence and fineness of the Avorkmanship. The first 

 pavement, 13 feet square, is occupied by a series of concentric 

 bands, all enriched with beautiful ornament. In a round panel 

 in the centre appears a vigorous and perfect head, apparently of 



