8 THE ROMAN VILLA AT HEMSWORTH. 



pavement. At Wroxeter the foundations were found to be 

 built up in at least four strata, the lowest being 18 inches of 

 broken stone, with a foot of concrete above it to receive a third 

 layer of fine mortar, on which the tesserae were laid in a thin film 

 of hard white plaster or cement. At Hemsworth the rough 

 lower strata were omitted and the tesserae set in the same fine 

 white medium, above 3 to 3^ inches of buff-coloured mortar 

 resting on 2 inches of fine chalk or lime rubble, the entire bed 

 measuring 6 inches at most in depth, against some 40 inches at 

 Wroxeter. Yet the pavements remain perfectly level and firm 

 after some 16 centuries. Their builders knew that no deeper 

 foundation was necessary on a chalk sub-soil. The white plaster 

 in which the tesserae were fitted together was still so hard as to 

 resist the chisel. 



Besides the two pebble pavements there is a curiosity at 

 Hemsworth in the shape of a large floor of alternate yj inch 

 squares of hard grey limestone and black Kimmeridge shale. 

 I believe one of our English cathedrals contains some paving of 

 Cannell coal. 



An account of the many other pavements which have survived 

 only in fragments or traces could be given and followed only in 

 relation to a detailed plan of the rooms, which, it is hoped, may 

 yet be made. The great hypocaust at the S.W. end supported 

 one of the largest floors, for thousands of tesserae, in plaster flakes 

 or single, lay in the deep flues where they had fallen on the 

 demolition of the bridging masonry. A considerable proportion 

 of these were of bright yellow. In this quarter of the house 

 much wall plaster was found in light and dark shades of most 

 brilliant blue, besides several other colours. One large flake 

 preserved a drawing of a column with its capital, part of a wall 

 landscape containing a temple or portico. Several fragments of 

 flooring indicate a refined taste in black and white, very sparingly 

 picked out with colour. The wide border of one pavement near 

 the great hypocaust must have been bold and effective, consisting 

 of large leaf-shaped ovals, 1 8 inches long, of concentric bands of 

 white, black, blue, and red, inclined to one another in pairs at an 



