ROMAN VILLAS DISCOVERED IN DORSET. 227 



the houses of Italy were constructed to look inwards upon 

 open impluvia as befitted a hot climate, the houses of Britain 

 and Northern Gaul looked outwards on to the surrounding 

 country." (Romanization, &c.) 



A further advance made possible by the exchange from the 

 pit-dwellings, or wattle-built hut, to the style of building 

 introduced by the Romans, was the heating of their houses. 

 This, from the necessity of the case, was a novelty to the 

 Briton. There was no place for it in his hut. In Uriconium 

 (Wroxeter, Salop) we have a fine example of a Roman, or 

 rather what we should now call a Turkish, bath ; for there is 

 clear evidence that the different rooms were heated to a 

 different degree. Tiles for the passage of hot air from the 

 cellar fires were clamped to the wall, in some rooms sparsely, 

 closer in others, and again, in the hottest room they were 

 placed in contact, so covering the whole wall. In Dorset we 

 have abundant evidence of hypocausts in the tiles which have 

 been discovered in various places, and which have most 

 certainly been used for heating purposes. Moreover, in the 

 villa discovered at Hems worth we see the remains of the 

 actual hypocaust in situ. 



Then from the Roman the Briton would also learn to 

 decorate his home. The decoration of the floors and walls of 

 the Roman houses could not but strike the simple Briton with 

 wonder. The Greek historian, Dion, records the surprise of 

 Caractacus when, as a captive, he viewed the stately buildings 

 of the Imperial City of Rome and exclaimed ' You who possess 

 all these things actually covet the shanties of Britain.' Nay, 

 as we look upon them to-day, after the lapse of nearly 2,000 

 years, do not such fragments as are preserved to us make us 

 feel that we have not greatly advanced in that art ? The 

 material used by the Roman builder in the construction of his 

 mosaic floors seems, by general consent, to have been local, 

 and not imported, so the Briton would readily learn to copy 

 the Roman colonist, and his material was close at hand. In 

 support of the view that he did thus copy we learn an interest- 

 ing fact from Eumenius that in the age of Constantino ' skilled 



