Fic. 1 8. Castor Ware found in 

 Bedford Purlieus, 1844. 



[For detail sec fig. opposite p. 190] 



A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



north and west by three detached or almost detached blocks of buildings, 

 furnished with a well in the middle and closed on the south by a wall, 

 through which was a carriage road approach (fig. 19). The principal 

 block of buildings was on the north, fronting the approach across the 



courtyard. This contained hypocausts, two 

 mosaic floors of geometrical design — the 

 larger a somewhat unusual pattern (fig. 20) 

 — and a smooth plaster floor, painted with 

 a linear design in red, white or brown, 

 and doubtless other mosaics which have 

 perished. Here we may suppose that the 

 owner resided. The east and west blocks, 

 less intelligible in detail, may have been 

 servants' quarters and stores, while near the 

 entrance to the courtyard were the baths, 

 annexed to the east block, and thus, as 

 often, situated at some little distance from 

 the main dwelling rooms. Smaller finds 

 included part of a column in stone. Colly 

 Weston roofing slates, flue and other tiles, 

 Samian, Castor and other wares, glass, a 

 lead weight, animals' bones and other 

 small objects, such as usually occur. Two 

 small uninscribed ' house-altars ' are slightly less common but still well 

 known features of Roman life. The coins include a ' denarius ' of 

 Septimius Severus, but are mostly of the Constantinian period. We 

 may perhaps infer that the ' villa ' was occupied at least during the 

 first half of the fourth century.' 



(7) Cotterstock, on the Nene, three-quarters of a mile north of 

 Oundle. Here, in the eighteenth century, traces of what was probably 

 a fine villa were discovered in a field called the Guild or Gilded Acre, 

 situate in the west of the parish, towards Hall Wood and Glapthorn, 

 but the remains were never seriously excavated. In July, 1736, a 

 mosaic pavement was found in ploughing — a panel 10 feet square, set in 

 the middle of a larger, plainly tessellated floor. The design shows four 

 small hearts — possibly conventionalized petals of a flower — set in an 

 intricate geometrical pattern of rectilinear character, the whole framed 

 in a guilloche border. At the same time more mosaic seems to have 

 been discovered but destroyed, or at least not copied. Potsherds, ashes, 

 animals' bones, bricks and tiles, hewn stones, and five or six coins of 

 Valentinian were also found. Sixty years later, in 1798, another mosaic 

 was found at the same spot — a square panel, showing a two-handled cup 

 crowned with leaves, with a border at top and bottom of Asiatic shields, 

 the colours being red, white, yellow and dark grey (or blue ?) (fig. 21). 



' Trollope, Associated Archit. ^oc. Reports, v. (1859) 97-107; hence a brief note in C. Roach 

 Smith, Collectanea Antigua, \\. 250. There appear to have been no outbuildings seen or suspected. 

 Part of the remains has been roofed with a hut. 



192 



