CHAP. IV. OP ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 185 



stones, tiles, &c., must have come from the 

 immediately adjoining ruins. 



It appears at first sight a surprising fact 

 that this field of light sandy soil should have 

 been cultivated and ploughed during many 

 years, and that not a vestige of these buildings 

 should have been discovered. No one even 

 suspected that the remains of a Roman 

 villa lay hidden close beneath the surface. 

 But the fact is less surprising when it is 

 known that the field, as the bailiff believed, 

 had never been ploughed to a greater depth 

 than 4 inches. It is certain that when the 

 land was first ploughed, the pavement and 

 the surrounding broken walls must have been 

 covered by at least 4 inches of soil, for other- 

 wise the rotten concrete floor would have 

 been scored by the ploughshare, the tessera 

 torn up, and the tops of the old walls 

 knocked down. 



When the concrete and tesseras were first 

 cleared over a space of 14 by 9 ft., the floor 

 which was coated with trodden-down earth 

 exhibited no signs of having been penetrated 

 by worms ; and although the overlying fine 

 jnould closely resembled that which in many 



