CHAP. IV. OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 203 



a hypocaust was found by my son to have 

 been penetrated by many worm-burrows. 

 The remains of this villa stand on land which 

 slopes at an angle of about 3 ; and the land 

 appears to have been long cultivated. There- 

 fore no doubt a considerable quantity of fine 

 earth has been washed down from the upper 

 parts of the field, and has largely aided in 

 the burial of these remains. 



Silchester, Hampshire. The ruins of this 

 small Roman town have been better pre- 

 served than any other remains of the kind 

 in England. A broken wall, in most parts 

 from 15 to 18 feet in height and about Ij 

 mile in compass, now surrounds a space of 

 about 100 acres of cultivated land, on which 

 a farm-house and a church stand.* Formerly, 

 when the weather was dry, the lines of the 

 buried walls could be traced by the appear- 

 ance of the crops ; and recently very exten- 

 sive excavations have been undertaken by 

 the Duke of Wellington, under the superin- 

 tendence of the late Kev. J. Gr. Joyce, by 

 which means many large buildings have been 



* These details are taken from the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' 

 article Hampshire. 



