CHERRY ORCHARD 

 LEICESTER ~ 



ROMANO-BRITISH LEICESTERSHIRE 



Ketton stone was found, laid down carefully on the tesserae which were un- 

 injured beneath it (No. 27 in Leicester Museum) (plate VI). Still further 

 north in the same direction another floor about 14 ft. square was found, of a 

 chess-board pattern in grey and red. The pavement of a corridor was then 

 disclosed at right angles to the set of rooms already discovered. This was 

 56 ft. in length and 7 ft. 8i in. in width, consisting of alternate squares of grey 

 and red tesserae each tessera being an inch square. At the upper end of this 

 the corridor floor illustrated by Nichols was found. It ran beside the range of 

 rooms already described, and at right angles to the corridor just mentioned, 

 with which it probably communicated. This last discovery was upwards of 

 1 20 ft. long by over 1 1 ft. wide, and showed the same red and grey tesserae 

 as the other rooms, arranged in three distinct patterns. No foundations of 

 the walls were dis- 

 covered, and no hypo- ^^ of 

 causts appeared, though found jn thc 

 flue -tiles were turned 

 up, and one filled with 

 concrete to serve as a 

 support to a floor was 

 discovered apparently in 

 situ. 



Fragments of wall 

 plaster and wall tiles, 

 some bearing the im- 

 press of reeds, and pieces 

 of common pottery were 

 plentiful. No Samian 

 ware seems to have been 

 found in i85i, 88 but 

 in 1865 two fragments 

 were discovered, one 

 plain with a potter's 

 mark, and one with an 

 embossed pattern. 69 In 

 1868 another pavement 

 was disclosed, 1 5 ft. by 

 9 ft. 6 in., with a pat- 

 tern of intersecting circles in coarse black and white tesserae. A bronze 

 statuette was also discovered, said to be ' of Apollo or Jupiter,' the feet 

 roughly encased in a lump of lead which was evidently intended as a stand. 

 Four coins found in 1851 were of the lower Empire (A.D. 268-364,) and 

 one was of Vespasian (A.D. 70-79)." In 1863 a coin of Trajan, first brass 

 (A.D. 98-117), one of Nero (A.D. 54-68), and a third brass of one of 

 the Constantines (A.D. 306-40), were picked up near the site. 81 



" This account is mainly taken from Mr. Fox's paper in Arch. Journ. xlvi, 56, but see : also Assoc. Arch. 

 : ix, p. cxviii ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), iv, 183 ; Leu. Arch. Soc. ii, 200 ; 111, 15, 3*7 ; 1"- ** 



Sac. 



Arch. Assoc. vi, 439, 442. 



" Fox, Arch. Journ. xlvi, 56. 



69 Leu. Arch. Soc. iii, 15. 



A VSAy -/.I / */ I l/**> Ai * Ay ^ VJ * . . 



G. Thompson, Proc. Soc. Anllq. (Ser. 2), iv, 183 ; Fox, Arch. Journ. xlvi, 56. 

 " Leu. Arch. Soc. ii, 200. 



197 



