ROMANO-BRITISH BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



of wheels' still 

 two feet thick, 

 be unusual with 

 would probably 



WORMINGHALL. A Constant in :':m bronze coin found here was exhibited in the Loan Exhibition at 



Aylesbury, July 1905, by Mr. R. VV. Stone of Long Crendon [Catalogue of the Exhibition]. 

 WYCOMBE. There seems to have been a Roman settlement here of some importance. A tessel- 

 lated pavement was discovered in 1724 in Penn Mead at the west end of a pasture called the 

 Rye, about half a mile from Wycombe. According to a record of the time it was 'set in 

 curious figures, as circles, squares, diamond squares, eight squares, hearts, and many other 

 curious figures, with a beast in the centre in a circle, like a dog standing sideways by a tree, 1 

 all set with stones in red, black, yellow, and white, about a quarter of an inch square ; the 

 whole pavement was about fourteen foot square, the fine work in the middle was ten foot long 

 and eight foot broad, the rest was filled up with Roman brickabout an inch and a half square.' In 

 1 862 excavations were made on the site at the expense of the late Lord Carrington, and under the 

 supervision of Mr. E. J. Payne and Mr. William Burgess. It is difficult to follow the lines of the 

 building disclosed from the plan of these excavations that has been preserved, but the villa was only 

 partially explored. Mr. Payne in his paper on the excavations, and Mr. Parker following him 

 in his History of Wycombe, describe a portion of a range of buildings, to the south-east of which 

 were found two apartments 1 8 ft. apart. These are described as towers forming an entrance 

 to the range of buildings before mentioned, south-west of which were found other living rooms. 

 The suggestion as to the towers is improbable, notwithstanding the assertion that 'traces 

 remain in the wall connecting them. The walls, which are only about 

 are not strong enough for towers, and fortification of this nature would 

 the Romano-Britons. If complete excavations of the site were made they 

 show that the rooms and walls discovered formed portions of a courtyard 

 type of house of the Romano-British period. 



The principal part uncovered was apparently the north-western range, which comprised 

 an inner and outer corridor with a series of apartments between them. The large room at the 

 north-eastern end of the north-western range had a tessellated pavement at its south-western 

 end, which has been thus described : it consisted of a ' square flanked by two oblongs. To the 

 south-west of this were other tessellated pavements, one with the remains of a design in very 

 fine tesserae ; to the south-east of this was another room, the floor of which was destroyed and 

 the pilot of the hypocaust exposed." A small apartment at the south-western end of the range, 

 which is shown by Mr. Parker, but not by Mr. Payne, is supposed by the former to be that 

 discovered in 1724. In the south-eastern range were the two rooms paved with common red 

 tesserae which have been described as 

 towers, and southward of these were 

 other remains which were only par- 

 tially explored, consisting of a large 

 apartment with a hypocaust and the 

 ruins of pilot mixed with pieces of 

 pavement of guilloche pattern. Ad- 

 joining this was found what Mr. 

 Parker describes as without doubt the 

 bath, with a pavement of white 

 tesserae about an inch square, and a 

 margin of red tesserae. The walls 

 were decorated with paintings, a 'part 

 of a fish resembling a roach ' being 

 seen. Remains of other walls were 

 found which were possibly on the 

 line of the inner corridor. Among the 

 objects brought to light were an arrow 

 head, two bone pins, a bronze steel- 

 yard similar to one found at Circn- 

 cester, and many fragments of pottery. 

 The designs of the pavements were 

 worked in very fine tesserae, described 

 as no larger than peas, indicating 

 probably good work and an early date. 

 Near to these villas is the site of an 

 ancient camp, in which eleven ancient 

 British gold coins have been found. PLAN or TOWN OF WYCOMBE, HOWING ROMAN SITES 



1 This central subject, Mr. John Parker suggests, is Cave Caaem, but we may with more probability sup- 

 pose that it represented some mythological incident. 



2 '7 3 



