THE ROMAN VILLA AT FIFEHEAD NEVILLE. 1 75 



Old and New " of an old Portuguese country house — Portugal 

 being the land of all others where many things remain practi- 

 cally unchanged from Roman times — gives a good idea of the 

 general appearance of a villa such as this at Fifehead Neville. 



Situation of the Fifehead Villa, 

 The lines of the Roman roads in Dorsetshire have not as yet 

 been convincingly traced. The straightness of the main roads 

 throughout their length has probably been exaggerated ; but, 

 even if that from Sorbiodunum to Durnovaria ran as the crow 

 flies, this house would not have been a dozen miles off it, and we 

 may be sure that there was a good via vicinalis to make the neces- 

 sary connection. But the Itineraries associate Sorbiodunum, 

 Vindogladia (which the late General Pitt-Rivers and etymology 

 have almost proved to be Woodyates), Ivernium, and Durnovaria 

 in such a way as to make it likely that these places lay on one 

 road. At all events, we shall not be wrong in saying that the 

 house was conveniently served by a main road. 



The choice of its particular site within its own locality 

 suggests a very interesting guess. It will be noticed that it lies 

 lower than most villas, close down to the stream, though there is 

 higher ground in the same field on which it might apparently 

 have been built. I suggest that the lower position was deter- 

 mined by the consideration of ivatcr supply, and I do not refer 

 only to the stream. To the Roman, or the householder of 

 Roman views on cleanliness and sanitation, a perennial spring — 

 the fo7is vivus aquce — was a strong attraction. It has been 

 pointed out to me by Major Dugdale, of Fifehead Manor House 

 — he possesses not only an antiquarian name, but antiquarian 

 tastes — that the meadow immediately N.W. of the villa is called 

 Holywell Meadow, and still contains on its brow a strong clear 

 stream oi iva)-ni water. I have found that the flow is received into 

 a stone basin of unknown age, with grooving for a sluice and 

 hatch for regulating the supply. May not this have been carried 

 across the intervening stream or through it by lead piping to the 

 house } The spring must have run in greater volume in Roman 



