THE ROMAN VILLA AT FIFEHEAD NEVILLE. 1 77 



times, and it is scarcely conceivable that it was not used to 

 advantage. 



Characteristics of the Fifehead Villa. 

 The dimensions of the villa, judging from the portions at 

 present excavated, and the number and quality of its coloured 

 pavements give it high rank. The wing now visible is at least 

 150 feet in length. If other wings of proportionate size should 

 be found, the house would be larger than that at Chedworth, in 

 Gloucestershire, and smaller than that at Bignor, in Sussex. The 

 largest room as yet unearthed, which still shows by its projecting 

 stone piers, with the floor-pattern fitted to them, that it could be 

 used as one room or two by an arrangement of folding doors or 

 curtains, measures 40 by 20 feet, and with its double pavement 

 is surpassed by very few similar remains. I know nothing finer 

 than the splendid foliaged scroll which forms the broad border 

 of the more perfect pavement in this room. In its free drawing 

 and the artistic restraint of its colouring, chocolate brown, very 

 sparingly lit with red. on a white ground, it is exceedingly 

 beautiful. 



Date. 



It is interesting to note that this pavement was almost 

 certainly designed by the artist of a pavement in Dyer Street, 

 Cirencester, which differs from it only in its lesser details. If 

 the surmise is correct that the Cirencester work was executed in 

 the reign of Hadrian, a.d. i 17-138, it would give us the same 

 date for the Fifehead pavement, but I should myself put it quite 

 a century later. 



More than is usual have been found of the minimi, or tiny 

 bronze coins, which were probably in use between Roman and 

 Saxon times. This seems to show that the house was inhabited 

 over a long period, and the singular scarcity of the better coins, 

 good pottery, and other small objects suggests that the spot 

 must have been frequented and more thoroughly picked over 

 than many Roman sites. 



