^9^ I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1700. 



tringliam about half a mile to the west, the street falls into the Humber, and 

 there ends ; at which end has been a town called Old Wintringham, and a sort 

 of a beach for ships. 



All this part of the country on the west side of this street has been occupied 

 by the Romans, as may be gathered from the medals, coins, and the many tiles 

 and bricks that are commonly here found, especially at a cliff called Winterton 

 Cliff, where some old Roman buildings have stood ; and further about 2 miles 

 more to the west is Alkburrow, which seems to have been a Roman Town, not 

 only from its name, but from a small four-square camp or entrenchment there, 

 on the west side of which is a barrow called Countess Barrow or Countess Pitt, 

 to this day, hollow in the middle. 



In the town of Roxby is a close, or garth, where a Roman pavement was 

 discovered, on the south-west of the church. The occasion of its discovery 

 was the tenant digging to repair a fence between this close and another ; as 

 soon as he had discovered it, he bared a little of it, and it lay about a foot and 

 a half in the ground, and on digging in many places he found it about 6 or 7 

 yards broad, and as many long, if not more. 



Having got a spade, shovel, and besom, we fell to work, and with a great 

 deal of labour (the ground being very hard) bared about a yard and a half 

 square ; by which we cast up many pieces of Roman tile, the bone of the hinder 

 leg of an ox or cow broken in two, and many pieces of plaster painted red and 

 yellow, which seemed to have been the cornish at the foot of some altar, or 

 perhaps of some part of the building ; and we observed that several great stones 

 in their falling, when the building over this pavement was destroyed, had broken 

 and lodged themselves in the pavement. Then having swept the space thus 

 bared very clean, the pavement looked very beautiful, and one could not 

 imagine that such mean stones could make such pretty work ; being nothing 

 but small square bits of bricks, slate, and cauk, set in curious figures and order, 

 and only of three colours, red, blue, and white. Several whole rows of red, 

 blue, and white on the outsides of the smaller work, consisted of pieces twice as 

 long as the rest. The material that these small stones is set in, is a floor of 

 lime and sand, and not plaster ; which floor is so rotten and decayed with time, 

 that the little stones, &c. are easily dug u;j. 



The whole pavement consists of circles, and quadrangular and many irregular 

 figures, with rows of the aforesaid stones, red, blue, and white : in some of 

 these circles and figures there are urns, in others flowers, and in others inter- 

 changeable knots, according to the workman's fancy. 



