74 



Roman Villa at North Wraxhall 



from tho sido of Wales. And it scorns probable that the officers or 

 chief men commanding the legions stationed in these camps, or at 

 Bath and other towns upon this military road, possessed their villas 

 or hunting-boxes on favorable sites in the neighbourhood ; and of 

 such these remains at North Wraxhall may perhaps present us 

 with one example. 



The spot in which it occurs is distant a good mile on the N.E. 

 of the Parish Church of North Wraxhall, and about the same dis- 

 tance from Castle Combe, and also from the nearest point of the Foss- 

 road. It is rather difficult of access for carriages. But a lane from 

 Wraxhall leads to within a couple of fields of the spot. On the side 

 towards Castle Combe it can only be reached on foot or on horseback, 

 the deep glen which bounds the site on that side having no practicable 

 road. I may add that the good state of preservation in which the 

 greater part of this villa was found is owing to its having been 

 over grown with wood perhaps ever since its original destruction. 

 The wood indeed, was grubbed up only within the memory of living 

 men. 



