By the Rev. G. S. Master. 



243 



Beacon Mound on Dean Hill. 



Conspicuous at certain times of the year, from its lighter colour 

 than that of the surrounding soil, upon the crest of Dean hill, near 

 its centre, and overlooking the village, is a circular tumulus, greatly 

 diminished in height and size by the annual action of the plough- 

 share, but originally not less than at least 12ft. in height and 75ft. 

 in diameter. It has been formed of chalk, obtained from a pit sunk 

 for the purpose near at hand, and served, I imagine, the purpose of 

 a beacon mound, for conveying information inland from the coasts 

 of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, being within sight of a similar 

 elevation on the range four miles further north, and having yielded 

 nothing indicative of sepulture to an exhaustive examination made 

 by myself in 1870. An ancient roadway, traversing the summit of 

 the ridge, is still in use. 



Roman Villa. 



The Roman antiquities of this parish are of very unusual im- 

 portance. Their partial discovery, as far back as 1741, forms the 

 subject of notices in the minute book of the Proceedings of the 

 Society of Antiquaries under four several dates in that year, 1 when 

 a tesselated pavement about 4ft. square, which had formed the 

 centre of the floor of a corridor, was removed to London, and after 

 examination by the Society was exhibited to the public at the sign 

 of the Golden Cross at Charing Cross. 2 There is a rough draft in 

 the Society's collection (Drawings, vol. ii., 1720, &c.) of the entire 

 floor, 66ft. long by 18ft. broad, paved in straight lines with tesserae 

 an inch square alternately of brick and stone. These were crossed 

 by transverse bands enclosing a centre of finer workmanship, con- 

 structed of tesserse of half and a quarter of an inch square, arranged 

 in black and white to the number of twelve thousand, in a geometrical 

 design not unlike a double dahlia. The ultimate fate of i( the tra- 

 velled pavement w has eluded all my efforts to trace it. 



1 Printed in Hoare's "Wilts," Hundred of Alderbury, pp. 30, 31. 

 2 Engraved in the " Transactions of the British Archaeological Association at 

 Winchester, in 1846," p. 241 ; and in Woodward, Wilks, and Lockhart's " Hants," 

 vol. iii., p. 196, but there erroneously coloured. 



