ROMAN VILLAS . 
185. 
and engineers information respecting the relative durability 
of building materials which could be supplied in no other way.. 
At the Society of Civil Engineers Buckland was a 
well-known figure, and on some points a recognised 
authority. He rarely missed the reading of any paper of 
importance at the meetings of the Society, taking an 
active part in the discussion. Whenever his personal 
aid and influence could be useful, they were cheerfully 
given. His archaeological knowledge was sometimes of 
great service to the Society. Acquainted with every 
Roman villa then known in the country, he had not only 
observed the Roman method of building, draining, and 
warming their houses, but had also examined the cement 
in which the beautiful tesselated pavements are so firmly 
fixed, and had caused models to be made of the peculiar 
fan-tailed tiles which he discovered at Wheatley Villa, 
near Oxford. It was a definite article of his archaeological 
creed that Roman villas would not have fallen into ruins 
so completely, had not snails absorbed the mortar to 
make their own natural coverings. He constantly, it may 
be added, brought home from Stonesfield and Wheatley 
Villas some of the large edible snails that live there ; but 
they did not long survive in the I slip garden. 
In London Buckland put his knowledge of the relative 
durability of different stones to valuable account. He 
was convinced that the lavish use of Bath stone in the 
metropolis was a gross mistake, and when Dean of West¬ 
minster he would allow none to be used in the Abbey. 
He preferred Normandy stone or Yorkshire stone, both of 
which were as cheap and more enduring. 
