Transcribed from the fourth, 1863, edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
[Picture: Book cover]
THE
RUINS OF THE ROMAN CITY
OF
Uriconium,
AT
WROXETER, NEAR SHREWSBURY.
BY
THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A.
* * * * *
Fourth Edition,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
* * * * *
SHREWSBURY: J. O. SANDFORD, HIGH-STREET.
LONDON: KENT & CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1863.
PREFACE.
IT is the aim of the following pages to give the degree and kind of
popular information believed to be wanted by the numerous visitors to the
excavations at Wroxeter, who have no Guide to explain what they see, and
are not possessed of that amount of minute antiquarian knowledge which
would enable them to understand everything without such explanation. It
is the first instance in which there has been, in this country, the
chance of penetrating into a city of more than fourteen centuries ago, on
so large a scale, and with such extensive remains of its former
condition; and when the visitor has walked over the floors which had been
trodden last, before they were thus uncovered, by the Roman inhabitants
of this island, he will appreciate more justly, and with greater
interest, the objects which have been discovered, and are deposited in
the Museum, at Shrewsbury; and he will learn to look forward with hope to
the light which a continuance of these excavations must throw upon the
condition and history of this country at so remote a period. Whatever
this light may be, it must not be forgotten that we shall be indebted for
it, in the first place, to his Grace the Duke of Cleveland, who has shown
a generous public feeling in giving permission and encouragement to the
excavations on his land, and to the late B. Botfield, Esq., M.P., through
whose zeal and liberality in the undertaking the excavators were set at
work, when as yet it was uncertain if their labours would be attended
with any success. I have endeavoured to fulfil literally the title of
this little book, and to give the visitor such information as he would
seek from a professional Guide, whilst I have gladly left the description
of the Museum, and especially of those rather numerous human remains
which form so remarkable a part of our discoveries, to one best qualified
for that task, Dr. Henry Johnson, who has so ably and zealously directed
the excavations on the spot, and who has thus, unremunerated, given to
the service of the public so much of his valuable time.
T. W.
TO VISITORS.
PARTIES from a distance wishing to visit the ruins of the ancient
URICONIUM, at Wroxeter, will find every comfort and accommodation at the
Lion, the Raven, the George, and the Crown Hotels, Shrewsbury.
WROXETER is a little more than five miles from Shrewsbury. Conveyances
may be obtained at the Railway Station, Shrewsbury; at any of the
above-named Hotels; and at Howells’s Livery Stables, Cross Hill. Parties
of any reasonable number may be conveyed by either of the latter, on
giving them two days’ notice by letter.
UPTON MAGNA, on the Shrewsbury and Wellington Joint Line of Railway, is
the nearest Station to Wroxeter, from whence it is distant about two
miles and a half, a pleasant walk for an active person.
THE MUSEUM of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and
Antiquarian Society, College Hill, where all the moveable articles from
Wroxeter are deposited, is open DAILY to visitors, from 10 till 4, on
payment of sixpence each, and by an order from a Subscriber GRATUITOUSLY.
DONATIONS to the Wroxeter Fund will be gladly received by the Honorary
Secretary, DR. H. JOHNSON, Dogpole, Shrewsbury.
List of Plates.
FROM DRAWINGS BY MR. HILLARY DAVIES, OF SHREWSBURY.
PLATE
The North Side of the Old Wall, at Wroxeter 1
Wroxeter Church, Shropshire (Vignette) 2
First Roman Hypocaust discovered at Uriconium in 1859 3
Roman Tile-Roof, Roman Flag-Roof, Section of Roman 4
Hypocaust, &c.
Plan of Walls, discovered by the Excavations at Wroxeter, 5
Salop, from February 3rd to September, 1863
Column in the Garden of W. H. Oatley, Esq., Wroxeter 6
Ancient Stone Font in Wroxeter Church 7
Capitals found at Uriconium 8
Samian, Upchurch, and Romano-Salopian Pottery 9
Rings and Combs (actual size) 10
Hair Pins, &c. (actual size) 11
Skulls from Wroxeter 12
Roman Remains from Wroxeter, in the possession of Samuel 13
Wood, Esq., and Mask, in the Museum, Shrewsbury.
Upchurch Pottery, Adz, Spear Head, and Romano-Salopian 14
(Red) Ware
Carved Stone Fragments from Uriconium, in the Garden of 15
Edward Stanier, Esq., Wroxeter
Sepulchral Stone 16
The Ruins of Uriconium.
IF we leave Shrewsbury by its long eastern suburb, known, from the
important monastic house which formerly stood at its commencement, as the
Abbey Foregate, passing the more modern monument erected at its
extremity, Lord Hill’s Column, our way lies for about two miles along the
London road, bounded on each side by rich and fertile fields. At the
distance just mentioned, this road approaches close to the river Severn,
and continues to run along its banks, to the great improvement of the
scenery, until we arrive at the prettily-situated village of Atcham, with
Atcham Church in face of us, and the river winding under its stone bridge
in the foreground. Atcham is three miles from Shrewsbury. Crossing the
bridge, we leave the river, which here takes a long sweep to the
southward, and follow the road, which skirts for more than half a mile
the extensive park of Attingham. We here approach another river, the
Tern, which at this point spreads into a fair expanse of water, and
forms, with the mansion of Attingham to the left, and the copses which
skirt it, a scene of striking beauty, while to the right it divides into
two branches which empty themselves into the Severn, a little lower down.
Crossing Tern Bridge, and proceeding a short distance, still skirting the
park, we reach a point where, opposite the entrance to Attingham Park, a
branch road turns off to the right from the old London road. We must
take this branch road, which will lead us to the village of Wroxeter. We
soon cross a small stream, which is known by the name of the Bell Brook,
and after we have passed this brook, the visitor will hardly fail to
remark, wherever his eye rests upon ploughed ground, the extraordinary
blackness of the soil in comparison with that of the land over which he
has previously passed.
In fact he has now entered upon the site of an ancient Roman city, which
is known, from the circumstance of its being mentioned by the geographer
Ptolemy, to have been standing here as early as the beginning of the
second century, when it was called Viroconium,—a name which appears to
have been changed in the later Romano-British period to Uriconium; at
least this is the form under which the name occurs in the later
geographers, and which has been generally adopted by modern antiquaries.
From the point at which we have now arrived, the line of the ancient
town-wall may be traced by a continuous low mound, which runs southward
towards the Severn, the banks of which it follows for some distance, and,
after passing between the river and the modern village of Wroxeter, turns
eastwardly behind the vicarage-house, and makes a long sweep till it
reaches the hamlet of Norton to the north, whence it turns to the
westward again, and reaches the point from which we started, forming an
irregular oval, rather more than three miles in circumference. A portion
of the Bell Brook runs through the Roman city. After crossing this
brook, we approach ground which rises gently, and nearly at the highest
point we see to the left a smith’s shop. At this spot, which is rather
more than five miles from Shrewsbury, the road which has brought us from
that town crosses another road, which turns down to the right, to the
village of Wroxeter, not quite half a mile distant. Wroxeter is an
Anglo-Saxon name, the first part of which is probably corrupted from that
of the ancient Roman city of the site of which it occupies the southern
extremity. The road which has led us to it is called the Watling Street
road, and there is every reason for believing that it occupies in a part
of its course the line of one of the principal streets of Uriconium. It
crosses the river Severn immediately below the village, where there was
doubtless a bridge in Roman times, for it is in the highest degree
improbable that in approaching a town of such importance, the Romans
would cross a river like the Severn only by a ford.
On arriving at the smith’s shop just alluded to, the attention of the
visitor will be attracted by a solid mass of masonry, which forms a very
imposing object, and presents those unmistakable characteristics of Roman
work,—the long string-courses of large flat red bricks. This mass of
masonry, the only portion of the buildings of Uriconium which remains
standing above ground, is upwards of twenty feet high, and seventy-two
feet long, with a uniform thickness of three feet, and has been long
known by the name of “The Old Wall.” It stands nearly in the centre of
the ancient city, which occupied the highest ground within the walls,—a
commanding position, with the bold isolated form of the Wrekin in the
rear, and in front a panorama of mountains formed by the Wenlock and
Stretton Hills, Caer Caradoc, the Longmynd, the Breidden, and the still
more distant mountains of Wales. With the exception of this wall, all
that remained of the Roman city, if as some people might perhaps have
doubted, anything did remain,—has been long buried beneath the soil. At
the close of the year 1858, however, it was resolved to ascertain what
these remains were, and an Excavation Committee was formed at Shrewsbury,
for the purpose of carrying this design into effect by means of a public
subscription. Excavations were, accordingly, commenced on the 3rd of
February, 1859, and they have already led to results of the most
satisfactory description. But, perhaps, before we proceed to describe
the ruins which have thus been uncovered, it would be well to tell our
readers something of the general character of the Roman towns in this
island, and to explain how some of them were destroyed, and from what
cases and by what circumstances their remains present themselves in the
conditions in which we now find them.
* * * * *
FIFTEEN hundred years ago, this island, with the exception of the
highlands of Scotland, was covered with flourishing towns, many of them
known to have been of considerable magnitude, situated on numerous public
roads,—these latter of such excellent construction, that they have
remained to the present day the foundation of most of our great English
high roads. These towns, like those in other parts of the empire,
enjoyed free municipal institutions (from which our own mediæval
municipal institutions are derived), and in all but certain duties
towards the imperial government, formed in themselves so many little
republics, possessing all the ambitions and rivalries which seem
inseparable from republican institutions. Among the slight notices of
this island in ancient writers we learn that the towns of Britain were
remarkable for their turbulence, which was encouraged, no doubt, by the
distance of this province from Rome, and by the peculiar character of the
population of the towns, which consisted of blood that was foreign to the
soil, and which was not uniform in character in the different towns. We
know further that, during the fourth century, these towns often
confederated together, threw off the imperial yoke, and raised emperors
of their own; and we have every reason for supposing that, when the
restraint imposed by the central power became slackened, the towns
confederated against one another, and that domestic dissensions and
contests troubled the peace of the island. Such dissensions left the
island exposed to the invasions of its foreign enemies, which had become
very frequent and very formidable during the fourth century. The eastern
coasts were often visited by the Teutonic rovers, Saxons, and Franks; the
barbarous Caledonians, then called Picts, from the north rushed across
the borders, and carried devastation through the land, in which they were
assisted by the Irish, or, as they were then called, Scots, and probably
by the Armorican Celts, or Britons from Gaul. The towns of Britain
united would, no doubt, have presented a force sufficient to meet any of
these invasions, but their very constitution rendered such a union
difficult, except for a short period. Besides their independence of each
other, the towns had only been expected to defend themselves, while the
defence of the province was more especially the duty of the legions, and
on their withdrawal, the towns seem to have followed their old practice
in case of invasion, and shut themselves within their walls, or, at most,
opposed the invaders without any union, thus leaving the open country to
easy destruction.
The history of the conquest of the Roman provinces by the barbarians is,
in general, simply the successive reduction of one town after another.
Such was eminently the case in Britain, and the traditionary annals of
the early Saxon period present little more than a list of conquered
towns. Sometimes a town was taken by stratagem or force, and then it was
plundered or destroyed, but in the far greater number of cases the town
was too strong for the assailants and only submitted by composition, by
which it paid a tribute to the conqueror and retained its old independent
municipal institutions. We all know how many of our old cities and early
municipal towns are thus the representatives of the cities of the Romans.
In some parts of the island the destruction was greater than in others,
and on the Welsh border, through the whole space between Chester (called
by the Romans Deva), and Gloucester (which the Romans called Glevum), the
towns seem to have been all ruined. One of the largest of these towns
was no doubt that of Uriconium. We can only judge by implication, and by
a comparison of what occurred in other places, of the manner in which a
town like Uriconium was treated, when it was overcome by the barbarians.
We know that these invaders were influenced by a love of plunder, but a
love of destruction—we may perhaps call it an impulse of destruction—was
still greater; and it is probable that the plundering of a town like
Uriconium was a hasty and imperfect operation, and that the plunderers
carried off chiefly objects made of the precious metals, or articles of
dress and arms, or other objects on which they set considerable value, as
they moved about rapidly, and could not be provided very extensively with
the means of conveyance. (We are here speaking of the earlier plundering
invasions of the barbarians, such as the Picts and Scots, in which
perhaps Uriconium perished, towards the middle of the fifth century, for
it is hardly probable that the Angles or Saxons could have reached this
part of the island at so early a period.) The first impulse of the
plunderers was to apply fire to the buildings, and the progress of the
conflagration would hasten their departure. Where the inhabitants of the
conquered town had not made their escape and abandoned it before it was
taken—which was perhaps the case in some of the smaller towns—there would
no doubt be a dreadful massacre, and the survivors would be dragged away
into captivity, for the various peoples who preyed upon the carcass of
the mighty empire of Rome, whether German or Celt, or Tartar or Arab,
ambitioned, almost above other plunder, the possession of numerous
slaves. Thus the plundered town was left without inhabitants, and in
flames, of which the latter, as may be judged on the spot from the
massive character of the walls of the houses, were probably partial in
their effect, destroying chiefly the timber and roofs.
Thus the town was left an extensive mass of blackened walls; and such was
the condition in which the ruined Roman towns remained during several
centuries. Roman walls, we all know, were too strongly built to fall
down, and various circumstances combined for their preservation. In the
first place, the population of the country must have been greatly
reduced, and this part of the island especially was probably very thinly
inhabited after it had been ravaged by the invaders. The ruins
themselves would in time be overgrown with plants and trees and would
become the haunt of wild beasts, which were then abundant, thus offering
very little encouragement to anybody to enter them. But they were
protected in a still greater degree by the strong superstitious feelings
with which such ruins were regarded by the people who now occupied the
land. The Teutonic invaders had not only a prejudice against towns in
general, but they believed that all the deserted buildings of the
previous lords of the soil were taken possession of by powerful evil
spirits, on whose limits it was in the highest degree dangerous to
trespass. They imagined, moreover, that the Romans had the power of
casting spells over buildings, which were no less dangerous than the evil
spirits themselves. It will be remembered how, when Augustine and his
brother missionaries came to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity,
the Kentish king and his court gave them their first audience in the open
air; because, as we are told, the Anglo-Saxons were afraid that, should
they be received in a covered chamber in the palace, the strangers from
Rome would be able to cast a spell upon them. It is a remarkable proof
of the strength of this superstitious feeling, that all the
Benedictionals of the Anglo-Saxon period contain forms for blessing the
vessels of metal or earthenware found in ancient sites, and relieving
them from the spells which had been cast upon them by the “pagans,” in
order that the finders might be enabled to make use of these vessels
without any personal danger. When the people of the middle ages, whether
Christians or not, found the beautiful bronze figures on which we set so
much store, they were in the greatest apprehension of personal danger
until they had mutilated them so as to break the charm or spell which
they believed to be laid upon them, for they looked upon these images as
the more general instruments of the ancient magicians. When thus
mutilated they usually threw them into the nearest river. The numerous
bronzes dredged up from the bed of the Thames at London are almost all
mutilated in this manner. This was the case also with the inscriptions,
for the successors of the Romans had no other notion of an ancient
inscription than that it was a magical charm. This superstition has
continued to exist until very recent times, for it appears that, within
the memory of man, the peasantry of Northumberland, on the line of the
great wall of Hadrian, were accustomed, when they found an inscribed
stone—and inscribed stones are there very abundant—to hew out at least a
part of the letters of the inscription with a pick or axe, in order to
destroy the charm.
We thus understand how a ruined city—like that at Wroxeter—was allowed to
remain untouched for centuries. Many of these ruined towns became the
subject of romantic legends. One of these legends relating to an ancient
ruined city in this neighbourhood, is told in the curious history of the
Fitz-Warines, composed in the thirteenth century, in Anglo-Norman, no
doubt by a border writer. This writer is describing a visit supposed to
have been made by William the Conqueror to the Welsh border in order to
distribute the land to his followers.
“When King William approached the hills and valleys of Wales he saw a
very large town, formerly enclosed with high walls, which was all
burnt and ruined, and in a plain below the town he caused his tents
to be raised, and there he said he would remain that night. Then the
king inquired of a Briton what was the name of the town, and how it
came to be so ruined. ‘Sire,’ said the Briton, ‘I will tell you.
The Castle was formerly called Castle Bran, but now it is called the
Old March. Formerly there came into this country Brutus, a very
valiant knight, and Corineus, from whom Cornwall still retains its
name, and many others derived from the lineage of Troy, and none
inhabited these parts except very foul people, great giants, whose
king was called Geomagog. These heard of the arrival of Brutus, and
sent out to encounter him, and at last all the giants were killed
except Geomagog, who was marvellously great. Corineus, the valiant,
said that he would willingly wrestle with Geomagog, to try Geomagog’s
strength. The giant, on the first onset, embraced Corineus so
tightly, that he broke three of his ribs. Corineus became angry, and
struck Geomagog with his foot that he fell from a great rock into the
sea, and Geomagog was drowned. And a spirit of the devil now entered
into the body of Geomagog, and came into these parts, and held
possession of the country long, that never Briton dared to inhabit
it. And long afterwards, King Bran the son of Donwal, caused the
city to be rebuilt, repaired the walls, and strengthened the great
fosses, and he made Burgh and Great March. And the devil came by
night and took away every thing that was therein, since which time
nobody has ever inhabited there.’ The king marvelled much at this
story, and Payn Peverel, the proud and courageous knight, the king’s
cousin, heard it all, and declared that that night he would essay the
marvel. Payn Peverel armed himself very richly, and took his shield,
shining with gold, with a cross of azure indented, and fifteen
knights and other attendants, and went into the highest palace, and
took up his lodging there. And when it was night the weather became
so foul, black, dark, and such a tempest of lightning and thunder,
that all those who were there became so terrified that they could not
for fear move hand or foot, but lay on the ground like dead men. The
proud Payn was very much frightened but he put his trust in God,
whose sign of the cross he carried with him, and saw that he could
have no help but from God. He lay upon the ground, and with good
devotion prayed God and his mother Mary that they would defend him
that night from the power of the devil. Hardly had he finished his
prayer, when the fiend came in the semblance of Geomagog, and he
carried a great club in his hand, and from his mouth cast fire and
smoke, with which the whole town was illuminated. Payn had a good
hope in God, and signed himself with a cross, and boldly attacked the
fiend. The fiend raised his club and would have struck Payn, but he
avoided the blow. The devil, by virtue of the cross, was all struck
with fear, and lost his strength, for he could not approach the
cross. Payn pursued him till he struck him with his sword; then he
began to cry out, and fell flat on the ground, and yielded himself
vanquished. ‘Knight,’ said he, ‘you have conquered me, not by your
own strength, but by virtue of the cross which you carry.’ ‘Tell
me,’ said Payn, ‘you foul creature, who you are and what you do in
this town, I conjure you, in the name of God and of the Holy Cross.’
The fiend began to relate from word to word as the Briton had said
before; and told how, when Geomagog was dead, he immediately rendered
his soul to Beelzebub, their prince, and he entered the body of
Geomagog, and came in his semblance into these parts, and kept the
great treasure which Geomagog had collected and put into a house he
had made underground in that town. Payn demanded of him, ‘What kind
of creature he was?’ and he said, ‘He was formerly an angel, but now
is, by his forfeit, a diabolical spirit.’ ‘What treasure,’ said
Payn, ‘had Geomagog?’ ‘Oxen, cows, swans, peacocks, horses, and all
other animals, made of fine gold; and there was a golden bull, which,
through me, was his prophet, and in him was all his belief; and he
told him the events that were to come; and twice a year the giants
used to honour their god, the golden bull, whereby so much gold is
collected that all this country was called ‘The White Land.’ And I
and my companion inclosed the land with a high wall and deep fosse,
so that there was no entrance except through this town, which was
full of evil spirits.’ ‘Now, you shall tell me,’ said Payn, ‘where
is the treasure of which you have spoken?’ ‘Vassal,’ said he, ‘speak
no more of that, for it is destined for others; but you shall be lord
of all this honour.’”
And so the vanquished fiend goes on to tell him the future fortunes of
his house; and after King William had been duly informed of this
adventure, and they had thrown the body of Geomagog into a great pit,
they proceeded on their way to Oswestry.
In my edition of this history of the Fitz-Warines I have offered some
conjectures on the spot to which this legend refers; but on comparing all
the circumstances connected with it, I have since been led to the
conclusion that the “burnt and ruined” city which had thus been taken
possession of by the evil spirits was no other than the ruins of the
ancient Uriconium. This story implies that the walls of the town and
houses of Uriconium were still standing above ground as late as the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, and very likely a great portion of them
remained thus standing at the time when the author of the History of the
Fitz-Warines wrote. But during the centuries which had passed since the
city of the Romans became a ruin, it had been undergoing a gradual but
continual change from the accumulation of earth. This rising of the
level of the ground is always found to have taken place under such
circumstances, and may be explained by several causes. In the first
place, the floors must have been covered by a mass of rubbish formed by
the falling in of the roofs and more perishable parts of the buildings.
Vegetation, too, would in the course of years arise, and the walls would
stop and cause to be deposited the dust and earthy particles carried
about in the atmosphere. This deposit we know by experience to be
considerable. It is now little more than three centuries since the
dissolution of the monasteries, and we have all had opportunities of
observing the depth of earth under which the floors of the monastic ruins
now lie, sometimes amounting to as much as three or four feet. What,
then, must it have been on an extensive ruin like that of Uriconium,
which had stood in that ruined and deserted condition from the middle of
the fifth century to the middle of the twelfth?
It was at this latter period that the Roman buildings began to be
systematically destroyed. It appears that still in the twelfth century,
England was covered with the remains of Roman ruined towns and villas
standing above ground, as they are still seen, though on a larger scale,
in the countries which formed the Roman province in Northern Africa. We
have seen the superstitious feelings which prevented people approaching
these ruins in our island, and it required nothing less than the hand of
the Church to interfere and break the charm which kept the rest of
society aloof. We learn from the history of the abbots of St Alban’s,
written in the thirteenth century by Matthew Paris, that already in the
eleventh century the abbots of that great religious house had begun to
break the ruins of the Roman city of Verulamium, in order to use them as
building materials. This practice became very general in the twelfth
century, and from that time the Roman ruins were pillaged on an extensive
scale whenever a monastery or a church was to be built. The ancient city
at Wroxeter was probably one of the great quarries from which the
builders of Haughmond Abbey were supplied, and no doubt it contributed
materials to other monastic houses in this part of the country. The
church of Atcham, the adjoining parish, and that of Wroxeter itself, bear
evidence to this appropriation of building materials taken from ancient
Uriconium. At the time when this inroad was made upon the ruins, the
ground, as explained before, was already raised several feet above the
Roman floors; and the mediæval builders, finding plenty of material above
ground, cleared away the walls down to the surface of the ground as it
then existed, and sought them no further. This accounts for the
condition in which we now find these walls, that is, remaining tolerably
perfect just up to the height of what was the level of the ground, at the
time the rest was destroyed. The difference between the tops of the
walls as they now exist under ground, and the present surface of the
ground, is the accumulation of earth which has taken place since this
destruction. It was the destruction of the buildings which first caused
this accumulation, by scattering about the fragments of the plaster of
the walls and the broken tiles and stones which were not worth carrying
away. After the walls above ground disappeared, and the ground was
levelled and cleared, such accumulation went on much more slowly.
The sites of the ancient towns, thus cleared, and the spell which held
their invaders at bay having been broken by the ecclesiastics, became
exposed to a new class of depredators. Coins and objects of some value
were no doubt discovered from time to time by accident, and were greatly
exaggerated by common report, during ages when the existence of hidden
treasure formed a prominent article in the popular belief. Many a
Salopian, doubtless, longed for the hidden treasures of the city of
Geomagog, and many an attempt no doubt was made to discover and obtain
them. Treasure-hunting of this description was a great pursuit with our
mediæval forefathers, and the same superstitious feelings were connected
with it that were attached to all the remains of more ancient peoples.
The treasure-hunter rarely ventured on his search without having first
secured the aid of a magician for his protection as well as for his
guidance, for the same evil spirits were believed still to haunt the
ruins underground, and it was hoped that by the power of the conjuror
they might not only be rendered harmless, but be made to give information
as to the exact spot where the treasure lay. Numerous examples might be
quoted of such mediæval treasure-hunting on the Welsh border, but it will
be sufficient to give one which appears to belong to the very site on
which we are now seeking treasures of another description. An old
manuscript chronicle of the monks of Worcester, which is printed in
Warton’s Anglia Sacra, and has preserved numerous notices of events which
occurred on this border, informs us that in the year 1287, at a place by
Wroxeter, (that is near the village), called “Bilebury,” the fiend was
compelled by a certain enchanter to appear to a certain lad and show him
where lay buried “urns, and a ship, and a house, with an immense quantity
of gold.” We easily recognize in the objects described by the false
Geomagog, though not the material, the numerous figures in bronze which
are from time to time found on Roman sites; and the arms and ship may
perhaps admit of as easy an explanation. The treasure-digger had to
encounter sometimes a worse opponent even than the fiend himself!
Treasure-trove belonged to the feudal lord, and it was a right which he
was inclined to enforce with the utmost severity; and the unfortunate
individual who was caught in the act of trespassing against it found his
way immediately into a feudal dungeon, from which escape was not always
easy or quick. The learned historian of this county, Mr. Eyton, has met
with a record from which we learn that some individuals towards the close
of the thirteenth century were thus caught “digging” for a treasure at
Wroxeter, and that they were thrown into prison. On their examination or
trial, however, it appeared that, though they had dug for a treasure,
they had not found one, and on this plea they had the good fortune to be
set at liberty. This process of treasure-hunting had an effect injurious
to the object of our researches. The mediæval excavator cared very
little about antiquities as monuments of the past, and when, in digging a
hole into the ground, he came upon a pavement, he broke it up without any
scruple. It is to this cause, perhaps, that we must ascribe in many
cases the damaged state in which we find the floors of the Roman houses,
even when they lie at a considerable depth.
I have thus endeavoured to explain the manner in which a Roman town like
Uriconium was ruined; how its ruin remained several centuries untouched,
while a depth of earth was accumulating on the floors; how at a later
period the ruins themselves began to be cleared away, and a new
accumulation of earth was formed over the lower part of the walls which
had been left, until these could no longer be traced on the surface,
except by the appearance of the crops in long periods of dry weather.
This double accumulation of the debris of buildings has often led people
to form erroneous conclusions, and in the account of a former partial
excavation at Wroxeter, published by the Society of Antiquaries, the
writer has fallen upon the rather odd notion that the Roman town had been
burnt twice,—that he saw the layers of burnt materials from two
successive burnings.
The effects of all these causes may be seen in the excavations at
Wroxeter,—the floor sometimes perfect and sometimes broken up; the walls
of the houses remaining to the height of two or three feet or more, as
they were left by the mediæval builders, when they carried away the upper
part of these walls for material; the original level of the Roman town on
which its inhabitants trod, strewed with roof-tiles and slates and other
material which had fallen in during the conflagration under which the
town sank into ruin, and the upper part of the soil mixed up with
fragments of plaster and cement, bricks and mortar, which had been
scattered about when the walls were broken up.
The site of Uriconium presents one great advantage to the antiquarian
explorer, that only a small and not very important portion of the area
has been exposed to the most destructive of all encroachments on its
sanctity, modern buildings; while the situation and nature of the ground
has not required the deep draining which would have cut through the
ancient floors, and these lie too far beneath the surface to be touched
by the plough. It will be easily understood that the preservation of
such remains depends much on the depth of soil which covers them. The
Rev. T. F. More has discovered and made considerable excavations in a
very extensive and most interesting Roman villa, which occupies part of
his beautiful park at Linley Hall, near Bishop’s Castle, but there the
position of the site, and perhaps other circumstances, have caused the
earth to accumulate much less rapidly, and the floors lay so near to the
surface that they have all been destroyed. Where a fragment of the
concrete of the floor remained, it was hardly six inches under the
ground.
Our means of observation have hitherto been so imperfect, that we can
only form vague conjectures as to the internal aspect and distribution of
the buildings of a Roman town in Britain. At the close of the Roman
period the towns were usually, if not always, surrounded with defensive
walls; but there are several reasons for believing that the Roman towns
in this island were not walled until a comparatively late date, perhaps
not till the domestic dissensions and foreign invasions of the fourth
century. These town walls, when closely examined into, are often found
to contain materials taken from older buildings of another kind, which
older materials themselves present the debased style of architecture
which belonged to the declining age of the Roman power. The long
straggling line of wall which surrounded Uriconium as we may conclude
from its very irregularity, can only have been built at a late date,
after the city had gone on for ages increasing in its extent. We are
naturally led to suppose that the public buildings would occupy the
central, or at least the more elevated part of the town, and this has in
several instances proved to be the case. The discoveries made by Sir
Christopher Wren, seem to leave no doubt that a Roman temple occupied the
site of the modern cathedral of St. Paul’s, in London. But buildings of
all sorts would seem to have been mixed very confusedly together; for we
believe that in London, more recent excavations have brought to light
remains of potter’s kilns in close proximity to this temple. In one or
two instances, as at Aldborough, in Yorkshire, (the Roman Isurium), and
in some of the small towns on the line of Hadrian’s Wall, in
Northumberland, masses of the small houses have been uncovered, and their
appearance leads us to believe that the houses of a Roman town in Britain
were grouped thickly together, that they were mostly separated by narrow
alleys, and that there were in general few streets of any magnitude.
* * * * *
WE will now return to the spot where the visitor has halted in view of
the imposing mass of Roman masonry, called the Old Wall, situated, as has
been stated, in a large triangular field formed by the divergence of the
two roads. The Old Wall stands not quite east and west, but sufficiently
near it to allow us for sake of convenience to call it east and west.
Its northern side is evidently the outside of a building, while there
could be no doubt that the southern side, on which the springings of
transverse walls and vaulted ceilings are visible, was the interior. The
excavations were begun on the 3rd of February, 1859, on the northern
side, or outside, of this wall, partly with the object of ascertaining
the depth at which the floors and the foundations of the buildings lay
under the present surface of the ground, which, as we have said before,
was an important fact to ascertain. The bottom of the Old Wall was found
at a depth of fourteen feet, the last ten feet of which were sunk in the
natural substratum of sand, so that the walls of the buildings in this
spot must have had originally very deep foundations. It was found that
this wall was continued underground to the west, and excavations directed
towards the north brought to light successively three walls running
parallel, or nearly parallel, to this first wall, the first of these
parallel walls being at a uniform distance of fourteen feet from the Old
Wall, the next at a distance, also uniform, of thirty feet from this
wall, and the third at a distance from the second of fourteen feet at the
western and sixteen at the eastern end, so that, as the transverse wall
at the eastern end of these walls was not quite at right angles to them,
this large building was a little out of square. This building,
therefore, consisted of three divisions, of which the central enclosure
was 226 feet long by 30 feet wide, and appears to have been paved in its
whole extent with small bricks, three inches long by one inch broad, set
in zig-zags, or, as it is more technically called, herring-bone fashion.
This description of pavement appears generally to have been used in
passages and in open courts, and it seems probable, even from the
magnitude of this enclosure, that it was not roofed. Nothing was
discovered in it to throw any light on the object of so extensive a paved
enclosure, but there could be little doubt that it must have been a
public building of some importance. Portions of the capitals, bases, and
shafts of columns were found scattered about in different parts of the
area, which show that it was not wanting in architectural decoration, and
on one of the pieces of wall-stucco, picked up in this part of the
excavations, where three letters of what had been an inscription in large
characters. Among other objects found here were a fragment of a very
strong iron chain, the head of an axe, and an iron implement which
appears to have been a trident, and to have been originally placed on a
staff, perhaps an ensign of office. The appearance of the face of the
Old Wall, which formed part of one side of the long narrow enclosure on
the south of this central apartment, would lead us to suppose that this
was an open alley, and this is confirmed by the other circumstances
connected with it. In the continuation of the Old Wall to the westward,
the lower parts of two doorways were found, which were approached from
this alley each by a step formed of a single squared stone, which,
therefore, may have been supposed to have led from an exterior into an
interior. The corresponding long passage to the north of the central
apartment presented characteristics of another kind. At the eastern end
were found pavements of rather fine mosaic, of which specimens and
admirable drawings, by Mr. George Maw, of Broseley, are preserved in the
Museum. Mosaic of this description was not made to be exposed to the
air, and the building here must not only have been roofed, but we have
reason to suppose that there must have been a room or rooms of a
character on which elegant ornamentation would be bestowed.
The walls of this building, as we find them under ground, present from
time to time discontinuations, or breaches, caused no doubt by the
breaking up of the walls for materials by the mediæval builders, who
sometimes went deeper for them than usual; and it is very likely that
this may have been caused, in some instances at least, by the
circumstance that on the site of these breaches were doors or passages,
the jambs and ornamental parts of which were formed of large stones which
were more tempting to the old excavators. With the exception of these
breaches, there are no traces of doorways from one apartment of this
building to the other. About the middle of the northernmost wall there
is a very wide breach of this kind, which perhaps represents a grand
entrance from the north. Moreover, in carrying the excavations further
towards the north, it was found that this northernmost wall of the
building formed the side of a street, which was paved in the middle with
round stones, not much unlike the pavements of some of the streets in
Shrewsbury and other old towns as they remain at the present day. The
northern wall just alluded to was traced eastwardly until the edge of the
field in which the excavations are carried on prevented the workmen from
going any further. Immediately to the east of the building we have been
describing was a not quite rectangular inclosure, which, from the
appearance of the walls, was probably a court-yard. A doorway,
approached by a stone step within the great inclosure to the west, led
into it. Beyond this, to the eastward, was a much larger inclosure,
which as far as it was explored, had no tracings of walls or pavement
within, and may possibly have been a garden. At the western end of the
great building, about the middle of the extremity of the great central
inclosure, indications were discovered which probably belonged also to an
entrance. These indications consisted of two original openings in the
wall, within which were found, evidently in their original position, in
one a large squared stone, and in the other two similarly squared stones
placed one upon another. One of these was bevelled off at the outer edge
into a plain moulding, and their general appearance led to the belief
that they had formed the basis of something—perhaps of large columns.
Here, therefore, may perhaps have been the principal entrance into the
long and extensive area which occupied the middle of this building. It
faced the modern Watling Street Road, which evidently represents another
street; and it thus seems to admit of no doubt that this building formed
the corner of two principal streets of the Roman city of Uriconium.
We will now return to the long alley, as we have ventured to call it, on
the southern side of the building we have been describing. It has been
already stated that there were found in this alley two steps, formed each
of a large squared stone, attached to two doorways in the western
continuation of the Old Wall. The more western of these two steps was
very much worn by the feet of the people who had passed over it, as
though it had led to some place of public resort. It was at the more
easterly of these doorways that the excavations were carried to the
southward of the Old Wall. This doorway apparently led into some open
court which communicated with domestic apartments. A trench carried
directly southward from the doorway, brought the excavators to the
semicircular end of a hypocaust, which had warmed a considerable room
thirty-seven feet long, by twenty-five feet wide, and which was in a
state of very perfect preservation when opened, although the floor which
once covered it had entirely disappeared. The pillars, which were formed
of Roman square bricks, placed one upon another without mortar, and of
which 120 were counted, were above three feet high. This room has now
been completely laid open, and on the western side has a complicated
arrangement of walls, which evidently served some purpose connected with
the heating of the hypocausts. A considerable quantity of unburnt coal
was found here. The northern end of this hypocaust, the wall of which
remained to the height of several feet, presents an imposing mass of
masonry, and we learn from it the interesting fact that the Roman houses
were plastered and painted externally as well as internally. The
exterior of the semicircular wall at the north end of this hypocaust was
painted red, with stripes of yellow. Near it lay an immense stone, hewn
into the shape to fit the semicircular wall of the hypocaust, which had
evidently formed part of a massive band of such stones at some height in
the wall. A strong piece of iron is soldered into it with lead, for the
purpose of attaching something to the building externally. A little
alley, considerably wider than the spaces between the pillars of bricks,
ran across this hypocaust, and through an opening in the wall, into
another hypocaust, which was entered from without by a large archway, and
this again was approached by a flight of three steps, each step composed
of one large well-squared stone, descending from a square platform, which
was apparently on a level with the original floors of the rooms. When
the steps were uncovered, a broken shaft of a large column was found
lying across them. The platform at the bottom of the steps, or at least
the corner of it farthest from the arched entrance to the hypocaust,
seems to have been used by the last occupiers of this building as a
receptacle for the dust swept from floors and passages, for the earth,
for about a foot deep on the floor, was literally filled with coins,
hair-pins, fibulæ, broken pottery and glass, bones of birds and animals
which had been eaten, and a variety of other such objects.