nearly at its north-western corner. Opposite this gateway he will see an
apartment, which the excavators are now in the course of exploring. It
is nearly a square, and is about thirty-four feet in its longest
dimension. The side towards the street seems to have been open, or at
least the masonry of the wall presents the appearance of having had wide
folding doors, or a framework of wood of some kind in two compartments 6,
6. In the centre of the room is a large pier of masonry (1), perhaps a
table for workmen. More towards the north-western corner, a sort of
furnace or forge (2) was found, built of red clay, with a hole or cavity
in the upper part sufficiently large for a man to thrust his head in. As
the surface of the cavity, internally, is completely vitrified, and as
there was much charcoal strewed about, there can be no doubt that the
cavity had been occupied by a very fierce fire. A low wall has been
traced, running across the room east and west in a line with this
furnace; and two transverse low walls of similar character. Upon the low
wall a little behind the forge (at 3), the excavators came upon what was
supposed to be the lower part of a column with its base; but it is formed
roughly, and I think it more probable that it was a stone table for the
use of the workman at the furnace. It was at first supposed that this
might belong to a colonnade running along the wall; but no trace of such
a colonnade has been found, although a large piece of a shaft of a column
lies in the middle of the room. This column, however, is of larger
dimensions than the supposed base (3). Had such a colonnade existed, it
seems so little in accordance with the existence of a forge, that we
might be led to suspect that the room had, at some late period, been
diverted from its original purpose, and occupied by a worker in metals,
or even in glass, as fine specimens of glass were found scattered about,
and also many fragments of metal. But objects of all kinds seem to have
been thrown about in such a manner, when the town was plundered, that it
would be unsafe to argue upon the purpose of any particular building,
merely from moveable articles found in it. Among other things found in
this room were nearly a dozen hair-pins, two of which were much more
ornamental than any we had found before; a much greater quantity of
fragments of Samian ware, and of higher artistic merit, than had
previously been met with in one spot; a portion of a large bronze fibula;
a number of coins, and other things. One of the vessels of Samian ware
is a fine bowl, with figures in high relief, representing a stag-hunt.
Upon the low wall of the sill (6) a number of copper Roman coins (about
sixty) were found together; and near them the fragment of a small earthen
vessel, in which probably they had been carried by some one who dropped
them here as he was hurrying out of the place. Turning from the gate of
the field to the right, or south, along the inside of the hedge, the
visitor will come to a portion of uncovered wall, _h h_, running north
and south, upwards of eighty feet, in which there are two entrance
gateways, _i_, _p_. The first of these is about twelve feet wide, and
was approached by a sort of inclined plane, formed of three large squared
masses of stone, each about four feet square by eleven inches in
thickness. The other entrance which was only five feet wide, was
approached by two steps, each similarly formed of one mass of stone; of
which the lower step is worn very much at its south-west corner, in a
manner to lead us to believe that the great majority of the people who
passed through this entrance came up the street from the south. The
upper step, or stone, is so much worn by the feet of those who passed
over it, that it broke into three pieces under the workmen’s picks. On
one side of it there is a deep hollow, representing nearly the form of a
small human foot, which seems to have been scooped into the stone for
some purpose with which we are not acquainted. These two entrances lead
into one square court, the floor of which, proved by the steps and
inclined plane to have been on a higher level than the street without,
was paved with small bricks laid in herring-bone work, like the great
inclosure to the north of the Old Wall. It is found to have been much
damaged and mended in ancient times, which seems to countenance the
supposition that the wide entrance and the inclined plane by which it was
approached were intended for horses and perhaps for carts or for heavy
barrows. Among the objects found in excavating here was a portion of a
horse-shoe. On each side of this court a row of chambers is found, _m m
m_, four on the north side and four on the south, from ten to twelve feet
square. The westernmost of these chambers, on the north side of the
court, has been cleared out, and was found to be ten feet deep, with a
low transverse wall at the bottom, the object of which is at present
quite inexplicable. A quantity of charcoal was found in this room, as
though it had been a store-room for that article. One of the other
rooms, on each side of the court, seemed to have been a receptacle for
bones, horns, &c.; and as some of these had evidently been sawn and cut,
and others partly turned on a lathe, they suggested the idea of having
belonged to manufacturers of the various objects made of this material
which are found so commonly in the course of the excavations. They may,
therefore, have been the magazines of manufacturers and tradesmen, a
notion which is somewhat confirmed by the circumstance of several weights
of different sizes having been found in this part of the excavations; or
they may have been mere depots for the stores and refuse of a large
mansion or other establishment. These rooms are, perhaps, all deep like
the one already cleared out, but it is remarkable that, as high as the
walls remain, that is, about two feet above the floor of the court, there
is no trace of entrances to them, which must, therefore, have been rather
high in the wall, and they were entered perhaps by a ladder.
The back part of this court consists of a long narrow inclosure, which is
divided into compartments by four transverse walls proceeding from the
western wall about halfway across the inclosure, thus leaving a passage
along the eastern side. These compartments have much the appearance of
small shops or stalls for selling, and seem to confirm the notion that
this building may have been a market-place. The workmen, finding a
doorway in the wall of the back of this inclosure, at _n_ in the plan, a
trench was carried through the ground to the eastward. At about twelve
feet from the opening at _n_, they came upon a wall at _h_, running
parallel to the wall _o o_ of the court, and beyond this they found first
a narrow passage, and then a rise with a pavement of cement which
extended some four or five feet, and then suddenly sank to a floor of
large flag-stones, at a depth of upwards of four feet from the floor of
cement. This flagged floor, the position of which is marked by the
letter _q_ in the plan, was perhaps a reservoir of water; the bottom was
found covered with black earth filled with broken pottery and other
things, such as may easily have been supposed to have been thrown into a
pond. The water appears to have been only between two and three feet
deep, as the floor on the opposite side runs about level with the ledge
or step just mentioned, and is continued eastward until, at _r_, we come
upon the rather massive walls of a building, the nature of which cannot
be determined without further investigation. At a short distance within
this wall, at a depth of about three feet below the cement floor, we find
a floor at _s_, about ten feet wide by thirty long, formed of flat Roman
tiles, twelve inches by eighteen inches square. This floor has been
uncovered, and as there was an indentation in the middle which seemed to
indicate that it was hollow underneath, a hole was made there, but it led
to no discovery. This seems also to have been a tank of water, perhaps a
cold water bath. The cement floor was continued easterly until it was
terminated by a wall, _t_, which ran at right angles to the eastern end
of the Old Wall, and appears to be the eastern termination of the
buildings now in course of exploration. The earth and rubbish from the
excavations have been here thrown into a great mound, from the top of
which the visitor can enjoy a bird’s eye view of the excavations. A few
yards to the north, he will come to the important line of excavations
nearer to the Old Wall. A small chamber, about eight feet square, with a
herring-bone pavement in very good preservation, projects beyond the line
of this eastern wall at _u_ in our plan. To the west of this is a small
hypocaust _v_, the floor of which has been a little lower than that of
the room _u_. In this hypocaust were found the remains of two skeletons,
one of which was that of a young person. The northern wall of the room
_v_ is particularly interesting, because in its whole height of full nine
feet, it presents the remains of the lines of flue-tiles which ran up it,
hardly an inch apart, and which show that this room must have been
intended to be very much heated. It was, perhaps, a _sudatorium_ or
sweating room. The opening from _u_ to _v_ occupies nearly the whole
width of the former room, and was perhaps closed by a wooden door. On
the western side of the hypocaust, at _w_, the wall has a sort of
basement, formed of large stones scooped out in a singular manner, the
object of which is by no means evident. We here come upon a series of
passages, _x_, to the north of which were four rooms, _z z z z_,
extending to the Old Wall. On the face of the Old Wall, we can
distinctly trace the springing not only of the walls of division, the
lower parts of which are found underground, but of the vaulting, from
which it appears that these rooms had what are technically called
barrel-roofs of masonry. They were slightly explored at the beginning of
the excavations, and in one of them was found a quantity of burnt wheat,
as though it had been a store-room.
In the passages alluded to, there is at _y_, a square pit, somewhat like
what might be a cess-pool, of very good and substantial masonry, at the
bottom of which runs north and south a very well formed drain, the bed of
which is formed of large roof-tiles. To the south of this is a
hypocaust, A, which differs from the other hypocausts yet opened in being
partly formed of low parallel walls instead of rows of pillars. On the
wall of the passage leading to this hypocaust from the east was found the
inscription mentioned at page 45. Westward from the hypocaust A, but
without any apparent communication between them, was another hypocaust,
B, which had been constructed in the usual manner, the floor supported by
rows of low columns formed of square thin bricks. It was in this
hypocaust that the three skeletons mentioned before (_p._ 41,) were
found, the man who possessed the money crouching in the north-west
corner, and the two persons supposed to be women, extended along the side
of the northern wall. The opening into this hypocaust was through its
southern wall, from the interior court, so that the fugitives must have
crept along the whole length of the hypocaust to reach their place of
concealment. The part of this interior court, immediately adjacent to
this hypocaust, which has been excavated to some extent, presents several
interesting features. A breach in the eastern boundary wall had been
newly repaired with much inferior masonry at the time when the city of
Uriconium was taken and destroyed; and it is a curious circumstance that
some large pieces of stone lie here on the floor of the court, unfinished
by the masons, as though repairs and alterations in the buildings were
going on at the very moment of the final catastrophe. Adjoining to this
hypocaust, at its north-west corner, is a square room, c, with the
herring-bone pavement, exactly like that at _u_ in character and
dimensions, which had opened into the room above the hypocaust B, much in
the same manner as _u_ opened in the room _v_. Separated from this room
by a wall, but apparently without any communication with it, is an
interesting staircase D, leading down, to the entrance to a larger and
apparently more important series of hypocausts. This staircase descended
from a square room, about the same size as the room C, which had a smooth
pavement of cement. It is composed of three steps each formed of a large
squared stone. A part of the space at the bottom, the north-eastern
corner, appears to have been used by the later Roman inhabitants of this
building as a receptacle for the sweeping of the floors, and when it was
first opened the earth, to the height of about sixteen or eighteen inches
from the floor, was filled with all kinds of objects, such as coins,
hair-pins, fibulæ, needles in bone, nails, various articles in iron,
bronze, and lead, glass, broken pottery, bones of edible animals and
birds, stags’ horns, tusks and hoofs of wild boars, oyster shells, in one
of which lay the shell of a large nut, &c. A large shaft of a column lay
across the steps. The Roman masonry here is very good. To the right
hand, towards the south, a rather large arch, turned in Roman bricks, led
into the hypocaust E, a doorway in the southern wall of which formed the
communication between this hypocaust and the still larger hypocaust F.
The latter had supported what must have been a handsome room, which was
about fifty feet long, including the semicircular northern end, by
thirty-five feet in breadth. When first opened, this hypocaust was in a
state of preservation in which such buildings are seldom found in this
country. A hundred and twenty columns of bricks were counted, most of
them at their original height of rather more than three feet. At the
north-eastern corner, the columns supported a small portion of the floor
in its original position. It is a mass of cement, eight inches thick,
with the upper surface, which no doubt had formed the floor, perfectly
smooth. During the time that the Excavation Committee were excluded from
the field, all the pillars of this interesting hypocaust were thrown to
the ground, and a great part of the bricks which formed the supporting
columns were broken to pieces—even the piece of the floor and its
supports at the north-east corner were overthrown. A very exact drawing
of the latter, however, had been preserved, which served as a pattern for
restoring it; and it is to the ingenuity and labour of Dr. Henry Johnson
that the public owes the restoration of this hypocaust as far as it was
possible to restore it.
Returning to the steps by which these hypocausts were entered, at D, the
floor from which we descended appears to have an opening of some kind to
the west, which looked down upon a court outside the semicircular end of
the hypocaust F, which from this point presents to the view an imposing
mass of masonry. In the corner just under this opening the remains of a
very young child were found, which we might almost imagine to have been
slaughtered in the room above, and thrown out into the court. This
court, or open space, seems to have been continued to the wall _a a_, and
to have been entered by a doorway in that wall at _g_, which was
approached from the passage to the north by a step formed by a large
squared stone. On the outside of the semicircular end of the hypocaust
F, lay, as if it had fallen or been thrown down, an immense stone,
carefully worked into the shape of the arc of a circle, and no doubt
forming one of a course at some unknown elevation in the wall. On the
outward side of it, a large iron pin was soldered into it with lead,
evidently for the purpose of attaching some weighty object on the outer
side of the building.
Another step and doorway in the wall _a a_ was found at _h_, which must
have been much more frequented than the other, for the stone which formed
the step was worn in an extraordinary degree by the rubbing of footsteps.
It led to an inclosure P, which presents the appearance of having formed
public _latrinæ_; and which is separated by a long narrow inclosure from
the room already described as apparently the shop of a worker in metals.
Such is a brief and general description of the ruins of Uriconium, at
present open to the visitor. The real character of the buildings we have
been describing appeared for a while very doubtful. The first
discoveries led to the belief that it was a great mansion, perhaps the
principal mansion in the Roman city, the residence of the chief municipal
officer; but in this case we might have expected to find some very fine
Mosaic or tessellated pavement, specimens of which had been met with in
other parts of the area of the town. On the contrary, all the floors yet
discovered to the south of the Old Wall, with the exception of those of
herring-bone brickwork, and that of a supposed bath, seemed to have been
of mere smoothed cement. This led us to suppose that we were still
exploring buildings erected for some public purpose. A comparison of the
character of these various buildings leaves no room for doubting that
they belonged to the public baths of Uriconium; and further excavations
to the south and west shewed that they formed an extensive square (_k_,
_k_, _k_, _k_), the northern side of which was formed by the Old Wall and
its continuation westward; and the southern side of which bordered upon
the other street running east and west, the pavement of which, similar to
that of the street at _l_, has been uncovered in its whole extent along
the line, L L. The western and southern sides of the square were formed
by a wide gallery or cloister (_k_, _k_, _k_), no doubt the ambulatory,
which was considered as an important part of the public baths of the
Romans. The ground to the eastward, in which no buildings could be
traced, may have been gardens, which were also usually attached to the
baths of the Romans.
Having once decided that the building we have thus explored, is the
public baths, another equally interesting question arises out of it. The
public baths of the Roman towns in Britain are not unfrequently mentioned
in inscriptions commemorating the repairing or rebuilding of them; but it
is a circumstance of some importance that this building is combined with
the basilica, or town hall. Both seem to have participated in the same
accidents, and to have undergone decay together. Thus an inscription
found at Lanchester in Cumberland (supposed to be the Roman town of
Epiacum) speaks of the baths and basilica (BALNEVM CVM BASILICA); and at
Ribchester, in Lancashire, the baths and basilica (BALINEVM ET BASILICAM)
were rebuilt after having fallen into ruin through age. We are
therefore, I think, justified in concluding that the two great public
buildings, the baths and the basilica, usually joined each other; and I
think we may venture further to assume that the large building to the
north of the Old Wall, the remains of which are now covered up, was the
basilica of Uriconium. The proportions of this building are rather
extraordinary, and cannot be easily explained; but it is probable that in
a provincial town the basilica served a variety of purposes. An
inscription found at Netherby in Cumberland, speaks of a basilica for
practice in riding (BASILICAM EQVESTREM EXERCITATORIAM.)
We may now proceed a little further in identifying the topography of the
ancient town. The line of the buildings we have traced parallel to the
Watling Street Road is at some distance within the hedge of the field;
and I believe that, when the farm buildings were erected on the opposite
side of the road, what appeared to be the front of buildings facing the
opposite direction, were found likewise at some distance within the
field. This, with the road, would make a very wide space; very much
wider than either of the two transverse streets. Moreover, a glance at
the plan will shew that, beyond the transverse street to the south, this
wide space became considerably narrowed; and in fact it seems to have
been reduced to the width of an ordinary street. It is my belief that
this wide space was the forum of Uriconium; and in that case it is rather
remarkable that the basilica held here exactly the same place, in regard
to the forum, as at Pompeii.
We have thus already brought to light a very interesting portion of the
ancient Roman town, and have learnt something more than we knew before of
the character and economy of the Roman towns in Britain. The basilica,
as we have seen, came up to the front of the street, and formed the side
of a transverse street; but this was not the case with the baths, for a
space of some width between them and the forum was occupied by other
buildings, which I have already described.
Other apartments surrounding the metal-worker’s shop are in course of
exploration, and will, I think, make us better acquainted with the
character of the whole of this line of buildings which looked upon the
open space which I have supposed to be the forum. I have already said
that this open space contracts to the south of the transverse street L L,
in what has been no more than the breadth of an ordinary street, which
ran down towards the river. A gutter, very well made, of carefully
squared stones, and remarkably well preserved, runs near the houses on
the eastern side of the street; the only side which at present can be
explored, as it is near the hedge of the Watling Street Road. It runs
very near the walls of the houses, is a foot wide, and about a foot deep,
and from place to place square stones are laid in lozenge-fashion,
apparently intended for stepping stones, but they must have stopped the
current of water down the channel. The buildings at this corner consist
of small rooms, and were probably private houses. The existence of walls
running parallel and transverse to the street L L has been ascertained
along the whole length of its southern side; but they have not yet been
sufficiently explored even to be laid down in the plan.
* * * * *
THE objects of antiquity found in the course of the excavations have been
so often alluded to, that the visitor will no doubt expect at least a
brief and general description of them. I have already described those
which illustrate the building and construction of a house, and we
naturally continue the description by turning to those articles which
belong especially to domestic life. Of this class, the most numerous
division, and that which strikes us first, is the pottery,—of which
certainly the most remarkable to the general observer is the ware
resembling in colour and general appearance bright red sealing wax, known
commonly as Samian ware, a name the propriety of which has been disputed.
The Roman writers speak of an earthenware much used at table, and said to
have received its name from having been originally made at Samos. It is
described as being of a red colour, as being of more value than the
common pottery, and as being proverbial for its brittleness, all which
characteristics belonged to the red ware found in this country, which was
covered with tasteful subjects of all kinds in relief, and was evidently
much valued, as we often find vessels in this ware which had been
carefully mended, and the brittleness of which was such that we seldom
find a specimen unbroken. Such mendings, chiefly by means of metal
rivets, are exhibited in specimens of Samian ware found in the
excavations at Wroxeter, and deposited in the Museum at Shrewsbury, where
there are also several pieces of this pottery, presenting subjects which
are interesting and by no means of common occurrence. It may be further
observed that the Samian ware in this country resembles a Roman ware of
which the potteries have been found at Aretium, the modern Arezzo, in
Tuscany, but this ware was much superior, especially in the degree of
artistic talent displayed in its ornamentation, to that which was in use
in this island, and which no doubt was imported from Gaul, where,
especially on the banks of the Rhine, the potteries in which it was made
have been found.
Extensive potteries have also been found in this island, especially at
Castor, in Northamptonshire, where there was a Roman town named
Durobrivæ, and on the banks of the Medway, at Upchurch, in Kent. The
ware from both these potteries is of a blue or slate colour, produced by
imperfect firing in what is called a _smother-kiln_; that is, the air
being excluded and the heat being insufficient thoroughly to bake the
pottery, it retains so much carbonaceous matter as to give it a black
colour. The pottery of these two establishments is distinguished by the
difference of shapes. The ornamentation of the Upchurch ware is in
general of a very simple character; that of the pottery from Castor is
much more elaborate, and often consists of hunting scenes and other
subjects, laid on in a white substance after the pottery had been baked.
Specimens of both these wares are found at Wroxeter.