Volume 1

The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    101/332 page 73
    fast to ruin, as dirt of all kinds is thrown upon it, which is with vio- lence scrubbed off, when anyone wishes to see the pavement, with brooms. Do you know anything of this pavement ? It is really much more beautiful than that engraved in Morant’s “ History of Colchester.” What remains of it is part of a circle surrounded in partly a square; the circle is very imperfect as well as the square; but in one of the corners of the square is a fine urn, and on one side of the square is a beautiful border. The tesserae of the whole are very thin, not more than one-eighth part of an inch thick ; the colours are charming. In Sparrow’s Plan of Colchester Bear Lane is called St. Martin’s Lane. J. W. [1842, Part //., p. 526.] Considerable excavations having been lately made in a field called Cheshunt Field, nearly opposite to Mr. Woodward’s house, on the Maldon Road from Colchester, and about a quarter of a mile from the Leather Bottle, in Lexden parish, the foundations of a building, supposed to be a Roman villa, have been laid bare. The extent is of such magnitude that it is questioned if the remains of any Roman villa in this kingdom are of equal extent. A small portion only has been traced at present. Three sides of a square have been dis- covered, with a double wall of considerable thickness, leaving a clear space between them of 14 feet. The measurement of the exterior wall in length is 285 feet, and of the inner 265 ;feet. Numerous coins have been thrown up during the excavations; amongst these a “Titus,” 2nd brass; reverse, “Judea Capta.” “Helena,” 3rd brass, and a “ Carausius,” 3rd brass, in fine preservation, struck upon the treat}7, made by that usurper with Diocletianus and Maximianus. The fragments found are broken urns, bricks, tiles, boars’ teeth, bones of animals, mortar, etc. [1843, Part II., p. 189.] It having become necessary to remove the North Bridge at Col- chester, in order to erect on the site one more suited to the increase of traffic, arising from its being the only thoroughfare to and from the town to the Eastern Counties Railway Station, upon removing the north abutment (built scarcely seventy years ago), it wxis found to be placed between the foundation of a wall of Roman character, which appeared to have been divided purposely for the reception of it. Under this foundation were discovered several earthen urns, apparently Roman, some of which fell to pieces upon exposure to the air; two only were got out whole, one of them made of red, and the other of a coarse black earth. The latter was inverted on a Roman tile about 8 inches square, and is of a form rarely met with here. In another part of the town some workmen, employed to remove a quantity of earth preparatory to the erection of a building, dis-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3