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
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.
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![Lower Langford. [1856, Part II., p. 108.] In digging down a bank, the foundation of an old wall, in Lower Langford, some pieces of old tessellated pavement have been ex- humed, and most likely Roman—the more so if the camp on Mendip, above Rowbery, is Roman. It is very rarely that remains of this kind are discovered in small villages, being oftener found in old towns, castles, etc. The pattern of the pieces, so far as age has left it dis- tinguishable, consists of lines of a deep blue, interwoven with others of what seems to be deep orange or red ; and appears to be the border of a larger device, such as the figure of a dog, which was usually worked on the pavement of the entrance-halls in old Roman houses. Several pieces of old tiling, consisting of black between layers of red, very thick and hard, have also been discovered in the same place. Pitney. [1828, Part II., p. 361.] A tessellated pavement has been recently discovered in a field of about 8 acres, on the north-west of a hill, and under a wood, opposite King’s Sedgmoor, in the parish of Pitney, near Langport. It has been opened under the direction and superintendence of Mr. Hasell, of Littleton, near Somerton. The floor is 18 feet by 20; it is in the highest state of preservation, and is allowed by persons best acquainted with the subject to be the finest specimen that has been discovered in the West of England. The centre is an octagon, in which is a perfect figure of Bacchus with the usual emblems, and the other part of the floor is divided into eight compartments, containing figures of Minerva, Mars, Neptune, and other heathen deities, and at each corner is a bust; a beautiful border surrounds the whole, and runs round each division. The designs are admirably executed in tesserae of various colours and very small dimensions, scarcely half an inch square ; there is a coarser edging of tesserae, each about 1 inch square, between the border and the walls, which are in good preservation, and about 2 feet high, and the top only a few inches under the surface of the field. [1830, Part I., pp. 17, 18.] I now send you an account of a villa at Pitney. This fine villa extends above 300 feet in length. Its form is an oblong square, sur- rounded by buildings, offices, baths, etc., the principal apartments facing the west, and having an extensive area within. Five adjoining rooms are decorated with mosaic floors, in very good preservation, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5- The same subject is continued in x, 3, and 4; and that subject is so unlike any other that has been chosen, that it deserves our particular attention. In almost all the mosaic pavements hitherto discovered in Britain we generally find figures alluding to the heathen mythology, with 19—2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879034_0001_0319.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
