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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![o arabesques of birds, fish, beasts, and foliage. The figures of Bacchus and Medusa are the most frequent, as in the fine pavements at Bram- dean, in Hants, and at Thruxton, at the latter of which is an in- scription.* But in the pavement at Pitney we have a British story, alluding to the mines, smelting, and coining. It is generally supposed that the Romans, after the conquest of Britain, were very diligent in exploring the minerals of our island ; and, although we know not of any mines in the immediate neighbour- hood of Pitney, yet they are found in great abundance in the adjoin- ing hills of Mendip. In the small room, No. i, we see a young man striking with fury at. the hydra, as we all know that water is the greatest enemy to mines. No. 2 contains an elegant arabesque pattern. No. 3 is the grand apartment, and I may safely pronounce it ttnique, for it contains within a square nine whole-length figures (in compart- ments), of about 4 feet in height. I imagine that the central figure is the owner of the villa, holding a cup of coin in his hand to pay his dependants. The figures are male and female alternate, holding in their hands the different instru- ments still in use for smelting ore, such as rakes, forks, pincers, and long iron rods, crooked and straight; also canisters, or smelting-pots, from which coin is dropping. Adjoining to this apartment is another, No. 4, of smaller propor- tions, and differing in design though not in subject; for the four square compartments (one of which has been destroyed), represent winged boys dancing and carrying along the canisters of coin, sus- pended on crooked iron rods, rake, pincers, etc. There is another small apartment adjoining No. 4, which has only a simple mosaic pavement. The tessellse of those pavements are composed of white, buff, blue lias stone, and brick. The village of Pitney adjoins that of Littleton, near Somerton, where numerous remains of the Roman sera have been found, and is situated at a short distance from the Roman road leading from Iscalis (Ilchester) to Street and Glastonbury; and the whole of these im- portant discoveries, and their preservation, are due to the zeal of Samuel Hasell, Esq., of Littleton, by whose means I have had very correct drawings made of all these fine mosaic pavements. R. C. H. [1836, Part /., p. 194.] We have heard with much concern that the very fine tessellated Roman pavement at Pitney, in Somersetshire, has been wantonly destroyed by the farmer on whose lands it stood. * See vol. xciii. ii., p. 230. [Ante pp. 109-m ; 112-114.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879034_0001_0320.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
