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 ment, of nine square stones, of blue, red, and white; and other pieces of four stones and two stones, all which were so strongly cemented together that it was with difficulty I separated them from the mortar. I met likewise with a whole circle of about 200 stones ; but as soon as I got them up, they all separated, and there were hardly three stones remained together ; and those that did adhere to one another, in a few days came apart, although I laid them in the sun to harden. Perhaps some of your ingenious correspondents may be able to account for what appeared so surprising to me: that the pavement I found on the surface of the earth was so strongly cemented together, and that I found on the brick floor so loose that one stone would not stick to another. I likewise picked up some petrified bivalves, or cockle shells, with which the ground about The Hayes is strewed. There is a field at Wellow, which is seen from The Hayes, and is called Round Hill 1 iney, which name it may have received from a round hill in it, on the right hand, at the top of the field, and several trees are planted on the hill. Some years back, as they were ploughing the ground, the plough struck against a stone, which was so large that it took the whole team to remove—which when they had done, there appeared subterraneous vaults, in which dead bodies were deposited; and I was informed, the bones that were taken out appeared to be the bones of men of an uncommon size. Being willing to get what information I could, I went to the place, accompanied by the gentle- man at whose house I am, and our wives, when we entered on our knees; and having proceeded thus for about 20 feet, we found we could stand upright. I then struck a light, having brought a tinder- box with me, and the place put me in mind of Signor Rolando’s subterraneous habitation, to which he took Gil Bias. The place we were in was about 7 feet high, and 100 feet in length, from the entrance, and the whole place built up with stones, in which were some of the finest petrifactions I ever saw. I searched for some bones, but only found a few pieces of bone, and one thigh-bone, which appeared to be of an ordinary-sized person. There did not appear any remains of coffins, so that in what manner they were buried, or whether they are Roman or British sepulchres, I am not antiquary sufficient to inform you; but should be happy to learn, that what I have related may induce some able person to make farther search into this remain of antiquity. The field is the property of a Mr. Smith, of Coomb Hay. An Antiquarian Novice. [1807, Part II., p. 969.] Sept. 24.—A most beautiful specimen of Roman elegance has lately been discovered at Wellow, Somersetshire, and by the inter- ference of Colonel Leigh, of Combhay, together with the lord of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879034_0001_0324.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
