Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/485

ROMAN OCCUPATION IN BRITAIN. 325 order that the Abbot might erect a new clothing mill, and of the " cumpace " of the walls, a Roman inscription, coins, &c., sajs,^ " In the middes of the ould Toune in a Medow was found a flore de tessellis versicoloribus." Sir Robert Atkyns^ also speaks of a " building underground supported on pillars, and curiously inlaid with Tesseraic work, with stones of divers colours, little bigger than dice." Hearne, the editor of Leland, mentions shortly that before 1711 he had received accounts of a pavement discovered '^ some time before. Stukeley in his Itinerary speaks of a hypocaust and floor of Terras, and other antiquities and ruins which he saw in 1 723.^ All these refer most probably to the large hypocaust discovered about the year 1683, in the open grounds known as the " leauses," or " lewses," at the south end of the town, which were then converted from pasture to garden cultivation. It was again examined by Sir Harry Englefield in 1782, and further uncovered by Mr. Master, at the desire of Lord Bathurst, in 1785, under the care of the Rev. John Price, and was then carefully investigated and measured. The Roman Forum has been supposed by many to have been near that spot. An ancient street (now called Leauses, Lewis, or Leases Lane,) crossed at the northern limit of this ground, in a direct line to the amphitheatre from the entrance of the Foss Way, and cutting the Ermine Street at a right angle. From the time of Stukeley there is no record of any further discoveries until about 1750, when a pavement was found in digging a vault near the " Boothall," this building stood in what is now the open street opposite the church ; and shortly afterwards, another in "Archibald's" garden, behind Dr. Small's house, in Dyer Street ; a second was found in Dyer Street in the year 1777, (which is minutely described by a local historian,^) in digging a cellar under the house of Messrs, Croonie, about six feet below the surface ; a part of this was raised, and for a time preserved, but it at length perished from neglect. The walls of the room to which it belonged, as far as they remained standing, were coated with stucco, and coloured in various designs, A third, also in Dyer Street, was found in 1793, in forming a cellar under the house of John Smith, Esq., a part of which was preserved entire. Lei. Itin. v. 5, p. 65. - Stukeley's Itiii., vol. i., p. 63. ' Aiioiciit aiul Present State of Glou- ^ Rudder's History of Cirencester, cestershire, London, 171'2. p. 6'2,