BY JAMES BUCKMAN, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.
Professor of Botany and Geology, r.a.c.
(Read at the Oxford Meeting, June 21, 1850.)
Although the designs and method of construction of numerous examples of the kind of decoration, known as Tessellated Pavements, have been published from time to time, especially in suchworks as "Lysons' Roman Antiquities," the "Vetusta Monumenta," "Fowler's Pavements," &c., anexamination and classification of the materials, by whose aid these fine works of art have beenaccomplished, seems still a desideratum.
Under these circumstances, I venture to lay before the Institute the result of my observations upon this subject, in the many examples of mosaic pavements which I have had occasion to examine in Cirencester and its neighbourhood.[1] Tracings of the best of these have been laid before the Society. The choice of materials with which to execute the designs of pavements appears to have been a matter of great importance, and to have been carefully studied, as may be seen from many instances of gradual shading off, observed in the various frets, and in the strong contrasts when bold relief was intended. Besides this, the general design appears to owe its effects not only to the arrangement of the minor bits of colouring, but also to the disposal of the masses of colour, so as to produce an harmonious whole. This is admirably shown in the fine pavements discovered in Ciren-
- ↑ A full account of discoveries recently made in that locality will be found in the volume recently published, "Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the site of the ancient Corinium." London, G. Bell, 1850.
and accompanied with the rude tools of the fabricators, proving them to be the work of the aboriginal races, destitute of metallurgic arts, and supplying their simple wants with imperfect implements of horn and flint."
The reader will find the account of an interesting discovery of a canoe in the alluvial deposits of Forfarshire, by Sir Charles Lyell, in Geological Transactions, vol. ii. p. 87; being one of the earliest contributions of this eminent philosopher to the science, which he has since so greatly advanced by his genius and labours. In my Wonders of Geology, vol. i., p. 64, a similar fact is recorded; and in Lewes Levels (p. 61), rude single-trunk canoes and coffins have been found, imbedded at great depths in the blue clay, associated with bones of cetacea, deer, horse, &c.
