COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ROMAN OCCUPATION.
ROMAN VILLA AT HADSTOCK, ESSEX.
DISCOVERED BY THE HON. RICHARD NEVILLE, F.S.A.
During the autumn of the past year, the unwearied zeal, with which Mr. Neville has pursued the investigation of British and Roman vestiges in the neighbourhood of Audley End, was again crowned with success. His constant kindness and liberality have given us the gratification of bringing the results before the members of the Institute.
The discoveries made by Mr. Neville, with which our readers are already conversant, through the communications given in the Journal, were connected with the neighbourhood of the Roman station at Chesterford, on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Essex. The present notices relate to a locality in the county last named, of singular interest, on account of its vicinity to the remarkable range of hill-sepulchres in the parish of Ashdown. The solution by the late Mr. Rokewode of the long-mooted question regarding the age of the Bartlow Hills, and the purpose with which they were raised, must be numbered amongst the most interesting discoveries of recent years in England.[1] The field in which the villa lately excavated by Mr. Neville is situate, lies about half a mile northward of those tumuli, which are plainly seen from the spot, and about a mile from Hadstock Church. At the lower end of the field runs the boundary line between the parishes of Linton, in Cambridgeshire, and Hadstock, in Essex. In the summer of 1846 an excavation was there commenced by Mr. Neville, and a small tessellated pavement, now in his museum at Audley End, was found. During the summer of the last year he determined to ascertain whether any foundations or further vestiges still remained, and he recommenced operations on August 6th, 1850.
During that and the succeeding month, the site of an extensive villa was brought to light, with various interesting
- ↑ See the Memoirs on the Bartlow Hills, Archæologia, vols. xxv. p. 1; xxvi. pp. 300, 462; xxviii. p. 1.
