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    IN THE WEALD OF SUSSEX. 245

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    It -Was At The Season Wlien Hundreds And...

    I retraced my steps into the road , consoling- myself with the reflection that as Bignor was but a small parish , the villa could not

    be at a very great distance—supposing that there was one at allfor I began to fear it might be only a name , indicating the site of

    some by-gone splendor . However , I did not long remain in doubt , for shortly aftermeeting an ancient laborer , a genuine South Saxon

    in gait and speech , , he informed me that I had already passed the object of my search , and that those mysterious sheds which had so

    much puzzled me , were built over the Roman pavements to protect them .

    From him too I learned where the keeper of the keys was to be found ; and in another quarter of an hour I had the satisfaction of

    seeing the doors and shutters of the sheds thrown open , and of examining at my leisure several very curious and beautiful

    mosaicpavements—of walls there are none left standing , the foundations only remainingwhich mark the extent of the original building-.

    My guide , who , was also the owner of the property , told me that in the summer of 1811 the discovery of these Roman remains was

    accidentally made by men who were ploughing in the field , and that in the following summer the foundations of the walls were laid open

    in order to trace the plan of the building , which was found to be very extensive . I began by examining- the pavement which was

    first discovered . I did not measure it myself , but took down the dimensions from my guide ' s information . The room was thirty feet

    long , and nineteen wide , and there . "was a recess of twenty feet in width and twelve in . depth on the long side . The mosaic pavement

    of the recess represents a figure of Ganymede carried away by an eagleand surrounded by an irregular hexagon ; the larger

    pavement , is divided into six hexagonal compartments , within which are represented nymphs dancing—one has been utterly destroyed , and

    none , I think , are quite perfect , though enough remains to show the dress and attitudes of the figures .

    Between the ornamental part of the pavement and the walls , the space is filled up with coarse red tesselated pavement of about four

    feet in width—as we sometimes lay a painted floorcloth between our Turkey carpets and the walls of our dining room ! I should

    . mention that the corners of this room , and of some others , are not right anglesan irregularity which I believe was by no means

    uncommon in , Roman dwellings , even in palaces . In the middle of the six compartments just described is a

    hexagonal stone cistern , about _twenty inches in depth . —a luxurious contrivance for keeping fish fresh for the table . It is evident too ,

    that the apartment had been warmed by subterranean flues , some of which have given waythus causing the pavements to fall in and

    , be materially injured . The remains of brick stoves and of flues were likewise discovered in other parts of the ruin .

    The second shed I entered was built over a pavement which

    appears to have been originally about forty-four feet long and

    In The Weald Of Sussex. 245

    IN THE WEALD OF SUSSEX . 245

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 245, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/29/