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Plan of the Roman Remains at Duncton, Sufsex. April 1812.

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scene from Macbeth between the two chief prize-men, Rust and White, the former as Macbeth, the latter as Lady Macbeth. The wavering fear of Macbeth to execute the murder of Duacan, and the haughty, undaunted, and pitiless disposition of Lady Macbeth, were represented to the life, and the whole went off with great éclat. Several of the speakers obtained prizes. They were all treated with a handsome dinner by the Rev. Dr. Wooll, the learned, amiable, and accomplished master of the school. There was a ball and supper in the evening, which the Præposters were permitted to attend. Several of the speakers were seen in the ball-room tripping on the light fantastic toe, and enjoying, in the smiles of their fair partners, the richest reward of their exhibitious before them in the morning. The day following was a whole holiday, obtained at the request of the stewards; after which, no doubt, the boys would return to their studies with renewed alacrity, in consequence of having had their spirits refreshed and recruited by so agreeable an interval of relaxation in the midst of the halfyear, or, to speak in academical language, in the division of their term. I have nothing farther to add, Mr. Urban, than to express my hope that the report I have given of the late Anniversary, will excite the curiosity of many of your readers to visit Rugby on the next return of it as for the School itself, it requires no eulogy from my pen.

Mr. URBAN,

July 1.

THE discovery of the Roman Pavement at Bignor, in Sussex, having proved a source of considerable profit to the owner of the land, induced a farmer, in the neighbouring parish of Duncton, to permit his children to search on the side of a field, in a spot where the plough was unable to work, from the foundations of buildings being near the surface of the ground. This research (which was continued by the direction of the Earl of Egremont, the proprietor of the estate) led to the discovery of the Remains, of which I have sent you a correct Plan. (See Plate II.) The knowledge we possess of the domestic Buildings of the Romans being very imperfect, every information that can be gained GENT. MAG. July, 1816.

is desirable. Though this may add but little to the general stock, yet I hope it will not be wholly unacceptable to the Antiquary and Historian. The building extended farther to the West; for, on digging on that side, a hard bed of mortar is found, and the foundation of the wall extends farther to the North. I was fortunate in taking the plan soon after the remains were laid open; for, since that time, ignorance and wantonness have made great havock, in tearing up the pavement, throwing down the piers, and breaking the tiles. It consists of the remains of a Hypocaust; the building standing exactly North and South. At the South end is a room paved with tile, six feet six inches by eight feet four inches; the walls withinside, seventeen inches high, and nearly level with the ground withoutside: this was a room to heat the flue. The fire-place is on the North side of the room, and on that side the floor is raised six inches, forming two square divisions, one three feet six inches by three feet, the other, two feet four inches by three feet, leaving a passage between of twenty inches in breadth. In a line with this passage is the fireplace for heating the flues. This fireplace is seven feet five inches long, by two feet one inch and a half in breadth. The tiles it is paved with are much injured by the fire. The flues are divided into two divisions; the West side of the South division remains uncovered. The piers of the three uncovered flues are formed of tiles, seven inches and a half to nine inches square, each pier containing seven tiles. Two of the flues or openings are nine inches wide, and twelve inches high; the third is six inches wide, and fifteen inches high. The covering of the flues is formed with tiles (eleven inches by fifteen inches and a half in size). In some parts there are two tiles, one on the other, with mortar between (the mortar is formed, as usual in Roman buildings, of lime and brick rubbish, coarsely powdered); the whole covering being thirteen inches thick. On the top of the flues is a drain of semicircular tiles, four inches and a half in diameter, with a large square tile at the mouth (above this was the tesselated pavement; fragments of painted cement are found, but no tesselæ). Over one of these uncovered

flues

flues is a perpendicular cavity, six inches and a half by three inches, lined with tile; with a groove in the end tiles, one inch wide. The tile forming the top of the flue, on which the cavity descends, is of this form, the plain side uppermost; being, in all probability, a contrivance to regulate the heat, as the drain on the top was to carry off all moisture. When the remains were first laid open, the bases of the piers of the othes, or uucovered part of the South division, were to be seen; they were tiles eleven inches square; part of four of the piers were standing; the whole number was seventeen. The North division contained twelve piers; eight are perfect, being two feet three inches high, and seven inches and a half square; the bottom tile eleven inches square: each pier consists of thirteen tiles, with mortar between each tile. The floor under the piers is formed of double course tiles, eleven inches by fifteen inches and a half, with mortar between; and under the lower course the floor was covered with a black substance, resembling soot or powdered wood coal, near an inch in thickness. North of the flues is a compartment, four feet eight inches by eight feet in size. Beyond this compartment is a circular sinking in the earth, about three feet and a half in diameter; but whether it has been a compartment of that form, or a well, is uncertain adjoining to it, on the East side, is a square division or compartment, three feet by four feet two inches in size, and eleven inches deep; the bottom and sides formed of tiles; the side tiles fastened with cramps: within this square compartment was a curved division, formed of mortar and tiles (now destroyed). On the West side of this square is a piece of two inch lead pipe, passing through the wall, and communicating with a compartment of three sides; the South and East sides straight lines, the other of a curved form, considerably more than the fourth part of a circle; the bottom very neatly paved with tiles, the sides formed with cement, having a moulding of the same material all round the bottom of the compartment; on the East side a double moulding, apparently to break the fall of water. The remains of the sides are from eighteen inches to two feet four in height; the largest diameter,

three feet ten inches. When first discovered, this compartment was covered with a bed of solid mortar, nearly two feet in thickness. The walls of these remains are from eighteen inches to two feet in thickness. The dotted line shews the form of the line of the wall, on the West side of the building.

No. I. Room for heating the flues, paved with tile.

2. Flues remaining covered over on the top.

3. Perpendicular cavity.

4. Flues, the covering gone; the piers marked with double squares were perfect.

5. Compartment, not paved.

6. Circular sinking in the earth.

7. Square compartment, paved with tile, with a curved division, now destroyed.

8. Lead pipe.

9. Compartment very neatly paved with tile, with a moulding of cement round the sides.

10. Divisions raised six inches above the floor.

Duneton is a small village, standing on the North side of the South Downs (about three miles from Petworth, in the county of Sussex). These antiquities stand about one hundred and forty yards North-east from the church, on a rising ground, with a gentle slope on the North and East sides, and a steep bank on the West (in the bottom is a fine spring of water); the South side is level, until you begin to ascend the Downs, which is not more than four or five hundred yards distant. The situation is fine, commanding an extensive view from the West to the East. On the common, on the borders of the parish (near West Lands), is a large circular Barrow; another near Fitz-Lee; with three more between Coats and Bignor Park; the middle one of the three small, the two end ones large, with a hollow or depression in the centre.

The Roman road, called the Stone Street, passes about two miles Southeast from these remains. It leaves Chichester, the Regnum of the Romans, at the East gate, passing on the North side of Port Field, by Streetington (to which it gives name), and is the present highway to Halnaker. At the North end of Halnaker street it crosses a high bank and ditch, called the Devil's Ditch: near a poud the

present

present highway branches off to the right, to avoid the hill; the Roman road runs nearly North-east over Halnaker Down; on the East side of the Down, it enters the inclosures for a short distance, when it again falls into the present highway at Petworth, on the West side of Long Down : leaving the Petworth road, it passes on the North side of Long Down, and enters the woods to the North of Eartham village (and is a highway to Bignor); it enters the inclosed land, called Cumber, on the North side of Slinden. In many places the plough, and the custom of digging the headland for mould to lay under heaps of manure, has done it more injury in a few years, than the wear of seventeen centuries; but in one of the fields it is in fine preservation, and is about thirty feet in breadth. After quitting the inclosed lands, it gradually ascends to the verge of the Downs (which commands a most beautiful and extensive prospect, both to the sea and inland). Near the ridge of the Downs are many barrows of a circular form, scattered by the road side; in the year 1786 one of these barrows, called Hog's Barrow, was opened for materials to mend the roads, and the remains of several skeletons were found; but, no person conversant in antiquities being present, nothing further was discovered. On the brow of the hill the Roman road crosses another low bank and ditch, and gently descends the North side of the Downs, passing a short distance from where the Roman tesselated pavement was discovered at Bignor, in July 1811, in a direct line to Poleborough; from thence it proceeded over North Heath, by Billingshurst, Oakely, and Stunstead, to which it gives name, to Dorking, &c. The old inhabitants of the place have a tradition, now nearly lost, that a large Dragon had its den on Bignor Hill, and that marks of its folds were to be seen on the hill; a relick of remote antiquity, and of Celtic origin. The name of a large farm, crossed by the road, called Cumber, appears to be derived from the same source; as does the name of another farm near the road, called Glattin.

The low bank and ditch, crossed by the Stone Street, on the top of Bignor Hill, runs East and West for about a mile and a half, on the brow

of the hill; at the East end, it forms au acute angle to the Nortb, until it reaches the steep slope of the hill: near the place where it is crossed by the Stone Street is a break, that has the appearance of an entrance; at the West end is a low bank and ditch, running North and South across a neck of land that unites two deep cwms, that indent the North and South sides of the hill. The whole of this district appears to have been disputed, inch by inch, at some early period, probably prior to the Roman invasion, if we may judge by the number of Barrows and Intrenchments found on the Downs. About two miles South from hence is another high bank and ditch, called War Dyke, running nearly parallel with that on Bignor Hill. It passes West from the banks of the Arun through Houghton South Wood; where, in the year 1786, as some workmen were digging chalk near the bank, they found a large quantity of human bones, which appeared as if the bodies had been thrown into a hole in a confused manner. A short distance further to the West, in digging a pond near the bank, they found, about two feet under ground, an Urn, containing fragments of human bones. A short distance to the North, are several large Barrows. On gaining the top of the hill, the bank and ditch pursues a Westerly direction for near two miles, to the end of Houghton Rewel, where it is lost, except the high bank and ditch, called the Devil's Ditch, crossed by the Stone Street at Halnaker, be considered as a continuation of it. The Devil's Ditch pursues the same direction, and nearly in a line, and might have been a boundary of the Belge against the aboriginal inhabitants, when they invaded these coasts from Gaul. It is to be remarked, the ditches of all these banks are on the North side. The Devil's Ditch is to be traced a mile East of Halnaker, through Halnaker Park, by Waterbeach, through Goodwood Park and Fawley Wood, in a straight direction to Lavant, where it fell into the lines proceeding from Chichester, which proceeded from the East gate of Chichester, in a Northerly direction, to within forty yards of the East side of the Roman Camp on the Broil, by Summers Dale, to Ruemere, where it forms an acute angle, and proceeds

West

West through Lavant Park, where it was joined by the Devil's Ditch: from Lavant Park it proceeds in a very high ridge to Stoke Common, where it forms an acute angle, and pursues a South direction for a short distance; when, forming another acute angle, it pursuesa Westerly direction through Stoke Park and Woods, in a straight line to Stunstead and Rowlands, or Roman's Castle.

From the North West angle of the Broil Camp a high ridge, with a ditch on the North side, runs West for more than a mile; when, forming an acute angle on Densworth Common, it proceeds South to the head of Fishbourn Harbour, half a mile to the West of the spot where the Roman tesselated pavement was discovered in the year 1805. The whole country, for many miles, appears to have been defended by intrenchments, in all probability the work of the Belgic Britons, and partly of the Romans, who might take advantage of the works of their predecessors; and such might have been the origin (at least the hint) of that much larger work, the Picts'Wall. From the North gate of the city of Chichester another high bank proceeds, in a North West direction, passing near the grounds called the Campus (which, until these few years, was used as a play-ground by the scholars of the Grammar School in Chichester). A few years past, in digging through this bank, it was discovered to be an aqueduct, the water having been conveyed by earthen pipes, neatly fitted into each other. Yours, &c.

TH

S.

Mr. URBAN, Cowbridge,July 2. HE distress of the labouring part of the community, and, consequently, the great increase of the Poor-rates in every parish throughout the kingdom, bave long been a subject of very general and just complaint. The heavy demands which are andually made on the pockets of the laborious farmer, and industrious tradesman, in order to afford relief to the poor, are truly distressing, and alarming. Many excellent pamphlets have been written, to inquire into the origin, and, if possible, to prevent the growth of this evil; but I am surprized that none of them have at all taken notice of what appears to me to tend, in great measure, towards

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the promotion of this calamity; I mean, the vast sums which the poor are called upon to contribute towards the support of the Dissenting teachers and their establishment. That this argument will operate so strongly in England as it does in Wales, I am not prepared to state confidently, though I fear there is but little room for doubt on the subject: but in this deserted Principality, where Religious Quacks (for such every ignorant mechanick, who assumes to himself the office of a Preacher of the Gospel, must be called) cover the land, like the Locusts in Egypt, and devour every thing within their reach; I am bold enough to assert, that this, though perhaps not a principal, yet is certainly a co-operating cause of the enormous increase of the Poor-rates. Any one. who knows any thing of the state of Religion, or rather Irreligion, in Wales, will, I am sure, agree with me in saying, that, at the least, twothirds of the poor have, in some way or other, separated themselves from the Established Church. Having itching ears, they have heaped to themselves teachers, who must be supported at their expence; for these people, though they profess to talk a great deal about the things of heaven, yet by no means despise the things of the earth. Should there be a Bible Society established in any town or village, a penny per week is extracted from the pockets of these poor deluded individuals, not merely to procure Bibles for themselves, but for their neighbours, both at home and abroad. Should a School be erected under the auspices of the Dissenters, though it is called a Free School, yet another penny is extracted per week in support of this; to say nothing of the numerous pence which each individual preacher, to promote the glory of God, demands for his own private consumption. So that, upon the most moderate calculation, the sum of 15s. or 20s. is annually taken away from the mouths of every poor man's wife and children, in order to provide for the maintenance of every spiritualized bricklayer or taylor; which, if it were suffered to accumulate, in the course of a few years would be sufficient to provide against many of the contingencies to which human nature is exposed. Whereas, what is the case now?-should sickness overtake the

labourer,

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