Chedworth, Gloucestershire.--The remains of a large Roman villa were discovered here in 1866, on ground which had been covered with wood from time immemorial.No suspicion seems ever to have been entertained that ancient buildings lay buried here, until a gamekeeper, in digging for rabbits, encountered some remains. But subsequently the tops of some stone walls were detected in parts of the wood, projecting a little above the surface of the ground.Most of the coins found here belonged to Constans (who died 350 A.D.) and the Constantine family.My sons Francis and Horace visited the place in November 1877, for the sake of ascertaining what part worms may have played in the burial of these extensive remains.But the circumstances were not favourable for thisobject, as the ruins are surrounded on three sides by rather steep banks, down which earth is washed during rainy weather.Moreover most of the old rooms have been covered with roofs, for the protection of the elegant tesselated pavements.
A few facts may, however, be given on the thickness of the soil over these ruins.Close outside the northern rooms there is a broken wall, the summit of which was covered by 5 inches of black mould; and in a hole dug on the outer side of this wall, where the ground had never before been disturbed, black mould, full of stones, 26 inches in thickness, was found, resting on the undisturbed sub-soil of yellow clay.At a depth of 22 inches from the surface a pig's jaw and a fragment of a tile were found.When the excavations were first made, some large trees grew over the ruins; and the stump of one has been left directly over a party- wall near the bath-room, for the sake of showing the thickness of the superincumbent soil, which was here 38 inches.In one small room, which, after being cleared out, had not been roofed over, my sons observed the hole of a worm passing through the rotten concrete, and a living worm was found within the concrete.In another open room worm-castings were seen on the floor, over which some earth had by this means been deposited, and here grass now grew.
Brading, Isle of Wight.--A fine Roman villa was discovered here in 1880; and by the end of October no less than 18 chambers had been more or less cleared.A coin dated 337 A.D.was found.My son William visited the place before the excavations were completed; and he informs me that most of the floors were at first covered with much rubbish and fallen stones, having their interstices completely filled up with mould, abounding, as the workmen said, with worms, above which there was mould without any stones.The whole mass was in most places from 3 to above 4 ft.in thickness.In one very large room the overlying earth was only 2 ft.6 in.thick; and after this had been removed, so many castings were thrown up between the tiles that the surface had to be almost daily swept.Most of the floors were fairly level.The tops of the broken-down walls were covered in some places by only 4 or 5 inches of soil, so that they were occasionally struck by the plough, but in other places they were covered by from 13 to18 inches of soil.It is not probable that these walls could have been undermined by worms and subsided, as they rested on a foundation of very hard red sand, into which worms could hardly burrow.The mortar, however, between the stones of the walls of a hypocaust was found by my son to have been penetrated by many worm-burrows.The remains of this villa stand on land which slopes at an angle of about 3 degrees; and the land appears to have been long cultivated.Therefore no doubt a considerable quantity of fine earth has been washed down from the upper parts of the field, and has largely aided in the burial of these remains.
Silchester, Hampshire.--The ruins of this small Roman town have been better preserved than any other remains of the kind in England.A broken wall, in most parts from 15 to 18 feet in height and about 1.5 mile in compass, now surrounds a space of about 100 acres of cultivated land, on which a farm-house and a church stand. Formerly, when the weather was dry, the lines of the buried walls could be traced by the appearance of the crops; and recently very extensive excavations have been undertaken by the Duke of Wellington, under the superintendence of the late Rev.J.G.Joyce, by which means many large buildings have been discovered.Mr.Joyce made careful coloured sections, and measured the thickness of each bed of rubbish, whilst the excavations were in progress; and he has had the kindness to send me copies of several of them.When my sons Francis and Horace visited these ruins, he accompanied them, and added his notes to theirs.
Mr.Joyce estimates that the town was inhabited by the Romans for about three centuries; and no doubt much matter must have accumulated within the walls during this long period.It appears to have been destroyed by fire, and most of the stones used in the buildings have since been carried away.These circumstances are unfavourable for ascertaining the part which worms have played in the burial of the ruins; but as careful sections of the rubbish overlying an ancient town have seldom or never before been made in England, I will give copies of the most characteristic portions of some of those made by Mr.Joyce.They are of too great length to be here introduced entire.