Proceedings at the Meetings of the Archaeological Institute.
April 5, 1850.
The Earl of Enniskillen, V. P. in the Chair.
Mr. Birch gave an account of the remains of a Roman Villa, discovered on the estates of the Duke of Grafton, near Wakefield Lodge, in Whittlebury Forest. Having been invited by her Grace, who had taken much interest in the progress of the discovery, to examine the site, Mr. Birch had recently inspected these vestiges of Roman occupation, situated near the Watling Street, from which they are distant about a quarter of a mile; the position being about a mile north of the Duke's residence, and nearly four miles from Stony Stratford. The Roman station of LACTODURUM, Towcester, was at no great distance on the north. Two months previously, some labourers employed in digging stones had noticed certain foundations projecting above the soil, in a part of the Forest known as Houghton Copse. Excavations were commenced, and the plan of a villa was brought to view, consisting of twelve rooms, three of them, on the eastern side, provided with hypocausts; also a labrum or bath, in a chamber, leading to which, two human skeletons were found, and several others in various parts of the Villa. In this circumstance, and the general aspect of the remains, Mr. Birch had traced indications of sudden and violent revolt or outrage, during which the building and its foreign occupants had perished. No object was found in an entire state. Northward of the Villa, remains of a building had been found, enclosing a tessellated pavement, of rather coarse workmanship: in the central compartment is pourtrayed a radiated head; coins of Tetricus (A.D. 267) and Maximianus (A.D. 286) were discovered; a small stone pedestal, about nine inches square, possibly for a miniature statue; some large stone weights, perhaps used, Mr. Birch suggested, as a counterpoise for the clypeus of the bath; similar weights are preserved in the Ashmolean Museum. The roots of trees had partly penetrated through the joints of the mosaic work, and the pavement was in imperfect condition. Numerous lozenge-shaped roofing-tiles were found, resembling those discovered at Bisley, Gloucestershire, as described in a former volume of the Journal,[1] and noticed with Roman remains in other localities. This kind of scaled covering appears to have been the opus pavoninum of Vitruvius. Mr. Neville remarked that he had found similar roofing-stones, of a material foreign to the locality, amongst the remains of Roman buildings at Ickleton; and stated, that in the course of his extensive excavations at that place and at Chesterford, he had never met with any stone weights similar to those described by Mr. Birch.
A more detailed notice of the interesting remains to which, through the kindness of her Grace, the Duchess of Grafton, the attention of the Society has been directed, will be given with a plan of the site, in a future Journal.
