A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE together such traces of Roman occupation as have been found in both places. Chief of these is the villa on Castle Hill to which attention was first drawn by the number of flanged roof-tiles seen on the spot. Excavations were in consequence begun in October 1886 under the direction of Mr. Rutland, F.G.S., who communicated the results to the Maidenhead and Taplow Field Club in a paper read in October 1891 [Maidenhead and la-plow Field, Club, etc. Rep. (1890-1) 50-2]. Fragments of Romano-British pottery were first discovered. A furnace surrounded by walls, 2 feet deep, if feet wide and 10 feet long, of the usual Roman brick, was laid bare, and masses of foundations of flints and chalk stones, embedded in a very hard mortar, composed of chalk lime, sand, and pounded brick. On each side of the furnace, which was not paved or plastered, was a row of rough conglomerate gravel boulders. Near its mouth two coins of Tetricus, the elder and the younger (A.D. 267-273) and two pieces of Samian ware were found. There was a bronze pin in the ashes near it and much ordinary pottery, black, brown, grey and stone-coloured. Other foundations were found in this part of the building, one of which was probably the foundation layer of concrete for floors of tesserae. As the work proceeded a hypocaust with its pilae was discovered, and a kitchen midden. There were more fragments of Samian, animal bones, pieces of about sixty common vessels, square flue-tiles, roofing tiles used as bonding-tiles, and bits of wall plaster with traces of mural decoration. Twenty-seven pilae were found in situ and supported the square tiles on which was laid the thick bed of concrete forming the foundation for the tessellated floor above. Perhaps the most interesting discovery was that of the bath with a lead pipe for emptying it. Its floor was of concrete and brick, and finished on the inside with fine tesserae. Unfortunately the plough had obliterated all traces of floors and doorways in the other rooms and the north-west angle of the building had been destroyed by excavations for gravel. It was supposed that the villa, which must have been of con- siderable size, had been explored before, as some of the pilae of the hypocaust and a large portion of the outer wall had been removed. A Roman quern was picked up on the site, and opposite the villa a coin of Constantine, a bead of Kimmeridge clay, two nails and an iron loop were found. In ' Maidenhead Thicket,' two miles west of the town, are some pits and a circular entrenchment supposed to be British. Not far off, on the opposite side of the so-called ' Thicket ' there are two other earthworks, both quadrangular, one of which, called ' Robin Hood's Arbour,' is 235 feet square with an entrance in the north side. It is supposed that both of these are Roman [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. Oct. 1901, p. 95]. Roman coins and fragments of armour and weapons are said to have been ploughed up at different times before the close of the eighteenth century, in the Easthay, a common field to the east of Bray [Gent. Mag. 1795, ii. 629, 630]. About the same time, too, a short piece of a Roman highway is also said to have been discovered between the river and the east corner of the churchyard [Ibid]. There are also said to be traces of a Roman road from Braywick to the tumulus at Cockmarsh in the parish of Cookham [Kerry, Hist, and Antiq. of Hundred of Bray, 150-3], and a few Roman coins, two of Antonine, have been found on its site. A broad ridge, 300 yards in length, to the south of Bray- wick, was supposed to show the line of this road in the opposite direction, a belief sup- ported by the discovery close by of a fine Roman urn containing charred bones and ashes. Numerous Roman coins, ranging from Vespasian to Arcadius (A.D. 70-408), have been found in Arbour Field and Down Place, Bray [Ibid.]. In 1837 two urns of rude workmanship were found about a mile east of Maidenhead Bridge on the Great Western Railway [Numismatic Journ. ii. 194]. They contained from four to five hundred coins of Roman emperors and empresses from Othotothe Antonines (A.D. 69-180). Camden and some other early antiquaries identified Bray with the Bibracte of the wholly untrust- worthy Richard of Cirencester. It may be noticed, however, in connexion with this question that the only Bibracte of which we have any certain knowledge was a town in Gaul which is described by Caesar. No mention of a Bibracte in Britain occurs in the Roman general's account of his invasion, and the solitary reference in Richard of Ciren- cester is our only authority for the existence of this place. BRIGHTWELL. Samian and other Roman pottery found in a gravel pit about 500 yards north of Lower Hill Farm [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. July 1898, p. 44]. Small brass coins from Tetricus to Allectus (A.D. 267-94) turned up in the garden of Slade End Farm [Ibid.]. A denarius of Geta (A.D. 209-12) from the village [Quart. Journ. Berks Arch. 204
