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Lane, Watling Street, and St. John’s
Lane, and a shallow brick floor and hypocaust at Simon
Langton’s Schools. on the north—cast of High Street, in
Burgate Street, several rooms with tessellated floors, found
opposite No. 54 Burgate Street, indicate an extensive house.
The only piece examined was a mosaic panel 4 ft. square, of
rather rude work, bearing the hackneyed design of a
two-handled cup framed inside an inner circle of braid—work
(guilloche) and an outer square border of lozenge pattern. In
Sun Street and Guildhall Street substantial walling seems to
suggest two buildings not standing parallel or at right angles
to each other. Finally, at the north end of the inhabited
area, a tessellated floor points to a house near St.
Alphege’s Church. It is a brief list of twelve items. All
are fragments. Only one possesses individual interest.
Durovernum plainly included comfortable civilized houses
fitted in Roman fashion. But so far as our present knowledge
goes, it compares ill with country towns like Cirencester,
Dorchester, or even Winchester.10
A. Remains found wider or
immediately adjacent to High Street, the Parade and St.
George’s Street, described from west to east.
(1) Opposite All Saints’ Church, Pillbrow
found in 1867 a ‘fair face of a wall of solid masonry,’ 12
ft. long, running in line with the street, built of
squared stone on a concrete bed, 3 ft. to 4 ft. below the
surface (Arch. xliii, 154, no. 72). He took this to be
the west wall of the Roman town; Faussett thought it one side
of a medieval gate cut through the Roman wall and therefore
indirect evidence of its line (Arch. Journ. xxxii,
377), but he confused it with one of the walls to be
enumerated in (2). Its depth suggests that it is medieval, but
we know so little of it that conjecture is dangerous.
(2) Much has been recorded from that part of High
Street which lies between Stour Street (formerly Lamb Lane)
and White Horse Lane. In 1758 a mosaic, now lost but
well known by drawings (p. 67), was found only 3 ft. or
4 ft. underground, on the site now occupied by the County
Hotel; this mosaic is the same as that which Hasted ascribes
to Jewry Lane and the year 1739. Other fragments of
tessellation appear to have been noticed close by. We may
connect therewith some discoveries made in 1867-8 at the High
Street end of Stour Street—walling as of a house, Roman
potsherds and coins, a gold pin, oyster-shells, and traces of
destruction by fire (Arch. xliii, 156). Under High
Street itself, in front of the County Hotel, Pillbrow cut
three walls which crossed the street at right angles—the
first, 4 ft. thick, at 4 ft. east of Stour Street; the second,
of the same thickness, at 14 ft. east of the first; the third
8 ft. thick and 15 ft. further on. The tops of these walls
were 7 ft. below street level; their foundations were too deep
to be reached. About 20 ft. east of the third of these, in
front of the Fleur-de-Lis Hotel, came a fourth wall, 4 ft.
thick, with shallower foundations; this ‘ended in a pavement
of solid stone 12 in. thick,’ only 5 ft. below the street
surface, which extended to and up White Horse Lane (ibid. 154
nos. 73-6). Opposite the Fleur-de-Lis were discovered in 1861
some architectural fragments in oolite, described by Mr. Brent
as bases of columns with ornamented cornices, whole in 8 or 10
instances,’ and again as ‘bases of a cornice with chamfer
moulding and three half-roll mouldings,’ all, of course, now
lost (Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. II, i, 327; Arch. Cant.
iv, 35; Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. xvii, 59;
Cant. Olden Time, 11). Here also occurred a brick or tile
coffin of uncertain age (p. 79). Of these remains the mosaic
is Roman; the walling and architectural pieces were also taken
by their discoverers to be Roman, and their depth and position
under the street support this view. But their precise use is
obscure. They lie too near the outside limit of the inhabited
area for public buildings; they are not near enough to it for
a gateway in the Roman town wall, and they are rather solid
for a private house. Possibly they belong to a small temple,
but we know too little even to guess here. The masonry noted
under the County Hotel in 1895 seems post-Roman (Antiquary,
xxxi, 37).
(3) Opposite the west end of St. Mary Bredman
Church and under High Street a ‘foundation’ consisting of
flat heavy stones laid on buff Roman tiles was seen in 1867-8;
its age and construction are doubtful. At the same time and
opposite the east end of the same church was found a large
globular urn with small handles (25 in. high, 17 in. diam.,
now in Worthing Museum) containing 41 coins, some of
Carausius, but mostly illegible (Arch. xliii, 155
nos.654., 55). Here, too, in 186o were noted a
‘regular pavement of cement,’ an embossed Samian bowl, a
Samian saucer stamped CLEMEM, and
some flue tiles (Arch. Cant. iv, 36). A little
eastwards, in front of the Capital
10 Arch Cant. lxix, 166; V.C.H.
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