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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 14  1882  page 136

The Roman Villa at Wingham by George Dowker, F.G.S.

north to south. The height of the south wall left standing is about 2ft. 8in. ; the bottom of this bath is paved with a concrete composed of broken tiles in mortar, and formed the ground on which the tesserę were laid. These have been almost entirely removed, except a portion some three or four inches wide, next the walls, where there are some of the grey tesserę remaining. The south and west walls of this bath, as well as portions of the east side, are covered with a tessellated mosaic; the lower fifteen inches in dark grey or slate-coloured tesserę, and the upper portion with white; the tesserę being cubes some half-inch square. These wall tesserę are smaller than those found at the bottom; they are embedded in a very compact concrete of mortar and pounded tile, about two inches in thickness. The east and west walls of the bath are composed entirely of Roman tiles, and are eighteen inches wide; the south wall appears to have been two feet thick, but at each corner has been much broken, probably at the time the posts of the fence were put down. In the centre of this wall are two large Roman tiles, which project outward from the wall six inches,

and appear as if they led to some more southerly room. In the south-west corner of the bath is a drain leading through the wall. The north of this bath has some steps leading up into another apartment; the steps appear to have been seven inches wide, but the tiles of which they were composed have been partly broken away, at fourteen inches in height from the bottom. These steps are four feet long, the north two feet being a wall of boulders; but at the east and west of these steps was a projection, that on the east (the most perfect) was eighteen inches wide, seventeen inches deep, and nine inches high; the inner surface being tessallated with a continuation of the tesserę of the east side of the bath, and rounded off at each corner. The corner next the succeeding apartment had white marble tesserę, and the same appear to have paved a seat, the red brick concrete of which alone remains; the west side of this step is much more broken. The bottom floor of this room is about 4ft 9in. from the surface of the field. The steps led up to an apartment No. 2. In the south-west corner was a drain leading through the wall.

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