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the left leg. It is good work of its kind, and may be
called either a Venus or, with greater likelihood, a nymph; but it was
probably mere decoration rather than a cult-statue. Many other objects,
including building-debris and several CL.BR tiles, have been found here
and hereabouts. Mention may be made of a ring of base white metal
bearing a sard intaglio set in a collet of gold and engraved with the
Greek letters HPAKAΔHC
and a horse.67
(6) In 1915, at the corner of Market Lane and Queen Street,
the Golden Canister grocer’s shop and the two next houses were
rebuilt. At a distance of 14 yards up Market Lane was found the
north face of a wall faced with blocks of tufa and chalk laid in
black-speckled white mortar. The core of the wall consisted largely of
re-used Roman building-material rather poorly mortared—bits of
concrete, tufa, chalk, tiles, etc., and a bearded head, of oolite, 7½
in. high. The head (P1. IX, Nos. 1, 2) is of fair workmanship; it is
probably a portrait of late second-century date. The wall was 6 ft.
thick as preserved, but its southern face had perished. It ran westwards
under the two adjacent premises. Its base was not revealed since it
descended below the maximum depth of the cuttings (10 ft.). A compact
wedge, sloping southwards, of Roman debris (including a CL.BR tile) lay
against its southern face, and over this a great mass of blown sand,
through which had been cut an old well, built of chalk, and other
structures.
The tufa- and chalk-faced wall was also found in making a
manhole in Market Lane itself, and on the east side of the Lane in
digging a petrol pit.
(7) About 40 yards farther east and 23 yards up Gaol Lane,
during the digging of a drain for a Labour Exchange (once Bacon’s, the
clock-maker, and now Thomas’s, the ironmonger), a mass of Roman
material was found from 1½ ft. from the pavement to a depth of 6 ft. It
consisted of bits of Roman tiles, white and pink mortar or concrete,
chunks of ragstone and tufa, a squared block of oolite, many flints and
pieces of chalk, together with oyster and other shells. An eye-witness
observed that the material ‘all seemed loosely mortared together’;
at the time it was doubtful whether the remains were part of a wall or
merely tipped rubbish. In the light of the subsequent discovery of the
wall off Market Lane (just described) Mr. Amos now believes that the
trench in Gaol Street had cut into a continuation of this wall, which
was of somewhat similar construction. If this identification is, as it
may well be, correct, then a length of 50 yards of this substantial, if
somewhat loosely built, wall can now be inferred. It would seem to be of
Roman date; its Roman materials are not determinate, but the wedge of
Roman debris against it, is suggestive.
(8) In 1923, on the south side of the Market Square, under
the Duchess of Kent public-house, at the point where it adjoins the
London and Westminster Bank, at the western corner of King Street, a
wall or platform of masonry about 3½ ft. high, built of flints, chalk,
tufa and green sandstone with good mortar, was found parallel to the
east wall of the Duchess of Kent, i.e. running roughly north and south
to a distance of about 15 ft. back from the north face of the building.
The width of the wall was not ascertained ; about 18 in. of it were
shorn off in the side of the trench. The surface of the
67 For the buildings, see Arch.
Journ. xxxviii, 432, and Arch. Cant. xx, 120, both far too
scanty. For the statue, see Arch. Cant. xviii, 202, with date of
discovery wrong. For the ring, see Arch. Journ. xxi, 263, xxxi, ,
355, and Ephemeris Epigr. iii, 146. |