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THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR,

EVANGELICAL MISCELLANY.

JULY, 1848.

ROMAN REMAINS IN LONDON.

THE Roman remains represented in our engraving were discovered in January last, in digging for the foundations of the Coal Exchange, exactly opposite Billingsgate Market, Roman tiles and fragments being occasionally turned up by the workmen, it was for some time previously conjectured that some more important relics would be brought to light; and eventually the remains of a villa were exhumated, as they are here presented to our readers.

The portion of the house uncovered consists but of two rooms; the greater part of the building running beneath warehouses which are not destined for removal.

The extreme length of the ruins uncovered, is about fifteen yards. The walls are composed of the ordinary flat Roman tiles in regular layers, varied occasionally by a course of pale yellow tiles, and are about three feet four inches in thickness. The walls enclose a room paved with small red tessera; they have been made from the plain tiles, and also from the scored flue-tiles, traces of the ornament upon which are occasionally visible on their surface. They are laid upon a concrete composed of quicklime, sand, and pounded tiles, with a mixture of small stones. To the right of this apartment is a doorway which leads into some other room, at the back of the seat seen in the semicircular apartment adjoining. This latter apartment has had its walls destroyed at some very early period,

except a fragment which appears beside the seat. But, from vestiges remaining, it would seem that the semicircular wall was formed of Kentish rag-stones; thus affording a contrast to the other portion of the building. The floor of this room is composed like the former, with the exception of the tesseræ; for it seems to have been merely strewn with pounded tile.

Beneath the floor appears a hypocaust, (plainly shewn by the partial removal of the covering, to the left of our engraving) formed of columns about two feet in height, each consisting of fourteen tiles about twelve inches square. These are connected at top by larger tiles, which form the substructure of the floor. Flue-tiles, with varied patterns incised on their surfaces, have been discovered, and which originally conveyed warm air up the sides of the building. The site of the furnace has not yet been made known. A seat, constructed entirely of Roman brick, and wide enough to accommodate two persons, appears on one side of the flat wall of this room.

These remains are about thirteen feet below the level of Thames-street, and are singularly interesting from the circumstance of their foundation being laid upon wooden piles driven into the marshy land which at the time of their construction existed on the spot. A spring of clear water bursts from beneath the walls. The strata of different epochs are shown to great advantage by the present excavations, and, without a great stretch of the imagination, a spectator can form some notion of the features of this district before the civilizing hand of the Roman colonist reclaimed the site from the water, and rendered it habitable, and the chief seat of commerce in Roman Britain.

On the floor above the hypocaust are seen a Roman fluetile, with a pattern deeply indented on its upper surface, a different pattern appearing on the under one, the lid of a Roman vase of black earth, and a flat Roman tile with a simple pattern.

THE LIVING RILL.

THE establishment kept by the three accomplished sisters, was called a finishing school-a term still often used, though what is to be understood by it, we cannot devise, unless it may be, that in such schools young ladies are often rendered incapable of further improvement, and may thus be said to be 'finished.'

Immediately after the second Midsummer vacation spent by Barbara at school, a young lady arrived from a Bath seminary, who, being but seventeen years of age, was to make the most of her time with masters until she was eighteen, when she was to be introduced, or as it is fashionably termed, " brought out," and initiated in all the frivolous gaieties of life.

This young lady-by name Emmeline Loveday-had been at various schools, and now she was not to be a common pupil, but a parlour boarder. Miss Loveday was so elegant, so accomplished, and above all, knew what she esteemed her own consequence to be, so very well, that even the two little Miss Lushingtons were down to the ground to her, praising and flattering and caressing her whenever she honored the school room with her company.

Of course the reader has found out that this Miss Emmeline was the same to whom Barbara addressed the letter which has been before given,* though it really was not written till the Christmas holidays afterwards.

One evening after Miss Loveday had been spending most of its hours in learning from one of the teachers how to do what was called filagree work, which was in high fashion at that time, whilst sitting at supper in the parlour, with the heads of the house, she suddenly said, "By the by, Miss Philippa, who is that little girl in the white frock and purple bracers-with the pale face-who seems to belong to nobody, and is so very much obliged when one gives her a smile?

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"Miss Barbara Rokeby," replied Miss Philippa, "poor little thing; Mademoiselle will have it, that she is only half-witted, but there is no lack of intellect there, I am persuaded."

"None in the least," said Mrs. St. Leger; "but there is what will be much more against her in the world; she is unlike other

* At page 203.

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