liefs of our race with regard to certain matters. And in our ignorance both of the past and of the present-of what we have been and what we are-nothing that casts light on human ways and habits can wisely be neglected. "Nihil alienum."

The Roman Villa at Morton, Isle of Wight.

By C. ROACH SMITH, F.S.A.

HE recent discoveries made at Morton have excited much interest, for they have added an important page to the hitherto somewhat barren annals of the island in the Romano-British epoch. This interest is sustained by the promised resumption of the excavations which have led to the discoveries when the winter shail have passed away. Until the researches are completed, of course, a full account of the villa cannot be given; but, in the meantime, the Messrs. Price, the executive members of the committee of management, have issued full and good reports, as well as a guide which has reached five editions. Mr. Cornelius Nicholson, F.S.A., has published a descriptive account, and I also have printed some brief remarks, to which I now make a few additional observations, chiefly with a view to direct general attention to the subject as well as to supply some omissions on my own part, and to offer comments for the consideration

*

of our friends and colleagues in their future publications.

Following soon after the discovery of the Roman villa at Carisbrooke, to which a Guide was published by Mr. Spickernell; an account by Mr. Hillier, in his History and Antiquities of the Isle of Wight; and an illustrated description by myself,† came a

* A Description of the Remains of Roman Buildings at Morton, near Brading, Isle of Wight. By John E. Price, F.S.A., and F. G. Hilton Price, F.G.S. 4to. London: 1881. A Guide to the Roman Villa recently discovered at Morton, Isle of Wight. By the

same.

Fifth Edition. A Descriptive Account of the recently discovered Roman Villa, near Brading. By Cornelius Nicholson, F.G.S., F.S.A. 4to. London: 1880.

+ Collectanea Antiqua, vol. vii. p. 236–240. Vol. vi. contains a view by Mr. Hillier, of the chief rooms

revelation that Mr. John Lock, jun., had detected the foundations of Roman buildings at Combly, on the north of Arreton Down. Of this I printed a slight notice in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1867, Part I. p. 791. I had visited the spot, and went over the ground with Mr. Lock himself.

About the same time, the late Rev. Edmund Kell printed in the Fournal of the British Archaeological Association (for December, 1866), an "Account of a Discovery of a Roman building in Gurnard Bay," on the north side of the island. I am glad with the chance of protesting against the Association allowing my friend, Mr. Kell, to draw comparisons between the plates of Roman signacula in my Collectanea Antiqua, and his plate of leaden "dumps," found at Gurnard Bay, without any disclaimer or whisper that they correspond in no one point, farther than gination of my friend could transmute modern that they are both in lead. If the warm imapieces of lead stamped with the initials of publicans and other traders, into seals like the elegant Roman seals of Brough-uponStanmore and other places, an Association working through a Committee should not give way to flights of fancy, or allow itself to endorse such misleading views. Under its present management, I believe it would be impossible. The Greek coins described in the same paper as found at Newtown appear with strongly expressed doubts of this parentage by Mr. Bergne, one of our most eminent numismatists. Such discoveries demand the strictest caution, and reliable confirmatory evidence. But the building, since carried off to sea, by the foundering of the cliff, was undoubtedly Roman; and Mr. Kell has our grateful thanks for recording the discovery, which, but for him, would have been lost sight of; and we are indebted to him for the record of other discoveries in the island and also on the mainland. His opinion that the town of Newport is of Roman origin is not based upon a single authenticated fact that would warrant such a notion.

At the same time as I recorded Mr. Lock's discovery, I mentioned the exhumation of Roman urns at Swanmore, near Ryde. I do not find Dr. Barrow's name appended; but I with the painted walls; a view of the chief pavement; the bath; and a general plan.

believe we owe the discovery to him. In the western part of the island vestiges of Roman Occupation have been found by Mr. Kell and the late Dr. Wilkins; but the remains of villas are confined to Carisbrooke, Combly, and Morton. There is good reason to look for the chief place, possibly a considerable vicus, or village, not at Newport, but at Carisbrooke, along the valley towards Bowcombe. Mr. Hillier told me that he had noticed evidences of buildings in this direction. On this side of the castle Roman coins have been found from time to time, among which may be noted one in gold of Libius Severus in the cabinet of my cousin, Mr. Frederick Roach; and one in gold of Majorianus, the fate of which I do not at present recollect. Mr. Roach possesses other coins found in the island, one of which is of Maximianus, in gold, from Chale.

Mr. Alfred Mew, many years since, told me of a hoard of brass coins of the Higher Empire dug up at or near Barton. Well-authenticated discoveries of hoards of the small brass of Arcadius and Honorius, and of the close preceding emperors, have been made at Cliffe, at Wroxall, and near Haven Street. At Farringford, near Freshwater, on the property of Mr. Tennyson, some 250 of an intermediate epoch have been exhumed. I believe no detailed notice of them has been printed; but the Messrs. Price, in their latest publication, state, on the authority of Mr. Tennyson himself, that they are chiefly of Gallienus, Postumus, Claudius Gothicus, and Tetricus. In cases such as this the eye of an experienced numismatist is indispensable. If there be no coin in the hoard later than those of Tetricus, the deposit must be ascribed to the great event which closed the ascendency of Tetricus, and drew with him from Britain a large army, the soldiers of which buried the money they could not easily carry. The Netley hoard is one of numerous instances, the historical significance of which has not been recognized.*

I come now to the Roman villa. It is not, as has been so persistently stated, at Brading; but at Morton, which is at some little distance from Brading. It is on the right of the road to Sandown, and on the left of that to Adge*Journal of the British Archæological Association for June, 1867.

stone, Alverstone, and Arreton. It is of easy access from the railway stations of Brading and Sandown; and a fifth edition of the Messrs. Price's Guide shows how much interest has been excited in these populous and now fashionable localities by the unexpected and interesting discovery. To Captain John Thorp alone is due the credit of contributing this important addition to the archæology of the island. He probed many hundred square yards of land, for a year at least, to certify himself of the extent and position of the remains of Roman habitations on that identical spot. The result is before us, and well set forth in the works referred to, which, as they may be supposed to be on the table of all readers of THE ANTIQUARY, obviate my going over the general description. I confine myself, therefore, to a few remarks. few remarks. Particularly, I draw attention to the figure with a man's body and the head and feet of a cock. I have ever considered it a caricature, and I see no reason to change my opinion. The designs of the flooring of the apartment in which it appears are, like most of the pictorial representations of the villa, of inferior workmanship, and they tell no consecutive story. The tessellarius, or worker in tessellated pavements, seems to have been well supplied with subjects, which he used without any notion of general congruity, but solely to suit circumstances and his own fancy. Occasionally in other villas the name of a mythological subject is inserted, and usually where there is no need, for attributes sufficiently explain. Here, where some indication of the artist's meaning would have been acceptable, there is no clue. The building, I submit, is a sacellum, or small temple, approached by a flight of steps, which the artist, to fill up and balance his picture, has placed sideways. The only representation in the Roman mythology, that I know of, of a human body with an animal's head is that of the dog-headed Anubis, so often mentioned by the ancient writers, and so commonly represented, as upon the coins of Julian the Apostate; and in one instance upon a coin of the younger Tetricus, which is here of especial interest. Although from early times the deities of Egypt had made their way to Italy and to the Roman provinces, they were not universally adopted, but often ridiculed. As, therefore, we can find no real divinity

half a century, sacrificed the produce of the land, at great cost, never having been adequately compensated by the public. The villa is not in the beaten track of fashionable life; and only the few earnest archeologists visit it. By the pedestrian it is best approached upon the Roman road, from Halnaker, near Chichester, which is in good preservation, and from which, just before it descends the high ground opposite the village of Bognor, the site of the villa can be seen. Or, it can be easily reached from Arundel by walking across the downs in a direct line; or by the longer and circuitous carriage road. The plan of the Bignor villa, like that of Woodchester, is more regular than that of most of our villas; but scarcely to be reconciled to the rules laid down by Vitruvius as some have attempted to show, not considering the difference of climate and other influences. It is remarkable that under this villa were found walls that appeared to have belonged to an older building; and similar evidence of two epochs have been noticed at Morton and in many other villas. The hypocaust over the wall, as shown in the plans of the Messrs. Price's "Description," is an instance. The long series of apartments to which this wall was an appendage, resemble in character and position those to be seen in the plans of other large villas. They must certainly, I believe, represent the buildings required for the granaries, the store-rooms, the stabling, the stalls for oxen, and other necessary constituents of villa rustica, among which are to be looked for rooms for the labourers, and that most essential appendage, the bakehouse, which it is possible may be represented in the latest discovered apartment, No. xxxi. of the Plan in the "Description."

The Traditional

where adorn the landscape. The sources of this interest are very various. Some structures have important claims in an architectural sense; others arrest the attention of the antiquary by their great age, their unique character, or other peculiarities; while a still larger number are famous for the great events of which they have been the scene, or the historic names associated with them. Balwearie Castle, the subject of this sketch, belongs to what may be called the historical, or legendary category. It has its own interest, doubtless, as a venerable relic of the Middle Ages, and as a fair example of the fortified houses of the lesser Scottish barons of the period; but its chief title to the regard of posterity is its association with the name of Michael Scot, the Wizard, who is said to have been born in it early in the thirteenth century.

The situation, on the south-east coast of Fifeshire, amid highly diversified scenery, is peculiar and interesting. Three or four small valleys, with gently-sloping uplands between, run in a north-westerly direction for a mile or two above Kirkcaldy (the birth-place of Adam Smith), flanked on the whole north-eastern side by the magnificent woodlands of Raith. On one of these flattish ridges, at the extremity of a solitary, weird-looking, treeless road, is the old tower, or keep, described by Sibbald, in his History of Fife as "ruinous," nearly two centuries ago. It is a little over thirty feet within the walls, of the usual type of the lesser baronial residences, the chief apartment, or hall, occupying the greater part of the middle floor, with two stories above, and two of a ruder sort below.* Only the eastern side now remains, with a small portion of the north and south walls, about one-half of the castle having fallen about a hundred years ago. This is the more surprising, as the remnant looks solid enough to endure for ages. It is built of freestone of a peculiarly close and durable.

the Wizard.

O single feature in the aspect of an old country, as compared with a new one, possesses more interest to an intelligent stranger than the ruins, secular and ecclesiastical, which every

A constantly recurring thought in examining such tiny old castles, is how the ordinary amenities of life could be observed with the limited accommoda

tion. There are very conflicting opinions regarding the amount of refinement to be found in these early households. Professor Cosmo Innes, in his work, Scotland in the Middle Ages, presents a humiliating picture of the rude manners and habits usual among the small landowners at the period.

are still sharply defined, showing no signs of decay. If the old ballad may be trusted, the castle was the work of a foreign mason; and this is likely enough on other grounds. The hall must have been a handsome chamber, with pleasant recessed windows looking south, east, and possibly west. The remains of one, apparently with transoms, and larger than the others, on the south wall, suggests the inference that the principal outlook would be in this direction. The building is about sixty feet in height, with a projecting parapet, supported on a corbel course. From the top there is a limited view of the coast, the Bass Rock, and the German Ocean visible in the extreme distance.

Anciently the castle, which is supposed to be about six hundred years old, was encompassed by a lake on the south side, the bed of which is now a verdant valley. That this is no fancy is sufficiently proved by the physical conditions of the site, which would easily admit of a lake being again formed. But there is another bit of more direct evidence. The tenant of the adjoining farın, a gentleman born on the spot, and in every way worthy from taste and culture to be the custodian of such an interesting ruin, possesses a small sketch of the castle as it was about 200 years ago. It represents the building much more entire than it now is, with a lake reaching to the foot of the south wall. A boat, with figures, is seen on the water, and on the margin of the drawing is a small chapel. Not a vestige of the latter now remains, but its existence is corroborated by a portion of the mullion of a church window found in the neighbourhood, and now in the possession of the gentleman referred to. What a singular verification of a once actual fact, but of which no other record exists, these two waifs from the stream of time present! An old rude picture and a little fragment of carved stone, both telling their story so plainly, and each a silent witness to the truth of the other. They speak of a time when the lairds of Balwearie were great and extensive landholders, in the county where, territorially at least, their name is now unknown. And the lord of the broad domains,* of which Balwearie forms a part, may find, as * Balwearie now belongs to the Fergusons of Raith.

he looks down from his stately home, across the valley, on the ruins of six centuries, a fit theme on which to moralize on the vicissitudes of families. Here, from Lamont's Diary, is a little incidental note, possessing a certain touching interest, as probably the very last record of the family in their native district:

1666. August.-Robert Whyte, provest of Kirkcaldie, depairted out of this life, at his howse ther, and was interred at the said church, August 6, in the

daytime. That same day also a daughter of the deceased Balweirry, surnamed Scot, above sixty years of age, never married, was interred in the said place.

The account of the descent of the Scot family in Douglas' Baronage is, perhaps, a tolerable approximation to the truth; at least we have been able to verify, from other sources, many of the entries. The family was for a long period an influential one among the lesser barons. A rather unusual circumstance is that the estate was handed down direct from father to son during the whole period they flourished. But as Douglas sometimes only mentions the eldest son's name, it is not easy in every case to reconcile his chronology with that of other known occurrences. The interesting question, for example, of the exact relationship of Michael Scot, the Wizard, has never been satisfactorily explained. By some it is said he was the fourth laird, the son of that Sir Michael who married the sole heiress of Sir Richard Balwearie of that ilk. Others think he was a cousin only. This latter hypothesis is the more probable of the two. A comparison of dates and occurrences shows that the philosopher could not have been either the second or third Sir Michael; and besides, if he had been "laird," it is very unlikely he would have remained abroad the greater part of his life. No actual evidence exists of his having returned home at all, although there is a tradition current in the district of his watching the stars from a lofty tower in the castle. That he is the Sir Michael who, with Sir Michael Wemyss, was sent to Norway in 1290, to bring home the granddaughter of Alexander III., is utterly untenable. He was in the height of his fame at the Court of Frederick II. about 1230, and he cannot therefore, be the same person who was an ambassador sixty years afterwards, still less the Michael Scot who, as we find in