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Show 176 BURIAL OF THE REMAINS CnAr. IV. CJ-I.APTER IV. TilE P .AR 'l' WIIIOH WORM .R.. IIAVE PLAYED IN TilE BURIAL OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 'l'he accnmnlation of rubbish on the sites of great cities i n~lependent of the action of worms-The burial of a Homan v1lla at Abincrcr-The floors and walls penetrated by wormsSubsiden~ e of a modern pavement-The buried pavcm~nt at Beaulieu Abbey-Homan villas at Ch.edworth m;~ Bradm~-. The remains of the Roman town at S1lchcster-lhe natm~ oi the d6bris by which the remains are covered-'J'he pe~ c tratwn. of the tesselated floors and walls by worms-Subs1dence o{ the floors-Thickness of the mould-The old Roman cit! of \Vroxeter-'Thickncss of the mould-Depth of the foundatwns of some of the Buildings-Conclusion. ARCIIJ.EOLOGISTS are probably not aware how much they owe to worms for the preservation of many ancient objects. Coins, gold ornaments, stone implements, &c., if dropped on the surface of the ground, will infallibly be buried by the castings of worms in a fe~ years, and will thus be safely preserved, unt1l the land at some future time is turned up. For instance, many years ago a grass-:fie]d CHAP. IV. OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 177 was ploughed on the northern side of tbc Severn, not far from Shrewsbury; and a surprising number of iron arrow-heads were found at the bottom of the furrows) which, as ~1r. Blakeway, a local antiquary, believed, were relics of the battle of Shrewsbury in tl1c year 1403, and no doubt had been originally left strewed on the battle-field. In the present chapter I shall show that not only implements, &c., are thus preserved, but that the floors and the remains of many ancient buildings in England have been buried so effectually, in large part through tbe action of worms, that they have been discovered in recent times solely through various accident . The enormous beds of rubbish, several yards i11 thickness, which underlie many cities, such as Rome, Paris, and London, the lower ones being of great antiquity, are not hero referred to, as they have not been in any way acted on by worms. When we consider how much matter is daily brought into a great city for building, fuel, clothing and food, and that in old times when the roads were bad and the work of the scavenger was neglected, a comparatively small amount |
