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Show 196 BURIAL OF TilE REMAINS CnAP. IV. sand, little fragments of rock, bricks or tj}o ; and such substances could hardly be agreeable, and certainly not nutritious, to worms. My son dug holes in several places within the fvrrner walls of the abbey, at a di tance of several yards from the above described bricked squares. Flo did not find any tiles, though these are known to occur in some other parts, but he came in one spot to concrete on which tiles had once rested. The fine mould beneath the turf on the ~ides of the several holes, varied iu thicknct1s from only 2 to 2 ~ inches, and this rested on a layer from 8~ to above 11 inches in thickn es. , consisting of fragments of mortar and stone- , rubbish with the interstices compactly filled up with black mould. In the surrounding field, at a distance of 20 yards from the abbey, the fine vegetable mould was 11 inches thick \V e may conclude from th ese facts that when the abbey was destroyed and the stones removed, a layer of rubbish was loft over the whole surface, and that as soon as the worm were able to penetrate the decayed concrete and the joints between the tiles, they slowly CIIAP. IV. OF ANCIEN'r l3UlLDINGS. 197 filled up the interstices in the overlying rubbish with their castings, which were afterwards accumulated to a thickness of nearly three inches over the whole surface. If we add to this latter amount the rnould between the fragments of stones, some five or six inches of mould must have been brought up from beneath the concrete or tiles. The concrete or tiles will consequently have subsided to nearly this amount. The bases of the columns of the aisles are now buried beneath mould and turf. It is not probable that they can have been undermined by worms, for their foundations would no doubt have been laid at a considerable depth. If they have not subsided, the stones of which the columns were constructed must have been removed from beneath the former level of the floor. Clwdworth, Gloucesterslti1·e.-The remains of a large Roman villa were di covered here in 1866, on ground which had been covered with wood from time immemorial. No suspicion seems ever to have been entertained that ancient buildings Jay buried here, until a ga~ekeeper, in digging for rabbits, |