saics were principally
laid by itinerant Italians. The idea is, of course, due to modern
analogies. It does not seem quite impossible, since the work is in a
sense that of an artist, and the pay might have been high enough to
attract stray decorators of good standing from the Continent. However,
no evidence exists to prove this or even to make it probable. The
mosaics of Roman Britain, with hardly an exception, are such as might
easily be made in a province which was capable of exporting skilled
workmen to Gaul (p. 57). They have also the appearance of imitative work
copied from patterns rather than of designs sketched by artists. It is
most natural to suppose that, like the Gaulish Samian ware--which is
imitative in just the same fashion--they are local products.]

[Illustration: FIG. 11. RESTORATION OF PAINTED PATTERN ON WALL-PLASTER
AT SILCHESTER. Showing a purely conventional style based on classical
models. (P. 34.) (_From Archaeologia._)]

Nor is the Roman fashion of house-fittings confined to the mansions of
the wealthy. Hypocausts and painted stucco, copied, though crudely, from
Roman originals, have been discovered in poor houses and in mean
villages.[1] They formed part, even there, of the ordinary environment
of life. They were not, as an eminent writer[2] calls them, 'a delicate
exotic varnish.' Indeed, I cannot recognize in our Romano-British
remains the contrast alleged by this writer 'between an exotic culture
of a higher order and a vernacular culture of a primitive kind'. There
were in Britain splendid houses and poor ones. But a continuous
gradation of all sorts of houses and all degrees of comfort connects
them, and there is no discernible breach in the scale. Throughout, the
dominant element is the Roman provincial fashion which is borrowed from
Italy.

[Footnote 1: R.C. Hoare, _Ancient Wilts, Roman Aera_, p. 127: 'On some
of the highest of our downs I have found stuccoed and painted walls, as
well as hypocausts, introduced into the rude settlements of the
Britons.' This is fully borne out by General Pitt-Rivers' discoveries
near Rushmore, to be mentioned below. Similar rude hypocausts were
opened some years ago in my presence at Eastbourne.]

[Footnote 2: Vinogradoff, _Growth of the Manor_, p. 39.]

We find Roman influence even in the most secluded villages of the upland
region. At Din Lligwy, on the northeast coast of Anglesea, recent
excavation (Fig. 12) has uncovered the ruins of a village e