mples of hypocausts. The floor of the room, called a
_suspensura_, is supported by fifty-four small pillars made of tiles.
Another good example of a similar floor exists at Cirencester, and many
more at Silchester.

[Illustration: TESSELATED PAVEMENT]

Here is a description of a Roman gentleman's house, as drawn by the
writer of _The History of Oxfordshire_:--

"His villa lay sheltered from wild winds partly by the rising brow of
the hill, and partly by belts of trees; it was turned towards the south,
and caught the full sun. In the spring the breath of his violet beds
would be as soft and sweet as in Oxfordshire woods to-day; in the summer
his quadrangle would be gay with calthae, and his colonnade festooned
with roses and helichryse. If we are to believe in the _triclinium
aestivum_ of Hakewill, it says much for the warmth of those far-away
summers that he was driven to build a summer dining-room with a north
aspect, and without heating flues. And when the long nights fell, and
winter cold set in, the slaves heaped higher the charcoal fires in the
_praefurnium_; the master sat in rooms far better warmed than Oxford
country houses now, or sunned himself at midday in the sheltered
quadrangle, taking his exercise in the warm side of the colonnade among
his gay stuccoes and fluted columns. Could we for a moment raise the
veil, we should probably find that the country life of 400 A.D. in
Oxfordshire was not so very dissimilar to that of to-day, ... and that
the well-to-do Roman of rustic Middle England was ... a useful,
peaceful, and a happy person."

CHAPTER VII

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGES

Departure of Romans--Coming of Saxons--Bede--Saxon names of places--
Saxon village--Common-field system--_Eorl_ and _ceorl_--Thanes,
_geburs_, and _cottiers_--Description of village life--Thane's
house--_Socmen_--Ploughman's lament--Village tradesmen--Parish
council--Hundreds--Shires.

The scene changes. The Roman legions have left our shores, and are
trying to prop the tottering state of the falling empire. The groans
of the Britons have fallen on listless or distracted ears, and no one
has come to their succour. The rule of the all-swaying Roman power has
passed away, and the Saxon hordes have poured over the hills and vales
of rural Britain, and made it the Angles' land--our England.

The coming of the Saxons was a very gradual movement. They did not
attack our shores in large armies on one or two occasions; they came
i