of it must have been laid out at once. At any rate, the area of
which the 'insulae' numbered X, XXI, XXXV, and XIX form the corners,
and the Forum the centre, must have been planned complete from the
first. This covers just 40 acres, and is divided into rectangular
plots of which the smallest covers a little less than an acre and a
half, while the largest fall little short of 3-1/2 acres.[109] Outside
this area, the division of the town into 'insulae' is less completely
carried through, although most of the streets run straight on as far
as the walls, and one or two details may tempt us to think that the
division into 'insulae' was at some time extended beyond the line
ultimately taken by the walls.

[109] The plots are of three sizes, two being 3-4 acres (128 x
130 yds.), six about 2.4 acres (128 x 89 yds.), and six about 1.4
acres (89 x 80 yds.). In the third size the dimension of 240
Roman feet (p. 79) can perhaps be recognized.

[Illustration: FIG. 32. DETAILS OF FOUR INSULAE, THE FORUM AND THE
CHURCH AT SILCHESTER. (From _Archaeologia_.)]

But whatever the exact amount of Roman building and Roman street-plan
given to Silchester when it was first laid out, the place is not in
effect a real town. It is not merely that, as I have said, the houses
do not form continuous streets. A glance at the houses will show that
they could not possibly be fitted into streets. The types of house
here visible are not town houses. They are the types which appear
among the 'villas', that is, the landlords' or the farmers' dwellings,
up and down the rural districts of Roman Britain and northern Gaul,
and the town which they constitute is a conglomeration of country
houses. The reverse has taken place of that which we often see to-day
in England. Our modern builders and architects had--until perhaps
quite recently--only one idea of a small house, the house, namely,
which to-day characterizes the monotonous streets in the poorer
quarters of our new towns, with its front door and bow window on one
side, its offices behind, and its two other sides left blank for other
houses to stand against. This is a town house. Yet our modern builders
use it, all by itself, in the most desolate country districts. I came
across one such not long ago, when driving over a lonely valley in
Exmoor. There it stood, with no other house near it, yet with its two
sides blankly waiting for the street that ought to form itself to the
right and l