BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1923, Page 1

BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.

LONDON. August 20. Mueli curious information as to life in Britain during tho Roman occupation has Ik-cu collected by Sir Bertram AA’iodle in his new work, “The Romans in Britain”. It is always interesting and never dry. and for its accuracy we have the guarantee of the author's high reputation as a professor of anthropology. It is almost startling to discover that Cornish tin, in the remote ages before our history began, was c-a-t into ingots •shaped like tho knuckle iicr.es of sheep, ami that “ingots of bronze were cast in exactly the same form in Kmissus in Crete, some 2.C00 year.- b.c." Here is a point of contact between the mysterious Minorus, who wore the great seafarers in those far-off days and our ow n country. Britain under the Romans was physically very different from the Britain of the present : ■‘lf we could sail over the Britain of those days in all airship. . . the things which would really catch the attention would lie llso prevalence of immense woodlands, covering, indeed, al-

most the whole face of the country. . There were great s' v amrs ah a I c;;g the course of the Thames in ulower portions. Sedgomooi recoils the time when the waters ol tho Bristol Channel came tip* to Glastonbury. Radiating through the laud we-i'o lie seen the Roman roads, which, as ilia author says, were built to last cental ios. A Roman causeway in-sr Rock ester which was examined in 1*97 was I on ml to liv- thus made ; ‘ First of all. and deepest, came n '■'t-ics of piles, each Iff. in .length, and i-u Die--.' v■:> laid a kind of -ill of Hoi’ s of timber. Then canto in eider i- - :-,

below upwards lift. Gin. of flints and broken tiles, din. of rammed chalk and Tin. of (lint broken up fine, Din. of snitd gravel and earth, and last of all a polygonal pavement. Gill, to Sin. thick. The Homans liked comfort, and iusjsted iiii central heating. They ‘knew' all about leap piping and had rising mains even with expansion hoxe«, to supply t'aeir house with water. I heir .'theme was to make a furnace belo.v the level of the ground door and eutside the house. The heat from this passed into a series of low chambers under the floors of the rooms.