d at
the west an apse of 10 feet radius, having in the centre a tesselated
pavement 6 feet square, presumably for the Altar.[227]

C. 11.--The main street of Silchester ran east and west, and _may_
have been the main road from London to Bath; while that which crosses
it at the forum was perhaps an extension of the Icknield Way
from Wallingford to Winchester. A third road led straight to Old
Sarum,[228] and there may have been others. Silchester lies about
half-way between Reading and Basingstoke.

C. 12.--The relics of domestic life found indicate a high order of
peaceful civilization. Abundance of domestic pottery (some of it
the glazed ware manufactured at Caistor on the Nen), many bones
of domestic animals (amongst them the cat),[229] finger-rings
with engraved gems, and the like, have been discovered in the old
wells[230] and ashpits. More remarkable was the unearthing (in 1899)
of the plant of a silver refinery,[231] showing that the method
employed was analogous to that in vogue amongst the Japanese to-day,
and that bone-ash was used in the construction of the hearths.[232]
The houses were mainly built of red clay (on a foundation wall of
flint and mortar) filled into a timber frame-work and supported by
lath or wattle. The exterior was stamped with ornamental patterns,
as in modern "parjetting" (which may thus very possibly be an actual
survival from Roman days). This clay has in most cases soaked away
into a mere layer of red mud overlying the pavements; but in 1901
there was unearthed a house in which a fortunate fire had calcined it
into permanent brick, still retaining the parjetting and the impress
of wattle and timber. But the whole site has not provided a single
weapon of any sort or kind, and the construction of the defences
clearly shows that they formed no part of the original plan on which
the place was laid out.[233] They were probably, as we have said,
added at the break up of the Pax Romana.

C. 13.--With the exception of the silver refinery above mentioned,
nothing has appeared to tell us what handicrafts were practised
at Silchester; but such industries formed a noteworthy feature of
Romano-British life. Naturally the largest traces have been left in
connection with that most imperishable of all commodities, pottery.
The kilns where it was made are frequently met with in excavations;
and individual vases, jugs,[234] cups, and amphorae (often of very
large dimensions) constantly appear. Many of