seventeen wide, and to have been divided into two large compartments. These are again subdivided into circles, hexagons, and ovals. Some parts are destroyed, probably by the falling in of the roof and walls-others have escaped with but slight injury, as the pavement, in which the figures of a bird, a dolphin, and a cornucopia remain.

The letters T R in Roman capitals are introduced in one of the spaces between the figures. Can they be the initials of the Roman governor of the province for whom we may suppose this villa to have been built?

One large compartment of this mosaic is divided into octagons, each of which contains a star, formed by interlacing squares. In the centre of one of them is a representation of the head of Winter, the whole of which, except the face, is wrapped in clothing, and a leafless branch bends over it. Perhaps the other three divisions

contained the heads of Spring, Summer and Autumn.

The mosaics are composed of stones varying in size from half an inch to one-sixth of an inch square, but the pieces used for the coarse outside work are of baked earth, and are about an inch square. The borders of the several compartments in this pavement are either braids, or what is often called the key pattern, or such scrolls as were commonly used in Roman works of this kind; indeed, they strongly reminded me of the copies I have seen of the architectural ornaments found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, both in design and color. The walls too of some of the apartments had been ornamented with paintings on the stucco, as was evident from the fragments which overlaid the pavements when they were first discovered; some of the rooms and galleries appear to have been painted in whole colors, without any ornament.

The third shed covers a pavement of about twenty feet by ten. It is entire, and contains scrolls of ivy leaves, flowers, interlaced figures forming stars, a large goblet with wreaths, and black and white borders the whole is surrounded with coarse red pavement, formed of pieces of pottery about an inch square.

In another room is a very fine mosaic pavement; the design consists of square, octagon, and oblong compartments, containing foliage, fruit, and cornucopias. There are also figures of cupids dancing, and of twelve grotesque looking cupids in groups, with wings on their shoulders, habited like gladiators, with shields and short swords. In a semicircular recess at one end of this room there is an elegant scroll surrounding a female head, which is ornamented with a chaplet of flowers. The hair falls over the shoulders, which are naked, and a glory, like that which is often represented in the paintings of Christian saints, surrounds the head. Probably this may have been intended for the head of Venus.

In another room, of about twenty-five feet square, is a mosaic pavement containing geometrical figures, flowers, borders, and a head of Medusa. The pavement is much broken by pillars, shafts,

bases, and capitals which have fallen on it; but all the pieces of stone roof-of pillars and of cornices, as well as the accumulation of stucco in fragments from the walls, have been removed-so that much is left to the imagination. It seems a pity that so little of the original villa should have been allowed to remain-that its unburied capitals and cornices should not have been preserved, but —but I must not ramble now, for I must finish my slight sketch of the Roman villa.

This villa must have been very extensive; for besides the rooms I have already described, there were many whole ranges of apartments, varying in size, running along side galleries, such as the Romans used for taking walking exercise indoors. In one of these galleries, which was ten feet wide and two hundred and twenty-seven feet long, part of its blue and red tesselated pavement remains at one end, but almost two-thirds of it have been utterly destroyed, no doubt by the plough.

The Romans were wiser in their generation than we are! What an excellent sanitary provision for exercise was this long covered walk in a climate like that of Britain; and their baths-I forgot to mention that at one corner of the great quadrangle round which all these rooms and galleries were built, there still exist the remains of a bath-room, the dimensions of which are thirty-five feet by thirty. The bath itself, which must have been cold, is about eighteen feet by twelve, and rather more than three feet deep. The pavement of the bath-room is not ornamental, but consists merely of black and white stones, six inches square, and laid cornerwise. The bath, which had been completely filled by the ruins of roof, walls, and bits of cornice that had fallen into it, was a good deal broken. Besides this cold bath, there appear to have been vapour, or sweating baths, the apparatus for heating them being very evident. The wallsI should rather say the foundations of the walls, since that is all that now remains of them-vary from two and a half to three feet in thickness.

-or

During two or three summers following that in which these Roman remains were first discovered many visitors came from a distance to see the place; and amongst them, as my guide informed me with no little satisfaction, was Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte. Other grandees there were also, of more or less note― but as my acquaintance does not lie amongst titled people, I paid too little attention to their names to recollect many of them.

The Duke of Norfolk-Charles, the fourteenth Duke-visited the place repeatedly, and took great interest in the gradual discovery, unburying, and cleaning of the various mosaic pavements. Being a man of considerable taste in such matters, he even made overtures for purchasing some of the most perfect of the mosaics, which he would have caused to be removed carefully and laid down in his magnificent library at "the Castle”—which means Arundel Castle, people in this neighborhood, as I observed, always speak

ing of it as "THE CASTLE," as if there were no other to be named in the same day with it-and I quite agree with them. But, alas! in 1815 the old Duke died, and Bernard Edward, the fifteenth Duke, reigned in his stead, and did not in all respects walk in the ways of Charles his father.

Therefore the pavements remain where the old Roman laid them down. How the whole villa came to be so buried up so grown over that it was entirely lost sight of; actually cropped over with turnips, as it was that year in which it was accidentally unearthed -it is difficult to imagine; I have my own ideas upon the subject, but it is not necessary to make them known.

Well, well! the Weald of Sussex is a strange place!

I walked back towards Little Hampton, pondering much on what I had seen. I thought of Vespasian and his son Titus, and wondered how the Weald looked in their days. And I thought how times were altered since they did us the honor of paying us a visit. And much I wondered who it was that lived in that great villa, whose sad remains I had just quitted. The Weald is not the most polished place in the world, even now, said I to myself; but when all this part of England was a Roman province, and Agricola was sent here to rule it--what must it have been then?

Agricola and the rest of those Roman gentry who abode here must have had a roughish time of it.

Not being quite so anxious to push forward as I was in the morning, when I again reached the summit of the hill, and had taken another look at the beautiful country around me, I sat down to rest myself on the fine short turf which clothes the top of the downs. For the pedestrian who is botanically given, there is much to interest him, for here he may find the yellow horned poppy, the stemless thistle, the Canterbury bell, and the everlasting pea—and they are not to be found everywhere.

But it was growing late even for a July day, and I had had walking enough without going out of my way to gather either roses or thistles. So I made the best of my way homewards, well satisfied with my day's excursion, in which I had laid up many pleasant recollections for the future.

B. S. H.

XXXVIII. THE QUEEN ADELAIDE NAVAL

FUND.

To pant after the ideal, to search for the hidden treasures of wisdom, of worth, or wealth; to stretch the hands out unceasingly for unattainable perfection, is undoubtedly at once the bane and the blessing of man, and one of the surest evidences of his immortality.

Yet who would venture to sum up the innumerable mischances and disappointments which have befallen those whose strength and

talents have been spent in this well-nigh unavailing search? for from the time of the alchemists down to the days of S. G. O., chicanery, imposture, and deceit have but too often been the only results elicited by that most subtle of all tests-viz., public examination.

As we watch project after project fail in carrying out those lofty principles with which each was commenced-as one by one plans slowly decay and sink under the significant inscription of "weighed and found wanting"-a reflecting mind can scarcely escape asking, of what use after all is the ideal in relation to every-day life; and does this dreaming after perfection ever profit us at all?

In the face of many failures, and with the fullest recollection of innumerable shortcomings, we unhesitatingly answer, Yes; it is well with us that these high and lofty standards of perfection exist in our minds and live in our hearts; and happy, thrice happy, are they amongst us who, believing in the good and the true, catch glimpses of that heavenly image which both within and without is fashioned so gloriously.

All this has been passing through our mind because of the revival of that old, and to a certain extent justifiable, charge now being made against several of our Societies concerning the monies expended on salaries, commissions, office hire, and other similar expenses; and it has just occurred to us (very probably it has occurred to our readers long ago) that this charge is after all nothing more than a modification of man's unceasing search after perfection, another phase of discontent at the absence of the ideal. Charity, per se, is dispensed with alacrity and a willing mind, ergo, Societies have no right to pay for the hire of a man who shall dole out to the unfortunate their modicum of relief. That is the argument as it stands, not very logical premises these, we fear. But as the subject is long, and might prove tedious in our hands, we simply throw out the foregoing hints, and proceed to remark, that there are some few Societies, even in London, who acknowledge the justness of the opposition raised to heavily paid officers, &c., and who endeavor by every means in their power to keep their working expenses at the lowest possible ebb-this, indeed, is one great fea-ture in the management of a fund to which we are now about to draw especial attention; and particularly so because we believe it exhibits very fairly the advantages and the disadvantages of the non-expending system: the advantages, in as much that although a corporate body, it dispenses its gifts with all that delicacy and tenderness which a loving, voluntary worker can alone hope to possess ; the disadvantages, because from the want of a public office, and from the absence of advertising, its object, nay even its very existence, is barely known; but with that however we may not interfere, the internal mangement of the Society belonging of course to the various members of its committee. Perhaps we cannot better introduce this humble but useful Society to our readers than by copying verbatim a letter which appeared in the Nautical Magazine of February, 1850.

VOL. VI.

S

"SIR,--A variety of proposals for Memorials in honor of the late Queen Dowager having been suggested, I venture to request your influence in behalf of a scheme which appears to me to be peculiarly appropriate to the character of that beloved and lamented princess, as the wife and widow of a sailor. I think that a sum of money might be raised by a general appeal to the wives and widows of all naval and marine officers to collect shillings and half-crowns, without refusing larger sums, to make a fund for the benefit of the female orphans of officers of the royal navy and marines. The amount, which I expect would be considerable, to be invested in government securities, flag-officers and captains being trustees to the same, under the name of the Adelaide Pension Fund.'

"A committee of ladies should be formed for receiving applications from the friends of the orphans, and investigating their claims, aided by a committee of officers of both services for reference; the sanction of the latter being necessary for the award and amount of such a pension as shall meet the exigences of the respective applicants till they are able to provide for themselves, and in all cases to cease after marriage. I am not aware of any provision for the destitute orphan daughters of naval men excepting the Compassionate Fund,' which is very limited in its applications; the Royal Naval Female School,' at Richmond, which receives only a very small number of these dependent young ladies; and the Adult Orphan Institution,' in the Regent's Park, which is open to the orphans of naval and military officers and clergymen. Neither of these schools are wholly gratuitous, and I know many cases where the widowed mother is utterly unable to pay the sum required, although it is but £12 per annum.

"At the present moment there are two heart-rending cases which I may bring forward in proof of the urgent necessity of some such effort as that I now earnestly commend to the attention of the benevolent and patriotic.

"The first is that of the four orphan daughters of a post captain, the second that of the six orphan daughters of a lieutenant of the royal navy, both fathers having died of cholera, and left their motherless children entirely destitute, without even the means of obtaining that education which might enable them hereafter to help themselves.

"These are but two of the many equally distressing cases personally known to me; and I do feel that enough has now been said to commend the cause to all British hearts, to all who feel how large is the debt of gratitude to the helpless representatives of the brave defenders of our country; and I am certain that there is not an officer on the quarter-deck of any of Her Majesty's ships who will not hail with delight the opportunity of dropping his shilling or half-crown into the hat held to him in honor of the beloved wife and widow of the sailor king, when her memory pleads for the unprotected daughters of (it may be) his own shipmates.