| I recently visited a restored Roman Villa at | | | | What amazed me about the floors at Chedworth Villa, |
| Chedsworth, England in the Cotswold hills. They had | | | | was how professionally the mosaic work had been |
| some very beautiful mosaic floors on show, which | | | | done. After all, Britain was a very remote and fairly |
| were still largely intact, within the villa's restored bath | | | | poor part of the empire in this period and Chedworth |
| houses and dining rooms. These mosaic panels, dating | | | | itself was not near any big city or town. However, the |
| back from between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, | | | | owners of the estate must have been very wealthy |
| were of great interest to me. The villa itself was made | | | | to have had not one, but two, good sized bath suites |
| up of a rather large group of adjoining rooms, laid out in | | | | with their mosaic decorated steam rooms, dry heat |
| an extended three sided horseshoe shape. I was | | | | saunas and hot and cold plunge pools and also to |
| amazed at the size of this ancient farm or ranch, and | | | | have had the wonderful under floor heating system |
| the extent of its facilities, which included a running | | | | below the dining and living rooms. These facilities must |
| water toilet suite, with seating for several individuals | | | | have been treasures indeed in a cold British winter. But |
| and two extensive and opulent bath houses. The villa | | | | what a degree of sophistication to find so far off the |
| also boasted a private temple or chapel, with a pool | | | | beaten track! I'm sure that the mosaic artists must |
| fed by a spring. The temple was dedicated to the local | | | | have been imported from overseas - the work was |
| water goddess. Less well preserved, were the | | | | just too professional for a frontier province! |
| remains of extensive colonnades for elegant porticos | | | | I have always been fascinated by the legacy that |
| that once ran along the sides of the building. However | | | | Rome has left us and I have to confess that my |
| the crowning glory was the indubitably the spacious | | | | interest in mosaics as an art form has largely been |
| dining hall, with its beautiful mosaic floor, which had the | | | | inspired by the extraordinary richness of the Roman |
| added luxury of under floor heating. To me, the | | | | art that this medium has preserved so well. It provides |
| overwhelming impression was that this villa seemed to | | | | color and sense of the continuance of life that the |
| be more of a comfortable holiday resort, designed for | | | | often grey record of centuries of history sometimes |
| leisure, rather than a working farm. | | | | misses. Mosaic art is an open window into a world long |
| I was told that in Britain and other European countries, | | | | past. It gives us a glimpse into a refined and leisurely |
| burrowing rabbits and other animals are often | | | | lifestyle that was far removed from the gore of the |
| responsible, for the discovery of long buried villas and | | | | gladiator's arena and all the pomp and splendor of |
| other buildings from the Roman era. These little | | | | Rome's military might. I have seen magnificent 2000 |
| animals, whilst scratching down to make their burrows, | | | | year old mosaics in the British Museum and around |
| bring up loose tesserae blocks, from buried mosaic | | | | Rome, at places such as Ostia, at Caracalla's baths, |
| floors and spread them around at the surface. These | | | | and in the Vatican. These pieces are no mere |
| small multi-coloured stone blocks or tiles were probably | | | | architectural decoration, but have been great works of |
| first loosened up from the original mosaic floors by | | | | art in their own right. Moreover, they all look as though |
| frost, shortly after the buildings were abandoned, many | | | | they were laid out just yesterday. |
| centuries ago. However once they had been brought | | | | Mosaics are made to last - the ones we see today |
| to the surface by the rabbits, they have provided | | | | have outlasted kingdoms and empires. So any aspiring |
| clues, to those in the know, that have led to the finding | | | | mosaic artists had better be sure that their work is up |
| of the ancient remains of several buildings. Chedworth | | | | to scratch, and of the highest standard, because the |
| villa, itself, was discovered by two men who were | | | | most severe critic of their work might only be born |
| trying to retrieve a ferret, while rabbit hunting in the late | | | | around the year 4009. Maybe there will still be some |
| nineteenth century. | | | | wild rabbits left by then! |