ROMANO-BRITISH LEICESTERSHIRE the province. It is considered, as above mentioned, that the Jewry Wall was erected about the time of Constantine (A.D. 306-37), which, it may be assumed, was the date of the erection of the whole of the walls round the town, and this agrees with the evidence as to the date of the circumvallation of other Romano-British towns. The town would most likely have been surrounded by earthen defences from the time of its foundation, but it is curious that, according to the evidence of the architectural details and tesselated pavements, the extension westward (including the important and prosperous suburb towards the River Soar) must have been made before the town was walled. As in a parallel case at Bath, there was no attempt to include the suburb within the protection of the walls. For the construction of a plan of Roman Leicester we have very little material. Perhaps the existing High Cross Street and Southgate Street, running north and south from the North Gate to the South Gate, and High Street and St. Nicholas Street, running east and west from the East Gate to the Jewry Wall or West Gate, may approximately follow the lines of the principal Roman streets. Of the other Roman streets there is no evidence, for it is evident that the plan of the mediaeval town did not follow that of the Roman, as was usual when mediaeval towns rose on Roman sites. 11 It seems clear that the principal buildings of the Roman town stood at the junction of High Cross Street and St. Nicholas Street. Burton, in 1622, called attention to the quantity of Roman remains found there. 12 In 1861 the base and plinth of a column were found close to the north-east corner of St. Nicholas Street (Nos. 8-8< in Museum). 13 In a direct line with the above and close to them there were discovered in 1866 two bases of columns with shafts and plinth, standing erect from 14 ft. to i 5 ft. below the present surface (Nos. 47^ in Museum). The plinth of wrought stone was i ft. thick on a sleeper wall of rubble. The two columns with their bases complete stood loft. lof in. from centre to centre. They were i ft. 11 in. in diameter. The height of one, as found, including base, was 4 ft. 4 in., of the other 6 ft. 2! in. u Mr. G. E. Fox, in his paper on the architectural remains at Leicester, points out that these bases ' follow pretty closely the usual type of Attic base, though these are somewhat clumsy,' and therefore may be taken to belong to one of the earliest buildings in Leicester, dating possibly from the period of Hadrian. 15 He adds that it is not impossible that these remains supported the portico of the basilica, although such a conjecture is mere guess-work. 16 In the same way it may be suggested that the forum, of which the basilica would probably form a part, stood here also. In the Leicester Museum are also fragments of the shaft of a column found at the south-west corner of the Methodist chapel in St. Nicholas Street (Nos. i, la in Museum) ; 17 and bases, plinth, and capitals of columns found between the Methodist chapel and the corner of 'Holy Bones' (Nos. 2a to 3, 9, qa, 10, loa in Museum) 18 belong to a building of probably the same period as the remains previously mentioned. 18 In 1885 two columns found in the street called ' Holy Bones ' were placed in the churchyard of St. Nicholas ; 19 11 Fox, ' Roman Arch. Fragments in the Leic. Museum,' Arch. Journ. xlvi, 47. 11 Descrip. Leic. 146. 13 Leic. Arch. Sac. iii, 334. 14 Ibid, iii, 334 ; Fox, Arch. Journ. xlvi, 63. 15 Ibid. 58, 59. 16 Ibid. 60. " " Ord. Surv. xxxi, 10. u Leic. Arch. Soc. iii, 334 ; Fox, Arch. Jnurn. xlvi, 63. 19 Assoc. Arch. Sue. xviii, Ix, 24. 187
