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CHAPTER XXVIENGLISH ROMANESQUE BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUESTWHEN in the reign of Honorius the Romans finallywithdrew from this island, after having governed andcolonized it for 400 years, a period as longas that fromthe reign of Henry VIII to our own day,it will readilybe understood that they left behind them traces of theirrule not only in the civil constitution of the towns, whichwas modelled on the Roman system, but also in thearchitecture and other arts which they had brought withthem and cultivated for so long a time. The whole Romanocountrywas dotted with Roman villas ;ninety-two con- ^h?siderable towns had arisen under Roman protection, of tecturewhich thirty-three were especially distinguished, andpossessed regular municipal privileges 1 .The remains of towns and country houses throughoutEngland testify to the refinement of society under Romangovernment. Excavation at Silchester has brought tolight a British Pompeii similar discoveries have;beenmade at Caerwent, and in the stations along the Romanwall, and await us at Verulam. The houses were large,handsomely finished with mosaic floors, and comfortablywarmed by hypocausts. They show also by the differencebetween their plan and that of Italian villas that theirdesign was accommodated to the climate.1Gibbon, chap. XXXI. following Richard of Cirencester. Gildas however,whom Bede follows, only accounts for 28. ,..bis denis, bisque quaterniscivitatibtts ac nonnullis castellis...decorata- Gildas, Prologus.