There must have been skilled marble workers in London. This is proved by the fact that fragments of polished native marbles have been found. Roach Smith, as before said, speaks of “native green marble.” Fragments of Purbeck are common. At Silchester evidence has been found that mosaics were applied to the walls of a chamber in the Baths; and at Wroxeter a considerable fragment of wall mosaic was found in place many years ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +CHAPTER IX+ LETTERING AND INSCRIPTIONS _LETTERS._—Fine lettering is the most perfect thing in the art of the Romans. For one thing, it was developed on a field where they were not obsessed with the idea of imitating Greek art; it was their very own, and it was swiftly carried to an apex of perfection in the first century A.D. It is a constant phenomenon on all the fields of Art that it is the _first_ great flow of development which chiefly matters; all things of life and growth are like this, and, as I once heard a fine old Devonshire farmer say, “You can’t have two forenoons in one day.” The Romans, not the Greeks, had the forenoon of the day of their manner of lettering. This manner is clear, sharp, confident; it is like Greek art only in being free. [Illustration: FIG. 119.—Inscription from the front of a Roman Tomb found at Westminster Abbey in 1869: now by the entrance to the Chapter House. MEMORIAE·VALER·AMAN DINI·VALERI·SVPERVEN TOR·ET·MARCELLVS·PATRI·FECER· ]