Such is a brief and general description of the ruins of Uriconium, at present open to the visitor. The real character of the buildings we have been describing appeared for a while very doubtful. The first discoveries led to the belief that it was a great mansion, perhaps the principal mansion in the Roman city, the residence of the chief municipal officer; but in this case we might have expected to find some very fine Mosaic or tessellated pavement, specimens of which had been met with in other parts of the area of the town. On the contrary, all the floors yet discovered to the south of the Old Wall, with the exception of those of herring-bone brickwork, and that of a supposed bath, seemed to have been of mere smoothed cement. This led us to suppose that we were still exploring buildings erected for some public purpose. A comparison of the character of these various buildings leaves no room for doubting that they belonged to the public baths of Uriconium; and further excavations to the south and west shewed that they formed an extensive square (_k_, _k_, _k_, _k_), the northern side of which was formed by the Old Wall and its continuation westward; and the southern side of which bordered upon the other street running east and west, the pavement of which, similar to that of the street at _l_, has been uncovered in its whole extent along the line, L L. The western and southern sides of the square were formed by a wide gallery or cloister (_k_, _k_, _k_), no doubt the ambulatory, which was considered as an important part of the public baths of the Romans. The ground to the eastward, in which no buildings could be traced, may have been gardens, which were also usually attached to the baths of the Romans.