It was very nice spending time with Tessa. The villa was fascinating, though not much remained. It had been the home of wealthy Romans for hundreds of years and sprawled over a huge area.
The layout of the tour was interesting as you were forced to walk out to the farthest corner then back, then back and forth again. But it was fascinating to look at the mosaic floors in situ. One floor was in the shape of a swastika and it brought home the fact that Hitler had appropriated roman symbols wholesale to try and give his third Reich legitimacy as the heir to the Roman Empire and hence to Europe.
Strange that most of Hitler’s Germany had never been a part of Rome.
The villa also had a large quantity of archeological items. Most of them lost millennia ago or thrown out with the trash. Spring shears and buttons and strigils, all a cross section of life on a very wealthy farm, wealthy enough to boast two separate bath structures. The first was obviously built in haste, to give the property legitimacy as a roman dwelling. The second was obviously the product of wealth.
With the possibilities of Rockbourne exhausted we went with Tessa to the local town of Fordingbridge, a beautiful town on the river Avon.
We stood on the bridge watching the water swirl beneath us as Tessa told us tales of their family trips on the canals in narrowboats. It sounds like enormous fun but a little expensive for our style of travel.
From Fordingbridge Tessa took us back to their place with a new route in the New Forest. We passed by Pig Bush where the Ormans had once lost a dog, only to have him walk home, many miles away.
Tessa had us over for dinner, which we shared with Paul and their children Megan and Thomas. Their daughter Amy was in Canada. Thomas went to bed early and Paul was tired from working night shifts at the esso plant at Fawley. But Tessa and Megan stayed awake quite late and we played games. Heather and Megan won but Tessa and I were only a single point behind in a game to fifty points. I must say that we went home very tired but that the day was one of the most exciting and fun we have had since we’ve stopped in Holbury.
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