(At the spring at Chedworth)

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
Since we've established that water was one of the main reasons for this house being built, it's nice to see how the Romans have actually made an architectural feature out of it.

STEWART AINSWORTH
It is, isn't it. It's interesting how people are still throwing money in, making offerings into the shrine, as the Romans themselves would have done.

(In the bath house at Chedworth)

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
Now perhaps the most architecturally complex and sophisticated set of rooms in any Roman villa perhaps in any Roman building was the bath house. These great stone walls were once here to support vaulted ceilings, and you can see on the floor beautiful coloured mosaics. This was where the greatest amount of trouble and expense was gone to in a Roman villa. For someone coming in here for a bath it was much more complex than the kinds of bath we have today. It was like a Turkish bath really. People would have to warm up in this room here, then go and get really sweaty in a hot room before cooling off in a cold plunge and then perhaps reverse the whole process. But that was for the rich people. It was a kind of upstairs-downstairs situation, because here's all the technical side of the bath house. All these stacks of tiles support the floor so that warm and hot air can be circulated around. And all the slaves - the other side of villa life - were down there stoking fires and keeping the rich and wealthy people's lives comfortable.

The Roman historian Tacitus watched with interest what was happening in Roman Britain. He wrote that: 'The wearing of our dress became a distinction and the toga came into fashion. And little by little the Britons were seduced to the lounge, the bath, and the well-laid dinner table'.

(In the gardens at Chedworth)

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
I think it's interesting to speculate, looking at the extensive ranges and rooms we've got here, just how many people would have lived and worked here. There was the family, the extended family, but who else would have lived here?

STEWART AINSWORTH
Landscape Archaeologist
Well presumably there'd be industrial workers, smithies, things like that.

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
They must have had slaves as well here?

STEWART AINSWORTH
Presumably lots of people supporting the industry of the villa. Another element this often gets forgotten about villas actually is their use for recreation. People are coming here, probably from Cirencester, into this prestigious place. There's a temple up there, and these open areas would be used for recreation. We'd have people sitting around in little gardens. It's the equivalent of a country house stately home of today.

(In gardens at Fishbourne Roman Palace)

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
The best place to find out about Roman gardens is Fishbourne Roman Palace in Chichester. They've reconstructed what the original formal garden would have looked like. They've also researched Roman gardening techniques and tried those techniques out.

Now this is all a very impressive little garden here but what's it got to do with Roman Britain?

DAVID RUDKIN
Fishbourne Roman Palace
Quite a lot. What we're trying to display here is the range of Roman plants that were being grown in Britain at that point in time.

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
Is that some kind of novelty?

DAVID RUDKIN
Very much so yes. Before the Romans came there'd be a little plot behind everybody's house with peas and beans and turnips, just growing food. But the concept of gardens for pleasure - pleasure gardens - was something that was brought with the Romans.

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
Now what have we got here, David? There are all sorts of household names like juniper and lavender here. Are these part of a Roman legacy?

DAVID RUDKIN
In effect a lot of them are, although it's often difficult to tell what were actually native here when they arrived. But certainly they were growing things like onions and shallots and garlic and chives, the type of thing that we now take for granted.

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
Were they purely functional or did they have a more elaborate set of purposes?

DAVID RUDKIN
Oh certainly. The ones in front of us, for example, are for ritual purposes to a large extent. Things like rose. The petals were scattered in processions. Violets were used for perfumes and for for various other functions. It's surprising what functions plants can be used for.

Over there we have industrial plants. Things like teasel for carding the cloth to bring the nap up. Dye plants such as woad.

When people think of Romans they think of soldiers marching up and down. But in fact they were spending a lot of the time enjoying their gardens.

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