evidence supports this belief in that the property is richly scattered with artifacts of the late 17th century and of all dates after about 1800, but has yielded very few items that can be attributed to the 18th century. All appearances point to the abandoning of the immediate area as a habitation site after the destruction of the excavated building around 1700. The subsequent building of "Ardudwy" so close to the early house may be assumed to be coincidental, though the site is certainly a desirable and obvious location for a residence.

Little information as to the above ground appearance of the 17th-century structure was forthcoming, partly because it had almost certainly stood on piers or blocks, and partly because the excavations were restricted by limitations of time, labor, and the desire of the owners to retain at least something of their garden. Neither extensive probing nor a soil resistivity survey revealed evidence of a second chimney, nor did they give any clues as to the total length or breadth of the cellar hole. The back wall of the chimney had been deliberately dismantled and only a thin skin of brickbats and mortar on the bottom of the robber trench survived to mark its position. It is therefore quite possible that another chimney was dismantled with sufficient completeness to elude discovery by either of the exploratory methods used.

Figure 4.—The chimney and underhearth foundation.

The jambs of the partially surviving chimney (fig. 4) were laid in English bond and were 1 foot 7 inches thick and 4 feet 4 inches long.[13] The interior width of the fireplace measured 7 feet, which was large by 18th-century domestic standards, but not uncommon in the 17th century before separate kitchens became the rule.[14] Both jambs were built into the side of the cellar hole and were seated on a bed of small rocks, but the robbed back-wall had rested only on the natural sandy clay at a depth of 2 feet 3 inches below the modern grade. In front of the chimney, and rising from the cellar floor, was a massive brick-walled underhearth 7 feet 6 inches wide and projecting out from the fireplace to a distance of 5 feet.

A curious and still unexplained feature of the underhearth was a 4-by 3-inch channel running across the top of the surviving foundation for a distance of 6 feet 9 inches, starting at the south face and terminating 9 inches short of the north. This channel had been bricked over and the remaining bricks had dropped into it (fig. 5) presumably after a wooden beam, which once occupied the space, had rotted or burned out. Traces of burned or carbonized wood lay on the clay bottom of the channel, but the bricks over it displayed no evidence of fire. The only conceivable explanation for the presence of the wood must be that it was part of a frame used to hold the block of natural sandy clay together while the underhearth wall was being erected around it. As the underhearth foundation would have originally risen at least another 2 feet 6 inches above the timber to the floor level of the house, the wood would not have been in danger of igniting from the heat of the domestic fire. But if the house ultimately burned, it is possible that the exposed end of the timber might have caught fire and slowly been consumed along its entire length.

The cellar hole had been cut into natural sandy clay to an average depth of 5 feet 3 inches below the modern grade. Its backfilling was predominantly of the same sandy clay and, consequently, the exact edge of the cellar hole was sometimes hard to determine. It was probably because of this similarity between the natural subsoil and the cellar's fill that the feature failed to show up in the soil resistivity survey. Owing to previously mentioned limiting factors, only the southeast corner of the cellar hole was found and only parts of the south and east walls were traced out. Consequently, it can merely be said that the cellar exceeded 27 feet in east/west length and 11 feet 2 inches in width (fig. 3).

Three post holes were found against the south face, while the rotted remains of another vertical post were found north of the chimney supporting a much-decayed horizontal board that had served to revet the east face. A broad-bladed chisel (fig. 14, no. 6) was found behind the board where it had probably been lost while the timbering was being installed.

Further slight traces of horizontal boards were found along the south face, suggesting that the soft sides of the large cellar hole had been supported in this way. But it was not possible to determine whether the boards had been placed only on sections of the wall that seemed in danger of sliding in or whether the entire interior had been sheathed with planks. The south side of the cellar hole sloped outwards at an approximate 65 percent angle and the traces of boards lay against it.[15] However, it was not possible to tell whether the vertical posts had been similarly sloped, but it is reasonable to assume that they would have done so.

Figure 5.—Detail of collapsed bricks in the underhearth. (Photo courtesy of E. DeHardit.)

Parts of the cellar's wooden floor still survived (figs. 6 and 7) and comprised boards ranging in width from 5 to 7 inches laid over sleepers or joists 4 to 6 inches wide. The height of the underlying timbers could not be determined as the weight of the cellar fill might be assumed to have pressed the floorboards down as the wood of the sleepers decayed. Only occasional floorboards survived and the channels left by decayed sleepers did not extend across the full width of the excavated cellar. From these facts it was deduced that the boards had been cut from woods of different types, some of which had decayed more completely than others, and that the sleepers were made from short and sometimes roughly cut lengths of timber. These sleepers may, in fact, have served only as a base for anchoring the ends of floorboards, as was certainly the case northwest of the underhearth where the nails from the ends of five boards had dropped through into the channel left by the decayed sleeper. It may be supposed, therefore, that the sleepers' location would have been dictated by the vagaries of board length rather than by the design of a planned, measured foundation and that they served as ties for the floor, rather than joists raising it off the natural clay beneath.

In addition to the remains of the carefully laid floor, another much-decayed board, 10 inches wide, and of uncertain thickness, was found running north/south immediately west of the underhearth. This board was partially covered by mortar, suggesting that it had been set on the dirt during the building of the brick structure.

The filling of the cellar in the vicinity of the chimney and underhearth comprised a single massive deposit of sandy clay, scattered through which were numerous iron nails, isolated oystershells and occasional fragments of pottery, glass, and tobacco-pipe stems. A similar unified filling was encountered at the