WHITCOMBE (MAGNA), a parish in the upper
division of the hundred of DUDSTONE-and-KING'S-BARTON,
county of GLOUCESTER, 3 miles (N. E. by N.)
from Painswick, containing 155 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at £ 4. 6. 8., and
in the patronage of Sir W. Hicks, Bart. The church is
dedicated to St, Mary. Near the foot of Cooper's Hill,
on a delightful spot in this parish, the remains of a Roman
villa, with a sacrarium, baths, &c., were discovered
in 1&18, the walls of which, to the height of nearly six
feet, are remaining, some of them being covered with,
stucco painted in panels of different colours, elegantly
ornamented with ivy leaves. Several of the apartments
were paved with red sand-stone, others with beautiful
mosaic work, and in many of them have been found
fragments of columns, and cornices of white marble,
numerous coins of the Lower Empire, from Constantino
to Valentinian and Valens, various domestic utensils,
and other relics in copper and iron, an axe, a British
hatchet, and the skulls of bullocks and goats, with fragments
of stags' horns, &c.