THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LXXIX.—CENTRAL ENGLAND: RUTLAND, LEICESTERSHIRE, AND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.-EARLY HISTORY.
OF the Keltic tribes who peopled Britain at the advent of the Romans, this Province is assigned to the dominions of the great nation or confederacy of the Coritani, who occupied a con- siderable part of the midland counties of the present England. They have scarcely left, however, any traces of their presence in the counties of which we are now speaking. The only noticeable ones are in Leicestershire, where at an encampment on Beacon Hill, near Mount Sorrel, "Mr. Herrick, of Beaumanoir, in forming a drive, found a number of cells and amlets." There are also in the same county tumuli and earthworks on Saltby Heath, near Croxton Park, which have been assigned to the British period. When the Roman dominion was established, these counties were included within the great Province of Fla via Cxsariensis, which extended between the Thames and the Mersey and Humber. When Con- stantine divided the empire into four governments, and Britain was placed under the Gallic Prefect, who resided first at Troves and then at Arles, a vicar of the Prefect governed the island, and under him a president was placed over Flavia Cmsariensis. Within the limits of Rutland the only remains of Roman habitation are those at Great Casterton, a village two miles north-west by west from Stamford, close to which the river Wash takes its course. The name of the village preserves the tradition of a former Roman castra, and there are the remains of an encampment on the south- east side of the village, which itself is situated on the line of an ancient military highway, the traces of which are still visible for miles. The antiquary Camden has identified this site with the Causumns or CAUSENN.E of the Antonine Itinerary, and conjecturally changed the name of the river to Gnash. But the distances assigned in the Itinerary do not at all agree with this identification, CAUSENN/E being 26 miles from LINDUM, which is universally admitted to be on the site of the present Lincoln, while Great Casterton is 41 miles from that city. "The common supposition is," says Mr. Blore, the historian of Rutland, " that this place [Casterton] is situate on the Roman military way called Ermine Street; and Dr. Stukeley, who resided in the neighbourhood, favours that opinion. As, however, the Ermine Street is generally understood to be a direct line from London to Lincoln, as this place is at least two miles to the westward of that line, and as the military way which passes through this place is visible both north and south of the village in a direction from the south-east to the north-west coast of the kingdom, I am persuaded that Casterton is not situate on the Ermine Street." "Dr. Stukeley," he continues, "says he saw many coins that were found here ; but does not give any description of them. The north, east, and south sides of the encampment are still visible. The ancient military road forded the river on the west side of the bridge, and passed through the present rectory house at the west end of the church, and on the west side of the camp. The latter, which was a square, or nearly so, contained about 27 acres. On the north and east sides of the camp the ditch is deep and broad. The south and west sides of the camp seem to have been formed by the river Wash, the course of which appears to have been altered, and on the south aide of the camp the ground is low and swampy." " There is no curv- ing of the ancient road," to take this place in, as Dr. Stukeley erroneously states, "after it unites with the turnpike road on the south side of the village, proceeding north-westward ; for though the turnpike road is not quite straight, its breadth includes the whole breadth of the ancient road in a straight line ; and at the north end of the village the traces of the ancient road are to be found in its own proper straight direction on the west side of the present turnpike road, until near Tickencote, the turnpike road, which passes by the east end of the church of Casterton, unites with the ancient road again, and the bend in the present north road from Stamfordto Grantham at Horn Lane corner, between six and seven miles to the north of Stamford, is the place where this ancient road intersects the ancient road from London to York, which at that place becomes the present turnpike road, and so con- tinues as far as Wiltan Common." Whether, therefore, the road called Ermine Street, leading to Lincoln, passed through any part of Rutland is doubtful, though it must, at any rate, have skirted its frontier.
Leicestershire was skirted by the old road called Watling Street, which forms the boundary line between it and Warwickshire from Cathorpe (on the Northamptonshire frontier) to the neighbourhood of Mancester or Manceter (the old MANDUESEDUSI). The Foss Way intersects the Watling Street at High Cross, between Lutterworth and Hinckley, exactly on the Leicestershire border line. This, as we have already said in our notice of Northamptonshire, was the site of the Roman station of VENON.E. There are villages not far from High Cross of the names of Great and Little Claybrooke, and the tradition of a ruined city of Claybrooke still remains at High Cross, near which Roman coins have been found, and (according to Camden) great foundations of square stones under the ground. Entering Leicestershire at High Cross, the Foss Way passed in a direct line to Leicester, the RATE of the Itineraries. Here many tesselated pavements, coins, urns, and domestic and military utensils have been discovered at different times. A Roman mile- stone was discovered in 1771, about two miles north from the town, on the side of the Foss Way ; it is cylindrical, like the shaft of a column, about three and a half feet high, with a roughly carved inscription to the Emperor Trajan, with a notice that it was three . miles from RAT.E. R is now in the Museum at Leicester. The Jewry Thrall at Leicester "from the earliest ages has been a fruit- ful source of speculation. As it at present stands it is about twenty-five yards in length and five or six in height, and consists of a western side (not open to view) and an eastern side, contain- ing several arched recesses, the soffits or vaultings of which are turned with courses of large fiat bricks ; rows of these are likewise interspersed throughout the wall at intervals, as bonding courses ; and the Roman mode of constructing the arch with brickwork is here clearly displayed." These ruins "bear a striking resemblance in many parts to the ruins of one of the ancient temples of Rome." Some antiquarians, however, consider " that the wall formed part of the gateway of the ancient city, and that the street or road led over the old Bow Bridge on to the Foss Road." Local antiquarians, on the other hand, "believe that it once formed the front of a temple having four entrances, and that when it fell into decay the western side of the town wall was built up alongside, and the portal made to correspond with its two middle arches." The idea of its being a temple seems to have been suggested by Geoffrey of Monmouth's story that there was in RAT.E a temple of Janus. "The wall has been opened through half its length to the original level of the Roman way. It will be kept permanently open, and is protected by iron railing. The footings of the piers are now visible, and it is quite evident that the building or wall never came forward in an easterly direction towards the church. These facts tend to strengthen the notion that the Jewry wall formed a portion of the western wall of Roman Leicester." Eleven tesselated pavements have been found at different times in Leicester, " one of which, of considerable size, represents the story of Diana and Actmon."
South of Leicester town, near the junction of the Burton Rail- way with the main line, are " two remarkable parallel embank- ments, called the Raw Dykes, extending about three furlongs in length, and about 16 yards apart." 'This name has been con- jectured to be a corruption of Rhedayna, and to indicate the site of the Roman chariot racecourse.
On leaving Rate, the Foss Way passed in a north-north-east direction into Nottinghamshire, just within the frontier of which county, near Willoughby, is believed to have been the site of the next station, VERNOMETUM. "There are several camps, particularly in districts to the east of the county, at Burrow and Billesden. The termination of the names of the villages in this district, and the fact that Medburne, near Market Harborough, is said to have been a Roman station, and to have yielded numbers of coins, make it probable that a road led from hence through Melton to join the Foss Way. This road is supposed to have been part of the Via Devena from Colchester to Chester, some remains of which (as well as of the Foss Way) are said to be traceable in Leicestershire, and to indicate its course by Leicester and Ashby into Derbyshire. Tesselated pavements have been found at Rothley and Wanlip. At Wanlip (near Mount Sorrel) were found also coins and broken urns.
Nottinghamshire was traversed by the Foss Way. This entered the county near Willoughby-in-the-Wold, in its course from Lei- cester to Lincoln. "A tradition at Willoughby that the ruins of a great city lie buried near it, and the discovery of coins, would seem to corroborate the notion that it had been a Roman sta- tion. Thence it runs north-east through East Bridgeford, near Bingham, where are also remains of a camp. From Bridge- ford it proceeded to Newark, finally leaving the county at Col- lingham. The greater part of its course is now a turnpike road. There is also a tesselated pavement, together with some remains of ancient fortifications, at Barton-in-Fabis (Barton-in- the-Beans), near Trent junction." There were probably three Roman stations mentioned in the Itineraries which, lie within the limits of this county, though the exact localities cannot be posi- tively identified with existing remains. 1'1.a:some-rum or VERO- METUM may have been near Willoughby ; MARGIDUNUM between East Bridgeford and Bingham ; while AD PONTEM has been by some identified with Farndon, two miles from Newark. These are the most probable identifications, on a comparison with the distances in the Itineraries. But it is better to confess our ignorance than to dogmatize on imperfect premisses. Many Roman remains have also been discovered in the neighbourhood of Newark, Mansfield, Woodhouse, and in other parts of the county.
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