602 Professor J. 0. Arnold [Jan. 24, 



history can be only indirectly surmised from collateral historical evi- 

 dence. About 60 A.D. a great British army under the command of 

 Princess Boadicea stormed the Koman camp at Colchester and annihi- 

 lated the Ninth Legion. She then marched on St. Albans and 

 London, and in both places put the garrisons and the Roman colonists 

 to the sword, the stake, or the cross. Tacitus, the Roman historian, 

 records that the losses of the Romans and their allies in these battles 

 reached the startling total of 70,000 people. Li the subsequent cam- 

 paign, which ended in the defeat and death of the heroic British 

 Queen, the same historian states that the British lost 80,000 persons. 

 It is evident, therefore, that Boadicea must have commanded at least 

 100,000 British troops, or she could never have undertaken such 

 extensive and formidable military operations. It is also clear that 

 these troops were armed with swords and spears, to say nothing of 

 the scythes attached to the axles of their war chariots. There is nc 

 reason to suppose that these weapons were not of native manufacture. 

 They would be made partly of bronze and partly of steely-iron, since 

 the country had been for a century more or less occupied l)y Roman 

 soldiers and artizans. It is therefore almost certain that in the first 

 century the manufacture of steely-iron weapons and implements 

 would be on a fairly large scale, and would doubtless mainly be con- 

 centrated in iron-oreand charcoal-producing districts— such as Sussex 

 and the Forest of Dean. 



In connexion with Sheffield — now the greatest British steel 

 centre— the earliest written record refers to the twelfth century, and 

 states that in 1160 the monks of Kirkstead Abbey had somewhat 

 extensive works at Kimberworth, near Sheffield, manufacturing 

 wrought and, no doubt, steely irons. In 1;^)<S6 Chaucer, in " The 

 Reve's Tale," in describing a miller of the time of Edward III., 

 wrote, " A Shefeld thywtel bare he in his hose." Since 13«6 Sheffield 

 steel in the form of table-knives has been in almost everybody's 

 mouth. In 1590 Peter Bales, " The Writing Schoolmaster," re- 

 commends Sheffield razors and penknives for the cutting of quill- 

 pens. It is obvious that for this purpose fine steel carrying a perfect 

 cutting edge is necessary, and was being made at Sheffield prior to 

 1590. Hunter states that in 1615 Sheffield workmen could make 

 armour only fit for the common man-at-arms. The armour for 

 knights was imported from Spain and Italy. Scott, in " Ivanhoe," 

 embodies this fact in his description of the siege of " Torquilstone " — 



" Thrice did Locksley bend his shaft against De Bracy, 

 and thrice did his arrow bound back from the Ivnight's 

 axTQOiir of proof. ' Curse on thy Spanish steel coat,' said 

 Locksley. ' Had English smith forged it, these arrows 

 had gone through an as if it had been silk or sendal.' " 



The opening scene in "Ivanhoe " was near Woodhouse (5 miles 

 east of Sheffield), where until quite recently wrought-irou was manu- 

 factured at the Rotherwood Iron Works. 



