OF DEEBYSHIRE. 13 



in wood or stone covering the rest of the interior. Such 

 forts were dotted over the military area in strategic 

 positions, along the frontiers, along the great roads of 

 the north or west, or wherever need was apparent. 



Derbyshire counts three of these forts. They are the 

 most southerly forts in England proper, that is, among 

 those which guarded the north as distinct from the 

 garrisons of the Welsh mountains and valleys. One of 

 the three— Littlechester, on the north side of Derby— is 

 hardly known at all as a fort. But the remains there, as 

 seen by Stukely in the eighteenth century, can only be 

 explained as those of a fort. A second fort is at Brough, 

 near Hope, in the Isoe valley, guarding the route across 

 the Pennine hills from the fort at Templeborough, near 

 Sheffield, to the posts in the Cheshire and South Lancashire 

 lowlands, and watching the wild heights of High Peak 

 and Kinderscout. The valley in which it stands is the one 

 bit of open habitable lowland among all the north 

 Derbyshire hills, and it is just here that we might expect 

 a fort to be placed to keep peace and order in the difficult 

 region. The third fort is Melandra, near Glossop, planted 

 on a spur that juts out into Longdendale and overlooking 

 the easiest access from the western lowlands into the hills. 

 It, too, by its position declares its purpose plainly. 



We can tell the purpose of these forts. We cannot 

 guess so easily their history. We know that the Eoman 

 advance northwards moved along the two lines of least 

 resistance. Quite early in the conquest the legions had 

 forced their way up the wide valley which separates 

 Derbyshire from Wales and had established a legionary 

 fortress^at Chester (about a.d. 48—50). It was probably 



2. Full references to the authorities for this and other statements in 

 this and the following page will be found in the Victoria history of 

 Derbyshire, i., 201 — 221. 



