76 SOME FEATURES OF ROMAN FORTS 



colonnade at Borcovicium, made by Mr. Bosanquet with 

 much more ample materials. 



In attempting to form a picture of the fort as it was 

 under Roman occupation, it is well to remember how 

 different were the surroundings at that time. Melandra 

 lay in an amphitheatre of hills, from which the river 

 Etherow, that flowed at its foot (and was certainly not 

 then confined within such narrow bounds) seems with 

 difficulty to find an exit. To the south-east stretched the 

 wilds of the outliers of the Peak, while to the north-east 

 opened the jaws of Longdendale, concerning which it 

 was reported a thousand years later in Domesday book : 

 " The whole of Langedenedale *^ is waste. Wood(land) is 

 there, not for pannage (but) suitable for hunting." 



" The work of reclaiming the wilderness began in the 

 days of Agricola. The Romans felled the woods along 

 the lines of their military roads ; they embanked the rivers 

 and threw causeways across the morasses." *^ A graphic 

 picture of these labours is presented to us in the im- 

 passioned words which Tacitus puts into the mouth of the 

 Caledonian chief, Calgacus : corpora ifsa ac marius silvis 

 ac paludibus eviuniendis inter verbera ac contuinelias 

 conteruntur.^° 



r. A. Brtjton. 



48. [Cf. also p. 2. Ed.] 



49. Elton : Origins of English History, 2nd ed., p. 218. 



50. Tac. Agric. xxxi., 2. 



