158 



means of conveyance for every description of provisions for the 

 officers in the great stations would be of coinmensui-ate efficiency. 

 Oysters were conveyed from the east coast of Britain to Eome 

 itself; for Juvenal mentions Eichborough Oysters as figuring 

 among the luxuries of the imperial city. I take it, of course, 

 that the " native-" Oysters whose shells lay in the one heap, had 

 been used by the superior officers, and the Mumbles by those of 

 narrower means. 



The bones of both sheep and oxen, in the waste heap, all 

 indicate small breeds. Cotteswold mutton of the Eoman period 

 must have been pretty much what the Welsh is now — or that 

 of the Dorset sheep, of which I have heard a southern farmer 

 speak as the " old original British " sort. A Cotteswold farmer 

 somewhat contemptuously remarked of these representatives of 

 the ancient ovine species — " But what he um ? Thay be nothin 

 but moice." 



Tacitus mentions, in his "Manners of the Germans," that their 

 land was " well stocked with cattle, but of an under size :" and 

 in his " Annals" he has a passage so curiously confirmatory of the 

 small size of domestic oxen in Friesland, that I must ask leave 

 to give it entire : — 



" In the course of tliis year the Frisians, a people dwelling beyond the 

 Ehine, broke out into open acts of hostility. The cause of the insurrection 

 was not the restless spirit of a nation impatient of the yoke ; they were 

 driven to despair by Roman avarice. A moderate tribute, such as suited 

 the poverty of the people, consisting of raw hides for the use of the legions, 

 had been foremerly imposed by Duusus. To specify the exact size and 

 quality of the hides was an idea that never entered into the head of any 

 man, till Olexnixjs, the first centurion of a legion, being appointed governor 

 over the Frisians, collected a quantity of the hides of forest bulls, and 

 made them the standard both of weight and dimension. To any other 

 nation this would have been a grievous burthen, but was altogether imprac- 

 ticable in Germany, where the cattle, running wild in large tracts of forest, 

 are of prodigious size, while the breed of domestic uses is remarkably small. 

 The Frisians groaned under this oppressive demand. They gave up first 

 their cattle, next theii- lands ; and finally were obliged to see their wives 

 and children carried into slavery by way of commutation. Discontent and 

 bitter resentment filled the breasts of injured men. They applied for redress, 

 but without effect. In despair they/took up arms ; they seized the tax- 



