26 
of which was covered with water plants, with abundant Alders and 
Willows. The prevailing trees in the lower ground would have 
been Oak, Willow, Alder and Hazel, with here and there the Elm. 
Corn fields were not absent, for during the Roman occupation, 
Britain became one of the corn exporting countries of the 
world. (1) 
The hills were covered with a forest of Scotch Fir, Pinus 
Sylvestris, extending probably to Bournemouth. Only a few 
specimens of this Fir still remain on our hills, and are fast 
disappearing. (2) 
Mr. Green is quoted by the Rev. A. C. Smith (3) to 
the following effect:—‘ At the close of the Roman Rule, 
Britain was an Isle of blowing woodland, even then a wild and 
half reclaimed country, the bulk of whose surface was occupied by 
forest and waste, but in the earliest times densely covered with 
medieval scrub.” ‘The town of Devizes is situated on the 
brow of the hill looking down over the Avon basin upon the 
forest which ran unbroken westward as far as the outskirts of 
Bath.” (4) 
After the Roman occupation ceased, the Elm, as we have seen,. 
would begin to form a feature of the landscape. 
The name Elm is the same as in the Saxon. 
Collinson, inhis ‘History of Somerset” (5) says that the village 
of Great and Little Elm was named from the Saxon word on 
account of the quantity of Elm trees. 
Loudon says :— (6) ‘There are about 40 places in England 
mentioned in the Domesday Book (1071) which take their names 
from that of the Elms, such as Barn Elms, Nine Elms, &c. But 
(1) ‘‘Green’s Hist. of the English People,” p. 21. 
(2) Rev. L. Blomefield, ‘‘ Bath Field Club Proceedings,” Vol. 6, p. 39. 
(3) ‘‘ British and Roman Antiquities of North Wiltshire,” p. 43. 
(4) Green, ‘‘ The Making of England,” pp. 8, 93, 97, 338, 347- 
(5) Vol. 2, p. 206. 
(6) ‘*Arboretum,” Vol. 3, p. 1373. 
