A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



size and wealth and perhaps the residence of the chief authorities who 

 controlled taxes and customs dues. The usual route to the continent for 

 passengers and for goods was from the Kentish harbours to Gessoriacum 

 (Boulogne), but the discovery of a pig of Mendip lead at the mouth of 

 the Somme suggests occasionally longer voyages. 



Finally, let us sketch the roads. We may distinguish four groups, 

 all commencing from one centre, London. One road ran south-east to 

 Canterbury and the Kentish ports. A second ran west and south-west, 

 first due west from London to Silchester, and thence by ramifications to 

 Winchester and Exeter, Bath, Gloucester and South Wales. A third, 

 Watling Street, ran north-west across the Midlands to Wroxeter, and 

 thence to the military districts of the north-west : it also gave access to 

 Leicester and the north. A fourth ran to Colchester and the eastern 

 counties, and also to Lincoln and York and the military districts of the 

 north-east. In Northamptonshire we shall be concerned with the third 

 and fourth of these routes and with branches from them. To these must 

 be added a long single road, the only important one which had no con- 

 nection with London. This is the Foss, which cuts obliquely across 

 from north-east to south-west, joining Lincoln, Leicester, Bath and 

 Exeter. These roads must be understood as being only the main roads, 

 divested, for the sake of clearness, of many branches and intricacies ; and, 

 understood as such, they may be taken to represent a reasonable supply 

 of internal communications for the province. After the Roman occupa- 

 tion had ceased, they were largely utilized by the English, but they do 

 not much resemble the roads of mediasval England in their grouping and 

 economic significance. One might better compare them to the railways 

 of to-day, which equally radiate from London. 



Such was Roman Britain, so far as it was not military — a land of 

 small country towns and large rural estates ; permeated by the simpler 

 forms of Roman civilization, but lacking the higher developments ; not 

 devoid of natural resources, but not rich ; a comfortable country perhaps, 

 but an unimportant fraction of the Empire. 



With these general features of the province, or rather of its southern 

 portion, we have now to compare the details of Roman Northampton- 

 shire. The comparison will both illustrate the preceding sketch and at 

 the same time show the proper significance of the Roman remains found 

 in the county. Let us briefly anticipate the results. Our detailed 

 survey will show us a district that closely resembles the larger part of 

 southern non-military Britain, both in the abundance and in the character 

 of its remains, but which does not lack one or two features of special 

 interest. There were, in the area which is now Northamptonshire, one 

 considerable town and three small ones. There were numerous villas 

 and rural dweUings. There were roads ; and two of these roads were 

 specially important in the road system of the province. There were 

 industries of some small local moment — probably ironstone diggings, 

 certainly extensive manufactures of earthenware at Castor — and the 

 latter, the Castor potteries, merit special notice, because they preserved in 



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