A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



forest land, and beyond the valley of the Soar we have evidence of nothing 

 denoting occupation during the Roman era but the hoards of coins buried in 

 Charnwood Forest, and small miscellaneous finds such as spear-heads and odd 

 coins, which do not denote any settlement. Along the course of the Roman 

 roads, however, remains are naturally to be found. On the Watling Street, 

 which forms the south-western boundary of the county, are the stations of 

 Tripontium, Venonae, and Manduessedum, which, lying on both sides of the 

 road, are each partly in this county and partly in Warwickshire. On the 

 Fosse Way, which also passes through Venonae or High Cross, there is the 

 town of Ratae or Leicester, and along the valley of the Soar, west and north 

 of Leicester, there were probably villas of some importance at Danett's Hall, 

 Westcotes, Rothley, Mountsorrel, and Barrow-upon-Soar. The eastern side 

 of the county is almost as equally devoid of remains of the Roman period as 

 the western. There are traces of villas at Market Harborough and Med- 

 bourne, in the valley of the Welland, and at Wymondham. With the 

 exception of Wymondham all the villas mentioned lay in the valleys of the 

 Soar and the Welland, sites selected no doubt in order that the produce of the 

 lands might be distributed by water. These villas were the properties of large 

 landowners, sometimes Romans, but more often probably Romanized Britons, 

 who lived in the houses, caused the lands immediately round them to be 

 cultivated by their slaves, and let the rest to the half serf coloni. The houses 

 were of types suitable to this climate, and only to be found in Britain and 

 northern Gaul. The simpler, and generally the smaller, of these was the 

 corridor house, which consisted of a row of rooms with a passage or corridor 

 running along one side of it. The other type was the courtyard house, con- 

 sisting of three rows of similar rooms, and passages forming three sides of a 

 square, with an open courtyard in the middle. Both types were seldom, if 

 ever, carried higher than the ground floor. 



No less than ten hoards of coins have been found in the county ; of these 

 the dates of the coins have not been recorded for two, Kibworth and Market 

 Bosworth ; that at Hinckley cannot have been hidden earlier than A.D. 1 80 ; 

 one at Edmondthorpe possibly as late as A.D. 383, and one at Leicester 

 A.D. 423 ; one at Lutterworth not earlier than A.D. 138, and another one at 

 Leicester not later than A.D. 337. The remaining three, those found at Ashby- 

 de-la-Zouch, Loughborough, and Lutterworth, comprise coins dating between 

 A.D. 257 and 275. 



It is perhaps worthy of remark that hoards, of which the date of the 

 latest coins is approximately the same as that of those last referred to, are not 

 infrequent. 5 The natural reason to be assigned for the depositing of hoards is 

 that they were hidden as treasure, to avoid loss by plunder during a disturbed 

 condition of the country. A systematic investigation of the evidence of 

 ;such hoards would probably throw considerable light upon the history of 

 the times to which they refer. Those, however, now under consideration 



4 In Derbyshire, at Crick, two such hoards have been found, the covering dates being respectively 

 250-70 and 265-8 ; at Eyam one hoard, 253-82 ; at Langworth, 253-75 ; and at Wirksworth, B.C. 

 29-A.D. 275 ; V.C.H. Derb. i, 256-62. In Warwickshire, at Knowle, 253-73 ; at Chalveston, 253-83 ; 

 and at Nuneaton, 70-267 ; V.C.H. Warw. i, 247. In Northants, at Hardingstone, 250-80 ; and at 

 Wootton, 253-68; V.C.H. Northants, 1,217,222. In Bedfordshire, at Flitwick, 268-73, and at Luton, 

 196-270; V.C.H. Beds. ii. In Yorkshire, at Nunburnholme, 3,000 small brass, 253-75 ; and in Sussex, 

 at Eastbourne, near Beachy Head, 253-75 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxi, 201. 



1 80 



