186 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



goes on to say in his Essay on the Origin and 

 Operation of the Dry Rot, with a View to its Prevention 

 or Cure, published in 1818, " We have good reason 

 to believe that great part of them have lain above 

 1700 years in the earth, and in reference to this 

 statement it may not be improper to give my reasons 

 for thinking so. These are grounded on the page of 

 history. If we recall to mind the history of the Britons, 

 from the reign of Domitian to the accesssion of Caracalla, 

 and consider the local situation of the morasses and bogs, 

 we shall find good reason for ascribing the destruction of 

 many of the forests in question to the Romans. It is well 

 known that from the time of Julius Caesar to the decline 

 of the Roman power, the Britons, being unable to contend 

 with the arms and discipline of the Roman legions in 

 pitched battles in the open country, were forced to take 

 shelter in the woods and marshes, from which they annoyed 

 the Romans with their incursions. The Roman generals, 

 therefore, from the time of Agricola, if not before, employed 

 not only their own soldiers, but also many of the pro- 

 vincial Britons, in depriving their opponents of their 

 places of refuge, by cutting down the woods, and draining 

 marshes. These are the servile labours pointed out by 

 Galgacus, in that energetic speech made at the head of 

 his army, before the battle with Agricola, and of which 

 he warns the Caledonians as awaiting the vanquished. He 

 says : ' Our limbs and our bodies are worn out in cutting 

 wood, and draining marshes ; and what have we in return 

 but stripes and insults ! ' * Having finished his harangue, 

 he led 30,000 on the Grampian hills to that desperate, 

 bloody, and well-fought, though unsuccessful conflict, 

 which left 10,000 of his brave men slumbering on their 

 gory beds ; and Tacitus says, had not the bogs protected 

 the Caledonians, that battle would have ended the war. 

 This was in the 84th year of our era. In like manner, 

 Severus employed his men, not only in erecting the wall 



* Tacitus, Life of Agricola, chap. 31. 



