28 History of the English Landed Interest, 



Gymnesise, though the Iberians encouraged its growth on 

 account of the delicate flavour of its flesh ? ^ 



It cannot be doubted that the Roman would first turn his 

 attention to opening up the country by means of roads; accord- 

 ingly we find frequent historical allusions to this kind of work. 

 Severus,^ for example, in order to subjugate Caledonia, under- 

 went indescribable labour in cutting down woods, levelling 

 hills, making marshes passable, and constructing bridges over 

 rivers, Herodian ^ refers particularly to the marshes of the 

 country, with the vapours of which the atmosphere seemed 

 always dense. Many parts also were constantly'' flooded by 

 the tides, whereby the work of road-making was grievously 

 obstructed. It is evident that there were some native roads, 

 from the facility with which the Romans traversed the 

 southern parts of Britain in the early days of warfare, and in 

 the allusion by Tacitus ■* to the fact that Agricola, when under- 

 taking the invasion of the country bej'-ond the Forth, avoided 

 all such, which he felt sure would be infested by the enemy's 

 forces, and so sailed northwards with his troops. The Roman 

 roads were in great part the work of the soldiery, supplemented 

 by enforced native labour of so severe a nature as to have 

 stirred the indignation of the captive Galgacus, whom Tacitus^ 

 describes as complaining of the stripes and indignities incurred 

 whilst clearing woods and draining swamps. 



These works accomplished, it was the policy of the con- 

 querors, so Tacitus tells us, to wean their late enemies from 

 the crafts of war to the arts of peace; and we may infer that 

 they were soon engrossed in planting orchards,^ laying out 

 ornamental gardens, and assisting the British husbandmen to 

 develop their systems of agriculture, undertakings which must 

 have called into frequent use such books as the Georgics of 

 Virgil and the Natural History of Pliny. Here then is a fresh 

 starting-point in our history, inaugurating the first books on 

 agriculture which influenced British husbandry. It is curious 



' Helm, WandorbKjH of riants and Anhncds, p. 343. 

 "^ Herodian, Illst., lib. iii. ch. 4G-51. 

 » Id. Ibid. ■ * Id. Ibid., ch. 29. 



* Tacitus, Agricola, ch. 25. ^ Id. Ibid., ch. 12. 



