A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



valleys, steep slopes, and even precipitous gorges, and their general aspect 

 is broken and mountainous. The climate discourages serious agriculture. 

 The population is pastoral and sparse. Towns other than the creations 

 of modern manufacturing industry are comparatively few, and many of 

 the inhabitants dwell apart in scattered cots and homesteads. These wild 

 uplands, moreover, look westwards. Their connexions are with Ireland 

 or with the Atlantic. They receive neither immigrants nor influences 

 from the parts of Europe that lie nearest to Britain. 



These two districts, so diverse in their geographical character, were 

 no less diverse in their history during the Roman period. The differences 

 begin from the first moment of conquest. The lowlands, occupied by 

 comparatively civilized tribes and presenting no serious obstacle to the 

 march of armies, were subdued quickly and easily. The Romans landed 

 in Kent A.D. 43. Within four or five years, by A.D. 47 or 48, they had 

 overrun the midlands, the south, and the east of Britain, and advanced at 

 least as far as the Severn and the Humber. It remained to reduce the 

 uplands. The task was begun in A.D. 48 or shortly afterwards. But it 

 was not completed with ease and speed. Instead of four years, it needed 

 nearly forty. The hill-tribes of Wales were not tamed till A.D. 78. 

 The resistance of the northern tribes was not seriously weakened till the 

 years immediately following. Even when conquered, these uplands 

 remained imperfectly subdued. Wales, it would seem, lay quiet. But 

 the hills of Derbyshire and Lancashire and Yorkshire were the scenes of 

 fighting on many occasions during the second century. Even the 

 organization of the Caledonian frontier, at which the emperors Hadrian, 

 Pius, and Septimius Severus, in turn laboured, did not secure peace for the 

 land between the Humber and the Tyne. 



In the development of Britain which followed the conquest, lowlands 

 and uplands remained sharply contrasted (fig. i). The lowlands were rapidly 



iURACUM LCGVIindCol 



RMSHIlKvi.niftl 



FIG. I. THE CIVILIAN AND MILITARY DISTRICTS OF BRITAIN. 



192 



