A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



south and Castlcton on the north. Within these limits disused mines 

 of one date or another occur plentifully in large irregular patches. 

 (See map, fig. 28.) 



The Roman mining seems to have centred round a point in the south- 

 east of this region. Five out of the six pigs of Roman lead found in the 

 county have been dug up on the moors in the vicinity of Matlock, east 

 or west of the Derwent, and the circumstances of their discovery seem to 

 indicate that they were melted down at the places where they were 

 discovered. It does not follow, of course, that they were mined where they 

 were smelted. The ore may possibly have been mined elsewhere, and the 

 neighbourhood of Matlock may have been only a smelting district where 

 the lead was separated from the more valuable silver which it contained. 

 But the sites where the five pigs have been found are somewhat scattered ; 

 they lie also on the edge of the mining region, and it is more natural 

 to suppose that the lead was both mined and smelted near Matlock. The 

 region or some part of it seems to have borne the name Lutudarum and 



the mining 

 district the 

 name metal- 

 lum Lutuda- 

 rense. 1 



Mining was 

 here carried 



FIG. 29. SHAPE OF AN ORDINARY PIG OF ROMAN LEAD. On vigorous- 



(The part uppermost in the illustration was lowest in the mould, and ly. We have 



received the inscription which was placed along the bottom of the mould. The no only five 



stratification represents the layers of melted lead successively poured into the T J 



mould.) Lutudaren- 



sian pigs from 



near Matlock, but also seven others found in various parts of England 

 which are declared by their inscriptions to come from the same 

 source. One of the pigs is dated to the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 1 1 7- 

 138); and so far as one may judge by the lettering the others may be 

 even earlier. 



Thus much seems certain respecting the Derbyshire mining. If, 

 however, we inquire for further details, many puzzles confront us. In 

 the first place, with respect to the ownership and administration. 

 Minerals in the Roman Empire were usually crown property, and were 

 either worked by the state or were let to more or less official lessees 

 under the control of an imperial agent. In the reign of Hadrian, as pig 

 No. i shows, the Derbyshire lead mines did thus belong to the emperor. 

 But most of the pigs bear not the emperors' names, but those of private 

 persons or at least of persons who have no official titles or descriptions. 

 L. Aruconius Verecundus, C. lulius Protus, Ti. Claudius Tr(ophimus ?), 

 P. Rubrius Abascantus. These are the only private persons named 



1 Compare the inscriptions given below with the Ravenna Geographer, 429. 2, who mentions 

 Lutudaron next to Derventio. For some obscure reason almost all writers previous to the discovery of 

 No. II called the name Lutudae ; but it is obviously Lutudarum. Holder (Sprachschatz, ii. 355) is 

 certainly wrong in adhering to Lutudae. 



228 



