VOL. XXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 629 



merly from Lindum or Lincoln, to Segelocum, or Little-burrow upon Trent, 

 and from thence to Danum or Doncaster, where they kept a standing garrison 

 ofCrispinian horse. A little off, to the east and north east of this road, be- 

 tween the two last-named towns, lay the borders of the great forest, which 

 swarmed with wild Britons, who were continually sallying out, and retreating 

 into it again, intercepting their provisions, taking and destroying their carriages, 

 killing their allies and passengers, and disturbing their garrisons; which at 

 length so enraged the Romans, that they were resolved to destroy it ; and that 

 they might do the same more effectually, as well as the more easily, they 

 marched with a great army, and encamped on a large heath or moor, not far 

 from Finningly, (as appears by their fortifications still to be seen there) where 

 it is probable that a great battle ensued, for hard by is a little town called 

 Osterfield. Now as the latter part of the word is never used to be added to any 

 other, but where there has been a battle ; so the former seprns to inform us 

 what Roman general it was that commanded, to wit, the famous Ostorius, whom 

 all the Roman historians assure us was in those parts. But who got the victory 

 is not directly mentioned, though no doubt it was the valiant Romans, who 

 besides the multitudes of the Britons they slew, drove the rest back into the 

 great forest and wood, that covered all this low country. Whereupon the Ro- 

 mans, that they might both destroy it and the enemy the easier, took the op- 

 portunity of a strong south west wind, and set great fires therein, which taking 

 hold of the fir-trees, burned like pitch, and consumed immense numbers of 

 them ; and, when the fire had done what mischief and execution it could, the 

 Romans brought their army nearer, and with whole legions of captive Britons 

 chopped and cut down most of the trees that were yet left standing, leaving 

 only here and there some large ones untouched, as monuments of their fury ; 

 which being destitute of the support of the under-wood, and of their neigh- 

 bouring trees, were easily overthrown by strong winds. All which trees falling 

 cross the rivers that formerly ran through this low country, soon dammed them 

 up, and turned it into a large lake, and gave origin to the great turf moors 

 that are here, by the girations and workings of the waters, the precipitation of 

 terrestrial matter from them, the consumption and putrefaction of rotten boughs 

 and branches, and the vast increase of thick water moss, which wonderfully 

 flourishes, and grows upon such rotten grounds. Which even now since the 

 drainage, and since that the country is laid dry for many miles round about, yet 

 for all that, are so turgid with water, and so soft and rotten, that they will 

 scarcely bear men to walk upon them. 



Hence it is, that old Roman coins, old Roinan axe-heads, &c. have been 

 found near those roots and trees, that lie at the bottom of these moors and 



