HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 3 



Dr. Plot describes a noble antiquity near Wrottesley, as the 

 foundation of some ancient British city or fortification of great ex- 

 tent : it occupies a circuitous space of three or four miles, and in- 

 cludes parts of Wrottesley, Patshull, Pepperhill, and Bonnegal Parks, 

 and some parcels of the commons of King's-wood and Westbach 

 Foundations of old walls, large door-hinges, and an antique dagger, 

 have been found here; and from the circumstance of some of the 

 stones being squared, Dr. Plot inclines to think it rather some ruined 

 city than a fortification only.* 



The ROMAN Conquests in this Island were divided generally into 

 higher or Western, and lower or EasteriuBritain, (separated from 

 each other by a line that was carried through the Island), and dis- 

 tinguished by the names of Britannia Prima, Secunda, Flavia, &c. 

 Flavia or FJavia Caesariensis, comprised all the central counties, in- 

 cluding of course Staffordshire, which was possessed before the ar- 

 rival of the Romans by the Cornavii of Ptolemy, [Camden agrees with 

 Ptolemy,] to whom belonged, amongst other towns, EtocetumorWall, 

 near Lichfield : Uriconium or Wroxeter, is supposed to have been 

 another principal place of the Cornavii, who occupied Shropshire as 

 well as Staffordshire. This, together with the surrounding country, 

 fell under the dominion of the Brigantes, previous to the Roman in- 

 vasion. Roman Britain is divided naturally into eastern and wes- 

 tern by a chain of hills, running from the Highlands of Scotland 

 and joining the Peak of Derbyshire, the Moorlands of Staffordshire 

 over Cannock-heath and Sutton Coldfield to the range of Edgehill 

 in Warwickshire, and the Chiltern-hills in Buckinghamshire: this 

 extensive range of hills may be termed the backbone of the Island. 



There are considerable traces in this county of what are called 

 Roman Roads, The principal road of this description is the Street- 

 way, or as Camden, and all authors since his time call it, the Watling- 

 street: it was called Street-way either because it run-in a straight 

 line, or because it was covered with strata of sand and gravel. f Its 

 course is almost due east from Crackley-bank, where it enters this 

 county, and separates it for about two miles from Shropshire, 

 through Weston, and by Stretton (Pennocrucium), over the river 



* The same author mentions a stone found in the ruins, that, after ten 

 loads of stone had been hewn from it, required thirty-six yokes of oxen 

 to draw it. The great cistern of the 'malt-house at Wrottesley was made from 

 it, and which, though left very thick at the bottom and sides, is so capacious, 

 that it will wet thirty-seven strike of barley at onetime. 



t Bede calls such made roads, strata or covered. 



A 2 



