70 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



province those wondrous roads which attested to after 

 ages the great skill and science they brought to bear on 

 that laborious task. But I do not conceive that in 

 Central England the Romans interfered with the ancient 

 forests more than was necessary to preserve free and un- 

 interrupted communication. For experience proves that 

 primaeval forests once destroyed, are seldom, and that 

 with great difficulty, restored ; while these were as 

 nourishing as ever throughout the Saxon period and 

 long after. 



Beyond the Cheviots, and latterly beyond the Tyne, 

 the influence of the Romans was small indeed. Though 

 they made numerous incursions into Caledonia, they 

 never conquered it. Towards the close of the first 

 century, their great general, Agricola, attempted to do 

 this; he advanced through the Lowlands and defeated 

 the Picts under Gralgacus at the foot of the Grampians, 

 driving them back to their mountain holds beyond. 

 Desirable as it was to Rome to conquer these formidable 

 tribes, in whom Tacitus, the son-in-law of Agricola, re- 

 cognised the farthest off of the earth's inhabitants, the last 

 champions of freedom, " terrarum ac libertatis extremos" 

 he could never subjugate them. Scanty in number, 

 but fierce and suspicious, they retained their vast fir 

 forests and wastes ; while Agricola himself retreated at 

 last, and so owned his weakness, building from sea to 

 sea, from the Clyde to the Firth of Forth, a line of 

 frontier fortresses and a great wall of stone to keep out 

 the barbarians whom he could not conquer. It was in 

 vain. The Picts and the Scots mustered in stronger 

 numbers ; when they could, broke through the wall, 

 when they could not, sailed round it. The Romans 

 again made a defensive rampart farther back, built in 



