A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



As this geographical division has always affected the history of England, 

 so especially in the Roman period. In the development of the country alter 

 the conquest there was a sharp contrast between the upland and the lowland ; 

 where the hills began, civilization ceased, and military occupation was the 

 rule. The lowland country was then the region of settled civil life. The 

 troops w^ere at an early stage withdrawn to the less settled parts or the country, 

 and after the first century practically no forts were required in it. It was the 

 usual practice of the Romans, in all provinces requiring armed occupation, 

 to mass their troops along the frontier or in specially disturbed areas, and this 

 rule was followed in Britain. Hence there are in Nottinghamshire practically 

 no traces of that military occupation of which the neighbouring county of 

 Derby yields such fine examples in its northern portion. 



Elsewhere, Professor Haverfield has called attention to the complete 

 Romanization of Britain,^ and has shown how we may note the general dis- 

 tribution of pottery, of mosaic work, of the decoration of houses or methods 

 of heating them, even in wild and remote parts such as Cranborne Chase or 

 the midland forests, which seem to have offered no obstacle to the all- 

 pervading Romans. But it was a ' Romanization on a low scale.' We find 

 no great works or buildings, no fine specimens of art ; the objects discovered 

 are mostly of a commonplace character. 



If the lowland area of Roman Britain falls somewhat behind the general 

 average of western Europe in the intensity of its Roman civilization, the 

 midlands of Britain fall equally behind the rest of the British lowland area. 

 The large cities and more vigorous rural life of the province lie round rather 

 than in the central plain, and Leicester (Ratae) is perhaps the only Romano- 

 British town of any importance in the whole region. This is partly explained 

 by physical facts. The natural features of the country are themselves on a low 

 scale ; it is not specially fertile, and there were no industries, as at the 

 present day, its mineral wealth being as yet undiscovered. The people lived 

 a normal and peaceful life, differing from the ordinary civilization of Britain 

 only in the scantiness of population and the lack of distinctive features. The 

 rural life was little developed, and the land largely wooded, nor was the soil 

 of a character to encourage much agriculture, in either of the two most 

 obvious directions of sheep-farming and corn-growing. 



The foregoing sketch of a midland district in Roman times is in actual 

 fact largely taken from Professor Haverfield's description of Warwickshire ; ° 

 but almost every word that he has there written will apply equally well to 

 Nottinghamshire, which presents many similar features. Both counties include 

 portions of two great Roman roads, with the stations thereon at intervals, but 

 no towns of importance ; both were largely covered with forest, especially on 

 the western side ; and both lie at about the same distance from the dividing 

 line between the lowlands and the hill country. 



A glance at the map will show that traces of Roman occupation are 

 fairly well distributed all over the county, though rarer in the central district 

 occupied by Sherwood Forest and along the western border than along the 

 lines of the main roads in the north and east, and nowhere are they found in 

 great quantities. As has been said, there is no site deserving the name of a 



' F.C.H. Warw. \, 225. e j^id, ^28. 



