Roman Milling Operations on the Borders of Wales. 307 



twenty pigs of lead were found together at Runcorn, on the 

 Cheshire coast, near the mouth of the Mersey, all bearing the 

 inscription de.ceang ; some of them bearing date in the fifth 

 consulate of Vespasian, a.d. 76, and others inscribed with the 

 name of Domitian, a.d. 81-96. Another, with the mark of the 

 Ceangi, or Cangi, and the date of the fifth consulate of Ves- 

 pasian, was found in 1772 on Hirst's Common in Staffordshire, 

 near to Watling Street, where it had been left in its transit 

 from the mining* district to the south. It is a remarkable 

 circumstance that nearly all the pigs of lead found in Britain 

 bearing the imperial mark, belong to the early emperors, and 

 the absence of any of a later date perhaps implies some great 

 change in the system of administration of the mines.* 



The Romans found lead again in the limestone mountains 

 behind Abergele. On the side of one of these, which, from 

 some ancient intrenchments on its summit, is called Castell 

 Cawr, the vein of lead appears to have cropped out on its 

 surface as in Shelve Hill ; and in following it the Romans have 

 cut a trench across the mountain of such vast depth and width, 

 that the cuttings on Shelve Hill are mere scratches in com- 

 parison to it. After the departure of the Romans, this country 

 had been left so wild and unfrequented that the caverns of the 

 Roman miners became the haunts of beasts of prey ; and the 

 trench of which we are speaking received from the Welsh the 

 name of Ffos y Blaiddiaid, or the Wolves' Ditch. More recent 

 attempts at mining have showed that the Romans had pene- 

 trated deep into the hill, and had cleared away the ore. They 

 are thus recorded in the local guide-books : " In driving' a level 

 into the mountain some years ago, the miners discovered that 

 the Romans had been deep in the bowels of the earth before 

 them. They had followed the vein where it was large enough 

 to admit a small man, and where it opened out into a larger 

 chamber, they had cleared it quite away. When the vein be- 

 came too small to admit a man, they were obliged to relinquish 

 the ore. Some curious hammers and tools, but almost decayed 

 into dust, were found in these chambers." 



We are now leaving the borders of Wales, whatever limits 

 might be given to them, but we may still pursue the Roman 

 mining operations through the country of the Cangi. They 

 found copper in the Great Orme's Head, and worked it success- 

 fully ; and when digging for the foundations of buildings in the 

 town of Llandudno the modern excavators came upon the soil 



* A complete and valuable list of the Roman pigs of lead found in this country, 

 was contributed by Mr. Albert Way to the Archceological Journal, and another 

 will be found in a paper by Mr. James Yates, " On the Mining Operations of the 

 Romans in Britain," published in the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archceo- 

 logical and Natural History Society, 



