OF FOREST-TREES. 



311 



from the spontaneous fall, ruin, and decay of the trees lying across one CH. XXII. 



another to a man's height, partly covered with moss, and partly earth and 

 grass, which rots, fills up, and grows again, a considerable hill has, in 

 process of time, been raised to almost their very tops, which, being an ac- 



between the two last named towns, lay the borders of the greatest forest, which swarmed 

 with wild Britons, who were continually making their sallies out, and their retreats into it 

 again, intercepting their provisions, taking and destroying their carriages, killing their al- 

 lies and passengers, and disturbing their garrisons. This at length so exasperated the 

 Romans, that they were determined to destroy it ; and to do this safely and effectually, 

 they marched against it with a great army, and encamped on a great moor not far from 

 Finningly : this is evident from their fortifications yet remaining. There is a small town 

 in the neighbourhood called Osterfield ; and as the termination Jleld seems to have been 

 given only in remembrance of battles fought near the towns whose names ended with it, 

 it is not improbable that a battle was fought here between all the Britons who inhabited 

 this forest, and the Roman troops under Ostorius. The Romans slew many of the Britons, 

 and drove the rest back into this forest, which at that time overspread all this low country. 

 On this the conquerors taking advantage of a strong south-Avest wind, set fire to the Pitch- 

 trees, of which this forest was principally composed ; and when the greater part of the 

 trees were thus destroyed, the Roman soldiers and captive Britons cut down the remainder, 

 except a few large ones, which they left standing as remembrances of the destruction of 

 the rest. These single trees, however, could not stand long against the winds, and these 

 falling into the rivers which ran through the country, interrupted their currents ; and the 

 water then overspreading the level country, made one great lake, and gave origin to the 

 mosses or moory bogs, v;hich were afterwards formed there, by the workings of the 

 waters, the precipitation of earthy matter from them, and the putrefaction of rotten boughs 

 and branches of trees, and the vast increase of water-moss and other such plants which 

 grow in prodigious abundance in all these sorts of places. Thus were these burnt and 

 felled trees buried under a new-formed, spongy, and watery earth, and afterwards found 

 on the draining and digging through this earth again. Hence it is not strange that Roman 

 weapons and Roman coins are found among these buried trees ; and hence it is, that 

 among the buried trees some are found burnt, some chopped and hewn ; and hence it is, 

 that the bodies of the trees all lie by their proper roots, and with their tops lying north- 

 east, that is, in that direction in which a south-west wind would have blown them down : 

 hence also it is, that some of the trees are found with their roots lying flat, these being not 

 cut or burned down, but blown up by the roots afterwards when left single ; and it is not 

 wonderful, that such trees as these should have continued to grow even after their fall, and 

 shoot up branches from their sides which might easily grow into high trees." Phil. Trans, 

 No. 275. 



By this system it is easily explained why the moor-soil is in some places two or 

 three yards thicker than in others, or higher thari it was formerly, since the growing up 

 of peat-earth or bog-ground is well known, and the soil added by overflowing of waters, 

 is not a little. As the Romans were the destroyers of this great and noble forest, so 



