643 
then a thick stratum of bog earth divided into two 
layers by a thin intervening stratum of sand, next founda- 
tions of buildings and bones of domestic animals, then 
bog earth again, and finally symptoms of modern cultivation. 
Hence it may fairly be assumed that during the Roman 
occupation of Britain, this vast tract of fen land bore quite 
a different character to what it has since done, that it had 
a gravelly subsoil* and an ordinary earthy surface covered 
with trees, not usually if at all subject to floods, but that 
subsequently it became, more or less, constantly submerged 
so as to destroy its previous forest growth, and to cover 
the bodies of the former vegetable giants of the district 
beneath one uniform dark surface — the offspring of a very 
inferior annual vegetable growth and decay, mingled with 
earthy deposits. 
This great change has usually been attributed to the 
burning of the forests by the Romans, on account of the 
covert it afforded to swarms of suffering Britons, who lost 
no opportunity of harassing the forces of their subjugators 
on their march along the great military road, or Ermine 
Street, between Lindum and Danum ; and there certainly 
are apparent signs of burningf about the stumps of some 
of these trees, but others have clearly been cut down, the 
marks of the axe still remaining perfect on their surfaces, 
and many more have been torn up by the roots, and 
occasionally splintered, perhaps by their fall. It is quite 
* In the valley of the Witham, at Lincoln, all the burials in the southern 
Roman cemetery are in the sandy subsoil of that locale, and the sepulchral 
monuments, &c, of that people are always found belovj the present superin- 
cumbent moorish soil. 
1* It is very observable (says De la Pryme) and manifestly evident, that many 
of those trees, of all sorts, have been burnt, but especially the fir trees, some quite 
through, and some all on a side, some have been found chopped and squared, 
some bored through, others half riven with great wooden wedges and stones in 
them, and broken axe heads, somewhat like sacrificing axes in shape, and all this 
in such places and at such depths as could never be opened from the destruction 
of this forest until the time of the drainage. 
c c c 2 
