380 
imperial government, and its agents, appear to have adopted 
an ingenious practice for debasing the coinage, and at the 
same time saving their own credit. They made these 
clay impresses of the money of former emperors, and then 
poured in the debased metal, and when this was sent into 
circulation, which it was no doubt largely, it passed for good 
money, until now and then it would be discovered, and some 
imperial officer of a former reign would be considered to 
have been the forger. 
The position of Leeds in the heart of this district, and near 
the junction of so many roads, would lead us to suppose that 
it must have been a place of some importance during the 
Roman period ; and that this was the case is placed beyond 
any doubt by a statement made by the historian Bede, from 
which we gather that, at the close of the Roman period, some 
petty chieftain, either of native blood or of foreign descent, 
perhaps the latter, had established himself in a little kingdom 
(regianciila) , in the territory of which this town was looked 
upon as the capital, and that it was called Loidis, which was 
simply the ancient form of its present name. His successors 
maintained their independence amid the turbulence of the 
Anglian invasions and the formation of the Northumbrian king- 
dom, until the year 616, when the kingdom of Loidis was con- 
quered by King Edwin and incorporated into his territory, 
apparently in revenge for the murder of his nephew, Hereric. 
The last of these kings of Loidis is generally supposed to have 
been a Briton b}^ blood, and indeed his name, written by Bede 
Cereticus, might be supposed to represent Caractacus, or 
Caradoc, but it is unsafe to argue from mere names in such 
cases, and it might equally well represent the Teutonic name 
Cerdic. Mr. John James, your Yorkshire antiquary, in a 
very excellent paper, read here before the British Archaeo- 
logical Association last year, and since printed in the journal 
of that learned body, has traced the limits of this territory 
9 t 
