410 
these new citizens resided. These Roman colonists were 
often placed on border lands to check the inroads of the 
unsubdued natives who inhabited the mountains and difficult 
portions of the kingdom. Perhaps some of these colonists 
were placed on the banks of the Rivelin to keep in awe the 
Britons of the Peak, and here, probably, stood a Roman 
town. There is a tradition that, in these parts, a city was 
destroyed by fire, and this may have been a Roman town 
devastated by the Saxon or the Norman. It must, however, 
be noted that, on this spot — the Lawns — no other Roman 
remains have been found.* 
The Saxon Period. 
Many reasons may be advanced to show that this district 
belonged to the kingdom of Mercia in the days of the 
Heptarchy. In the first place, it is altogether improbable 
that the two great kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia 
were divided by a mere rivulet, such as separates, on the 
south, the parish of Sheffield from Derbyshire. These nations, 
it is known, were almost perpetually at war with each other. 
Their border lands, a very Flanders, formed the battle-fields 
for centuries of these turbulent neighbours. Some proof has 
been given that the Don formed the boundary of the Brigan- 
tian kingdom and of two Roman provinces. What so likely 
as that it also constituted the boundary of Northumbria and 
Mercia? There are abundant traces in the names of places 
and the dialect of the inhabitants of the parish of Sheffield, 
of the Mercian tongue. 
We may safely conclude that when Yorkshire, in the time 
of King Alfred, became a county, it was carved out of the 
three great Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and 
Cumbria. He must, indeed, be credulous who believes that 
* Since this was written, I have been informed that Mr. Samuel Mitchell has 
discovered some Roman tumuli hereabouts. 
