46 
JOURNAL OP THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
course. What the Caledonians effected by constant warfare in the 
recesses of a savage country, the Dunmonii probably achieved by 
policy. " They retained their nationality under their native 
princes, 1 and " were allowed to manage their own affairs as they 
pleased," and are specially recorded in an inscription on the Roman 
Wall as "Civitas Dunmon," having evidently, in the words of Mr. 
Brooking Rowe, " done something in connection with the building 
of the wall deserving of special commemoration." 2 
This is so very peculiar a relationship that it is not easy to 
explain. Undoubtedly the Romans could have conquered the 
Dunmonii had they tried, but they apparently never made the 
effort ; and my hypothesis is simply this, that the same long- 
continued foreign intercourse which had given the Western Penin- 
sula its superiority in civilization, also prompted its residents — 
those, at least, who came within the influence of mercantile asso- 
ciations — rather to welcome than to oppose the people with whom 
they were on such friendly terms, and from whom they derived so 
much advantage. If so, there was a British " nation of shopkeepers" 
long before Napoleon. 
It is not without significance that Exeter, the only distinct 
Roman settlement in Devon, is nearly on the verge of our mining 
districts, and that the only other places that by their names appear 
to indicate a Roman military occupation are on the same line, near 
North Lew — Chester Moor, Scobchester, and Wickchester. We 
have no means of knowing how far the domain of the Dunmonii 
extended, and Exeter may have been one of their old frontier 
towns, as it certainly was alike a Roman outpost, and the head of 
the Roman power in this region. West of Exeter no proof of 
Roman occupation, beyond a possible individual settlement here 
and there, has ever been found, though traces of Roman intercourse 
are by no means wanting. 3 The full significance of this fact is 
only seen when we compare non-Roman Devon with thoroughly 
Romanized Somerset, in the 488 parishes of which Roman remains 
1 Beale Poste, British Researches, p. 332. 
2 " Roman Devon," op. cit. p. 240. May not this be connected with the fact 
that Exeter was the head- quarters of the Second Legion, which had a prominent 
part in the erection of the wall ? 
3 North and east of Exeter I only know of a villa at Hannaditches, near 
Seaton, possibly associated with the disputed Moridunum, and another said 
have occupied the crest of a cliff near Hartland. 
