A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE but grass, though the cliffs of its gorges are often thick with trees. Its whole aspect is that of an upland. Only as it approaches the borders of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire does it fall away into lowland, and true agricultural life becomes easy. Being thus part of the hill-country, Derbyshire was occupied by the Romans in military fashion. Roads were constructed through the district, and forts garrisoned by auxiliary regiments were built at points on these roads. Three of such forts are known within the limits of the county. One was at Little Chester, now a northern suburb of Derby, beside the Derwent. Though planted in a level, low-lying plain, it stood, never- theless, near the beginning of the hills, and guarded the opening of the Derwent valley, while it also protected a junction of not unimportant roads running from north to south. A second fort at Brough, near Hope, in the pleasant valley of the Noe, performed a similar double duty. It watched the rough hills of High Peak, and it maintained communication between South Yorkshire on the east and Manchester on the west. A third fort hard by Glossop, now known as Melandra, held the northern gate to the same wild country, and further formed another link in the defence of the route from east to west. With these forts we may join two others which lie outside of Derbyshire, the fort at Manchester, and the fort at Templeborough, in Rotherham, slightly north of Sheffield. The five were united by a definite scheme of roads. The Rycknield Street ran from the south past Little Chester, to Templeborough and the north. The Long Causeway and Doctor Gate ran from Templeborough west- wards near Brough and Melandra down to Manchester. A third, now nameless, road connected Manchester by way of Buxton with Little Chester, and finally the cross road Bathamgate joined Buxton to Brough. These forts and roads plainly served two needs. They helped to coerce the hill-men, and they facilitated the general communications of the province. The second was perhaps the less serious matter, for the Roman roads which traversed Derbyshire were neither parts of important through routes, nor did they directly connect together important sites. The need for coercion, on the other hand, was real. We do not, unfortunately, know the facts well enough to write the history in detail. Most of the forts and roads were probably established during the first century. Certainly they were in full use during the second century. That was a time when the north of Britain was not yet peaceful. The Brigantes, for instance, who lived in what is now Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, and Cumberland, were at open war with their Roman masters at some not precisely known date in the reign of Pius (A.D. 138161). During this period the Derbyshire forts seem to have been fully garrisoned. Brough, as we know from an inscription, was either built or rebuilt in A.D. 158, perhaps in connexion with the Brigantian insurrection, and was again altered or repaired a generation or two later. It was still necessary, it would seem, in the early years of the third century to maintain troops in these regions. 200
