A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE forest land, and beyond the valley of the Soar we have evidence of nothing denoting occupation during the Roman era but the hoards of coins buried in Charnwood Forest, and small miscellaneous finds such as spear-heads and odd coins, which do not denote any settlement. Along the course of the Roman roads, however, remains are naturally to be found. On the Watling Street, which forms the south-western boundary of the county, are the stations of Tripontium, Venonae, and Manduessedum, which, lying on both sides of the road, are each partly in this county and partly in Warwickshire. On the Fosse Way, which also passes through Venonae or High Cross, there is the town of Ratae or Leicester, and along the valley of the Soar, west and north of Leicester, there were probably villas of some importance at Danett's Hall, Westcotes, Rothley, Mountsorrel, and Barrow-upon-Soar. The eastern side of the county is almost as equally devoid of remains of the Roman period as the western. There are traces of villas at Market Harborough and Med- bourne, in the valley of the Welland, and at Wymondham. With the exception of Wymondham all the villas mentioned lay in the valleys of the Soar and the Welland, sites selected no doubt in order that the produce of the lands might be distributed by water. These villas were the properties of large landowners, sometimes Romans, but more often probably Romanized Britons, who lived in the houses, caused the lands immediately round them to be cultivated by their slaves, and let the rest to the half serf coloni. The houses were of types suitable to this climate, and only to be found in Britain and northern Gaul. The simpler, and generally the smaller, of these was the corridor house, which consisted of a row of rooms with a passage or corridor running along one side of it. The other type was the courtyard house, con- sisting of three rows of similar rooms, and passages forming three sides of a square, with an open courtyard in the middle. Both types were seldom, if ever, carried higher than the ground floor. No less than ten hoards of coins have been found in the county ; of these the dates of the coins have not been recorded for two, Kibworth and Market Bosworth ; that at Hinckley cannot have been hidden earlier than A.D. 1 80 ; one at Edmondthorpe possibly as late as A.D. 383, and one at Leicester A.D. 423 ; one at Lutterworth not earlier than A.D. 138, and another one at Leicester not later than A.D. 337. The remaining three, those found at Ashby- de-la-Zouch, Loughborough, and Lutterworth, comprise coins dating between A.D. 257 and 275. It is perhaps worthy of remark that hoards, of which the date of the latest coins is approximately the same as that of those last referred to, are not infrequent. 5 The natural reason to be assigned for the depositing of hoards is that they were hidden as treasure, to avoid loss by plunder during a disturbed condition of the country. A systematic investigation of the evidence of
- such hoards would probably throw considerable light upon the history of
the times to which they refer. Those, however, now under consideration 4 In Derbyshire, at Crick, two such hoards have been found, the covering dates being respectively 250-70 and 265-8 ; at Eyam one hoard, 253-82 ; at Langworth, 253-75 ; and at Wirksworth, B.C. 29-A.D. 275 ; V.C.H. Derb. i, 256-62. In Warwickshire, at Knowle, 253-73 ; at Chalveston, 253-83 ; and at Nuneaton, 70-267 ; V.C.H. Warw. i, 247. In Northants, at Hardingstone, 250-80 ; and at Wootton, 253-68; V.C.H. Northants, 1,217,222. In Bedfordshire, at Flitwick, 268-73, and at Luton, 196-270; V.C.H. Beds. ii. In Yorkshire, at Nunburnholme, 3,000 small brass, 253-75 ; and in Sussex, at Eastbourne, near Beachy Head, 253-75 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxi, 201. 1 80
