tracts, after alluding to the above-named, suggests that the numerous stories of the various Robin Hoods and Little Johns, all claiming to be the veritable heroes of the ancient ballads, were "traditionary recollections, not of the veritable heroes themselves, but of persons who sustained those characters in the dramatic entertainments which were founded on this story, and who obtained a celebrity for the ability with which they performed their part." Dramatic representations in which Robin Hood and his men were the characters, were special favourites in former days, and Locksley Chase being inhabited by fletchers, or arrow-makers, the tale would have peculiar attractions for this region. Dr. Ingledew, however, in his recently published "Yorkshire Ballads," p. 35, tries to deprive this wild district of its only claim to celebrity, by stating that Robin Hood was born at Locksley, in Nottinghamshire, and thence derived the alias immortalized by Scott. The Riveling rises near Stanedge, between Ughill and Lord's Seat. In the volume of its stream, and character of its banks, it may be said generally to resemble the Loxley; being, however, somewhat nearer to the town of Sheffield, its picturesque beauty has been more frequently, no less than deservedly, celebrated.2 This latter stream, from almost the beginning of its course, forms the boundary between this parish and the parish of Sheffield. Another famous stream, the Derwent, though it does not actually flow through this parish, yet has some of its springs within its limits, and from its source for some miles down its stream, forms the boundary between it and Derbyshire. Other streams of smaller importance will be noted when we come to treat of particular localities. In the absence of any special information about the remote history of Ecclesfield as a separate parish, it may 1 Robin Hood, p. 59. 2 Tour of the Don, p. 177. be well to review briefly the general state of the country before the Norman Conquest. It is impossible to decide between the conflicting theories about the original colonization of the island; it would be idle therefore even to speculate upon anything earlier than the invasions of the Romans, the first of which took place B.C. 55, but amounted to nothing. When the Romans did really effect an entrance into these islands, they found them occupied by at least three warlike tribes,1 whose indomitable spirit called forth all the skill and discipline of the trained legionaries to keep them in any show of subjection, and who were not kept in even nominal allegiance for more than a few centuries. Without going the length of Leland, when he says that, "In reality the Romans, at their descent here, found nothing that carried the appearance of a building, no, not one stone upon another," we may yet suppose that the dwellings of the inhabitants very much resembled those of their German or Gallic ancestors, the former of whom Tacitus describes as in no case dwelling in cities, nor bearing to have connected settlements. "They settle apart and at large, just as a spring, or field, or grove takes their fancy. Their villages do not consist of connected buildings, but each man surrounds his own house with an open space, either as a prevention against fire, or through ignorance of how to build. They make no use of hewn stones or bricks, but make use for all purposes of unshapen timber, without any regard to beauty or pleasing appearance, except that they daub some places rather carefully with such a clear shining earth that it resembles a picture or coloured delineation. They are in the habit also of digging underground caves, which they cover with litter, to keep out the cold of winter; in these they store their fruits, and to them they retire at the approach of an enemy." Doubtless the Romans wrought some improve 1 Tacit. Vit. Agric. c. xi. 3 Germ. xvi. 2 Itin. viii. 23. 2 ments in this respect, for during their occupation of the island they effected very great changes. They cultivated much that was before barren and profitless; they wrought mines both of coal and the various metals, which then, though in a much less degree than now, constituted the chief value of the land; they also connected the different parts of the island by elaborately constructed roads, with stations and fortified posts at intervals, according as the nature of the country afforded opportunity, or the security of the road required such protection. Vestiges, by no means inconsiderable, of their works still remain within this parish and though some antiquarians are disposed to assign a British or Celtic origin to the two most important of these remains, which are at Bailey Hill, near Bradfield Church, and at Wincobank, yet the situation of the latter with regard to the Roman Rig3 and to the undoubtedly Roman station of Templeborough, near Rotherham, scems to point to a Roman origin. Roman coins, too, have been found at Bradfield and elsewhere within the parish. Mr. Hunter mentions one of Trajan, and one of Hadrian, found at or near Bradfield; also two tablets or manumission plates, of the time of Trajan, found at the Lawns, near Stannington, in 1761.5 As lately as September, 1860, a vase was dug up in a brick-field, near Sheffield, about a 4 1 Dr. Buckland used to say that they introduced the domestic cat.Curiosities of Natural History, 2d series, p. 83. "Fert Britannia aurum et argentum et alia metalla, pretium victoriæ.”Tacit. Vit. Agric. xii. 3 The Roman Rig is the name given to an embankment or raised road, formerly much more easily to be traced than now, connecting Wincobank and Mexborough. Templeborough is the name of a rectangular encampment, whose lines are fast disappearing before the plough, on the southern bank of the Don, about half a mile west of Rotherham. Grose has the following among his Yorkshire proverbs :— "When all the world shall be aloft, Then Hallamshire will be God's croft; Will buy all England through and through.”—p. 235. 4 Hallamshire, p. 20. mile from Wincobank, containing upwards of 100 silver denarii, of various dates and reigns, ranging from Vespasian (A.D. 69-79) to Commodus (A.D. 180-193); the most numerous being of Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina. One is thought to be of Flavius Severus, A. D. 305. "They were enclosed in an earthenware jar, about six inches in height, and somewhat in the shape of a common flower-pot, excepting that it had a slight bulging or entasis an inch or two off the top, being wider in the centre than at either end. It is totally devoid of ornamentation, and seems to have been made of slightly-baked clay, and has been worked into shape by means of a mould, marks of the turning being visible at the bottom of the pot. It was only about four or five inches from the surface, and appeared to have had no lid or covering.' It is also probable that some of the cinder-heaps near Kimberworth and the Grange (from which the latter is sometimes called Synocliffe or Cindercliffe), are the remains of Roman workings. But whatever part the Romans played in this particular district, there is no doubt that the inhabitants must have been very few, and their huts, or collections of huts, far between. On the top of Winco Wood there would most likely be a cluster of little round cabins of small capacity, composed perhaps of the boughs of trees rudely dressed, and thatched with straw, having an opening in the centre of the roof, which answered the twofold purpose of letting out the smoke and supplying light. Air they obtained in abundance from the cracks and fissures of the clay with which the sides were plastered.2 This, surrounded by a ditch and rampart-though there is little or no trace of the latter-served as a stronghold and place of retreat for the occupants of other huts sparingly scattered about different parts of the neigh1 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, September 24, 1860. 2 Wainwright's Straff. and Tick. p. xx. bourhood; but the general character of the country, where it was not barren moor, must have been dense pathless woods, interspersed with rugged rocks and unhealthy swamps, affording but little to attract colonization, and which could only be brought into cultivation by slow degrees. Those who have traversed Wharncliffe Woods have seen a specimen of what the best portions of this district would resemble in those far-off times.1 Nor would things be much altered after the Romans left the island, which they did A.D. 420, for they had long ceased, even before they left, to have much influence in the country. The Saxon immigration took place within a very few years, but though they paid more attention to clearing, ridding, or as it is called in mediæval language, essarting, portions of the primæval forest, their huts must still have been of a very rude description. In course of time, how 1 The landscape is still very richly wooded, and so lately as 1719 the Duke of Norfolk alone had 25 woods in Ecclesfield, containing 1,380 acres, and in Bradfield 7, containing 240 acres. Harrison's Survey, above quoted, says, "There are also within this Mannos very stately Tymber especially in Haw parke [on the Riveling] weh for both Straightnesse and bignes there is not the like in any place that I can heare of beeinge of length aboute 60 foote before you come to a knott or bowe, and many of them are two ffathomes and some two ffathomes and a halfe aboute, and they growe out of such a rocher of stone that yow would hardly thinke there were earth enoughe to nourish the roots of the said trees." And again, "It hath beene said by Travellers that they have not seene such Tymber in Christendome ;” and again, "There may bee within this Manno' raised an Iron Worke wch would aford vnto the Lord, (as is thought) a thousand pounds yearely, and all charges discharged. And for the mainetaineinge of this worke there are within this Mannos two thousand acres of wood and Tymber (besides Sheiffeild parke,) whereof there are above sixteene hundred Acres of springe woods besides great store of old trees fitt for no other purpose but for the makenge of Charcoale." Evelyn thought the timber of this district worth noting in his "Sylva;" and the names of two valleys at the North-western extremity of the parish, Yewden, and Agden (i.e. Oak-den), seem to point to this as a distinguishing feature in the earliest times. Mr. Wilson in his MSS. mentions sundry large trees existing in his time (he died 1783), and a recollection by "the oldest inhabitant of a time when one might have gone in the shade in a summer's day betwixt Garlick's House in Vden and Bolsterstone," a locality now almost utterly denuded of timber. |