Page:VCH Warwickshire 1.djvu/289

 ROMANO-BRITISH WARWICKSHIRE Coins still abound in the town. In a recent visit to Alcester I was shown six silver coins, of Hadrian, Sabina, Pius, Aelius Verus(?), Faustine and Constantine, and twenty ' third brass' of about A.D. 250 380, and I have heard of many others of similar dates. 1 From all this we may conclude that Alcester, at any rate during the latter part of the Roman period, was a village or perhaps a tiny town built by the side of a Roman road in a pleasant well-watered spot. The Roman name of the place is unknown. The earlier spellings of the modern name Alencestre, Alnacestre and the like contain a n which has now dropped out, and this fact suggested to William Baxter, early in the eighteenth century, that the Roman name was Alauna. His theory was adopted by Bertram in his forgery of ' Richard of Ciren- cester,' and has since passed into maps and guide books. It is, however, a mere guess. Alcester appears in reality to derive its name from Alne, the name of the river on which it stands, and Alne itself may be descended from one of the very common Celtic names, Alauna, Alaunus and their kindred forms. That, however, would not prove that a town on the banks of the Alne was called Alauna, and, until more evidence emerge, it will be wise to give the site no ancient name.' 4. OTHER SETTLED SITES We pass from remains which seem to suggest hamlets or villages or even a tiny town to remains which suggest something even smaller a handful of isolated rural habitations. Of Roman villas properly so called Warwickshire contains no ascertained instances. The villa system was probably far less developed there than in many other districts. Not only was the population thin throughout the midlands and the ground largely covered with woods, but there was little in soil or climate to encourage the two staple industries of rural Britain, sheep farming and corn growing. We shall not therefore be surprised to find in Warwick- shire few traces, and those faint ones, of villas or what may be villas. It is only here and there that we encounter evidence suggestive of small houses of the villa type. These houses are totally unexplored, like all other Roman antiquities in the county, and opinions about them must necessarily be conjectures, valuable (at the best) as working hypotheses. Still, we may argue, from the tenuity of their recorded remains, that they were small ; and we may not unreasonably presume that they belonged to the same system which obtained over most parts of non- military Britain. We have four instances to cite. 1 Leland (ed. Hearne), iv. fo. l68<* ; Dugdale, p. 761 ; Clarke, itt supra ; N. Salmon, New Surrey ('7301 P- 5 6 gold coin f Vespasian ; Gentleman's Magazine, 1785,11.941, urn from Blacklands ; Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 4.57, skeletons and coins on the Stratford Road ; Archerohgia, xvii. 332, burials in Blacklands, 1812; information from the Rev. J. H. Bloom and others. Warwick Museum has a sarcophagus found about 1866, and two urns (one containing ashes) from Blacklands. Mr. F. S. Potter has coins of circa 250-400 A.D. Saxonicum, i. 287, refers really to the Warwickshire Alne, the identification of Alne and Alauna becomes definitely probable, but it seems very uncertain whether it does so refer (W. H. Stevenson) 237
 * Baxter, Gkssarium Antij. Britann. (London, 1719), p. 10. If the name ^Eluuinae in Cartularium