peace, internal and external trade were safe, and much of the culture
and refinement of Italy and Gaul must have made their way even to this
distant province. A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman
language, dress, customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from
the Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribesmen who had
been defeated on the German frontier were transported by the
government into Britain. The population must, therefore, have become
very mixed, containing representatives of most of the races which had
been conquered by the Roman armies. A permanent military force was
maintained in Britain with fortified stations along the eastern and
southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and along a series of walls or
dikes running across the island from the Tyne to Solway Firth.
Excellent roads were constructed through the length and breadth of the
land for the use of this military body and to connect the scattered
stations. Along these highways population spread and the remains of
spacious villas still exist to attest the magnificence of the wealthy
provincials. The roads served also as channels of trade by which goods
could readily be carried from one part of the country to another.
Foreign as well as internal trade became extensive, although exports
were mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins, and furs,
cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin, hunting-dogs and
slaves. The rapid development of towns and cities was a marked
characteristic of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine towns or cities of various
grades of self-government are named in the Roman survey, and many of
these must have been populous, wealthy, and active, judging from the
extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number of Roman coins
that have since been found. Christianity was adopted here as in other
parts of the Roman Empire, though the extent of its influence is
unknown.

During the Roman occupation much waste land was reclaimed. Most of the
great valley regions and many of the hillsides had been originally
covered with dense forests, swamps spread along the rivers and
extended far inland from the coast; so that almost the only parts
capable of tillage were the high treeless plains, the hill tops, and
certain favored stretches of open country. The reduction of these
waste lands to human habitation has been an age-long task. It was
begun in pr