imaginations of the Chroniclers it would probably
have been plundered and obliterated during the Roman occupation or by
marauding Angles or Danes.

Mr Bateman tells us that in 1853, two Celtic coins in billon or mixed
metal of the peculiar rough type apparently characteristic of and confined
to the coinage of the Brigantes, were found by quarrymen engaged in baring
the rock near Pickering.

There may have been two British fortresses at Pickering at this time, one
on the site of the present castle and one the hill on the opposite side of
the Pickering Beck, where, as already mentioned, the circular ditches and
mounds indicate the existence of some primitive stockaded stronghold.

At Cawthorne, a few miles to the north, there are British enclosures
adjoining the Roman camps; and at Cropton, on the west side of the village
and in a most commanding position, a circular hill-top shows palpable
evidences of having been fortified.

Of the megalithic remains or "Bride Stones," as they are generally termed
in Yorkshire, it is difficult to say anything with certainty. Professor
Windle, in his list of those existing in the county,[1] mentions among
others--

1. "The Bride Stones" near Grosmont (Circle).

2. "The Bride Stones," Sleights Moor (Circle).

3. Simon Houe, near Goathland Station.

4. "The Standing Stones" (three upright stones), 1-3/4 miles S.-W. of
Robin Hood's Bay, on Fylingdales Moor.

[Footnote 1: Windle, Bertram, C.A., "Remains of the Pre-historic Age in
England," pp. 203-4.]

CHAPTER V

_How the Roman Occupation of Britain affected the Forest and Vale of
Pickering_

B.C. 55 to A.D. 418

The landings of Julius Caesar, in 55 and 54 B.C., and the conflicts
between his legions and the southern tribes of Britain, were little more,
in the results obtained, than a reconnaissance in force, and Yorkshire did
not feel the effect of the Roman invasion until nearly a century after the
first historic landing.

The real invasion of Britain began in A.D. 43, when the Emperor Claudius
sent Aulus Plautius across the Channel with four legions; and after seven
years of fighting the Romans, taking advantage of the inter-tribal feuds
of the Britons, had reduced the southern half of England to submission.

Plautius was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula in A.D. 50, and from Tacitus[1]
we learn that he "found affairs in a troubled state, the enemy making
irruptions into the territories of our allies, with so much the