me mere farms, constructed usually on one of the two
patterns described in the account of Silchester above. The inhabitants were
plainly as various--a few of them great nobles and wealthy landowners,
others small farmers or possibly bailiffs. Some of these estates were
worked on the true "villa" system, by which the lord occupied the "great
house," and cultivated the land close round it by slaves, while he let the
rest to half-free _coloni_. But other systems may have prevailed as well.
Among the most important country-houses are those of Bignor in west Sussex,
and Woodchester and Chedworth in Gloucestershire.

The wealth of the country was principally agrarian. Wheat and wool were
exported in the 4th century, when, as we have said, Britain was especially
prosperous. But the details of the trade are unrecorded. More is known of
the lead and iron mines which, at least in the first two centuries, were
worked in many districts--lead in Somerset, Shropshire, Flintshire and
Derbyshire; iron in the west Sussex Weald, the Forest of Dean, and (to a
slight extent) elsewhere. Other minerals were less notable. The gold
mentioned by Tacitus proved scanty. The Cornish tin, according to present
evidence, was worked comparatively little, and perhaps most in the later
Empire.

Lastly, the roads. Here we must put aside all idea of "Four Great Roads."
That category is probably the invention of antiquaries, and certainly
unconnected with Roman Britain (see ERMINE STREET). Instead, we may
distinguish four main groups of roads radiating from London, and a fifth
which runs obliquely. One road ran south-east to Canterbury and the Kentish
ports, of which Richborough (Rutupiae) was the most frequented. A second
ran west to Silchester, and thence by various branches to Winchester,
Exeter, Bath, Gloucester and South Wales. A third, known afterwards to the
English as Watling Street, ran by St Albans Wall near Lichfield
(Letocetum), to Wroxeter and Chester. It also gave access by a branch to
Leicester and Lincoln. A fourth served Colchester, the eastern counties,
Lincoln and York. The fifth is that known to the English as the Fosse,
which joins Lincoln and Leicester with Cirencester, Bath and Exeter.
Besides these five groups, an obscure road, called by the Saxons Akeman
Street, gave alternative access from London through Alchester (outside of
Bicester) to Bath, while another obscure road winds south from near
Sheffield, past Derby and Birmingham,