CENTURIATION IN ESSEX. 209
period seem fairly widely scattered except in three or four
districts. These unsettled districts occur to the north of Canvey
Island, in the Tendring Hundred, the north central area, and to
the west of Chelmsford. Furthermore, the nexus of Roman roads
appears, with certain exceptions, to have scant relationship with
the settlements. Certain other existing roads thought to be
of Roman origin have been described in a paper by the late
Miller Christy.7 He points out that trouble was encountered
in Essex when tracing the roads for the O.S. Map, owing to
the fact that the builders of these roads had access to no local
stone to form a matrix. Furthermore, the subsequent rotting
of the wood and the robbery of gravel ramming for later buildings
had made the task of following the roads so difficult that many
were only inferred from Roman relics scattered along the
supposed course. "Slumping," or the settling of materials into
the clay-land, may have also increased the difficulty of proving
the existence of Roman roads.
In view of these statements, and bearing in mind also the
lack of close relationship between road and settlement in the
O.S. map, one may well ask if this map effectively portrays the
settlement conditions of the period? It gives little basis for
deducing the agricultural areas producing corn, though it is
evident that it was not grown throughout the whole district.
The problem of agriculture in Roman Britain has occasioned
a recent controversy.8 Collingwood, deriving his figures from
various sources, would suggest a small population for Britain in
Roman times. From the paucity of the numbers, he concludes
a "prehistoric" distribution and holds that the Romans did
not improve agricultural methods, or extend existing clearings
in Britain on to soils of a different type. Opposing this
hypothesis Randall and Wheeler have contended that the
population of Britain was considerably greater than Collingwood
supposed. Randall, quoting numerous authorities to support
his case, put forward a suggestion that the agriculture of Roman
Britain was definitely above a primitive type of cultivation.
He further stated that Collingwood's view concerning Roman
improvements of British agriculture could only be maintained on
the assumption that the latter was already of a high standard.
7 Essex Arch. ; Trans., 15.
8 Antiquity, 1929 and 30.