ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS THE administrative arrangements of the late Saxon period which led to the formation of counties no doubt proceeded in some cases on the lines of the early tribal settlements, and formally recognized political divisions that had existed since the pagan period ; but such was evidently not the case with Rutland. It was not till after Domesday Book had been compiled that the present county emerged, and in the Great Survey its area was included partly under Northamptonshire and partly under Nottinghamshire, which is removed from the present border by a broad strip of Leicestershire. The connexion of Rutland with the county across the Welland is a close one in several respects, and many parallel finds will be quoted below ; but before the actual relics from the soil are noticed a few words are necessary to show similar features in these two counties which would be apparent to the earliest Teutonic settlers. The river that forms the boundary from Stamford to Rockingham was not in the nature of a physical barrier, at least when not in flood ; and the geological formation is practically the same on both sides of it. The Lower Oolite that underlies the Forest of Rockingham extends over more than half of Rutland mainly on the east, while the Lias, which is exposed by river-erosion in Northamptonshire, comes to the surface in the west of Rutland, and gives the county its richest vale. Catmose, however, is not known to have produced any relics of the early Anglo-Saxon period ; and it has been noticed that the majority of such sites in Northamptonshire are at the junction of Lias Clay with Northampton Sand.^ In regard to them the suggestion was hazarded that there were material reasons for the occur- rence of relics in such localities. It is easy to draw erroneous conclusions from the fact that antiquities of a certain class do not occur in certain areas, for they may still be awaiting discovery, or have been found and not recorded ; but in dealing with a series of finds in similar circumstances we practically eliminate the element of chance, and may proceed to conclusions. In Northamptonshire the Anglo-Saxon population of the pagan period evidently preferred to settle where, on the one hand, they could procure a dry site for a dwelling, on porous soil in the neighbourhood of springs ; and, on the other hand, have access to a clayey formation which would provide them with timber for fuel and forest pasture for their herds of swine. Similar con- siderations seem to have governed the early settlement of Rutland. At ' F.C.H. Northants, , 226-7. 95
