“So that their stern discipline was necessary, and not without results which went for further good. Under Roman rule all the surface of the land was changed. Great towns, walled and fortified, rose on the sites of ditch-surrounded villages. Marshes were drained, bridges were built, and rivers banked; forests were cleared and waste lands reclaimed. More than all, the land was tilled and rendered productive, so that Britain became the most important grain province of the empire. Romans found in Britain a scant supply of corn, grasses on which the cattle fed, wild plums, a few nuts and berries. They brought to Britain fruits and vegetables from many lands beyond the seas; from Italy gooseberries, chestnuts, and apples; walnuts from Gaul; apricots, peaches, and pears from Asia. Paved roads webbed the island, wide and well-drained, by which bodies of troops could be massed at any given point with incredible rapidity. Fortifications were built and in the north walls of solid masonry were thrown across the country from the Oceanus Ibernicus to the Oceanus Germanicus, for the determent of common foes.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
To preserve the juice of cherries, plums, peaches, and similar fruits, proceed as for jelly, but adding to each quart of juice half a pint of sugar instead of a quart as for jelly. If it is not desired to have the fruit juice transparent, the pulp of the fruit may be pressed to extract all the liquid.
Sources: The passage is from C. Bryson Taylor, Nicanor - Teller of Tales : A Story of Roman Britain, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Canned Fruit, Preserves, and Jellies of 1887, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, goose stamp.