"fS4^^ ^ % //Y /Jj^ THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. VOL. I. orrnt '^ WNIVERSI Of ^fiUFO RNAi- EH ©IAMB cLiLring tlLe ./Xsrs^. SAXON HEPTARCHY. W&S .Ouimhers ,I.ondtni Ji-EtHnhnrtfh . THE C8 PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE AS WELL AS A HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY HUNDRED WO OD-EN GRATINGS VOL I LONDON W. AND R. CHAMBERS 47 PATERNOSTER ROW AND HIGH STREET EDINBURGH MDCCCLV ^i ,N HE Pictorial History of England — one of the many admirable books planned by Mr Charles Knight — bas long established itself > in public esteem^ as a history, not merely of Political Events (to which character most histories are limited), but of the People, in their common life and social progress. The Edinburgh Review bore testimony to its merits in the following passage : — ' The Pictorial History of England, now before us, seems to be the very thing required by the popular taste of the present day ; adding to the advantage of a clear historical narrative, all the varied illustrations of which the subject is capable. After the fashion first introduced by Dr Henry, the authors have divided their subjects into periods ; the narrative of civil and military events in each being followed by chapters on the history of religion, the constitution and laws, the condition of the people, national industry, manners, and customs ; and almost every page in the earlier volumes is enriched with appropriate wood-cuts, generally of able execution — dresses, arms, industrial employments, sports, copied from illuminated manuscripts of the period to which they belong — views of scenes rendered famous by historical events, taken from drawings or prints as near the period as could be obtained — ample illustrations of architecture and sculpture ; portraits and fac-similes — and here and there cuts from historical pictures.' The Work, as completed under the auspices of Mr Knight, extended to eight volumes, forming an uninterrupted narrative from the Earliest Times till the conclusion of the Great War in 1815. Subsequently, Mr Knight published. a History of the Peace, extending over the period between 1815 and 1847. The copyright and stereotype plates of the first work, together with the copyright of the second, having passed into the hands of the present Publishers, it has seemed to them proper that the whole should be issued in a new and carefully revised Edition, uniform in all external respects, and with such an extension and adjustment of the several narratives as might render them One Complete and Harmonious History of England from the Earliest to the Present Times. They have, accordingly, entered on the present Re-issue of the Work, with a full resolution to carry out their plan in a style which may not merely sustain, but, if possible, advance the character which it has attained. They believe that some essential improvements in the narrative will be efiected, while the Typography wUl be such as to bring out the merits of the Engravings in a superior style. W. AND R. C. Edinburgh, April 1855. INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE ORIGINAL POPU- LATION AND PRIMITIVE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS, .... BOOK I. THE BRITISH AND ROMAN PERIOD; from 55 B.C. TO 449 A.i)., . . . . .25 CHA.P. I. NARRATIVE OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TBANS- ACTIO.NS, . . . . .25 CHAP. II. THE HISTORY OF RELIGION — SECTION I. DRUIDISM, ... 59 SECTION 11^ INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY, . 73 CHAP. III. HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERN- MENT, AND LAWS SECTION I. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE BRITISH NATION, . . . . .76 SECTION II. THE GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE ROMANS, . . . .82 SECTION III. THE GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF ROMAN BRITAIN, . . . , 8't CHAP. IV. HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY, 91 CHAP. V. THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE FINE ARTS, , . . .118 CHAP. VI. THE HISTORY OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 125 CHAP. VII. HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, ..... 135 BOOK II. THE PERIOD FROM THE ARRIVAL OF THE SAXONS TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE NORMANS, 449-10C6a.i)., 138 CHAP I. HISTORIC OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANS- ACTIONS, .... 138 CHAP. II. THE HISTORY OF RELIGION — SECTION I. SAXON PAGANISM, SECTION II. CHRISTIANITY, . 224 228 CHAP. III. HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERN- MENT, AND LAWS, . . 24G PAGE CHAP. IV. HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY, 262 CHAP. V. THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE FINE ARTS, .... 289 CHAP. VI. THE HISTORY OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 323 CHAP. VII. HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, ..... 346 BOOK III. THE PERIOD FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE DEATH OF KING JOHN, 1066-1216 a.d., CHAP. I. NARRATIVE OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANS- ACTIONS, . . . . . CHAP. II. THE HISTORY OF RELIGION, CHAP. III. HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERN- MENT, AND LAWS, .... CHAP. IV. HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY, CHAP. V. THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE FINE ARTS, .... CHAP. VI. THE HISTORY OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, CHAP. VII. HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, . . 357 358 647 662 584 603 634 658 BOOK IV. THE PERIOD FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY III. TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF RICHARD II., 1216-1399 A.D., . , . . . CHAP. I. NARRATIVE OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANS- ACTIONS, ..... CHAP. II. THE HISTORY OF RELIGION, CHAP. III. HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERN- MENT, AND LAWS, .... CHAP. IV. HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY, CHAP. V. THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE FINE ARTS, .... CHAP. VI. THE HISTORY OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, CHAP. VII. HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, . ... 670 671 801 ' 809 824 842 864 882 l/o^. / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Initial Letter — Druidical Sacrifice, .... 3 Round Tower of Donoughmore, .... 13 Ornamental Border.— From a MS. in the BritiBh Museum, . 25 Ipitial Letter, ...... 25 Head of Julius Cresar, ... . . 28 Dover Cliffs 27 Landing of Julius Cspsar.— After a Picture by Blakey, . 28 Roman Galley. — From a Coin, .... 30 — — . — From Copper Coins of the time of Hadrian, 30 Plan, Elevations, and Section of a Roman Galley.— From a Model presented to Greenwich Hospital by Lord Anson, . 31 The Thames at Coway Stakes, .... 32 Huts in a Cingalese Village, ..... 34 British AVar-chariot, Shield, and Spears. — De Loutherbourg, 35 Roman General, accompanied by Standard-bearers and common Legionaries, landing from a Bridge of Boats.— From a bass- relief on the Column of Trajan, . . . .38 Charge of Roman Infantry. — From the Column of Trajan, 39 Head of Claudius, 40 Coin of Claudius, representing his British Triumph, . 40 British Camp at Caer-Caradoc— From Roy's Military Antiqui- ties, ........ 41 Caractacus at Rome. — Fuseli, .... 42 Boadicea haranguing the British Tribes. — Stothard, . . 44 ' Head of Hadrian, ...... 47 Copper Coin of Hadrian, ..... 47 Head of Antoninus Pius, ..... 48 Copper Coin of Antoninus Pius, commemorative of his Victories in Britain, ....... 48 Tie earliest figure of Britannia, on a Roman Coin.— From a Copper Coin of Antoninus Pius, . . . .48 Duntocher Bridge, on the line of Graham's Dyke, . 48 Profile of Roman Vallum, Aggez, and Fosse, . . 50 Section of Wall of Severus, . . . . . 50 Wall and Ditch of Severus, ..... 50 of Severus, near Housestead, Northumberland, . 50 Roman Soldier, ....... Image of Victory, ..... Citizen, ....... Tombstone of a young Roman Physician.— From Sculptures I found in the line of the AVall of Sf verus, . . J Wall of Severus, at Denton Dean, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, . 52 British Gold Coin of Carausius, .... 53 Head of Constantine the Great, . . . .53 British Coracles, ...... 5G Knsign of Kent, ... . . 58 Initial Letter— Druidical Circle and Oak, ... 59 Grove of Oaks.— From a Picture by Ruysdael, . . 62 Kits Coty House, a Cromlech, near Aylesford, Kent, . 63 Group of Arch-Druid and Druids, . . . .64 Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, 67 Stonehenge, ....... 68 Ground-plan of Druidical Temple at Avebury, . . 69 Plan or Jlap of the whole Temple and Avenues at Avebury, . 69 Gaulish Deities. — From Roman bass-reliefs under the Choir of Notre Dame, Paris, . . . . 69 Bronze Bowl or Patera, found in Wiltshire, . . 72 Initial Letter, ...... 76 Arch-Druid in his full Judicial Costume, . . .83 Initial Letter— Roman and Ring Money, ... fll Hare Stone, Cornwall, ...... 97 Ground-plan and Section of the Subterranean Chamber at Carrighhill, in the County of Cork, . . . .97 Plan of Subterranean Chambers on a Farm near Ballyhendon, 98 at Ballyhendon, . . 98 Section of a Subterranean Chamber at Kildrumpher, . 98 Gaulish Huts. — From the Antonine Column, . . .98 Welsh Pigsty, supposed to represent the form of the Ancient British Houses, ...... 99 Plan and Section of Chun Castle, .... 99 PAGl! The Herefordshire Beacon, . - . . .100 Constantine Tolman, Cornwall, . . . 101 Ancient British Canoe, found at North Stoke, Sussex, . 102 Moulds for Spear-heads, ..... 103 Axe-heads, commonly called Celts, .... 104 Woad 104 Roman Pigs of Lead in the British Museum, . . . 106 British Pearl Shells, 108 London Stone, ....... 110 Group of Ring Coins, ..... Ill Ancient British Coins, ...... 112 Roman Coin Mould, ...... 113 Remains of a Roman Hypocaust, or Subterranean Furnace, for , heating Baths, at Lincoln, ..... 115 Part of a Roman Wall, near St. Alban's, . . . 115 Roman Arches, forming Newport Gate, Lincoln, as it appeared in 1792 116 Restoration of the Roman Arch, forming Newport Gateway, Lincoln, ....... 116 Initial Letter— Roman Lorica, . . . . 118 Celtic Astronomical Instrument, . . . .122 Initial Letter — Ancient Beacon, .... 125 Figures of Ancient Gauls in the Braccse, Tunic, and Sagum. — From the Roman Statues in the Louvre, . . .127 Remains of a British Breastplate found at Mold, . . 128 Group of the principal Forms of Barrows, . . . 130 Contents of Ancient British Barrows, . . . 131 Group of Vessels.— From Specimens found in Roman Burial- places in Britain, ...... 132 Contents of Roman British Barrows, . . . 133 Metal Coating of Ancient British Shield.— Found at Rhydygorse, in Cardiganshire (not in the Witham, as stated by mistake in page 134), 134 Initial Letter, ...... 135 Initial Letter, ....... 138 Arms and Costume of the Tribes of the Western Shores of the Baltic .139 Vortigern and Rowena. — Angelica Kauffman, . . 141 Arms and Costume of a Saxon Military Chief, . . 144 Remains of the Abbey of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, . 146 Rock of Bamborough, with the Castle in its present state, . 147 Silver Coin of Offa, ...... 150 Egbert, 151 Arms and Costume of Danish Warriors, . . . 151 Silver Coin of Ethelwulf, . . . . .152 Arms and Costume of an Anglo-Saxon King and Armour-bearer, 156 Alfred and the Pilgrim.-B. West, .... 159 's Jewel. — Found at Athelney, .... 161 Silver Coins of Alfred, ..... 167 Specimen of a Copy of the Latin Gospels, given by King Athelstan to Canterbury Cathedral, .... Costume of King FMgar, a Saxon Lady, and a Page, St. Mary's Chapel, Kingston, as it appeared about fifty years since, ...... Silver Coin of Canute, ..... Canute reproving his Flatterers. — Smirke, Silver Coins of Edward the Confessor, Harold taking leave of Edward on his departure for Normandy. — From tlie Bayeux Tapestry, .... Harold on his Journey to Bosham.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, 197 entering Bosham Church.— do. do. 197 • coming to Anchor on the Coast of Normandy.— From the Baveux Tapestry, ..... 198 Harold'sAppearance at the Court of Duke William.— From the Baveux Tapestry, ■, .... Harold's Oath to William. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . Interview with King Edward on his Return from Normandy. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . The Sickness and Death of Edward the Confessor. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, ...... 169 174 175 180 183 186 196 198 199 200 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Funeral of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey. — From the Baj'eux Tapestry, ..... 202 Kemains of the Shrine of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey, 202 The Great Seal of Edward the Confessor.— From Casts taken - from the original, ...... 203 The Crown oflercd to Harold by the People.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, 204 Coronation of Harold.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, . 204 William giving Orders for the Invasion. — From the Bayeux Tapestry 207 Normans preparing Arms and Military Implements for the Invasion.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, . . . 208 A Ship of the Fleet of Duke William transporting Troops for the Invasion of England. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . 209 Orders given for the Erection of a Fortified Camp at Hastings. —From the Bayeux Tapestry, . . . .210 Cooking and Feasting of the Normans at Hastings. — From the Bajeux Tapestry, . . . . . .211 Hastings, from the Fairlight Downs, . . . 212 Duke William addressing his Soldiers on the Field of Hastings. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, .... 213 Battle of Hastings. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . . 214 ■ .— do. do. . . 214 Death of Harold.— do. do. . . 213 Sculptured Stone dug up in the Chapel of St. Regulus, at St. Andrew's, . . . . . . . 218 Coronation Chair, with the Scottish "Stone of Destiny," kept in Westminster Abbey, ..... 219 Sueno's Pillar at Forres, ..... 221 Initial Letter, ....... 224 Ruins of the Monastery of lona, or Icolumbkill, . . 228 Gregory and the Angles. — Singleton, .... 230 Augustine preaching before Ethelbert. — Tresham, . 231 Consecration of a Saxon Church.— MS. in the British Museum, 236 Christian Missionary preaching to the British Pagans. — Mortimer, ....... 237 Ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, ..... 242 Portrait of St. Dunstan in full Archiepiscopal Costume. — From an Illuminated MS. in the British Museum, . . 243 Portrait of King Alfred, . . . . . ' 246 Initial Letter, ....... 246 The Witenagemote — The King presiding.— MS. in the British Museum, . . . . . . . 252 Saxon Flagellation.— MS. in the British Museum, . 261 Whipping and Branding. — MS. in the British Museum, 261 Initial Letter, ....... 2S2 Saxon Ships, ....... 206 Entrance of the Mine of Odin, Derbyshire, . . 209 Beating Acorns for Swine. — MS. in the British Museum, . 277 Ploughing, Sowing, and Carrying Corn. — MS. in the British Museum, ....... 278 Wheel-plough. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . . . 278 Costume of Shepherds. — MS. in the British Museum, . 279 Two-handed Wheel-plough, drawn by Four Oxen.— MS. in the British Museum, ...... 279 Harrowing and Sowing. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . 280 Sowing. — MS. in the British Museum, . . . 280 Digging, breaking Earth with a Pick, and Sowing. — MS. in the British Museum, ...... 280 Wheel-plough and Spades.— MS. in the British Museum, . 281 Reaping and Carting Corn. — do. do. 281 Felling and Carting Wood.— do. do. . 282 Mowing. — do. do. . 282 Threshing and Winnowing Corn. — From MS. in the British Museum, ....... 282 Ploughing, Sowing, Mowing, Gleaning, Measuring Corn, and Harvest Supper. — MS. in the British Museum, . . 283 Pruning Trees. — do, do. . . 283 Raising Water from a Well with a Loaded Lever. — MS. in the British Museum, ...... 284 Drinking from Cows' Horus. — MS. in the British Museum, 285 Wine Press. — ' do. do. . 285 Saxon Lantern. — From Strutt's Chronicle of England, 2-Si5 Candelabra.— MS. in the British Museum, . . . 280 Digging and Spinning.— MS. in the British Museum, . 286 Smithy.— do. do. . . 287 and a Harper. — do. do. . 287 Saxon Sliip.— do. do. . . 288 Initial Letter, . . . . . . 289 Jarrow, at the Mouth of the River Tyne, . . .291 Golden Gate of the Palace of Diocletian at Spalatro, . 308 Console from the Palace at Spalatro, .... 309 Basilica of St. Paul, Rome, after the Fire of 1823, . 311 Ground-plan of the Church of Grisogono, Rome, . . 312 Portico at Lorsch, . . . . . . 312 Capital from the Doorway of Mentz Cathedral, . . 313 Portico at Lorsch, .... 313 Windows from the Palace at Westminster, . . . 314 Doorway do. do. do. . . . 314 Tower of Earl's Barton Church, . . . 315 Heads of Windows, Darent Church, Kent, . - . 316 Edward the Confessor's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, . 316 Residence of a Saxon Nobleman.— MS. in the British Museum, 317 Horn of Ulphus, preserved in York Cathedral, . . 318 Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Letter. — From MS. of the Eighth Century, ....... 319 Anglo-Saxon Ornament. — From MS. of the Tenth Century, 319 ■ Illuminated Letter.— From MS. of the Tenth Century, ....... 320 PAGE Saxon Trombones or Flutes. — MS. in the British Museum, 321 David playing on the Harp.— do. do. . 321 The Harp, accompanied by other Instruments. — MS. in the British Museum, ...... 322 Initial Letter, ...... 323 Chairs. — MS. in the British Museum, .... 323 — .— do. do. ... 324 An elevated and richly-ornamented Seat.— MS. in the British Museum, . ...... 324 Saxon Tables.— MS. in the British Museum, . . .324 The Pusey Horn, ...... 325 Fac-simile of the Inscription on the Pusey Horn, . . 325 Saxon Bed.— MS. in the British Museum, . . . 326 ^Beds. — do. do. ... 326 Wheel Bed.— do. do. . . . 326 Royal Costume. — From a Picture of Herod and the Magi. — MS. in the British Museum, .... 327 Royal Costume, and the Harness and Equipment of Hor.ics. — From a Picture of the Magi leaving the Court of Herod.— MS. in the British Museum, .... 327 Ornamented Tunic. — MS. in the British Museum, . . 328 Saxon Cloaks, Plain and Embroidered Tunics, and Shoes. — MS. in the British Museum, .... 328 Ringed Mail.— MS. in the British Museum, . . .329 Costume of Saxon Female. — MS. in the British Museum, 329 Canute and his Queen.— From Strutt's Horda Angel Cynnan, 330 King Edgar.— MS. in the British Museum, . . " . 330 St. Augustine. — do. do. . . 330 Egbert, King of Northumberland, and an Ecclesiastical Synod, offering the Bishopric of Hexham to St. Cuthbert. — From MS. Life of Bede, . . . . . . 3 U Bishop and Priest.— MS. in the British Museum, . . 331 Statue of St. Cuthbert. — From one of the exiernal Canopies of the Middle Tower of Durham Cathedral, . . .331 Golden Cross, worn by St. Cuthbert, found in his Tomb in 1827, 332 Costume of a Soldier. —Saxon MS. in the British Museum, Battle Scene. — / do. do. do. Anglo-Saxon Weapons, ..... Feast at a Round Table.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, Dinner — the Company pledging each other.— MS. in the British Museum, ...... Dinner Party — Servants on their Knees oifering Food on Spits. — MS. in the British Museum, .... Convivial Party.— MS. in the British Museum, 332 333 333 334 336 Boar Hunting. — Hawking Party. do. do. do. do. do. do. Killing Birds with a Sling. — MS. in the British Museum, Dancing. — do. do. Coffin and Grave Clothes. — From a picture of Raising of Lazarus, in a MS. in the British Museum, . Initial Letter, ..... Great Seal of William the Conqueror, . Initial Letter, ..... Battle Abbey, as it appeared about 150 years since, . View of Winchester, .... Rougemont Castle, Exeter, .... York, from the Ancient Ramparts, Durham, ....... Richmond, Yorkshire, .... Croyland Bridge, with the Saxon statue of St. Etheh'cd, Norwicli Castle, ..... Norman Dice Playing. — From Strutt's Sports, Church of St. Stephen at Caen, Statue of William the Conqueror, placed against one of the external Pillars of St. Stephen's, Caen, . Great Seal of William Rufus, .... Ruins of Pevensey Castle, .... Rochester Castle ; the Keep, witli its Entrance Tower, Mount of St. Michael, Normandy, . Carlisle, ....... Death of Rufus. — Burney, .... Tomb of Rufus, in Winchester Cathedral, Stone in the New Forest, marking the site of the oak tree against which the arrow of Walter Tyrrel is^ said to have glanced, . ^ . . - . Great Seal of Henry I., . Cardiff Castle, as it appeared in 1775, Death of Prince William and his Sister.— Rigaud, Ruins of Reading Abbey, as they appeared in 1721, Great Seal of Stephen, ...... 420 Portrait of Stephen. — From a Silver Coin in the possession of Sir H. Ellis, 421 Standard of the English at the Battle of Northallerton, . - 424 Remains of Old Sarum, ...... 427 Arundel Castle, ...... 429 Lincoln, ........ 430 Tower of Oxford Castle, ..... 432 The Thames at Wallingford, . ... 436 Great Seal of Henry II., ..... 438 Portrait of Henry II. — From Tomb at Fontevraud, . . 440 Murder of Becket, ...... 450 Penance of Henry II. before the Shrine of Bcckct.— From Carter's Ancient Sculptures, ..... 457 Ruins of the Ancient Royal Manor House of Woodstock, 481 Great Seal of Richard I., . . . . . 482 Portrait of Richard I.— From the Tomb at Fontevraud, . 483 496 . 499 336 337 341 341 342 342 343 344 346 358 358 359 363 367 368 373 S74 377 380 383 390 391 392 393 395 397 398 402 403 404 405 411 415 419 Ramparts of Acre, Part of the Walls and Fortifications of Jerusalem, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE • Castle and Town of Tiernsteign, .... 503 Lynn, Norfolk, ....... 504 Great Seal of Kin^ John, ..... 514 Portrait of King John.— From his Tomb at "Worcester, . 513 Castle of Falaise, ...... 518 Hubert and Prince Arthur. — Northcote, . . . 519 St. Edmundshury, ...... 527 Kunnymead, ....... 629 Tomb of King John at Winchester, . . . 532 Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, .... 536 Ruins of Norham Castle, ..... 540 Seal of William the Lion, of Scotland, . . . 541 Initial Letter, ... ... 547 Baptism of the Mother of Becket. — MS. in the British Museum, 552 Group of Anglo-Norman Fonts, .... 553 Marriage of the Father and Mother of Becket. — MS. in the British Museum, ...... 553 Consecration of Becket as Archbishop. — MS. in the British Museum, ....... 554 Bccket's Crown, a Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, . 556 Ruins of the Augustine Monastery at Canterbury, . . 558 A Benedictine, ...... 560 A Carthusian, ....... 560 A Cistercian, ....... 560 A Templar in his Mantle, ..... 561 Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, pronouncing a Pastoral Blessing. — MS. in the British Museum, ..... 561 Initial Letter, . . . . . . ~ 562 William I. granting Lands to his Nephew, the Earl of Brit- tany. — MS. in the British Museum, . . . 566 Specimen of Magna Charta.— From the original in the British Museum, . . . . . , , . 577 Specimen of Domesday Book, _ . . . . 578 Initial Letter, ....... 584 Ship-building. — MS. in the British Museum, . . 585 Coiner at Work. — From the Capital of a Pillar at St. Georges de BocherTille, Normandy, ..... 594 Silver Penny of William I., . . . . . 594 William II., . . . . .594 Henry L, ..... 594 Stephen, ..... 595 Henry IL, ..... 695 Irish Silver Penny of John, ..... 5i)5 Reaping and Gleaning.— MS. in the British Museum, . 596 Threshing. — do. do. . . 597 Corn-sacks and Store-basket.— MS. in the British Museum, 597 Fishing with a Seine Net.— do, do. . 600 Ancient Corn Hand-mill. — do. do. . . 600 English House-building.— do. do. . 601 Initial Letter, ....... 603 AVindow of Southwell Minster, .... 616 St. Cross, Hants, . . . . .616 Caxton Church, Northamptonshire, . . 616 Castle Hedingham Church, . . . 616 Tower of Then Church, Normandy, ... 616 Norman Capitals, twelve specimens, .... 617 Architectural Decorations, thirty specimens, . 618 Doorway, Eomsey Abbey, Hants, .... 619 of Barfreston Cliurch, Kent, . . . 619 Norman Arches of Lincoln Minster, .... 619 Castle Acre Priory, . . . 619 St. Augustine, Canterbury, . . 619 West Front of Rochester Cathedral, . - . . 620 Nave of Durham Cathedral, . . . . .621 Norman Castle, ...... 622 Plan and Elevation of Monk Bar, York, . . 623 Ground Plans of Conisborough Castle, . . . 624 Conisborough Castle, ...... 624 Keep of Richmond Castle, ..... 625 Jew's House at Lincoln, . . - . , . 626 Staircase in the Conventual Buildings, Canterbury, . .627 Plan of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire, . . . .627 Abbey Gateway, Bury St. Edmund's, . . . 628 Fire-place, Boothby Pagnel Manor House, . . . 628 , Conisborough Castle, .... 628 Elevation of a Norman House.— From the Bayeux Tapestry, 629 Doorway of St. Leonard's Chapel, Stamford, . . . 629 Stone Coffin, Ixworth Abbey, Suffolk, . . . 630 One of the early Abbots of Westminster. — From the Cloisters, Westminster, ....... C30 Roger, Bishop of Sarum.— From Salisbury Cathedral, . Oao Andrew, Abbot of Peterborough. — From Peterborough Cathedral, ....... 630 Sarcophagus assigned to Archbishop Theobald, at Canterbury, 031 Specimen of Ornamental Letter of the Period.— MS. in the British Museum, ...... 632 Initial Letter, ...... 634 Chairs, Ancient Chessmen.— From specimens in the British Museum, ....... 634 Cradle. — MS. in the British Museum, . , . 634 Ancient Candlestick, ...... 635 Cup, found in the Ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, . . 635 Groups of Soldiers. — From Bayeux Tapestry, . . 636 Matilda, Queen of Henry I.— From a Statue in the West Door of Rochester Cathedral, ..... 636 Costume of Anglo-Norman Ladies of the Twelfth Century, 636 Female Costume of the time of William Rufus and Henry I. — From a Psalter of the Twelfth Century, . . . 637 Laced Bodice and Knotted Sleeves of the Twelfth Century.— MS. in the British Museum, ..... 637 PAGE Efflgy of Henry II.— From the Tomb at Fontevraud, . 633 Eleanor, Queen cf Henry II. — From the Tomb at Fontevraud, 638 Berengaria, Queen of Richard I.— do. do. 638 Mascled Armour— Seal of Milo Fitz-W alter, . . 639 Examples of Mascled Armour. — MS. in the British Museum, 639 Knight of Modena.— do. do. . 639 Tegulated Armour— Seal of Richard Constable of Chester, 640 Avantailes, ....... 640 Geoffrey Plantagenet.— MS. in the British Museum, . 640 William I. and Tonstain bearing the Consecrated Banner at the Battle of Hastings. — From the Bayeux Tapestry, . , 641 Ancient Stag-hunting. — MS. in the British Museum, . 647 Royal Rabbit-hunting. — MS. in the British Museum, 647 Ladies hunting Deer. — do. do. Wrestling. — Bowling.— Kayle Pins. — Bob-apple. — 647 649 651 652 652 653 653 653 654 654 654 655 655 655 655 655 656 656 65G 657 657 657 Ancient Quintain, now standing on the Green of Offham, Kent, ....... Water Tournament.— MS. in the British Museum, Ancient Chessmen, preserved in the British Museum, Conntry.Revel.— MS. in the British Museum, Balancing. — From Strutt, .... The Daughter of Herodias Tumbling. — From Strutt, Playing Monkeys and Bears.— MS. in the British Museum, Bears. — do. do. Equestrian Exercises.-^From Strutt, Horse-baiting.— MS. in the British Museum, Sword-fight. — do. do. . — do. do. Fencing. — do. do. Buckler Play.— From Strutt, .... Sword-dance.— MS. in the British Museum, do. do, do. do. do. do. do, do. Bird-catching with Clap-net.— MS. in the British Museum, Cross-bow Shooting at Small Birds. — do. do. Initial Letter, ..... Vision of Henry I. — From private plates of Mr. Petrie, copied from a MS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, ....... Henry II. banishing Becket's Family.— MS. in the British Museum, .....,, Great Seal of Henry III., ..... Initial Letter, ....... Henry III. — From his Tomb in Westminster Abbey, Oxford Castle, in the Fifteenth Century, , Lewes Priory, ...... Evesham, ........ Great Seal of Edward I., .... . Edward I. — From a Statue in the Choir of York Minster, Queen Eleanor. — From her Tomb in Westminster Abbey, Earl Warenne justifying his Title to his Estates. — Tresham, Summit of Snowdon, ..... Caernarvon Castle, ...... Baliol surrendering the Crown to Edward I.— Opie, Ruins of the Castle of Dunbar, . . , . , Stirling Castle, ..... Ruins of Kildrummie Castle, . . . . Edward II.— From the Tomb at Gloucester, . . Great Seal of Edward II., ..... Warwick Castle — Guy's Tower, .... Leeds Castle, ....... Berkeley Castle, ...... P:dward 111.- From the Tomb in Westminster Abbey, Great Seal of Edward III., Queen Philippa.— From the Tomb in Westminster Abbey, . Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, ..... Ancient Caves near Nottingham Castle, Mortimer's Hole, Nottingham Castle, Genoese Archer, winding up or bending his Cross-how, Cross-bow and Quarrel, ..... Queen Philippa interceding for the Burgesses of Calais.— Bird, 770 Efflgy of Edward the Black Prince.- From the Tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, .... Richard II.— From a Painting in the Old Jerusalem Chamber in the Palace at Westminster, . . . • Great Seal of Richard IL, ..... Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Strand, .... Death of Wat Tyler .—Northcote, .... Field of the Battle of Chevy Chase.— Bird, Meeting of Richard and Bolingbroke at Flint Castle.— MS. in the British Museum, ..... Bolingbroke conducting Richard II. into London.— MS. in the British Museum, ..... Parliament assembled for the deposition of Richard II.— MS. in the British Museum, .... Initial Letter, ..... Dominican or Black Friar, .... Franciscan or Grey Friar, .... Archbishop reading a Papal Bull, . , Specimen from a copy of Wyclitfe's Bible, Initial Letter, ...... 665 667 671 671 672 682 684 686 688 688 692 694 698 699 709 714 717 727 731 731 734 740 744 748 748 751 752 753 754 766 760 780 781 781 787 788 793 799 799 801 804 804 Ships of the time of Richard 11.— MS. in the British Museum, Penny of Henry III., ...... Edward I., (supposed) of Edward II., of Edward III., Half Groat of Edward III., Groat of Edward III., 809 824 831 837 837 837 837 837 837 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Penny of Richard II., ... .838 Half Groat of Hichard II., ..... 838 Groat of Richard II 838 Initial Letter, ...... 842 Roger Bacon's Study, at Oxford, .... 844 The School of Pythagoras, Cambridge, . . . 846 Matthew Paris, . . . . . . .847 John Gower, . . . . . . 851 Gower's Monument in St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, . 852 Niches, from Salisbury and York Cathedrals, . . 853 Early English Capitals, from York Cathedral, . . 854 Decorated English Capitals, from York Cathedral, . 854 Progressive Examples of Windows in the Thirteenth and Four- teenth Centuries, ...... 855 Examples of Pinnacles, ..... 856 Early English Cornices and Caps of Buttresses, . . 856 Parapets and Battlements, ..... 856 Guy's Tower, Warwick Castle, .... 858 House of the Fourteenth Century, at Lincoln, . . 859 Tomb of Archbishop Grey, in York Cathedral, . . 859 Aymer de Valence, in Westminster Abbey, . 860 Monument of Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Gloucester, and his Countess, in Tewkesbury Cathedral, . . . 860 Hand-organ or Dulcimer, and Violin. — MS. in the British Museum, ....... 862 Hand-bells.— MS. in the British Museum, . . 863 Initial Letter, ....... 864 Ancient Chair. — MS. in the British Museum, . . 864 Library Chair, Reading Table, and Reading Desk. — MS. in the British Museum, . . . . 864 Ancient Bed. — MS. in the British Museum, . . 865 .— do. do. ... 865 PAGE Ancient Female Head-dresses. — MS. in the British Museum, 867 Ladies' Costume, temp. Edward I. — do. do. . 867 Male Costume, temp. Edward II. — do. do. . 868 Efflgy of Edward II. in Gloucester Cathedral, . . 868 Head-dresses, temp. Edward II.— MS. in the British Museum, 868 Female Dress, temp. Edward II. — do. do. . 868 Cardinal's Hat. — do. do. . 869 Male Costume, temp. Edward III.^ do. do. . 869 Female Costume, temp. Edward HI.— do. do. . 870 Tomb of William of Windsor and Blanch de la Tour, in West- minster Abbey, ...... 870 Mourning Habits. — From the Tomb of Sir Roger Kerdeston, 870 Male Costume, temp. Richard II. — MS. in the British Museum, 871 Female Costume, temp. Richard II. — do. do. 871 Armour of the Fourteenth Century, exhibited in the Efflgy of John of Eltham, from his tomb in Westminster, . 872 St. George, at Dijon, .... . 873 Shield of John of Gaunt, ..... 874 Specimens of Ancient Cannon, ..... 874 Mounting of a Cannon, from Froissart. — MS. in the British Museum, ....... 874 Knights preparing to Combat. — MS. in the British Museum, Ordeal Combat or Duel. — Playing at Draughts. — Circular Chess-board. — Mummers.- Bodleian MS., Tomb of the Boy Bishop, Salisbury, Initial Letter, do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. 876 876 876 877 879 879 880 881 Map of England during the Saxon Heptarchy. (Frontispiece.) Figure of St. George and the Dragon, with the legend, ' St. ffieorge for iJBenfe ffinglanJ." (Back of Preface.) *«* It is to be understood that the Wood-cuts have in general been copied from drawings, sculptures, coins, or other works of the period which they are employed to illustrate ; but among so great a number of subjects, it has not been possible to adhere to this rule in every instance with perfect strictness. It sometimes happened that no suitable illustration of the custom or other matter described was to be found among the remains of the period under consideration : in a few such eases, a drawing of a subsequent period has been made use of, where there was reason to believe that it nevertheless conveyed a sufficiently accurate representation of the thing spoken of. An instance occurs at page 566, where, in the chapter on the Government and Laws of the Early Norman Period, the mode of granting lands introduced or practised by the Conqueror is illustrated by a drawing executed in the thirteenth century. In a few instances, the age of the MS. is somewhat doubtful, and has been matter of dispute ; but it is believed that no misconception as to any material point can be occasioned by the use that has been made of any authorities as to which such difference of opinion exists. The copies of modern historical pictures, it will of course be understood, have been given for other reasons altogether than their fidelity in regard to costume and other characteristics. An opportunity has been taken in the above list of correcting a few misprints in the titles or descriptions of the Cuts. INTRODUCTORY VIEW ORIGINAL POPULATION AND PRIMITIVE HISTORY OP THE BRITISH ISLANDS. question in history is more intricate and difficult than that of the original popula- tion of the British is- lands. The subject, indeed, in its various relations, is entan- gled with nearly all the darkest questions that perplex the pri- meval antiquities of our race. Every part of it has been a field of long and keenly waged controversy, where all the resources of learning and ingenuity, and, it may be added, all the license of imagination and passion, have been called forth in support of the most ir- reconcilable opinions and systems ; and still there is scarcely a leading point in the inquiry that can be said to be perfectly established, or cleared from all obscurity and confusion. Yet, almost in direct proportion to its difficulty, and the degree in which it has exercised and baffled speculation, the suljject is interesting and tempting to a liberal curiosity. The connexion which it developes between the present and the remotest past — the extent of the space over which the survey of it carries us — the light, however faint and interrupted, shed by it upon that wide waste of the time gone by, which the torch of history has left in utter darkness — all combine to excite and lure on the imagination, and at the same time to give to the investigation much of a real utility and importance. It will not be expected that we should here enter upon the more remote inquiries to which the subject, if pursued to its utmost extent, might conduct us ; but it will be of importance to the understanding of much, especially of the earliest portion, of the history which is to follow, that the reader should, in the first place, be put in posses- sion of the clearest views that can be obtained with regard at least to the immediate parentage of each of the various races which appear to have occupied, or made a conspicuous figure in these islands, before the comparatively recent date at which it commences. Even confined within the limit thus marked out, the investigation is beset with diffi- culties; and in pursuing it, we are frequently obliged to be satisfied with such probable con- jectures as we are enal^led to make when de- serted by everything like clear evidence, and left to grope our way among a crowd of doubts and perplexities in the dimmest twilight. It may be of advantage that we should preface the exposi- tion of the conclusions to which we have come, by a statement of the several sources from which evi- dence or conjectural intimations upon subjects of this kind, may be drawn ; and of the general prin- ciples according to which our judgments ought to be formed. 1. The most obvious species of evidence, in re- gard to the events that have happened in any par- ticular country, or the actions and fortunes of nations and races of men, is the history of them, recorded either in writing or by monuments, at the time, or while the remembrance of them was still fresh. If we had such records in all cases, bearing sufficient marks of their authenticity and faithful- ness, we should not need to have recourse to any other kind of evidence, the inferences from which must always be comparatively conjectural, uncer- tain, and vague. A contemporary history of any past event is the nearest thing that can be obtained to the actual observation of it ; and even for those living in the age in which the event takes place, with the exception only of the few persons who may have been present on the occasion, such a history or narrative constitutes the very best in- formation which it is possible for them to command. INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE In the state of the world at which we are now arrived, with the mighty printing-press in perpe- tual operation everywhere like another power of nature, it is not to be apprehended that any im- portant movement in human affairs can happen, at least in the civilized parts of the earth, without an account of it being immediately drawn up, and so multiplied and dispersed that it cannot fail to go down to posterity. Without any regular, machinery established and kept at work for that pvirpose, the transmission of a knowledge of everything worth noting that takes place to all future genera- tions, is now secured much more effectually than it ever was in those times when public functionaries used to be employed, in many countries, to chronicle occurrences as they arose, expressly for the information of after-ages. Such were the pontifical annalists of ancient Rome, and the keepers of the monastic registers in the middle ages among ourselves, and in the other coun- tries of Christendom. How meagre and value- less are the best of the records that have come down to us thus compiled by authority, compared with our newspapers, which do not even contem- plate as at all coming within their design the pre- servation and handing down to other times of the intelligence collected in them, but limit themselves to the single object of its mere promulgation and immediate diffusion ! So much more effectually do we sometimes attain a particular end by leaving it to be provided for by what we may call the natural action of the social economy, than by any artificial apparatus specially contrived to secure it in what may appear to us a more direct and shorter way. In the present case, the preservation of the memory of events, which in itself is an end that never could be expected strongly to engage the zeal of men in its accomplishment, and therefore could not, gene- rally speaking, be well attained by being directly aimed at, is secured, in the most complete and per- fect form, through the intervention, and, as the in- cidental consequence, of another endeavour, which is found to command, in abundant measure, the most active and eager exertions. The best history for posterity is obtained out of materials which were originally provided without any view to that object at all. Nor is this true only of the written materials of history. The same is the case with nearly all the monuments and memorials of every kind of which history makes use. All have been produced, in the first instance, chiefly or exclu- sively for some other purpose than that of convey- ing a knowledge of events to posterity. Coins, at once the most distinct and the most enduring wit- nesses of public transactions, may be said to be wholly intended for the mere present accommoda- tion of the community. So in general are works of architecture, which nevertheless often also even- tually come to take their place among the most valuable of our historic evidences. Even a medal struck, or a statue or other monument raised, pro- fessedly in honour of some particular event, while it may be admitted to have also in view the perpe- tuation of the memory of the event, and the trans- mission of a knowledge of it to future ages, has usually for its main end the present ornament and illustration of the city or country in which it makes its appearance, and the gratification of those who are to be its first beholders. Indeed, were motives of this selfish description wanting, we should probably make very little provision for pos- terity in anything ; and yet, instigated as we actu- ally are, how constantly and untiringly are we making such provision in all things ! Every year that an advancing country continues to be inha- bited, it is becoming a richer inheritance, in every respect, for all its future occupants. The ages, however, which witnessed the dispersion and ear- liest migrations of the different races of the great human family, have left us, for the most part, nei- ther history nor monuments. The only contem- porary accounts that we have of the affairs of ancient Europe are those that have been preserved by the Greek and Roman writers ; and the portion of history which has thus been illustrated with any degree of fulness is extremely limited. Of those countries which the writers in question were accus- tomed to call barbarous, being all the countries of the earth, with the exception of the two incon- siderable peninsulas of Italy and Greece, they have, for the most part, given us nothing beyond the most scanty and unsatisfactory notices. They scarcely, indeed, advert at all to any of the other European nations but themselves, till the late period of the absorption of those races in the universal empire of Rome ; and then we have merely, less or more fully detailed, the history of the generally very short process by which their subjugation was accom- plished. Of the remoter antiquities of these races, the classic authorities tell us scarcely anytliing that is much to be depended upon ; and, indeed, even of their own origin the Greeks and Romans have recorded little else than fables. Still, such scat- tered notices as their writings contain, respecting the various nations with which they came in con- tact, are not to be neglected in considering the subject with which we are now engaged. The in- formation with which they furnish us is no doubt frequently erroneous, and is always to be received with suspicion till found to be corroborated by other evidence, and by the probabilities of the case ; but it may sometimes afford a clue to guide us in the investigation when other resources fail. Although a great deal of industry, learning, and ingenuity, has been expended in examining the testimonies of the Greek and Roman writers, re- specting the ancient population of the British islands, perhaps all the passages that might be quoted in reference to the matter, from the entire series of these writers, have scarcely yet been brought so completely as they might be into one view, and considered both in their connexion among themselves, and as illustrating, or illustrated by, the evidence derived from other sources. 2. Next in directness among the evidences upon this subject to contemporary history (which is the HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. only history that is not inferential and conjectural), is to be placed the testimony of tradition. Tradi- tion is merely unrecorded history ; but the circum- stance of its being unrecorded — that is to say, of its being transmitted from one generation to another by no more secure vehicle than that of oral com- munication — very materially detracts, of course, from its trustworthiness and value. In the case even of a document or written history, it is not always easy to ascertain that it really is what it professes to be, that it is of the age assigned to it, and that it has not been corrupted or falsified ; in the case of a tradition, this matter is always of much more difficult determination. Indeed, it may be affirmed that a tradition is almost univer- sally nothing more than an emblematic or enigma- tical representation of the facts on which it is founded ; and frequently the riddle is so absurd or so obscure, that no ingenuity is capable of giving a satisfactory interpretation of it. A tradition is ob- viously much more exposed, in its descent through a long course of time, to all the chances of altera- tion and perversion, than a written history ; and the metamorphosis which it undergoes is some- times so complete, as to leave little or no intel- ligible trace of its original form or import. On these accounts, the dependence that can be placed on this source of information respecting events of remote antiquity, must necessarily be, in most cases, very slight and dubious. Still the evidence of tradition is not altogether without its value in such inquiries as the present. When the tradition is tolerably distinct in its affirmations — when it ap- pears to have prevailed for a long period, and to have been uniform in its tenor for all the time through which its existence can be traced — when it is found as the national belief, not of one merely, but of several countries or races — and when it har- monizes with other traditions relating to the same subject preserved in other parts of the earth, it is evidently entitled to examination at least, if not to implicit acquiescence. Of the traditions, however, which all nations have of their origin or remote ancestors, very few present all these characteristics. Most of them probably contain some truth, but it is usually overlaid and confused by a large mixture of fable, so that it becomes a process of the greatest nicety and difficulty to extract the metal from the ore. 3. The religion, the laws, the manners, and the customs of a people, with the memorials of what these have been in past ages, constitute a species of evidence as to their origin, which, although it may be described as only indirect and circumstantial, is really much more valuable than the positive testi- mony of mere tradition. A tradition may be a pure invention or fiction ; it may be nothing more than the creation of national vanity ; even where it has been honest from the first, it may be but an honest mistake ; and it is always liable in its trans- mission through a succession of ages, to undergo change and vitiation from many causes. But a current of evidence furnished by all the most cha- racteristic peculiarities of the national habits and feelings, cannot lie. It may be misunderstood; too much or too little may be inferred from it ; we may be deceived while considering it by our own credulity, prejudices, or fancies; but we are at any rate sure that the facts before us are really what they seem to be. They are the undoubted charac- teristics which distinguish the people ; and the only question is, how did they originate, or whence were they derived ? It is true that this is commonly far from being an easy question to solve, and that we are very apt to be misled in our interpretation of such indications of the connexion between one people and another, as facts of the kind we are now adverting to may seem to supply. So many things in the notions, practices, and institutions, and in the general moral and social condition of a people, may arise from principles of universal operation — may be the growth of what we may call the com- mon soil of human nature — that a relationship between nations must not be too hastily presumed from resemblances which they may present in these respects. Besides, institutions and customs may be borrowed by one nation from another with which it has no connexion of lineage, or may be com- municated by the one to the other in a variety of ways. If France or Spain, for instance, were to adopt the present political constitution of Great Britain, the establishment of that constitution in either of these countries would form no proof, some centuries hence, that the country in question had been peopled from England. The progress both of civilization and of religion has been, for the most part, quite independent of the genealogical connexion of nations ; they have been carried from one country to another, not in general along the same line by which population has advanced, but rather by intercourse, either casually arising be- tween two coimtries, or opened expressly for the purpose of making such a communication. They have been propagated at one time by friendly mis- sionaries, at another by conquering armies. But still, when, in the absence of any other known or probable cause sufficient to produce the pheno- menon, we find a pervading similarity between two nations in all their grand social characteristics, we have strong reasons for inferring that they be- long to the same stock. When such is the case, however, it will rarely happen that there are not also present other evidences of the relationship, of a different kind ; the memory of it will probably be preserved, at least, in the popular traditions of the two countries ; and the identity or resemblance of laws, religion, and customs, therefore, has usually to be considered merely as corroborative proof. 4. Some assistance may also be derived in such inquiries from an attention to the physical charac- teristics of nations. Where these happen to be very strongly marked, as in the case of the leading distinctions of the three great races of the Whites, the Malays, and the Negroes, they furnish very decisive evidence ; but in regard to the mere sub- ordinate varieties of the same race — and the con- G INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE troversy is commonly confined to that ground — the tests which they afford us are of much less value. There are probably no distinctions, for instance, between the Celtic and the Germanic races which would not, in course of time, be obliterated by the mere influence of climate. It is with the several Celtic and Germanic races alone that we have to do in discussing the question of the population of the British islands. It may be doubted if any of these could have long preserved a distinct physical appearance, when mixed together, as they would be, if the country is to be supposed to have been indebted for its popvdation to more than one of them. They might, however, remain distin- guishable from each other in that respect for some time; and when Tacitus, for example, alleges the superior size and the red hair of the Caledonians of his time as a proof of their Scandinavian origin, and the dark complexions of the Silures, who inha- bited the south of Wales, as making it probable that they were of Spanish descent, he may have been justified in so reasoning in that age, when the supposed immigrations, if they took place, would be comparatively recent, and the difi"erent tribes or nations that occupied the country remained still in general separate and unmixed. At the best, however, such indications can hardly be taken as anything more than a sort of makeweight— as something that may " — help to thicken other proofs That do demonstrate thinly." 5. Of course, in attempting to trace the migra- tions of nations, the relative geographical positions of the countries from one to another of which they are supposed to have proceeded, must not be over- looked. It is indispensable that the route assumed to have been taken shall be shown to be a natural and a probable one. The mere distance, however, of one country from another, is not the only con- sideration to be here attended to. Of two inha- bited countries equally near to another part of the world as yet destitute of population, or not fully peopled, the inhabitants of that which is the most overcrowded, or those who are the farthest advanced in civilization, or the most distinguished for their adventurous spirit and their habits of extended intercourse, will be likely to be the first to reach and seize upon the unoccupied territory. It has been a disputed question whether the first migra- tions of mankind were made by land or by sea ; but it does not appear that anything can be generally affirmed on the subject. Some tribes, however, seem to have been always more addicted to naviga- tion than others ; and therefore they may be sup- posed to have, in very early times, accomplished voyages of a length which could not be probably presumed in the case of others. In so far as re- spects the British islands, however, whether we suppose them to have derived their population from Ga\il, from Scandinavia, or from Spain, there are no difficulties presented by the breadth of sea which would have to be traversed on any hypothesis. 6. Were the several descriptions of circum- stantial evidence already enumerated our only guides when deserted by the direct testimony oi history, it would scarcely be possible to arrive at much certainty on any of the controverted ques- tions relating to the pedigree of nations. But there is another species of evidence which is in many cases, in respect both of its distinctness and of the reliance that may be placed on it, worth much more than all those that have yet been mentioned put together. This is the evidence of Language. Their peculiar language indeed is, strictly speaking, only one of the customs of a people ; but it stands dis- tinguished from other customs in two particulars, which give it an important advantage for our pre- sent purpose. In the first place, although it may be admitted that there are certain general princi- ples which enter into the structure of all languages, and also, possibly, that all existing languages are sprung from one original, the different degrees of alliance that subsist between diff'erent tongues are yet, in most cases, very distinctly marked ; nor is it possible in the nature of things that there should be a pervading similarity between two tongues that have been formed quite apart from each other. There is not here any such common soil of the human mind as would of itself produce an identity of results in diflferent countries, like what might very well happen, to a great extent, in the case of what are commonly called manners and customs, and even in that of laws and institutions. These last naturally admit ofcomparatively little variety of form. It would seem nothing at all wonderful, for example, that two nations which should never have had any connexion of blood or much intercourse with each other, should yet, at the same stage of their social progress, exhibit a considerable general resemblance in their political institutions and their systems of laws — a certain degree of civilization naturally resolving itself into nearly the same forms and arrangements, in these respects, by its own spontaneous action. The same is the case with many of the ordinary arts and customs of life. These are suggested by their obvious utility, and can hardly arise except in one and the same form everywhere ; or, if we suppose them to have been derived by every people from some common source, their inherent simplicity would in like manner pre- serve them from variation in their transmission through ever so long a period of time ; and in this view also, therefore, they would fail to furnish any indication of the degree of affinity between the races to which the possession of them was found to be common. But the sounds of articulate language admit of infinite variety, and there is, generally speaking, no natural connexion between the objects of thought and their vocal signs ; so that for two nations that never had any communication with each other, to l)e found speaking the same lan- guage, or even two languages, the vocabularies of which, in any considerable degree, resembled each other, would be a phenomenon altogether miracu- lous and unaccountable. Nor could the preserva- tion, down to the present day, of a strong resem- HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. blance between the languages of two particular countries, be in any degree explained simply by the supposition of all existing languages having sprung from a common original ; the insufficiency of such a merely primitive connexion to produce the resemblance supposed, is demonstrated by the great diversity of languages which actually subsists. We are entitled, therefore, to assume, that in all cases where we find this clear and decided relation- ship of languages, there must have been a compa- ratively recent connexion of blood, or long and intimate intercourse of one kind or another, be- tween the races of people by whom they are spoken. For, secondly, it is another peculiarity of a national speech, that it is never adopted from another people on merely that slight acquaintance and communi- cation which has sometimes sufficed not only to transfer a knowledge of the ordinary arts of civi- lized life, but to introduce into and establish in a country, whole systems of religion, of laws, and of philosophy. These things, as already observed, have frequently been conveyed from one part of the earth to another by a few missionaries, or chance emigrants, or simply by the opportunities of commerce and travel. But languages have never been taught in this way. A people always derives its language either from its ancestors, or from some other people with which it has been for a long time thoroughly mixed up in the relations of social and domestic life. It would, we apprehend, be impos- sible to quote an instance of an exchange of the popular speech of any country being produced by anything short of either the amalgamation, or at least the close compression, of one people with another, which is the result only of conquest. This can hardly take place without the history or memory of the event being preserved , and therefore there is little or no danger of a language thus imposed being ever mistaken for one derived in the ordi- nary way, or of any difficulty being thereby occa- sioned in the application of the general rule — that where the languages exhibit a strong resemblance to each other, the nations speaking them ar,e of one stock. A person, for instance, visiting South Britain in the third or fourth century, would have found many of the people speaking Latin, and the people of France, or ancient Gaul, still speak a dialect of the Latin, for the modern French tongue is little else ; but no considerate inquirer into such matters would ever conclude from these facts, in disregard of all other evidence, that the original population of Britain and of Gaul was Roman. The prevalence of the Roman speech is sufficiently accounted for, in these cases, by the Roman con- quest and colonization of both countries, which are events that have left, and could not fail to leave, abundant memorials of themselves behind them, in a great variety of forms. 7. But there is still to be noticed another source of evidence sometimes available on the subject of the original population of a country, which is of kindred character to that derived from the language spoken in it, and of equal distinctness and trust- worthiness. This is the evidence supplied by the topographical nomenclature of the country, or the language to which the most ancient names of places in it are found to belong. Names have all some meaning when first imposed ; and when a place is named, for the first time, by any people, they apply to it some term, in early times generally descriptive of its natural peculiarities, or something else on account of which it is remarkable, from their own language. When we find, therefore, that the old names of natural objects and localities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may conclude with certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Of this the names they have so im- pressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinct record of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of places often long outlive both the people that bestowed them, and nearly all the material monuments of their occu- pancy. The language, as a vehicle of oral com- munication, may gradually be forgotten, and be heard no more where it was once in universal use, and the old topographical nomenclature may still remain unchanged. Were the Irish tongue, for instance, utterly to pass away and perish in Ire- land, as the speech of any portion of the people, the names of rivers and mountains, and towns and villages, all over the country, would continue to attest that it had once been occupied by a race of Celtic descent. On the other hand, however, we are not entitled to conclude, fi-oin the absence of any traces of their language in the names of places, that a race, which there is reason for believing from other evidence to have anciently possessed the country, could not really have been in the occupa- tion of it. A new people coming to a country, and subjugating or dispossessing the old inhabit- ants, sometimes change the names of places as well as all or many other things. Thus when the Saxons came over to this island, and wrested the principal part of it from its previous possessors, they seem, in the complete subversion of the former order of things which they set themselves to efiect, to have everywhere substituted new names in their own language, for those which the towns and vil- lages throughout the country anciently bore. On this account the topographical nomenclature of England has ever since been, to a large extent, Saxon ; but that circumstance is not to be taken as proving that the country was first peopled by the Saxons. Guided by the principles that have been laid down, we will now proceed to explain those views respecting the original population of the British islands which seem best to accord with the various facts bearing upon the question, and to form to- gether the most consistent whole. It will be con- venient to consider the several parts of the subject in the order of the population, I. of England; II. of Ireland; III. of Scotland; IV. of Wales. I. For a long time, what was held to be the ortho- dox belief respecting the original population of the INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE southern part of Britain, was the story of the descent of the first Britons from the Trojans, a colony of whom was supposed, after the destruction of their native city, to have been conducted to this island by Brutus, a grandson or great-grandson of ^neas, more than a thousand years before the commence- ment of our era. The person who first made this story generally known was the famous Geoffrey ap Arthur, Archdeacon of Monmouth, and afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, who flourished in the twelfth century ; but there is no reason to suppose, as has been sometimes asserted, that he was its inventor. His Latin history is, in all probability, what it pro- fesses to be — a translation of an Armorican original, entitled " Brut y Breninodd, or a Chronicle of the Kings of Britain," which was put into his hands by his friend Walter de Mapes, otherwise called Calenius, Archdeacon of Oxford, who had himself brought the manuscript from Bretagne. The same legend, which is found in so amplified a form in Geoffrey's work, is more briefly detailed in various histories of a much earlier date. The earliest writer to whom it can be traced, appears to be the Welsh priest Tysilio, who is believed to have flou- rished in the latter part of the seventh century. The Brut (that is, the Chronicle) of Tysilio seems to have been the prototype both of the work which Geoffrey translated, and of many other similar performances.* The vanity of being supposed to be sprung from the Trojans was common, in early times, to many of the European nations; but the English probably retained their belief in the notion to a later date than any of the rest. It is gravely alleged by Edward I., in a letter which he addressed to Pope Boniface in 1301, as part of the argument by which he attempts to establish the supremacy of the Eng- lish crown over Scotland. As the Romans them- selves pretended to a Trojan descent, it has been plausibly conjectured that the various nations brought under subjection by that people were in- duced to set up the same claim, through an ambi- tion of emulating their conquerors ; and at a later period it obviously fell in with the views or natural prejudices of the churchmen, who were for the most part the compilers of our histories, to encourage an opinion which drew the regards of the people to- wards the ecclesiastical metropolis, as the head city of their race as well as of their religion. The acute and judicious Camden, at the end of the sixteenth century, was almost the first inquirer into our national antiquities who ventured to question the * The best edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth is printed under tlio title of Galfridiis Monumetensis de Origine et Gestis Regiim Britaa- ninorum, in Jerome Commelirie's Britannicarum llerum Scriptores Vetustiores et Praecipui, fol. Heidelb. 1587. It has been translated into English by Aaron Thompson, 8vo. Loud. 1718. An analysis of the work is given by Mr. Geo. Eliis, in his Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. i. sec. 3. The Brut of Tysilio is printed in the second volume of the Welsh Arcliaiology, 3 vols. 8vo. 1801 ; and there is an English transl.-ition of it by the Rev. Peter Roberts, 8vo. Lond. 1810. On the dispute relating to Geoffrey of Monmouth. see Wartou's Dissertation on the Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe, prefixed to his History of English Poetry, 8vo. edit. Lond. 1824, vol. i. pp. viii.-xiv., anil the Preface of the editor (the late Mr. Price), pp. 97-99 ; Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, 4th edit. 8vo. Lond. 1823, vol. i. p. 62; and Britannia after the Romans, 4to. Lond. 1836, pp. xxii.- xxNii. long-credited tale; yet nearly a hundred years afterwards we find a belief in its truth still linger- ing in the poetic imagination of Milton. Geoffrey makes Brutus and his Trojans to have found Britain nearly uninhabited, its only occu- pants being a few giants of the race of Cham, over whom the famous Gogmagog ruled as king; but another form of the fable settles a numerous popu- lation in the country at a much earlier date. " As we shall not doubt of Brutus's coming hither," says Holinshed, " so may we assuredly think that he found the isle peopled, eitlier with the generation of those which Albion the giant had placed here, or some other kind of people whom he did subdue, and so reigned as well over them as over those which he brought with him." Albion is said to have been a son of Neptune, who took the island from the Celts, after they had occupied it for above three hundred years, under a succession of five kings, the first of whom was Samothes, the eldest son of Japhet, and the same who is called by Moses Meshech. From Samothes, Britain received the first name it ever had, Samothea. Albion, and his brother Bergion, who was King of Ireland, were eventually conquered and put to death by Her- cules. The inventor of this history appears to have been Annius or Nanni, a Dominican friar of Viterbo in Italy, who published it about the end of the fifteenth century, in a forged work which he attributed to Berosus, a priest of the Temple of Belus, at Babylon, in the time of Ptolemy Philadel- phus. It was afterwards taken up and further illustrated by the celebrated English Bishop Bale. Another ancient account respecting the original population of Britain, is that preserved in the Welsh poetical histories known by the name of the Triads, in allusion to the three events which each of them commemorates. " Three names," says the first Triad, " have been given to the isle of Britain since the beginning. Before it was inha- bited, it was called Clas Merddin (literally, the country with sea-cliffs), and afterwards, Fel Ynis (the Island of Honey). When government had been imposed upon it by Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great, it was called Inys Prydain (the Island of Prydain) ; and there was no tribute to any but to the race of the Cymry, because they first obtained it ; and before them there were no more men alive in it, nor anything else but bears, wolves, beavers, and the oxen with the high prominence." * The Cymry, or ancestors of the present Welsh, there- fore were, according to this authority, the first inhabitants of Britain. Another triad (the fourth of the same series) states that their leader was Hu Cadarn, that is, Hugh the strong, or the mighty, by whom they were conducted through the Hazy, that is, the German Ocean, to Britain, and to Llydaw, that is Arraorica, or Bretagne. It is added, that they came originally from the country of Summer, which is called Defrobani, where Constantinople • Turner's Anglo-Saxons, i. 33. The series which this triad intro- duces, and which is stated to be one of the most complete that exis' has been printed in the original Welsh, in the second volume of t!io VVelsh Archaiology. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. is. Some interpreters have been inclined to go so far for Defrobani as to the island of Ceylon, one of the ancient names of which was Tabrobane ;* and we shall find in the sequel that there is another theory, as well as that of the Welsh triads, which connects the British islands with Ceylon. Sub- sequent triads inform us, that the next people who came to Britain were the Lloegrwys, who came from the land of Gwasgwyn, or Gascony, and were of the same race with the Cymry ; as were also the next colonists, the Brython, from the land of Llydaw (Bretagne). These, it is added, were called the three peaceful nations, because they came one to another with peace and tranquillity ; they also all spoke the same language. From the Lloegrwys, a great part of England received the name of Lloegria. Afterwards, other nations came to the country with more or less violence ; according to the enumera- tion of Mr. Turner, " the Romans ; the Gwyddyl Fficti (the Picts), to Alban or Scotland, on the part which lies nearest to the Baltic; the Celyddon (Caledonians), to the north parts of the island ; the Gwyddyl, to other parts of Scotland; the Cor- raniaid from Pwyll (perhaps Poland), to the Hum- ber ; the men of Galedin, or Flanders, to Wyth ; the Saxons; and the Llychlynians, or Northmen. "f The triads, from facts mentioned in them, appear not to be older than the reign of Edward I., J al- though they may have been founded upon the fragments of earlier compositions ; but even if they were of much greater antiquity, they could be no authority for anything more than the traditionary accounts of the first peopling of the country. Of the theories which have been proposed upon this subject by modern inquirers, one supposes the first colonizers, both of Britain and Ireland, to have been the Phcenicians. The original suggester of this notion appears to have been Aylett Sammes, a writer of the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury. § It has been recently advocated, with con- siderable ingenuity, by Sir William Betham, who, however, is of opinion that the Phoenicians were preceded in the occupation of both islands by the Caledonians, afterwards called the Picts, whom he conceives to have been a people of Scandinavian origin, the Cimbri of antiquity. The Phoenicians he considers to be the same people with the Gael, or Celts. II Notwithstanding any diversity of views, how- ever, which may exist as to some of the remoter points of the investigation, it may be affirmed to be now admitted on all hands that the numerous population which the Romans found in the occu- • Sketch of the Early History of the Cymry, by the Rev. Peter Roberts, 8vo. 1803, pp. 150, &c. + History of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 54. t Britannia after the Romans, pp. x. — xiv. At the end of Mr. Turner's Historyis an elaborateVindicationof the Genuineness of the Ancient Ilritisli'Poems, vol. iii. pp. 493 — 646. See, also, Mr. Robert's Preface to the Poems of Aneurin ; and Mr. E. Davies's Celtic Rescarclips, 8vo. 1804, pp. 152, &c. { See his Britannia Antiqua lllnstrata, or the Antiquities of An- cient Britain derived from tlie Phoenicians, fol. 1676. Wood, in his Athenre Oxonienses, asserts that the true author of this work was Robert Aylett, LL.D., a Master in Cliaucery, who was the uncle of Sammes, and left his papers to his nephew. 11 The Gael and Cymbri. 8vo. Dub 1834. pation of the southern part of this island, about half a century before the commencement of our era, was principally a Celtic race, and had, in all probability, been immediately derived from the neighbouring country of France, then known by the name of Gallia. Caesar, the first of the ancients who saw the people, or who has described them, informs us that their buildings were almost similar to those of the Gauls, and that their religion was the same ; and it appears also from his narrative, that a close political alliance existed between the states of Bri- tain and those of Gaul, and that the latter were all along aided by the former in their resistance to the Romans. The proximity of the one country to the other, indetd — the British coast being visible from that of Gaul — would almost alone authorize us to conclude that the one could not long remain unoccupied, after the other had been settled. Taci- tus, who had the best opportunities of information, has expressly recorded that, in addition to an iden- tity of religious rites, the languages of the Gauls and Britons were nearly the same ; and evidence of this fact remains to the present day, in the Celtic character of the topographical nomenclature of the south, as well as of the other parts of Britain, in so far as it has not been obliterated by the Saxon con- quest. Bishop Percy has observed that in England, " although the names of the towns and villages are almost universally of Anglo-Saxon derivation, yet the hills, fore&ts, rivers, &c., have generally retained their old Celtic names."* It is certainly possible that the country may, pre- viously to the arrival of the Gauls, have been occu- pied by a people of different origin, who on that event were obliged to retire to the northern parts of the island, where they became the progenitors of the Caledonians; but it would be difficult to bring forward any satisfactory proof that such was the case. This supposed previous race has not lel't behind it either any traces of its language, or any other monuments of its existence. Nothing re- mains, either on the face of the soil, or in the customs of the people, which would suggest the notion of any earlier colonization than that from Gaul. Everything of greatest antiquity that sur- vives among us is Celtic. At the same time this view of the subject is not free from some difficulties, which it is fair to state. Caesar, in the first place, in his account, makes a marked distinction lietween the inhabitants of the coast of Britain and those of the interior, not only describing the latter as much more rude in their manners, and altogether less advanced in civiliza- tion than the former, but also expressly declaring them to be, according to the common belief at least, of a different race. He says that the tradi- tion was, that they originated in the island itself ; whereas the inhabitants of the maritime parts had come over from Belgium, and seized by violence upon the portion of the country which they occu- pied. This statement may be considered, at least, to establish the fact, that the occupation of the coast • Preface to translation of Mallefs Northern Antiquities, i. xxxix. 10 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE by the Belgic invaders was a much more recent event than the colonization from which the people of the interior had sprung. The phraseology of the account throughout is very precise in regard to the distinction intimated to exist between the two races. For instance, it is said in one place that those inhabiting Kent were by far the most civilized portion of the British population, and that in their customs or general manner of life, they differed but little from the Gauls, while most of those in the interior sowed no corn, lived only upon milk and flesh, and were clothed in skins ; and then the writer immediately proceeds to mention some other peculiarities as common to all the Britons.* It is true he does not affirm that different languages were spoken on the coast and in the interior ; but it so happens, that on the subject of language he says nothing whatever in his account of Britain. He informs us, however, that Kent and the mari- time portion of the country generally was inhabited hj Belgians ; and he had already stated in other parts of his work, first, that the Belgse differed from the Gauls or Celts both in language, in institutions, and in laws,t and secondly, that they were a people for the most part of German descent, who had ac- quired a settlement for themselves on the left bank of the Rhine by expelling the Gauls, by whom the district was previously occupied. J In so far, there- fore, as the testimony of Caesar is worth anything, it would seem to imply that the Britons whom he describes were a German or Teutonic race, not a Celtic. It is to be observed, that the inhabitants of the maritime parts were the only portion of the people of Britain whom he had any opportunity of seeing. But if this be the case, what is the value of his assimilation of the Britons to the Gauls, as proving the Celtic lineage of the former ? Notwithstanding what Caesar has said in the passages we have just quoted, it has been a much controverted question to which of the two great races from whom the population of the principal part of Europe appears to be derived — the Celts or the Germans — the ancient Belgse are to be con- sidered as belonging. * It has been argued, that when Caesar describes them as differing in lan- guage from the Celts, he must in all probability be understood as meaning only that they spoke a dif- ferent dialect of the same language ; and that that expression, therefore, is not to be taken as any evidence that they were not a Celtic people. § It must be admitted that the point is an exceedingly doubtful one. The distinction, in respect both of language and of lineage, between the Celtic and the Teutonic, Germanic, or Gothic races, may be said to be the fundamental canon of the modern philo- sophy of the orgin and connexion of nations ; but * De Bell. Gal. v. 14. Tacitus also (Agric. xi.) appears to have In his immediate view only the inhabitants of those parts of Britain which are nearest to France, when he describes them as resembling tlie Gauls in language, religion, &c. + De Bell. Gal. i. 1. t Ibid. ii. i. ; Whitaker's Genuine History of the Britons, 1773 ; Chalmers's Caledonia, 1807, vol. i. p. 16; Pritehard's Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, 1826, vol. ii.. Strabo, it is to be observed, ex- pressly describes the three great nations of Gaul, the CeltiB, the lielgae, and the Aquitani, as only ditfering slightly from each other in language. Geogr.lib. iv. it is not yet very long since its importance came to be understood. The old writers on the subject of the Celts, all include both the Celtic and the Gothic races under that name.* Attention seems to have been first called to the distinction in question by our countryman John Toland, f and it was afterwards much more fully unfolded by Bishop Percy. J The most elaborate discussion, however, the subject has met with, is that which it received from the late John Pinkerton,§ in all whose his- torical investigations the radical distinction between the Celtic and the Gothic races, and the inherent inferiority of the former, are maintained with as much zeal and vehemence, as if the writer had a personal interest in the establishment of the point. The correctness of the new views, in so far as re- spects the general position of the non-identity of the Celtic and Germanic nations, and also their importance to the elucidation of the whole subject of the original population of Europe, are now universally admitted ; but perhaps in avoiding the error of their predecessors, there has been a ten- dency on the part of modem writers to run into the opposite extreme, and to assume a more complete disconnexion between everything Celtic and every- thing Gothic, than can be reasonably supposed to have existed. It is to be recollected that both the Celts and the Goths appear to have come to the west of Europe, though at different times and by different routes, from the same quarter ; both races are undoubtedly of eastern origin, and are admitted by all physiologists to have been branches of the same great paternal stem. Both are classed as belonging to the same Caucasic or Japetic family. This being the case, the distinction between them, when they eventually found themselves planted alongside of each other in the different countries of Europe, could hardly have been so complete in all respects as it is usually considered. Their languages, for instance, notwithstanding the striking dissimilarity both in vocabulary, in structure, and in genius, which they seem now to exhibit, may not have been by any means so unlike each other two thousand years ago, seeing that, according to all historic probability, they must have both sprung from the same common ancestral tongue. Re- ferring to Schilter's ' Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum, ' and Wachter's ' Glossarium Germanicum,' " these vastly learned authors," ob- serves a late writer, " demonstrate, without intend- ing it, that the Celtic and Teutonic languages had a * See Ph. Clavier's Germania Antiqua, fol. 1619; J. G. Keysler's Antiquitates Selectae Septentrionales et Celtics, 8vo. 1720 ; Borlase's Antiquities of the County of Cornwall, fol. 1754, p. 22 ; S. Pelloutier's Histoire des Celtes et particuliereuient des Gaulois et des Germains, 4to. 1771. &c. To these may be ndded so recent a work as P.H. Larcher's Geographic D'Herodote, in the last edition, published in 1802. f See his Specimen of a History of the Druids, written in 1718, and published in Posthumous Pieces, 1726, vol. i. A new edition of To- land's History of the Druids appeared, in 1814,in an octavo volume, at Montrose, edited by Mr. R. H uddleston, schoolmaster of Lunan, who has introduced it by a modest and sensible preface, and appended to the original text a large body of notes which display very consider- able ingenuity and learning. t Preface to Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 2 vols. 8vo. 1770. § Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths, 8vo. 1787, and appended to the second volume of his Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the Reign of Malcolm III., 1789, HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 11 common origin." * Both the Celtic and the Teu- tonic have been shown to enter largely into the composition of the Greek and Latin ; and it has been lately conclusively proved by Dr. Pritchard, by a minute comparison of vocabularies and gram- matical peculiarities, that the Celtic belongs to the same great family of Indo-European languages with the Sanskrit, the Greek, the Latin, and the German.f Upon the whole, therefore, the probability seems to be, that although the inhabitants of the inland part of South Britain, at the time of the Roman invasion, were the posterity of a much earlier colo- nization than that which had peopled the maritime parts of the island, yet both the tribes of the coast and those of the interior were of the same Celtic descent, and all spoke dialects of the same Celtic tongue. We find the evidences of this community of language and of lineage spread over the whole length of the country, from its northern boundary to the Channel ; for the oldest names of natural objects and locali- ties, even in the portion of this range which is commonly understood to have been eventually oc- cupied by Belgic colonies, are equally Celtic with those that occur elsewhere. This circumstance must be considered as a testimony, in regard to the original population of the country, far outweighing the meagre and vague notices handed down to us upon the subject by Caesar and Tacitvis; and it is to be explained only by supposing either that the seats of the Belgic tribes in Britain had, before their arrival, been in the possession of a Celtic race, or that the Belgians, notwithstanding their German descent, had, before their invasion of Britain, be- come, by their long residence on the west side of the Rhine, more a Celtic than a Teutonic people. If there was any difference of language between them and the other inhabitants of South Britain, it could scarcely have amounted to more than a dif- ference of dialect. There is certainly, at least, no indication in the topographical nomenclature of the country, that any Teutonic people, before the arrival of the Saxons in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, had ever occupied those parts of it of which they then came into possession. It is not unlikely that a few settlements may have been effected, in very early times, on the west coast by the Spa- niards, and on the east coast by emigrants from the opposite Scandinavian regions ; but, with these exceptions, there appears to be little reason to doubt that the whole of what is now called England was first occupied by a Celtic population, which came over in successive swarms from the neighbouring country of Gaul. Some speculators have even at- tempted to show that Britain was originally united by land to Gaul. J At any rate, it may be assumed that the first migration from the one to the other took place at a very early period, most probably con- siderably more than a thousand years before the • Chalmers's Caledonia, 1. 12. t The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, 8vo. 1831. X See this position learnedly maintained in a dissertation, De Bri- tannia Belgicaj, 3 vols. 8vo. 1719. It will appear presently that Mr. Whitaker, in his Genuine Origin of the Uritons Asserted (1/73), commencement of our era. The Belgic coloniza- tion of the southern coast seems to have been an event of historic memory — that is to say, not yet transformed into the shape of fable — in Caesar's day ; and, therefore, we may suppose it to have happened within two or three centuries preceding that date. The name Britannia, by which our island was known among the Greeks and Romans, was doubt- less formed from the name in use among the na- tives themselves. With respect to its origin and meaning many conjectures have been proposed, a long list of which may be seen in Camden. Geoffrey of Monmouth, of course, and the other retailers of the story of Brutus and his Trojans, derive it from the name of that leader. We have seen from one of the Welsh triads quoted above, that it is deduced by those authorities from an early king of the country — the first, it is affirmed, by whom a regular government was established in it — Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great. These fables are deserving of no attention ; and equally worthless and palpably absurd are most of the other etymologies which have been suggested by the laborious ingenuity of learned word-torturers. Among the more plausible interpretations may be mentioned that of Whitaker, who contends that Britin, which he conceives to be the origin of the Greek and Roman Britannia, was not the name of the island but of its inhabitants, and that it is a plural word, of which the singular is Brit, signifying divided or separated. The Britin, therefore, he translates the separated peo- ple, or the emigrants ; and he supposes that name to have been given them by their kindred in Gaul, whom they left in order to occupy the island. This account of the matter, however, we believe, has not gained much acceptance among Celtic scholars. Yet it is not very distant from the no- tion of Sir William Betham, who conceives the term Britannia to have been formed from the Celtic Brit daoine, that is, painted people — the name, he says, which " the Phoenician Gallic colony," on their arrival, bestowed upon the wild natives of Scandinavian extraction whom they found in pos- session of the country. Whitaker adverts to the application of the word Brit in the sense of painted ; it is the same word, he observes, with Brik or Brechan, the name still given to his tartan plaid by the Scotch Highlander, and signifying properly a garment marked with divided or variegated co- lours. The anonymous author, also, of the lately published volume entitled " Britannia after the Romans," (the work of a scholar and a man of talent, who is apt, however, to have more charity for his own crotchets than might be expected from his contempt for those of other people,) strenuously maintains the derivation of the name Briton from a Welsh, and, as he conceives, old British, word sig- has, without any Tiew to the establishment of this point, suggested that the term Britin means, properly, the separated people, or the emigrants, as he explains it. This epithet would be better accounted for upon the supposition of the actual separation of the two countries by tlie intervention of the sea. 12 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE nifying painted. Pezron, he observes, although his authority is of no weight, has, nevertheless, the merit of surmising this true etymology. There can be little doubt that the element tan in Britannia is the same word which we find form- ing a part of so many other names of countries, both ancient and modern, such as Mauri-tan-ia, \qui-tan-ia, Lusi-tan-ia, Kur-dis-tan, Afghanis- tan, Kuzis-tan, Louris-tan, Hindos-tan, &c. It appears to signify merely a land or country, though it is not, we believe, found in that sense in any existing dialect of the Celtic, and for anything that is known, it may after all be really Daoine, people, as suggested by Sir William Betham. Bruit, again, is the Celtic term for tin, or metal generally ; so that Bruit- tan, or, as smoothed down by the Greeks and Romans, Britannia, signifies altogether the metal or tin land — an epithet which would be naturally bestowed upon the country, from the cir- cumstance for which it probably first became known to other nations. The meaning of the name is exactly the same with that of the Greek Cassi- terides, by which alone the British islands were known to Herodotus. II. If the traces of an original Celtic population are still to be found over the greater portion of the south of Britain, such traces are much more abundant, and more distinctly legible, over the whole of Ireland. The ancient topographical no- menclature of that country is exclusively Celtic, as the speech of a large proportion of the people still continues to be. A Celtic race, therefore, must either have formed the original population of the country, or must have become its predominant population in very ancient times. Whence was this race derived ? The traditional history preserved among the Irish people makes the island to have been pos- sessed by three nations in succession — the Fir- bolgs, the Tuath de Danans, and the Milesians, or Scots — the last-mentioned of whom it represents as the progenitors of the present Celtic population. The question of who these races were has given occasion to endless controversy. What is certain is, that both the Firbolgs and the Tuath de Danans existed in the country within what may be properly called the historic period. The Firbolgs are gene- rally believed to have been a Belgic colony or in- vading band ; and the Tuath de Danans a Scandi- navian people. Another theory, however, makes the latter, and not the Milesians, to be the Celtic people, from whom have descended the great bulk of the present population of the island. There come to us through the long night of the past many strange glimmerings of an extraordinary civilization existing in Ireland in a very remote antiquity, and of a wide-spread renown which the island had once enjoyed as a peculiarly-favoured seat of letters, the arts, and religion. That during a considerable portion of the period which we are accustomed to call the dark ages, the light of learn- ing and philosophy continued to shine in Ireland after it had been extinsiuished throughout all the rest of Christendom, although so remarkable a cir- cumstance has been little noticed by most of the historians of modern Europe, must be regarded as a fact as well established as any other belonging to that period. From about the beginning of the seventh till towards the close of the eighth cen- tury, Ireland, under the name of Scotia,was undoubt- edly the recognized centre and head of European scholarship and civilization. This is abundantly proved by the testimony of contemporary writers in other countries, as well as by the remaining works of the early theologians and philosophers of Christian Ireland themselves. But long before this Christian civilization, there would seem to have been an- other period, when the arts existed in that country in a high state of advancement, in the midst of surrounding barbarism. If there were no other evidences of this than those extraordinary erections, the Round Towers, which are still found standing in so^many places, the inference would not be easily resisted. The argument derived from these buildings is very short and direct. We have evi- dence which cannot be questioned, not only of their existence in the twelfth century, but of their great antiquity even at that date. Giraldus Cam- brensis, who then visited Ireland, describes them in such terms as show that the memory of their origin had been already long lost among the peo- ple. If, as has been supposed by some writers, they had been erected by the Danes, who occupied a part of the island two or three centuries before, this could not have been the case. But the no- tion that the Danes were the architects of the Round Towers of Ireland is altogether untenable on other grounds. No similar structures are to be found, nor any trace of such ever having existed, either in the native country of the Danes, or in any other country in which they ever obtained a settle- ment. Nay, in Ireland itself, it is curious enough, that while Round Towers are found in many parts of the country where the Danes never were, in other parts which these invaders are well known to have occupied, there are none. Nor can these Round Towers with any probability be looked upon as Christian monuments ; there are no such build- ings in any other part of Christendom, nor any- where, indeed, throughout the western world, if we except Scotland, which, from many other evi- dences, appears to have been in part colonized from Ireland. We are forced therefore to ascend in search of their origin beyond the date of the establishment of Christianity in the latter country, which is well ascertained to have taken place- in the early part of the fifth century. But for some centuries at least preceding that date there is cer- tainly no reason to believe that there existed in Ireland any such superior civilization or knowledge of the arts as would account for the erection of the Round Towers. On the contrary, it appears pro- bable, from all the facts that can be collected, and all the contemporary notices that have come down to us, that at the time of the invasion, and during the occupation of Britain by the Romans, the Irish HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 13 Round Toweb uf Donuuohmobk.* were in much the same semi-barbarous condition with the Britons. The primitive civilization of Ireland, therefore, whether under the same, or, what is more likely, under a different dominant race, must be sought for in a yet more remote anti- quity. The only structures that have been any- where found similar to the Irish Round Towers are in certain countries of the remote east, and espe- cially in India and Persia. This would seem to in- dicate a connexion between these countries and Ireland, the probability of which, it has been at- tempted to show, is corroborated by many other coin- cidences of language, of religion, and of customs, as well as by the voice of tradition, and the light, though faint and scattered, which is thrown upon the sub- ject by the records of history. The period of the first civilization of Ireland then would, under this view, be placed in the same early age of the world which appears to have witnessed, in those oriental countries, a highly advanced condition of the arts and sciences, as well as flourishing institutions of religious and civil polity, which have also, in a similar manner, decayed and passed away. No- thing can be more certain than that the first period of human civilization is at any rate much more ancient than the oldest written histories we now possess. The civilization of Egypt was on the decline when Herodotus wrote and travelled, nearly twenty-three centuries ago. The vast architectural monuments of that country were of venerable an- tiquity, even when his eye beheld them. The ear- liest civilization of Phoenicia, of Persia, and of Hindostan, was, perhaps, of still more ancient origin. We know that the navigating nation of the Phoenicians had, long before the time of Hero- dotus, established flourishing colonies, not only in the north of Africa, but also on the opposite coast of Spain. Even the foundation of Marseilles, on the coast of France, by a Greek colony, has not been stated by any authority to be more recent than six liundred years before the commencement of our era, and there are some reasons for believing a town to have been established there at a much earlier date. There is, therefore, no such impro- bability as is apt to strike persons, not conversant with such investigations, in the supposition that Ireland also may have been colonized by a civilized people at some very remote period. It seems, in- • In most instances the cut of a particular local object will have reference to itsexistinf^ state, except when otherwise expressed. 14 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE deed, to be scarcely possible otherwise to account either for the Round Towers, or for the other relics and memorials of a formerly advanced state of the arts which the country still contains — the extensive coal-works and other mining excavations which appear in various places, and the many articles of ornamental workmanship in gold and silver which have been found in almost every part of the island, generally buried deep in the soil — all unquestion- ably belonging to a time not comprehended within the range of the historic period.* It is remarkable, and may be taken as some con- firmation of the evidence afforded by circumstances of another kind which appear to indicate a con- nexion in very ancient times between Ireland and the east, that nearly all the knowledge of the coun- try of which we find any traces in the Greek and Roman writers seems to have been derived from oriental sources. If the Orphic poem on the voy- age of the ship Argo be of the age to which it has been assigned by some of the ablest critics, namely, five hundred years before the birth of Christ, it is there that we have the first mention of Ireland by its Celtic name. The writer speaks of an island which he calls lernis, as situated somewhere in the Atlantic ; and, from various passages of his poem, he is believed to have had much of his information from the Phoenicians. He makes no mention of Britain. Herodotus, a century later, had only heard of the British islands by the descriptive epi- thet of the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands. Even Eratosthenes, in the third century before Christ, appears not to have been aware of the existence of Ireland, although the island is mentioned by the name of leme, in a work attributed to Aristotle, and which has been supposed to be at least of the age of that philosopher, who flourished in the fourth century before the commencement of our era.f Po- lybius, in the second century before Christ, just no- tices Ireland. On the other hand, Ptolemy, who is known to have composed his work from materials collected by the Tyrian writer Marinus, gives us, in his Geography, a more full and accurate account of Ireland than of Britain. Another very curious descriptive notice of Ire- land is that which has been preserved in the Latin geographical poem of Festus Avienus, a writer of the fourth century, but who tells us expressly that he drew his information on the subject from the Punic records. Avienus gives us the only ac- count which we possess of the voyage made by the Carthaginian navigator Himilco to the seas north of the Pillars of Hercules, at the same time that *[The question regarding the origin and purpose of the Round Towers is now considered as set at rest by the publication of Mr. J. Petrie's Essay in 1845. He has shown, from their being in- variably connected with churches, and often displaying traces of the same architecture, as well as Christian emblems, that they were simply, what the language of the country has all along called them, belfries, and of mediseval date. The order for con- structing a church, with a detached belfry, exactly answering to the description of a Bound Tower, has been discovered and pub- lished by Mr. Petrie. 1854.] + nt^i Koafiou. The writer says that in the sea beyond the Pil- lars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) are two large islands, called the British Islands, Albion and lerne. Hanno, whose Periplus has come down to us, set out in the opposite direction from the same straits. These voyages seem to have been undertaken about a thousand years before our era. In the narrative given by Avienus, which is a very slight sketch, the islands with which the Carthaginians were wont to trade are designated the CEstrumnides, by which name is supposed to have been meant the Scilly Islands ;* and two days' sail from these is placed, what is said to have been called by the an- cients, the Sacred Island, and to be inhabited by the nation of the Hiberni. The island thus de- scribed there can be no doubt is Ireland. Near, either to the CEstrumnides or the island of the Hi- berni (it is not very clear which is intended), is said to extend the island of the Albiones, that is, Bri- tain. The existence of an abode of science and the arts, and the seat probably also of some strange and mysterious religion, placed in the midst of the waters of the farthest west, and withdrawn from all the rest of the civilized world, could hardly have failed, however obscurely and imperfectly the tale might have been rumoured, to make a powerful impression upon the fancy of the imaginative na- tions of antiquity. Some speculators have been disposed to trace to the Ireland of the primeval world, not only the legend of the famous island of Atlantis mentioned by Plato and other writers, but also the still earlier fables of the Isle of Calypso, and the Hesperides, andthe Fortunate Islands, and the Elysian Fields of Homer and other ancient poets. " The fact," observes Mr. Moore, f " that there existed an island devoted to religious rites in these regions, has been intimated by almost all the Greek writers who have treated of them ; and the position in every instance assigned to it, answers perfectly to that of Ireland. By Plutarch it is stated that an envoy despatched by the Emperor Claudius to explore the British Isles, found, on an island in the neighbourhood of Britain, an order of magi accounted holy by the people ; and in an- other work of the same writer, some fabulous won- ders are related of an island lying to the west of Britain, the inhabitants of which were a holy race ', while, at the same time, a connexion between them and Carthage is indistinctly intimated." In a passage which Strabo has extracted from an ancient geographer, it is expressly stated that in an island near Britain sacrifices were offered to Ceres and Proserpine, in the same manner as at Samothrace, in the Egean, the celebrated isle where the Phoeni- cians had established the Cabiric or Guebre wor- ship, that is, the adoration of the sun and of fire, which they again appear to have received from the Persians. " From the words of the geographer quoted by Strabo," continues Mr. Moore, " com- bined with all the other evidence adduced, it may be inferred that Ireland had become the Samothrace, as it were, of the western seas ; that thither the • See a curious interpretation of this name in Davies's Celtic Re- searches, p. 238. f History of Ireland, i. 13, HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 15 Cabiric gods had been wafted by the early colo- nizers of that region ; and that, as the mariner used, on his departure from the Mediterranean, to breathe a prayer in the Sacred Island of the East, so in the seas beyond the Pillars, he found another Sacred Island, where, to the same tutelary deities of the deep, his vows and thanks were offered on his safe arrival." But the most curious of all the legends preserved by the classical writers, which have been supposed to allude to Ireland, is the account given by Dio- dorus Siculus of the Island of the Hyperboreans, on the authority, as he says, of several investigators of antiquity, and especially of Hecatseus, an author who is believed to have flourished in the sixth cen- tury before our era. The island, in the first place, is stated to lie in the ocean over against Gaul, and under the arctic pole — a position agreeing with that assigned to Ireland by Strabo, who describes it as situated beyond Britain, and as scarce habitable for cold. It is affirmed to be as large as Sicily, which is a sufficiently correct estimate of the size of Ireland. The soil, the narrative goes on to say, is so rich and fruitful, and the climate so temperate, that there are two crops in the year. Mention is then made of a famous temple of round form, which was here erected for the service of Apollo, whom the inhabitants worshipped above all other gods, his mother Latona having been born in the island. Here seems to be an evident reference to the Round Towers, and the Cabiric religion, of which they were in all probability the temples. The re- mainder of the account contains apparent allu- sions to the skill of the inhabitants in playing on the harp, and to their knowledge of astronomy, a study which has always been associated with the worship of the sun. Upon the supposition that this relation refers to Ireland, the famous Abaris, who is said to have come from the Hyperboreans on an embassy to Athens, six centuries before the commencement of the Christian era, and of whose learning and accomplishments so many wonderful stories are told by various authors, would be an Irishman. * These, and other seeming indications of an ori- ental connexion have appeared so irresistible to many of the ablest and most laborious inquirers into the antiquities of Ireland, that, however va- riously they may have chosen to shape their theo- ries in regard to subordinate details, they have found themselves obliged to assume an early colo- nization of the country by some people of the east, as the leading principle of their investigations. Whatever question there may be, however, as to who this people were, it is agreed on all hands that they were a people speaking the present Irish lan- guage. The popular tradition, which makes the • For a more complete examination of the narrative in Diodorus Siculus, see O'Brien's Round Towers, chaps, iv. and xxyii. Toland, however, conceives the island of the Hyperboreans to be " the great island of Lewis and Harris, with its appendages, and the adjacent island of Skye," in the Hebrides. (History of the Druids, p. 155, &c.) Davies is decidedly of opinion that it was Great Britain. (Celtic Re- searches, 181-199, and Appendix, 549, &c.) There is a curious article on Abaris in Bayle's Dictionary. Milesians or Scots to have been a Scythian colony, considers them nevertheless to be Gael, or Gauls. Colonel Vallancey, who in his latter days adopted the hypothesis that the original Irish people were a colony of Indo-Scythians, and denied that they were either Gauls or Celts, maintained at the same time that the Irish was not a Gallic or Celtic tongue. Mr. O'Brien, who deduces the Irish population from Persia, makes the Irish to have been the an- cient language of that country.* Finally, Sir Wil- liam Betham and others, whose system is that Ire- land was colonized by the Phoenicians, contend that the ancient Phoenician or Punic language was the same with the modern Irish, and hold themselves to be able to make out that point from the remains of it which we yet possess. In particular, they supply, by the aid of the Irish tongue, an interpre- tation of the celebrated scene in Punic, in the " Poenulus " of Plautus, which has at least a very imposing plausibility, f *' The complete identity of the Phoenician and Irish languages," observes Sir William Betham, " explains, makes palpable, and elucidates, not only the history and geography of Europe, but most of the ancient maritime world, and in fact removes every difficulty to the acquire- ment of correct notions of the events of the earliest times." There can be no doubt, it may be here observed, that the Irish is a Celtic tongue, and essentially the same with that which was anciently spoken by the chief part of the population both of Gaul and of the south of Britain. Colonel Vallancey and others who have doubted or denied this identity have been misled by taking it for granted that the true representative of the Celtic tongue of the an- cient Britons and Gauls is the modern Welsh, which, as we shall presently have occasion to notice more particularly, appears really to be a different language altogether. It may also be remarked that there does not ap- pear to be any irreconcilable discordance between the two principal modern theories on the subject of the ancient connexion of Ireland with the East, namely that which attributes the colonization of the country to the Phoenicians, and that which deduces the people, together with their language and their religion, from Persia. It is far from improbable that the Phoenicians were originally a Persian peo- ple. The ancient writers generally bear testimony to the fact that the district called Phoenicia, at the extremity of the Mediterranean, was not their ori- ginal seat. They seem to have found their way thither from some country farther to the east or the south-east. Herodotus makes them to have been Chaldaeans, and Strabo brings them from the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf. Their reli- gion, as has been already observed, appears to have • The identity of the Celtic people and the Persians, and of the Celtic and Persian languages, is also considered by Pelloutier as admitting of no doubt. See his Histoire des Celtes. t This interpretation was first published by the late General Val- lancey, by whom, however, it appears to have been obtained, though that fact was not acknowledged, from a manuscript of an Irish scholar of the name of Neachtan. It is given in the most com- plete form in Sir W. Betham's Gael and Cymbri, pp. 112— 13S. 16 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE been the same Cabiric or Guebre worship which prevailed among the ancient Persians. The popular tradition brings the progenitors of the people of Ireland immediately from Spain, making that country one of the principal resting- places of the Gaelic or Milesian race in their pro- gress from the East. This view also would suffi- ciently harmonize with the supposition that Ireland was indebted for its earliest civilization and its lan- guage to the Phoenicians, who had settlements in Spain, and are expressly stated by Strabo and other ancient writers to have carried on a trading inter- course from very remote times with the British Islands. The Irish traditional history, however, it is to be observed, brings the Spanish colonizers of the country not from Gades, which Strabo speaks pf as the place from which the voyages to Britain were chiefly made, but from Gallicia, at the oppo- site extremity of Spain. Particular mention is made of a lighthouse which stood in the neighbour- hood of the port now called Corunna, and was of great service in the navigation between that coast and Ireland ; and a remarkable coincidence has been noticed between this part of the tradition and an account given by .^thicus, the cosmo- grapher, of a lofty pharos, or lighthouse, stand- ing formerly on the sea-coast of Gallicia, and, as his expressions seem to imply, serving as a beacon in the direction of Britain. Whatever may be thought, indeed, of the share that either the Phoeni- cians or some other eastern people may have had in colonizing Ireland, or at least in communicating to the country its earliest civilization and religion, little doubt can be entertained that the great body of the Celtic progenitors of its present population was derived, not, as in the case of Britain, from Gaul, but from Spain. Even some of the British tribes, as we have already hinted, were probably of Spanish extraction. Tacitus, as has been observed above, conjectures that the Silures, who inhabited the south of Wales, had come from Spain, from their swarthy countenances, their curled hair, and the position of the district in which they dwelt, facing that country. Ireland, from its position, in like manner, offered the most inviting field for the occupation of colonists from the same quarter. Many of the names of the ancient Irish tribes, as recorded by Ptolemy, are the same with those of tribes forming part of the Spanish population. " So irresistible, indeed," observes Mr. Moore, *' is the force of tradition in favour of a Spanish colonization, that every new propounder of an hypothesis on the subject is forced to admit this event as part of his scheme. Thus Buchanan, in supposing colonies to have passed from Gaul to Ireland, contrives to carry them first to the west of Spain ; and the learned Welsh antiquary, Lhuyd, who traces the origin of the Irish to two distinct sources, admits one of those primitive sources to have been Spanish. In the same manner, a late writer, * who, on account of the remarkable simi- larity which exists between his country's Round • Popular History of Ireland, by Mr. Whitty, Part I. Towers and the Pillar-temples of Mazanderan, deduces the origin of the Irish nation from the banks of the Caspian, yields so far to the current of ancient tradition, as, in conducting his colony from Iran to the west, to give it Spain for a rest- ing-place. Even Innes, one of the most acute of those writers who have combated the Milesian pre- tensions of the Irish, yet bows to the universal voice of tradition in that country, which, as he says, pe- remptorily declares in favour of a colonization from Spain."* At the same time, as Mr. Moore has elsewhere remarked, there are sufficient evidences that Gothic tribes from Germany have effected settlements in Ireland as well as the Celts from Spain. This would be proved by Ptolemy's map of the country alone, in which there are several tribes set down whose names clearly indicate them to have been of Teutonic origin. There is every reason to believe, indeed, as we shall have occasion to show in the sequel, that the most famous of all the Irish tribes, the Scots, — a people who seem to have eventually established a dominion over all the other races in the island, — were not Celts, but Germans or Goths. Notwithstanding these mixtures, however, the mass of the population remained essentially Celtic, as it had been from the first ; and so thoroughly was the Celtic character impressed upon and worked into the whole being of the nation, that it speedily fused down, and assimilated everything foreign with which it came in contact. "It cannot but be re- garded as a remarkable result," observes Mr. Moore, " that while, as the evidence adduced strongly testifies, so many of the foreign tribes that in turn possessed this island were Gothic, the great bulk of the nation itself, its language, character, and institutions, should have remained so free from change; that even the conquering tribes them- selves should, one after another, have become mingled with the general mass, leaving only in those few Teutonic words, which are found mixed up with the native Celtic, any vestige of their once separate existence. The fact evidently is, that, long before the period when these Scythic invaders first began to arrive, there had already poured, from the shores of the Atlantic into the country, an abundant Celtic population, which, though but too ready, from the want of concert and coalition, which has ever characterized that race, to fall a weak and easy prey to successive bands of adven- turers, was yet too numerous, as well as too deeply imbued with another strong Celtic characteristic, attachment to old habits and prejudices, to allow even conquerors to innovate materially either on their language or their usages." f According to Sir William Betham, the proper Celtic name of Ireland is not, as commonly stated, Erin, but Eire, of which Erin is the geni- tive, and which is pronounced precisely as lar, a word still in common use, and signifying the west, the end, everything last, beyond, the extremity. So, he observes, we find by the Periplus of Hanno • History of Ireland,!. 18. f Ibid. i. 98. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. It that the last Plicenician settlement on the west coast of Africa was called Cerne, pronounced Kerne, or Heme, being the same word with Erin. Strabo also tells us that the promontory forming the most western point on the coast of Spain was called lerne. lerne and lernis are among the forms which the Celtic name of Ireland assumes in the pages of the Greek and Roman authors. The same original has, without doubt, also given rise to the forms Juvernia and Hibernia, and to the com- mon Latin names for the people Hiberni and Hiberniones. The derivation of the Celtic name of Ireland from a word signifying the extremity, or the remotest point, is as old as the lime of Camden. It is an important part, however, we ought to note, of Mr. O'Brien's theory, that this name is nearly the same word with Iran, the old and still the native name of Persia. Iran, he says, means the Sacred Land, and Irin the Sacred Island. In support of this explanation he quotes a statement by Sir John Malcolm, to the effect that he had been told by a learned Persian that Eir or Eer sig- nified in the Pahlavi, or court dialect of Persia, a believer, and that that was the root of the name of the country. The uniform spelling of Erin, or Irin, in the oldest manuscripts, according to Mr. O'Brien, is Eirin.* III. The most ancient name by which the north- em part of Britain was known, appears to have been Caledonia, We have no evidence, however, that this name was in use among the inhabitants of the country themselves. It seems to have been that which was employed to designate them by the southern Britons, from whom no doubt the Romans learned it. Caoill signifies wood in Celtic, as Kd\oy,kalon, (which appears to be the same word,) does in Greek ; and the Caledonii of the Roman Briters has been supposed, with much probability, to be merely a classical transformation of Caoill daoin, literally, the people of the woods, or the wild people. The meaning of the term, indeed, is exactly expressed by the modern word savages, in French sauvages, in Italian selvaggie, the ori- ginal of which is the Latin silva^ a wood. If it could be shown that the northern Britons of the time of the Romans called themselves Cale- donians, or Caoill daoin, this circumstance would afford some evidence that they were a Celtic people. But the name in itself, if the commonly received interpretation of it be correct, does not appear to be one which a people would be very likely to adopt as their national appellation. Notwithstand- ing this probably Celtic name, therefore, by which they were known to the Romans and to the south- ern Britons, the Caledonians may not have been a Celtic race. As the south of Britain was in all probability chiefly peopled from Gaul, and Ireland chiefly from Spain, so it has been conjectured that the main source of the original popidation of North Britain was in like manner the part of the conti- * The Round Towfis, chap. ix. VOI,. 1, nent immediately opposite to it, namely, the north of what was then called Germany, including mo- dern Holland and Denmark, and also Norway and Sweden, or the region anciently comprehended under the general name of Scandinavia. Tacitus, as already noticed, expressly tells us that the red hair and big bones of the Caledonians asserted their German origin. If this view be correct, the earliest occupants of the North of Britain were a people not of Celtic, but of Teutonic race. In the later days of the Roman domination the name Caledonians appears to have gradually fallen into disuse and in their stead the Picts appear on the scene. Everything connected with the Picts — their name, their language, their origin, their final history — has been made the subject of long and eager controversy. But it may now be said to be agreed on all hands that, whether we are to consi- der them as having been Gothic or Celtic, the Picts were really of the same stock with the Cale- donians. The Picts are mentioned for the first time about the beginning of the fourth century, by Eumenius, the author of a Panegyric on the Emperor Con- stantine, who speaks of the Caledonians as being a tribe of Picts : Caledones aliique Picti — the Cale- donians and the other Picts — is his expression. About a century later Ammianus Marcellinus de- scribes the Picts as divided into two nations, the Dicaledones, or, according to another reading, Deu- caledones, and the Vecturiones. Upon this pas- sage, a late writer, who holds that both the Cale- donians and the Picts were Celts, observes — " The term Deucaledones is attended with no difficulty. Duchaoilldaoin signifies, in the Gaelic language, the real or genuine inhabitants of the woods. Du, pronounced short, signifies black ; Lut pronovmced long, signifies real, genuine ; and in this accep- tation the word is in common use ; Du Erinnach, a genuine Irishtnan ; Du Albinnach, a genuine Scotsman. The appellation of Deucaledones served to distinguish the inhabitants of the woody valleys of Albinn, or Scotland, fi'om those of the cleared country on the east coast of Albinn, along its whole extent, to certain distances westwarci along its mountains in the interior parts of the country. These last were denominated, according to Latin pronunciation, Vecturiones ; but in the mouths of the Gael, or native inhabitants, the ap- pellation was pronounced Uachtarich." * We do not find, however, that any explanation of this last term is attempted further than the following : — " That a portion of the country was known in an- cient times by the name of Uachtar, is evinced by the well-known range of hills called Diiiim- Uachtar, from which the country deecends in every direction towards the inhabited regions on all sides of that mountainous range." f Sir Wil- liam Betham, also, explaining the names recorded by Marcellinus from the Welsh, will have the * Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael. By .lanics Grant. Ksq. of Corrimony. 8vo. Loud. 1828, p. 276. t Ibid. p. 277. 18 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE Dicaledones to mean the separated Caledonians ; ai, he says, in that language, having the same disjunc- tive effect with the particle dis in English ; while he considers Vecturiones to come from the two words f/c, chief, and Deyrn, lord, and to signify a siiperior realm, or the chief district, the residence of the Ucdeyrriy or sovereign prince. Pinkerton considers the Latin Vecturiones to be a corruption of Peohtar or Pehtar, which is the form in which the name Picts was anciently written. * Chalmers, also, derives the Latin appellation from the old name of the Picts, which he conceives to have been Peithi, or Peithwyr, a word that in Welsh is said to signify those that are out or exposed, the people of the open country, t In Scotland the name is still pronounced Pechts, or Pechs, with a strong enunciation of the guttural. After all, the name Picti may not improbably be merely the common Latin term signifying painted, bestowed upon the northern barbarians, from their custom of dyeing or tatooing their bodies, for the existence of which there is abundant evidence. The Latin writers themselves seem to have generally understood the name in this sense. With regard to the language of the Picts, Bede, writing while that name was still their recognized national designation, distinctly informs us that it was diflferent from that of the Britons. He has also preserved one Pictish word, and that does not belong to the Gaelic either of Ireland or Scotland. So, when the Irish saint, Columba, in the sixth century, went to the court of the Pictish king, for the purpose of converting that Prince and his sub- jects to Christianity, it is expressly recorded by his biographer, Adomnan, in more than one pas- sage, that he employed an interpreter. But the strongest proof of all is derived from the old names of places, which throughout the whole of that part of Scotland formerly constituting the kingdom of the Picts, are not Irish or Gaelic, but belong to another language. The same is also the case with the names of the Pictish kings, several lists of which bave been preserved. The people there- fore that originally occupied the territorv in ques* tion would appear not to have been a Celtic race. The kingdom of the Picts, which subsisted under that designation in an independent state, till the mitjdle of the ninth century, extended, as is well known, along the east coast of Scotland, from the Firth of Forth northwards. As for the country to the south of tbe Forth and the Clyde, it did not pro- perly belong to ancient Scotland at all. But while the Picts thus occupied the lowland country, the hilly country to the west was undoubtedly in the possession of a people of genuine Celtic lineage, the progenitors of the present Scottish Highlanders. Of those writers who consider the Caledonians to have been Celts, several hold that the modern Highlanders are the descendants of those earliest occupants of North Britain. This, for instance, • Inquiry (nto the History of Scotland preceding the Reipn of Mulcolm III. t Caledouia, i. 203. is the view propounded by Mr. James Macpher- son in the introduction prefixfd to his celebrated translation of the Poems of Ossian (1162), and also by his relation. Dr. James Macpherson, in his Dissertations on the Caledonians, &c. which the translator of Ossian edited (1768). Yet both these writers contend that the Picts also were the descendants of the same Caledonians ; or, in other words, that the Highlanders and the liowlanders were really the same people — a fact which would make it extremely difficult to account for the com- plete distinction between the two, which we find preserved in all the historical notices that have come down to us respecting them. The Scottish Highlanders consider themselves to be of Irish descent, as Dr. James Macpherson admits. In these respects their own traditions perfectly agree with the uniform voice of the traditional history of Ireland. It may now indeed be said to be admitted on all hands that the Scottish Highlanders are the descendants of a band of Irish who settled in Argyleshire about the middle of the third century, under a leader named Carbry Riada, the lord of a territory in Antrim, named after himself, Dalriada. The descendants of these Irish colonists, about the beginning of the sixth century, founded in that district of Scotland what was long called the Dal- riadic kingdom, or kingdom of the Dalreudini, and which eventually, on the seizure of the Pictish throne, by Kenneth Macalpine, in the year 843, became the kingdom of all Scotland. This is th.' view concurred in by Innes, O'Connor, Chalmers, and all the ablest modern inquirers. Indeed, until the appearance of the publications of the Macphersons, the Irish origin of the Scottish Highlanders does not appear ever to have been doubted or called in question either among them- selves or by others. Their own name for their language is Erse or Ersh, that is, Irish. They de- signate themselves Gael, and they call the Irish by the same name at this day. Of the origin and meaning of the term Gael, it does not appear possible to give any satisfactory account. The Irish tradition is that the name is derived from Gaodhal (pronounced Gael), grand- son of Peine Farsa, the first great leader of the colony, variously designated Milesian, Scotic, Gaelic, and Phoenician, from which the Celtic po- pulation of Ireland is sprung. It has been sup- posed by some that the word Gael, or Galli, is really the same with Celtge (pronounced Kelts*,), as well as with Galatae, the name given to the in- habitants of Galatia, or Gallo-Graecia, in Asia Minor. Sir William Betham conceives that the Phoenicians, long before the Christian era, called themselves Gael and Gaeltach, from the latter of which names the Greeks and Romans formed their Keltoi and Celtge. Others, however, think Celtse to be a corruption of Caoillich, which signifies a woodland people, from Caoillf wood, already men- tioned. The commonly received classical deriva- tion of the name Celts is from the old Greek word, used by Homer, KeXr/c, Keles (originally Kelcts^, a HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 1.9 horse, the Celts being, it is said, everywhere dis- tinguished for their skill in horsemanship. Perhaps the word ought rather to be deduced at once from the verb KtXXw, Kello, to move about, from which Ke\?;e is itself considered a derivative. The wan- dering character of the race would go to vindicate this etymology ; but we do not know that there is any Celtic word corresponding in sound and sense to the Greek KeXXw. Caesar tells us that the peo- ple of ancient France, whom the Romans called Galli, were called Celtse in their own language ; and Pausanias also testifies that the ancient name of the Gauls was Celts. Herodotus, who mentions the Celts, is silent as to the Gauls. The words Gael and Galli have also been by some supposed to be identical with the modem names Waldenses or Walloons, and Waelsh or Welsh. Nothing certainly is more common than the conversion of the sound g into w or gw^ and therefore the name Waelsh, by which the Saxons were latterly wont to designate the alien race who occupied the western corner of South Britain, might possibly be merely a corruption of Gael. At the same time, as the Welsh never have called themselves Gael, it would be somewhat difficult to account for the Saxons bestowing upon them that name, if it was thereby intended to identify them with the Gael of Ireland and of Scotland. There can be no doubt that the word Welsh is the same with the modem German Waelsch, which is still a]iplied in that language to designate generally all strangers or foreign nations. The Italians, in par- ticular, are called at this day Waelsch or Welsch by the Germans, their language the Welsh tongue, and their country Welsh land. Precisely in the same way our German ancestors, the Saxons, called the race of distinct blood and language who occu- pied the west of England Welsh, and the district they inhabited Wales. What original connexion there may have been between the two words Gael and Waelsh (or Wael, as it may perhaps have been in its simplest form), when the Celtic and Teutonic tongues were less widely divided than they eventually came to be, we shall not take upon us to conjecture. If any relationship could be established, it might perhaps help us to the true meaning of the name Gael. It is worth remarking that there appears to be another genuine Celtic word, which, from the similarity of its sound, is apt to be confounded with the word Gael, but to which is attributed exactly the signifi- cation of the German Waelsch. This fact is ob- scurely noticed by Buchanan, who states that the ancient Scots divided all the nations of Britain into Gaol and Calle, which names he translates by the Latin Galli and Gallaeci. But the matter is more clearly explained in the following passage from a modern work : — " Gaoll, in the Gaelic lan- guage, signifies a stranger. All the inhabitants of the kingdom of Scotland, whose native language is not Gaelic, are by the Gael called Caoill ; Gaoll, nom, singular , Gaoill, nom. plural, that is, strangers ; so Gaolldoch is the country of the Scots who speak English, as Gaeldoch is the country of the High- landers who speak Gaelic. Caithness, that part of the northern extremity of Scotland which has been for many centuries inhabited by Anglo-Saxon colo- nies, is called by the Gael, Gaollthao, the quarter of strangers ; and, for the same reason, the He- brides, after their conquest by the Danes, got the name of Insegaoll, which signifies the islands in- habited by strangers. Circumstances of a like nature gave the names of Galloway and Galway to the districts of country known by these appellations in Scotland and Ireland." * The author of * Bri- tannia after the Romans ' conceives that Wal and Gaul are the same word, and is convinced " that the words Wal, Wealh, Welsch, and Walsch were all primarily applied to that extensive family of tribes which we distinguish from the Teutonic to- wards the west, and that whenever it obtained the general force of stranger or foreigner, it had been among such tribes of Teutons as had then little collision with any other description of foreigners." t But how will this theory account for the Gael them- selves calling foreigners Gaoll ? But all this while who and whence were the Scots ? and from whom has North Britain received the name of Scotland ? In the first place, it is to be observed, that down to the eleventh or twelfth century the name Scotia was appropriated not to what is now called Scotland but to Ireland, and by the Scots was meant the Irish, or at least a people dwelling in that country. This is now universally admitted. The Scots are first mentioned by Am- mianus Marcellinus under the year 360, as fighting in alliance with the Picts. If these Scots were a British people, they must be supposed to have been a portion of that band of colonists from Ireland, who, as already mentioned, had a short time before this obtained a settlement in Argyleshire. But it is far from being certain that the Scots spoken of by Marcellinus, and whom, on another occasion, he describes as per diver sa vagantes — vagabond- izing from one place to another, as the words may be translated — were not native Irish who had come over expressly for the purpose of the predatory expeditions in which they are represented as hav- ing been engaged. We find, at any rate, that the fribes of the north of Britain were sometimes joined in their attacks upon the Roman province by bands of Scots, who are expressly stated to have come from Ireland. Thus, the poet Claudian, de- scribing the chastisement inflicted by Theodosius, in the year 368, upon the Saxons, Picts, and Scots, says that of the last-mentioned people icy Ireland (glacialis I erne) wept the heaps that were slaugh- tered. We have seen above that the notion of Ireland commonly entertained among the Greeks and Romans was that the island was sitviated very far to the north, which accounts for the epithet here made use of. Another expression in the poem, proceeding from the same misconception, occurs in the passage in which it is affirmed that • Grant's Origin of the Gael, p. 154. t Biitauuia after the Uomans, p.UxTiU, ER8ITY 20 INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE Theodosius, in pursuing the flying Scots, broke with his daring oars the Hyperborean waves. This may remind us of the island of the Hyperboreans, commemorated by Diodorus Sicukis. In like manner, in another poem, in which he celebrates the exploits of Stilicho, about thirty years later, on the same scene of war, he makes Britannia ex- claim, " By him was I protected " — , " totam cum Scotus lernen Movit, el infesto spumavit remige Tetliys — " , that is, as it has been translated by Dr. Kennet in Gibson's Camden, " When Scots came thunderinsr from the Irish sh.ores, And th« ocean trembled, struck with hostile oars." It may be considered, then, not to admit of any dispute, that the Scots were originally an Irish people. " It is certain," observes Camden, "that the Scots went from Ireland into Britain. Orosius, Bede, and Eginhard bear indisputable testimony that Ireland was inhabited by the Scots." Bede, indeed, who yet had never heard of North Britain being called Scotland,, expressly informs us that the nation of the Scots first came into that part of Britain which belonged to the Picts, from Ireland, under their leader Reuda — the Riada mentioned in a preceding page. As the country eventually re- ceived its kings, so it also received its name from these Irish colonists. The proper Scots, accord- ingly, Canwlen describes to be those commonly called Highlaudmen ; " for the rest," he adds, *' more civilized, and inhabiting the eastern part, though comprehended under the name of Scots, are the farthest in the world from being Scots, but are of the same German origin with us English." The name Scot has been usually supposed to be the same with Scythian, and to be a Celtic term sig- nifying a scattered or wandering people. It has been suggested, however, that it may be a trun- cated form of the Welsh Ysgo-do-gion or Ysgotiaid, which names appear to have been applied to the Scots by the Welsh in the twelfth century, and to be derived from Ysgawd, signifying shade, as if meaning a people of the woods.* We doubt, at all events, the derivation from Ysgawd. But having found the Scots settled in Ireland before they were known in Britain, we have still to endeavour to discover when and whence they found their way to the former country ; and these are much darker questions. The Irish traditionary account, as we have seen, is, that the Scots, or the Milesians, were that great nation who, arriving in Ireland, many centuries before the birth of Christ, brought with them the present Irish or Gaelic lan- guage, and became the progenitors of the great body of the present Irish population. But, to pass over all the other improbabilities involved in this legend, it is sufficient to remark, that the account of the geography of Ireland given by Ptolemy, suf- ficiently proves that tliere were no Scots in Ireland at the time when Marinus of Tyre collected the materials from which that writer drew his informa- tion. And still more decisive is the evidence of a • Britannia after the Eomans, p. Ixiii. work of unquestioned authenticity,"The Confession of St. Patrick," written so recently as the middle of the fifth century, from a passage in which it appears that even then the Scots were a distinct race from the Hiberionaces, or great body of the Irish people. The manner, however, in which they are here spoken of, as well as the ascendancy which their name afterwards acquired, would seem to imply that they formed a superior class ; and the proba- bility is, that they were really a foreign people who, perhaps a century or two at most before our era, had effected a settlement in the country by force, and eventually reduced the natives to sub- jection. One supposition, that proposed by Whit- aker in his History of Manchester, is, that the Scots were emigrants from Britain, and conse- quently Celts ; but this hypothesis is entirely un- supported by evidence, and is directly contrary to the uniform tenor of the Irish tradition respecting the people in qviestion, which peremptorily asserts them to have been of Scythic or Germanic race. Pinkerton, Wood (in his " Inquiry into the Pri- mitive Inhabitants of Ireland "), and others, con- ceive the Scots to have been Belgians ; but the whole course of early Irish history, as Mr. Moore has remarked, " runs counter to this conjecture — the Belgse and Scoti, though joining occasionally as allies in the field, being represented throughout as distinct races." On the whole, we are disposed to agree with this last-mentioned writer, that the Scots were really a tribe of Scythians, that is, a people from Germany, or the north of Europe, who arrived in Ireland subsequently to the Firbolgs or Belg?e, and that they were therefore of Teutonic blood and language. Although they appear to have in course of time reduced all the other inha- bitants of the island under their authority, and to have given their name to the whole country, their numbers were probably very small as compared with those of the original Celtic population. Hence the language of the country continued to be Celtic, and eventually, both in this and in other particulars, the conquering tribe came to be melted down among the mass of those whom it had subdued — just as after the Norman invasion Eng- land still continued to be essentially a Saxon coun- try. It is not therefore necessary to conclude from the facts of the Highlanders of North Britain being sprung from a colony of Irish, and of that country inheriting from Ireland the name of Scotland, that the Irish progenitors of the Scottish Highlanders were of the Scotic race properly so called ; long before the name of Scoti was transferred to the Highlanders of North Britain, it had entirely lost its original distinctive meaning, and was applied to all the people of Ireland indiscriminately. The Irish colonists of Scotland, for anything that is known, may not have even had a drop of Scotic or Scythic blood in their veins. It is certain, at least, that they were Celts or Gael in speech, and that their descendants to this day have never called themselves Scots, or anything else but GaeL In distinguishing themselves from the Irish, the HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 21 Scottish Highlanders designate that people Gael Ej-innich, or Gael of Erin, and themselves Gael Aibinnich, or Gael of Alhin. Albin, or Albion, appears to have been anciently the name of the whole island of Great Britain, and that by which it was first known to the Greeks and Romans. The writer of the geographical treatise ascribed to Ari- stotle, to which we have referred in a former page, says that the two British islands were called Albion and I erne. Pliny intimates that, the whole group of islands being called Britannia, the former name of that then called Britannia was Albion. Eusta- thius, the commentator on the Greek geographical poem of Dionysius Periegetes, tells us that the British islands are two in number, Ouernia and Alouion, or Bernia and Alhion. Albinn, accord- ing to Mr. Grant, means in Gaelic white or fair island. " The Gael of Scotland and Ireland," he observes, " never knew any other name for Scot- land than that of Albinn ; it is the name used by them at this day ; the appellation of Scotia, or any appellation similar to it in sound, is entirely un- known to them. The Gael have preserved, and apply at this day to the kingdom of Scotland, the most ancient name known to the Greeks and Romans, to denominate the whole island of Great Britain. The etymology of the name serves to show that it was denominated Albinn by the con- tinental Gauls, and was naturally called by them the Fair or White Island, from the chalky appear- ance of the British coast opposite to the nearest part of the coast of ancient Gaul." * An old name given to the island by the Welsh is stated to have been Innis-wen, which also in their language sig- nifies the Fair or White Island. f IV. The Welsh, as every one is aware, have been in the habit of regarding themselves as the genuine descendants and representatives of the an- cient Britons, who possessed the whole of the southern portion of the island before the arrival of the Saxons, and were indeed the same people that inhabited the country when it was first invaded by the Romans, and had probably occupied it for many preceding centuries. This descent being assumed, the Welsh language has generally been held to be a Celtic dialect, and essentially the same that was spoken by the original Britons, only mixed with some words of Latin derivation, which it is supposed to have received from the intercourse of those who used it with the Roman colonists. It would probably be difficult to produce any direct evidence for these notions ; but they have been, until very recently, the almost universally • Thoughts on the Gael, p. 29?. + The author of " Britannia after the Romans," however, contends that we must consider the ancient and correct form of All}ion to be Alouion or Alwion. " Neither p nor 6," he is pleased to say, " is ca- pable of mutation into «» ; nor is the converse possible." The Romans, he proeeeds, modifled tlie sound of the word " to suit the etymology furnished by their own language, but not existing in the Greek, albus, white. And they harped upon that idea so long, that it was adopted in the island itself while it was their province." Al- wion, lie is inclined to think, is the Land of Gwion, which appears to nave been a name of " the Hermes, or Mercury, whom the ancient Britons revered above all other deities, and who (in the alchemic su- perstitions) presided over the permutations of nature." — pp. Ixiv— Ixviii. received faith among the students of British anti- quities. Yet it is certain, m the first place, that no trace is to be found in the notices of Britain by the Greek or Roman writers, of any people or tribe settled in the district now called Wales, from which the Welsh can with any probability be supposed to have sprung. They exhibit no marks which would lead us to suspect their progenitors to have been the Silures, whose swarthy countenances and curled hair gave them to Tacitus the appearance of a Spanish race. The Welsh have always called themselves Cymry ; there is no resemblance be- tween this name, and either that of the Silures, or that of the Demetse, or that of the Ordovices, the only British tribes whom we read of, either in Ptolemy, or in any of the historians of the Roman wars, as occupying Wales in the time of the Romans. Indeed, no name resembling the Cymry occurs anywhere in the ancient geography of the island, so far as it is to be collected from these authorities. It is not pretended that this appellation has been adopted by the Welsh since the time of the Romans ; if theretbre the people bearing it were then in the island, and more especially if they formed, as the common account would seem to imply, the most ancient and illustrious of all the tribes by which the country was occupied, how did it happen that they wholly escaped notice? How are we to account for the fact of tribes with other appellations altogether being set down by contemporary geographers and historians in the very district which the Cymry claim as their proper and ancient residence? But further, it clearly appears, and has been ac- knowledged by some of the ablest and most learned of the Welsh antiquaries themselves, that the dis- trict now called Wales must have been inhabited in ancient times by another race than the present Welsh. The oldest names of natural objects and localities throughout Wales are not Welsh. This was long ago stated by Humphrey Lhuyd, and has been since abundantly established. Lhuyd's statement is that the old names through- out Wales are Irish ; and until very lately it was universally assumed that the Welsh and the Irish were only two dialects of the same Celtic speech. It was unquestionable that the Irish and Scottish Gaelic was, as its name imports, the language of the ancient Gael or Celts ; and as no doubt was en- tertained that the Welsh, as descendants of the old Britons, were a Celtic race, it was taken for granted that their language also was only another sister dia- lect of the Celtic. But it would seem that this too was another notion adopted without any evidence, and indeed in the face of evidence, if it had been looked into, quite sufficient to disprove it. It would not, we apprehend, be possible to quote, in support of the asserted identity of the Welsh and Irish, or Gaelic, the authority of any writer who had really made himself master of the two languages, or even ex- amined them attentively with the view of ascertain- ing m how far they resembled or differed from INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE PRIMITIVE each other, and whether they were properly to be regarded as belonging to the same or to different stocks. On the other hand, we have in denial of their relationship the distinctly pronounced judg- ment both of Welshmen, of Irishmen, and of in- quirers having no partialities of origin to influence their conclusions, all speaking upon a question which they have deliberately considered, and which some of them, at least, possessed all the necessary qualifications for deciding. The same opinion that had been first expressed upon the subject by the learned and acute Bishop Percy, an Englishman, has since been maintained as not admitting of any doubt both by the Welsh antiquary Roberts, and th« Irish O'Connor, and has also been adopted by tlie German Adelxmg, and finally, to all appear- ance, unanswerably established by Sir William Betham, who has devoted many years to the study of both languages. AH these authorities declare in substance that the Cyraraeg tongue spoken in Wales, and the Gaelic spoken in Ireland and Scotland, exhibit little resemblance even in voca- bultiry, and, to use the words of Dr. O'Connor, " arc as different in their syntactic construction as any two tongues can be." It may be added, that this seems also to have been the opinion of the late learned General Vallancey. This view of the Welsh language throws an en- tirely new light upon other points that have given occasion to a world of controversy. We have already seen that nearly all inquirers are agreed in considering the Picts to have been of the same race with the ancient Caledonians. But it had still continued to be a keenly agitated question, whether the Picts were a Celtic or a Teutonic people. With- out entering into any detail of this long contro- versy, in which the Celtic origin of the Picts has been maintained by Camden, Lloyd (Bishop of St. Asaph), the very learned and able Father Innes, and the late George Chalmers, in his elaborate work entitled " Caledonia," while the opposite side of the question has been supported by Archbishop Usher, Bishop Stillingfleet, and the late John Pin- kerton, to whom may be added. Dr. Jamieson, in the Introduction to his Scottish Dictionary ; we shall merely remark, that the assertors of the Teu- tonic lineage of the Picts have evidently all along had the best of the argument on all other grounds, excepting only on the important ground of the evi- dence afforded by the language of the lost people. All the historical evidence is in favour of their Teu- tonic or Germanic descent. Still, if it could be clearly proved that they spoke a Celtic language, that single fact would go far to prove them to have been Celts, notwithstanding even all the direct his- torical testimony there is to the contrary. Now, this Camden and his followers conceive not to admit of any doubt, from the remains of the Pictish language which are still to be collected, and Chal- mers especially has, by a minute examination of the old topographical nomenclature of the part of Scot- land formerly occvipied by the Picts, completely, as he thinks, established flie position that their language was Celtic. But how is this demonstra- tion made out ? Altogether by the assumption, never for a moment suspected to be unfounded or doubtful, that the ancient British Celtic tongue is still substantially preserved in the modern Welsh. All the instances adduced by Camden, and the much longer list enumerated by Chalmers, are in- stances of Pictish names of places which are not Irish or Gaelic, but Welsh. Chalmers even shows that on the country, after having been occupied by the Picts, falling into the possession of the Celtic Scots, the Welsh, or, as he calls it, the Cambro- British name was in some cases changed into a Celtic name of the same import. The Welsh Aber, for example, applied to places situated at the mouths of rivers, is found to have in this way given place in several names to the corresponding Gaelic term Inver. In examining the list of the Pictish kings, the same writer observes that the names of those kings are not Irish, and, " consequently," he adds, " they are British :" " they are," he says elsewhere, " undoubtedly Cambro-British." And in like manner, the single Pictish word which Bede has preserved, Pengvahel, the name of the piace where the Pictish wall commenced, is ac- knowledged to be not Gaelic, but Welsh. The opinion expressed by Camden and Innes, that the Picts were Welsh, may therefore be ad- mitted, without the consequence which they sup- posed to be involved in it, that either were Celts, being at all established. On the contrary, it would appear from what has been said above, that the fact of the language of the Picts having been the same with that spoken by the present inhabitants of Wales, is the best of all proofs that the former people were not Celts. It comes in confirmation of all the other arguments bearing upon the qwea- tiou, the decided tendency of which is to make it probable that they were a Teutonic race. Here, then, we have two remarkable facts ; the one, that the part of England now o:cupied by the Cymry, as the present Welsh call themselves, was apparently not occupied by them iii ancient times ; the other, that the part of Scotland known to have constituted what is called the Pictish kingdom, was ui ancient times occupied by a people speaking the same language with the modern Welsh. It seems impossible to resist the conclusion, that the same Cymry who are now settled in the west of England were previously settled in the east of Scotland — in other words, that the present Welsh are the de- scendants of the Picts. Usher has, without reference to the evidence of language, and merely upon the strength of the his- toric testimony and the general pri 'babilities of the case, advanced the opinion that the Picts were Cimbrians. The name of Cymri, borne by the Welsh, has long ago suggested a belief that they are a remnant of the ancient Cimbri, Their own tradi- tions, as we have already seen, make them to have been conducted into Britain by their great leader, Hu Cadam, across the German Ocean. Bede ex- pressly states that the Picts came from Scytbia, HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. name -which, as is well known, comprehended at one time all the regions forming the north of mo- dern Germany and Denmark, the Cimbric Cher- sonesus, or Peninsula of Jutland, among the rest. Bede also informs us, that, before arriving in Bri- tain, the Picts were driven towards Ireland, and touched in the first instance at that island. In this relation the venerable Saxon historian is con- firmed by the Irish bardic histories, which, in like manner, represent the Picts to have sought a set- tlement in Ireland, before they resorted to Britain. Finally, it may be mentioned as a curious confirm- ation of the identity here assumed of the Cimbri and the modern Welsh, that the only word which has been preserved of the language of the former people, namely, the term Morimarusa, which Pliny quotes as meaning the Dead Sea, appears to be Welsh, Mor in that language signifying the sea, and Maru dead.* That the Welsh, indeed, were in very ancient times established in Scotland, is matter of authentic and undoubted history. Their kingdom of Strath- clyde, or Reged, otherwise called Regnum Cum- brense, or the kingdom of the Cymry, lay in the south-west of Scotland. There are certainly no probable grounds for believing that there were any Cymry in England till an age subsequent to the establishment of this northern kingdom. " Most of the great Welsh pedigrees," observes Mr. Moore, " commence their line from princes of the Cumbrian kingdom, and the archaiologist Lhuyd himself boasts of his descent from ancestors in the * province of Reged in Scotland, in the fourth cen- tury, before the Saxons came into Britain.' To this epoch of their northern kingdom, all the traditions of the modern Welsh refer for their most boasted antiquities and favourite themes of romance. The name of their chivalrous hero, Arthur, still lends a charm to much of the topo- graphy of North Britain ; and among the many romantic traditions connected with Stirling Castle, is that of its having once been the scene of the festivities of the Round Table. The poets Aneurin and Taliessin, the former born in the neighbourhood of the banks of the Clyde, graced the court, we are told, of Urien, the king of Reged or Cumbria ; and the title Caledonius bestowed on the enchanter Merlin, who was also a native of Strath-Clyde, sufficiently attests his northern and Pictish race." f We have thus, however cursorily, taken a sur- vey of the subject of the original population of these islands, in its whole extent, and have endea- * "The Welsh dialect of the English language (says the Rev. J. Adams), is characterized hy a peculiar intonation, . . and hy the vicarious change of consonants, k for g. Hot d and p, /for v, and ( for z. . . Now this being common to the Germans. . . and moreover not being found in Irish or Highland English (the author means the pronunciation of English by the Scotch Highlanders), there is an opening for a curious inquiry I never met with." [Since the above was written, the publication of the learned and ingenious essay of Mr. W. F. Skene, on the history of the High- landers, has all but established that these people, the modern mountaineers of Scotland, are the same people with the ancient Picts. The Caledonians, Picts, and the subsequent Dalriads, were all, in short, varieties of the Celtic race.] t History of Ireland, p. 103. The view that has been taken of the origin of the Welsh is substantially the same with that given both by Mr. Moore and by Sir William Betham. voured, as we went along, both to note the princi- pal of the various opinions that have been enter- tained on the many obscure and difficult questions it presents, and to collect, from the lights of history and the evidence of facts together, what appears to be the most consistent and otherwise probable con- clusion on each controverted point. The following may be given as a summary of the views that have been offered. Beginning with Ireland, it may be afl&rmed that everything in that country indicates the decidedly Celtic character of its primitive po- pulation ; and taking the geographical position of the island along with the traditions of the people, we can have little doubt that the quarter from which chiefly it was originally colonized was the opposite peninsula of Spain. That settlements were also effected in various parts of it, before the dawn of recorded history, by bodies of people from other parts of the continent — from Gaul, from Ger- many, from Scandinavia, and even possibly from the neighbouring coast of Britain — is highly pro- bable ; but although several of these foreign bands of other blood seem to have acquired in succession the dominion of the country, their numbers do not appear in any instance to have been consi- derable enough to alter the thoroughly Celtic cha- racter of the great body of the population, of their language, of their customs, and even of their insti- tutions. Thus, the Scots, who appear to liave been originally a Teutonic people from the northern parts of the European continent, although they eventually subjugated the divided native Irish so completely as to impose their own name upon tlie island and the whole of its inhabitants, were yet themselves more truly subjugated, by being melted down and absorbed into the mass of the more numerous Celtic race among whom they had set- tled. The invasion of Ireland by the Scots, and the subsequent intermixture of the conquerors with the conquered, resembled the subjugation of Saxon Britain by the Normans, or still more nearly that of Celtic or Romanized Gaul by the Franks, in which latter case the conquerors, indeed, as hap- pened in Ireland, gave their name to the country, but the native inhabitants in turn gave their lan- guage to the conquerors. In this manner it hap- pened that the Irish, after they came to be called Scots, were really as much a Celtic or Gaelic people as ever. The Scots from Ireland who colonized the western coast of North Britain, and came at last to give their name to the whole of that part of our island, were undoubtedly a race of Gael. Thev were called Scots merely because the whole of Ire- land had, by that time, come to be known by the name of the country of the Scots, who had obtained the dominion of it. The original population of ancient Caledonia, however, appears to have been of Gothic lineage, and to have come from the oppo- site coasts of Germany, and what is now called Denmark. Long after the arrival of the Irish Scots in the western part of the country, this original Gothic race, or possibly another body of settlers who had subsequently poured in from tin 24 PRIMITIVE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. same quarter, retained, under the name of the Picts, the occupation and sovereignty of by far the greater portion of what is now called Scotland. But most probably some ages before they were deprived of their Scottish sovereignty by the suc- cessful arms or intrigues of the king of the High- land Gael, bands of Picts appear to have esta- blished themselves in the west of England, where they came eventually to be known to their Saxon neighbours by the name of the foreigners, or the Welsh. The Welsh, however, still do and always have called themselves only the Cymry, which appears to be the same name with that of the Cimbri or Cimmerii, so famous in ancient times ; and taking this circumstance, along with the tradition they have constantly preserved of their original emigration into Britain from a country on the other side of the German Ocean, there seems to be every reason for concluding that the Cymry of Britain, called by their neighbours of other blood at one time Picts (whatever that name may mean), at another Welsh, are really the remnant of the Cimbri of antiquity. There remains only to be noticed the original population of the rest of South Britain, or of that part of the island now properly called England. It can hardly admit of a doubt that the whole of the south of Britain was originally colonized mainly from the neigli- bouring coast of Gaul. Some bands of Germans may have settled along the east coast, and some Celtic tribes from Spain may have established themselves in the west ; but the great body of the inhabitants by whom the country was occupied when it first became known to the Romans were in all probability Celts from Gaul. We are inclined to think that even the Belgic tribes who, some cen- turies before Caesar's invasion, appear to have ob- tained the possession of the greater part of the south coast, were either really of mixed German and Celtic lineage, or had adopted the Celtic tongue from the previous occupants of the territory, with whom they intermixed after their arrival in Bri- tain, and who were probably much more numerous than their invaders. There does not seem to be any evidence either that what are called the Belgic tribes of Britain spoke a different language from the rest of the natives, or that any people speaking a Gothic dialect had ever been spread over any considerable portion of the south of Britain in those early times. BOOK I. THE BRITISH AND ROMAN PERIOD ; FROM B.C. 55 TO A.D. 449. CHAPTER I. NARRATIVE OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS. H E con- quests of Julius Cae- sar in Gaul brought him with- \ in sight of the coast of Britain, and having established the Roman authority in the nearest countries on the continent, which are now called France and Belgium, it was almost as natural for him to aim at the possession of our island as for the masters of Italy to invade Sicily, or the conquerors of India the contiguous island of Ceylon. The disjunction of Bri- tain from the rest of the world, and the stormy but narrow sea that flows between it and the main, were circumstances just sufficient to give a bold and romantic cha- racter to the enterprise, without being real barriers to a skilful and courageous ge- m neral. But there were other motives to impel Caesar. Britain, or the far greater part of it, was inhabited by a people of the same race, language, and religion as the Gauls, and during his recent and most arduous campaigns the islanders had as- sisted their neighbours and kindred of the continent, sending important aid more particularly to the Veneti, who occupied Vannes in Bretagne, and to other people of Western Gaul who lived near the sea- coast. Caesar, indeed, says himself that in all his wars with the Gauls the enemies of the Republic had always received assist- ance from Britain, and that this fact made him resolve to pass over into the island. This island, moreover, seems to have had the character of a sort of Holy Land among the Celtic nations, and to have been considered the great centre and stronghold of the Druids, the revered priesthood of an iron superstition that bound men, and tribes, and nations to- gether, and inflamed them even more than patriotism against the Roman con- 'c> 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. QBooK T. querors. With respect to Druidism, Britain per- haps stood in the same relation to Gaul that the island of Mona or Anglesey bore to Britain ; and when the Romans had established themselves in Gaul they had the same motives for attacking our island that they had a century later when they had fixed themselves in Britain, for falling upon An- glesey, as the centre of the Druids and of British union, and the source of the remaining national re- sistance. It is to be remembered, also, that, whatever may have been the views of personal ambition from which Csesar principally acted, the Romans really had the best of all pleas for their wars with the Gauls, who had been their constant enemies for centuries, and originally their assailants. Their possession of Italy, indeed, could not be considered as secure until they had subdued, or at least im- pressed with a sufficient dread of tlieir arms, the fierce and restless nations both of Gaul and Ger- many, some of whom — down almost to the age of Caesar — had not ceased occasionally to break through the barrier of the Alps, and to carry fire and sword into the home territories of the republic. These and the other northern barbarians, as they were called, had had their eye upon the cultivated fields of the Italic peninsula ever since the irruption of Bellovesus in the time of the elder Tarquin ; and the war the Gauls were now carrying on with Caesar was only a part of the long contest which did not terminate till the empire was overpowered at last by its natural enemies nearly five centuries afterwards. In the meantime it was the turn of the Gauls to find the Roman valour, in its highest condition of dis- cipline and efficiency, irresistible ; and the Britons, as the active aUies of the Gauls, could not expect to escape sharing in their chastisement. According to a curious passage in Suetonius, it was reported that Caesar was tempted to invade Britain by the hopes of finding pearls.* Such an inducement seems scarcely of sufficient importance, although we know that pearls were very highly esteemed by the ancients, and Pliny, the natu- ralist, tells us that Caesar offered or dedicated a breastplate to Venus ornamented with pearls which he pretended to have found in Britain. But Caesar might be tempted by other real and more valuable productions, and he could not be igno- rant of the existence of the British lead and tin which the Phoenicians had imported into the Me- diterranean ages before his time, and in which the Phocaean colony of Massilia or Marseilles was actually carrying on a trade. Caesar himself, indeed, says nothing of this; but within a few miles of our coasts, and among a people with whom the British had constant intercourse, he must have acquired more information than appears respecting the natural fertility of the soil, and the mineral and other productions of the island. From evident reasons, indeed, the Gauls in general might not be very communicative on these subjects ; but among that people Caesar had allies and some • VitJul. Ca-s.ch. 47. steady friends, who must have been able and ready to satisfy all his inquiries. His subservient instru- ment Comius, who will presently appear upon the scene, must have possessed much of the infor- mation required. His love of conquest and glory alone might have been a sufficient incentive to Csesar, but a recent and philosophic writer assigns other probable motives for his expeditions into Britain, — such as his desire of dazzling his coun- trymen, and of seeming to be absorbed by objects remote from internal ambition by expeditions against a new world, or of furnishing himself with a pretence for prolonging his provincial command, and keeping up an army devoted to him, till the time should arrive for the execution of his projects against liberty at Rome.* JUT.IL'S C^.SAR. From a Copper Coin in the Biitisli Museum. Whatever were his motives, in the year 55 before Christ, Caesar resolved to cross the British Channel, not, as he has himself told us, to make then a conquest, for which the season was too far advanced, but in order merely to take a view of the island, learn the nature of the inhabitants, and survey the coasts, harbours, and landing-places. He says that the Gauls were ignorant of all these things ; that few of them, except merchants, ever visited the island ; and that the merchants them- selves only knew the sea-coasts opposite to Gaul. Having called together the merchants from all parts of Gaul, he questioned them concerning the size of the island, the power and customs of its inhabitants, their mode of warfare, and the har- bours they had capable of receiving large ships. He adds, that on none of these points cuuld they give him information ; but, on this public occa- sion, the silence of the traders probably proceeded rather from unwillingness and caution than igno- • Sir James Mackintosh, Hist. Kng. vol i. p. 12. Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 55. 27 ranee, while it is equaly probable that the con- queror received a little more information than he avows. He says, however, that for these reasons he thought it expedient, before he embarked him- self, to dispatch C. Volusenus, with a single galley, to obtain some knowledge of these things ; com- manding him, as soon as he had obtained this ne- cessary knowledge, to return to head-quarters with all haste. He then himself marched with his whole army into the territory of the Morini, a nation or tribe of the Gauls who inhabited the sea- coast between Calais and Boulogne, — "because thence was the shortest passage into Britain." Here he collected many ships i'rom the neighbour- ing ports. Meanwhile many of the British states having been warned of Caesar's premeditated expedition by the merchants that resorted to their island, sent over ambassadors to him with an offer of hostages and submission to the Roman authority. He re- ceived these ambassadors most kindly, and exhort- ing them to continue in the same pacific intentions, sent them back to their own country, dispatching with them Comius, a Gaul, whom he had made king of the Atrebatians, a Belgic nation then settled in Artois. Caesar's choice of this envoy was well directed. The Belgae at a comparatively recent period had colonized, and they still occupied, all the south-eastern coasts of Britain ; and these colonists, much more civilized than the rest of the islanders, no doubt held frequent commercial and friendly intercourse with the Atrebatians in Artois, and the rest of the Belgic stock settled in other places. Caesar himself says not only that Comius was a man in whose virtue, wisdom, and fidelity he placed great confidence, but one " whose autho- rity in the island of Britain was very considerable." He therefore charged Comius to visit as many of the British states as he could, and persuade them to enter into an alliance with the Romans ; inform- ing them, at the same time, that Caesar intended to visit the island in person as soon as possible. C. Volusenus appears to have done little service with his galley. He took a view of the British coast as far as was possible for one who had resolved not to quit his vessel or trust himself into the hands of the natives, and on the fifth day of his expedition returned to head-quarters. With such information as he had Caesar embarked the infantry of two legions, making about 12,000 men, on board eighty transports, and set sail from Portus Itius, or Witsand, between Calais and Boulogne. The cavalry, embarked in eighteen other transports, were detained by contrary winds at a port about eight miles ofl^, but Caesar left orders for them to follow as soon as the weather permitted. This force, however, as will be seen, could never make itself available, and hence mainly arose the re- verses of the campaign. At ten o'clock on a morning in autumn (Halley, the astronomer, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, has almost demonstrated that it must have been on the 26th of August) Caesar reached the British coast, near Dover, at about the worst DovEE Cmffs. 28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. ,,j0|||*S!. Landino of Julius C«sar. — After a Picture by Blakey. possible point to effect a landing in face of an enemy, and the Britons were not disposed to be friends. The submission they had offered through their ambassadors was intended only to prevent or retard invasion ; and seeing it fail of either of these effects, on the return of their ambassadors with Comius, as Caesar's envoy, they made that prince a prisoner, loaded him with chains, pre- pared for their defence as well as the shortness of time would permit; and when the Romans looked from their ships to the steep white cliffs above them, they saw them covered all over by the armed Britons. Finding that this was not a convenient landing-place, CcEsar resolved to lie by till the third hour after noon, in order, he says, to wait the arrival of the rest of his fleet. Some laggard ves- sels appear to have come up, but the eighteen transports, bearing the cavalry, were nowhere seen. Caesar, however, favoured by both wind and tide, proceeded at the appointed hour, and sailing about seven miles further along the coast, prepared to land his forces, on an open, flat shore, which pre- sents itself between Walmer Castle and Sandwich.* The Britons on the cliffs perceiving his design, • Horsley (in Britannia Romana) shows that Caesar must have proceeded to the north of the South Foreland, in which case the landing must have been effected between Walmer Castle and Sand- wich. Others, with less reason, think he sailed southward from the South Foreland, and liinded on the flats of Romney Marsh. followed his motions, and sending their cavalry and war-chariots before, marched rapidly on with their main force to oppose his landing anywhere. Caesar confesses that the opposition of the natives was a bold one, and that the difficulties he had to encoun- ter were very great on many accounts ; but superior skill and discipline, and the employment of some military engines on board the war-galleys, to which the British were unaccustomed, and which pro- jected missiles of various kinds, at last triumphed over them, and he disembarked his two legions. We must not omit the act of the standard-bearer of the tenth legion, which has been thought deserving of particular commemoration by his general. While the Roman soldiers were hesitating to leave the ships, chiefly deterred, according to Caesar's ac- count, by the depth of the water, this officer, having first solemnly besought the Gods that what he was about to do might prove fortunate for the legion, and then exclaiming with a loud voice, " Follow me, my fellow-soldiers, unless you will give up your eagle to the enemy ! I, at least, will do my duty to the republic and to our general I" leaped into the sea as he spoke, and dashed with his ensign among the enemy's ranks. The men instantly followed their heroic leader ; and the soldiers in the other ships, excited by the example, also crowded forward along with them. The two armies were for some Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 55. 29 time mixed in combat; but at length die Britons withdrew in disorder from the well-contested beach. As their cavalry, however, was not yet arrived, the Romans could not pursue them or advance into the island, which Caesar says prevented his rendering the victory complete. The native maritime tribes, thus defeated, sought the advantages of a hollow peace. They de- spatched amba.ssadors to Caesar, offering hostages, and an entire submission. They liberated Comius, and restored him to his employer, throwing the blame of the harsh treatment his envoy had met with upon the multitude or common people, and entreating Caesar to excuse a fault which proceeded solely from the popular ignorance. The conqueror, after reproaching them for sending of their own accord ambassadors into Gaul to sue for peace, and then making war upon him, loithout any reason, forgave them their offences, and ordered them to send in a certain number of hostages, as security for their good behaviour in future. Some of these hostages were presented immediately, and the Bri- tons promised to deliver the rest, who lived at a distance, in the course of a few days. The native forces then seemed entirely disbanded, and the several chiefs came to Caesar's camp to offer alle- giance, and negotiate or intrigue for their own separate interests. On the day that this peace was concluded, and not before, the unlucky transports, with the Roman cavalry, were enabled to quit their port on the coast of Gaul. They stood across the channel with a gentle gale ; but when they neared the British coast, and were even within view of Caesar's camp, they were dispersed by a tempest, and were finally j. obliged to return to the port where they had been j so long detained, and whence they had set out that I morning. That very night, Caesar says, it hap- pened to be full moon, when the tides always rise highest — ** a fact at that time wholly unknown to the Romans"* — and the galleys which he had with him, and which were hauled up on the beach, were filled with the rising waters, while his heavier transports, that lay at anchor in the roadstead, were either dashed to pieces, or rendered altogether unfit for sailing. This disaster spread a general con- sternation through the camp; for, as every legion- ary knew, there Avere no other vessels to carry back the troops, nor any materials with the army to repair the ships that were disabled, and, as it had been from the beginning, Caesar's design not to winter in Britain, but in Gaul, he was wholly un- provided with corn and provisions to feed his troops. Suetonius says, that during the nine years Caesar held the military command in Gaul, amidst a most brilliant series of successes, he expe- rienced only three signal disasters ; and he counts the almost entire destruction of his fleet by a storm in Britain, as one of the three. • The operations of the Roman troops had hitherto been almost confined to the Mediterranean, where there is no perceptible tide. Yet, during their stay on the coast of Gaul, on the opposite side of the channel, they ought to have become acquainted with these phe- nomena. Probably they had never attended to the irregularities of a spring-tide. Nor were the invaded people slow in perceiving the extent of Caesar's calamity, and devising means to profit by it. They plainly saw he was in want of cavalry, provisions, and ships ; a close inspection showed that his troops were not so nu- merous as they had fancied, and probably fami- liarized them in some measure to their warlike weapons and demeanour; and they confidently hoped, that by defeating this force, or surrounding and cutting off their retreat^ and starving them, they should prevent all future invasions. The chiefs in the camp having previously held secret consultations among themselves, retired, by de- grees, from the Romans, and began to draw the islanders together. Caesar says, that though he was not fully apprized of their designs, he partly guessed them, from their delay in sending in the hostages promised from a distance, and from other circumstances, and instantly took measures to pro- vide for the worst. He set part of his army to repair his shattered fleet, using the materials of the vessels most injured to patch up the rest; and as the soldiers wrought with an indefatigability suit- ing the dangerous urgency of the case, he had soon a number of vessels fit for sea. He then sent to Gaul, for other materials wanting, and probably for some provisions also. Another portion of his troops he employed in foraging parties, to bring into the camp what com they could collect in the adjacent country. This supply could not have been great, for the natives had everywhere gathered in their harvest, except in one field ; and there, by lying in ambush, the Britons made a bold and bloody attack, which had well nigh proved fatal to the invaders. As one of the two legions that formed the expedition were cutting down the com in that field, Caesar, who was in his fortified camp, suddenly saw a great cloud of dust in that direc- tion. He rushed to the spot with two cohorts, leaving orders for all the other soldiers of the legion to follow as soon as possible. His arrival was very opportune, for he found the legion, which had been surprised in the corn-field, and which had suffered considerable loss, now surrounded and pressed on all sides by the cavalry and war-chariots of the British, who had been concealed in the neighbouring woods. He succeeded in bringing off the engaged legion, with which he withdrew to his intrenched camp, declining a general engage- ment for the present. Heavy rains that followed for some days, confined the Romans within their intrenchments. Meanwhile the British force of horse and foot was increased from all sides, and they gradually drew round the intrenchments. Caesar, anticipating their attack, marshalled his legions outside of the camp, and, at the proper moment, fell upon the islanders, who, he says, not being able to sustain the shock, were soon put to flight. In this victory he attaches great import- ance to a body of thirty horse, which Comius, the Atrebatian, had brought over from Gaul. The Romans pursued the fugitives as far as their stren2;th would permit ; they slaughtered many of 30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book 1. them, set fire to some houses and villages, and then returned again to the protection of their camp. On the same day the Britons again sued for peace, and Caesar being anxious to return to Gaul as quickly as possible, " because the equinox was approaching, and his ships were leaky," granted it to them on no harder condition than that of doubling the number of hostages they had promised after their first defeat. He did not even wait for the hostages, but a fair wind springing up, he set sail at midnight, and arrived safely in Gaul. Eventually only two of the British states sent their hostages ; and this breach of treaty gave the Roman commander a ground of complaint by which to justify his second invasion. In the spring of the following year (b.c. 54) Caesar again embarked at the same Portus I tins for Britain. This time peculiar attention had been paid to the build and equipment of his fleet : he had 800 vessels of all classes, and these carried five legions and 2000 cavalry, — an invading force in all not short of 32,000 men.* At the approach of this formidable armament the natives retired in dismay from the coast, and Caesar disembarked, without opposition, at " that part of the island which he had marked out the preceding summer as being the most convenient landing-place." This was probably somewhere on the same flat between Walmer Castle and Sandwich, where he had landed the year before. Having received intelligence as to the direction in which the Britons had retired, he set out about midnight in quest of them, leaving ten cohorts, with 300 horse behind him on the coast, to guard his camp and fleet. After a hurried night-march, he came in sight of the islanders, who were well posted on some rising grounds behind a river, — probably the Stour, near Canterbury. The confederate army gallantly disputed the passage of the river with their cavalry and chariots; but being repulsed by the Roman horse, they retreated towards the woods, to a place strongly fortified both by nature and art, and which Caesar judged had been strengthened before, on occasion of some in- ternal native war ; " for all the avenues were se- cured by strong barricades of felled trees laid upon • In this calculation an allowance of 500 is made for sickness, casualtifs, and deficiencies. At this period the ia/awtry of a legion, wlien complete, amounted to 6100 men. one another." This strong-hold is supposed to have been at or near to the spot where the city of Canterbury now stands. Strong as it was, the soldiers of the seventh legion (the force that had sufiered so much the preceding campaign in the corn-field) carried it by means of a mound of earth they cast up in front of it ; and then they drove the British from the cover of the wood. The evening closed on their retreat, in which they must have suffered little loss, for Caesar, fearful of following them through a country with which he was unacquainted, strictly forbade all pursuit, and employed his men in fortifying their camp for the night. The Roman eagles were scarcely displayed the following morning, and the trumpets had hardly sounded the advance, when a party of horse brought intelligence from the coast that nearly all the fleet had been driven on shore and wrecked during the night. Commanding a necessary halt, Caesar flew to the sea-shore, whither he was fol- lowed by the legions in full retreat. The mis- fortune had not been exaggerated : forty of his ships were irretrievably lost, and the rest so da- maged that they seemed scarcely capable of repair. With his characteristic activity, he set all the carpenters of the army to work, wrote for more artisans from Gaul, and ordered the legions sta- tioned on that coast to build as many new ships as they could. Apprehensive alike of the storms of the ocean and the fierce attack of the natives, Caesar ordered that all his ships should be drawn up on dry land and inclosed within his fortified camp. Although the ancient galleys were small and light compared to our modern men-of-war, and the transports and tenders of his fleet in all pro- bability little more than sloops and barges, this was a laborious operation, and occupied the soldiers ten days and nights. Having thus secured his fleet, he set off in pursuit of the enemy, who had made a good use of his absence by increasing their army, and appointing one chief to the supreme command of it. The choice of the confederated states fell upon Cassivellaunus (his Celtic name was perhaps Caswallon), whose territories were divided from the maritime states of the river Thames, at a point which was between seventy and eighty miles from Caesar's camp on the Kentish coast. This prince had hitherto been engaged in G*LLEr.— From a Copper Coin in the British GAr.i.EV.— From a Copper Coin in the British Gai.i,et.— From a Copper Coin in the British Museum, of the time of Antony. Museum, of the time of Hadrian, M useum, ol the time ol Hadnan. Chap. T.^ CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 55. 31 Side Elevation. ri.AN. MiJihip S«cti Elevalion of IleHd nnd Stern. SCALE OF TKN FEET. ' ' I I ~^ Roman Galley. — Taken from the Model presented to Greeuwich Hospital by Lord Anson.' almost constant wars with his neighbours, whose aifection to him must have therefore been of recent date and of somewhat doubtful continuance; but he had a reputation for skill and bravery, and the dread of the Romans made the Britons forget their quarrels for a time, unite themselves under his command, and intrust him with the whole conduct of the war. Caesar found him well posted at or near to the scene of the last battle. Cassivellaunus did not wait to be attacked, but charged the Roman cavalry with his horse supported by his chariots. Caesar says that he constantly repelled these charges, and drove the Britons to their woods and hills ; but that, after making great slaughter, ven- turing to continue the pursuit too far, he lost some men. It does not appear that the British retreated far ; and some time after these skirmishes they gave the Romans a serious check. Sallying un- expectedly from the wood, they fell upon the soldiers, who were employed as usual in fortifying the camp or station for the night, and cut up the advanced guard. Caesar sent two cohorts to their aid, but the Britons charged these in separate parties, broke through them, routed them, and then retired without loss. A military tribune was slain, — and but for the timely arrival of some fresh cohorts the conflict would have been very disastrous. Even as it was, and though Caesar covers the fact by a somewhat confused narrative, it should appear that a good part of his army was beaten on this occasion. He says that from this action, of which the whole Roman army were spectators, it was evident that his heavy-armed legions were not a fit match for the active and light-armed Britons, who The ooEstTuction of Roman galleys has been more completely investigated since Lord Anson's time ; but as thig model was prepared with (jreat care, and is opin to public inspection, we ^ive an eni{raving of it. 32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. alwa3^s fought in detachments with a body of reserve in their rear, that advanced fresh supphes when needed, and covered and protected the forces when in retreat ; that even his cavalry could not engage without great danger, it being the custom of the Britons to counterfeit a retreat, until they had drawn the Roman horse a considerable way from the legions, when, suddenly leaping from their chariots, they charged them on foot, and, by this unequal manner of fighting rendered it equally dangerous to pursue or retire. The next day the Britons only showed small bodies on the hills at some distance from the Ro- man camp. This made Caesar believe they were less willing to skirmish with his cavalry ; but no sooner had he sent out all his cavalry to forage, supported by three legions (between horse and foot this foraging party comprised considerably more than half the forces he had with him), than the Britons fell upon them on all sides, and even charged up to the solid and impenetrable legions. The latter bold step was the cause of their ruin : the superior arms, the defensive armour, and the perfect discipline of those masses, rendered the contest too unequal ; the British warriors were repulsed, — thrown off like waves from a mighty rock, — confiision ensued, and, Caesar's cavalry and infantry charging together, utterly broke the con- federate army. The conqueror informs us that after this defeat, the auxiliary troops, which had repaired from all parts to Cassivellaunus's standard, returned severally to their own homes; and that during the rest of the campaign the enemy never again appeared against the Romans with their whole force. These severe contests had not brought Caesar far into the interior of the island ; but now he followed up Cassivellaunus, who retired, for the defence oi his own kingdom, beyond the Thames. Marching through Kent and a part of Surrey, or the beautiful country which now bears those names, the Romans reached the right bank of the Thames, at Coway- stakes, near Chertsey* in Surrey, where the river was considered fordable. The passage, however, was not undisputed : Cassivellaunus had drawn up his troops in great numbers on the opposite bank ; he had likewise fortified that bank with sharp stakes, and driven similar stakes into the bed of the river, yet so as to be concealed or covered by the water. Of these things Caesar says he was in- formed by prisoners and deserters. It should ap- pear that he overcame the obstacles raised at the ford with great ease ; he sent the horse into the • This point, like most of the other localities mentioned by Caesiu% has been the subject of rlispute. We venture to fix it where we do, on the authority of Camdon. and Mr. Gale, a writer in the Archaeo- logia, vol. i.p. 183. Thk Thamf.s at Cow ay Stakss. It is stated, upon local tradition, that the passage was made at the bend of the River. Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 54. 33 river before, ordering the foot to follow close behind them, which they did with such rapidity that, though nothing but their heads appeared above water, they were presently on the opposite bank, where the enemv could not stand their charge, but fled. The rest of his army having disbanded, Cassivel- launus now retained no other force than 4000 war- chariots, with which he harassed the Romans, always keeping at a distance from their main body, and retiring, when attacked, to woods and inacces- sible places; whither also he caused such of the inhabitants as lay on Caesar's line of march, to withdraw with their cattle and provisions. Being perfectly acquainted with the country, and all the roads and defiles, he continued to lall upon de- tached parties ; and the Romans were never safe, or masters of any ground, except in the space covered by their entrenched camp or their legions. On accoimt of these frequent surprises, Caesar would not permit his horse to forage' at any dis- tance from the legions, or to pillage and destroy the country, unless where the foot was close at hand to support them. The fatal want of union among the petty states into which the island was frittered, and the hatred some of them entertained against their former enemy Cassivellaunus, now, however, began to appear and to disconcert all that chief's measures for resistance. The Trinobantes, who dwelt in Essex and Middlesex, and who formed one of the most powerful states in those parts, sent ambas- sadors to Caesar. Of this state was Mandubratius, who had fled to Caesar into Gaul, in order to avoid the fate of his father, Imanuentius, who had held the sovereignty of the state, and whom Cassivellaunus had defeated and put to death. The ambassadors en- treated Caesar to restore their prince, who was then a guest in the Roman camp, to defend him and them against the fury of Cassivellaunus, promising, on these conditions, obedience and entire submis- sion in the name of all the Trinobantes. Caesar demanded forty hostages, and that they should supply his army with corn. The general does not confess it, but it is very probable that, through the wise measures of Cassivellaunus, the Romans were at this time sorely distressed by want of provisions. The Trinobantes delivered both the corn and the hostages, and Caesar restored to them their prince. Immediately upon this, other tribes, whom Caesar designates the Cenimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci, and Cassi, also sent in their submission. Some of these people informed Caesar that he was not far from the capital of Cassivellaunus, which was situated amidst woods and marshes, and whither multitudes of the British had retired with their cattle, as to a place of safety. This town is supposed to have been near to the site of St. Alban's, and on the spot where the flourishing Roman colony of Verulamium arose many years after. Though called a town, and a capital, it appears from Caesar to have been nothing but a thick wood or labyrinth, with clusters of houses or villages scattered about it, the whole being sur- rounded by a ditch and a rampart, the latter made of mud or felled trees, or probably of both materials mixed. In many respects the towns of the Cin- galese in the interior of Ceylon, and the mode of fighting against the English practised by that people, at the beginning of the present century, resemble the British towns and the British warfare of nineteen centuries ago. Caesar soon appeared with his legions before the capital of Cassivellaunus; and he says, that though the place seemed very strong both by art and nature, he resolved to attack it in two several points. He was once more successfiil : the Britons fled to another wood, after a short stand, and the Romans took many prisoners and vast numbers of cattle. Though thus defeated in the inland districts, Cas- sivellaunus still hoped to redeem the fortunes of his country by a bold and well-conceived blow, to be struck on the sea-coast. While the events related were passing beyond the Thames, he dispatched messengers to the four princes or kings of Can- tium (Kent), to instruct them to draw all their forces together, and attack the camp and ships of the Romans hv surjirise. The Kentish Britons obeyed their instructions, but, according to Caesar, the Romans, sallying from their entrenchments, made a great slaughter of their troops, took one of the princes prisoner, and returned in safety to the camp. At the news of this reverse, the brave Cassivellaunus lost heart ; he sent ambassadors to sue for peace, and availed himself of the mediation with Caesar of Comius, the king of the Atrebatians, with whom, at one time or other, he appears to have had friendly relations. The Roman general, as we have noticed, states that the authority or influence of Comius in the island was very considerable. It would be curious to see how he exercised it in favour of his Roman patron ; but here we are left in the dark. Caesar turned a ready ear to the over- tures of Cassivellaunus, and granted him peace on such easy conditions, that some writers have been induced to believe he was heartily tired of the harassing war. For himself he only says that he was in a hurry to return to Gaul, on account of the frequent insurrections in that country. He merely demanded hostages, appointed a yearly fribute (the amount of which is nowhere named, and which was probably never paid), and charged Cassivellaunus to respect Mandubratius and the Trinobantes. Having received the hostages, he led his troops back to the Kentish coast, and crowding them into his ships as closely and quickly as he could, he set sail by night for Gaul, fearing, he says, the equinoxial storms which were now at hand. He tells us he had many prisoners ; but he certainly did not erect a fort, or leave a single cohort behind him to secure the ground he had gained in the island.* Tacitus, writing 150 years later, says distinctly, that even Julius Caesar, the first who entered Bri- tain with an army, although he struck terror into • For the preceding part of our narrative, see Cmsar de Belli) Gallico, from book iv. ch. 18, to book v.ch. 19 (inclusive). 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Huts in a CrNOALESE Villaoe. the islanders by a successful battle could only maintain himself on the sea- coast; — that he was a discoverer rather than a conqueror. He only saw a small portion of the island ; but the farther he got from the coast and the Belgic colonies, the more fierce and barbarous he found the natives. We have dwelt more particularly on these cam- paigns, as we have the accomplished general's own account to guide us, and as many of his details may be applied to explain the other Roman wars which followed, when there was no Caesar to de- scribe in the closet his exploits in the field. The sequel, indeed, when we must follow professional historians, who were never even in Britain, is comparatively uninteresting and monotonous. We shall, therefore, set down the great results, with- out embarrassing the reader with unnecessary de- tails ; but at this point it will be well to pause, in order to offer a few general remarks, which will equally elucidate the past and future campaigns of the Romans in our island. The contest which had thus taken place between the British bands and the famed Roman legions at a period when the discipline of those corps was most perfect, and when they were commanded by the greatest of their generals, was certainly very unequal; but less so (even without taking into account the superiority of numbers and other ad- vantages, all on the side of the invaded,) than is generally imagined and represented. A brief exa- mination of the arts and practices of war of the two contending parties may serve to explain, in a great measure, what is past, and render more in- telligible the events which are to ensue. The first striking result of such an examination is a suspi- cion, and indeed a proof, that the Britons were much farther advanced in civilization than the savage tribes to which it has been the fashion to compare them. Were this not the case, the some- what unsuccessful employment against them, of so large an army as that of Caesar, would be disgrace- ful to the Roman name. Their war-chariots, which several times produced tremendous effects on the Romans, and the use of which seems at that time to have been peculiar to the Britons, woiild of themselves prove a high degree of mecha- nical skill, and an acquaintance with several arts. These cars were of various forms and sizes, some being rude, and others of curious and even elegant workmanship. Those most commonly in use, and called Esseda, or Essedcs, by the Romans, were made to contain each a charioteer for driving, and one, two, or more warriors for fighting. They were at once strong and light; the extremity of their axles and other salient points were armed with scythes and hooks for cutting and tearing whatever fell in their way, as they were driven rapidly along. The horses attached to them were perfect in train- ing, and so well in hand, that they could be driven at speed over the roughest coui'try, and even through the woods, which then abounded in all directions. The Romans were no less astonished Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 54. 35 at this dexterity than at the number of the chariots. The way in which the Britons brought the chariots into action, was this: at the beginning of a battle they drove about the flanks of the enemy, throw- ing darts from the cars ; and, according to Caesar, the very dread of the horses, and the noise of the rapid wheels, often broke the ranks of his legions. When they had succeeded in making an impression, and had winded in among the Roman cavalry, the warriors leaped from the cliaiiots, and fought on foot. In the meantime, the drivers re- tired with the chariots a little from the combat, taking up such a position as to favour the retreat of the warriors in case of their being overmatched. *' In this maimer," says Caesar, " they perform the part both of rapid cavalry and of steady in- fantry ; and, by constant exercise and use, they have arrived at such expertness, that they can stop their horses when at full speed, in the most steep and difficult places, turn them which way they please, run along the carriage-pole, rest on the harness, and throw themselves back into their chariots with incredible dexterity." For a long time the veteran legions of Rome could not look on the clouds of dust that announced the approach of these war- chariots without trepi- dation. The Gauls had once the same mode of fighting, and equally distressed the Romans with their war-chariots. Nearly 300 years before the invasion of Britain, when the Gauls were esta- blished in parts of Italy, and in close alliance with the Samnites, a successful charge of the Roman cavalry was repulsed, and the whole army thrown into dismay, by a mode of fighting to which they were utter strangers : " A number of the enemy," says Livy, " mounted on chariots and cars, made towards them with such a terrible noise, from the trampling of the horses and the rolling of the wheels, as affrighted the horses of the Romans, unaccustomed to such operations. By this means, the victorious cavalry were dispersed, and men and horses, in their headlong flight, were thrown in heaps to the ground. The same cause produced disorder even in the ranks of the legions : through the impetuosity of the horses, and the carriag-es they dragged through the ranks, many of the Roman soldiers in the van were trodden or bruised to death ; and the Gauls, as soon as they saw the enemy in confusion, followed up the advantage, nor allowed them breathing-time." * The use of war-cha- riots, however, seems to have fallen out of fashion among the Gauls, during the long period that had * Tit. Liv., 1. X. c. 25. HRiii>H War Chariot. Sn]K!.D. AND ^^pkars Ue LMUtheibourg. 36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book T. intervened ; for Caesar never makes mention of them, in describing his many battles with that people on the continent. The existence of the accessories— the hooks and scythes attaclied to the wheels or axles — has been questioned, as neither Csesar, nor Tacitus, nor any early writer, with the exception of the geographer Pomponius Mela (who wrote, however, in the first century), expressly mentions them in describing the war-chariots. Weapons, answering to the description, have, however, been found, on the field of some of the most ancient battles. Between the Roman in- vasion under Caesar, and that ordered by the Em- peror Claudius, the cars or chariots of the British attracted notice, and were exhibited in Italy. They were seen in the splendid pageantry with which Caligula passed over the sea from Puteoli to Baiae, on his mole and bridge of boats. The emperor, Suetonius tells us, rode in a chariot drawn by two famous horses, and a party of his friends followed, mounted in British chariots. Probably Caesar had carried some of the native war-cars to Rome, as curiosities, just as our navigators bring the canoes of the Indians and South-Sea Islanders to England. At subsequent periods, the war-chariots of the Britons were trequently alluded to by the poets as well as historians of Rome. The ancient Britons were well provided with horses, of a small breed, but hardy, spirited, and yet docile. Their cavalry were armed with shield?, broad-swords, and lances. They were accustomed, like the Gauls, and their own chariot-men, to dis- mount, at fitting seasons, and fight on foot ; and their horses are said to have been so well trained, as to stand firm at the places where they were left, till their masters returned to them. Another com- mon practice among them was, to mix an equal number of their swiftest foot with their cavalry, each of these foot-soldiers holding by a horse's mane, and keeping pace with him in all his mo- tions. Some remains of this last custom were ob- served among the Highland clans in the last cen- tury, in the civil wars for the Pretender ; and in more modern, and regular, and scientific warfare, an advantage has often been found in mounting infantry behind cavalry, and in teaching cavalry to dismount, and do the duty of foot-soldiers. A great fondness for horses, and a skill in riding them, and breaking them in for cars and chariots, were observable in all the nations of the Celtic race. The scythe-armed cars of the Britons may be assumed as one of the many links in that chain which seems to connect them with Persia and the East, where similar vehicles were in use for many ages. The infantry of the Britons was the most nu- merous body, and, according to Tacitus, the main strength of their armies. They were very swift of foot, and expert in swimming over rivers and cross- ing fens and marshes, by which means they were enabled to make sudden attacks and safe retreats. They were slightly clad ; throwing off in battle the whole, or at least the greater part, of whatever clothing they usually wore, according to a custom which appears to have been common to all the Celtic nations. They were not encumbered with defensive armour, carrying nothing of that sort but a small light shield ; and this, added U) their swiftness, gave them, in some respects, a great advantage over the heavily-armed Romans, whose foot could never keep pace with them. This, indeed, was so much the case in the ensuing wars, that the turn of a battle was often left to depend, not on the legions, but on their barbarian auxili- aries, some of whom were as lightly equipped as the Britons themselves. In coming to their offen- sive arms, we reach a point where they were de- cidedly inferior to the Romans ; and a cause, per- haps, as principal as any other, of their invariable defeat when they came to close combat. Their swords were long and unwieldy, without points, and only meant for cutting — awkward and offence- less weapons compared to the compact, manageable, cut-and-thrust swords of their enemies, which could be used in the closed melee. But an important circumstance, which throws the advantage still more on the side of the Romans, is, that while their weapons were made of well-tempered steel, the swords and dirks of the Britons were, in all probability, only made of copper, or of copper mixed with a little tin. We are told that the swords of their neighbours, the Gauls, were made of copper, and bent after the first blow, which gave the Romans a great advantage over them. A prodigious number of warlike implements, as axes, swords, spear-heads, all made of copper, or of copper mixed with tin, and known among anti- quaries by the general name of" Celts," have been dug up in diflerent parts of our island ; but we are not aware of the discovery of any things of the sort made of iron, that can safely be referred to the manufacture of the ancient Britons. In the ab- sence of metals, they used bones and flints to tip their arrows, their spears, and lances. Heavy black stones, perforated to receive a wooden handle, served them as nlaces or battle-axes. These are the very weapons of savages ; and perhaps those which have been found in such abundance buried in the earth, are much more ancient than the period of Caesar's invasion, or were only used at that and later periods in the interior and northern parts of the country. In addition to their clumsy sword, the British infantry carried a short dirk and a spear. The spear was sometimes used as a missile weapon, having a leather thong fixed to it, and retained in the hand when thrown, in order that it might be recovered again : at the butt-end of this spear was sometimes a round hollow ball of copper, or mixed copper and tin, with pieces of metal inside, and, shaking this, they made a noise to frighten the horses when they engaged with cavalry. With the exception of the Druids, all the young men among the Britons and other Celtic nations were trained to the use of arms. Frequent hostili- ties among themselves kept them in practice, and Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— B.C. 54. 37 hunting and martial sports were among their prin- cipal occupations in their brief periods of peace. Even in tactics and stratagetics, the more difficult parts of war, they displayed very considerable talent and skill. They drew up their troops in regular order ; and if the form of a wedge was not the very best for infantry, it has been found, by the Turks and other Eastern nations, most effective for cavalry appointed to charge. They knew the im- portance of keeping a body in reserve ; and in several of their battles they showed skill and promptitude in out-flanking the enemy, and turn- ing him by the wings. Their infantry generally occupied the centre, being disposed in several lines, and in distinct bodies. These corps consisted of the warriors of one clan, commanded each by its own chieftain ; they were commonly formed in the shape of a wedge, presenting its sharp point to the enemy ; and they were so disposed, that they could readily support and relieve each other. The ca- valry and chariots were placed on the wings, but small flying parties of both manoeuvred along the front. In the rear and on their flanks they fixed their travelling chariots and their waggons, with their respective families in them, in order that those vehicles might serve as barriers to prevent attack in those directions, and that their courage might be inflamed by the presence of all who were most dear to them. Some of the native princes displayed eminent abilities in the conduct of war. According to the Roinan writers, Cassivellaunus, Caractacus, and Galgacus all formed combined movements and enlarged plans of operation, and contrived stratagems and surprises which would have done honour to the greatest captains of Greece and Rome. Their choice of ground for fighting upon was almost invariably judicious, and they availed themselves of their superior knowledge of the country on all occasions. In the laborious arts of fortifying, defending, or attacking camps, castles, and towns, they were, however, deficient. Their strongest places were surrounded only by a shallow ditch and a mud wall, while some of their towns had nothing but a parai)et of felled trees placed lengthwise. While the Roman camps, though oc- cupied only for a night, were strongly fortified, their own camps were merely surrounded by their cars and waggons,— 7a mode of defence still common among the Tartar and other nomadic tribes in Asia. But, as the Roman war proceeded, we frequently find them giving more attention to the defence of their night camps ; and some of the more perma- nent positions they took up were strengthened with deep ditches and stone walls. The armies of the ancient Britons were not divided into bodies, mixed, but distinct as a whole, consisting each of a determinate number of men recruited from different families and in different places, and commanded by appointed officers of various ranks, like the Roman legions and our modern regiments; but all the fighting-men of each particular clan or great family formed a sepa- rate band, commanded by the chieftain or head of that family. By this system, which had other dis- advantages, the command was frittered away into minute fractions. All the several clans which composed one state or kingdom were commanded in chief by the sovereign of that state ; and when two or more states formed an alliance and made war in conjunction, the king of one of these states was chosen to be generalissimo of the whole. These elections gave rise to jealousies and dissen- sions, and all through the system there were too many divisions of command and power, and too great a disposition in the wari'iors to look up only to the head of their own clan, or at furthest to the king of their own limited state. Far different from these were the thoroughly organized and inter-dependent masses of the Roman army, where- the commands were nicely defined and graduated, and the legions (each a small but perfect army in itself) acted at the voice of the consul, or its one supreme chief, like a complicated engine set in motion by its main-wheel. As long as Rome maintained her military glory, the legions were composed only of free Roman citizens, no allies or subjects of con- quered nations being deemed worthy of the honour of fighting in their ranks. Each legion was divided into horse and foot, the cavalry bearing what is considered, by modern scientific writers, a just pro- portion, and not more, to the infantry. Under the old kings a legion consisted of 3000 foot, and 300 horse ; under the consuls, of 4200 foot, and 400 horse ; but under Caesar and the emperors it amounted to 6100 foot, and 126 horse. Like our regiments, the legions were distinguished from each other by their number ; being called the first, the second, the third, &c. In the early ages of the republic they had no more than four or five legions kept on foot, but these were increased with increase of conquest and territory, and under the empire they had as many as twenty-five or thirty legions, even in time of peace. The infantry of each legion was divided into ten cohorts. The first cohort, which had the custody of the eagle and the post of honour, was 1105 strong; the re- maining nine cohorts had 555 men each. Instead of a long, awkward sword of copper, every soldier had a short, manageable, well tem- pered Spanish blade of steel, sharp at both edges as at the point; and he was always instructed to thrust rather than cut, in order to inflict the more fatal woimds, and expose his own body the less. In addition to a lighter spear, the legionary carried the formidable jjilum, a heavy javelin six feet long, terminating in a strong triangular point of steel, eighteen inches long. For defensive armour they wore an open helmet with a lofty crest, a breast-plate or coat of mail, greaves on their legs, and a large, strong shield on their left arms. This shield or buckler, altogether unlike the small, round, basket-looking thing used by the Britons, was four feet high, and two and a half broad ; it was framed of a light but firm wood, covered with 38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Roman General, accompanied by Standard Bearers and common Leoiokaries, landing from a Bridge of Boats. Drawn from a Bas-i-elief on the Column of Trajan. bull's hide, and strongly guarded with bosses or plates of iron or bronze. The cavalry of a legion was divided into ten troops or squadrons ; the first squadron, as destined to act with the strong first cohort, consisting of 132 men, whilst the nine remaining squadrons had only 66 men each. Their principal weapons were a sabre and a javelin ; but at a later period they bor- rowed the use of the lance and iron mace or hammer from foreigners. For de'"ensive armour they had a helmet, a coat of mail, and an oblong shield. The legions serving abroad were generally attended by auxiliaries raised among the provinces and conquests of the empire, who for the most part retained their national arms and loose modes of fighting, and did all the duties of light troops. Their number varied according to circumstances, being seldom much inferior to that of the legions ; but in Britain, where mention of the barbarian auxiliaries constantly occurs, and where, as we have intimated, they performed services for which the legions were not calculated, they seem to have been at least as numerous as the Roman sol- diers. Three legions, say the historians, were competent to the occupation of Britain ; but to this force of 20,418 we must add the auxiliaries, which will swell the number to 40,956. Gauls, Bel- gians, Batavians, and Germans were the hordes that accompanied the legions in our island. Such were the main features and appointments of the Roman legions in their prime, and such they continued during their conflict with the Bri- tons, and long after all the southern parts of our island were subjugated by their might. They were afterwards sadly diminished in numbers and in consideration. They lost their discipline ; the men threw off their defensive armour as too heavy for them to wear ; changes were made in their weapons ; and, not to notice many intermediate variations, a legion, at the final departure of the Romans from Britain, consisted only of from 2500 to 3000 indifferently armed men. After the departure of Caesar, Britain was left undisturbed by foreign arms for nearly one hundred years. But few of the events that happened during that long interval have been transmitted to us. We can, however, make out in that dim obscurity that the country, and more particularly those maritime parts of it occupied by the Belgoe, and facing the coast of Gaul, made considerable advances in civilization, borrowing from the Gauls, with whom they were in close communication, some of those useful and elegant arts which that people had learned from the Roman conquerors, Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 43. 39 Charok of Roman I.vfantby. — From the Column of Trajan. now peaceably settled among them. Besides their journeys into Gaul, which are well proved, it is supposed that during this long interval not a few of the superior class of Britons, from time to time, crossed the Alps, and found their way to Rome, where the civilization and arts of the world then centred. This progress, whatever it was, does not appear to have been accompanied by any improvement in the political system of the country, or Ijy any union and amalgamation of the disjointed parts or states. Internal wars continued to be waged ; and this dis- union of the Britons, their constant civil dissen- sions, and the absence of any steady system of defence, laid them open to the Romans whenever those conquerors should think fit to revisit their fair island and renew the struggle in earnest. That time at length arrived. In the ninety- seventh year after Caesar's second expedition (a.d. 43), the Emperor Claudius* resolved to seize the island, and Aulus Plautius, a skilful commander, landed with four complete legions, which, with the cavalry and auxiliaries, must have made above 50,000 men. The Britons, who had made no pre- • Pomponius Mela, who wrote m the time of Claudius, expresses a hope that the success of the Roman arms will soon make the island and its savage inhabitants better known. parations, at first offered no resistr>nce ; and when they took the field under Caractacus and Togodum- nus, sons of the deceased Cunobelinus, who is sup- posed to have been king of the Trinobantes, they were thoroughly defeated in the inland country by the Romans. Some states or tribes, detaching themselves fr(jm the confederacy, then submitted'; and Aulus Plautius, leaving a garrison in those parts which included Gloucestershire and portions of the contiguous counties, followed up his victories beyond the river Severn, and made considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants. After sus- taining a great defeat on the right bank of the Severn, the Britons retreated eastward to some marshes on the Thames, where, availing themselves of the nature of the ground, they made a desperate stand, and caused the Romans great loss. In these campaigns Plautius made great use of his light- armed barbarian auxiliaries (chiefly Germans), many of whom, on this particular occasion, were lost in the deep bogs and swamps. Though Togodumnus was slain, it does not appear that the natives were defeated in this battle; and Plautius, seeing their de- termined spirit, withdrew his army to the south of the Thames to await the arrival of the Emperor Clau- dius, whose presence and fresh forces he earnestly solicited. Claudius embarked with reinforcements 40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. at Ostia at t\ie mouth of the Tyber, landed at Massiha (Marseilles), and proceeded through Gaul to Britain. It is said that some elephants were included in the force he brought, but we hear nothing of those animals after his arrival in the island. There is some confusion as to the im- mediate effect of the Emperor's arrival, the two brief historians* of the events contradicting each other; but we believe that, without fighting any battles, the pusillanimous Claudius accompanied his army on its fresh advance to the north of the Thames, was present at the taking of Camalodu- num, the capital of the Trinobantes, and that then he received the proiFered submission of some of the states, and returned to enjoy an easily-earned triumph at Rome, whence he had been absent altogether somewhat less than six months. Claudius. From a Copper Coin in the British Museum. Coin of Claudius, representing liis British triumph. From the British Muieura. While Vespasian, his second in command, who was afterwards emperor under the same name, employed himself in subduing Vectis (the Isle of Wight) and the maritime states on the southern and eastern coasts, Aulus Plautius prosecuted a long and, in good part, an undecisive warfare with the inland Britons, who were still commanded by « Dio Cass.(in the abridgment by Xiphilinus), lib.lx. Suetonius in C. Claud, c. xvii. Caractacus. Between them both, Plautius and Vespasian thoroughly reduced no more of the island than what lies to the south of the Thames, with a narrow strip on the left bank of that river ; and when Plautius was recalled to Rome, even these territories were over-run and thrown into confusion by the Britons. Ostorius Scapula, the new propraetor, on his arrival in the island (a.d. 50), found the affairs of the Romans in an all but hopeless state ; their allies, attacked and plundered on all sides, were falling from them, the boldness of the unsubdued states was rapidly increasing, and the people they held in subjection were ripe for revolt. But Ostorius, who had probably brought reinforcements into the island, was equal to this emergency : knowing how much depends on the beginning of a campaign, he put himself at the head of the light troops, and advanced against the marauding enemy by rapid marches. The Britons, who did not expect he would open a campaign in the winter, were taken by surprise, and defeated with great loss. It should appear from Tacitus that Ostorius at once recovered all the country, as far as the Severn, that had been conquered, or rather temporarily occupied, by his predecessor Plautius ; for the great historian tells us, imme- diately after, that he erected a line of forts on the Sabrina (Severn) and the Antona (Nene) ; but it is more probable that this advance was made by a series of battles, rather than by one hasty blow struck in the winter by the light division of his army. Ostorius was the first to cover and pro- tect the conquered territory by forts and lines ; the line he now drew cut off from the rest of the island nearly all the southern and south-eastern parts, which included the more civilized states who had either submitted or become willing allies, or been conquered by Plautius and Vespasian. It was by the gradual advance of lines like these that the Romans brought the whole of England south of the Tyne, under subjection. Ostorius, also, adopted the cautious policy of disarming all such of the Britons within the line of forts as he suspected. This measure, always odious, and never to be carried into effect without shameful abuses of power, particularly exasperated those Britons within the line, who, like the Iceni, had not been con- quered, but, of their own good and free will, had become the allies of the Romans. ■ Enemies could not treat them worse than such friends, — the sur- render of arms was the worst consequence that could result from defeat in a war which they had not yet essayed. It would also naturally occur to them that if the Romans were permitted to coop them up within military posts, and sever them from the rest of the island, their independence, whether unarmed or armed, was completely sa- crificed. The Iceni, a brave tribe, who are supposed to have dwelt in Norfolk and Suffolk, took up arms, formed a league with their neighbours, and chose their ground for a decisive battle. They were beaten by Ostorius, after having fought obstinately Chap. I.J CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 50. 41 to the last and given signal proofs of courage. After the defeat of the Iceni and their allies, the Romans marched beyond their line of demarcation against a people called the Cangi, and, Tacitus says, got within a short march of that sea that lies between Britain and Ireland. From the pursuit of this timid enemy, Ostorius was recalled by a rising of the Brigantes, who occupied Yorkshire, with parts of Lancashire and the adjoining counties. Having subdued these in their turn, and drawn a camp and fixed a colony of veterans among them, Ostorius marched rapidly against the Silures, — the inhabitants of South Wales, — the fiercest and most obstinate enemies the Romans ever encountered in South Britain. To their natural ferocity, says Tacitus, these people added the courage which they now derived from the presence of Caractacus. His valour, and the various turns of his fortune, had spread the fame of this heroic chief throughout the island. His knowledge of the country, his ad- mirable skill in the stratagems of war, were great advantages ; but he could not hope, with inferior forces, to beat a well-disciplined Roman army. He therefore retired to the territory of the Ordo- vices, which seems to have included within it nearly all North Wales. Having drawn thither to his standard all who considered peace with the Romans as another word for slavery, he resolved to wait firmly the issue of a battle. According to the great historian, he chose his field with admirable art. It was rendered safe by steep and craggy hills. In parts where tiie mountains opened and the easy acclivity afforded an asoeat, he raised a rampart of massy stjnes. A river which oft'ered no safe ford flowed between him and the enemy, and a part of his forces showed themselves in front of his ram- parts. As the Romans approached, the chieftains of the confederated British clans rushed along the ranks exhorting their men, and Caractacus animated the whole, exclaiming, — " This day must decide the fate of Britain. The era of liberty or eternal bondage begins from this hour ! Remember your brave ancestors who drove the great Caesar himself from these shores, and preserved their freedom, their property, and the persons and honour of their wives and children!" There is a lofty hill in Shrop- shire, near to the confluence of the rivers Coin and Teme, which is generally believed to be the scene of the hero's last action. Its ridges are furrowed by trenches and still retain fragments of a loose stone rampart, and the hill for many centuries has been called by the -people Caer-Caradoc, or the castle or fortified place of Caradoc, supposed to be the Bri- tish name of Caractacus. Ostorius was astonished at the excellent arrangement and spirit he saw, but his numbers, discipline, and superior arms once more gained him a victory. Tacitus says that the Britons, having neither breast-plates nor helmets, could not maintain the conflict, — that the better Roman swords and spears made dreadful havoc, — that the victory was complete. Caractacus escaped from the carnage ; but his wife and daughter were taken prisoners, and his brothers surrendered BiiiTisH Camp at Caek-Caraddc. — From Roy's Military Antiquities, 42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. soon after the battle. The hero himself did not, however, escape long, for having taken refuge with his stepnaother, Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, that heartless woman caused him to be put in chains, and delivered up to the Romans. From the camp of Ostorius he was carried, with his wife and all his family, to the foot of the Em- peror's throne. All Rome — all Italy — weie im- patient to gaze on the indomitable Briton, who for nine years had bidden defiance to the masters of the world. His name was everywhere known, and he was everywhere received with marked respect. In the presence of Claudius, bis friends and family quailed and begged for mercy ; he alune was superior to misfortune : his speech was manly without being insolent, — his countenance still un- Caractacus at Rome.— Fuseli altered not a symptom of fear appearing — no sorrow, no mean condescension ; he vvas great and dignified even in ruin. This magnanimous be- haviour no doubt contributed to procure him milder treatment than the Roman conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes ; his chains and those of his family were instantly struck off. At this crisis Tacitus leaves him, and his subsequent his- tory is altogether unknown. Their sanguinary defeat and the loss of Ca- ractacus did not break the spirit of the Silures. They fell upon the Romans soon after, broke up their fortified camp, and prevented them from erecting a line of forts across their country. The prefect of the camp, with eight centurions and the bravest of his soldiers, was slain ; and, but for the arrival of reinforcements, the whole detachment would have been sacrificed. A foraging-party, and the strong detachments sent to Its support, were routed ; this forced Ostorius to bring his legions into action, but, even with his whole force, his success was doubtful and the loss of the Silures very inconsiderable. Continual and most harassing attacks and surprises followed, till at length Os- torius, tlie victor of Caractacus, sunk under the fatigue and vexation, and expired, to the joy of the Britons, who boasted that though he had not fallen in battle, it was still their war which had brought him to the grave. The country of the Silures, in- tersected by numerous and rapid rivers, heaped into mountains, with winding and narrow defiles, and covered with forests, became the grave of many other Romans ; and it was not till the reign of Vespasian, and more than twenty years after the death of Ostorius, that it was conquered by Julius Frontinus. Chap. I.J CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 59. 43 For some time tlie Roman power in Britain was stationary, or, at most, it made very little progress under Aulus Didius and Veranius, the immediate successors of Ostorius. Indeed, under these go- vernors, the Emperor Nero, who had succeeded his father Claudius, is said to have seriously entertained the thought of withdrawing the troops and abandon- ing the island altogether, — so profitless and un- certain seemed the Roman possession of Britain. But the next governor, Paulinus Suetonius, an officer of distinguished merit (a.d. 59 — 61), revived the spirit of the conquerors. Being well aware that the island of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of the Druids, the reftige place of the defeated British warriors and of the disaffected generally, he resolved to subdue it. In order to facilitate his approach, he ordered the constniction of a number of flat-bottomed boats ; in these he trans- ported his infantry over the strait which divides the island from the main (the Menai), while the ca- valry were to find their way across, partly by ford- ing and partly by swimming. The Britons' added the terrors of their superstition to the force of their arms fur the defence of this sacred island. " On the opposite shore," says Tacitus, " there stood a wildly-diversified host : there were armed men in dense array, and women running among them, who, in dismal dresses and with dishevelled hair, like furies, carried flaming torches. Around were Druids, pouring forth curses, lifting up their hands to heaven, and striking terror, by the novelty of their appearance, into the hearts of the Roman soldiers, who, as if their limbs were paralyzed, ex- posed themselves motionless to the blows of the enemy. At last, aroused by the exhortatior.s of their leader, and stimulating one another to despise a frantic band of women and priests, they make their onset, overthrow their foe?, and burn them in the fires which they themselves had kindled for others. A garrison was afterwards placed there among the conquered, and the groves sacred to their cruel superstition, were cut down." But while Suetonius was engaged in securing the sacred island, events took place in his rear which went far to commit the safety of the entire empire of the Romans in Britain. His attack on the Druids and the grove of Mona could not fail to exasperate all the British tribes that clung to their ancient worship ; other and recent causes of provo- cation were particular to certain of the states. The Romans, in the colonies they had planted in the island, indulged too freely in what are called the rights of conquest : they treated the Britons with cruelty and oppression ; they drove them from their houses, and adding insult to wrong, called them by the opprobrious names of slaves and captives. In these acts the veterans or superiors were actively seconded by the common soldiery, — a class of men who, in the words of Tacitus, are by their habits of life trained to licentiousness. The conquerors, too, had introduced priests of their own creed ; and these, •' with a pretended zeal for religion, devoured the substance of the land." Boadicea, widow of king Prasutagus, and now queen o/ the Iceni, pro- bably because she remonstrated against the forcible seizure of the territory her husband bequeathed her, or possibly because she attempted to resist the Romans in their plunder, was treated with the utmost barbarity : Catus, the procurat ,r, caused her to be scourged, her daughters to be violated in her presence, and the relations of her deceased husband to be reduced to slavery. Her unheard-of wrongs, the dignity of her birth, the energy of her charac- ter, made Boadicea the proper rallying point ; and immediately an extensive armed league entrus-ted her with the supreme command. Boadicea's own subjects were joined by the Trinobantes ; and the neighbouring states, not as yet broken into a slavish submission, engaged in secret coimcils to stand forward in the cause of national liberty. They were all encouraged by the absence of Sueto- nius, and thought it no difficult enterprise to over- run a colony undefended by a single fortification. Tacitus says (and the statement is curious, consider- ing their recent and uncertain tenure) that tlie Roman governors had attended to improvements of taste and elegance, but neglected the useful, — that they had embellished the province, but taken no pains to put it in a state of defence. The storm first burst on the colony of Camalodunum, which was laid waste with fire and sword, a legion which marched to its relief being cut to pieces. Catus, the procurator, terrified at the fury his own enor- mities had mainly excited, fled, and effected his escape into Gaul On receiving the news of these disasters, Suetonius hurried across the Menai strait, and marching through the heart of the country came to London, which city, though not yet digni- fied with the name of a Roman colony, was a popu- lous, trading, and prosperous place. He soon fimnd he could not maintain that important town, and therefore determined to evacuate it, in order to secure the rest of the provinces. The inhabitants, who foresaw the fate of the fair town, implored him with tears to change his plan, but in vain. The signal for the march was given, the legions defiled through the gates, but all the citizens who chose to follow their eagles were taken under their protec- tion. They had scarcely cleared out from London when the Britons entered : of all those who from age, or weakness, or the attractions of the spot, had thought proper to remain behind, scarcely one escaped. The inhabitants of Verulamium were in like manner utterly annihilated, and, the carnage still spreading, no fewer than 10,000 Romans and their confederates fell in the course of a few days. The infuriated insurgents made no prisoners, gave no quarter, but employed the gibbet, the fire, and the cross, without distinction of age or sex. Suetonius, having received reinforcements which made his army amount to about 10,000 men, all highly disciplined, chose an advantageous field, and waited the battle. The Britons were also rein- forced, and from all quarters : Tacitus says they were an incredible multitude ; but their ranks were swelled and weakened h-n women and children. 44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. IDICKA HAKA.NOUINO THE BRITISH TklBEIi. — Stotliaid. They were the assailants, and attacked the Romans in the front of their strong position. Previously to the first charge, Boadicea, mounted in a war-chariot, with her long yellow hair stream- ing to her feet, with her two injured daughters beside her, drove through the ranks, and harangued the tribes or nations, each in its turn.* She re- minded them that she was not the first woman that had led the Britons to battle ; she spoke of her own irreparable wrongs, of the wrongs of her people and all their neighbours ; and said whatever was most calculated to spirit them against their proud and licentious oppressors. The Britons, however, were defeated with tremendous loss ; and the wretched Boadicea put an end to her existence by taking poison. As if not to be behind the barba- rity of those they emphatically styled barbarians, the Romans committed an indiscriminate massacre, visiting with fire and sword not only the lands of those who had joined the revolt, but of those who were thought to have wavered in their allegiance. Tacitus estimates the number of the Britons who were thus destroyed at 80,000 ; and in the train of war and devastation followed famine and disease. * Dio lias described her costume as beine a plaited tunic of various colours, a chain of );uld round her waist, and a Ion;; mantle over all. Dio Nit: apud Xiphil. But the despondence of sickness and the pangs of hunger could not induce them to submit; and though Suetonius received important reinforcements from the continent (acording to Tacitus, by the directions of the emperor Nero, 2000 legionary soldiers, 8 auxiliary cohorts, and 1000 horse, were sent to him from Germany), and retained the com- mand some time longer, he left the island without finishing this war ; and notwithstanding his victo- ries over the Druids and Boadicea, his immediate successors were obliged to relapse into inactivity, or merely to stand on the defensive, without at- tempting the extension of their dominions. Some fifteen or sixteen years after the departure of Suetonius the Romans recommenced their for- ward movements, and (a.d. 15 — 78) Julius Fron- tinus at last subdued the Silures. This general was succeeded by Cnaeus Julius Agricola, who was fortunate, as far as his fame is regarded, in having for his son-in-law the great Tacitus, the partial and eloquent recorder of his deeds. Exaggeration and favour apart, however, Agricola appears to have had a skill in the arts both of peace and war. He had served under Suetonius during the Boadicean war ; he was beloved by his army, and well ac- quainted with the country ; and now, before he left the supreme command, he completed the conquest Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 79. 45 of South Britain, and showed the victorious eagles of Rome as far north as the Grampian hills. One of his first operations, which proves with what tenacity the British held to their own, was the re- conquest of Mona; for scarcely had Suetonius turned his hack when they repossessed themselves of that island. Having made this successful be- ginning, and also chastised the Ordovices, who had cut a division of cavalry to pieces, he endeavoured by mild measiires to endear himself to the acknow- ledged provincials of Rome, and to conciliate the British tribes generally, by acts of kindness. *' For," says Tacitus," the Britons willingly supply our armies with recruits, pay their taxes without a murmur, and they perform all the services of go- vernment with alacrity, provided they have no reason to complain of oppression. When injured, tlieir resentment is quick, sudden, and impatient : they are conquered, not spirit-broken ; they may be reduced to obedience, not to slavery." * At the same time Agricola endeavoured to sub- due their fierceness and change their erratic habits, by teaching them some of the useful arts, and ac- customing them to some of the luxuries of civilized life. He persuaded them to settle in towns, to build comfortable dwelling-houses, to raise halls and temples. It was a capital part of his policy to establish a system of education, and give to the sons of the leading British chiefs a tincture of polite letters. He praised the talents of the pupils, and already saw them, by the force of their natural genius, outstripping the Gauls, who were distin- guished for their aptitude and abihties. Thus, by degrees, the Britons began to cultivate the beauties of the Roman language, which they had before disdained, to wear the Roman toga as a fashionable part of dress, and to indulge in the luxuries of baths, porticos, and elegant banquets. In the second year of his government (a.d. 79), Agricola advanced into the north-western parts of Britain, and partly by force and more by clemency, brought several tribes to submission. These are not named by Tacitus, but they probably dwelt in the heart of the country to the east of the Ordovices and the Silures. Wherever he gained a district he erected fortifications composed of castles and ramparts. In his third campaign (a.d. 80) Agricola led his army still further north ; but the line of march, and the degree of progress made in it, are not easily ascertained. The outlines presented to us by Tacitus are vague and indistinct, which may be ascribed both to the generality of that writer's lan- guage, and to the limits of his information. It is the opinion of a late writer,* however, that Agricola, setting out from Mancunium, the Man- chester of present times, led his army towards the north-western coasts, and not towards the north-eastern, as is commonly stated ; and that after traversing parts of I^ancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, he came to the Taw, which this writer contends was not the river Tay, but the Sol- • Chalmers, Caledonia. way Frith. The 7a«, he says (the Taus of Taci- tus) was a British word, signifying an estuary, or any extending water ; it might equally imply the Solway, the Tay, or any other estuary. Besides, it was the plan of this cautious general, it is argued, to advance, by degrees, and fortify the country as he advanced ; and we accordingly find him spend- ing the remainder of this season in building a line of forts, in the most convenient situations for keep- ing possession of the territory he had gained. The raising of a part, if not of the whole of that ram- part drawn right across the island, from the Sol- way to near the mouth of the Tyne, and called Agricola's Wall, is supposed to have taken place in this year. It must be confessed, however, that the tenor of Tacitus's narrative, and some of his expressions in particular, require considerable straining before we can reconcile them with this account. In the first place, it is to be observed, that he speaks of Agricola's march to the Taus in his third summer, as merely an inroad, the effects of which were to discover the country, to lay it waste, and to strike terror into the inhabit- ants. It appears to be clear that the occupation of it was not at that time attempted or thought of. Then, when the historian proceeds to relate the operations of the next campaign, he expressly in- forms us that the country which Agricola employed this fourth summer in taking possession of and fortifying, was that which he had thus in the pre- ceding summer overrun. No words are used which can imply that he penetrated into any new country in his fourth compaign ; the statement dis- tinctly is, that he only occupied and secured what he had already surveyed and laid waste. According to the view, however, which supposes him not till now to have ever been beyond the Sol- way, his fourth summer (a.d. 81) was employed in exploring and overrunning the country extending from that arm of the sea to the Friths of Clyde and Forth, and in securing, as usual, the advance he had thus made. Tacitus describes the place where the waters of the Glotta and Bodotria (the Friths of Clyde and Forth) are prevented from joining only by a narroAV neck of land, and tells us, that Agricola drew a chain of forts across that isthmus. These forts are supposed to have stood in the same line where Lollius Urbicus afterwards erected his more compact rampart, and not far from the mo- dern canal which connects the two estuaries. But in making this advance, Agricola seems to have neglected the great pr(;montory of Galloway, which lay between the Solway and the Clyde, and was then occupied by the Novantae, and, in part, by the Selgovae and Damnii ; we mean more parti- cularly the country now included in Wigton, Kirk- cudbright, Dumfries, and Ayrshire. In his fifth campaign (a.d. 82), therefore, he thought it pru- dent to subdue these tribes, who, in the advance he contemplated for the next year beyond the Frith of Forth, would, from their western position, have been in his rear. He accordingly invaded " that part of Britain," says Tacitus, " which is opposite 46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. to Ireland," being the whole extent of Galloway ; and, to do this, he is supposed to have sailed from Kilbride Loch, in Cumberland and on the Solway, and to have landed on the estuary of Locher. * From the Galloway coast he saw the distant hills of Ireland ; and the sight is said tj have suggested the idea of a fresh invasion, to which, moreover, he was incited by an Irish chieftain, who, being ex- pelled from his native country, had taken refuge with the Roman commander. Having, after va- rious engagements, cleared the south-west of Scot- land as far as his fortified works on the Frith of Clyde, he seems to have put the mass of his army into winter quarters along the line he had drawn from that estuary to the Frith of Forth, so as to have them ready for next year's campaign. In his sixth year (a.d. 83), Agricola resolved to extend his conquests to the north-east, beyond the Frith of Forth. His fleet had already surveyed the coasts and harbours, and his naval officers showed him the most commodious passage, — at Inchgarvey, as it is supposed, — where he seems to have been met by a part of his fleet, and wafted over to the ad- vancing point in Fife, now called Northferry. f Other writers, however, suppose that he marched along the southern side of the Forth, to a point where the river was narrow and fordable, and crossed it somewhere near Stirling. It is possible that both courses may have been adopted by dif- ferent divisions of the troop?. On the north side of the Forth the troops were attended and sup- ported by the ships ; so that their march must have been along the east-coast. The fleet kept so near the shore, that the mariners frequently landed and encamped with the land forces — each of these bodies entertaining the other with marvellous tales of what they had seen and done in these unknown seas and regions. J Having crossed the Frith of Forth, Agricola found himself, for the first time, fairly engaged with the real Caledonians — a people, at the least, as fierce and brave as any he had hitherto con- tended with. They were not taken by surprise, nor did they wait to be attacked. Descending from the upper country, as Agricola advanced into Fife, strong bands of them fell upon the new Roman forts on the isthmus between the Forth and Clyde, which had been left behind without sufficient de- fence. Soon after, they made a night attack on the ninth legion, one of the divisions of the main army, and nearly succeeded in cutting it to pieces, in spite of the strong camp in which it was in- trenched. This camp was probably situated at Loch Ore, about two miles to the south of Loch Leven, where ditches and other traces of it are still seen. In a general battle, however, to which this nocturnal attack led, the Caledonians were beaten ; and, without any other successful exploit, the Ro- mans wintered north of the Frith of Forth, in Fife, where their fleet supplied them with provision?, and kept open their communications with the forts in the south. The Caledonians, no way dispirited, * Chalmers's Caledonia fid. JTacit. Vit Agric. chap. xxv. mustered all their clans for the next summer's cam- paign, and submitted to the supreme command of Galgacus, who ranks with Cassivellaunus and Caractacus, as one of the heroes of the Britisli wars. At the opening of his seventh and last campaign (a.d. 84), when Agricola moved forward, he found the enemy, to the number of 30,000, posted on the acclivities of Mons Gramyius, determined to op- pose his progress in a general battle. The position of the Caledonians on this occasion, and the field of the great battle, although they have been much dis- puted, seem to admit of being fixed on very pro- bable grounds. From the nature of the country, Agricola would direct his line of march by the course of the Devon, would turn to the right from Glen-Devon, through the opening of the Ochil hills, along the course of the rivulet which forms Glen-Eagles, leaving the Braes of Ogilvie on his left. He would then pass between Blackford and Auchterarder, towards the Grampians (or Gran-Pen of the British, meaning the head or chief ridge or summit), which he would see before him as he de- filed from the Ochils. An easy march would then bring him to the Moor of Ardoch, at the roots of the Grampians, where there are very evident signs of ancient conflicts. The large ditch of a Roman camp can still be traced for a considerable dis- tance ; weapons, both British and Roman, have been dug up ; and on the hill above Ardoch Moor, are two enormous heaps of stones, called Cani- wochel, and Carnlee — probably the sepulchral cairns of the Caledonians who fell in the battle.* The host of Galgacus fought with great obsti- nacy and bravery ; but they were no more able to resist the disciplined legions of Rome in a pitched battle, than their brethren the southern Britons had been. Tliey were defeated, and pursued with great loss ; and the next day nothing was seen in front of the Roman army but a silent and deserted country, and houses involved in smoke and flame. Tacitus relates that some of the flying natives, after tears and tender embraces, killed their wives and children, in order to save them from slavery and the Romans. In the battle the Caledonians used war-chariots, like the southern Britons ; and the Roman writer mentions their broadswords and small targets, which remained so long after the pe- culiar arms of the Highlanders. The victory of Agricola, however valueless in its results, was com- plete ; and, though Tacitus does not record his death on the field, he speaks no more of the brave Galgacus. In the course of these two campaigns north of the Forth the Romans seem to have derived an un- common degree of assistance from their fleet, which was probably much better appointed and com- manded than on any former occasion. After de- feating Galgacus, Agricola sent the ships from the Frith of Tay to make a coasting voyage to the north, which may very properly be called a • Chalmers's Caledonia, b. l.ch.iii. Roy's Military Antiquities, plate 10. Stobie'b Map of Perth. Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 84. 47 voyage of discovery ; for though nearly a century and a half had passed since Caesar's invasions, the Romans were not yet quite certain that Britain was an island, but thought it might have joined the European continent either at the extreme north or north-east, or at some other, to them, unknown point. Agricola's fleet doubled the promontory of Caithness and Cape Wrath, ran down the western coast from the end of Scotland to the Land's End in Cornwall, then turning to the east, arrived safe at the Trutulensian harbour (supposed to be Sand- wich), and sailing thence along the eastern coast, returned with glory to the point from which it had started, having thus, according to Tacitus, made the first certain discovery that Britain was an island. The fears and imagination of the mariners were no doubt much excited during this periplus ; and Tacitus, who probably heard the recital from his father-in-law AgTicola, and some of the officers of the fleet, was not proof against exaggeration. He *^ells us that the cluster of islands called the Orca- des, till then wholly unknown, was added to the Roman empire (he omits all mention of the Hebri- des) ; that Thule, which had lain concealed in gloom and eternal snows, was seen by the navi- gators, and that the sea in those parts was a sluggish mass of stagnated water, hardly yielding to the stroke of the oar, and never agitated by winds and storms* Agricola did not keep his army, this second winter, north of the Friths ; but withdra\ying them by easy marches, put his troops in cantonments behind his works on the isthmus, if not behind those on the Solway and Tyne. Soon after this he was recalled from his command by the jealous, tyrannical Domitian. There is no evidence that Agricola left any garrison on the north of the Frith of Forth ; and it appears probable that most of the forts thrown up in the passes of the Grampians to check the incursions of the Caledonians, remains of which still exist at Coupar-Angus, Keithock, Harefaulds, Invergowrie, and other places, were either temporary encampments made on his march northwards, or were erected at a later period by the emperor Severus, and never maintained by the Romans for any length of time. The great diffi- culty in these regions was not the act of advancing, but that of remaining; and the poverty of the country was, no doubt, as good a defence as the valour of its inhabitants. It was under Agricola that the Roman dominion in Britain reached its utmost permanent extent ; for a few hurried marches, made at a later period, farther into the north of Caledonia, are not to be coimted as conquests or acquisition of territory. For the long period of thirty years the island re- mained so tranquil that scarcely a single mention of its affairs occurs in the Roman annals ; and we need scarcely remark that, as history has usually been written, the silence of historians is one of the best proofs of a nation's happiness. • Vit. Ai»ric. cli. x, and xxxviii. Hadriam. From a Copper Coin in the British Museum. Copppr Coin of Hadrian, from one in the Urili.-h Museum. But in the reign of Hadrian* the Romans were attacked all along their northern frontiers by the Caledonians, and the whole state of the island was so disturbed as to demand the presence of that energetic emperor (a.d. 120). The conquests of Agricola north of the Tyne and Solway were lost, his ad- vanced line of forts between the Forth and the Clyde swept away, and Hadrian contented himself, without either resigning or reconquering all that territory, with raising a new rampart (much stronger than that drawn by Agricola) between the Solway Frith and the German Ocean. Perhaps it would have been v.'ise in the Romans to have kept to this latter line ; but in the following reign of Antoninus Pius (a.d. 138), the governor of Britain, LoUius Ur-i- cus, advanced from it, drove the barbarians before him, and again fixed the Roman frontier at the isthmus between the Clyde and Forth, where he. erected a strong rampart on the line of Agricola's forts. The praetentura or rampart of Lollius • In a general description of the Roman empire, under Trajan, the immediate predecessor of Hadrian, Appian says that the emperor possessed more than one-half of Britain, that he noglected the rest of the island as useless, and derived no profit from the part he pos- sessed. 48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Urbicus consisted of a deep ditch, and an earthen wall raised on a stone foundation. There were twenty-one forts, at inter pals, along the line, which, Antoninus Pius. From a Copper Coin in the Britibh Miiscam. Copper Coin of Antoninus Pius, commemorative of his victori<>« in Britain, from one in the British Museum. The earliest figure of Britannia on a Roman Coin, from a Cojiixr Coin of Antoninus Pius, in the British Museum. from one extremity to the other, measured ahout thirty-one miles. A military road, as a necessary appendage, ran within the rampart, affording an easy communication from station to station. The opposite points are fixed at Caer-ridden on the Forth, and Dunglas on the Clyde. The works DuNTOCHER Bridge. On the line of Graham's Dyke, said in the neighbourhood to have been a Roman work, bnt conjectured by Roy to have h?pn erected at 8 later but very distant period, and of the stones from the wall of Urbicus. The bridge is over Duutocher Burn wliio ,> (ails into .he Clyde. Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A. D. 121. 49 appear to have been finished about a.d. 140 ; and, notwithstanding the perishable materials, the mound can be traced after the lapse of seventeen centuries. Among the people, whose traditions have always retained some notion of its original destination, it is called Graeme's or Graham's Dyke. Inscribed stones have been discovered there, record- ing that the 2nd legion, and detachments from the 6th and the 20tb legions, with some auxiliaries, were employed 'upon the works.* It had been the boast of the Romans, even from the time of Agricola, that this fortified line was to cover and protect all the fertile territories of the south, and to drive the enemy as it were into an- other island, barren and barbarous like themselves. But the northern tribes would not so understand it : in the reign of Commodus (a.d. 183) they again broke through this barrier, and swept over the country which lay between it and the wall of Hadrian, and which became the scene of several sanguinary battles with the Romans. About the same time a mutinous spirit declared itself among the legions in Britain, and symptoms were every- where seen of that decline in discipline and mili- tary virtue which led on rapidly to the entire disso- lution of the Roman empire. Shortly after, the succession to the empire was disputed with Severus by Clodius Albinus, the governor of Britain. The unequal contest was decided by a great battle in the South of France ; but as the pretender Albinus had drained the island of its best troops, the northern tribes took that favourable opportunity of breaking into and desolating the settled Roman provinces. These destructive ravages continued for years, and cost the live^ of thousands of the civilized British subjects of Rome. The Emperor Severus, in his old age (a.d. 207), and though oppressed by the gout and other ma- ladies, resolved to lead an army in person against the northern barbarians. Having made great pre- parations, he landed in South Britain, and almost immediately began his march to the northern frontier, which was once more marked by tlie walls of Agricola and Hadrian, between the Solway Frith and the mouth of the Tyne. The tremendous difficul- ties he encountered as soon as he crossed that line, suf- ficiently show that the country beyond it had never been thoroughly conquered and settled by the Ro- mans, who invariably attended to the construction of roads and bridges. Even so near to the walls as the present county of Durham the country was an impassable wilderness. Probably there is some exaggeration in the number, and a part of the victims may have fallen under the spear and javelins of the natives ; but it is stated that Severus, in his march northward, lost 50,000 men, who were worn out by the incessant labour of draining morasses, throwing raised roads or causeways across them, cutting down forests, levelling mountains, and building bridges. By these means he at length penetrated farther intj the heart of Caledonia than any of his predecessors, and struck such terror into the native * Roy's Milit. Antiq. VOT,. T. clans or tribes, who, however, had most prudently avoided any general action, that they supplicated for peace. He went so far to the north that the Roman soldiers were much struck with the length of the summer days and the shortness of the nights ; but the Arcs Finium Imperii Romania and the ex- treme point to which Severus attained in this ar- duous campaign, seems to have been the end of the narrow promontory that separates the Murray and Cromarty Friths, the conqueror or explorer still leaving Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, or all the most northern parts of Scotland untouched.* The uses of this most expensive military promenade (for, with the exception of the road-making, it was nothing better) are not very obvious ; no Roman army ever followed his footsteps, and he himself could not maintain the old debatable ground between the Tyne and the Forth. Indeed, after his return from the North, his first care was to erect a new frontier barrier in the same line as those of Agricola and Hadrian, but stronger than either of them, thus acknowledging, as it were, the uncertain tenure the Romans had on the country beyond the Solway and the Tyne. For two years the Romans and their auxiliaries were employed in building a wall, which they vainly hoped would for ever check the incur- sions of the northern clans. The wall of Agricola, which has been so fre- quently alluded to, was in reality a long bank or mound of earth, with a ditch, on the borders of which he built, at unequal distances, a range of forts or castles. This work very nearly extended from sea to sea, being about seventy-four miles long ; be- ginning three miles and a half east of Newcastle, and ending twelve miles west of Carlisle. After existing thirty-seven years, this work, which had been much injured, was repaired (about a.d. 121) by Hadrian, who added works of his own to strengthen it. He dug an additional and much larger ditch, and raised a higher rampart of earth, making his new works run in nearly parallel lines with the old. From the date of these operations and repairs the name of Agricola was lost; and the whole, to this day, has retained the name of Ha- drian's Wall.f During the ninety years that inter- vened between the labours of Hadrian and those of Severus, the rampart, not well calculated to with- stand the frosts and rains of a cold and wet climate, had, no doubt, suffered extensively, and the bar- barians had probably broken through the earthen mound in more places than one. Severus — in this surpassing his predecessors — determined to build with stone : the wall he raised was about 8 feet thick and 12 high to the base of ^he battlements, so that, viewed in profile, a section of it would appear much like a chair, the main part forming the seat and the embattled part the back.]: To the wall were added, at unequal distances, a number of stations or towns, 81 castles, and 330 castelets or turrets. At the outside of the wall (to the north) Avas dug a ditch about 36 feet wide and from 12 to 15 feet deep. Severus's works run nearly parallel with the other * Chalmers' Caledonia. t Hutton. % Ibid, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Wall and Ditch of Se?eru» 33 A. Profile of the Roman Wall and Vallum, neai the South Agger Port Gate. ^..:ja^miL,... ,_ :M^k Section and Wall of Severus. two (those of Agricola and Hadrian), lie on the north of them and are never far distant, but may* be said always to keep them in view : the greatest dis- tance between them is less than a mile, the nearest distance about 20 yards, — the medium distance 40 or 50 yards. Exclusive of his wall and ditch, these stations, castles, and turrets, Severus con- structed a variety of roads, — yet called Roman roads, — 24 feet wide and 18 inches high in the centre, which led from turret to turret, from one \ 7 Wall and Ditch of Severus. castle to another, and still larger and more distant roads from the wall, which led from one station or town to another, besides the grand military way (now our main road from Newcastle to Carlisle), which covered all the works, and no doubt was first formed by Agricola, improved by Hadrian, and, after lying neglected for 1500 years, was made complete in 1152.* As long as the Roman power lasted this barrier • Button's Hist, of the Roman Wall. \Vai.I. OF Srvkros. nkar I1(iosestr*d, Northumhekland. Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 207. 51 ROMAH SOLDICB. KoMAN Imaoe of Victory. Roman Citizen. Tomb-stone of a vouno Roman Physician. Tlie above Cuts were drawn from a large collection of sculpture-: found in the line of the Wall of Sevt-rus, and preserved in the Newcastle Museum. 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Wall of Sevebus, on the Sand-stone Quarries, Denton Dean, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. was constantly garrisoned by armed men. The stations were so near to each other that, if a fire was lighted on any one of the bulwarks, it was seen at the next, and so repeated from bulwark to bulwark, all along the line, in a very short time. Severus had not finished his works of defence when the Caledonian tribes resumed the offensive. The iron-hearted and iron-framed old emperor marched northward with a dreadful vow of exter- mination ; but death overtook him at Eboracum (York), in the early part of the year 211. Ca- racalla, his son and successor, who had been serving with him in Britain, tired of a warfare in which he could gain comparatively little, hopeless perhaps of ever succeeding in the so-frequently-foiled attempt of subjecting the country north of the walls, and certainly anxious to reach Rome, in order the better to dispose of his brother Geta, whom his father had named co-heir to the empire, made a hasty peace with the Caledonians, formally ceding to them the debatable ground between the Solway and Tyne and the Friths of Clyde and Forth, and then left the island for ever. After the departure of Caracalla there occurs another long blank, — supposed to have been a tran- quil interval, — for during nearly seventy years history scarcely devotes a single page to Britain and its affairs. The formidable stone rampart of Se- verus had, no doubt, its part in preserving the tranquillity of the southern division of the is- land, but it was not the sole cause of this happy effect. The territory ceded by Caracalla, extending eighty miles to the north of Severus's wall, and averaging in breadth, from sea to sea, not less than seventy miles, was, in good part, a fertile country, including what are now some of the best lands in Scotland. The clans left in possession of this valuable settlement would naturally acquire some taste for the quiet habits of life, — would imbibe some civilization from the Roman provincials on the south side of the wall, — and then their instinc- tive love of property and qui'et would make them restrain, with arms in their hands, the still bar- barous mountaineers to the north of their own ter- ritory, whilst their own civilization, such as it might be, would make some little progress among the clans in that direction. And it certainly did happen that, even when the Roman power had long been in a state of decrepitude, no great or decisive invasions took place from the north to the south, until the Scots, a new enemy, pouring in from Ire- land with an overwhelming force, drove clan upon clan, and advanced beyond the wall of Severus. This latter event ought always to be taken in con- nexion with the growing weakness of Rome to account for the catastrophe which followed. Though it has been generally overlooked, there is another, and ^ great cause too, which will help to account for the tranquillity enjoyed in the South, or in all Roman Britain. Caracalla imparted the freedom of Rome, and the rights and privileges of the Roman citizen, to all the provinces of the Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITAEY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 288. 53 empire; and thus the Briton exempted from arbitrary spoliation and oppression, enjoyed his patrimony without fear or challenge.* Such a boon merited seventy years of a grateful quiet. When Britain re-appears in the aimals of history, we find her beset by fresh foes, and becoming the scene of a new enterprise, which was frequently re- peated in the course of a few following years. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximinian (a.h. 288), the Scandinavian and Saxon pirates began to ravage the coasts of Gaul and Britain. To repress these marauders, the emperors appointed Carausius, a Menapian, to the command of a strong fleet, the head-quarters of which was in the British Channel. The Menapians had divided into several colonies : one was settled in Belgium, one in Hibernia, one in the islands of the Rhine, one at Menevia (now St. David's), in Britain, — and Carausius was by birth either a Belgian or a Briton, — it is not very certain which. Wherever he was born, he appears to have been a bold and skilful naval commander. He beat the pirates of the Baltic, and enriched himself and his mariners with their plunder. It is sus- pected that he had himself been originally a pirate. He was soon accused of collusion with the enemy, and anticipating, from his gi>eat wealth and power, that he would throw ofi^ his allegiance, the emperors sent orders from Rome to put him to death. The wary and ambitious sailor fled, in time, with his fleet to Britain, where the legions and auxiliaries rallied round his victorious standard, and bestowed upon him the imperial diadem. The joint em- perors of Rome, after seeing their attempts to reduce him repelled with disgrace to their own arms, were fain to purchase peace by conceding to him the government of Britain, of Boulogne, and the adjoin- ing coast of Gaul, together with the proud title of Emperor. Under his reign we see, for the first time, Britain figuring as a great naval power : Ca- rausius built ships of war, manned them in part with the intrepid Scandinavian and Saxon pirates, against whom he had fought ; and, remaining absolute master of the Channel, his fleet swept the seas from the mouths of the Rhine to the Straits of Gibraltar. He struck numerous medals, with inscriptions and British Coin of Carausius. From an unique Gold Coin in the British Museum. devices, " which show the pomp and state he as- sumed in his island empire." The impressive names he borrowed were, " Marcus Aurelius Va- lerius Carausius." f He had escaped the daggers of pirates and em- • Palgrave's Rise and Progress of tlie English Commonwealth, chap. X. + Palgrave's Hist. England, chap. i. perors, but a surer executioner rose up m the person of a friend and confidential minister. He was murdered in the year 297, at Eboracum (York), by Allectus, a Briton, who succeeded to his insular empire, and reigned about three years, when he was defeated and slain by an officer of Constantius Chlorus, to whom Britain fell in succession on the resignation of Diocletian and Maximian (a.d. 296). In this short war we hear of a strong body of Franks and Saxons, who formed the main strength of Allectus's army, and who attempted to plunder London after his defeat. Thus, under Carausius and Allectus, the Saxons must have become ac- quainted even with the interior of England. Con- stantius Chlorus died, in the summer of a.d. 306, at Eboracum, or York, a place which seems to have been singularly fatal to royalty in those days. Con- stantine, afterwards called the Great, then began his reign at York, where he was present at his CoNSl ANTINK THK GttEAT. From a Gold Coin in the British Museum. father's death. After a very doubtful campaign north of the wall of Severus, the details of which are very meagre and confused, this prince left the island, taking with him a vast number of British youths as recruits for his army. From this time to the death of Constantine, in 337, Britain seems again to have enjoyed tranquillity. The Roman power was, however, decaying ; the removal of the capital of the empire from Rome to Constantinople had its efiects on the remote pro- vinces of Britain , and, under the immediate suc- cessors of Constantine, while the Frank and Saxon pirates ravaged the ill-defended coasts of the south, the Picts, Scots, and Attacots — all mentioned for the first time by historians in the earlier part of the fourth century — begun to press upon the north- ern provinces, and defy Severus's deep ditches and wall of stone. As the Scots came over from Ire- land in boats, and frequently made their attacks on the coast line, it seems not improbable that in some instances their depredations were mistaken for, or mixed up with those of the Saxons. According to 54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. our insufficient guide,* however, it was the Picts and Scots alone, that, after breaking through the wall of Severus, and killing a Roman general, and Nectaridius, the " Count of the Saxon Shore" in the reign of Julian the Apostate, were found, about three years after (a.d. 367), in the time of the Emperor Valentinian, pillaging the city of London (Augusta), and carrying oif its inhabitants as slaves. Theodosius, the distinguished general., and father of the emperor of that name, repelled these invaders, and repaired the wall and the ruined forts in different parts of the south ; but the north- ern districts were never afterwards reduced to order or tranquillity, and even for the^ partial and temporary advantage they obtained, the Romans were compelled to follow the host of pirates to the extremity of the British islands, " when," as it is expressed in the verses of the poet Claudian, upon this achievement, " the distant Orcades were drenched with Saxon gore." By watching these occurrences, with others that were equally fatal, step by step, as they happen, we shall be the better able to understand how Bri- tain, when abandoned by the Roman legions, was in so reduced and helpless a state as to fall a prey to the barbarians. If that fact is presented to us in an isolated manner, it almost passes our com- prehension ; but, taken in connexion with great causes and the events of the two centuries that pre- ceded the Saxun conquest, it becomes perfectly in- telligible. Following an example which had become very prevalent in difterent parts of the disor- ganized empire, and which had been first set in Britain by Carausius, several officers, relying on the devotion of the legions and auxiliaries under their command, and supported sometimes by the affection of the people, cast off their allegiance to the emj)eror, and declared themselves independent sovereigns. It was the fashion of the servile histo- rians to call these provincial emperors " tyrants," or usurpers, and to describe Britain especially as being " insula tirannorum fertilis" — an island fer- tile in usurpers. But, in sober truth, these pro- vincial monarchs had as pure and legitimate a basis for their authority as any of the later empe- rors of Rome, in whose succession hereditary right and the will of the governed were alike disre- garded, and whose election depended on the chances of war and the caprices of a barbarian soldiery ; for the right of nomination to the vacant empire so long assumed by the Praetorian bands, and which right, questionable as it was, was still certain and ascertainable — still something like a settled rule — was soon overset, and disallowed by the men of all nations in arms on the frontiers. If a pretension had been set up for purity of Roman blood, or a principle established that the sovereign should be at least a Roman born, there would have been a line of exclusion drawn against the provincial officers ; but so far from this being the case, we find * Ammianus Marcellinusi lib. xxvii. and xxviii. that the large majority of the so-called legitimate Roman emperors were barbarians by race and blood— natives of lUyria and other more remote provinces, while several of the most distinguished of their number sprung from the very lowest orders of society. The most noted of the provincial emperors or pretenders that raised iheir standard in Britain was Maximus (a.d. 382) ; certainly a man of rank, and probably connected with the imperial family of Constantine the Great. If not born in Britain, he was of British descent, and had long resided in the island, where he had repelled the Picts and Scots. Brave, skilful, and exceedingly popular in Britain, Maximus might easily have retained the island, but his ambition induced him to aim at the possession of all that portion of the Western Roman empire which remained to Gratian ; and this eventually not only led to his ruin, but inflicted another dread- ful blow on British piosperity. He witlidrew nearly all the troops, and so many of the Britons followed him to Gaul, that the island was left almost defenceless, and utterly deprived of the flower of its youth and nobility. Many of these were swept off on the field of battle, many pre- vented by other causes from ever returning home. Gaul and Germany also gave willing recruits to the army of Maximus, who was left, by the defeat and death of Gratian, the undisputed master of Britain, Gaul, Spain, and Italy. He established the seat of his government for some time at Treves, and is said to have declared Victor, his son by a British wife, his partner in the empire of the west — a proceeding which could scarcely fail of grati- fying the host of Britons in his army. But Theo- dosius, called the Great, the emperor of the east, marched an overpowering army into the west, and, after being defeated in two great battles, Maximus retired to Aquileia, near the head of the Adriatic gulf, on the confines of Italy and Illyria, where he was betrayed to the conqueror, who ordered him to l)e put to death in the summer of 388. Theodosius the Great now reunited the Roman empires of the east and west. While Maximus was absent, conquering many lands, the Scots and Picts renewed their depredations in Britain. We are wearied of this sad repetition, but the moment of crisis is now at hand. Chrysantus, an able general, and the lieutenant of Theodosius in Bri- tain, wholly or partially expelled the invaders. Soon after this, Theodosius the Great died (a.d. 395), and again divided, by his will, the empire which his good fortune had reunited. Britain, with Gaul, Italy, and all the countries forming the empire of the west, he bequeathed to his son, Ho- norius, a boy only ten years of age, whom he placed under the guardianship of the famous Stili- cho, who fought long and bravely, but in vain, to prop the falling dignity of Rome. Theodosius was scarcely cold in his grave, when Picts, Scots, and Saxons again sought what they could devour. Sti- licho claimed some temporary advantages over them, but the inflated verses of his panegyrist Chap. I.] CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS.— A.D. 403. 55 are probably as far from the truth, as Claudian is from being a poet equal to Virgil.* While these events were passing in Britain (A.D. 403), the withered majesty of Rome was shrouded for ever : Africa was dismembered from her empire ; Dacia, Pannonia, Thrace, and other provinces were laid desolate ; and Alaric the Goth was ravaging Italy, and on his way to the eternal city. In this extremity, some Roman troops which had been lately sent into the island by Stilicho, were hastily recalled for the defence of Italy, and the Britons, again beset by the Picts and Scots, were left to shift for themselves. The islanders seem to have felt the natural love of independence, but there was no unanimity, no political wisdom, and probably but little good prin- ciple among them. Seeing the necessity of a com- mon leader to fight their battles, they permitted the soldiery to elect one Marcus emperor of Britain (a.d. 407); and, shortly after, they permitted the same soldiery to dethrone him, and put him to death. The troops then set up one Gratian, whom, in less tlian four months, they also deposed and murdered. Their third choice fell upon Constan- tine, an officer of low rank, or, according to others, a common soldier. They are said to have chosen him merely on account of his bearing the imperial and auspicious name of Constantine ; but he soon showed he had other properties more valuable than a name ; and had he been contented with the sovereign possession of Britain, he might possibly have foiled its invaders, and reigned with peace and some glory. But, like Maximus, he aspired to the whole empire of the west, and, like Maximus, he fell (a.d. 411), after having caused the loss of vast numbers of British youths, whom he disci- plined and took with him to his wars on the conti- nent. At one part of his short career, Constantino made himself master of nearly the whole of Gaul, and pill his son Constans, who had previously been a monk at Winchester, in possession of Spain. In the course of this Spanish campaign, it is curious to remark, that in Constantine's army there were two bands of Scots or Attacotti.f Soon after the fall of Constantine we find Ge- rontius, a powerful chief, and a Briton by birth, cul- tivating a close connexion with.the Teutonic tribes; and, at his instigation, the barbarians from beyond the Rhine, by whom we are to understand the Saxons, continued to invade the unhappy island. Such underhand villanies are always common in the downfall of nations (but can the Romanized Britons fairly be called a nation ?) ; and we find other chiefs, worse than Gerontius, in secret league with the more barbarous Picts and Scots. It appears that after the death of Constantine, Honorius, during the short breathing-time allowed him by his numerous enemies, twice sent over a few troops for the recovery and protection of Britain, the sovereignty of which he still claimed; but his exigencies soon obliged him to recall them, and about the year 420, nearly five centuries after * Cluud, de Bello Uallieo, f Notitia Imperii, sect, xxxviii. Caesar's first invasion, and after being masters of the best part of it during nearly four centuries, the Roman emperors finally abandoned the island. The Britons had already deposed the magistrates appointed by Rome, proclaimed their independence, and taken up arms for that defence against their invaders which the emperor could no longer give ; but the final disseverance was not accompanied by reproach or apparent ill-will. On the contrary, a mutual friendship subsisted for some time after between the islanders and the Romans ; and the emperor Honorius, in a letter addressed to the states or cities of Britain, seemed formally to release them from their allegiance, and to acknow- ledge the national independence. For some years after the departure of the Romans the historian has to grope his way in the dark ; nor is it easy to determine the precise condition of the country. It appears, however, that the free muni- cipal government of the cities was presently over- thrown by a multitude of military chiefs, who were principally of British, but partly of Roman origin. It was a period to appreciate the warrior who could fight against the Scots and Picts rather than the peaceful magistrate ; and the voice of civil liberty would be rarely heard in the din of war and inva- sion. In a very few years all traces of a popular government disappeared, and a number of petty chiefs reigned absolutely and tyrannically under the pompous name of kings, though the kingdoms of few of them could have been so large as a second- rate modern county of England. Instead of uniting for their general safety, at least until the invaders were repelled, these mtain a more perfect knowledge of the system were still wont to pass over into Britain to study it. Although, therefore, his sketch pro- fesses to relate only to the Druidism of Gaul, we may safely assume that it is in general equally ap- plicable to that of Britain. The Druids, according to Caesar, formed throughout the whole of Gaul one of the two honourable classes of the population, the Equites, or military order, forming the other. The office of the Druids was that of presiding over sacred things, of performing all public and private sacrifices, and generally of directing all religious matters. They were also the teachers of great numbers of youth, who resorted to them for instruc- tion in their discipline. But the function which procured them the highest honour was that which they discharged as the judges by whom were de- termined almost all disputes or litigations, both public and private. If any criminal act was done, if any murder was committed, if any difference arose about an inheritance or the boundaries of land, the. decision lay with them ; they appointed the reward or the penalty. But even in this capa- city of administrators of the law, religion was the instrument they made use of to enforce obedience to their sentences. Whoever he was, whether a private individual or a person discharging a public office, that on any occasion refused to abide by their decree, they interdicted him from being pre- sent at the sacrifices. The exercise of this power, resembling the modern ecclesiastical weapon oi excommunication, inflicted a punishment of the greatest severity. The person interdicted was held 60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. as one impious and accursed ; all men shunned him, and fled from his approach and converse, lest they should receive injury from his very touch ; he lost the protection of the law, and was excluded from all offices of honour. The Druidical hierarchy, it is plain from this account, held in their hands the regulation and control of by far the most important part of the internal aifairs of the commiuiity, thus occupy- ing a position in the state very similar to that formerly held in many countries by the Chris- tian priesthood ; but, if anything, still more com- manding than that was, even in the darkest pe- riod of modem history. It was distinctly another power, if not superior to the civil power, at least certainly not in any respect in subjection to it. Caesar goes on to tell us that there was one head Druid set over the whole body, who was elected to his place of supreme authority by the suffrages of the rest, whenever it happened that there was no single individual of their number whose merits were so pre-eminent as to prevent all competition for the vacant dignity. The struggle, however, among the partisans of various candidates for the primacy sometimes came to a contest of arms. The Druids of Gaul were wont to hold a meeting at a certain time of every year in a consecrated place in the territory of the Camutes, which was considered to be the central region of Gaul ; and hither all people flocked who had any litigations, and sub- mitted themselves to their decisions and judgments. The spot here referred to is supposed to have been that on which the town of Dreux, in the Pais de Chartrain, now stands ; and here it is thought the chief Druid had his residence. The seat of the Druidical primacy in Britain is conjectured to have been the isle of Anglesey. Csesar goes on to state that the Druids were not accustomed to take part in war, nor did they pay any taxes, enjoying both exemption from military service and freedom from all other public burdens. The consequence of these privileges was, that num- bers of persons both came of their own accord to be trained up in their discipline, and were sent to them by their parents and relations. A part of the education of these pupils was said to consist in learning by heart a great number of verses, and on that account some of them remained twenty years at their studies ; for the Druids did not deem it right to commit their instructions to writing, although, in most other things, and in both their public and private affairs of business, they used, Csesar seems to say, according to the reading of most manuscripts of his text, the Greek characters. Even if the epithet Greek is an interpolation here, as some critics have supposed, the important part of the statement remains unaffected, namely, that the Druids were familiar with the art of writing. Caesar supposes that they refrained from commit- ting their religious doctrines to writing for two reasons : first, because they did not wish that the knowledge of their system should be diffused among the people at large ; secondly, because they thought that the learners, having written characters to trust to, would bestow less pains in cultivating their memory, it generally happening that dili- gence in acquiring knowledge, and the exercise of the power of memory, are relaxed under a sense of the security which written characters afford. He then proceeds to give an account of the doc- frines taught by the Druids. The chief doctrine which they inculcated was that commonly known by the name of the metempsychosis or transmigra- tion of souls, a favourite principle of some of the most ancient religious and philosophical creeds both of the east and of the west. They asserted that when a man died his spirit did not perish, but passed immediately into another body ; and this article of faith, by its power of vanquishing the fear of death, they considered to be the most effica- cious that could be instilled into the minds of men for the excitement of heroic virtue. They also discussed and delivered to their pupils many things respecting the heavenly bodies and their motions, the magnitude of the universe and the earth, the nature of things, and the force and power of the im- mortal gods. The whole nation of the Gauls, Caesar remarks, was greatly given to religious observances ; and on that account those persons who were attacked by any serious disease, or were involved in the dan- gers of warfare, were accustomed either to immo- late human victims, or to vow that they would, and to employ the Druids to perform these sacrifices ; their opinion being that the gods were not to be propitiated, unless for the life of a man the life of a man were offered up. There were also sacrifices of the same kind appointed on behalf of the state. Sometimes images of wicker work, of immense size, were constructed, which, being filled with liv- ing men, were then set fire to, and the men perished in the flames. They regarded the destruction in this manner of persons taken in the commission of theft or robbery, or any other delinquency, as most agreeable to the gods ; but when the supply of sxich criminals was insufficient, they did not hesi- tate to make victims of the innocent. The account is concluded by a short enumera- tion of the divinities worshipped by the. Gauls. The chief object of their adoration, it is stated, was Mercury : of this god they had numerous images ; they regarded him as the inventor of all arts, as the guide of men in highways and in their jour- neys, and as having the greatest power in every- thing belonging to the pursuits of wealth and commerce. After him they worshipped Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, holding nearly the same opinion with regard to each as other nations ; namely, that Apollo warded off diseases — that Mi- nerva w^as the first instructor in manufactures and handicrafts — that Jupiter was the sovereign of the inhabitants of heaven — that Mars was the ruler of war. To him, when they came to the determina- tion of engaghig in a battle, they commonly de- voted whatever spoil they had taken in war ; out of what remained to them after the fight, they sacrificed everything that was alive, and gathered Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 61 the rest together into one spot. Heaps of things thus put aside in consecrated places were to be seen in many of the states, and it was rarely that any person was so regardless of religion as to dare either secretly to retain any part of the spoil in his own possession, or to take it away when thus laid up : for such a crime there was appointed a very severe punishment, accompanied with torture. It is added that all the Gauls believed themselves to be descended from Father Dis or Pluto, saying that the fact was declared to be so by the Druids. On that account, they reckoned time not by days but by nights, so regulating their birthdays, and the beginnings of months and years, that the night came first and then the day.* Such is the outline of the Druidical superstition and system of ecclesiastical polity which has been left to us by this accurate and sagacious observer, not writing from hearsay, but describing what he saw with his own eyes, or had otherwise the best opportunities of learning on the spot. Of all the writers in whom we find any notices of the disci- pline or doctrines of the Druids, there is perhaps scarcely another who can be regarded as speaking to us on the subject from his own observation. We have no reason to suppose that any of the rest ever was in a country where the Druidical religion was established. Some of the ancient authorities who are commonly referred to can scarcely be con- sidered as even the contemporaries of Druidism either in Britain or Gaul. As in these circumstances was to be expected, the account given by Caesar may be affirmed not to he contradicted in any material particular, by those supplied to us from other quarters ; but his sketch is a rapid and general one, and other ancient writers have enabled us to fill it up in various parts with some curious and interesting details. Such of these as seem to be most deserving of attention, we shall now proceed to notice. It is remarkable that Caesar nowhere makes any mention of the sacred groves and the reverence paid to the oak, which make so great a figure in most of the other accounts of Druidism. Among various derivations which have been given of the name of the Druids, the most probable seems to be that which brings it from D7-ui, the Celtic word for an oak, corruptly written in the modem Irish Droi, and more corruptly Draoi, but without the pro- nunciation being altered, and making in the plural Druidhe.f Drui is the same word with Drns, which signifies an oak in the Greek language ; and also, indeed, with the English tree, which in the old Maesogothic was triu. The name Dryades given to their nymphs or goddesses of the woods by the Greeks, is only another form of the name Druids, given to their priests of the woods by the Celts. It is curious that Diodorus Siculus calls the philosophers and theologians of the Gauls, by which he evidently means the Druids, Saronides ; the original signification of the Greek word Saron, according to Hesychius, being an oak. ♦ Caesar de Bello G;.Uico, vi. 13, 14, 16, 17, 18. + Toland, p. 17 " If you come," says the philosopher Seneca, writing to his friend Lucilius, " to a grove thick planted with ancient trees which have outgrown the usual altitude, and which shut out the view of the heaven with their interwoven boughs, the vast height of the wood, and the retired secrecy of the place, and the wonder and awe inspired by so dense and unbroken a gloom in the midst of the open day, impress you with the conviction of a present deity."* These natural feelings of the human mind were taken advantage of and turned to ac- count by the Druids, as we find them to have been in the other most primitive and simple forms of ancient superstition. Pliny informs us that the oak was the tree which they principally venerated, that they chose groves of oak for their residence, and performed no sacred rites without the leaf of that tree. The geographer Pomponius Mela describes them as teaching the youths of noble families, that thronged to them in caves, or in the depths of forests. We have seen that when (a.d. 61) Sue. tonius Paulinus attacked and made himself master of the isle of A\nglesey, he cut down the Druidical groves, " hallowed," says Tacitus, " with cruel superstitions ; for they held it right to stain their altars with the blood of prisoners taken in war, and to seek to know the mind of the gods from the fibres of human victims." f The poet Lucan, in a celebrated passage on the Druids and the doc- trines of their religion, has not forgotten their sacred groves : — " The Druids now, while arras are heard no more, Old mysteries and barbarous rites restore , A tribe, who singular relitjion love. And haunt the lonely coverts of the grove. To these, and these of all mankind alone, The gods are sure reveal'd, or sure unknown. If dying mortals' dooms they sing aris;ht. No ghosts descend to dwell in dreadful night; No parting souls to grisly Pluto go, Nor seek the dreary silent shndes below; But forth they fly, immortal in their kind. And other bodies in new worlds they find. Thus life for ever runs its endless race. And like a line Death but divides the space ; A stop which can but for a moment last, A point between the future and the past. Thrice happy they beneath their northern skies. Who that worst fear, the fear of death, despise Hence they no cares for this frail being feel, But rush undaunted on the pointed steel; Provoke appro.iching fate, and bravely scorn To spare that life which must so soon return."' t No Druidical grove, we believe, now remains in any part of Great Britain ; but within little more than a century, ancient oaks were still standing around some of the circles of stones set upright in the earth, which are supposed to have been the temples of the old religion. In the parish of Holywood in Dumfries-shire, for instance, there is such a temple, formed of twelve very large stones, inclosing a piece of ground about eighty yards in diameter, and although there are now no trees to be seen near the spot, " there is a tradition," says an account of the parish published in 1791, " of their existing in the last age ;" and it is added, " many of their roots have been dug out of the ground by the present minister, and he has still • M. A. Senecae Epist. 41. + Tac. An. xiv. 30 t Pharsalia i. 462 ; Rowe's translation. See also, iii. 390, &c. 62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. 'E-^ ^- — K Grove of Oaks.— From a Picture by Ruysdael. one in his possession." As far as can be gathered from the vestiges of such of these sacred inclosures as remain least defaced, they seem in their perfect state to have generally consisted of the circular row or double row of stones in the central open space (the proper lucus, or place of light), and beyond these, of a wood surrounded by a ditch and a mound. A holy fountain, or rivulet, appears also to have usually watered the grove. The rever- ence for rivers or streams, and more especially for spings or wells, is another of the most prevalent of ancient superstitions ; and it is one which, having, along with many other Pagan customs, been adopted and sanctioned, or at least tolerated, by Christianity as first preached by the Roman missionaries, and being, besides, in some sort re- commended to the reason by the high utility of the object of regard, has not even yet altogether passed away. The cultivation, too, or the decay from lapse of time, which has almost everywhere swept away the antique religious grove, has for the most part spared the holy well. In the centre of the circle of upright stones is sometimes found what is still called a cromlech, a flat stone supported in a horizontal position upon others set perpendicularly in the earth, being apparently the altar on which the sacrifices were offered up, and on which the sacred fire was kept burning.* The name cromlech is said to signify the stone for bowing to or wor- shipping. Near to the temple frequently rises a carnedd, or sacred mount, from which it is con- jectured that the priests addressed the people. The Platonic philosopher Maximus Tyrius, tells us that the Celtic nations all worshipped Jupiter * [Since this was ■written, it has been decidfid that cromlechs are sepulchres. The name may be derived from cromadh (Gaelic), or cromen (Welsh), a roof or vault, and clach or lech, a stone.] I Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 44.9. 63 Kits Cory House, a Cromlech, near Aylesford, Kent. under the visible representation of a lofty oak. But the most remarkable of the Uruidical super- stitions connected with the oak, was the reverence paid to the parasitical plant called the mistletoe, when it was found growing on that tree. Pliny has given us an account of the ceremony of gather- ing this plant, which, like all the other sacred solemnities of the Druids, was performed on the sixth day of the moon, probably because the planet has usually at that age become distinctly visible. It is thought that the festival of gathering the mis- tletoe was kept always as near to the 10th of March, which was their New Year's Day, as this rule would permit. Having told us that the Druids believed that God loved the oak above all the other trees, and that everything growing upon that tree came from heaven, he adds, that there is nothing they held more sacred than the mistletoe of the oak. Whenever the plant was found on that tree, which it very rarely was, a procession was made to it on the sacred day with great form and pomp. First two white bulls were bound to the oak by their horns ; and then a Druid clothed in white mounted the tree, and with a knife of gold cut the mistletoe, which another, standing on the ground, held out his white robe to receive. The sacrifice of the victims and festive rejoicings followed. The sacredness of the mistletoe is said to have been also a part of the ancient religious creed of the Per- sians, and not to be yet forgotten in India; and it is one of the Druidical superstitions of which traces still survive among our popular customs. Virgil, a diligent student of the poetry of old reli- gions, has been thought to intend an allusion to it by the golden branch which ^neas had to pluck to be his passport to the infernal regions. Indeed the poet expressly likens the branch to the mistle- toe : — " Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, Et croceo fetii teretes circumdare tnincoR ; Talis erat specifs auri frondenlis opaca nice ; sic leni crepitabat bractea vento." Mn. VI. 209. As in the woods beneath mid-winter's snow Shoots from the oak, the fresh-leaved mistletoe, Girding the dark stem with its saffron glow; So sprung the bright gold from the dusky rind. So the leaf nistled in the fanning wind. The entire body of the Druidical priesthood ap- pears to have been divided into several orders or classes ; but there is some uncertainty and differ- ence of opinion as to the characters and offices of each. Strabo and Ammianus Marcellinus are the ancient authorities upon this head ; and they both make the orders to have been three — the Druids, the Vates, and the Bards. Marcellinus calls the Vates, according to one reading, Euhages, which is most probably a corruption, but according to an- other Eubates, which is evidently the same with Strabo's Ouates, or Vates. It is agreed that the Bards were poets and musicians. Marcellinus says that they sung the brave deeds of illustrious men, composed in heroic verses, with sweet modulations of the lyre ; and Diodorus Siculus, who does not include them among the theologians and philoso- 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. phcrs whom he calls Saxonides, also mentions them in nearly the same terms. He states that they com- posed poems, some of which were celebrations, and others invectives, and sung them to the music of an instrument resembling the Greek and Roman lyre. The Vates, according to Strabo, were priests and physiologists ; but Marcellinus seems to assign to them only the latter office, saying that they in- quired into nature, and endeavoured to discover the order of her processes and her sublimest secrets. The Latin word vales, it may be observed, although frequently used for a poet, and sometimes indeed for a person of very eminent skill in other intellectual arts, seems properly to have always implied some- thing prophetic or divine. Such is said also to be the signification of the Celtic Faidhy which, in modern Irish, is used for a prophet, and is believed to have been in former times the name of an order of sooth- sayers or sacred poets both in Ireland and in Scot- land. The Druids Strabo speaks of as combining the study of physiology with that of moral science ; Marcellinus describes them as persons of a loftier genius than the others, who addressed themselves to the most occult and profound inquiries, and rising in their contemplations above this human scene declared the spirits of men to be immortal. Some modern writers, disregarding altogether these ancient authorities, have conjectured that the ])ruids, as forming the chief order of the hierar- chy, had under them first the Bards, whom they make the same with the Saronides, and to have been poets and musicians ; secondly, the Euhages Group of AKrn-DKUiD anp Druids. Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 65 or Eubages, who studied natural philosophy; and, thirdly, the Vates, who ])erformed the sacrifices. It is at least highly probable that all these classes were considered as belonging to the Druidical body.* A remarkable fact mentioned by Marcel- linus is that the Druids, properly so called, lived together in communities or brotherhoods. This, however, cannot have been the case with all the members of the order; for we have reason to be- lieve that the Druids frequently reckoned among their number some of the sovereigns of the Celtic states, whose civil duties of course would not per- mit them to indulge in this monastic life. Divi- tiacus, the ^duan prince, who performed so re- markable a part, as related by Caesar, in the drama of the subjugation of his country by the Roman arms, is stated by Cicero to have been a Druid. Cicero tells us that he knew Divitiacus, who was wont both to profess to be familiar with that study of nature which the Greeks called physiology, and to make predictions respecting future events, partly by augury, partly by conjecture. -j" Strabo records it to have been a notion among the Gauls that the more Druids they had among them, the more plentiful would be their harvests, and the greater their abundance of all good things ; and we may therefore suppose that the numbers of the Druids were very considerable. Toland, who, in what he calls his " Specimen of the Critical History of the Celtic Religion and Learning," has collected many curious facts, and who probably had authorities of one kind or another for most of the things he has advanced, although they were unfortunately reserved for a subsequent work of greater detail, which never appeared, has given us the following account of the dress of the Druids. Every Druid, he informs us, carried a wand or staff, such as magicians in all countries have done, and had what was called a Druid's egg (to which we shall advert pre- sently) hung about his neck enclosed in gold. All the Druids wore the hair of their heads short, and their beards long ; while other people wore the hair of their heads long, and shaved all their beards with the exception of the upper lip. " They like- wise," he continues, " all wore long habits, as did the Bards and the Vaids (the Vates) ; but the Druids had on a white surplice whenever they religiously officiated. In Ireland, they, with the graduate Bards and Vaids, had the privilege of wearing six colours in their breacans or robes (which were the striped braccae of the Gauls, still worn by the Highlanders) ; whereas the king and queen might have in theirs but seven, lords and ladies five, governors of fortresses four, oflicers and young gentlemen of quality three, common soldiers two, and common people one. These particulars appear to have been collected from the Irish traditions or Bardic manuscripts. * Strabo.iv. ; Ammian. Marcell. xv. 9; Diod. Sic. v. 31 ; Toland's History of the Druids, pp. 24 — 29; Rowland's Mona Antiqua, p. 65; Borlase's ConiWdll, p. (>/ ; Macpherson's Dissertations, p. 203 ; Bouche's Histoire de Provence, i. G8; Fosbroke's Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, ii. 662. f De Divinatione, 1. 41. It is commonly said that there were Druidessea as well as Druids, and some modern writers have even given us a minute account of the several de- grees or orders of this female hierarchy ; but the notion does not seem to rest upon any sufficient authority. On the contrary, Strabo expressly tells us that it was a rule with the Druids, which they most strictly observed, never to communicate any of their secret doctrines to women, having no faith, it seems, in the doctrine held by some of the moderns, that a woman can keep a secret. Vopiscus, indeed, relates that the Emperor Au- relian on one occasion consulted certain female fortune-tellers of Gaul, whom this historian calls Druidesses, and that one of these personages also another time delivered a warning to Alexander Severus ; but the women in question seem to have been merely a sort of sibyls or witches. The art of divination, as we have already seen from the ex- ample of Divitiacus, was one of the favourite pre- tensions of the Druidical, as it has been of most other systems of superstition. The British Druids, indeed, appear to have professed the practice of magic in this and all its other departments. Pliny observes that in his day this supernatural art was cultivated with such astonishing ceremonies in Bri- tain, that the Persians themselves might seem to have acquired the knowledge of it from that island. In the Irish tongue a magician is still called Drui, and the magic art Druidheach, that is Druidity, as it might be literally translated.* In the Irish translation of the Scriptures the magicians of Egypt are called the Druids of Egypt, and the same name is given to the magi or wise men from the east mentioned in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Julian tells us that the Druids of Gaul were libe- rally paid by those who consulted them for their revelations of the future, and the good fortune they promised. Among their chief methods of divination was that from the entrails of victims offered in sacrifice. One of their practices was remarkable for its strange and horrid cruelty, if we may believe the account of Diodorus Siculus. In sacrificing a man they would grve him the mor- tal blow by the stroke of a sword above the dia- phragm, and then, according to rules which had descended to them from their forefathers, they would draw their predictions from inspection of the posture in which the dying wretch fell, the con- vulsions of his quivering limbs, and the direction in which the blood flowed from his body. A wild story is told by Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Cessation of Oracles, about a discovery made by a person named Demetrius, of an island in the neigh- bourhood of Britain, inhabited by a few Britons who were esteemed sacred and inviolable by their countrymen. Immediately after his arrival, it is affirmed, the air grew black and troubled, and strange apparitions were seen ; the winds rose to a tempest, and fiery spots and whirlwinds appeared dancing towards the earth. Demetrius was told that all this turmoil of the elements was occasioned * Toland, p. 20. vol. I. E 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. by the death of one of a certain race of invisible beings who frequented the isle. It has been con- jectured that this island was either Anglesey, or one of the Hebrides, and that the persons inhabiting it were Druids, who thus affected a commerce with the world of spirits and supernatural powers. Some- what resembling this account is that given by Mela of the island of Sena, which he describes as situ- ated in the British sea, opposite to the coast inha- bited by the Osismi, and which is believed to be the isle of Sain, near the coast of Britany. It was famous, according to the ancient geographer, for the oracle of a certain Gallic divinity. The priestesses, who were called Barrigenae, were said to be nine in number, and to have vowed perpetual virginity. They were thought to be endowed with various singular powers, such as that of raising the waves and winds with their songs, of changing themselves into whatever animals they chose, of healing diseases which were incurable by the skill of others, and of knowing and predicting future events ; these, however, they revealed only to ma- riners who came on purpose to consult them. It is highly probable that the moon was the deity which was here worshipped.* There is reason to believe that the Druids, like other ancient teachers of religion and philosophy, had an esoteric or secret doctrine, in which the members of the order were instructed, of a more refined and spiritual character than that which they preached to the multitude. Diogenes Laertius ac- quaints us, that the substance of their system of faith and practice was comprised in three precepts, namely, to worship the gods, to do no evil, and to behave courageously. They were reported, how- ever, he says, to teach their philosophy in enig- matic apophthegms. Mela also expresses himself as if he intended us to understand that the greater part of their theology was reserved for the initiated. One doctrine, he says, that of the immortality of the soul, they published, in order that the people might be thereby animated to bravery in war. The language of this writer would rather imply, that what they promised was merely the continuance of existence in another world. The people, he tells us, in consequence of their belief in this doctrine, were accustomed when they buried their dead to bum and inter along with them things useful for the living ; a statement which is confirmed by the common contents of the barrows or graves of the ancient Britons. He adds a still better evidence of the strength of their faith. They were wont, it seems, to put off the settlement of accounts and the exaction of debts, till they should meet again in the shades below. It also sometimes happened, that persons not wishing to be parted from their friends who had died, would throw themselves into the funeral piles of the objects of their attachment, with the view of thus accompanying them to their new scene of life. It does not seem to be easy to reconcile these statements with the common sup- position that the doctrine on the subject of the * Don Marline: ReliRinn des GaulloU. immortality of the soul taught by the Druids, was that of the Metempsychosis, or its transmigration immediately after death into another body. Yet we find the practice of self-immolation also pre- valent in India, along with a belief in the soul's transmigration, under the Brahminical system of religion. Perhaps we may derive some assistance in solving the difficulty, from the statement which has been little noticed of Diodorus Siculus. This writer, speaking of the Gauls, says that they be- lieved that the souls of the dead returned to animate other bodies after the lapse of a certain number of years. In the mean time, it seems to have been thought, they lived with other similarly dis- embodied spirits in some other world; for it is added that, in this belief, when they buried their dead they were wont to address letters to their de- ceased friends and relations, which they threw into the funeral pile, as if the persons to whom they were addressed would in this way receive and read them. Other writers, in their account of the Druidical doctrine of the immortality of the soul, expressly affirm that the spirits of the dead were thought to enjoy their future existence only in another world. * There has also been some dis- pute as to whether the Druidical metempsychosis included the transmigration of the soul into animals, as well as from one to another human form.f It has been conjectured that the fundamental principle of the Druidical esoteric doctrine was the belief in one God. For popular effect, however, this opinion, if it ever was really held even by the initiated, appears to have been from the first wrapped up and disguised in an investment of materialism, as it was presented by them to the gross apprehen- sion of the vulgar. The simplest, purest, and most ancient form of the public religion of the Druids, seems to have been the worship of the celestial luminal ies and of fire. The sun appears to have been adored under the same name of Bel or Baal, by which he was distinguished as a divinity in the paganism of the East. t We have already had occa- sion to notice their observance of the moon in the regulation of the times of their great religious festi- vals. These appear to have been four in number : the first was the 10th of March, or the sixth day of the moon nearest to that, which, as already men- tioned, was their New Year's Day, and that on which the ceremony of cutting the misletoe was performed ; the others were the 1st of May, Mid- summer Eve, and the last day of October. On all these occasions the chief celebration was by fire. On the eve of the festival of the 1st of May, the tradition is, that all the domestic fires throughout the country were extinguished, and lighted again the next day from the sacred fire kept always burn- ing in the temples. " The Celtic nations," ob- serves Toland, " kindled other fires on Midsum- mer eve, which are still continued by the Roman • Ammian. Marcel, lib. XV. + See Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, pp. 94, 95; and Fos- broke's Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, ii. 662. i The author of " Rritannia after the Romans," however, denies that the Celtic Beli or Belinus has any connexion with the Oriental Baal or Bel. Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 67 Catholics of Ireland, making them in all their grounds, and carrying flaming brands about their cornfields. This they do likewise all over France, and in some of the Scottish isles. These Midsum- mer fires and sacrifices were to obtain a blessing on the fruits of the earth, now becoming ready for gathering ; as those of the 1st of May, that they might prosperously grow ; and those of the last of October were the thanksgiving for finishing their harvest." In Ireland, and also in the north of Scotland, the 1st of May, and in some places the 21st of June, is still called Beltein or Beltane, that is, the day of the Bel Fire; and imitations of the old superstitious ceremonies were not long ago still generally performed. In Scotland a sort of sacrifice was off'ered up, and one of the persons present, upon whom the lot fell, leaped three times through the flames of the fire. In Ireland the cottagers . all drove their cattle through the fire. Even in some parts of England the practice still prevails of light- ing fires in parishes on Midsummer eve.* The adoration of fire was the adoration of what was conceived to be one of the great principles or sovereign powers of nature. Water was another of^ the elements, or ultimate constituents of things, as they were long deemed to be, which appears to have been in like manner held sacred, and in some sort worshipped. There is reason to believe that as the sun and moon, although sometimes wor- • See Statistical Account of Scotland, iii. 105, t. 84, and xi. 620 j Vallancey's Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, p. 19; and Brande's Popular Antiquities, i. 238, &c. shipped together, had at other times tlieir rival and contending votaries ; so the adorers of water were sometimes considered as the opponents of those of fire. We know, at least, that contests took place between them in the East; and there are some traces to be detected of the separation and mutual aversion of the two creeds, also in the West. All these diff'erences, no doubt, originated in the prefer- ences, gradually more and more displayed, by some persons for one, by others for another, of several imaginary deities which had been all at first the objects of a common worship, till at last the pre- ference became an exclusive adoption, and the god of the rival sect was either altogether deprived of divine honours and veneration, or, what was more in accordance with the spirit of superstition, was denounced as a demon or power of evil, and as such still believed in, though with trembling and abhorrence. But after this state of things had lasted for some time, it might naturally enough happen, in favourable circumstances, that the di- vided creeds would lay aside their hostility and again coalesce; the worship of Baal, for instance, thus recombining with that of Ashtaroth, or the adorers of fire and those of water consenting to bow down and make their ofiferings together to both deities. Some indication of such a reconcilement as this last, seems to be pret-ented in the doctrine according to Strabo, held by the Druids respecting the destiny of the material world, which they taught was never to be entirely destroyed or annihilated, but was nevertheless to undergo an endless succes- Sk.bttbt Hili., in Wiltshire. — Coniectured to be a colossal Barrow. 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Stonehenge. sion of great revolutions, some of which were to be eifected by the power of fire, others by that of water. Another of the most remarkable principles of primitive Druidism appears to have been the wor- ship of the Serpent ; a superstition so widely ex- tended, as to evince its derivation from the most an- cient traditions of the human race. Pliny has given us a curious account of the anguinum, or serpent's egg, which he tells us was worn as their distin- guishing badge by the Druids. He had himself seen it, he says, and it was about the bigness of an apple, its shell being a cartilaginous incrustation, full of little cavities like those on the legs of the polypus. Marvels of all kinds were told of this production. It was said to be formed, at first, by a great number of serpents twined together, whose hissing at last raised it into the air, when it was to be caught, ere it fell to the ground, in a clean white cloth, by a person mounted on a swift horse, who had immediately to ride off at full speed, the en- raged serpents pursuing him until they were stopped (as witches still are supposed to be in the popular faith) by a running water. If it were genuine it would, when enchased in gold and thrown into a river, swim against the stream. All the virtues also of a charm were ascribed to it. In particular, the person who carried it about with him was ensured against being overcome in any dispute in which he might engage, and might count upon success in his attempts at obtaining the favour and friendship of the great. It has been conjectured on highly pro- bable grounds, that the great Druidical temples of Avebury, of Stonehenge, of Carnac in Britany, and most of the others that remain both in Britain and Gaul, were dedicated to the united worship of the sun and the serpent, and that the form of their construction is throughout emblematical of this combination of the two religions.* But, however comparatively simple and re- stricted may have been the Druidical worship in its earliest stage, there is sufficient evidence that, at a later period, its gods came to be much more numerous. Caesar, as we have already seen, men- tions among those adored by the Gauls, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. It is to be regretted that the historian did not give us the Cel- tic names of the deities in question, rather than the Roman names which he considered, from the simi- larity of attributes, to be their representatives. Livy however tells us that the Spanish Celts called Mercury, Teutates ; the same word, no doubt, with the Phoenician Taaut, and the Egyptian Thoth, which are stated by various ancient writers to be the same with the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Mercury of the Latins.t Mercury is probably, also, the Oriental Budha, and the Scandinavian Woden ; the same day of the week, it is observa- ble, being in the Oriental, the Northern, and the Latin countries respectively, called after or dedi- cated to these three names. Hesus appears to • See on this subject a curious Dissertation by the Uev. B. Deane, in the Archaeologia. vol. xxv. (for 1834), pp. 188—229. + Philobiblius ex Sauconiath.— Cic. de Nat. D. iii. 22. Section 1 to 2. [No. 1. — Ground Plan of the Temple, with a sectional view of the same from 1 to 2 — i. e, from cast to west. The plan, though on a small scale, sliows the relative proportions and arrangements of the lofty bank, or vallum, e; the ditch, or moat,/; the commencement of the western, or Beckhampton Avenue, a; the southern, or Kennet Avenue, b; the southern inner temple, c; the northern inner temple, d.] [No. 2.— P/an, or Map of the whole Temple, with its two avenues, c and d; the temple, a; a small temple, e; Silbury Hill,/; high ground, g\ a line of road, or British track-way, A; the course of the river Kennet, t; line of Roman road from Bath to London,*; • * barrows; sites of villages, I.] /TTR i^iv N N C S Gaulish Deities. — From Roman Bas-reliefs under the Choir of Notre Dame, Parts. have been the Celtic name for Mars. Apollo seems to have been considered the same with the Sun, as he also was by the Greeks and Romans, and to have been known by the name of Bel, the same with the Oriental Baal. Jupiter is thought to have been called Jow, which means young, from his being the youngest son of Saturn, whom both Cicero and Dionysius of Halicamassus affirm to have been also adored by the Celtic nations. Bacchus, Ceres, Proserpine, Diana, and other gods of Greece and Rome, also appear to have all had their repre- sentatives in the Druidioal worship ; if, indeed, the classic theology did not borrow these divinities from the Celts. Another of the Celtic gods was Taranis, whose name signifies the God of Thunder. The earliest Druidism seems, like the kindred superstition of Germany, as described by Tacitus, to have admitted neither of covered temples nor of sculptured images of the gods. Jupiter, indeed, is said to have been represented by a lofty oak, and Mercury by a cube — the similarity of that geome- trical figure on all sides typifying that perfect truth and unchangeableness which were held to belong to this supreme deity ; but these are to be 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. considered ii3t as attempts to imitate the supposed bodily forms of the gods, but only as emblematic illustrations of their attributes. At a later period, however, material configurations of the objects of worship seem to have been introduced. Gildas speaks of such images as still existing in great numbers in his time, among the unconverted Bri- tons. They had a greater number of gods, he says, than the Egyptians themselves, there being hardly a river, lake, mountain, or wood, which had not its divinity. Montfaucon has given an engraving of an image of the god Hesus, and another of another Celtic god, whose name appears to have been Cernunnos, from bas-reliefs found under the choir of the church of N6tre Dame, at Paris, in 1 T 1 1 . In the preceding page we have inserted copies of both. With regard to the peculiar forms of the Druidi- cal worship, little information has come down to us. Pliny has merely recorded that, in offering the sacrifice, the officiating priest was wont to pray to the divinity to send down a blessing upon the of- ferer. Popular tradition has preserved the me- mory of the practice by the worshippers of the Deasuil or Deisol, which consisted in moving roimd, in imitation of the apparent course of the sun, from the east by the south to the west.* Pliny states that at some of the sacred rites of the Britons tlie women went naked, only having their skins stained dark with the juice of the woad. As for the human sacrifices of which Caesar speaks, his account is fully borne out by the testi- monies of various other ancient authors. Strabo describes the image of wicker or straw, in which, he says, men and all descriptions of cattle and beasts were -roasted together. He also relates, that sometimes the victims were crucified, sometimes shot to death with arrows. The statement of Dio- dorus Siculus is, that criminals were kept under ground for five years, and then offered up as sacri- fices to the gods by being impaled, and burned in great fires along with quantities of other offerings. He adds, that they also immolated the prisoners they had taken in war, and along with them de- voured, burned, or in some other manner destroyed likewise whatever cattle they had taken from their enemies. Plutarch tells us, that the noise of songs and musical instruments was employed on these occasions to drown the cries of the sufferers, f Pliny is of opinion that a part of every human vic- tim was ate by the Druids ; but what reason he had for thinking so does not appear, nor does the supposition seem to be probable in itself. Upon the subject of the practice of human sacrifice it has been observed, that " if we rightly consider this point we shall perceive that, shocking as it is, it is yet a step towards the humanizing of savages ; for the mere brute man listens only to his ferocious passions and horrid appetites, and slays and devours all the enemies he can conquer ; but the priest, per- suading him to select only the best and bravest as sacrifices to his protecting deity, thereby, in fact, preserves numberless lives, and puts an end to the • See upon this subject Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 123,&c. * De Superstitione. caimibalism which has justly been looked upon a? the last degradation of human nature." * The origin of Druidism, and its connexion with other ancient creeds of religion and philosophy, have given occasion to much curious speculation. Diogenes Laertius describes the Druids as holding the same place among the Gauls and Britons with that of the Philosophers among the Greeks, of the Magi among the Persians, of the Gymnosophists among the Indians, and of the Chaldeans among the Assyrians. He also refers to Aristotle as affirming in one of his lost works that philosophy had not been taught to the Gauls by the Greeks, but had originated among the former, and, from them, had passed to the latter. The introduc- tion into the Greek philosophy of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis is commonly attributed to Py- thagoras ; and there are various passages in ancient authors which make mention of, or allude to some connexion between that philosopher and the Druids. Abaris, the Hyperborean, as has been noticed above, is by many supposed to have been a Druid ; and he, lamblicus tells us, was taught by Pythagoras to find out all truth by the science of numbers, f Marcellinus, speaking of the conventual associa- tions of the Druids, expresses himself as if he con- ceived that they so lived in obedience to the com- mands of Pythagoras ; " as the authority of Pytha- goras hath decreed," are his words. J Others affirm that the Grecian philosopher derived his philosophy from the Druids. A report is preserved by Cle- ment of Alexandria that Pythagoras, in the course of his travels, studied under both the Druids and the Brahmins. § The probability is that both Py- thagoras and the Druids drew their philosophy from the same fountain. Several of the ablest and most laborious among the modern investigators of the subject of Druidism have found themselves compelled to adopt the theory of its Oriental origin. Pelloutier, from the numerous and strong resemblances presented by the Druidical ajid the old Persian religion, concludes the Celts and Persians, as Mr. O'Brien has lately done, to be the same people, and the Celtic tongue to be the ancient Persic. || The late Mr. Reuben Bur- row, distinguished for his intimate acquaintance with the Indian astronomy and mythology, in a paper in the Asiatic Researches, decidedly pro- nounces the Druids to have been a race of emigrated Indian philosophers, and Stouehenge to be evi- dently one of the Temples of Budha.^ It may be recollected that some of the Welsh antiquaries have, on other grounds, brought their assumed British ancestors from Ceylon, the great seat of Budhism.** The same origin is also assigned by Mr. O'Brien to the primitive religion and civiliza- tion of Ireland. This question has been examined at great length in a " Dissertation on the Origin of the Druids," by Mr. Maurice, who, considering the * Introduction to History, in Encyclopsiiia MetropoliUina, p. 63. + Vita Pythag. e.xix. t Ammian. Marcel, xv. 9. § Strom, i. 35. 8 Histoiro des Celles, p. 19. See also Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, c. xxii. — " Of the Great Resemblance betwixt the Druid and Persian Superstition, and the Cause of it inquired into." If Asiatic Researches, ii. 488. •• See ante. p. 9. Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 71 Budhists to have been a sect of the Brahmins, comes to the conclusion that " the celebrated order of the Druids, anciently established in this country, were the immediate descendants of a tribe of Brahmins situated in the high northern latitudes bordering on the vast range of Caucasus ; that these, during a period of the Indian empire, when its limits were most extended in Asia, mingling with the Celto- Scythian tribes, who tenanted the immense deserts of Grand Tartary, became gradually incorporated, though not confounded with that ancient nation ; introduced among them the rites of the Brahmin religion, occasionally adopting those of the Scy- thians, and together with them finally emigrated to the western regions of Europe." * It must be confessed that the Druidical system, as established in Gaul and Britain, has altogether very much the appearance of something not the growth of the country, but superinduced upon the native barbarism by importation from abroad. The knowledge and arts of which they appear to have been possessed, seem to point out the Druids as of foreign extraction, and as continuing to form the depositories of a civilization greatly superior to that of the general community in the midst of which they dwelt. It was quite natural, however, that Druidism, supposing it to have been originally an imported and foreign religion, should nevertheless gradually adopt some things from the idolatry of a different form which may have prevailed in Britain and Gaul previous to its introduction ; just as we find Christianity itself to have become adulterated in some countries by an infusion of the heathenism with which it was brought into contact. On this hypothesis we may perhaps best account for those apparent traces of the Druidical religion which are to be detected in some Celtic countries, where, at the same time, we have no reason to believe that there ever were any Druids. It has been contended that although there were no Druids anywhere except in Britain and Gaul, the Druidical religion extended over all the north and west of Europe.t It is probable that what have been taken for the doc- trines or practices of Druidism in other Celtic countries, were really those of that elder native su- perstition from which pure Druidism eventually received some intermixture and corruption. The Germans, Caesar expressly tells us, had no Druids; nor is there a vestige of such an insti- tution to be discovered in the ancient history, tradi- tions, customs, or monuments of any Gothic people. It was probably indeed confined to Ireland, South Britain, and Gaul, until the measures taken to root it out from the Roman dominions seem to have compelled some of the Druids to take refuge in other countries. The emperor Tiberius, accord- ing to Pliny and Strabo, and the emperor Clau- dius, according to Suetonius, issued decrees for the total abolition of the Druidical religion, on the pretext of an abhorrence of the atrocity of the human sacrifices in which it indulged its votaries. • Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. part i. p. 18. + liorlase's Antiquities of Coruwall, p. 70. The true motive may oe suspected to have been a jealousy of the influence among the provincials of Gaul and Britain of a native order of priesthood so powerful as that of the Druids. Suetonius, indeed, states that the practice of the Druidical religion had been already interdicted to Roman citizens by Augustus. We have seen in the course of the preceding narrative how it was extirpated from its chief seat in the south of Britain by Sue- tonius Paulinus. Such of the Druids as survived this attack are supposed to have fled to the Isle of Man, which then became, in place of Anglesey, the head-quarters of British Druidism. It was pro- bably after this that the Druidical religion pene- trated to the northern parts of the island. The vestiges, at all events, of its establishment at some period in Scotland are spread over many parts of that counfry, and it has left its impression in va- rious still surviving popular customs and supersti- tions. The number and variety of the Druid re- mains in North Britain, according to a late learned writer, are almost endless. The principal seat of Scottish Druidism is thought to have been the pa- rish of Kirkmichael, in the recesses of Perthshire, near the great mountainous range of the Gram- pians. * Druidism long survived, though in obscurity and decay, the thunder of the imperial edicts. In Ire- land, indeed, where the Roman arms had not pene- frated, it continued to flourish down nearly to the middle of the fifth century, when it fell before the Christian enthusiasm and energy of St. Patrick. But even in Britain the practice of the Druidical worship appears to have subsisted among the people long after the Druids, as an order of priesthood, were extinct. The annals of the sixth, seventh, and even of the eighth century, contain numerous edicts of emperors, and canons of coun- cils, against the worship of the sun, the moon, mountains, rivers, lakes, and trees, f There is even a law to the same effect of the English king Canute, in the eleventh century. Nor, as we have already more than once had occasion to remark, have some of the practices of the old superstition yet altogether ceased to be remem- bered in our popular sports, pastimes, and anniver- sary usages. The ceremonies of AU-Hallowmass, the bonfires of May-day and Midsummer eve, the virtues attributed to the mistletoe, and various other customs of the villages and country parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, still speak to us of the days of Druidism, and evince that the im- pression of its grim ritual has not been wholly ob- literated from the popular imagination, by the lapse of nearly twenty centuries. On the settlement of the Romans in Britain, the established religion of the province of course became the same classic superstition which these conquerors of the world still maintained in all its ancient honours and pre-eminence in their native Italy, which was diffused alike through all the • Chalmers's Caledonia, i. pp, 69-78. t Pelloutier Hist, des Celtes, iii.4.. 72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. customs of their private life and the whole system of their state economy, and which they carried with them, almost as a part of themselves, or at least as the very living spirit and sustaining power of their entire polity and civilization, into every foreign land that they colonized. In this far island, too, as in the elder homes of poetry and the arts, "An age halli been wlien Earth was proud Of lustre too intense To be sustained; and mortals bowed The front in self-defence." Beside the rud ; grandeur of Stonehenge, and sur- rounded by the gloom of the sacred groves, glitter- ing temples, displaying all the grace and pomp of finished architecture, now rose to Jupiter, and Apollo, and Diana, and Venus ; and the air of our northern clime was peopled with all the bright dreams and visions of the mythology of Greece. A temple of Minerva, and probably other sacred edifices, appear to have adorned the city of Bath : London is supposed to have had its temple of Diana, occupying the same natural elevation which is now crowned by the magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul's ; and the foundations and other remains of similar monuments of the Roman Paganism have been discovered in many of our other ancient towns. But perhaps no such material memorials are so well fitted to strike the imagination, and to con- vey a lively impression of this long past state of things, as the passage in the Annals of Tacitus in which we find a string of piodigies recounted to have happened in different parts of the province of Britain immeiliately before the insurrection of Boadicea, just as the same events might have taken place in Italy or in Rome itself. First, in the town of Camaloduimm, the image of the goddess Victory, without any apparent cause, suddenly falls from its place, and turns its face round, as if giving way to the enemy. Then, females, seized with a sort of prophetic fury, would be heard mournfully calling out that destruction was at hand, their cries penetrating from the streets both into the curia, or council-chamber, and into the theatre. A re- presentation, in the air, of the colony laid in ruins was seen near the mouth of the Thames, while the sea assumed the colour of blood, and the re- ceding tide seemed to leave behind it the phantoms of human carcases. The picture is completed by the mention of the temple in which the Roman soldiery took refuge on tlie rushing into the city of their infuriated assailants, — of the undefended state of the place, in which the elegance of the buildings had been more attended to than their strength,— of another temple which had been raised in it to Claudius the Divine, — and, finally, of its crew of rapacious priests who, under the pretence of religion, wasted every man's substance, and excited a deeper indignation in the breasts of the unhappy natives than all the other cruelties and oppres- sions to which they were subjected. Three views, copied from Horsley's Hiilannia Romana. of a splendid bronze bowl, or patera, found in Wiltshire, and supposed to have been ascd for the joint lil)ation of the chief raugistrates of the five llouian towns, whose Simes appear on its murgin. Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 73 Section II. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. Another result, however, of the Roman invasion of Britain was the introduction into the island of the Christian faith. An event so important might be ex- pected to hold a prominent place in our early chro- nicles. The missionary by whom Christianity was first brought to this island, the manner in which it was impressed upon the belief of so primitive a people, and the persons by whom its profession was earliest adopted, are particulars which it would have been interesting and gratifying to find recorded. But from the obscurity that pervades the ecclesiastical records of the first century, and the unobtrusive silence with which the commencing steps of the Christian faith were made, it cannot be accounted strange if Britain, a country at that time so remote and insignificant, should have the beginning of her religious history involved in much obscurity. The investigations of the curious however have, partly by bold conjectures and partly from monkish legends, attempted to show how Britain either was, or might have been. Christianized. Some have attributed the work to St. Peter, some to James the son of Zebedee, and others to Simon Zelotes; but for so important an office as the apostleship of this island the majority of writers will be contented with no less a personage than St. Paul ; and they ground their assumption upon the fact that several of the most active years of his life are not accounted for in the Acts of the Apostles. They think that therefore some part at least of this interval must have been employed among the Britons. By others again, such inferior personages as Aristobulus, who is incidentally mentioned by St. Paul,* Joseph of Arimathea, and the disciples of Polycarp, have been honoured as the founders of Christianity in Britain. Some of these accounts would imply that British Christianity is as old as the apostolic age ; and, although this point too must be considered as very uncertain, a few slight collateral facts have been adduced as affording evidence that the island contained some converts at that early date. Thus, about the middle of the first century, we find Pom- ponia Grsecina, a British lady, and wife of the Pro- consul Plautius, accused of being devoted to a strange and gloomy superstition, by which it has been thought, not improbably, that Christianity is implied ;t and Claudia, the wife of Pudens the senator, a British lady eulogised by Martial, J is supposed by some to have been the person of the same name mentioned by St. Paul. § All that can be regarded as well established is, that at a comparatively early period Christianity found its way into the British islands. Even before the close of the first century, not only Christian refugees may have fled thither from the continent to escape persecution, but Christian soldiers and civilians may have accompanied the invading armies. The path thus opened, and the work com- • Romans, xvi. 10. t Epigram, xl 53. VOL. I. t Tac. Annal. xiii. 32. J 2 Timotliy, iv. 21. menced, successive missionaries, from the operation of the same causes, would follow, to extend the sphere of action and increase the number of the converts. Circumstances, too, were peculiarly fa- vourable in Britain for such a successful progress. The preceding subtle and influential priesthood of Druidism, who might have the most effectually opposed the new faith, had been early destroyed by the swords of the conquerors, and the latter were too intent upon achieving the complete subjection of the country, to concern themselves about the transition of the inhabitants from one system of religious opinions to another. In this manner it would appear that Christian communities were gradually formed, buildings set apart for the pur- poses of public worship, and an ecclesiastical go- vernment established. But the same obscurity that pervades the origin of Christianity in Britain, ex- tends over the whole of its early progress. Un- fortunately, those monastic writers who attempted to compile its history were more eager to discover miracles than facts. Even of the venerable Bede, it must be admitted that his credulity appears to have been, at least, equal to his honesty. The favourite legend with which these writers decorate their history of the first centuries of the British church is that of king Lucius, the son of Coilus. According to their account, Lucius was king of the wliole island, and, having consented to be baptized at the instance of the Roman emperor, he became so earnest for the conversion of his people that he sent to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for assistance in the important work. In consequence of this application several learned doctors were sent, by whose instrumentality paganism was abolished throughout the island, and Christianity established in its room. They add, moreover, that three arch- bishops and twenty-eight bishops were established, for the government of the British church, upon the ruins of the pagan hierarchy; and that to them were made over, not only the revenues of the former priesthood, but also large additional means of sup- port. Not to waste a moment in pointing out such impossibilities as a king of the whole island at this time, or a heathen emperor labouring for his con- version in concert with a Roman bishop, we see, dimly shadowed forth in this monkish legend, some petty British king or chieftain, in vassalage to Rome, who, with the aid of Roman missionaries, effected the conversion of his tribe. A passing allusion, in the writings of TertuUian, gives us a more distinct idea of the state of Christianity in Britain than can be obtained from any such nar- ratives as this. In his work against the Jews, written a.d. 209, he says that " even those places in Britain hitherto inaccessible to the Roman arms have been subdued by the gospel of Christ." From this sentence we may form a conjecture as to the extent to which the new religion had spread even at this early period. It must have been planted for a considerable time in the South, and obtained a material ascendancy before it could have pene- trated beyond the northern boimdary of the pro- 74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. viuce. We cannot suppose, however, that in cir- cumstances so much more unfavovu-able it could make much progress in these barbarous regions. The wild tribes of Scotland, still unconquered, were also disunited, or employed in mutual hostility; and the native priesthood possessed an influence that would materially impede the success of the new faith. We discover accordingly that, at a much later period, Kentigern and Columba found the Scots and Picts still heathens. The expressions of Ter- tullian, however, may very possibly refer to the extension of Christianity, not so much to Scotland, as to Ireland, in which latter part of Britain, for so it was then accounted, there are other reasons for supposing that this religion reckoned some converts even at that early period. As yet, the remoteness of Britain, and the sup- pression of the Druids, had equally preserved its humble church from foreign and domestic perse- cution ; but the time arrived when it was to share in those afflictions which fell to the lot of the Christian world at large. Diocletian, inspired with hatred and jealousy at the predominance of doc- trines which were supposed to menace all civil authority, addressed himself to the entire destruc- tion of Christianity ; and edicts were published in every part of the empire for the suppression of its rites, and the persecution of its followers. In a storm so universal Britain was no longer over- looked ; and St. Alban, the first martyr of our island, perished, with many others whose names have not been recorded. This event, according to Bede, took place in the year 286 ; but if it really hap- pened in the great persecution under Diocletian, a date at least seventeen or eighteen years later must be assigned to it. Although Constantius, who at this time directed the affairs of Britain, was favour- ably inclined towards the Christians, he durst not oppose the imperial mandate; and however he might indirectly alleviate its severities, yet the infe- rior magistrates had no such scruples. One inci- dent at this time betrayed his friendly disposition towards the persecuted. Assembling the officers of his household, he announced to them the pleasure of the emperor, requiring the dismission of the Christians from office, and gave those who were of tliat religion their choice either to renounce their creed or resign their situations. Some of them, unwilling to make the required sacrifice, abjured their faith; upon which Constantius discharged them from his service ; declaring that those who had renounced their God could never prove true to a master.* This persecution continued to rage in Britain, according to Gildas, for the space of two years, during which numbers of the Christian churches were destroyed, and multitudes who escaped from death were obliged to fly to the forests and mountains. But at last Diocletian, having laid down the purple, and compelled his colleague Maximian at the same time to abdicate, a persecu- tion that had been conducted upon a more regular system than any that had preceded it, and had * Euseb. Vit. Constant, i. 16. almost extinguished the Christian faith, subsided as suddenly as it had commenced, and the British church was restored to its former tranquillity. Of the history of Christianity in our island during the third century we know little or nothing ; tho.se subtle or incomprehensible religious disputes which agitated the churches of the East and West appear to have been of too refined a character for the simple understandings of the Britons ; and by these we may perhaps assume, from the silence of history, that they remained nearly unmolested. From the time of the accession of Constantine, however, in the beginning of the fourth century, the hitherto secluded church of Britain seems to have become united to the civilized world, and to have been considered as making a part of the spi- ritual empire which he established. In the year 314, Eborius, bishop of York, Restitutus, bishop ot London, and Adelphius, bishop of Richborough, attended the council at Aries ; and as three bishops formed the full representation of a province, it appears that Britain was thus placed on an equality with the churches of Spain and Gaul. The libe- rality of Constantine gave opportunities to the ecclesiastics of acquiring wealth and distinction, of which many were eager to avail themselves ; but while, in Italy and the East, they gradually began to rival the pomp of temporal princes, nothing of this kind was exhibited in Britain. In fact, we are rather justified in the conclusion that the British bishops had hitherto been, and still continued poor, on account not only of the national poverty, but of the partial conversion of the people, many of whom still remained attached either to the classical or druidical worship. This view is corroborated by a circumstance that occurred in the succeeding reign. When Constantius offered to maintain the bishops of the West from the royal revenues, only those of Britain acceded to the proposal, while the rest rejected it. This would seem to imply that the British bishops must have been but indifferently provided for from other sources. It has generally been supposed that, during the fourth century, the British church was considerably tainted with those corruptions in doctrine that so largely overspread the continental churches ; and that Arianism, so triumphant in the West, exten- sively prevailed in our island : and in proof of this Gildas is quoted, who describes the progress of that heresy among his countrymen with many mournful amplifications. In opposition to the state- ment of Gildas, St. Jerome and St. Chrysostom frequently allude, in their writings, to the ortho- doxy of the British church. This contradiction may perhaps be reconciled by the supposition that while these fathers regarded merely the national creed, the historian described the private interpre- tation of its doctrines which may have been che- rished by certain ecclesiastics. It must be acknowledged that, durmg this cen- tury, the bishops of Britain, if we may believe the account of Facundus,* exhibited in one instance • Facund. V.30. Du Pin, Hist. Cent. iv. Chap. II.] THE HISTORY OF RELIGION : B.C. 55.— A.D. 44.9. 75 but a weak and compromising spirit. At the coimcil of Ariminum, summoned by Constantius, in the year 3.59, they are asserted to have allowed themselves to be influenced so much by the per- suasions or threats of the emperor, as to subscribe to sentiments in favour of Arianism ; but, upon their return to Britain, they hastened to retract these concessions, and renew their allegiance to the Nicean creed. These circumstances would seem to show, that though the doctrines of Arius may have been partially cherished, yet they were un- popular, and that the body of the church remained comparatively orthodox and undivided. The only ostensible difference by which the British cliurch was distinguished, during this period, from the churches on the continent, was, its observing the Asiatic computation of time, in keeping Easter, instead of the Roman — a distinction frivolous in itself, but important in its consequences at a later period, when the Roman pontiffs laid claim to universal rule, and sought to secure it by enforcing a universal conformity. After the Christian church had been established in power and splendour, the same results were exhibited in Britain as in other countries; and while the Italian and Greek infused into the Christian faith the classical Paganism of his fathers, the Briton leavened it with his ancestral Druidical superstitions.* To these also were added the religious follies that were now of general preva- lence. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land became fashionable, and were performed by numerous devotees. The orders of monks also became more numerous, though they were obliged, from the poverty of the country, to procure their subsistence by manual labour. In the fifth century, the opinions of Pelagius, most probably a native of Ireland, were zealously disseminated through the British islands, by his disciples and countrymen, Agricola and Celestius ; and we are told by Bede, that, alarmed at the rapid progress of these doctrines, but unable to "refute them, the British ecclesiastics implored assistance • Suutliey's Book of the Church, i 16. from the bishops of Gaul. The latter sent Ger- manus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, to their aid, who arrived in Britain about the year 429. After having been welcomed by the orthodox clergy, they appointed a meeting for public disputation with the Pelagians. The latter, according to the narrative of the venerable histo- rian, came to the arena in great pomp, and advo- cated their cause with the most showy rhetoric, but Germanus and Lupus, when it was their turn to reply, so overwhelmed them with arguments and authorities, that they were completely silenced, and the whole assembly triumphed in their discom- fitiu-e. Bede was too orthodox and too credulous to have doubted the tradition, if it had affirmed that the arguments of the Gallic bishops on this occa- sion struck their antagonists dead as well as dumb. But these bishops were skilled in the handling of other weapons as well as those of controversy. We have already related how tlie military force of the South Britons, being led on by Germanus against the Scots and Picts, put the barbarians to flight with shouts of " Hallelujah." Having thus con- quered the temporal as well as the spiritual ene- mies of Britain, the bishops departed. In a short time, however, the narrative proceeds, the baffled Pelagians again raised their heads, and their cause became more triumphant than before. A fresh application was in consequence made to the victorious Germanus, the British bishops having, as it would seem, profited little by the arguments with which he had formerly defended their cause. He returned m 446, accompanied by Severus, bishop of Treves; and this time, not contented with merely silencing the Pelagians for the moment, he procured the banishment of their leaders from the island ; and thus peace and order were restored for the short interval that preceded the arrival of the Saxons. It would appear, there- fore, that, equally disunited and helpless, the church and the state were at this period both obliged to invoke aid against their domestic adver- saries. Bede has garnished the whole of this detail with many miraculous circumstances, which we have not considered it necessary to retain. 76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS. Section 1. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE BRITISH NATIONS. EFORE proceeding to the sketch which the brief notices of the an- cient writers enable us pears to have prevailed in Britain before the Roman Conquest, it will be convenient to take a rapid survey of the manner in which the country was divided among the several nations or tribes that inhabited it. These tribes were not only distinguished by different names, and by the occupation of sepa- rate territories, but they were to a certain extent so many different races, which had come to the island from various districts of the opposite con- tinent, and still continued to preserve themselves as unmixed with each other as they were in their original seats. Thus Caesar tells us that the several bodies of Belgians which he found settled on the sea-coast, although they had united to wrest the tract of which they were in possession from the previous inhabitants, had almost all retained the dis- tinguishing names of their mother states ; and the same thing no doubt had been done in most in- stances by the earlier settlers from Gaul and else- where. We derive all the direct information we possess respecting the ancient British nations partly from Caesar, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and the other authors who have given us details of the military operations of the Romans in the island, and partly from certain professedly geographical accounts of it. One of these is that contained in the great geographical com- pilation of the celebrated Ptolemy of Alexandria, who wrote in the early part of the second century, but who, as we have already observed, is believed to have drawn the materials for much of his work, and for the portion of it relating to the British islands in particular, from sources of considerably greater antiquity. We may probably regard his description, therefore, as, in part at least, applicable to the counfry rather before Caesar's invasion than after the Roman conquest ; in other words, rather as it was known to the Phoenicians than to the Romans. It is evident, however, that Ptolemy must have made a good many additions to his original Tyrian authorities from later accounts. Another detailed description of Britain is that con- tained in what is called the Itinerary of Antoninus, a most valuable survey of all the roads throughout the Roman empire, evidently drawn up by public authority, and the last additions to which do not appear to have been made later than the beginning of the fourth century, while its original compila- tion has been ascribed, on probable grounds, to the time of Julius Caesar. It presents us with a view of the high roads and chief towns of South Britain during the most flourishing period of the Roman occupation. Another ancient account of Roman Britain of undoubted authenticity is that found in the work entitled " Notitia Imperii," wliich is an enumeration of the civil and military establishments of all the provinces of the empire, brought down, according to the title, to beyond the times of Arcadius and Honorius. In the case of Britain, the Notitia may be understood to give us the imperial establishment at the latest date at which the island formed a part of the Roman em- pire. It has preserved the names (though un- fortunately merely the names) of the several pro- vinces into which Roman Britain was divided, and of the several military stations. Lastly, there is a remarkable performance, professing to be a geo- graphical account of Britain in the time of the Romans, drawn up from the papers of a Roman general, by a Benedictine monk of the fourteenth century named Richard of Cirencester. Of the existence of Richard of Cirencester there is no doubt ; we have other works from his pen, of which some have been printed, and others remain in ma- nuscript. It may also be admitted, that if he really wrote the present work, he did not, in its composi- tion, draw upon his own learning or ingenuity, which appear to have been quite unequal to such an achievement, but transcribed what he has set down from some other document. The only reasonable doubt is, whether the work be not altogether a modern forgery. It was never heard of till the year 1757, when the discovery of the manuscript was announced by Mr. C. Bertram, Professor of the English Language in the University of Copenhagen, and a copy of it transmitted to this country to Dr. Stukely, by whom an exfract, containing the most material part of the work, was immediately printed. The whole was published the same year at Copen- hagen by Mr. Bertram. The original manuscript, however, we believe, has never since been seen, and no trace of it was to be found among Mr. Bertram's papers after his death. On the other hand, the Chap. Ill,] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 77 internal evidence has appeared to many persons to be in favour of tlie authenticity of the work ; and it has been very generally received as an important contribution to our knowledge of ancient Britain. Richard of Cirencester's description, which is ac- companied by a rudely-drawn map, contains much information, if we could be assured of its trust- worthiness, especially respecting the geography of the northern part of the island, which is not to be found either in Ptolemy or the Itinerary. Caesar, in his two descents upon Britain, saw no more than a corner of the country. The farthest point to which he penetrated was the capital of Cassivellaunus, which is generally supposed to have stood on the site of the now ruined town of Veru- 1am in the vicinity of St. Alban's, in Hertfordshire. Caesar himself describes the dominions of this prince as lying along the north bank of the Thames, at the distance of about eighty miles from the sea, by which he probably means the east coast of Kent, from which he began his march. Unfortunately we are nowhere told of what people Cassivellaunus was king. The only British nations mentioned by Caesar are the people of Cantium, the Trinobantes, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci, and the Cassi. All these must have dwelt In the part of the country which he hastily overran. Cantium was undoubtedly Kent, so called from a Celtic word signifying a head or promontory. The Saxons, it has been observed,* called Kent Cantir- land, whence our present Canterbury ; and we may therefore conjecture that the original name of the district was Cean-tir, that is, the head or protruding part of the land, the same word with Cantire, the name still borne by the long peninsular tract which forms the south-western extremity of Argyleshire. " Vanguard of Liberty !" exclaims a modern poet, " Ye men of Kent, Ye children of a soil that doth advance Its haughty Ijrow against the coast of France I" Ptolemy, it may be noted, sets down London, or as he writes the name, Londinium, as one of the towns of the Cantii ; and from this it has been conjec- tured, with much probability, that the original Lon- don stood on the south side of the Thames. Caesar mentions no such place; but indeed he has not recorded the name of a single British town. The Trinobantes, called by Ptolemy the Trinoantes, occupied Essex, and, probably, the greater part of Middlesex. London on the north bank of the Thames, therefore, the proper foundation of the present British metropolis, was one of their towns. Geofirey of Monmouth's story, however, about that people having derived their name from Trinovant, that is, New Troy, the original name of London, cannot be received. Trinobantes is said to mean, in Celtic, a powerful people.t Of the other tribes mentioned by Caesar none are noticed, at least under the same names, by any other authority except Richard of Cirencester. He enumerates the Bibroci, the Segontiaci, and the Cassi, whom he calls the Cassii. The Bibroci are commonly Bctbam's Gael and Cymri. + Hethan supposed to have been the inhabitants of Berkshire, and to have left their name to that county ; the Segontiaci of Hampshire ; and the Cassi of Hert- ford, one of the hundreds of which, that in which St. Alban's stands, still retains the name of Cassio. The Cassi would therefore appear to have been the subjects of Cassivellaunus, if Verulam was his capital ; but this supposition, it must be admitted, does not appear to be very consistent with the nar- rative of Caesar, in which the Cassi are stated to have made their submission along with other tribes, while Cassivellaunus still held out. The Cenimagni have been supposed to be the same with the Iceni mentioned by Richard and also by Tacitus, and with the Semini of Ptolemy, who appear to have inhabited the shires of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge ; and the Ancalides with the Atrebatii of Ptolemy and the Attrebates of Richard, whose residence is placed in Wiltshire. If this latter notion be well founded, it is probable that the name, which only occurs once in Caesar, has not come down to us as he wrote it ; for he was well acquainted with the Atrebates of Belgic Gaul (the ancient occupants of the territory of Artois), of whom this British people are supposed to have been a colony, and could not have mistaken the name when it met him again here. On the whole, it must be confessed that nothing can be more unsatisfactory than these attempted identifi- cations of the tribes of whom Caesar speaks. We should be inclined to think that they were not spread over nearly so great an extent of territory as they are by this account made to occupy. All of them, except the Cantii, who are not recorded to have submitted, would almost appear, from the manner in which they are mentioned, to have been merely dependent upon the Trinobantes, whose policy in making terms with the Roman general they are stated instantly to have followed, and tliat is really all that is said of them. We do not believe that any of them ever formed part of the confederation organized to oppose the invasion, at the head of which Cassivellaunus was. According to Ptolemy, who, after all, is the only authority upon whom much dependence can be placed, the space over which the tribes mentioned by Caesar, and by no other writer, if we cast aside the very suspicious authority of Richard of Ciren- cester, have been commonly diffrised, appears to have been fully occupied by other tribes. The following is the order in which he enumerates the several nations inhabiting what we now call South Britain, with the manner in which he appears to distribute the country among them. 1. The Brigantes. Their territory is described as extending across the island from sea to sea, and it appears to have comprehended the greater part of the modern counties of Durham, York, Cum- berland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire. The Brigantes were considered the most powerful of the British nations. Among their towns men- tioned by Ptolemy are Eboracum, now York, and Isurium, now Aldborough, reduced to a small vil- 78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. lage, though it retained till lately the right of sending a member to parliament, an evidence of its importance even in comparatively modern times. 2. The Parisi are stated to have been adjacent to the Brigantes, and about the well-havened bay. They are thought to have occupied the south- eastern angle of Yorkshire, now called Holderness, lying along the coast of Bridlington or Burlington Bay. 3. The Ordovices dwelt to the south of the Brigantes and tlie Parisi, in the most westerly part of the island. They appear to have been the inha- bitants of North Wales. 4. The CoRNAVii were east from these last, and seem to have occupied Cheshire, Shropshire, Staf- ford, Worcester, and Warwick. Their towns men- tioned by Ptolemy are Deuna, now Chester, and Uiroconium, supposed to be Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury. 5. The CoRiTANi are described as adjacent to the Cornavii. They probably occupied the whole of the space intervening between the Cor- navii and the east coast, comprehending the modern counties of Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, Rutland, and part of Northampton. Their chief towns were Lindum, now Lincoln, and Rhage, now Leicester. 6. The Catyeuchlani (or Catuellani, as they are called by Dio Cassius) come next in the list. They are conjectured to have occupied the remain- der of Northampton, and all Buckingham, Bed- ford, Hertford, and Huntingdon. To these we should be inclined to add the south-western portion of Oxfordshire, lying along the Thames. One of their towns mentioned by Ptolemy is Urolanium, universally admitted to be Verulam, near St. Alban's. It does not necessarily follow, however, that this was the capital of Cassivellaunus, although it is perhaps most probable that this prince was really the chief of the Catyeuchlani. 7. The SiMENi are described as adjacent to these last, and are supposed to have occupied Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge. They are conjectured, as has been already stated, to be the same with the Icetii, of whom mention is made by Tacitus. Ptolemy assigns to them only one town, and to that he gives the name of Uenta or Venta, which appears to have been a common British name for the capital of a state. The Venta of the Simeni or Iceni is supposed to have been at Caister, near Norwich, 8. The Trinoantes (or Trinobantes, as they are called by Caesar and Tacitus), the next nation mentioned, are placed more to the eastward than the Simeni ; and this may suggest a doubt as to these last being really the same with the Iceni, who appear, from the Itinerary, to have certainly inhabited Norfolk. Probably, however, Ptolemy erroneously supposed the coast of Essex to stretch farther to the east that that of Norfolk and Suffolk. He places Camulodanum, the capital of the Tri- noantes, half a degree to the east of the Venta of the Simeni. Camulodanum, or, as it is called in the Itinerary, Camoludimum, is generally supposed to be Maldon, though some place it at Colchester There can be no doubt as to Essex being the dis- trict, or part of the district, assigned by Ptolemy to the Trinoantes, since he settles them beside the estuary lamensa, or, as the word is found written in another place, lamissa, evidently a transcriber's corruption of Tamissa, the Thames. 9. The Demetje follow next in the enumeration, being described as dwelling to the south of the tribes already mentioned, and in the extreme western part of the island. They seem to have occupied the three south Welsh counties of Caer- marthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke. One of their towns, Maridunum, is believed to be the present Caermarthen. 10. Tlie SiLUREs were to the east of these, occupying, it is supposed, the modern counties of Radnor, Brecknock, Glamorgan, Hereford, and Monmouth. Ptolemy makes no mention of two important towns which were certainly situated in the territory of the Silures, namely the Venta Silurum, now Caerwent, and Isca Silurum, now Caerleon, both in Monmouthshire. IL The DoBUNi (probably the same who are called by Dio Cassius the Boduni) are described as next to the Silures, and probably inhabited Gloucestershire with the greater part of Oxfordshire. Their chief town, Corinium, appears to be the present Cirencester. 12. The Atrebatii follow in the enumeration. They are thought, though the point is disputed, to have been the occupants of Berkshire. As they were, if we may trust to their name, a Belgic people, it is more probable that they were seated to the south than to the north of the Thames ; and the order in which they are enumerated by Ptolemy — among the nations to the south of the Catyeuch lani and the Trinobantes — appears also clearly to indicate the former position. 13. The Cantii are described as adjacent to the Atrebatii, and as extending to the eastern coast of the island. These two states, therefore, Y^^oba- bly met somewhere in the north part of Surrey. Besides Londinium, Ptolemy mentions Daruenum (believed to be Canterbury) and Rutupiae, the Rutupse of the Itinerary (probably Richborough, near Sandwich), as towns of the Cantii. 14. The Regni are next mentioned, and are stated to lie to the south of the Atrebatii and the Cantii. They therefore occupied Surrey, Sussex, and probably the greater part of Hampshire. 15. The Belg^ are described as situated to the south of the Dobuni, and are supposed to have possessed the eastern part of Somerset, Wilts, and the western part of Hampshire. Their towns were Venta Bclgarum, generally believed to be Win- chester ; Ischalis, probably Ilchester ; and the Hot Springs (in Latin, Aquse Calidse), undoubtedly Batli. 16. The Durotriges are described as south- west from the Belgae. Their seat was the present Dorsetshire, which still preserves their name, sig- Chap. III.] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS nifying in the Celtic the dwellers by the water. Their town Dunium is supposed to be the present Dorchester. 17. The DuMNONii (or Damnonii, as they are called in the Itinerary) close the list, and are described as occupying the western extremity of the island. They were the inhabitants of Devon, Cornwall, and the west of Somerset ; their name Dumn, or, as it would be in Celtic, Duvn, probably still subsisting in the modem Devon. Their capital was Isca Dumnonionim, supposed to be the pre- sent Exeter. Of course, although we have thus indicated the localities of the several tribes by the names of our present counties, it is not to be understood that the ancient boundaries were the same as those of these comparatively modern divisions. But to ascertain the precise line by which each territory was sepa- rated from those adjacent to it, is now in most in- stances utterly impossible. All that can be at- tempted is, to determine, generally, the part of the country in which each lay. In a good many cases the evidence of inscriptions and of other remains has confirmed Ptolemy's account; and, making allowance for a very corrupt text, it may be affirmed that his distribution of the several ancient British states has not been proved to be erroneous in any material respect by the discoveries of this kind that have from time to time been made. We do not believe that a view of the ancient geography, at least of the southern part of the island, on the whole, so complete, so distinct, and so accordant at once with the testimony of history and of monu- ments, as that which he has given us, is to be ob- tained from any other source, or from all other existing sources of information combined. The tribes mentioned by Richard of Cirencester, in addition to those enumerated by Ptolemy, within the space we have now been surveying, are, the Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci, and Cassii (as already noticed), the Hedui in Somersetshire, the Cimbri in Devonshire, the Volantii and Sistuntii in Lancashire, and the Rhemi in Surrey and Sussex ; but these last are probably intended to be consi- dered the same people with the Regni of Ptolemy. Richard's list also includes the Cangiani, supposed to be the same with the Cangi mentioned by Taci- tus, and with the Cangani of Dio. These, how- ever, do not appear to have been a distinct nation, but to have been those of the youth of each tribe, or at least of many of the tribes, who were employed as the keepers of the flocks and herds.* Richard fixes them in Caernarvonshire, a location which by no means helps to make' the passages in which they are mentioned by the ancient historians more intelligible. Ptolemy's description of North Britain is, in various respects, not so satisfactory as that which he has given of the southern portion of the island. In particular, his account is rendered obscure and confused by a strange mistake, into which he has fallen, as to the direction of the land, which he ex- • Baxter Gloss. Brit. tends, not towards In other words, he\ what he ought to ha tude. His enumerat also be safely presume that which he gives of ., 18. The NovANT^ a tions. He describes ther coast of the island (by wh. the west), immediately undt. same name. The peninsula . Novantae is admitted, on all h. now called the Mull of Gallow vantse are considered to have occu^ of Wigton, the western half of Kirk the southern extremity of Ayrshi) ries probably being the Irish ' Frith, the river Dee, and the districts now called Galloway a of their towns was Loucopibia, <= present Whithorn. 19. The Selgov^ are d*. south (meaning east), from the pear to have occupied the eastern i bright and the greater part of Dumi *.,. are supposed to have given its present m Solway, along which their territory extend have received theirs from it. The Solway i by Ptolemy the I tuna, probably from the which falls into that estuary. 20. TheDAMNii lay north from these, and a seem to have extended over the shires of Ayr, nark, Renfrew, and Stirling, a corner of that Dumbarton, and a small part of that of Pert Among their towns were Vanduara, believed to ^ Paisley, and Lindum, which has been generally supposed to be Linlithgow, but which Chalmers places at Ardoch, in Perthshire, where there is a famous Roman camp. The wall of Antoninus passed through the territory of the Damnii. 21. The Gadeni, of whom all that Ptolemy says is, that they were situated more to the north. This cannot, however, mean more to the north than the Damnii last mentioned, who, as we have seen, were placed along the sea coast of what Pto- lemy understands to be the north side of the island. The meaning must be more to the north than the Otadeni, who are next mentioned, and are by a corresponding epithet, described as more to the south. With the notion which Ptolemy had of the shape of the island, this would place the Gadeni along a tract in the interior, which might extend from the Tyne to the Forth, embracing the north of Cumberland, the west of Northumberland, the west of Roxburgh, together with the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, west Lothian, and the greater part of Midlothian. There is no pretence, on a fair interpretation of Ptolemy's words, for saying, as has been done by some of the supporters of the authority of Richard of Cirencester,* that he places the Gadeni on the north of the Damnii beyond the Clyde, contrary to the evidence of inscriptions. Id • Oialmers's Caledonia. .TORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. orth of the it river Jed, seem still to south of this / to the south- intervening be- ehending the re- Roxburgh, and .othian. at is, north) from (that is, westerly), northwards), from The promontory in eninsula of Cantyre, re the inhabitants of Al the rest of Argyle- de on the east to Loch 3 next to the Epidii, and oited the part of Argyle- Linne, and the continua- nning the western half of who are described as lying e north) of the Cerones, pro- ,rly the whole of the present it it may be doubted if the Ce- ,ones were not the same people ; neir territory must have included i we have assigned to the two. yARNONAC^ came next, and would, cupy the west coast of Sutherland, in- /bably a small part of the north of Ross. .e Careni, who lay beyond them, may osed to have inhabited the north coast of and, and perhaps a small portion of Caith- Richard of Cirencester, indeed, calls them Jatini, in which name it has been suggested , may find the origin of the present Caithness. 28. The CoRNAVii are described as lying to the east (that is, the north) of these, and as being the last people in that direction. They, therefore, occupied the north and east of Caithness. In their country were the three promontories, of the Tar- vedrum, or Orcas, now Dunnet Head ; the Vir- vedrum, now Duncansby Head ; and the Virubium, now the Noss Head. 29. The Caledonii, properly so called, are the next people mentioned by Ptolemy • but the enu- meration here starts from a new point, namely, from the Ijelamnonian Bay on the west coast, which appears to be Loch Fyne. The Caledonii are described as extending from that bay across the country to the estuary of Varar, undoubtedly the Moray Frith, a river falling into the upper part of which still retains the ancient name. They, there- fore, occupied the eastern portion of Inverness, with probably the adjoining parts of the shires of Argyle, Perth, and Ross. In the north-western part of this tract was the great Caledonian Forest. 30. The Cantje were more to the east (that is, the north), and are supposed to have possessed the eastern angle of Ross-shire included between the Murray and the Dornoch Friths. 31. The LoGi were between them and the Cor- navii, and must, therefore, have occupied the south- east part of Sutherland, and probably a portion of the south of Caithness. 32. The Mert^ lay north (that is, north-west) from the Logi, which would place them in the central parts of Sutherland. 33. Ihe Vacomagi are described as lying to the south (that is, the south-east) of the Caledoiiii, and appear to have occupied the counties of Nairn, Elgin, and Banff, with the west of Aberdeenshire, and perhaps a small portion of the east of Inver- ness. 34. The Venicontes are described as lying south from these last, to the west, and as, along with the Texali, they appear to have occupied the v/hole space between the tribes to the south of the Forth, the Caledonians, and the Vacomagi, we must assign to them the whole of the peninsula now forming the counties of Fife, Kinross, and Clack- mannan, with a portion of the east and south-east of Perth, and probably also the counties of Forfar and Kincardine. Richard of Cirencester, however (who calls the VenicOntes, Venricones) places the tribe of the Horestii (mentioned by Tacitus under the name of the Horesti), in the peninsula of Fife. All that appears with regard to the situation of the Horestii, from the narrative of Tacitus is, that they lay somewhere between the Grampian Hills and the previously conquered nations to the south of the Forth. It is probable enough that they may have been the inhabitants of Fife ; but they may also very possibly have dwelt on the north side of the Frith of Tay. They seem to be included by Ptolemy under the name of the Venicontes. 35. The Texali are described as lying also to the south of the Vacomagi, and to the east, that is, the north-east, of the Venicontes. As Kinnaird's Head appears to have been called after them the promontory Taizalum (probably an error for Tex- alum, or Taixalum), and as, moreover, their chief town is designated Devana, and appears to have stood on the Diva (the modern Dee), either where Old Aberdeen now stands, or more probably on the spot occupied by Norman-Dykes, about six miles further from the sea, we can scarcely have any doubt that the present Aberdeenshire, with, perhaps, a part of Kincardine, formed the territory of the Texali. Besides the Horestii, two other tribes, the Al- bani, or Damnii Albani, and the Attacotti, are mentioned by Richard of Cirencester, and not by Ptolemy. The Albani are placed in the moun- tainous region now forming the district of Breadal- bane and Athol in the west of Perth, and south of Inverness-shire ; but it is admitted that they had been subjugated by the Damnii, and that this re- gion, therefore, might be considered as forming part of the territory of the latter. The Attacotti are mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus , but it must be considered as very doubtful whether they were Chap. III.] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. a British or an Irish nation. A territory is found for them, on the authority of Richard, in the space between Loch Fyne and Loch Lomond, compre- hending a portion of Argyle and th-e greater part of Dumbartonshire. Another name mentioned by some later writers, and not occurring in Ptolemy, is that of the Mseatse. This term, of the meaning of which different in- terpretations have been offered, appears to have been a collective name given to the tribes included be- tween the wall of Antoninus Pius, which joined the Friths of Forth and Clyde, and that of Severus, ex- tending from the ^olway Frith to the mouth of the Tyne. These tribes were, the Novantae, the Selgovae, the Gadeni, the Otadeni, and, in part, the Damnii. In a loose way of speaking, the Mseatse and the Caledonii seem to have come at length to be used as a general expression for all the tribes beyond the more limited Roman province : the Maeatae being understood to mean the inhabitants of the comparatively level and open country ; the Caledonii, those who dwelt among the woods and mountains of the north and west. From about the beginning of the fourth cen- tury, we begin to find the Caledonians and Maea- tae giving place to the new names of the Scots and Picts. A late writer has, from this and other con- siderations, inferred that the Picts were the same people with the Mseatse ;* but perhaps all that we are warranted in concluding is, that the same pro- minent place which the fierce Irish tribe of the Scots had now assumed among the mountaineers had been taken by the Picts among the lowlanders. The Picts, if not the descendants of the Maeatse, appear certainly, at least, to have been their suc- cessors in the occupation of the same tract of country. It may here be convenient very shortly to re- capitulate the progress of the Roman arms as it affected the several British tribes that have just been enumerated. Tacitus, in his Life of Agricola, has sketched it very distinctly up to the commence- ment of the campaigns of that celebrated general. The efforts of Claudius and the two first governors, Aulus Plautius and Ostorius Scapula, had, by a.d. 50, either subdued by force or otherwise obtained the submission of all the nations included within the line of forts by which Ostorius may be said to have in some degree connected the opposite estuaries of the Wash and the Severn; namely, (taking them in the order of Ptolemy's enumera- tion,) the Catyeuchlani, the Iceni (supposing this people to be the same with the Semini), the Trino- bantes, the Dobrmi, the Atrebatii, the Cantii, the Regni, the Belgse, the Durotriges, and the Dum- nonii. Some of these, however, were not so com- pletely reconciled to the yoke as not afterwards to make repeated attempts to regain their indepen- dence ; and, in fact, it was not till about a.d. 64 or 65, under Petronius Tarpilianus, that the whole of this section of the island, now known by the name of the Province, could be said to be brought into a etfite of entire subjection and tranquillity. Mean- • Lingard, History of England, i. 54. VOL. 1. while, beyond the boundary of the Province, in- cursions had been made into the territories of the Brigantes in the north, and of the Silures, the Or- dovices, and the people of Anglesey in the west; but no permanent impression had been made in those parts. It was not till the reign of Vespasian (a.d. 70 — 78) that the Brigantes were subdued by Petilius Cerealis, and the Silures by Julius Fron- tinus. Agricola assumed the government a.d. 78, and the same summer completely conquered the Ordovices and the island of Anglesey. In the course of the next three years he appears to have reduced to subjection all the nations to the south of the rampart which he constructed between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, with the exception only of those inhabiting the part of the west coast nearest to Ireland, — the Novantse and the Selgovae in all probability, — whom, however, he reduced in his next campaign. This was really the utmost ex- tent to which the conquest of the country by the Romans was ever carried. Agricola, indeed, after- wards defeated the Caledonians in the famous battle fought at the foot of the Grampians ; but it is not alleged that the victory was followed by any per- manent results, or that even a single new tribe, the Horesti only excepted, made their submission for the moment. Certainly no establishments were ever attempted by the Romans beyond the Forth ; nor were the conquests made by Agricola long maintained even up to that limit. Within twenty or thirty years after his time, we find the emperor Hadrian abandoning everything beyond the Solway. Antoninus Pius, indeed, soon after extended the province to its former boundary ; but it was found impossible effectually to reduce the turbulent native occupants of the country between the two walls ; and in the beginning of the second century, the attempt to hold it may be said to have been finally given up, first by the erection of the new barrier between the Solway and the Tyne by Severus, and', a few years afterwards, by the formal cession of the greater part of the disputed territory by Caracalla. After this, although the legions may have been sometimes found in conflict with the barbarians, perhaps, at a considerable distance beyond the wall of Severus, yet there seems to be no ground for believing that the Roman power ever renewed the attempt to gain a footing in these outer regions. The common hypothesis that, after this time, in the decline and rapidly accumulating difficulties of the empire, a new province, whether under the name of Valentia or of Flavia Csesariensis, was formed in this part of the island, cannot be received upon the slight evidence that is brought forward in its sup- port. At all events, if any such province was really established, as is assumed, in the latter part of the fourth century, it is quite impossible that the ex- tension of the empire in that direction could have been more than nominal. When the northern tribes, on the final retirement of the imperial le- gions not many years after this, poured in upon the provincials, we hear of no obstruction whatever that they met with till they came to the wall of Severus. 82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Although the native British tribes, before their subjugation by the Romans, were so far from being united into one community that they were very generally at war one with another, yet there are circumstances which indicate that, to a certain extent, many of theiji felt themselves to have a common interest as the occupants of the same country. Even their intestine wars wovild of ne- cessity often array them into opposing confederacies, and thus establish among them the habits and feel- ings of a nmtual relationship and dependence. But it is not easy to form a judgment as to the range of territory over which, in such a state of society, any connexion, or even any comnmnication, was kept up between the various tribes. Perhaps their inter- course with each other was carried on between points more remote from each other than we should be at first inclined to suppose. The nations to the south of the Thames and the Severn, or rather we ought pro- bably to say of the Severn and the Wash, appear evidently to have been all accustomed to co-operate on emergencies, and to consider themselves as in some sort forming one society : although even when pressed by a common danger, their differences of origin may have afforded great facilities for fomenting di- visions between those of Belgic descent, for instance, and the aborigines (as Caesar calls them) of the interior ; and the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall, withdrawn within their peninsula, may be supposed to have been apt to feel less interest than the rest in the general cause. But even the Brigantes in the north seem early to have taken a part in the resist- ance to the Roman invasion ; and, on more than one occasion, we find them apparently acting in concert with the insurgent tribes within the con- quered territory or with the yet unsubdued com- batants in the west. The notion of a common nationality, however, even in its faintest form, seems scarcely to have extended beyond the Bri- gantes ; the ruder occupants of the bleak and wild country farther to the north were probably always regarded as the people of another land. Yet although we do not find any actual association of the tribes of the north and south, as thus dis- tinguished, we should perhaps be in error if we were to assume that they kept up no intercourse with each other. If any reliance is to be placed on the correctness even of the general import of the speech which Tacitus puts into the mouth of the Caledonian General Galgacus, we must suppose that the events which had happened in South Britain, since the arrival of the Romans, were both well known, and had excited a deep interest beyond the Grampians. Galgacus, in rousing the valour of his followers, makes his appeal throughout to feel- ings which he assumes to be common to all Bri- tons, and he alludes to the revolt of the Trinobantes under Boadicea, and to other passages of the con- quest of the southern tribes, as to transactions that were familiar to all his hearers. Section II. THE GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE ROMANS. We learn from Caesar, whose account is confirmed by other writers of good authority, that the govern- ment of the ancient British nations was, in form at least, monarchical. We are scarcely, however, entitled to assume that each of the tribes or nations we have enumerated had its own king or chief, and formed, in all respects, a distinct and inde- pendent state. The same sovereign may in some cases have governed several tribes ; or, on the other hand, what is described as a single district inhabited only by one people, may have been di- vided into several sovereignties. Caesar, for in- stance, mentions four kings in Kent ; and yet no geographer, or other ancient writer, has spoken of that territory as occupied by more than one nation. Of the rules of succession to the royal authority little is known. We are informed, however, that they made no distinction of sexes in the succession to the royal office ;* differing in this from the tribes of the Germanic stock. We have examples of British female sovereigns in Boadicea and Carlis- mundua. But though the form of government was monar- chical, the British princes appear to have possessed but a small portion of the substance of sovereignty. One of their chief prerogatives was that of com- manding the forces of their respective tribes in the time of war. But even then their authority was very much circumscribed by their nobility, and still more by their priests. The Druids, as we have already had occasion to observe, were pos- sessed of very great power among the rude Britons, almost, it would appear, as much as was possessed by the Egyptian priesthood ; insomuch that the government among the ancient Britons was more properly a theocracy than either a monarchy, aris- tocracy, or democracy. Dio Chrysostom says, speaking of the Celtic nations generally, " Their kings are not allowed to do anything without the Druids ; not so much as to consult about putting any design into execution without their participation. So that it is the Druids who reign in reality ; and the kings, though they sit on thrones, feast in splendour, and live in palaces, are no more than their instruments and ministers for executing their designs. " But the government appears to have had also a mixture in it of popular elements. Ambiorix, king of a people of Gaul, made this excuse to Caesar for having assaulted his camp : — " That it had not been done with his advice or consent ; and that his government was of such a nature that the people had as much power over him as he had over them." The British princes made a similar excuse to Caesar for having seized and imprisoned his ambassadors, — that is, they laid the blame upon the multitude. These slight intimations, however, are not sufficient to enable us to form any opinion as to the share which • Tacit. Agrie. xvi. Chap. III.] CONSTITUTION, GOVEENMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.J). 449. 83 the people really had in the government. With regard to the power of the Dniids we have more distinct information. Among most rude nations the laws receive their force from being regarded as the express commands of their gods. Where a particular order of men are supposed to be the only persons to whom the gods have communicated the knowledge of their commands, this order of men are of course the only persons capable of declaring and explaining those commands to the people, fn a word, they are the sole legislators of that people. Moreover, the vio- lations of these laws being considered as violations of the will of heaven, the punishment of such vio- lations could not be committed to any but the ministers of heaven, — to wit, the order of men above specified. In an early state of society a very large proportion of these laws are penal, consequently punishment is the chief employment of the judicial office. Consequently, too, we have the same men who have declared the law as the ministers, and as it were the secretaries of the gods, executing it in virtue of the same privilege. That is, we have the same men performing the legisla- tive and judicial functions. Among the ancient Britons these vast powers were enjoyed by the Druids.* Of the times, places, and forms of the judicial proceedings of these ghostly judges little or nothing is known. Most of the notices preserved by • Diod. SicuL v. 31.— Strabo iv. p. IO7. (Lutetiee 1620.)— Coesir, B. G. vi. 13, 16. Arch-Dbuis in his full Judicial Costume, aod wearing the Breastplate of Judgment, pronouncing Sentence, L: 84 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Csesar in relation to these matters we have already given in our general abstract of his account of the Druidical system. The courts of justice in which the Druids presided were, there can be little doubt, like their temples, open to the sky. The vestiges of that in which the chief British tribunal is sup- posed to have been held are still to be traced in the Isle of Anglesey, and are thus described by Rowland : — " In the other end of this township (of Tre'r Dryw), wherein all these ruins already men- tioned are, there first appears a large cirque or theatre, raised up of earth and stones to a great height, resembling a horseshoe, opening directly to the west, upon an even, fair spot of ground. This cirque or theatre is made of earth and stones, carried and heaped there to form the bank. It is, within the circumvallation, about twenty paces over ; and the banks, where whole and unbroken, above five yards perpendicular height. It is called Bryn-Gwyn, or Brein-Gwyn, i. e. the supreme or royal tribunal."* It appears from Caesar that the extraction of evidence by torture was a form of judicial procedure sometimes resorted to among the Gauls, and most probably it was also in use among the Britons. Caesar tells us that it was applied by the Gauls in the case of women who were suspected of having occasioned the death of their husbands ; but he does not say that this was the only case in which it was applied. One of the few laws of the Gauls which he expressly men- tions is, that when a woman was found guilty of this crime, she was delivered to the flames, and put to death by the aid of excruciating torments. We may here observe that, notwithstanding what is related respecting the promiscuous concubinage in use among the Britons, the marriage connexion appears still to have been distinctly acknow- ledged and protected by the law. The history of Cartismundua, whose subjects rose in re- volt against her and drove her from her king- dom, in their indignation at her profligate aban- donment of her husband's bed, shows the general feeling that was entertained upon this subject. Caesar also informs us that among the Gauls the husbands had the power of life and death both over their wives and their children. Another Gallic law relating to marriage which he mentions is, that, whatever dowry the husband received with his wife, he added to it an equivalent amount; the whole then continued the common property of the two 80 long as both lived, and, after the death of either, devolved, with all accumulations, upon the survivor. It also appears froni his account of the Druids, already quoted, that theft and some other crimes were punished capitally, according to the laws administered by these judges. Their system of law, there can be little doubt, was of as sangui- nary a character as their system of religion, of which it made a part. Of the taxes paid by the Britons to their kings we know nothing further than that the Druids, as already mentioned, took care to be exempted from • Mona Antiqua, pp. 89, 90. them, as well as from servmg in war, and indeed all other burdens. We shall conclude this section, necessarily a very meagre one (since we refrain from swelling out our history with idle conjectures), with the ac- count given by Solinus of a singularly constituted government, which he places in the Western Islands of Caledonia, and to which possibly in some fea- tures the government of the other British na- tions may have borne a resemblance. These islands, called the Hebrides, " being only," he says, "separated from each other by narrow firths, or arms of the sea, constitute one king- dom. The sovereign of this kingdom has nothing which he can properly call his own, but he has the free use of all the possessions of all his subjects. The reason of this regulation is, that he may not be tempted to acts of oppression and injustice, by the desire or hope of in- creasing his possessions, since he knows that he can possess nothing. This prince is not even allowed to have a wife of his own, but he has free access to the wives of all his subjects, that, having no children which he knows to be his own, he may not be prompted to encroach on the privileges of his subjects, in order to aggrandize his family." It is curious that this was one of the means devised by Plato in his Republic, to guard against the same evil. Solinus, however, is not a writer of any authority, and, although most of his stories are stolen, no confirmation or trace of this very strange statement is, we believe, to be found anywhere else. It is not unlikely that he may be merely here exer- cising his invention in giving " a local habitation and a name " to the philosophical fiction of Plato. Section III. THE GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF ROMAN BRITAIN. The transformation of South Britain into a Roman province necessarily swept away the native govern- ment, and established another in its place ; the least of the novel characteristics of which was, that it was a government of foreigners. It was a sudden substitution of the institutions of civilization for those of a condition nearly approaching to bar- barism. The Romans were certainly, as a nation, the greatest practical statesmen whom the world has yet beheld. Among other people indivi- duals have from time to time arisen who have exhibited vast genius in devising schemes of go- vernment, or have shown great capacity for admi- nistration. But among the Romans alone there existed institutions which were able to ensure a succession of men who were systematically taught to " sway the rod of empire." The celebrated lines of their great poet were no mere poetical rhapsody — ^no vain and empty boast. — Exciident alii spirautia mollius aera> Credo equidem : vivos ducent de maimore vultus; Orabunt causae melius ; ccelique meatus Describent radio, et eurKentia sidera dicent. Chap. TIL] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.J). 449. 8.5 Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ; Hse tibi erunt artes ; pacisque imponere moiem, Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos. JEneid, vi. 848. Let others better mould the running mass Of metals, and inform the breathing brass ; And soften into flesh a murble face : Plead better at the bar; describe the skies, And when the stars descend, and when they rise. But, Rome, 'tis thine alone, witli awful sway. To rule mankind, and make the world obey ; Disposing peace and war thy own majestic way; To tame the proud, the fetter'd slave to free ; These are imperial arts, and worthy thee. Dryden's Translation, The Roman was probably the wisest oligarchy that ever existed. In Rome, unlike what we have seen happen in other oligarchies, the education of the ruling class was as carefully attended to, as jealously watched over, as the preservation of their privileges. The Roman patrician was carefully and systematically instructed in the art of war, and in such, and such only, of the arts of peace as were to be the source of power, the foundation of domi- nion over those who aimed at universal dominion. Thus, they made their law, and above all their actiones legis — their law of procedure — a mystery into which a plebeian could never penetrate, but with which they themselves took care to be familiar. Tlius among the Romans we sometimes see the most various and apparently (at least to our modern notions on the subject) inconsistent qualities united in the same individual. Without bringing forward cases such as that of the all-accomplished Julius Caesar, of men of great power and extent of ori- ginal genius, we might cite instances from the Roman annals of the same man being juris-consult, general, public professor of law, pontifex maximus, consul, dictator.* When we consider that to these various accomplishments were added in the Roman an iron discipline, and a courage, cool, steady, col- lected, we shall not wonder that his march was to uninterrupted victory and universal empire. Long after a military despotism had succeeded to the power of that mighty oligarchy, Rome still continued as much of her ancient policy as required that able men, though no longer so exclusively selected from one class, should be appointed to govern her provinces and command her armies. We have only to look at the result to be convinced that Britain was not an exception to this salutary rule. The ministers of the Roman state, whether called republic or empire, the representatives of the majesty of the Roman name, were educated sol- diers, jurisconsults, statesmen ; and whatever might be their errors and their vices — and they were, no doubt, many — they conquered, and, up to a certain point, civilized a large portion of the world. In a greater degree than any other people have done, the Romans communicated to the nations they con- quered (not merely, as is often falsely asserted, their vices, but) whatever of the blessings of civilization they themselves possessed. It is interesting to an inhabitant of Great Bri- tain at the present day, to reflect that, towards the • Gravinae Orig., lib.i. cap. 47 et seq. See also Heineccii Historia ■Juris Romani. beginning of the Christian era, more than 1500 years ago, this island actually possessed, for a period of above 300 years, nearly the whole of the Roman civilization ; that^ in the second and third centuries of the Christian era, the inhabitants of Britain enjoyed personal security ; and, after the payment of the Roman taxes, security of property ; arts and letters ; elegant and commodious build- ings ; and roads, to which no roads they have had since could bear comparison, till the establishment of the present railways. As we look along the line of tile Greenwich railroad, and contemplate its massive yet elegant arches, — its compact and solid masonry, — its iron highway, and the ponderous yet compact carriages that fly along it, and reflect that the whrole kingdom will soon be intersected with similar gigantic structures, we feel as if the times of Roman enterprise, as regards vastnfess of design and durability of workmanship, had returned. It is an inquiry of no common importance and in- terest to attempt to learn what were the principal features of that civilization which rose so early, and, after lasting some three centuries, was so rapidly and totally destroyed. The Roman settlements were originally divided into colonies, municipia, and Latin cities ; but, in the decline of the empire, the distinctions between them were obliterated, and they were all invested with equal rights. However, from the importance of the subject, it is fit that we should say some- thing of the rise and progress, as well as of the leading characteristics of the municipia. When we come to treat of the military government of the province, we shall have to say something of the colonies. One leading distinction between them, noted by Aulus Gellius, we may mention here, that the colonies were sent out from, the municipia taken into, the Roman state. The Romans, in their conquests, so far pursued a diflcrent system from that of most of the ancient nations, that they neither sought to exterminate nor reduce to slavery the nations they conquered. It is the opinion of M. Guizot,* whose opinion on most points of the philosophy of history is entitled to great respect, that this difiference arose from the situation of most of the neighbouring tribes on which Rome at first made war. They were assembled in towns, not dispersed over the coun- try. At first, the Romans did not venture to leave their former inhabitants in the conquered towns. They were occupied either by soldiers, or by inha- bitants taken from Rome. Caere was the first which preserved its laws and magistrates, and re- ceived, in part at least, the rights of Rome, t This example soon became general. There were dif- ferent degrees, however, of the privilege ; and it was only the highest degree that conferred the right of voting at Rome like the Romans. The towns of the last class, whose citizens were thus admitted to all the rights of Roman citizens, were called municipia. • Essais sur I'Histoire de France: Paris, 1834. Premier Essai. Du Regime Municipal dans I'Empire Remain, p. 5, et seq. I Liv. lib. V. cap. i. 86 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. Thence arose in those towns a separation between the municipal rights and duties, and the political rights and duties : the former were exercised upon the spot ; the latter were transported to Rome, and could only be exercised within its walls. The principal matters which remained local were — 1. The religious worship. 2. The administration of the municipal property and revenues. 3. The police, to a certain extent ; with 4. A few judicial functions specially connected with it. All these local affairs were regulated either by individual magistrates, named by the inhabitants, or by the curia of the town, that is, the college of decuriones, or inhabitants possessed of a territorial revenue to a certain amount. In general, the ma- gistrates were named by the curia, though some- times by all the inhabitants. As a necessary con- sequence of slavery, there were fev/ free men who were not admissible into the curia. Later, the decuriones were called curiales. When the Roman government from an aristo- cracy was changed into an absolute monarchy, the chief men of the municipia, who had repaired to Rome for the purpose of exercising their political powers, and from a natural ambition to share in the government, having no longer the same motive to go to Rome, remained at their respective muni- cipia. Thus the municipia obtained a portion of the importance which Rome lost. This was the flourishing time of the Roman municipia. Their importance during this epoch is attested by the number of laws regarding them, and the attention bestowed upon them by the jurisconsults. But this epoch of their history was, in process of time, succeeded by another far less prosperous. The imperial despotism had difficulties to struggle with which required vast sums of money. On one side were the barbarians, who were either to be bought off, or beaten. In either case money was wanted— in the first, to pay the barbarians ; in the second, to pay the soldiers who fought them. On the other side was a vast and increasing populace, to be fed, amused, and kept under. In order to obtain resources, an administrative machinery was created, capable of extending its action everywhere, but vast and complicated, and consequently itself a source of great expense. The revenues of the towns, as well as those of individuals, came to be in this way laid under contribution. At different times the emperor seized a great quantity of muni- cipal property. Nevertheless, the local burdens for which that property was intended to provide, remained the same, or rather went on increasing, from the increase of the population. When the revenues of a municipality were insufficient for its expenses, the members of the curia (or corporation) were obliged to provide for them out of their pri- vate property. Thus the station of decurio became a source of ruin to those who held it, that is, to all the inhabitants in easy circumstances of all the municipia of the empire. And thus was destroyed the middle class of citizens, and the way prepared most effectually for the total ruin of the empire. This result was accelerated by an exemption from the curial functions being granted to certain individuals and classes as a privilege. So that, as the burdens of the decuriones increased, this privi- lege came in to diminish their numbers. Conse- quently, the weight pressed with increased and increasing force on those that remained, till it ulti- mately annihilated the order ; and, for a season, a middle class may be said to have disappeared from among mankind. And as human society, without that middle class, is as infirm as any fabric of which the extremities are not bound together, or are bound but by a rope of sand, it is not sur- prising that the Roman world should have fallen an easy prey to the hordes of warlike barbarians that poured in upon it. * Besides the main incorporation, each city con- tained various colleges, or corporations of ope- ratives, who held, says Sir Francis Palgrave, an ambiguous station between slavery and freedom. In these societies employments were hereditary, so that the son of the handicraftsman became a member of the college by birth or caste. It is foreign to our present purpose to enter into an ac- count of these Roman guilds; but we refer the reader who wishes for more information respecting them, to the elaborate and learned discussion on the subject contained in the tenth chapter of Sir Francis Palgrave's work on the " Rise and Pro- gress of the English Commonwealth." That prince of jurisprudential expositors, Heineccius, has also written a work, " De CoUegiis et Corporibus Opificum." When the Romans had established themselves in Britain, they proceeded, according to their usual policy, to make Verulamium a municipium, or free town, bestowing on the inhabitants all the privi- leges of Roman citizens. When this first hap- pened, the municipal system was in the second stage or epoch of the progress which we have briefly traced above, that is, it was in its flourishing state. London, too, though it does not appear to have been a municipium, nor even distinguished by the name of a colony, was, we are informed by Tacitus, t famous for its trade, enjoying, no doubt, some of the advantages of the Roman Municipia. The fact in this particular instance of Britain, agrees with and illustrates the general fact stated above. In a few years the two places above named were crowded with inhabitants, who were all zea- lous partisans of the Roman government. Both these facts are demonstrated by what happened to these two cities in the great revolt under Boadicea. The revolted Britons, as already related, attacked with fury London and Verulamium, on account of their attachment to the Romans, and destroyed no •In the above bnef account of the Roman municipia, we have chiefly followed the Essay of M. Guizot, above quote.!. + Annal. lib. xiv. cap. xxxiii. His words are, " Londinium — cognomento quidem coloniae non insigne, sed copia negotiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre." He expressly calls Verulamium a municipium. See also Suetonius, Vit. Neron. cap. xxxix. Both Tacitus and Suetonius use the words civium et sooor«m, -while civium may refer to Verulamium, sociorum to London. See also Hors- ley's Britannia Romana, pp. 16 and 28 Chap. III.] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 87 fewer than 10,000 of their inhabitants — a sufficient proof of the populousness of those towns. That pDpulousness also, in so short a time after the establishment of the Romans in the island, is a sufficient proof of the wise policy of the Romans, in reconciling the conquered people to their domina- tion, by their municipal institutions ; for the won- der is, not that a part of the Britons made the re- volt above alluded to, but that so many of them were already quietly settled, along with the colonists sent out from Italy, or their descendants, in London and Verulamium. The principal towns of every Roman province, besides, as we have already stated, being governed by laws and magistrates similar to those of Rome, were adorned with temples, courts of justice, theatres, statues, and other public buildings and monuments, in imitation of that mighty city — thus imitating the external and physical, as well as the internal and moral characteristics of their me- tropolis. " The country was replete," says Sir Francis Palgrave, " with the monuments of Roman magnificence. Malmesbury appeals to those stately ruins as testimonies of the favour which Britain had enjoyed ; the towers, the temples, the theatres, and the baths, which yet remained undestroyed, ex- cited the wonder and admiration of the chronicler and the traveller ; and even in the fourteenth cen- tury, the edifices raised by the Romans were so numerous and costly, as almost to excel any others on this side the Alps. Nor were these structures among the least influential means of establishing the Roman power. Architecture, as cultivated by the ancients, was not merely presented to the eye ; the art spake also to the mind. The walls covered with the decrees of the legislature, engraved on bronze, or sculptured in the marble ; the triumphal arches, crowned by the statues of the princes who governed the province from the distant Quirinal ; the tesselated floor, pictured with the mythology of tlie state, whose sovereign was its pontiff — all con- tributed to act upon the feelings of the people, and to impress them with respect and submission. The conquered shared in the fame, and were exalted by the splendour of the victors."* The government of Britain, so long as it formed only one province, is supposed to have been com- mitted, according to custom, to a single president, whose powers appear to have at first been almost discretionary, and but little controlled even by the established laws of the empire. It is sufficiently clear, from what Tacitus says in his Life of Agri- cola, that the government of the Romans in Britain, before the arrival of Agricola, was extremely op- pressive. That excellent person employed his first winter in redressing the grievances of the Britons, which had been so great as to occasion frequent revolts, and render a state of peace more terrible to them than a state of war. One remark of Tacitus, in describing the course of policy pursued by his father-in-law, seems to contain nearly the whole secret of the Roman art of governing their provinces, as distinguished from the barbarous imbecility ♦ Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. i. part i. p. 323. 4to. London, 1832. usually displayed by conquering states in their con- duct towards the conquered. " Doctus," he says of Agricola, " per aliena experimenta, parum projid armis, si injuria sequerentur ;" — taught by the experience of others, that little was gained by arms, if success was followed by injuries. The edict of Ha- drian, however, promulgated, a.d. 131, and called the perpetual edict, had no doubt the effect of mitigating the tyranny of the provincial presidents, since it contained a system of -rules by which they were to regulate their conduct in their judicial capacity, and by which the administration of justice was rendered uniform throughout all the empire.* From the promulgation of the perpetual edict of the emperor Hadrian to the final departure of the Romans out of this island, was about 300 years ; and during that period the laws of Rome were firmly established in all the Roman dominions in Britain. In our sketch of the municipal institutions we have already given the substance of a portion of those laws, — and in what remains to be said we shall have to allude to others. Most of them were embodied in the Theodosian Code, by com- mand of the emperor Theodosius, about the year 438. This code did not, however, as Montesquieu seems to suppose, constitute the whole body of the Roman law in the fifth century. It was a collection of the constitutions of the emperors from Constan- tine to Theodosius the younger.f Independently of those constitutions, the law of the Twelve Tables ; the ancient senatus-consulta, and plebiscita; the edicts of the praetors, or rather the perpetual edict of Hadrian, which had superseded these; and, lastly, the responsa prudentum, the opinions of the jurisconsults, formed part of the Roman law. In- deed, in the year 426, by a constitution of Theo- dosius the younger and Valentinian, the works of five of the great jurisconsults, Papinianus, Paullus, Gaius, Ulpianus, and Modestinus, and of four others secundo loco, Scsevola, Sabinus, Julianus, and Marcellus, had expressly received the force of law. J The Theodosian Code, however, doubtless contained the most important portion of the law of the empire, and is also the document which throws most light on that epoch, particularly when aided by the very learned commentary of Jacobus Go- thofred. To attempt to give any detailed account of that vast body of laws in this place would evi- dently be futile. It is almost unnecessary to add that the corpus juris, or body of law, promulgated by Justinian, contains in substance much of what was in the Theodosian Code, as well as in the works of those great jurisconsults. And although we cannot join in the admiration expressed by some for the " re- gular order " of that digest, where order there is none, we must needs admit that, as a body of law, it remains a monument of the good sense of that illustrious people, and of their great practical talents for government and legislation. * Heinec. Antiq. Roman, lib. i. cap. iv. J 104. See also Heineccii Hist. Jur. Rom. i. § 275 and Graving Origin, lib. i. cap. 38. t Heineccii Hist. Jur. Rom. lib. i. {379. Gravinse Orig, lib. i. cap. 131. t Heineccii Hist. Jar. Rom. lib.i. \ 368. 88 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND. [Book I. It has been the fashion with historical writers * to attribute much of the progress of modem Eu- ropean civihzation to the revival of the knowledge of the Roman law, by the discovery of a copy of the Pandects of Justinian at Amalphi, a.d. 1137. Von Savigny, in his History of the Roman Law during the Middle Ages, has completely proved that the Roman law had never perished, and there- fore that the story of its resuscitation by the dis- covery of the Pandects at Amalphi in the twelfth century is erroneous. Indeed, more than half a century before the appearance of the work of Von Savigny, Heineccius had arrived at nearly the same conclusion, though he did not go into such fulness of detail as Von Savigny. f But the reported dis- covery of the Pandects, and the rapid effects ascribed to that one cause, bear about them something of that air of the miraculous which has always found such favour with mankind. For the purposes of administration, the Roman territories in Britain were, about 150 years after its first occupation by these conquerors, divided into two provinces, to which three more were afterwards added. The only notice of these divisions which can be perfectly depended on, so far as it goes, is contained in the " Notitia," already mentioned, a document which is of about the same date with the Theodosian Code ; | but all that we learn from this document is, that the names of the five provinces were Flavia Caesariensis, Britannia Prima, Bri- tannia Secunda, Valentia, and Maxima Caesariensis. As to the parts of the island to which these names were respectively applied, we are altogether in the dark. It is even doubtful whether they were all contained within the wall of Severus, or whether one of them (but which is matter of conjecture) did not comprehend the space between that rampart and the wall of Antoninus. Richard of Ciren- cester adds a sixth province, to which he gives the name of Vespasiana, and which he makes to ex- tend from the wall of Antoninus to the Moray Frith. The machinery for governing Britain as well as the other provinces of the Roman empires, varied with the extent of that empire. We shall now give an account of it when it was in its most com- plete and extensive form. In the fifth century, the emperor Constantine the Great divided the whole Roman empire into the four prefectures of the East, Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul, over each of which he established a prefect. § Each of these prefectures was subdivided into a certain number of dioceses, each of which was governed, under the prefect, by an officer called the vicar of the diocese. The diocese of Britain, as well as those of Gaul and Spain, was comprehended in the prefecture of Gaul. • See Henry, Hist, of Biit^n, book i. chaj). iii. § 3. Also Heiuec- cius, Robertson, Hume, &c. + Heineccij Hist. Ju».Rora. lib. i. § 413, 414, 415. X Tlie best edition of it is that with the Commentary of Paticirolus, given in the seventh volume of the Roman Antiquities of Grievius. An account of the portion of it relating to Britain will be found in Horsley's Britannia Romana. § Heineccii Hist. Jur. Romani, lib. i.§ 365.— Notitia Imperii, with Paiicirolus's Commentary. The court of the vicar of Britain, who resided chiefly at London, was composed of tlie following officers : — a principal officer of the agents ; a prin- cipal secretary ; two chief accountants ; a master of the prisons ; a notary ; a secretary fur despatches ; an assistant ; under-assistants ; clerks for appeals ; sergeants and other inferior officers. Each of the five provinces of Britain had a parti- cular governor, styled a president, who resided within the province. From these governors appeals lay to the vicar, and from him to the prefect of Gaul. The title of the vicar of Britain M'as Spectabilis, and the ensigns of his office were a book of instructions in a green cover, and five castles, representing the five provinces under his jurisdiction, and placed within a line which imitated the triangular form of the island. Two of the provinces — probably the two most northerly — were governed by persons of con- sular dignity, the three others by persons styled presidents. The court, or more properly bureau, of each of these governors was almost an exact copy, on a smaller scale, of that of the vicar of the diocese and of the prefect of the prefecture.* It is not necessary to enter into more detail in regard to the various subordinate administrative offices. It is sufficient to observe that they form a complete example of pure and simple administrative despotism. There is no independence for the func- tionaries ; they are subordinate one to another, up to the emperor, who has the absolute disposal of their destiny. There is no appeal for the subjects against the functionaries, but to their superiors. We meet with no co-ordinate powers destined to act as checks upon one another : everything pro- ceeds according to a strictly graduated scale ; and yet M. Guizot thinks, and not a few will agree with him, that this administrative machinery of the im- perial despotism was less grievous to those who lived under it than the powers which preceded it, — whether the short-lived, but on that account more rapacious, tyranny of the Roman proconsul, republi- can at least in name, or the barbarous oppression of their native rulers, — their ignorant and ferocious chieftains, and fanatic priests. With respect to the administration of the laws, the Roman governors had the sole judgment of all causes, without other appeal than to the emperor. In the first ages of the empire, and conformably to the ancient customs, he to whom the jurisdiction belonged, whether praetor, governor of the province, or municipal ma- gistrate, when a case came before him for trial, did nothing but determine the rule of law. He then appointed a private citizen, called judex (literally " judge "), corresponding to our jury, who exa- mined and decided upon the point of fact. The principle laid down by the magistrate was applied to the fact recognized by the judex, and the trial was completed. In proportion as the imperial despotism was esta- blished, the intervention of the judex became less regular. The magistrates, without having recourse • Notitia Imperii, chap. xlix. lib. 1. Heineccii Anllq. Rom. Ap|«Ed. Chap. III.] CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS : B.C. 55.— A.D. 449. 89 to that contrivance, decided certain affairs whicli they called extraordinarice cognitiones. Diocle- tian formally abolished the institution of the judex in the provinces ; it no longer appeared but as an exception to a rule ; and, in the time of Justinian, it seems to have fallen completely into desuetude.* From this it will appear that, in Britain as else- where, the governors had two sorts of duties : — 1. They were the emperor's ministers, intrusted with the collection of the revenues, with the com- mand and recruiting of the armies, with the manage- ment of the imperial posts, and, in a word, of every relation in which the emperor stood to his subjects ; 2. They had the administration of justice.f The ad- ministrative and judicial departments were thus, contrary to some of the most important principles of good government, strictly combined; the Roman emperors not being of the opinion of George III., when he declared that " he looked upon the in- dependence and uprightness of the judges as es- sential to the impartial administration of justice, — as one of the best securities of the rights and liberties of his subjects, — and as most conducive to the honour of the crown. "J When the Romans conquered a people, they ge- nerally pursued with them one of two modes j — they either imposed on them an annual tribute, or tliey took from them their lands, colonizing them from Rome, or restoring them to the conquered people on the condition of their paying a certain proportion of the revenue of them to the conquerors. Those treated in the former manner were called trihutarii; those treated in the latter, vectigales. At first Britain belonged to the former class, but afterwards to the latter. The vectigales -paid from their arable land a tax called decunKje, from their pasture a tax called scriptura^ and from their ports a tax called por