claimed for their nation. Their story was, that a certain prince of Greece-some of them say a grandson of Nimrod named Gathelus-having quarrelled with his father, went over to Egypt, where he married Scota, the daughter of that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. This couple, during their wandering life, founded a kingdom, which, after the husband, was called Partugathel or Portugal, and thence they proceeded to this island, where they founded another kingdom, which, after the lady, was termed Scotia or Scotland. All these events took place nearly as long before the Christian era as we are now living after it; and while little more is truly known about Scotland a thousand years back than the names of a few chiefs or kings, the annalists profess to give us a minute account of what happened in the country more than three thousand years ago. These fables, from their constant repetition, were partly believed even by clever men, who thought they added to the dignity of their country; and the great scholar Buchanan credited so much of them, that in his history he has given the lives of more than forty kings who never existed. Nay, so far was the national feeling on this subject carried, that there may yet be seen on the walls of Holyrood Palace grave-looking portraits, professing to be the likenesses of these very monarchs.

4. IRELAND.But the Irish annalists far excelled those of either England or Scotland in the wonderful antiquity which they attributed to their country. They carry their history back before the Flood, and tell us that the island was first colonized by Bamba, a daughter of Cain. There are various accounts of the manner in which the island was repeopled after the Deluge, and its antediluvian records preserved. Some relate a story of persons drowned in the Flood and brought to life again; but others, professing to be less credulous, say that a person of the name of Bith was preserved by being hidden in the ark. Since the country appears so early in history, we are of course not surprised to find recorded the lives of ninety-one kings who ruled over Ireland in uninterrupted succession before the Christian era. There are undoubtedly many remarkable and ancient remains in the country, such as the celebrated round towers, raised to a great height, and a number of large stones with curious and rude sculpture on them; and antiquaries of the present day have not hesitated to assert that these monuments are thousands of years old, and that Ireland was highly civilized when

all the rest of the earth, except Egypt and Judea, was sunk in utter barbarism.

So much for the fables to which implicit belief was given less than two centuries ago, and which are not yet wholly discredited. We shall now proceed to tell briefly what is really known of the British Islands in ancient times.*

CHAPTER I.

THE BRITONS AND THE ROMANS.

Imperfection of early Accounts of Great Britain-Smallness of the Population-Their Divisions-Surface of the Country-Druidical CirclesArms and Fortifications-Native Money-Religion-Julius CæsarCassivellaunus-Caractacus-Boadicea-Julius Agricola-GalgacusThe Roman Walls-British Independence, Carausius-Ambrosius and Vortigern-Roman Relics in Britain-Progress in Civilisation-Introduction of Christianity.

1. THE earliest accounts that we have of the two islands of Britain and Ireland are from the writings of the Romans; but even their statements cannot be entirely depended upon. The Roman government did not, like ours, make inquiries about the habits and customs of barbarous nations. We cannot find in the Roman works that have descended to our day any particulars of the language of the countries they overran ; nor have we any reason to believe that the Roman governors were at the trouble of learning the language of the people over whom they ruled. It is always a difficult thing to acquire a knowledge of the character and manners of a people who are strangers to us in every respect; and the carelessness of the Roman writers about matters in which modern travellers would take a lively interest, makes us doubt the accuracy even of what they do tell. Thus, it is not easy to form a conception of the state in which the Romans found the island of Britain, except from our knowledge of the condition of uncivilized nations at the present day, and the remains of antiquity that have come down to us.

*The Introductory Chapter being intended rather to illustrate our early fabulous history than to convey any practical information, it is not followed by Exercises.

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2. In England and Scotland, where there are now about twenty millions of inhabitants, it is probable that at the time of Cæsar's landing there were not half a million, or a fifth part of the present population of London. It is known that at the Norman conquest, more than a thousand years afterwards, the population of England was not much above a million. All barbarous countries are thinly peopled; and New Zealand, which is of the same size as Great Britain, is supposed not to have so many as 200,000 inhabitants. It would be a great mistake to imagine that Britain, at this early period, was inhabited by a united people, who had one system of government and laws, and a common notion of patriotism and of resistance to the invaders; neither should it be thought that there was any national disgrace in a scanty barbarous population being overpowered by the highly disciplined legions of the Romans. Indeed, such accounts as the Romans give of their combats with the natives would be called foolish boasting at the present day, if employed by any of our military commanders in reference to uncivilized people. Wherever the Romans went they were opposed courageously, but only by the inhabitants of the place. Those at a distance could scarcely know of their coming. Indeed, it is probable, that when the southern part of the island was conquered by the Romans, the tribes north of the Tweed were ignorant of their existence. No one should imagine that the surface of the country at that time had any resemblance to its present appearance. What are now corn-fields and gardens were then pathless morasses, and people incurred the risk of drowning where the plough now passes through dry soil. Where the land was not covered with moisture, it was overgrown with heath and furze, or with great forests. There could scarcely be said to be any cultivation, and the natives fed on wild animals and the precarious produce of partly cultivated lands. There were no made roads, or bridges over the wide rivers; and we have no reason to presume that there was a single building of stones or bricks cemented with lime in any part of the island. If such had existed, there would probably have been some remnants of them at the present day.

3. Indeed, we know more about the original inhabitants of the country from the remains of their works, than from anything that books can tell. These show them to have possessed considerable mechanical skill. Their great circles of stone, commonly called druidical circles, still strike the

tons.

beholder with astonishment, even in this age of wonders. Some of the stones at Stonehenge rise more than twenty-one feet above the surface of the earth, and as they require to have nearly the same depth below it, to keep them steady, those who erected them must have been able to move solid stones about forty feet long, and weighing many hundreds of At Constantine, in Cornwall, one stone, thirty-three feet long and eighteen broad, had been lifted up by them, and balanced on two points of rock, where it may still be seen. They had the art of balancing stones of hundreds of tons weight so nicely on a point, that a child may move them to and fro; and some of these rocking-stones, as they are commonly called, still exist vibrating in the wind upon desolate moors. These rude but surprising works are to be found in every part of the British Isles. While the largest druidical circle is in Wiltshire, in the south of England, the next in eminence is the circle of Stennes, in the Orkney Islands, seven hundred miles distant from it. They raised barriers or cairns, that is, artificial hills of stone or earth, either as commemorations of great events, or as the tombs of the departed. They constructed curious chambers like cellars underground, the ceiling of which consisted of large stones as long as the whole width of the chamber. They built circular forts on the tops of conical hills, sometimes of stone, sometimes of earth. By some of these a large area on the summit of the hill is encircled with three or four great ramparts, which give us a high idea of the skill and perseverance of those by whom they were raised. Among the smaller remains of the handiwork of the ancient Britons are spear and arrow heads made of flint. These are of the most exquisite shapes, and it would be impossible to cut them neater or sharper in metal than these primitive people cut them from the hard flint. When the ploughman of the present day turns up these tiny and beautifully shaped arrow heads, he is loath to believe them to be the work of human hands, and looks on them with dread, as the deadly weapons of the elves or fairies. The natives of Britain were not quite ignorant of the use of metals before the arrival of the Romans. The Phoenician merchants, who had discovered the value of the tin with which part of England abounded, had probably shown the natives how to use that metal; and bracelets and armlets, with ornaments for the head and neck, have been found of gold and silver, the most remarkable of them having been dug up in Ireland.

It is now generally believed that these gold ornaments were priestly decorations, which imparted dignity to the ceremonials of the Druids.

The subject of native British money is still involved in considerable obscurity. Julius Cæsar positively states that the ancient Britons had no coined money; but in its stead made use of metal rings of a certain weight. These have been found in iron, bronze, gold, and silver, and on examination prove, it is said, to be exact multiples of a standard unit (twelve grains troy).

4. The religion of the Britons was that variety of pagan superstition known by the name of Druidism. The Druids were both priests and lawgivers, and from their oral instructions the British youth derived what knowledge they possessed. According to the accounts we have received of them, they are said to have been divided into three classes-Druids proper, Vates or soothsayers, and Bards. They taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and believed in one God, although in later times the objects of their adoration were numerous, including the serpent and the heavenly bodies. Traces of their superstitions still remain in the bonfires of May-day and Midsummer-eve, and in the ceremonies of AllHallowmas. The oak was a special object of veneration among the Druids: they took up their abode beneath its spreading branches, and their sacred rites were never performed without some of its leaves. The mistletoe, when found growing upon it, was cut by the arch-druid with a golden knife, and the day of its gathering was kept as a solemn religious festival. Besides their natural temples in the oak-groves, the large stone circles already mentioned are believed to have furnished them with a sort of consecrated temples. Within these remarkable structures it is supposed that the Druids annually assembled, to celebrate their orgies, and offer up human sacrifices upon the altars. But it would appear that the ordinary mode of immolation often proved too tedious, for we are informed by Cæsar that on certain occasions gigantic images of wickerwork were filled with men, women, and children, and being set on fire, the miserable victims were consumed in the flames. The whole subject of the rites and religion of Druidism is, however, involved in the deepest mystery.

5. JULIUS CESAR.-In the year 55 B. C., Caius Julius Cæsar, whose conquests in Gaul had brought him within