Page

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Arms and Badge of John

282 Arms of Robert Fitz-Walter

287 Henry III., from his Monument in Westminster Abbey. 295 Arms of Henry III.

ib. the Earl Marshal

ib. De Montfort

297 Edmund of Lancaster

299 William de Valence, earl of Pembroke

315 Mortimer

323 Clare, earl of Gloucester

324 Earl Warrenne

330 Ferrers, earl of Derby

332 Edward I., from his coins

336 Eleanor of Castile, from her Monument in Westminster Abbey

336 Arms of Eleanor of Castile

339 Edward of Caernarvon

310 Edward I.

31 Caerphilly Castle, a restoration

347 Arms of Scotland

351 Lord St. John

356 Bigod, Earl Marshal

ib. Bohun, earl of Hereford Lord Segrave .

360 Edward II., from his Monument in Gloucester Cathedral 363 Arms of Edward II.

ib. Ancient Arms of France

365 Arms of Thomas, earl of Lancaster

367 Despenser

371 Seal of Bohun, earl of Hereford

372 Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault, from their Monuments, Westminster Abbey

375 Edward the Black Prince, from his Tomb at Canterbury 377 Arms of John of Gaunt

378 Edward III.

379 b

.

ib.

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.

Page

386,

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395

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Arms of Montacute, earl of Salisbury

of New College, Oxford
Richard II. and Anne of Bohemia, from Monuments,

Westminster Abbey
Arms of De Vere, earl of Oxford
Arms and Badges of Richard II.
Arms of earl of Arundel

John of Northampton
De la Pole, earl of Suffolk

.

HE Saxon Chronicle, following the Venerable

Bede, the earliest English writer who deserves the name of historian, commences its

narrative with a brief description of Britain, and a legend of its first peopling.

“The island of Britain is eight hundred miles long, and two hundred miles broad : and here in this island are five tongues, English, British, Scottish, Pictish, and Latin. The first inhabitants of this land were Britons ; they came from Armenia (Armorica, now Britanny), and first settled in the south of Britain. Then befel it that Picts came from the south, from Scythia, with long ships, not many, and first landed in North Hibernia, and they entreated the Scots that they might there abide. But they would not permit them, for they said that they could not all abide there together. And then the Scots

B

said, 'We may nevertheless give you counsel. We know another island eastward of this, where ye may dwell, if ye will, and if any one withstand you, we will assist you, so that you may subdue it.' Then went the Picts, and subdued this land northwards; the southern part the Britons had, as we before have said. And the Picts obtained wives for themselves of the Scots, on this condition, that they should always choose their royal lineage on the woman's side ; which they have held ever since. And then befel it in the course of years, that some part of the Scots departed from Hibernia into Britain, and conquered some portion of the land. And their leader was called Reoda, from whom they are named Dalreodi a.."

The research of modern writers has failed to carry the authentic history of Britain beyond the year 57 before the Christian era, when, as we are informed by Cæsar, Divitiacus, a Gaulish king, exercised a kind of feudal superiority not only over the north-eastern part of modern France, but also over at least a portion of Britain. Thus connected with the affairs of the Gauls, and, as we learn from Tacitus, in part of kindred race, the islanders were easily led to afford succour to them when assailed by the Romans; and this succour, added to the report of pearls and other riches to be acquired, sufficed to attract to Britain the legions of the conqueror.

In narrating his two campaigns, Cæsar asserts that he was the first to carry the arms of Rome into an unknown world ; yet, four centuries before his time, He. rodotus had made mention of the Cassiterides (now the • From this, probably the modern district of Lorn, in Argyllshire.

Scilly isles) and their tin mines ; Aristotle also alludes to them, and Polybius says that in his day (260 B.C.) writers discoursed largely on the subject. Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, shortly after Cæsar's invasion, speak of the triangular form of the island, and give some vague idea of its size; and Ptolemy, early in the second century, furnishes a table of the position of many of its promontories and rivers, and of its tribes and cities; to which Marcianus Heracleota, in the third, adds further particulars of the “ Pretannic islands,” Ibernia (Ireland) and Albion. He describes the first as containing “sixteen nations, eleven celebrated towns, fifteen principal rivers, five remarkable promontories, six distinguished islands ;" and the latter,—which he says is by far the greater, not contracted like other islands, but drawn out and extended over a great part of the northern ocean, with two particularly extensive isthmuses, one greater than the other, in the form of feet, of which the lesser stretches out towards Aquitania, — has “thirty-three nations, fifty-nine celebrated towns, forty noble rivers, fourteen lofty promontories, one notable chersonesus, five spacious bays, three commodious harbours. The whole circumnavigation of the island of Albion is not more than 28,604, nor less than 20,526 stadia b.” At a later, but uncertain date, the Itinerary of Antoninus supplies detailed information as to the topography of Britain, to which some addition may be made from the Peutingerian Table, a document probably belonging to the fourth century, though only known to us from a transcript of much later date.

Equal to 3,178 and 2,280 English miles.

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b