PAGE 24. Flint Knives. From "Transactions of the Essex Field Club' ... ... IIO 25.-Statue of a River God (Roman), probably the North Tyne. By permission of the Rev. J. Collingwood Bruce ... ... III 26. -Anglo-Saxon Pottery. Found in Norfolk, Kent, and Cambridge. From the originals in the British Museum 118 27.—Page of Gospels. From the original ... 169 32.-Anglo-Saxon Calendar-Ploughing. From the original MS. 33.-Anglo-Saxon Drinking Horn. From the original in the British Museum... 174 Henne am Rhyn's "Cultur Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes " 37.-Anglo-Saxon Calendar From the original MS. ... 192 210 Reaping ... 216 38.-Jewels of Alfred the Great. From Otto Henne am Rhyn's "Cultur Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes" ... ... 39.—Installation of a Saxon King 223 230 41.-Dunstan. From the original MS.... 247 42.-Edgar. From the original MS. 43.-Corfe Castle; the King's Tower; 254 45.-Saxon Pennies; fourteen specimens of the coinage of various kings 46.-Danish Ship of War... ... 271 274 50.-Anglo-Saxon Drinking Glass Found at Ashford, Kent. From the original ... 51.-Pevensey Castle. From a photo- ... ... From the 327 333 ... 352 ... 361 ... 364 ... 368 56.--Ships of War From the Bayeaux 600 57.-Foundation of the Choir of Battle Abbey and Site of the High Altar ... 375 I. BRITAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS. SOMETIME in the fourth century B.C. Pytheas, a native of Massilia (Marseilles) visited the island of Britain. He travelled over a considerable part of it, and found that it consisted, for the most part, of forest or marsh. But there were open spaces in the woods in which sheep and cattle were kept, and there was a strip of land along the coast, or, at least, part of the coast, in which the traveller saw wheat growing. "This wheat," the traveller says, "the natives threshed, not on open floors, but in barns, because they had so little sunshine and so much rain." As he went further north he found that corn could not be grown. The natives made intoxicating drinks, he tells us, out of corn and honey. The island was inhabited, probably at this time, 1 What is here said of Pytheas and his account of his travels must be taken with a certain reserve. His work has been lost, and all that we know of it is derived from quotations made from it by writers who did not attach much credit to it. But on more than one point where they criticized him, we know that he was right and they were wrong. Sir E. H. Bunbury ("History of Ancient Geography," i. 590 seq.) discusses the question fully, and is inclined to regard Pytheas as, in the main, a trustworthy writer. and certainly afterwards when we reach the historical period, by two races of men. Tacitus, writing about the end of the first century of our era, says that the physical character of the inhabitants of Britain differs much. One part of them—he speaks of these under the name of Silures-had dark complexions, and, for the most part, curly hair. These he identified with the Iberians, or inhabitants of Spain. The other part, he says, resembled the Gauls. They had red hair, and were tall of stature. Cæsar, of whom we shall hear more in the following chapters, writing about a century and a half before Tacitus, gives testimony to much the same effectthat the interior of Britain was inhabited by a race which considered itself to be indigenous, the sea-coast by another people which, in search of adventure or booty, had crossed over from Belgic Gaul. This people, he tells us, still retained the names by which its various tribes were known on the mainland. So far we may consider ourselves to be on firm ground. When we attempt to advance further we find ourselves at a loss. Who were these Iberians and Gauls? Some would identify the Iberians with the race still found in the extreme north of Europe, and known by the names of Lapps and Finns. This theory may, with little or no hesitation, be set aside. It is more reasonable to see their kindred in the Bretons, occupying the extreme north-west of France, and the Basques of Northern Spain, two populations which still represent the Aquitani, the third of three races into which Cæsar divides the inhabitants of ancient |