Kair-Dauri is Dor

Kair-Lion, which we call Carlisle. chester; Kair-Dorm, Dormchester, a town on the river Nen, in Huntingdonshire, which is entirely destroyed; Kair-Loitchoit is Lincoln; Kair-Merdin still retains its former name [Carmarthen]. There were also Kair-Guorcon, Kair-Cucerat, Kair-Guortigern, Kair-Urnac, Kair-Celemion, Kair-Meguaid, Kair-Licelid; Kair-Peris, that is, Porchester; and Kair-Legion, which was the seat of an archbishop in the time of the Britons, but now there are only the remains of its walls on the bank of the river Usk, not far from its confluence with the Severn1. Besides these there were Kair-Draiton, Kair-Mercipit, and Kair-Segent, on the Thames, not far from Reading, and which the Saxons called Silchester. These were the names of the cities in the times of the Romans and Britons 2.

Since the beginning of history there have been five inflictions of the Divine wrath on the people of Britain; the visitations of Providence falling on the faithful, as well as its judgments on unbelievers. The first was by the Romans, who conquered Britain, but after a time withdrew from the island. The second was by the Scots and Picts, who grievously harassed it by hostile inroads, but never succeeded in gaining permanent possession. The third was by the Angles, who completely subjugated and occupied the country. The fourth was by the Danes, who established themselves on the soil by successful wars, but afterwards disappeared and were lost. The fifth was by the Normans, who conquered all Britain, and still hold the English in subjection. When the Saxons had subjugated the country they divided it into seven kingdoms, to which they gave names of their own selection. Their first kingdom was called Kent; 2, Sussex, in which Chichester is situated;

1 There are still considerable remains of the walls of Carlcon, probably much in the same state as they were in the time of our Archdeacon of Huntingdon. The discovery of some tesselated pavements have authenticated its claims to having been a Roman station-the Isca Silurum of the second Augustan legion; whence its Roman-British name-the city of the legion.

2 Henry of Huntingdon has taken this catalogue of ancient British cities, for the most part, from Nennius, omitting three-Kair-Manch-guid, KairPensavelcoyt, and Kair-Guentwig; but adding to the list of Nennius, KairGlou, Kair-Ceri, Kair-Merdin, Kair-Dorm, and Kair-Cei. The three first of these are found also in Mark the Anchorite.

3, Wessex, of which the capital was Wilton, now given to the monks: Winchester, Salisbury, and several other cities were in this kingdom; 4, Essex, which did not long remain independent, but became subject to other kingdoms; 5, East Anglia, which contained the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; 6, Mercia, in which was Lincoln and several other cities; 7, Northumbria, of which the capital was York. Afterwards, when the kings of Wessex acquired the ascendancy over the rest, and established a monarchy throughout the island, they divided it into 37 counties, which, though their situations and names are well-known to those who inhabit them, it may be worth the trouble to describe. For it may chance, perhaps, that as the names of the cities we have just enumerated, famous as they once were, are now considered barbarous and turned into derision, so also, in the lapse of time, those which are now very well-known may pass out of memory and become the subject of doubt. Kent, then, is the first county, in which are the sees of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester. The second is Sussex, in which is the bishopric of Chichester. The third is Surry. The fourth is Hampshire, in which is the see of Winchester. The fifth is Berkshire. The sixth is Wiltshire, in which is the bishopric of Salisbury. The seventh is Dorset. The eighth is Somerset, in which is the bishopric of Bath, or Acemancester. The ninth is Devonshire, in which is the see of Exeter. The tenth, Cornwall; the eleventh, Essex; the twelfth, Middlesex, in which is the see of London. The thirteenth, Suffolk; the fourteenth, Norfolk, in which is the see of Norwich. The fifteenth is Cambridgeshire, in which is the see of Ely. The sixteenth is Lincolnshire, of which the capital city is Lincoln, and to which are subject seven other counties, viz., Leicester, Hampton, Huntingdon. Hertford, Bedford, Buckingham, and Oxford; for the great bishopric of Lincoln extends from the Humber to the Thames. The twenty-fourth is Gloucestershire; the twentyfifth is Worcestershire, in which is the see of Worcester. The twenty-sixth is Herefordshire, in which is the see of Hereford. The twenty-seventh is Salop; the twenty-eighth, Cheshire, in which is the bishopric of Chester1; the twenty

The seat o this bishopric, which Peter transferred to Chester, about A.D. 1075, was afterwards restored to Litchfield.

ninth is Warwick; the thirtieth, Stafford. After the thirtieth, the first is Derby; the second, Nottingham; the third, Yorkshire, in which is the archbishopric of York. The fourth is Northumberland, over which presides the Bishop of Durham. The fifth is that district in which the new bishopric of Carlisle is established. Counties are called, in English, shires. At the present time, therefore, England can boast of having seventeen bishoprics; but it contains many more cities than such as are bishops' sees, such as Gloucester, Leicester, Oxford, and many others which have no bishops. In the western part of the island, which is called Wales, there are three bishoprics: one at St. David's, another at Bangor, and the third at Glamorgan2; but these are sees without cities, by reason of the desolation of Wales, the only part of the island retained by the Britons after the Saxon conquest. In our times the Bishop of St. David's receives from the Pope the pallium, which formerly belonged to Carleon, but which it has now lost.

The cities which have been enumerated have for their sites the pleasant and fertile banks of rivers. Two of these rivers are more celebrated than the rest, the Thames and the Severn; the two arms, as it were, of Britain, by which it draws to itself the produce of other countries, and exports its own. But it is peculiar to the English that, being much addicted to foreign travel, they are remarkable for their superior style of dress and living, by which they are easily distinguished from other nations. Since, then, Britain abounds in so many things (even vineyards flourish in it, though they are not common), those who covet its wealth must bring their own in exchange for what they receive. In whose praise some one thus wrote:

"Corn, milk, and honey, fuller shed their stores
On Britain's plains, than over all the isles
Where foaming ocean washes sea-girt shores."

And a little afterwards:

The see of Carlisle, which was founded by Henry I. in 1133, in Henry of Huntingdon's own time, included Cumberland, Westmorland, and part of Northumberland.

2 Llandaff, in Glamorganshire, was the seat of this bishopric from the earliest times.

"London for ships, and Winchester for wine,
Hereford for herds, Worcester for corn renown'd;
Bath for its waters, Salisbury for the chase;
For fishes, Canterbury; York for its woods;
Exeter boasts its rich metallic ores.

Narrow the sea 'tween Chichester and France,
While northern Durham fronts the surging waves
On which old Norway launch'd her conq'ring sons.
In grace proud Lincoln's children foremost stand,
Ely's high tow'rs the wide champaign command,

Rochester rises bright on Medway's winding strand."

Nor must it be omitted that the climate of Britain is very temperate, and healthy to its inhabitants; for since it lies between the north and the west, the cold of the north is tempered by the influence of the sun in its course westward. The malady called St. Anthony's Fire never afflicts the natives, while diseased persons brought over from Gaul obtain a cure. The island lies so near the North Pole, the nights are so light in summer that at midnight it is often doubtful to the beholders whether the evening twilight still remains, or daybreak has already commenced, so short is the period before the sun's return from having passed underneath the northern regions to appear again in the east. For this reason the days are of great length in summer, as, on the contrary, the nights are in winter, the days and nights during the alternate seasons being each only six hours long; while in Armenia, Macedonia, and Italy, the longest day or night is of fifteen hours, the shortest of nine.

There are four things in England which are very remarkable. One is that the winds issue with such great violence from certain caverns in a mountain called the Peak1, that it ejects matters thrown into them, and whirling them about in the air carries them to a great distance. The second is at Stonehenge, where stones of extraordinary dimensions are raised as columns, and others are fixed above, like lintels of immense portals; and no one has been able to discover by what mechanism such vast masses of stone were elevated, nor for what purpose they were designed. The

1 In Derbyshire.

third is at Chedder-hole1, where there is a cavern which many persons have entered, and have traversed a great distance under ground, crossing subterraneous streams, without finding any end of the cavern. The fourth wonder is this, that in some parts of the country the rain is seen to gather about the tops of the hills, and forthwith to fall on the plains.

So important was the safety of Britain to its loyal people that, under royal authority, they constructed four great highways from one end of the island to the other, as military roads, by which they might meet any hostile invasion. The first runs from west to east, and is called Ichenild. The second runs from south to north, and is called Erninge Strate2. The third crosses the island from Dover to Chester, in a direction from south-east to north-west, and is called Watling Street. The fourth, which is longer than the others, commences in Caithness, and terminates in Totness, extending from the borders of Cornwall to the extremity of Scotland; this road runs diagonally from southwest to north-east, passing by Lincoln, and is called the Foss-way. These are the four principal highways of Britain, which are noble and useful works, founded by the edicts of kings, and maintained by venerated laws.

Five languages are spoken in Britain; those of the Britons, the Angles, the Scots, the Picts, and the Romans. Of these the Latin has, by the study of the Holy Scriptures, become common to all. The Picts", however, have entirely

1 Wookey Hole, in Cheddar Cliffs, under the Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire.

2 Or Ermeninge Street.

3 On the origin of the Picts see vol. i. of this series, p. 5. It is to be observed, that Henry of Huntingdon does not notice the Norsk or Danish among the languages commonly spoken in Britain, though at least one-third of England was colonized by Norwegians and Danes, and their language, a cognate dialect, indeed, of the Anglo-Saxon, has left traces of its distinct character, in some districts, even to the present day, which must have been still more rife in the times of the Archdeacon. See Worsaae's "Danes in England," and an Essay on the same subject in the Jubilee Edition of King Alfred's works. Henry of Huntingdon implicitly copies Bede, without any reference to the further element which was added to the languages spoken in Britain after the time of his author.