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

IBERIANS AND BELGIAN CELTS.

3

Gaul. The Gauls of Britain, on the other hand, are identified beyond all doubt with the Gauls of the Continent, and with the Belgic stock of this people. It is a well-known fact that in the ancient British burial-places-burial-places dating from before the time of the Roman invasion-two very distinct types of skull are found, one being broad and the other long. The same observation has been made of remains of the same date in France. It has been further inferred from the character of the weapons. and articles of domestic use found in these graves, that the long-headed men were the ruder race. And it has been suggested that the short-headed men, with their superior weapons, drove out the earlier Occupants, this dispossession being the movement spoken of by Cæsar when he says that the Belgian Gauls crossed over from the mainland and occupied the maritime parts of the island. There is a tempting neatness in the hypothesis that the long-headed Britons were Iberians, the short-headed Belgian Celts. But facts do not exactly harmonize with this theory. As Professor Huxley remarks, "the extremes of longand short-headedness are to be met with among the fair 3 inhabitants of Germany and of Scandinavia at the present day-the South-western Germans and the Swiss being markedly broad-headed, while the Scandinavians are as predominantly long-headed." Happily the subject may be left with this statement.

The three are Belgians, Celts, and Aquitani.

2 The two types are known by the names of Brachycephalic and Dolichocephalic.

3 According to the theory all the fair, i.e., non-Iberian people, ought to be short-headed.

NEOLITHIC SPEAR-HEAD OR CELT.

Found near Chelmsford, Essex. (Front and Side View.) (From "Transactions of the Essex Field Club.")

CÆSAR'S ACCOUNT OF BRITAIN.

5

It does not fall within the province of one who writes the story of a country to deal with the prehistoric.

We may pass on to other information that Cæsar has to give us about the inhabitants of Britain. After giving his view of their origin, he goes on, "The population is numerous beyond all counting, and very numerous also the houses. These closely resemble the houses of the Gauls. They have great numbers of cattle. They use copper or copper coin or bars of iron, carefully made to a certain weight, as money. Tin is found in the inland parts; iron near the coast, but the quantity of this is but small. They have timber of all the kinds found in Gaul except the fir and the beech. They hold it unlawful to eat hare, chicken, or goose. Still they rear these animals for

the sake of amusement.

Of all the Britons those that inhabit Kent are by far the most civilized (Kent is a wholly maritime region). These, indeed, differ but little from the Gauls in habits of life. Many of the inland Britons do not grow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and are clothed in skins. All the Britons stain their persons with a dye that produces a blue colour. This gives them a more terrible aspect in battle. They wear their hair long, shaving all the body except the head and upper lip. Ten or twelve men have their wives in common; brothers very commonly with brothers, and parents with children. The offspring of each wife is reckoned to belong to the husband who first married her."

The iron found" near the sea-coast" probably came from the iron fields of Sussex, which were worked down to the end of the seventeenth century, when