do; but it is really the same language, and an Englishman and a Scotchman soon get to understand one another. But in the northern part of Scotland, which is called the Highlands, there is still another language spoken, called Gaelic. But Gaelic and Irish are so much alike that it is perhaps best to say that there are only three languages spoken in Great Britain and Ireland, namely, English, Welsh, and Irish.

in

Now I just now said that the other languages which are spoken in Britain are much more unlike English than some other languages which are spoken much further off, especially in the lands which I told you were our old homes. You cannot make out a Welshman's or an Irishman's language at all, unless you learn it on purpose. But if you take a book in the language spoken by the common people in the north of Germany, I do not say that you will understand every word; but if you are at all quick, you will see that most of the words are the same as they are in English. That is to say, their language is a kindred language with English, a language of the same group or class. For it is not hard to arrange the chief languages of the world groups or classes. Thus not only German and English, but also Flemish, Danish, and Swedish, are all so much alike that we may be sure that the people who speak them were once all one people. These are called the Teutonic languages. Again, though a Welshman and an Irishman cannot understand one another, yet there is a great likeness between the Welsh and Irish languages, so that we may be sure that the Welsh and the Irish were once one people. Their languages are called the Celtic languages. The people speaking those languages were once spread over a great part of Europe; but Celtic is not now spoken anywhere but in Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Highlands of Scotland, and that part of Gaul which is called Britanny. And there are many other groups of kindred languages of the same kind.

But we can go a little further back still. I told you that there was one set of languages called Teutonic and another called Celtic, and that there was doubtless a time when all the Teutonic nations were only one nation, and when all the Celtic nations were one other nation. But besides this, learned men, who know many languages, have found out that these

Celtic and Teutonic languages, and many others too, Greek, Latin, Slavonic (which is spoken in Russia, Poland, Servia, and other eastern parts of Europe), and the old language of Lithuania and Eastern Prussia, were all once only one language. And, what perhaps you might not have thought of, the old languages of Persia and India were also once the same. The people who speak all these languages were once all one people, and all of them are our kinsfolk, though some are much nearer kinsfolk than others. Thus the Welsh themselves are, after all, our kinsfolk, though the Germans and Danes and Flemings are kinsfolk who are much nearer. The time when all these different nations were only one people was of course a very long time ago, long before any books were written, and before we know any history for certain. But those who know the languages well can find out from the languages themselves that they were once all one language. These languages which were once one, are generally called the Aryan languages, from Arya or Iran, the old name of Persia. The nations who speak these languages now occupy nearly all Europe and a great part of Asia. But even in Europe there are some people who do not speak an Aryan language. There are two nations, the Hungarians and the Turks, who are not Aryans, and who have come into Europe in later times since the Aryan nations came into it. And there are still some people left in Europe, in corners and out-of-the-way places, whose language is not Aryan, and whose forefathers were doubtless living in Europe before the Aryan nations came into it. These are the Fins in the very north of Europe, and the Basques in those wild mountainous parts of Spain which nobody has ever been able thoroughly to conquer. Now these people no doubt once occupied a much larger part of Europe than they do now, and it is not unlikely that some of them may once have lived in the British Islands before the first Aryan people came into them. Now I will tell you a reason for thinking it very likely that some people who were not Aryan once lived in Britain. does not seem that any of the Aryan people were ever mere savages, such as travellers and voyagers have often found in distant parts of the world. Yet, from things which have been found in old graves and elsewhere, both in Britain and in other

It

lands, it seems most likely that people once lived in Britain who must have been mere savages, without the use of metal, people who lived wholly by hunting and fishing. They had arrows and spear-heads of flint, and axes and hammers of stone. Think what trouble it must have been to do the commonest things with such tools. After them came a time when men had the use of bronze, and, last of all, the use of iron, as we have now. You may have seen or heard of buildings, if we may call them buildings, made of great rough stones, which are called cromlechs. These have often been mistaken for altars, but they really are graves. Huge uncut stones were piled up without being joined by any mortar, and they were covered over with earth and smaller stones, so as to make a tump or barrow. These cromlechs, it seems most likely, are the graves of the first dwellers in the land, who had no use of metal. Of these very early times we can find out nothing, except from graves and such like remains, as of course we have no books that were written then. But there is every reason to think that the people who made these great and strange works were the oldest people who lived in these islands, before the Celts, that is the Welsh and Irish, came into the land. Then, ages afterwards, our own forefathers came from North Germany, and destroyed or drove out the Celts from a great part of the Isle of Britain, but left them in other parts, where they still stay and still speak their own tongues. I wish I could tell you more about our own forefathers before they came into Britain. You will of course understand that the little which we know of them is part of the history of Germany and not part of the history of Britain. What little I have to say about them I shall say in another chapter; but I will tell you this much now, that there is no doubt that our fathers had always been a free people, and had never had any other people ruling over them in their own land. Now it. was not so with the men whom they found in Britain; for before the English came into Britain, the Welsh had been conquered by the Romans. Who the Romans were, and how they conquered Britain, I shall tell you in the next chapter.

This present chapter I am afraid you may have thought rather hard, as there are no pleasant stories in it, such as you will often hear in other parts of my history. But, to under

stand thoroughly what comes after, you ought to keep clearly in your mind the succession of the different nations one after another. And I do not think that I have written anything which you cannot understand, if you think a little and look well at a good map. So now I will put the whole together for you in a few words.

In the British Isles there are still three languages spoken, English, Welsh, and Irish. All these are Aryan languages. Of these, English is a Teutonic language, while Welsh and Irish are Celtic languages. Our forefathers came from the countries near the Elbe, and conquered, but did not wholly destroy, the Welsh or Britons who were already living in the island. All this we know for certain; but it also seems likely, though it is not certain, that, before the Celts came into Britain, there was a savage people in the island about whom we can tell nothing, except from things which have been found in their graves.

CHAPTER II.

HOW BRITAIN WAS CONQUERED BY THE ROMANS.

THE first people then who lived in the Isle of Britain of whom we really know anything were the Celts, that is to say, the Irish and the Welsh; and the first people of whom we know anything in that part of the island which is called England were the Welsh or Britons. But we know very little of the times when the Welsh lived in Britain as their own land, before the Romans conquered them. There are a great many strange stories told about their history, but nothing was written about these things till hundreds of years after the times when they are said to have happened. Therefore we cannot really believe anything that is told us about them. In those old times all the greatest nations of the world, those which were what is called civilized, lived round about the Mediterranean Sea. There dwelled the nations who lived under the best laws, who could build the finest buildings, who had the greatest and wisest men among them, who first did things worth being remembered, and who first wrote those things down in books, in order that men might remember them. There lived the old Greeks who were so famous, and the Romans and other nations of Italy who were so famous somewhat later. Some of you are perhaps already learning their languages, Greek and Latin. These are both Aryan languages, and you will find it very pleasant in learning Greek to see how many of the commonest words are really the same in Greek and in English. But in all the Northern and Western parts of Europe, where the Teutonic and Celtic nations lived, the people were still very rude and ignorant, and they and the civilized nations near the Mediterranean Sea knew very little about one another. You may perhaps be