and good man, who ruled the province well, checking the extortions of the Roman officials, and encouraging the natives to build temples, courts of justice, and good dwelling-houses. Under his influence the chieftains' sons learned to speak Latin, wore the toga or gown which was the distinctive dress of the Romans, and adopted the ways and manners of their conquerors. The greater part of Britain remained subject to Rome for more than three hundred years; and its history during that time belongs to that of the Roman Empire generally. Great cities grew up, connected by a network of excellent roads, which crossed the country like our railway lines. Agriculture so throve that Britain became one of the chief corn-exporting countries of the Empire; the mines were diligently worked; tin was sought in Cornwall, lead in Derbyshire and Somersetshire-to use the names of later times-and iron in Sussex, Northumberland, and the Forest of Dean. But though the Romans gave the country government and a superficial civilization, they never made it thoroughly Roman. Latin probably was spoken by the higher classes in the towns, but in the country the Celtic tongue held its ground. The Romans left their mark on the land more than on the people. Parts of their roads, often called streets -from the Latin strata, a paved way-remain at this day. Chester, cester, caster, a word which enters into the names of many existing towns-as Winchester, Leicester, Doncaster-has come down from the Latin castra, camp or fortified place. We still may see remains of the strong city walls and other structures-for Roman builders made their work to last-and of the pleasant villas, the country-houses of the wealthy folk. Altars dedicated to the gods, tombstones bearing the names of the dead, inscriptions cut by the soldiers employed on public works, all tell us of the mighty people who once bore rule in this land, Most famous are the remains of the great military works in the North, where the fortifica tions had to be constantly strengthened against the restless Caledonians. In the year 120 the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain, and had the forts between the Tyne and the Solway connected by a ditch and earthen rampart. A similar dyke was raised along Agricola's northern line, about 139, in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. Still the Caledonians gave trouble, and about 208 the Emperor Severus not only drove them out of the province, but led an expedition into their country, returning to die in 211 at Eboracum, now called York, which was then the chief city of Britain. Severus seems to have strengthened Hadrian's wall with a second line of earthworks. Finally, the great stone wall along the same line, of which fragments still remain, was made about the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. 6. The British Church.-The Christian faith made its way in Britain as in other parts of the Roman Empire, but how or when it was introduced is not known. Its first martyr is said to have been St. Alban, who was put to death for his faith, about 304, near Verulamium. There, in the eighth century, an English King, Offa, founded in his honour an abbey, round which grew up the town bearing the martyr's name. CHAPTER II. THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. Decline of the Roman power; the Picts and Scots; the Teutonic tribes; Theodosius; Britain left to itself; the English Conquest (1)-kingdom of Kent; legend of Hengest and Horsa; kingdom of Sussex; kingdom of Wessex; Arthur; Essex and Middlesex; kingdom of East Anglia; of Northumberland; of the Mer cians; the Bretwalda (2)—the British kingdoms (3) -religion (4)-king and people; atheling, earl, churl, thane, and slave (5)-government; the Witan; township, hundred, and shirë (6). J. The English Conquest.-In the fourth century, when the power of Rome was going down, the free Celts of the north-the Picts, as the Caledonians were now called, and their allies the Scots-began to pour into Roman Britain, while other enemies attacked the island by sea. These latter were Teutonic tribes, speaking dialects of the Low-Dutch or Low-German tongue, who came from the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser in North-Germany. First among these tribes we hear of the Saxons, fierce sea-rovers, who were already known and dreaded on the coast of Gaul. Theodosius, a celebrated general who in 367 was sent by the Emperor Valentinian to the rescue of Britain, drove the Picts and Scots back beyond the northern ramparts, and chased the Saxons from the coasts. But these successes gave only a temporary respite, and the Empire everywhere grew weaker, till at last, early in the fifth century, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius, the Roman troops were withdrawn from Britain, and the natives were left to resist their many enemies as they best might. Gildas, a British monk of the next century, tells of perpetual inroads of Scots and Picts, of appeals to the Romans for aid :"The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us back to the barbarians :-" so ran the supplication. For a while the Britons beat off their foes; but unused to freedom, they knew not how to govern themselves, and the land was given over to disorder and strife. Nor were the Picts and Scots their worst enemies. In the course of the fifth and sixth centuries, the greater part of the country was conquered by the Teutonic invaders, the founders of the English nation, among whom three tribes stand out above the rest, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. These grew into one people under the name of AngloSaxons, or more commonly of Angles or English ; and the part of Britain they dwelled in came to be called England. They were fierce heathen, who slew or enslaved those whom they overcame, and drove the rest into the western part of the island. Never having been under the power of Rome, nor taught to reverence her name, they cared nothing for her arts, language, or laws; they kept their own speech and faith, their own laws and institutions, and remained untouched by Roman or British influences. They spoke of the Britons as Welsh, that is, strangers; while the Britons called them all Saxons; and to this day the descendants of the Celts in Wales, Ireland, and the Scottish Highlands, term a man of English speech and race a "Saxon." 2. The English Kingdoms. - According to ancient tradition, the first Teutonic Kingdom in this island was that of Kent, which has always kept its British name. Gwrtheyrn or Vortigern, a native. prince, was ill-advised enough to invite two Jutish chiefs, the brothers Hengest and Horsa, to serve against the Picts. The strangers, coming over with their followers in three keels or ships, landed in 449 at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, defeated the Picts, and then, thinking they might as well conquer for themselves, sent over for their countrymen in North Germany, telling them how good the land was and how weak were its people. The Britons nevertheless had a long struggle with them; the first battle recorded in the ancient annals known as the English Chronicle took place at Aylesford, and cost the life of Horsa; but the Jutish adventurers at last got the better, founding the Kingdoms of East and West Kent. The next Teutonic Kingdom was that of the South-Saxons or Sussex, founded by Elle, who in 477 landed near the city of Regnum, since called, after his son Cissa, Cissanceaster (now Chichester). where Pevensey now is, there stood the walled town of Anderida, one of the fortresses which guarded the coast. In those days the sea flowed to the rising ground on which Anderida was placed, and ships Near could ride where now is a great bank of shingle. This town Elle and Cissa took in 491, and a brief entry in the Chronicle tells us that they "slew all that dwelled therein, nor was there a Briton left there any more." In 495 there came another body of Saxons, who, landing in what is now called Hampshire, founded the Kingdom of the West-Saxons or Wessex. Their leaders were Cerdic and his son Cynric, two Ealdormen, that is, elders or chiefs, a title which, in the form of "alderman," is still in use. A British prince, Arthur by name, who has become more famous through the romances and poems about him than for his real exploit, about 520 defeated the Saxons at Badbury in Dorsetshire, and checked for a whole generation their advance westwards. But later on, they pushed their way, and a victory won by their King Ceawlin in 577 at Deorham in Gloucestershire, threw into their hands the Roman towns of Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. In the district about Colchester and London were the East-Saxons and Middle-Saxons, as the names Essex and Middlesex still testify. North of the Thames the land was mainly occupied by the Angles. On the east coast, between the fens and the sea, was the Kingdom of East-Anglia, divided into the North-folk and Southfolk (Norfolk and Suffolk). Between the Humber and the Forth lay Bernicia and Deira, and these, when united under one ruler, formed the Kingdom of Northumberland. The first King of the Bernician Angles was Ida, who began his reign in 547, and reared his royal fortress of Bamburgh on a rock overlooking the sea. Ida's grandson Ethelfrith, who ruled over all Northumberland, early in the seventh century defeated the Welsh at Chester with great slaughter. Before the fight began, the heathen King marked a band of Welsh priests and monks, many of them from the great monastery of Bangor-Iscoed, who had come to pray for the success of their country |