4. The north of Britain was as yet unsubdued, and the wild Caledonians used to make forays southwards Agricola and and harry the province, till Julius Agricola, Do- his way with mitian's general, defeated their king, Calgacos,

the Britons.

in a pitched battle, and built a chain of forts from the Forth to the Clyde as a barrier against them. He also explored the north coast with his fleet, which he sent round the whole island, and even planned the invasion of Ireland. But the work this good and wise man had most at heart was the civilization of the Britons. He tried to persuade the gentlemen to take up Roman ways, and let their sons be taught Roman knowledge; and so much had he gained the goodwill of the provincials by his uprightness that when the seven years of his governorship were over, a great part of the land was fast becoming Romanized, and the danger was henceforth from without not from within.

5. The northern part of the province was still harassed by the wild tribes, and Hadrian, A.D. 121, was The barbarians, obliged to give up the Clyde valley and try to Picts, Scots, and check the Caledonians by a huge dyke stretch- Saxons. ing from the Tyne to the Solway. Antonine, however, gained back Hadrian's losses and strengthened Agricola's line by a wall, while Severus, in 209, carried the war into Caledonia and reached the great North Bay by hard fighting, in which thousands of Roman soldiers fell either by disease brought on by hardships and overwork or by the darts of the natives. At last he too was obliged to fall back on Hadrian's dyke, in front of which he built a stone wall, Eboracum (York) being now the headquarters of the Victorious 6th legion. Beside the PICTS [largely Ivernians by blood] dwellers in Caledonia and Hibernia, the SCOTS, Gaelic bands from north Ireland, laid waste the west coasts of Britain in spite of the Gallant and Conquering 20th legion stationed at Deva (Chester), while the east and south were harried by a still more dreaded foe, the SAXONS of the North Sea shores. Against them a line of nine strong forts was built, covering the land from the Wash to Lymne, and garrisoned by the 2nd legion, the August, and other picked troops, the harbours of London and Dover being watched by a fleet of war-galleys.

But the barbarians' attacks on Britain were but an example of what was going on all along the Roman frontiers, and soon, Italy itself being threatened, the outlying provinces were in still greater jeopardy. However, the island was held for many years more. Under Constantine, the first Christian emperor, born at York of a British mother, as the

legend tells, "fair Helena, who in all godly ways and goodly praise did far excel," it flourished greatly, and though evil days followed, Theodosius in 368 was able to gain some brilliant successes, and drive the invaders beyond Agricola's line once more. But the division of the empire, the troubles in Gaul, and the quarrels and revolts of the Roman governors in the island (several of whom, like Carausius, proclaimed themselves emperors and strove by the help of their armies and fleets to win supreme power) all joined, along with the never-ceasing attacks of the Irish and Picts, in bringing the Roman rule in Britain to an end. Legion after legion left the province, and though succours were sent back now and again, when they could be spared, to help the weakened garrison, the evacuation went steadily on (the Roman colonists burying their treasures in vain hopes of return and following the soldiers) till about 367 years after the landing of Aulus Plautius it was complete.

Results of the
Roman rule
in Britain.

6. To the Romans we owe much. Great changes have taken place during their rule. So much wild forest-land had been cleared and tilled that Britain was called the Granary of the North. Great marshes had been drained (the first dikes in the Fens are Roman work), river-beds deepened and harbours dredged, gardens and vineyards had been laid out in Italian fashion (in many places the terraces along the hillsides may still be traced), stocked with many kinds of useful trees, shrubs, and plants brought from abroad, and sheep-farming had begun.

Iron (wrought in the Midlands, in the south, and in Dean Forest) had replaced bronze for tools and weapons, lead and tin mines and saltworks were carefully carried on, beautiful pottery was made on the banks of the Thames and Medway, and fine glass by the Channel shores. Handsome villas furnished with all the comforts of Roman life, strong fortresses, walled and tower-flanked, fine brick-built towns, with theatres, temples, baths, and law courts, stood on the sites of the rude halls and duns of Keltic Britain. More than thirty cities, besides York the capital, and many regular stations, are known to have existed, all knit together by paved roads running straight from point to point, crossing rivers and fens by bridge or causeway, gently graded over hills, and furnished with cold harbours [walled resting-places] at convenient stages. Wherever the words -caster (N.), -cester (M.), -chester (S.), -xeter (W.), or caer (Wales) are found in our maps there stood a Roman castrum, by every strat- or stretthere ran a Roman via strata, while port and lymne mark

Hence ships built

Roman merchant towns and harbours. in Britain carried grain, pearls, metals, slaves, horses, and hounds abroad, bringing back silk and gold and precious stones and all the luxuries of Rome. Roman influence is further shown by the use of Latin among the upper classes, and the number of words, belonging to war, government, religion, etc., which have found their way into Welsh, though the Latin tongue, never ousted the Keltic in West Britain (as it did in the most part of Gaul and Spain) in spite of the long occupation by some 50,000 Roman soldiers and officials, besides the many foreigners in the towns.

But besides fixing the sites of our great cities and opening up the country by roads, the Romans gave us our religion. In the first century Christianity reached Britain and began to spread among the Romanized Britons. Of this early British Church and its history little is known save the names of a few bishops of London, Caerleon, and York; the sites of a score of churches (Glastonbury, Dover, S. Martin's Canterbury, etc.); the continuance of certain beliefs not retained in the later Western Church; the origin of a new heresy, the Pelagian, in the fifth century; and a few beautiful legends, such as those of "good Lucius that first received the sacred pledge of Christ's Evangely;" of S. Alban, the first martyr of Britain, slain on the hill by Verulam, where now his noble minster stands; of S. Germanus, prophet of the wrath to come. But it is certain that the Romans left the province Christian, with a regular hierarchy, several monasteries, and a Latin translation of the Bible. From this Church is descended the Welsh Church, and, by the labours of S. Ninian and SS. Palladius and Patrick, Welsh missionaries to the heathen Ivernians and Kelts in Caledonia and Hibernia, the Churches of Scotland and Ireland. How these converts in their turn spread the Christian faith among us English will be told later on. Meanwhile the heavy debt we owe the British Church should make us pass lightly over the later days of its sway in Roman Britain, as they are shown to us in the stern forebodings of Gildas the monk, as he denounces the wickedness of the people, the corruption of the priesthood, and the guilt of the rulers, whose crimes cast contempt upon the faith they professed so loudly but were so loth to follow.

CHAPTER III.

The English Conquest and Settlement.

1. For more than a century the SAXONS and other Teuton confederations had ravaged Roman Britain, and The English lately had been taken into service by the Roman- Conquest. ized kings and princes of the Britons. They had made small settlements upon the south and east coasts, but now that the Romans were gone, seeing the "nothingness of the Britons and the goodness of the land," they came in large bodies to settle, bringing their wives and children and cattle with them in their keels, and took up their abode here for ever, slaying the chiefs and warriors of the Welsh (as they called the Britons), or driving them before them into the west.

This conquest took two hundred years, and we can see that it came about bit by bit in two stages as it were.

In the first (400-520) the invaders won the greater part of the east and south coasts of Britain, and set up small kingdoms along them.

The JUTES in Kent, Wight, and the Hants coast.

The SAXONS in Sussex, Wessex, Essex, and Middlesex. The ENGLISH (from whom the whole land was called England) in East England, Middle England, Lindesey, and in Deira, and Bernicia (the Welsh names for the country round York and Bamborough, meaning the Water-land and the Brigantians'-land).

Then there came a check, caused probably by the bravery and skill of Arthur of Cumbria, Head-King of the Britons, who seems to have had a regular army after the Roman fashion. But the growing numbers of the English, who still flocked across the North Sea to the new settlements, and the death of Arthur, brought on the second stage of conquest (520-613), when there pushed forward—

From WESSEX the Wiltsetas, Dorsetas, Somersetas, Magesetas (round Hereford), and Hwiccas (round Worcester). From the ANGLIAN or ENGLISH kingdoms the Marchmen (Borderers), who built up a great kingdom in the Midlands. The steps of this stage are marked by the battles. In 550 the West Saxons won Salisbury, in 571 the victory at Bedford gave them the country up to Oxford; in 577, by the famous fight at Dyrham, they also won the three great cities of Gloster, Cirencester, and Bath, cut off the Welsh of Cornwall from the Welsh of Wales, reached the Western Sea, and began to win and settle the Severn valley; finally, by the great battle at Chester, 613, the Northumbrians also reached