at once in every town of any note. Flanking these public edifices ran long rows of private dwellings-those of the richer officials built of stone and coloured tiles, glowing inside with tesselated pavements and painted stucco. Passing out of the city gate into the green country, which was thickly sprinkled with splendid villas, a traveller along the straight stone-paved causeway could not help noticing the cemetery with its earthen mounds. Below these mounds in the hollow grave of tiles lay the great urns of dark clay, which held the relics of the dead. Lamps, which were probably placed lighted in the tomb, have also been found in Roman sepulchres. But the body was often buried unburned, being cased in a coffin of wood, stone, clay, or lead.

Within the Roman homes, where the ladies of the household sewed or spun, life went on gaily enough. From the pins of bone that fastened the rich coil of hair behind, down to the dainty shoes of jewelled silk or linen that covered their feet, we know how Roman ladies dressed; and as the changes in Roman fashion were slight, we can easily picture the pretty groups that sat of an afternoon within the Roman halls in London and Verulam, waiting for the gentlemen who were coming in to supper at three o'clock. Fashionable young Britons, with their golden locks cut short, and their beards of Roman trim, flocked often to the tables of the Italian officials; and there, amid the gleam of terra-cotta lamps, they learned to speak slang Latin, to drink deep of yellow Falernian, and to stake their dogs and horses on the perilous cast of dice. Into the kitchen, where slaves of many sorts were busy at supper-time, there used to come at dusk huge British ploughmen or farm-labourers, who earned an odd cup of mead by taking a turn at the quern or carrying out the oyster* shells. By daily intercourse like this, in a few generations the society of lowland Britain was completely Romanized in all but its very lowest class.

* The Romans ate oysters in immense quantities. Those of Rutupia (Richborough, on the shore of Kent) were very highly esteemed, and were sent regularly to Rome.

Romans could not live without the games of the amphitheatre, and there were, consequently, few military stations in which the huge round walls were not soon seen to rise. There the sand was reddened with the blood of gladiators, or was whirled into clouds by the speed of racing chariots, as in Rome itself. Gay provincials, who thronged the benches, betted on the swordsmen and drivers, or broke into thunders of applause at a lucky stroke

The Romans who occupied Britain carried on the manufacture of various things. Their principal potteries seem to have been in the Upchurch Marshes on the Medway, and at Durobriva on the Nen. In grain, shape, and ornament, the Roman earthenware, as might naturally be expected, greatly surpassed the rude sun-dried pots of the British. In the development of those ancient mineral treasures to which the island owed its earliest fame, the invaders were most active, Mines of iron, of tin, of copper, and of lead were worked in many places; and the metals, rudely smelted in charcoal furnaces, and run into pigs or rough blocks, were exported in large quantities, How the fine arts were cultivated in Roman Britain we can now judge only by a few fragments of painted frescoes, some statues carved in oolite, mouldings of bronze, and the exquisite tesselated pave ments with which the villas were adorned.*

Of Roman coins found in Britain we have plenty. Buried in earthen pots, or scattered in a plentiful shower over the soil of every Roman site, gold, silver, brass, and spurious metal have been turned up by spade or plough continually. It is singular how much bad money has been thus collected. Rolls of iron coin, plated with silver, were found, a short time ago, in laying the groundwork of King William Street in London, and are supposed to have been imported for the purpose of paying the troops,

* The tesselated pavements were formed by setting small cubes of various materials chalk, terra-cotta, freestone, sandstone, coloured glass, etc. in a fine cement, so as to represent a pattern, as in Berlin wool work. Bacchus sitting on a leopard, and Orpheus playing the lyre, were favourite subjects. Fine specimens may be seen at Bignor in Sussex, and in a cellar at Leicester.

The Roman literature, the Roman language, and the Roman law left but slight and passing traces in ancient Britain. A mongrel Latin was probably spoken by Britons in the Roman towns; and it has been stated as possible that this prevailed over the native British tongue in Kent. But the large infusion of Latin words in the English language came at later times. As to Roman law, to which our modern lawyers are no strangers, its establishment in the land was the work of a much later day. Perhaps it was in the municipal institutions, the organization of town governments, that the influence of the Roman occupation was most lastingly felt. The revolution into which the country was plunged when the legions of Honorius were withdrawn, could not but modify the constitution of the towns during the centuries of Saxon war; but they survived the storm, though with changed aspect and altered names.

Temples to the gods of Rome were as thickly scattered over Britain as were the Roman camps and towns. And yet more thickly sprinkled were altars of sculptured stone. Jupiter, "best and greatest," and helmeted Mars, are prominent among the worshipped names; but Mercury and Minerva, Venus and Apollo, Saturn, Sol, and a host of minor deities had also their altars and inscriptions in the Romanized island.

Whether Christianity was planted in Romanized Britain or not, is still a matter of debate. Some of the fathers-Tertullian and Jerome refer to the conversion of the Britons; but their expressions are regarded as mere rhetorical flourishes. British bishops seem to have attended the councils of Arles and Rimini in the fourth century; but the lists have, it is said, been tampered with: and there are various legends-such as those of the visits to Britain of Joseph of Arimathea, and St. Paul; and of the martyrdom of St. Alban in the Diocletian persecution-which good authorities look upon merely as pious stories invented to please the devotees of the Middle Ages. Amid the crowd of heathen altars and inscriptions which the Romans left

in Britain, only three uncertain relies point to the Cross--a tile, thought to represent Samson and the foxes; a silver vase; and a tesselated pavement, bearing the Christian monogram X.P. But although the Romans in Britain seem to have despised Christianity, there is good reason to presume that a native Christian Church, composed of peasants and huntsmen, and of some of the higher Britons who were not deeply tainted with the influence of Rome, flourished among the hills and marshes of the land, cherishing with loving care the few sparks of light which had been carried to them from the Mediterranean shore, and sending barefooted missionaries far and wide among their countrymen.

Second Period. The Old English kingdoms.

449-1066.

CHAPTER I.

MYTHICAL.

Darkness-Picts and Scots-The Stallion and the Mare-The Teutonic kingdoms-Doubtful dates-King Arthur.

A

PERIOD of darkness followed the departure of the Romans. We know that Britain, soon after the legions sailed away, was invaded by successive bands of Teutonic pirates, who carved out kingdoms for themselves, not only along the shore, but even in the very heart of the land; but beyond this general fact there is no sure ground to tread on.

The letters of Honorius, recalling the eagles, conveyed sad news to the inhabitants of Roman Britain. They trembled, as well they might, for the wealth heaped up in their fair cities, and for their flocks of sheep and cattle; for in the northern woods lived wild men, who burned with fierce hatred against them, and who had been withheld from taking a deadly revenge only by the presence of Roman troops. These gone, the pent-up storm burst forth. The unhappy nation, breaking up into numerous petty states, became a prey to the horrors of a barbarous war. Picts and Scots swarmed over the deserted walls, or floated across the narrow firths, and wasted the land.