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Britain

foreign influence; for neither Bacchus nor Hercules nor any of the other heroes or mighty men, so far as we know, waged war with it. In our time, indeed, Caius Cæsar, who has obtained the name of a god because of his great deeds, became the first one of all those whose memory is preserved to reduce the island to subjection, and to force the conquered Britons to pay a fixed tribute. These things will be recounted in detail in their own place; at this time we shall speak a few words about the island and the tin taken from it. It is triangu- The shape lar in shape, the same as Sicily, but its sides are unequal. Since and size of it extends obliquely from Europe the headland next the continent, which they call Cantium, is only about one hundred stadia from the mainland, at which place a strait runs between. A second angle, Belerium by name, is four days' sail from the continent. The last, called Orca, is said to project out into the sea. The shortest side faces Europe and measures 7500 stadia ; the second, extending from the channel to the extreme north, is said to be 15,000 stadia in length; while the last side measures 20,000 stadia; so the entire circumference of the island is 42,500 stadia.

They allege that the residents are the original inhabitants who still retain their primitive manners and customs. For in their battles they use chariots in the same manner as it is reported the ancient Greek heroes fought in the Trojan War. They live in small huts usually built of reeds or wood. When they have reaped their grain they store the ears cut from the stalk in underground storehouses. From thence they take as much of the oldest as will be needed for the day, and after grinding it they prepare their food from it. Their customs are simple, being far removed from the craftiness and wickedness of our time. They are content with frugal fare and do not have the desires which come with riches. The island has a large population, and has a cold climate, since it stretches so far to the north, lying directly under the Great Bear. Many kings and chieftains rule there, usually keeping peace among themselves. Concerning their institutions, and other things peculiar to The producthe island, we shall speak specially when we come to the expedition of Cæsar into Britain. At this time we shall treat of

tion of tin

3. Description by Tacitus

the tin which is dug from the ground. Those who dwell near
Belerium, one of the headlands of Britain, are especially fond
of strangers, and on account of their trade with the merchants
they have a more civilized manner of living. They collect the
tin after the earth has been skillfully forced to yield it. Although
the land is stony, it has certain veins of earth from which they
melt and purify the metal which has been extracted. After
making this into bars they carry it to a certain island near
Britain called Ictis. For although the place between is for
the most part covered with water, yet in the middle there is
dry ground, and over this they carry a great amount of tin in
wagons.
Thence the merchants carry into Gaul the tin
which they have bought from the inhabitants. And after a
journey of thirty days on foot through Gaul, they convey their
packs carried by horses to the mouths of the Rhone River.

By the time of Tacitus, who wrote the following account of Britain about A.D. 100, the island was quite familiar to the Romans, and he is therefore more interested in describing its distant parts, those now known as Scotland, which had but recently been explored. He still repeats the mistaken belief of all the ancients that Spain extended so far to the north that it lay to the west of Britain. It is evident that but few voyages could have been made by sea all the way from the Mediterranean to Britain or this mistake would have been corrected.

Since the geography and the peoples of Britain have been already treated by many writers, I shall speak, not with the idea of vying with these authors in art or genius, but because it was at this time first thoroughly subdued. Those things which former writers, not fully comprehending, embellished with their eloquence, will be set down with historical accuracy. Britain, the largest of the islands known to the Romans, as regards its geographical situation, on the east faces Germany, on the west Spain, and is even visible on the south to the

Gauls; the north of the island has no land opposite, and is washed by a vast and open sea. Livy, one of the most gifted authors of ancient times, and Fabius Rusticus, of modern times, have compared the form of the whole island to a trapezoid or a two-edged ax. As a matter of fact this is its appearance on this side of Caledonia, whence the report arose for the whole; but when you have entered this enormous and shapeless tract of land stretching to a great length, it narrows to a wedge.

The Roman fleet, borne then for the first time about this coast, lying so far away, confirmed the assertion that Britain was an island, at the same time discovering and conquering hitherto unknown islands, which they called the Orcades. Thule was seen from a distance only, because the orders went no further and winter was approaching. But they assert that the sea is sluggish and hard for the rowers, and not even by the winds is it stirred up as other seas. I suppose that this is so because the land and mountains, the cause and origin of storms, are rare, and the great mass of water of one continuous sea is not easily disturbed. . . .

Britain

The sky is gloomy with many clouds, and showers are fre- The long quent; but the severity of cold seasons is absent. The length days in of day is longer than in our latitude. The night in the extreme north of Britain is clear and short, so that one scarcely distinguishes the end and the beginning of the daylight, so slight is the interval between. If the clouds do not prevent, the glow of the sun is visible through the night, nor does the sun rise and set, but merely passes along the horizon. In fact the extreme and flat parts of the land with their low relief do not cast shadows, and so night falls below the sky and stars. The land abounds in fruits, except the olive and the vine, together with some other things accustomed to grow in warmer climates : although these sprout quickly, they ripen slowly. The reason for both is the same, the great dampness of the land and atmosphere. Britain produces gold, silver, and other metals, the rewards of victory. The ocean yields pearls, but they are discolored and dull. Certain people think that those who gather them are lacking in skill; for in the Red Sea they are torn from the rocks alive and glowing, while in Britain they are

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4. Account by Gildas,

about A.D. 560

5. A sixteenth-century trav

collected just as they have been cast up on the shore. I can believe more easily, however, that the quality is lacking in the pearls than that we fail in covetousness.

Although the monk Gildas wrote some five hundred years after Tacitus, and more than six hundred years after Cæsar, the same mistake is still made about the size of Britain, which the ancients had always overestimated.

The island of Britain, situated on almost the utmost border of the earth, towards the south and west, and poised in the divine balance, so to speak, which supports the whole world, stretches out from the southwest towards the north pole, and is eight hundred miles long and two hundred broad, except where the headlands of sundry promontories stretch farther into the sea. It is surrounded by the ocean, which forms winding bays, and is strongly defended by this ample and, if I may so call it, impassable barrier, save on the south side, where the narrow sea affords a passage to Belgic Gaul.

II. ACCOUNTS BY MODERN OBSERVERS

Later travelers observed various geographical features, as, for instance, Paul Hentzner, a German, who visited England in 1598 and was much struck with the grass-covered "downs.”

The soil is fruitful and abounds with cattle, which inclines the inhabitants rather to feeding than plowing, so that near eler's account a third part of the land is left uncultivated for grazing. There

are many hills without one tree, or any spring, which produce a very short and tender grass, and supply plenty of food to sheep; upon these wander numerous flocks, extremely white, and whether from the temperature of the air or the goodness of the earth, bearing softer and finer fleeces than those of any other country: this is the true Golden Fleece, in which consist the chief riches of the inhabitants, great sums of money

being brought into the island by merchants, chiefly for that article of trade.

Modern historians have laid great stress on the geography of England as connected with its history. Mr. Green, from whose Making of England the following extracts are taken, knew the country well, and continually refers to its physical features, especially in describing its early history.

of the coun

A wild and half-reclaimed country, the bulk of whose sur- 6. Green's face was occupied by forest and waste. The rich and lower description soil of the river valleys, indeed, which is now the favorite home try as it was of agriculture, had in the earliest times been densely covered in the Roman with primeval scrub; and the only open spaces were those period whose nature fitted them less for the growth of trees, the chalk downs and oölitic uplands that stretched in long lines across the face of Britain from the Channel to the Northern Sea.

Such spaces were found, above all, at the extremities of the great chalk ranges which give form and character to the scenery of southern Britain. Halfway along our southern coast, the huge block of upland which we know as Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs rises in gentle undulations from the alluvial flat of the New Forest to the lines of escarpment which overlook the vale of Pewsey and the upper basin of the Thames. From the eastern side of this upland, three ranges of heights run athwart southern Britain to the northeast and the east, the first passing from the Wiltshire Downs by the Chilterns to the uplands of East Anglia, while the second and third diverge to form the North Downs of Surrey and the South Downs of Sussex. At the extremities of these lines of heights the upland broadens out into spaces which were seized on from the earliest times for human settlement. The downs of our Hampshire formed a "gwent," or open clearing, whose name still lingers in its "Gwentceaster," or Winchester; while the upland which became the later home of the North-folk and South-folk formed another and a broader "gwent," which

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