The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright.

Thomas Wright

Date:: 1852

Credit: The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$districts bordering on the sea. Brass, Caesar tells us, was imported from abroad. The island produced timber of every, kind, except beech and fir. . Such was Britain as known to Julius Caesar. Two nearly con- temporary writers, Strabo the geographer, and the histonan Diodorus Siculus, have supplied us with some information omitted by him, and probably obtained from subsequent communications with the island. These authors describe the island as being for the most part flat and woody, having however “ many strong places on hills.” The produce, they tell us, consisted of corn and cattle, gold, silver, and iron, with skins, slaves, and dogs of a superior breed for the chase. The British dogs were widely celebrated, and so strong and fierce that the Gauls are said to have used theni in war The aboriginal Britons are described as being tail ot stature, and corpulent, but not well made. According to Strabo, although they used milk in great abundance, they were not ac- quainted with the art of making cheese, and they were total strangers to gardening and agriculture. Diodonis describes them as practising agriculture, gathering the corn and storing it up in the stalk in thatched houses, out of which “ they plucked the old ears from day to day, and used them to make their food. Their houses, we are told, were mere temporary establishments, formed in the forests, by inclosing a space with felled trees, wit iin which they made huts of reeds and logs, and sheds for their cattle, “ not intended to remain long,” {ov wpos ttoXvv xpopop). Caesar makes no allusion to the tin, which appears to have been the principal export of Britain in those remote ages; but Strabo tells L that “ the inhabitants of Britain who live near the Belerian promontory (the Land’s End, Cornwall), are peculiarly hospitable, and from the great resort of foreigners, more polished in inanneis. They prepare the tin, and show much skill in working the earth which produces it. This being of a stony nature and having earthy veins in every direction, they work their way into these veins, and so by means of water separate the fragments. These they bruise into small pieces, and convey to an island which lies in Lnt of Britain, called Ictis [Wight? or perhaps an island on the Coniish coast]; for at the great ebb of the tide the channel becomes dry. and they cany over the tin in large quantities on waHf^ons. From Ictis the tin is purchased by native merchants, and transported to Gaul.” The same writer tells us that ivory$