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
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

    64/568 (page 44)
    left us of the people of Gaul. Most of the descriptions found in subsequent writers are little more than a repetition of the scanty information given by Ciesar who was himself acquainted only with the south-eastern part of the island. We should probably form the best appreciation of the con- dition of our Celtic forefathers before their conquest by the Romans, by comparing them with the septs or clans in Ireland and the highlands of Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Each chief exercised the same independent and unrestrained authority over his clan, and the disunion of the whole was probably increased by difference of language and race. There seems to be no reason for assuming that the different tribes were accustomed to unite under one head (or, as he liad been termed, Pendragon) in cases of emergency. On the contrary, we observe, as far as their history is known, that they never acted together, unless when their union was caused by conquest, or by the alliance of one or two neighbouring and, perhaps, kindred tribes.* The statement that they went naked, and that they painted their bodies, can only have been true of some of the most barbarous tribes. We have no very distinct information on tire clothes of the Britons, except that we know from the earlier Roman writers that they wore breeches [braccac], like the Gauls and Germans. They are described as being in person taller than the average height of the Romans. The brief account of Tacitus confirms the views already stated, as to the difference of races which peopled tlie island. He imagined that the red hair and masculine forms of the Caledonians bespoke a German origin; that the Silures, by their complexions [colomti vultus), and curly hair, were a colony of the Iberi of Spain ; and that the tribes who inhabited the coasts came from Gaul; and one of the arguments he adduces for believing that the maritime tribes were of Gallic origin, the similarity of language, {senno baud midtum diversus), leads us to believe that the language of these tribes was totally different from that of the Silures, or that of the Caledonians, and of the tribes of the interior. In one particular, we are justified in considering the description * Tacitus, speaking of the British tribes, says “ Ncc aliud advci-sus validissimas gentes pro nobis utilius, quam quod in commune non consulunt. Rams diiabus tribnsve civitatibus ad propuls.andum commune pcriculum conventus; ita, dum singuli piignant, universi vincuntur.”—Tacitus, Agric. c. 12.