cheap labour, and there is no reason to suppose that any sentiment stood in the way of his so doing. In comparing Roman with modern times, one of the greatest of differences that occurs to the inquirer is the total absence in the former period, for all practical purposes and in the ordinary uses of life, of laboursaving machinery-a difference which, more than any other, makes the resemblance of Roman civilization to our own in great part merely superficial. It is therefore hard to resist the conviction that towards the end of the Roman occupation a numerical deficiency of the male population throughout the cultivated area of Britain combined with the heavy local taxation to render the ownership of agricultural land even less profitable than it now is, and to make the decay of agriculture more rapid and complete than it is in our power to realize. The decay of the Roman system of intercommunication must have commenced with the impoverishment of the country, while the withdrawal of the relics of the Roman army deprived the central authority of the only instrument by which the maintenance of the roads could be enforced. In a later chapter some account will be given of the gradual obliteration of these roads and of the embodiment of such parts of them as survived in our present highway system.

CHAPTER III

THE HIGHWAYS OF THE BRITONS

The task of the Roman road-makers possibly assisted by British tracks already in existence-Divergency of opinion on this matter-Summary of our information regarding pre-Roman Britain-A comparative account of the civilization attained by different British tribes-Their fortifications-Principal settlements-Commerce-Coinage-Religion-Indications of Mediterranean influences-Commercial routes necessitated by the tin trade-The evidence of Cæsar regarding British roads-The opinions of modern investigators examined— Probable characteristics of pre-Roman roads in BritainTraces of these that still exist-Hindrances to their construction on a comprehensive system-British civilization progressive-At its highest level at the time of the Roman conquest-How roads may be obliterated-Localities where pre-Roman roads may most probably still be found.

It will be evident, from the preceding chapter, that the Roman road-makers had to contend with physical difficulties of considerable magnitude when they began to lay the foundations of their highway system, the history of which must be considered to date from the commencement of the Roman conquest of Britain by Claudius in A.D. 43. It is, however, not improbable that their task may have been in some degree facilitated, at least in the southern and south-eastern parts of the

island, by their adoption-as in Asia Minor and elsewhere in the Empire-of portions of roads which they found had been constructed prior to their arrival. There has been considerable difference of opinion amongst archæological authorities as to the extent to which the Romans were assisted by the existence of such roads in Britain, and it will be well, therefore, to state briefly what is known of the earlier inhabitants of the island, and to endeavour to form some estimate as to the relative state of civilization they had attained at the time of the Roman invasion.

The Paleolithic race which first peopled these islands succumbed to a Neolithic people of Iberian origin, probably a cognate race to the Basque population of the Pyrenees, which in its turn suffered from a successful invasion of Goidelic or Gallic Celts; while a still later wave of invaders, consisting of Brythonic or British Celts, was apparently powerful enough to press before it into the northern and western districts all the previous occupants of the country. At the time of Cæsar's invasion these Brythonic Celts inhabited the greater part of Southern Britain, the earlier races remaining in possession of the country west of the Mendips and the Stour River in modern Dorsetshire, of South Wales, and of the country about the Solway Firth; kindred to them also were the inhabitants of Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There is no doubt that the Brythonic tribes were more highly civilized than their predecessors. The appellation, Brythonic-from which the name of Briton is supposed to have been derived-m -means a people clad in cloth, as distinguished from one clothed

in skins, which probably were the earliest form of human dress, and the Britons are known to have been adepts in the arts of spinning and weaving. They manufactured and decorated pottery, and understood the art of working in metal sufficiently to make swords, spear-heads, and daggers, and the formidable scythes that were attached to their war chariots; and they have left abundant evidence of their skill in carpentry in the shape of well squared and holed beams, wheels, ladders, and buckets, as well as dishes and bowls, many of the latter ornamented with incised patterns, which at different times have been disinterred at Glastonbury and other places. In addition to their war chariots, the Britons were familiar with at least three other kinds of vehicles, which were also in use among their kinsmen, the Gauls, and all of which, as will be seen in a later chapter, were adopted by the Romans from the latter nation. They were skilful hunters, and exported the skins of the animals they killed, and kept flocks and herds, horses and hounds, both of the last-named animals being used in warfare as well as in the chase; and they also cultivated wheat, cultivation in common probably being the rule, though portions of the tribal lands were assigned to the kings. Their dwellings, like those of the Gauls, were thatched circular huts of wattle and reeds cemented with clay, and built on stone foundations. Traces of villages constructed by lake-dwellers have been found in parts of England, as at Glastonbury; but these remains of an earlier race than the Britons must not be confused with the 'oppida' described by Cæsar, which appear to have been palisaded enclosures in dense forest country, and

perhaps, in some cases,

constructed as refuges in times of danger. To the Britons also must be attributed many of the formidable earthworks, which in some cases served as tribal boundaries, found in the South of England-such as the Wansdyke, which runs from the mouth of the Severn to an unidentified point on the Thames near Reading and the great circular camps of concentric ramparts and ditches, such as those found at Holmwood in Kent, St. George's Hill, near Weybridge, and St. Katherine's Hill at Winchester, and which extended in a chain along the summits of the Southern hill ranges. The majority of the permanent settlements of the British tribes were either near the sea or on navigable rivers, showing that water carriage was a frequent mode of transit-as, for example, London on the Thames, Colchester on the Stour, Rochester on the Medway, Peterborough on the Nene, and other settlements on the Ouse, the Severn, and the Exe.*

We also know from Cæsar's narrative that the Britons carried on a considerable maritime trade, exchanging live-stock, hides, tin, iron, and slaves for articles of luxury, such as glass, earthenware, articles of bronze, or personal ornaments. They used hides for tents and sails, as well as for clothing, and had attained some skill as shipwrights, their vessels being described as seaworthy, and also possessing certain characteristics that distinguished them from ships previously known to the Romans, which made them adaptable for deep-sea navigation as well as for use in tidal waters.

The tribes appear to have been governed by kings of * See a paper by Mr. Alfred Taylor, F.G.S., Archæologia, vol. xviii., p. 229.