CHAPTER II.

T is possible that you may have near your village some gravel-pits, which may contain certain objects of great interest.

I

refer to the flint implements, which were used by the early savage inhabitants of this country long before history begins, and before the Celts conquered this island. In these gravel-beds are frequently found the remains of flint tools, such as hatchets, scrapers, awls, and the like. There was a time when the primitive race who used these strange tools lived in this country, and it is not remarkable that, after all these years, we are able to find their weapons and instruments, as the material of which they are made is practically indestructible.

There was a time when the northern part of our fair country was a mass of ice, and evidences of the action of ice may there be seen almost everywhere. Large fragments of rocks, quite different from any in the neighbourhood, are found here and there, which

in some far-distant period had been brought there by becoming fixed in a glacier, which moved gradually onwards and, when the ice melted, left its luggage in some distant plain. There was a time when there was no sea between England and the Continent; when the elephant, rhinoceros, boar, bear, lion, wild ox, and mammoth were prowling about the country; but as these animals do not belong to the same climate, they could not all have been here at one time. There was a time when the sea almost covered our island; and sea-shells have been found at a height of 1350 feet above the sea level, on the sides of Snowdon, and at other places.

But all this belongs to pre-historic times, of which we have no record except what the earth has preserved for us; and in your gravel-pits you may find traces of the strange, rude people who lived here thousands of years before history begins. You may also discover the fossil remains of animals, shell-fish, and such-like, and make a collection of all the curiosities which your neighbourhood affords.

But our concern is principally with the history of our English villages, and to that I desire now to direct your attention. In the first place, the history of your village will depend upon the roads which run through it. A recent writer says, "If you would read aright the history of any district or village, begin by learning the alphabet of its roads." Of all the antiquities of a country the roads are the oldest; for

by following the natural features of the country, or the cross-tracks by which wild animals descended from the high ground to water, man first gained a hold of the country. Rivers were the first high-roads. The early colonists made their way up the Thames or the Humber; they worked their way inland along the tracks of the animals. Presently the trail widened into a waggon-track, and then into a road. The fords of the rivers generally mark the course of the old roads, which extended from ford to ford, and then ran along the high ground, as the river valleys were very marshy and full of swamps.

The rivers were not so deep then as they are now ; for the ground was not then worn away so much by the constant flow of water. When the early colonists found a naturally strong position which seemed to command the country and prevent others from following in their steps, they made a rude fort or earthwork; and in after-years, when other conquerors came who knew the art of building strong castles, they often erected on the same spot, well chosen for defence, a huge erection of stone walls, which, before the age of gunpowder, seemed to defy all attacks.

Whether your village was an important place in olden times or not depends very much upon its nearness to these old roads, and upon its natural position as regards its suitability for defence, and its proximity to the main rivers of England.

You are probably aware that several waves of

invaders have rolled over this country. They all came westward, and followed each other just as you have seen one wave following another on the beach when the tide is rising. First there was the oldest race of all, of which we know scarcely anything. It was called the Euskarian race; and the black-haired, short-statured people who are found in Caithness and in the south-west of Ireland, and the Basques who live in the Pyrenees mountains, are the only remains of the earliest inhabitants of this country. They have, however, left their trace behind in the long barrows, and in one or two names of places, as well as in the stone implements which are found on the surface of the ground; and the name Britain is supposed to be of Euskarian origin.

In tracing the early history of our villages we shall find great assistance from the names, as we shall see throughout the course of this book; for there is no record so enduring as the names of places, and even when a nation has been conquered, driven out, and destroyed, we can almost read its history by studying the names of the places which they have left behind.

The next wave of invaders was the Celtic race. There were two great branches of this race, the Gaels and the Cymry. The latter supplanted the former, and drove them into Ireland and into the Highlands of Scotland. The whole of England was once peopled by the Celts, who in this country were called the

Britons, and, in fact, over the greater part of Europe this powerful race once held supreme dominion. They have left their trace behind in the names which they gave to the rivers and mountains of the lands which they occupied. The Danube, the Don in Russia, the Rhone, the Eridanus, or Po, in Italy, are all derived from a Celtic word which means water, or river. The Irish, the Welsh, the Highlanders of Scotland, and the dwellers in Cornwall, are still Celts in blood, and, in some parts, speak the Gaelic language. Many of the towns, villages, and rivers retain to this day the names which the Celts first gave them -for example, London, Canterbury.

The Celts were followed by the Romans, led by the victorious Cæsar. After a gallant resistance the Britons, or Celts, were subdued; but the Roman rule. was not of a permanent nature. After the lapse of four hundred years their armies were withdrawn to defend their own country, and the British were left to defend themselves against their troublesome neighbours the Picts and Scots (also a Celtic race), and their equally troublesome visitors the Saxons.

These Saxons were the next invaders of the country; they came over from Germany, and completely conquered the Britons and drove them into Wales and Cornwall. It is certain that the Romans completely conquered, but did not extirpate, the ancient inhabitants of England, whereas the Saxons annihilated, as far as possible, all who came across