CHA P. of fuch calamities was frequent and familiar under the Saxon XXXVIII. heptarchy. The arts and religion, the laws and language,

which the Romans had fo carefully planted in Britain, were extirpated by their barbarous fucceffors. After the destruction of the principal churches, the bishops, who had declined the crown of martyrdom, retired with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica; the remains of their flocks were left destitute of any spiritual food; the practice, and even the remembrance, of Christianity were abolished; and the British clergy might obtain fome comfort from the damnation. of the idolatrous ftrangers. The kings of France maintained the privileges of their Roman fubjects; but the ferocious Saxons trampled on the laws of Rome, and of the emperors. The proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of honour, the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance, were finally fuppreffed; and the indifcriminate crowd of noble and plebeian flaves was governed by the traditionary customs, which had been coarfely framed for the shepherds, and pirates, of Germany. The language of science, of bu finefs, and of converfation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was loft in the general defolation. A fufficient number of Latin or Celtic words might be affumed by the Germans, to exprefs their new wants and ideas (143); but those illiterate Pagans preferved and established the use of their national dialect (144). Almost every name, confpicuous either in the church or state, reveals its Teutonic origin (145); and the geography of England was univerfally infcribed with foreign characters and appellations. The example of a revolution, so rapid and fo complete, may not

eafily

vol. i. p. 258.) at Newenden, in the marshy grounds of Kent, which might be formerly covered by the fea, and on the edge of the great forest (Anderida), which overspread so large a portion of Hampshire and Sussex.

(143) Dr. Johnson affirms, that few English words are of British extraction: Mr. Whitaker, who understands the British language, has difcovered more than three thousand, and actually produces a long and various catalogue (vol. ii. p. 235-329.). It is poffible, indeed, that many of these words may have been imported from the Latin or Saxon into the native idiom of Britain.

(144) In the beginning of the seventh century, the Franks and the AngloSaxons mutually understood each other's language, which was derived from the fame Teutonic root (Bede, 1. i. c. 25. p. 60.).

(145) After the first generation of Italian, or Scottish, miffionaries, the digaities of the church were filled with Saxon profelytes.

XXXVIII.

eafily be found; but it will excite a probable fufpicion, that CHA P. the arts of Rome were lefs deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain; and that the native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants, was covered by a thin varnish of Italian

manners.

This strange alteration has perfuaded historians, and even Servitude. philofophers, that the provincials of Britain were totally exterminated; and that the vacant land was again peopled by the perpetual influx, and rapid increafe, of the German colonies. Three hundred thoufand Saxons are faid to have obeyed the fummons of Hengift (146); the entire emigration of the Angles was attefted, in the age of Bede, by the folitude of their native country (147); and our experience has fhewn the free propagation of the human race, if they are caft on a fruitful wildernefs, where their steps are unconfined, and their subsistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms difplayed the face of recent discovery and cultivation: the towns were small, the villages were diftant; the husbandry was languid and unfkilful; four sheep were equivalent to an acre of the best land (148); an ample space of wood and morafs was refigned to the vague dominion of nature; and the modern bishopric of Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to the Tees, had returned to its primitive state of a savage and folitary foreft (149). Such imperfect population might have been supplied, in some generations, by the Englifh colonies; but neither reason nor facts can justify the unnatural fuppofition, that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the defert which they had fubdued. After the fanM m 2 guinary

(146) Carte's Hiftory of England, vol. i. p. 195. He quotes the British hiftorians; but I much fear, that Jeffrey of Monmouth (1. vi, c. 15.) is his only witnefs.

(147) Bede, Hift. Ecclefiaft, 1. i. c. 15. p. 52. The fact is probable, and well attested; yet fuch was the loose intermixture of the German tribes, that we find, in a subsequent period, the law of the Angli and Warini of Germany (Lindenbrog. Codex, p. 479–486.).

(148) See Dr. Henry's useful and laborious History of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 388.

(149) Quicqquid (fays John of Tinemouth) inter Tynam et Tefam fiu. vios extitit fola eremi vaftitudo tunc temporis fuit, et idcirco nullius ditioni fervivit, eo quod fola indomitorum et fylveftrium animalium fpelunca et ha bitatio fuit (apud Carte, vol i. p. 195). From bishop Nicholson (English Historical Library, p. 65. 98.), 1 understand, that fair copies of john of Tinemouth's ample Collections are preferved in the libraries of Oxford, Lambeth, &c.

CHAP. guinary Barbarians had fecured their dominion, and gratifiXXXVIII. ed their ed their revenge, it was their interest to preserve the peasants, as well as the cattle, of the unrefifting country. In each fucceffive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters; and the falutary compact of food and labour is filently ratified by their mutual neceffities. Wilfrid, the apostle of Suffex (150), accepted from his royal convert the gift of the peninfula of Selfey, near Chichester, with the perfons and property of its inhabitants, who then amounted to eighty-feven families. He releafed them at once from spiritual and temporal bondage; and two hundred and fifty flaves of both fexes were baptized by their indulgent mafter. The kingdom of Suffex, which spread from the sea to the Thames, contained seven thoufand families; twelve hundred were ascribed to the Ifle of Wight; and, if we multiply this vague computation, it may feem probable, that England was cultivated by a million of fervants, or villains, who were attached to the eftates of their arbitrary landlords. The indigent Barbarians were often tempted to fell their children or themselves into perpetual, and even foreign, bondage (151); yet the special exemptions, which were granted to national flaves (152), fufficiently declare, that they were much less numerous than the ftrangers and captives, who had loft their liberty, or changed their mafters, by the accidents of war. When time and religion had mitigated the fierce spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, the laws encouraged the frequent practice of manumiffion; and their fubjects, of Welfh or Cambrian extraction, affume the refpectable station of inferior freemen, poffeffed of lands, and intitled to the rights of civil society (153). Such gentle treatment might fecure the allegiance of a fierce

(150) See the mission of Wilfrid, &c. in Bede, Hift. Ecclef, 1. iv. c. 13. 16. p. 155, 156. 159.

(151) From the concurrent teftimony of Bede (1. ii. c. 1. p. 78.), and William of Malmsbury (1. iii. p. 102.), it appears, that the Anglo-Saxons, from the first, to the laft, age, perfifted in this unnatural practice. Their youths were publicly fold in the market of Rome.

(152) According to the laws of Ina, they could not be lawfully fold heyond the feas.

(153) The life of a Walius, or Cambricus, bomo, who poffeffed a hyde of land, is fixed at 120 fhillings, by the fame laws (of Ina, tit. xxxii. in Leg. Anglo Saxon. p. 20.), which allowed 200 fhillings for a free Saxon, and 1200 for a Thane (fee likewife Leg. Anglo Saxon. p. 71.). We may observe that thefe legiflators, the Weft-Saxons and Mercians, continued their British conquells after they became Chriftiaus. The laws of the four kings of Kent do nos condescend to notice the existence of any fubje& Britons.

2 fierce people, who had been recently fubdued on the con- CHA P. fines of Wales and Cornwall. The fage Ina, the legislator XXXVIII, of Weffex, united the two nations in the bands of domestic alliance; and four British lords of Somersetshire may be honourably distinguished in the court of a Saxon monarch (154).

The independent Britons appear to have relapsed into the Manners of ftate of original barbarifm, from whence they had been im- the Britons, perfectly reclaimed. Separated by their enemies from the rest of mankind, they foon became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the Catholic world (156). Chriftianity was ftill profeffed in the mountains of Wales; but the rude fchif matics, in the form of the clerical tonfure, and in the day of the celebration of Easter, obftinately refifted the imperious mandates of the Roman pontiffs. The ufe of the Latin language was infenfibly abolished, and the Britons were depri ved of the arts and learning which Italy communicated to her Saxon profelytes. In Wales and Armorica, the Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the Weft, was preferved and propagated; and the Bards, who had been the companions of the Druids, were still protected, in the fixteenth century, by the laws of Elizabeth. Their chief, a respectable officer of the courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermathaen, accompanied the king's fervants to war: the monarchy of the Britons, which he fung in the front of battle, excited their courage, and juftified their depredations; and the fongfter claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His fubordinate ministers, the masters and difciples of vocal and inftrumental mufic, vifited, in their refpective circuits, the royal, the noble, and the plebeian houses; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by the clergy, was oppreffed by the importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by folemn trials, and the strong belief of fupernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet, and of his audience (157). The laft retreats of

(154) See Carte's Hift. of England, vol. i, p. 278.

Celtic

(156) At the conclufion of his history (A. D. 731.), Bede defcribes the ecclefiaftical state of the island, and cenfures the implacable, though impo tent, hatred of the Britons against the English nation, and the Catholic church (I. v. c. 23. p. 219.).

(157) Mr. Pennant's Tour in Wales (p. 426-449.) has furnished me with a curious and interesting account of the Welsh bards. In the year

1568,

СНАР. Celtic freedom, the extreme territories of Gaul and BriXXXVIII. tain, were lefs adapted to agriculture than to pafturage :

Obfcure or

fabulous

the wealth of the Britons consisted in their flocks and herds ; milk and flesh were their ordinary food; and bread was fometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty had peopled the mountains of Wales and the moraffes of Armorica: but their populoufnefs has been maliciously afcribed to the loofe practice of polygamy; and the houses of thefe licentious barbarians have been supposed to contain ten wives, and perhaps fifty children (158). Their difpofition was rafh and choleric: they were bold in action and in fpeech (159); and as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alternately indulged their paffions in foreign and domeftic war. The cavalry of Armorica, the fpearmen of Gwent, and the archers of Merioneth, were equally formidable; but their poverty could feldom procure either fhields or helmets; and the inconvenient weight would have retarded the speed and agility of their defultory operations. One of the greatest of the English monarchs was requested to fatisfy the curiofity of a Greek emperor concerning the state of Britain; and Henry II. could affert, from his perfonal experience, that Wales was inhabited by a race of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the defenfive armour of their enemies (160).

By the revolution of Britain, the limits of fcience, as well as of empire, were contracted. The dark cloud, which had ftate of Bri- been cleared by the Phoenician difcoveries, and finally difpeltain, led by the arms of Cæfar, again fettled on the fhores of the

Atlantic

1568, a feffion was held at Caerwys by the special command of queen Elizabeth, and regular degrees in vocal and inftrumental music were conferred on fifty-five minstrels. The prize (a filver harp) was adjudged by the Moftyn family,

(158) Regio longe lateque diffufa, milite, magis quam credibile fit, referta. Partibus equidem in illis miles unus quinquaginta generat, fortitus more barbaro denas aut amplius uxores. This reproach of William of Poitiers (in the Hiftorians of France, tom, xi. p. 88,) is disclaimed by the Benedictine editors.

(159) Giraldus Cambrenfis confines this gift of bold and ready eloquence to the Romans, the French, and the Britons. The malicious Welshman in finuates, that the English taciturnity might poffibly be the effect of their fervitude under the Normans.

(160) The picture of Welsh and Armorican manners is drawn from Gi/raldus (Defcript. Cambriæ, c. 6-15. inter Script. Cambden. p. 886-891.), and the authors quoted by the Abbé de Vertot (Hift. Critique, tom. ii. p. 259-266.).