their wanderings, they found an asylum in Armorica or Britany. This account has been contradicted, most strenuously, by the French historians, who deny that our insular Britons formed any settlement on the continent, until after the Saxon invasion. But whether it was from this circumstance, or rather from subsequent events, that the British race obtained a decided predominance in the territory of Armorica, we shall not take upon us to decide.* We shall not, therefore, detain the reader here, in either controverting or defending what has been commonly asserted, as to the establishment of a dynasty among the French Bretons, under Conan Meriadoc, and the princes who are said to have succeeded him, from the year 384. The statements of the British chronicle on that subject are of considerable antiquity; although the Abbé Vertot, and other writers, will not admit of the coming over of the insular colony before the invasion of the Franks, nor allow that the Bretons were ever independent of that people. Of this, however, we are assured, from our most ancient documents, that, of the large host that followed Maximus, none returned home; we must, therefore, from the nature of the case infer, that they obtained settlements somewhere; and tradition states that it was in Armorica. The connexion between the Cambro-Britons and the people of Armorica was of very ancient standing, as appears by the languages of both people, which are so nearly allied even in this remote age. Conan, Lord of Meiriadoc, or the region of Denbigh, * See Vertot Histoire de Bretons-Discours preliminaire. That author being determined to espouse the hypothesis, of the dependence of Britany on the French crown from the time of Clovis, seems too partial to be altogether depended upon, even by those who are rather sceptical as to the affirmations of Geoffry of Monmouth. was nephew to Eudaf, or Octavius, Lord of Ewias, whose daughter Elen was married to Maximus. This Conan is said to have obtained a territory in Armorica for himself and his countrymen, and to be succeeded by princes of the same race. These were probably chieftains that had power over a small territory, comprising a part of Britany, and not the whole of that extensive province; which, it is probable, was never strictly independent of the Romans, nor afterwards of the Franks. Emyr, who is mentioned as one of the Armoric sovereigns, was nephew to Germanus, or St. Garmon; and his country was, in all probability, that which includes the Dioceses of St. Paul de Leon and Vannes, where the language of the natives is radically the same as that of the principality of Wales.* The disordered state of South Britain, in consequence of the emigration of the flower of the British youth to the continent, and the disasters that there befel them, as well as the absence of the Roman legionaries, left the country once more exposed to the ravages of the extraprovincial hordes, assisted by the Hibernian Scots. To augment the evil, it is said, in the British Chronicle, that the emperor Gratian, in order to harass his rival Maximus, had incited many of the Scandinavian rovers to infest the north of Britain. Whether those barbarians, who, in the present instance, fell upon the province, were from the highlands of Caledonia, or from certain districts between the Solway and the Clyde, can * Britany includes several districts, which a certain author, whom I cite from memory only, enumerates to be eight. In three of these the ancient Breton language is generally the popular dialect, in three more, both French and Breton are spoken promiscuously; in the remaining two the French, and not the Breton, is the pópular language. There is the same variation in the counties of Wales. 66 not be decided; but their numbers were great, and their ravages carried terror and dismay wherever they advanced. The words of Gildas express, That now the country being left destitute of all its soldiery, and so vast a portion of its youth, and the remnant of the inhabitants being unaccustomed to war; they were infested by two savage and furious tribes, the Scots from the northwest (a Circio), and the Picts from the north, by whom they were spoiled, groaning under their ravages for many years." This was the first of the three terrible devastations described by Gildas. We see that although the provincial Britons were at times oppressed by the Roman officers; yet, being now civilized, and put in possession of the comforts and conveniencies of polished life, all their affairs were so intimately blended with the Roman interests, that they now considered the lords of the world as their fathers and kind protectors. Britain was also considered as a province of that importance, that the imperial court regarded it with no small solicitude. The death of Maximus once more restored it to the Roman empire; and after some delay, occasioned by the particular posture of affairs, it was rescued from its calamitous situation. The emperor Theodosius ordered succours to be sent to Britain; but these did not arrive until after his death, as may be conjectured from the words of Gildas, that the Britons groaned for many years under their distress; and, according to Richard of Cirencester, it was not until the year 396 that the supplies arrived; and this was the year after the death of Theodosius. It was now more than ten years from the death of Maximus, and the province must have been sadly desolated by the incursions of the barbarous tribes; but this delay may have been occasioned by the perverseness of rival officers, aiming to set up the standard of independence, until it was resolved to submit entirely to the imperial sway. The command of the legion for the protection of Britain, or rather the direction of the whole affair, devolved on the celebrated Stilicho; but that great soldier and statesman did not come over to the island in person, as may be inferred from his important station of guardian to the sons of Theodosius, the young princes Arcadius and Honorius. The muse of Claudian celebrates the deliverance of Britain, the praise of which is ascribed to Stilicho. 1 Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit Scotica, ne Pictum tremerem, ne littore tuto The Roman legion, having driven the enemy out of the province, were called away by some exigency, according to Gildas; but not before they had given proper instruction to the Britons how to act; and, among other things, ordered them to form a rampart from sea to sea for their defence, or rather to repair the wall of Antonine, or Græme's Dyke, which ran from Dunbarton on the Clyde, across Stirlingshire, to the Forth. This, the old historian says, the Britons of that quarter did with turf rather than with stone, for want of skill in masonry. This wall running across from sea to sea,* that is, from one estuary to the other, was designed to repel the incursions of the Highlanders: but, without proper garri *Jussit construere inter duo maria trans insulam murum, ut esset arcendis hostibus a turbâ instructus terrori civibusque tutamini. Qui vulgo irrationabili absque rectore factus, non tam lapidibus quam cespitibus, non profuit. sons and brave soldiers, it could never effect that intention, although it had been made of brass. Bede mentions the remains of that famous rampart being conspicuous in his age. It began at almost two miles' distance from the monastery of Abercurnig, that is, a place at the mouth of the river Carron, where now Abercorn castle stands, not far from Blackness: running across the country (near the line of the present great canal) it terminated near Kilpatrick, within about two miles of Dunbritton, called anciently Alcluyd, and CaerAlcluyd, and in the Ossianic fragments Bal-blutha. The state of the Roman empire was now such that it was assailed on all quarters by Barbarians, who had learned the art of war from the Romans, whose power they thought themselves competent to dispute. About A. D. 400, the legion stationed in Britain was ordered over to the continent, to increase the force necessary to repel the Huns, with the furious Alaric at their head. Claudian refers to this; for, after noticing the various force of the empire that was mustered together, to effect the defeat of the monarch of the Huns, he mentions the legion, which had been stationed at the extremity of Britain to repress the ferocious Scots and Picts.* The Roman force being withdrawn, the old depredators from the north were not long quiet. "They returned in their accustomed manner like hungry and voracious wolves, (says Gildas), breaking into the sheepfold, and destroying all before them with remorseless fury." The Britons, having neither skill nor courage, it would appear, to oppose their enemies, were in danger of becoming an entire prey to them. The Romans had * Venit et extremis legio prætenta Britannis |