PREFACE. HAVING long felt the want of a detailed history of the first inhabitants of Britain, founded upon the accounts which the Greeks and Romans have left us of their connection with this island, I have endeavoured in these volumes, as far as was in my power, to supply the deficiency. The sources from which the work is compiled are extensive, it is true, as regards the number of writers from whom our knowledge is derived, but in general bulk, and as far as concerns the information which we gain from them, they are remarkably scanty. They are all comprised in one volume of " Historical Documents concerning the Ancient Britons," which forms the Appendix to this work; so that the reader will have at hand all the authorities for every statement which this work contains, and may immediately verify every fact for himself. As in the Preface to the Historical Documents, I have given all the information which is necessary on the writers whose works are contained in that volume, it would be superfluous to recapitulate the same here. It is important, however, to mention one peculiarity of the present work, which, as it has commended itself to my choice after long consideration, will, I hope, be equally approved by the reader. I have abstained from attempting to give colouring or life to those facts b of which the contemporary historians have left us only a bare skeleton, or an inanimate sketch. I cannot but regret, that historians in general have so widely departed from this rule; for by indulging their own imaginations, and by putting their own construction upon facts, though they may have succeeded in making their work philosophical, yet this advantage has been attended with the loss of its historical character. To avoid this departure from historic truth, no plan seems so successful as to introduce all important parts of the narrative in the words of the contemporary writer, and, if possible, of one who has been an eye-witness of the facts which he records. What account of the invasion of Britain by Cæsar, and of the adventures which befel him during his short stay in the island, can be so interesting, or so authentic, as that which Cæsar himself has left in his own Commentaries? sistently with this principle, the reader will find that I have related the wars of Cæsar, of Claudius, Agricola, Severus, Carausius, and others, in the very words of the historian who then lived, or who came nearest to their times. Con Another rule, of almost equal importance with the former, has been rigidly adhered to; namely, to neglect all unfounded statements and views of modern writers; some of whom have indulged in fancies of the most puerile and trifling character, often with the view of supporting some political or religious theory of their own, but which does not depend upon the authority of ancient writers. Though the present work is not the first which pretends to the character of a regular detailed history of the Ancient Britons, yet an examination of those which have preceded, will, it is believed, lead the reader to the conclusion, that the subject has never before been treated so fully, with strict regard to real history, and in exclusion of all fabulous legends. The first notices of Britain are found in the Grecian and Roman writers; in the works of Gildas, Nennius, Bede, and Richard of Cirencester, who in the fourteenth century copied from an ancient Roman writing now lost. For information on these writers, the reader is referred to the Preface of the Historical Documents before mentioned. Besides those contemporary writers, the middle ages furnish a long list of names of those who have noticed incidentally the Ancient Britons; but they all wrote at second hand, and can be of little use as authorities to us, who know probably more of the Ancient Britons than they did. Such were Aldhelm, Alcuin, Eddius, Asser, the authors of the Saxon Chronicle, Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Galfridus of Llandaff, author of the Liber Llandavensis, Henry of Huntingdon, Ordericus Vitalis, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and a vast number of other monastic historians, who have all more or less referred to the subject. But the first person in modern times who attempted on sound principles to throw light on British Antiquities, was Leland the Antiquary, who in the reign of Henry VIII. made a tour through the island, examined every spot where historical occurrences were said to have happened, and collected the fruits of his labours into his two works, Collectanea and Itinera. The next writer who added to the knowledge of British Antiquities was Speed, author of the Theatre of Great Britain, which cost the author the labour of many years, and was a most valuable addition to the existing store of works on our domestic history. But all these writers treated of our history in general, and made no more than incidental mention of the Ancient Britons. About the year 1600 appeared that valuable work, Camden's Britannia, in which the first attempt was made in the early part of the work to reduce into a connected narrative all that was left by the Classical writers concerning Ancient Britain and its inhabitants. But this narrative is necessarily much abridged, and contains merely an outline of the subject. Other works more immediately touching on our present subject are the Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates of Archbishop Usher, and the Origines Sacræ of Stillingfleet. But these also principally concern the state of religion amongst the Britons, and even with the narrow limits of that subject many legends are admitted as historical facts, which deserve to be banished to the regions of Romance. Within the last few years, another work has been published on the Ancient Britons, entitled, "Researches into the ecclesiastical and political state of Ancient Britain under the Roman emperors, with observations upon the principal events and characters connected with the Christian religion during the first five centuries. By the late Rev. Francis Thackeray, A.M. formerly of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Lond. T. Cadell, Strand, MDCCCXLIII." On coming to examine this work, I found that it would be of great assistance in compiling my own, but that its long digressions on religious subjects, aspirations for the success of the Christian Church, and other similar peculiarities, entirely disqualified it for being received as a History of Ancient Britain. As the present times are singularly distinguished from those which immediately preceded, by religious |