horse to this day. I believe we may still see a horse marked on the sacks of hops which come from Kent. Our forefathers liked naming themselves after animals, but especially after wolves.

449. The first battle.

14. They crossed the ford which bounded the Isle of Thanet on the west, and marched towards London, which was a rich town even in the old Roman days, noted, as it is now, for its commerce. The first great battle with the Britons was fought on the way, at Aylesford in Kent, and the English conquered, though one of their chiefs, Horsa, was slain. After this victory there was a frightful massacre. These "wolves," our ancestors, were still heathens, and very cruel and merciless. The other Teutons who invaded the Roman empire had partly learned Christianity, and with it had become more pitiful, so that they did not utterly exterminate the conquered. But it was a long time before those in Britain learnt Christianity. Many of the Britons fled from their homes, and took refuge in caves; the same caves where the old palæolithic men had fought with hyænas and bears long ago. In those caves, where, deep down, we find rough flint implements and bones, there are found nearer to the top the golden ornaments of the British ladies, their pins and combs, and beautiful enamelled brooches; and their money, with Roman inscriptions.

Cerdic.

15. The first of the kingdoms which the Teuton invaders founded was that of the Jutes in Kent. Afterwards the Saxons also began to settle themselves in the southern counties, in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, &c., under their king, Cerdic. Cerdic was the forefather, either directly or indirectly, of all our kings and queens, even down to Queen Victoria, 495. so we ought to remember his name; and he was called the King of Wessex, or the West Saxons. 16. Although Gildas speaks so slightingly of the courage of the Britons, still they held out in different parts for a long time, and sometimes beat their enemies back. It was most likely during the founding of the kingdom of Wessex that King Arthur lived and fought (if he ever lived at all), though it is thought by some that his kingdom was on the border-land between England and Scotland. He was a British king, and we all know from Tennyson's Idylls that he was continually fighting against heathenism and lawlessness. Those heathen were the Angles and Saxons.

17. A very amusing old knight, Sir Richard Baker, who in the seventeenth century wrote a most quaint history of England, gives us this account of King Arthur.

Arthur.

"He in twelve set battles discomfited the Saxons; but in ong most memorable, in which, girding himself with his sword 'Callibourn,' he flew upon his enemies, and with his own hand slew 800 of them; which is but one of his wonderful deeds, whereof there are so many reported that he might well be reckoned among the fabulous, if there were not enough true to give them credit!" Perhaps we may not be quite so ready as Sir Richard to believe these exploits, though even he is more moderate than one of the old British writers, who says Arthur slew in that battle "940 by his hand alone, no one but the Lord affording him assistance."

18. But all would not avail. The sturdy English pushed on, massacring many of the Britons, enslaving some, and driving others farther and farther west. The Teutons called all people whose language they did not understand Welsh. Those who live near Italy still call the Italians Welsh, and their country Welshland. Those who came to Britain called the Celts or Britons Welsh, and so we call some of them to this very day. But it must be remembered, that not only those we now call Welsh, but the Irish, the Highland Scotch, and the dwellers in the Isle of Man are descended from the old Celts, and speak dialects of their old language. So do many of the people who live in Brittany in France. So did, till about 100 years ago, the people in Cornwall, which was called West Wales. A very short time since a monument was erected in memory of the old lady who last spoke the Cornish tongue.

19. It is a curious thing that the British cattle seem to have undergone the same fate as their masters. The Britons had a breed of small and short-horned cattle, which still survive in Wales and Scotland, and until lately were also to be met with in Cornwall and Cumberland. Most of us know the look of the little wild Welsh and Highland cattle, which are sometimes driven to London. All our English breeds are derived from those the English brought with them, some of which still live wild in Chillingham Park. This breed was formerly called the Urus.

Celtic

20. Whilst the rest of the country seemed to be given up to savagery and heathenism; in Wales, in Ireland, and in Cornwall the Christian religion continued to flourish, and learning was kept up. It is said that there were 200 philosophers in Caer-leon, which is now a village, but Christianity. was a thriving city then; and there were some notable saints among them. Many of the villages and towns in Cornwall are

named after ancient saints, whose history is, perhaps, very interesting, but of whom we know scarcely anything. Fuller studied the life of St. David, the patron saint of Wales, and seems to have found it very attractive reading; but he says, "I am sensible that I have spent, to my shame, so much precious time in reading the legend of his life, that I will not wilfully double my guiltiness in writing the same, and tempt the reader to offend in like nature."

So we must take the hint, and pause.

LECTURE VII.-THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH.

The introduction of Christianity. Gregory the Great. State of Christianity in the sixth century. Civilizing influence of the Christian teachers. Monasteries.

Bede.

1. We have now heard of the founding of two kingdoms, Kent and Wessex, by the Jutes and the Saxons. Afterwards there came in more Saxons, who founded other kingdoms: the East Saxons, Middle Saxons, and South Saxons, who gave the names with which we are so familiar to Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex. (Kent is the old British name.) And then came also the Angles, who founded the kingdoms of Northumberland (which was the name given to all the land north of the river Humber), East Anglia, which was divided between the North-folk and the Southfolk, and Mercia, which is in the middle of England.

2. By looking on the map we see that the Angles, who had been the most important of the three tribes before they came to Britain at all, now got possession of the largest share of the new country, and, by degrees, the whole of the land inhabited by the Teuton invaders came to be called Angle-land or England. The Welsh, however, generally called the Teutons, Saxons, because it was the Saxons in Wessex who made the greatest impression on them; and the Welsh and the Highlanders call us Saxons to this hour. In many histories of England we find all our forefathers called Saxons; but it seems better, when we are speaking of them all under one name, to call them by the same which they bear still, the English. As there were but very few of the Jutes in comparison with the other two tribes, and their name soon died out, we may also very properly call them Anglo-Saxons; only, if we do that, we must not forget that they are our own ancestors.

3. The seven principal kingdoms which the invaders foundedwere Kent, Wessex, Northumberland, Mercia, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia. These are generally called the " Heptarchy," which is a Greek word, meaning "the rule The Heptof seven." But there never could be said to be a real

archy.

Heptarchy, consisting of seven sottled kingdoms. They were always, when not fighting the Welsh, fighting each other, and sometimes there would be more, sometimes fewer, kings. Northumberland was often divided into two parts, Bernicia and Deira, each of which had its own king. Still, on the whole, there may be said to have been those seven kingdoms; and the rest of the country, Wales, Cornwall, and Strathclyde, which was the name given to Cumberland, Westmoreland, and part of Scotland, still belonged to the Britons. Northumberland reached as far north as the river Forth, and the Lowland Scotch are, in reality, Angles or English, like ourselves.

4. During all this time the country must have been in a fearful state, with these heathen warriors marauding and fighting, and taking possession of the land; though when they settled down they seem to have lived quietly in their village communities, as at home. The Britons would not or could not teach them Christianity; most likely they were too proud to learn of their conquered slaves. Fuller says, "This set the conversion of Germany so backward, because, out of defiance to the Romans, they hugged their own barbarism, made lovely with liberty; blotting out all civility from themselves, as jealous that it would usher in subjection."

5. So, though the Welsh and Irish continued to improve in learning and religion, this had no effect on the English. At last, however, they too learnt Christianity, and they learnt it from the Romans. The history of the conversion of the English is told us most beautifully by an Englishman who lived not very long after it took place, Bede, or the Venerable Bede, as he is called. It is from him that we learn the well-known story, how Pope Gregory the Great went into the market-place at Rome, where among other merchandise he saw "some boys set to sale, their bodies white, their countenances beautiful, their hair very fine;" how when he heard of what nation they were, he said, With those fair faces, they should be not Angles, but Angels; and how he never rested till missionaries were sent to England to withdraw those people from the wrath of God, and teach them to sing His praise. This Gregory was a very great and good man; such faults as he had belong perhaps more to the age he lived in than to himself, and both he and others most likely looked on them as his greatest virtues.

6. It was in the year 597 that the Roman missionaries, with Augustine their chief, came to England; landing, as the first