important for our purpose to observe, that the idol or "Galgen-männlein" became the property of the youngest son on condition that he buried with the body a morsel of bread and a piece of money according to the old pagan practice. If the youngest son died in his father's lifetime, the question arose whether the eldest son could take the "Alraun" or mandrake; and it was held that the domestic god would fall into his share, provided always that he had fulfilled the ceremony of the bread and money on the occasion of his younger brother's funeral.1

1 For a plant-superstition among the Finns, resembling the belief in the powers of the Mandrake, see Keightley, Fairy Myth. 488.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BRITONS OF THE INTERIOR.

Physical condition of the country-Misrepresented by Roman orators-State under Agricola, the Plantagenets and Elizabeth—Absence of genuine early descriptions— Sources of the statements of Bede and his school-Notice of British pearlfisheries-Comparison of the accounts of Ireland-The picture of Britain by Gildas-True sources of information-Special records-Allusions of writers on general history-Giraldus, Aneurin, Pliny-The Celtic races of Northern and Western Britain-Little affected by the English invasions-The evidence from language of uncertain value-The tribes of the South-West-Their superior culture -Their foreign trade-Description of their ships-The tribes of the West of low civilization and mixed blood-The Silures-The Dobuni of the CotswoldsThe Cornavians-The Ordovices of North Wales-Their mixed descent-The Central Tribes-The name "Coritavi" applied to several distinct races-Notices by Strabo and Cæsar-The ruder tribes migratory-The confederated tribes of the North-Their success in war-The story of Queen Cartismandua-Rules a Brigantian tribe-Commands the Brigantian army―The Brigantians compared with the Irish by Tacitus-Their life at home and in the field.

WE

E turn from the speculation on the origin of these ancient customs to collect what is known about the Britons of the Interior before they adopted the Gaulish fashions, or were drawn by Agricola's policy step by step to "the lounge, the bath, and the banquet," and to all that provincial refinement which was but a disguise of their servitude. We shall endeavour to describe their manners and habits of life; but it will be necessary in the first place to take some general view of the physical condition of the country.

It was a land of uncleared forests, with a climate as yet not mitigated by the organized labours of mankind. The province in course of time became a flourishing portion of

the Empire; the court-orators dilated on the wealth of "Britannia Felix" and the heavy corn-fleets arriving from the granaries of the North; and they wondered at the pastures almost too deep and rich for the cattle, and hills covered with innumerable flocks of sheep "with udders full of milk and backs weighed down with wool." The picture was too brightly coloured, though drawn in the Golden Age. It is certain that the island when it fell under the Roman power was little better in most parts than a cold and watery desert. According to all the accounts of the early travellers the sky was stormy and obscured by continual rain, the air chilly even in summer, and the sun during the finest weather had little power to disperse the steaming mists. The trees gathered and condensed the rain; the crops grew rankly, but ripened slowly, for the ground and the atmosphere were alike overloaded with moisture. The fallen timber obstructed the streams, the rivers were squandered in the reedy morasses, and only the downs and hill-tops rose above the perpetual tracts of wood.

It is difficult to measure the slow advance of agriculture. We know that at one time the wolves swarmed in Sherwood and Arden, the wild boar roamed in Groveley, and the white-maned Urus was hunted in the northern forests. The work of reclaiming the wilderness began in the days of Agricola. The Romans felled the woods along the lines of their military roads; they embanked the rivers and threw causeways across the morasses, and the natives complained that their bodies and hands were worn out in draining the fens and extending the clearings in the forests. In the course of centuries the woodlands shrank

to a mere fraction of their former extent. The ground

was required for corn and pasture, the trees were consumed for fuel, or used in building or making the charcoal required in the mineral furnaces; and the hill-sides were kept bare as sheep-farming increased by the neglect to fence and protect the coppices. The area of cultivation was continually increasing; yet even under the later Plantagenets there were no less than sixty-eight royal forests, besides thirty which had been converted into private chases; in each was included "a territory with great woods for the secret abode of wild beasts"; and it is estimated that even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one-third of England was in waste.

The trees grew so thickly that some districts could hardly be traversed or penetrated. The Forest of Dean was described as "very dark and terrible" by reason of its shades and cross-ways. Sherwood, said Camden, was anciently set with trees whose entangled branches were so twisted together that they hardly left room for a man to pass. In the Warwickshire Arden it was said that even in modern times a squirrel might leap from tree to tree for nearly the whole length of the county. Denbighland in the 15th century was one immense forest from the Dee to the wilds of Arvon among the Snowdonian Hills.' And great districts in all parts of the country are shown by the mediæval records to have produced no profit to their owners except a little herbage, a few hawks' nests, "honey nuts and hips," (for to such small matters do the foresters' accounts extend,) "hares, cats and badgers and vermin of that kind."

There is no trustworthy account of the ancient condition of the inland districts. It is possible indeed that large tracts of land may have long remained unexplored. The

original settlements would of course be clustered round the estuaries, and the later colonists would occupy the interior valleys, following as much as possible the course of the rivers and avoiding the thick woods and the "watery lengths" of moor.

The general statements on this point of Bede and his mediæval imitators appear to be based upon no original authority. They are evidently founded on a few allusions in the classical writings, and these in their turn upon the reports of merchants who were only familiar with the coast. A part of Bede's description' relates only to the relics of the Roman dominion, the vineyards and baths at the Hot Wells, the remains of cities and scattered forts, the iron-works and mines of copper and silver-lead. The rest would be more useful for our purpose if we had reason to believe it correct. Some parts of the picture are true enough. Britain was rich in corn and trees, and fit for the pasturing of herds and flocks; it abounded with birds, and the rivers were covered with waterfowl and well-stored with eels and salmon. He adds that whales seals and dolphins were continually caught; but the statement is probably a mere reminiscence of Juvenal's simile." We are told of a great abundance of shells. Among them were "the clams and mussels producing not only the pure white pearls, but others of the finest quality in all kinds of colours, some pink or purple, some as blue as jacinth, and others as green as grass." The truth seems to be that the pearl-fishery was a thorough failure, so that men

1 Bede, Hist. Eccles. i. c. 1.

2 Compare Henry of Huntingdon : "Capiuntur et sæpe delphines et balenæ unde Juvenalis (Sat. x. 14), Quantum delphinis balæna Britannica major." Hist. Angl. i. c. 1.

Q