J. O. Bevan

“ Fringing the north and north-west border of Europe, occupying Scandinavia, and largely dominating Great Britain and Ireland (where it has overrun the earlier Iberian, or Pictish people) is the second great European race—the Nordic. It was formerly called the "Teutonic," but, as this term has been misapplied in Germany for political reasons, so as to include a large body of the last, or third, race, it is better to use the word "Nordic." The Nordic race is, like the Iberian, long-headed, but in contrast it is blond and very tall. ”

“ It is a moot point whether the Saxon migration along the Thames waterway was checked by the presence of London, which remained a city stronghold since Roman times, but it is evident that a gap was made in the history of the city just after the departure of the Romans, and the theory of continuous occupation can hardly be maintained in face of the fact that the mediæval City streets in no case follow the Roman roads traces of which lie beneath the mediæval houses. ”

“ In the course of an enquiry in Australia, having for its object the fostering a love of the country districts and stemming the exodus to the cities, which is a disquieting feature of life in the Commonwealth, medical inspectors in the schools of Victoria have come to the conclusion that blue-eyed people seek the land, and that the city populations are recruited largely from the brown-eyed. If this conclusion could be generally supported, it opens up interesting questions as to the connection of eye-pigmentation with race, and its possible modification by inter-marriage. ”

“ Principally to ensure military dominance, the conquerors made many main roads, mostly centering in London. They also developed the land into a corn-growing country.
The history of the towns that became Roman is known to us very imperfectly and unevenly, in respect of elements earlier than the conquest of A.D. 43; of the beginnings, whether official or personal; of their size, original planning, character and composition of the buildings, of the language, degree of civilization, and comparative wealth of the inhabitants; of the relation of the town-life to the life of the adjacent country-side. ”

“ The history of Britain would be a very long one if we only knew it. It is clear that a considerable interchange of commerce was carried on between the south-eastern parts of the island and Gaul, and that even the remoter regions of the Mediterranean were largely dependent upon Britain for their supplies of tin from the Cornish mines, of lead from Somerset, and of iron from Northumberland and the Forest of Dean. ”

“ In British times the city bore the name of Caer-Ebroc. It was chosen by the Romans as an important depôt after the conquest of the Brigantes by Agricola in 79. Ultimately it became the most important Roman centre in North Britain. The fortress of Legio VI (Victrix) was situated near the site of the present Minster, and a municipality or colonia sprang up where now stands the railway station on the opposite side of the Ouse. There is a large collection of remains to be found in the hospitium of St. Mary's Abbey, derived from the cemetery and the site of the railway station. ”

“ It is tolerably certain that women formed a part of the early Saxon and Danish raiders; and it is no less certain that a few women, at various times, came over with Roman soldiers or immigrants. To the graves of women especially we look for the recovery of numberless articles of use and adornment. Probably, at the first, there were also surface memorials over the graves so closely jumbled together in the cemeteries, but the violence of man and the inroads of the weather would combine to sweep them away at an early period.
The Baths at Bath furnish the best example of the kind in England ”

“ Many have been found by accident, as e.g., in 1734, a silver dish was dug up weighing 148 oz., and ornamented with figures of deities. Again, much later, in 1908, there was recovered a hoard of gold coins, wrapped in leadfoil, and thrust into the chink of a wall by a fugitive who was fated never to return and recover his treasure. The first-rate importance of the city in its relation to the Roman Wall, and military operations based on Corstopitum as a centre, was only fully revealed by systematic investigations begun in 1907. ”

“ The sites north and south of the line where London Bridge now stands constituted firm ground, with a tendency to an elevation in the north. These facts determined the position of the British settlement. At that part of the river the Britons had, if not a ford, at least a ferry, and finally a rough bridge—perhaps of coracles or boats—the progenitor of the noble structure now existing. ”

“ It has been conjectured that at Castlefield there stood a British fortress, which was afterwards taken possession of by the soldiers of Agricola; at all events, it would appear to be certain that a Roman Station of some importance existed in this locality, as a fragment of a wall still exists. Even up to the end of the eighteenth century considerable evidences of Roman occupation were visible in and around Manchester, and from time to time in the course of excavation (especially during the digging for the Bridgewater Canal) old-time remains have been found. ”

“ London Stone, built into another stone in Cannon Street, outside the wall of St. Swithin's Church, is generally considered to be a milliarium (to mark so many thousand paces) or central station from which to measure distances, but it may conceivably have had some more ancient and peculiar designation in connection with a public or sacred building. Old London lies 20 feet or so below the present street level, so that, when excavations are made for any purpose, Roman remains are frequently found and parts of the Roman wall uncovered. ”

“ Wroxeter, the ancient Viroconium or Uriconium, is situated on the east bank of the Severn, between five and six miles south-east of Shrewsbury. The lines of its walls can still be traced, enclosing an area of about 170 acres, and the town must have been an important centre in Roman-Britain, as it stood at the junction of two of the main roads, viz., the Watling Street from London and the south-east, and the road from the legionary fortress of Caerleon in South Wales. ”

“ The moral and religious influence brought to bear upon the native Britons by reason of the Roman occupation of close on four centuries can easily be overestimated. A section of the people in the vicinity of Roman towns were humanized and civilized, but the sequel proved that (to a certain extent) the fibre of the hardy and courageous Briton deteriorated and his faculty of resource and fighting diminished ”

“ Roman remains found in different parts of the island include foundations of towns (such as Silchester, Wroxeter) , streets, milliaria, parts of walls and gates; baths, furnaces, flues, wooden and leaden water-pipes (London, Bath) ; villas with mosaic pavements, painted walls (London, Chedworth, near Cheltenham, Brading, Carisbrooke) ; altars, votive inscriptions, sculptures, bridges, weapons, tools, implements, pottery, domestic utensils, gold, silver, and bronze ornaments and toilet articles, and coins.
The Romans laboured to render permanent their conquest of Britain. ”

“ ROMAN BRITAIN.
The population of Roman Britain was, in the main Celtic; the Cymric division predominating in the south and east, the Gaidhelic in the north and west. There existed, besides these, remnants of two earlier races—a small dark-haired race, akin to the Basques, or Euskarian (found in S.W. England, S. Wales,2 and parts of the Scotch Highlands) , and a tall, fairhaired race. ”

“ In some places it would appear that they were built up wall-shape, liquid cement being poured into the interstices. That the ubiquitous King Arthur built the first castle on the cliffs, 300 ft. above the sea, is a tradition—one we should like to believe. His name is also associated with sites on the Western Heights and Barham Downs. It is certain that the Roman invaders early took advantage of the position of this "key" of the island, and that amongst their five coast castles, under the control of "the Count of the Saxon Shore," Dover held a position second only to Richborough. ”

“ Two other important Roman stations may be distinguished, Durolevum and Vagniacae, the one probably by Faversham, the other by Springhead, near Gravesend. The important position of modern Canterbury is affirmed by the fact that no fewer than 16 roads and railway routes now converge upon the city. So, too, in the olden time, it was a great nerve-centre, and the mid-point of the important Roman fortresses of Dover, Richborough, Reculver, and Lympne.
The Roman remains found throughout Kent are numerous and important. ”

“ The buried city of Corstopitum lies to the west of Corbridge. There can be traced the Forum, streets, granaries, baths, and fountain. The excavations conducted during 1908 and the two following years are deeply interesting. There are Roman altars and monuments to be seen at Hexham. Close to Chollerford are the remains of the remarkable Roman bridge over the Tyne. Cilurnum (Chesters) , the largest station on the Wall, lies on the river bank. ”

“ Politically, Britain consisted of a number of independent bodies, united in a federation of the loosest kind, in which the lead was taken by that tribe which happened at the time to be the most powerful or to have the bravest or most astute leader.
About B.C. 56 Caius Volusenus was sent to this country by Julius Cæsar to examine the coast preparatory to an invasion. The step was threatened, because it was alleged that the Britons had aided and abetted some of the Gaulish tribes in their resistance to the Roman domination. ”

“ The place was one of the great fortresses of Roman Britain, and constituted the station of the Second Augustan Legion in the first century A.D. It ranked as a Colony, and as the capital of Britannia Secunda during the period of Roman domination. Its position was favourable for the coercion of the wild Silures. No civil life or municipality seems to have grown up outside its boundaries; like Chester, it remained purely military. There remain fragments of the walls, and outside these limits there is a grass-grown amphitheatre, 222 ft. ”

“ London also has the remains of a Bath of Roman times in the Strand. It is stated that the church of St. Mary the Virgin at Dover is built on the site of a Roman bath, and that the market square there occupies the position of the Roman Agora. Pits used for tanning or dyeing are to be seen at Silchester, and various other industrial occupations are indicated from what may be seen at that city, at Wroxeter, and at various other centres.
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.
Before Christianity was planted in Britain, the religion of its inhabitants was Druidism. ”

“ Before the Roman Conquest it was a British capital. In Roman times it received the dignity of a municipium—implying municipal status and Roman citizenship for its free inhabitants. Tacitus informs us that the town was burnt by Boadicea in 61 A.D., but it soon rose again to prosperity. The site is still easily recognisable, its walls, of flint rubble, surviving in stately fragments, enclosing an area of well-nigh 200 acres. Of the buildings formerly occupying this area but little is now known. ”

“ The third great European race occupies a vast wedge intruding between the areas occupied by the Iberian race to the South and the Nordic people to the North. It fills all but the northern border of Russia and occupies Hungary (where there are also intrusive Huns of Mongolian origin) , Austria, Roumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It also populates Germany (except its northernmost provinces) and occupies the north and north-west of Italy, the west and centre of France and half of Belgium. ”

“ This site, which lost its military importance with the retreat of the Romans, apparently became a commercial emporium, and underwent very various fortunes, culminating in its destruction by barbarians; so that, from the fifth century, it ceased to be from that day to this; no man dwelling on the site.
Mr. Blair says of the place itself:
Its form and extent gave it the aspect of a city rather than of a camp. Remains of a bridge across the Tyne are to be seen when the river is low. Excavations were made in the summer of 1906. ”

“ From the uncertainty of our knowledge as to the immediate cause of eye and hair pigmentation one cannot but be faced with the alternative—either that little formal attention has been paid to the subject, or that the elements of investigation are uncertain and conflicting. ”

“ At one period there were as many as six Emperors contending with one another for the sole authority; and in 410, the year in which Rome was sacked by the Goths under Alaric, the Roman occupation was terminated according to the terms of a letter addressed by Honorius to the cities of Britain.
EARLY HISTORY.
Nothing very specific can be said about the settlements of the Celtic inhabitants of these islands before the coming of Cæsar. The country must have been largely covered by forests and intersected by fens. ”

“ Suburbs lay outside; and there was a villa a mile to the west at Bishopstone. The town, though small, had pretensions to comfort and civilization; it is the only important Romano-British site in Herefordshire. A legion was stationed here.
LANCASTER.—Castra ad alaunam—camp on the Lune, from Gaelic all—white. Therefore we have al—white; avn, or afon—water; which the Romans latinized into Alauna.
LEICESTER.
Before the Roman invasion, Leicester was inhabited by the Coritani. ”

“ After the conquest of Hampshire by Gervisus, the place became the capital of Wessex, then of England, when the Kings of Wessex consolidated the kingdom. Alfred and Canute resided here, amongst other English sovereigns; and here were laid to rest Alfred's remains, until—at the close of the eighteenth century—the coffin that contained them was sold by a mercenary municipality for the sake of the lead in which they were enclosed! ”