A.D. 80.

arms further north than any other general had done, displaying the victorious eagle at the foot of the Grampian Hills. Here he met the Caledonians; a people whom he never conquered, although he fought many battles with them. Agricola sent some of his ships around the northern capes of Scotland and down the western coast to Land's End, thereby making the first certain discovery to the Romans that Britain was an island. The southern part of Britain had now almost entirely submitted, but the Caledonians were constantly attacking the chain of forts and entrenchments which Agricola had constructed across the northern part of the country, from the river Clyde to the Frith of Forth. Many generals marched into Scotland, and two emperors, Hadrian and Severus, after in vain trying to conquer these fierce people, built ramparts and walls as a defence against them. The wall of Severus, extending from the Solway to the Tyne, was built of stone, and strengthened at frequent intervals by castles and turrets, which during the Roman occupation were garrisoned with soldiers. This rampart served to keep back the barbarians, and for nearly seventy years after its erection, Roman Britain enjoyed peace. The son of Severus granted the Britons the privileges of Roman citizenship.

A. D. 121

to

A.D. 208.

During the fourth century the Picts, a tribe of Caledonians, and the Scots, a people who had come from Ireland, rushing like birds of prey from the mountain fastnesses of Scotland, broke over the wall of Severus, laid waste the country beyond, and even advanced into the southern provinces of Britain.

367 to 420.

The Romans drove them back as long as they could, but the power of Rome was fast declining. Barbarians from the forests of Germany and Hungary were pouring down upon Gaul, Spain, Italy, and other provinces of her vast empire. She had need of all her armies for the defence of the imperial city. In A. D. 420, nearly five hundred years after the first landing of Cæsar, every Roman legion was withdrawn, and the conquerors took their final departure from Britain.

During the five centuries of their occupation, the Romans had done much to improve the island, and to better the condition of the people. They had erected fine broad paved highways throughout the country; so solid and so well laid, that remains of them are to be seen at the present day. Towns were built, and the mud or wooden cottages of the early Britons gave place to houses of brick and stone. The ground was better cultivated, and grain became a plentiful article of export. Long before the Romans came to the island, a trade in tin had been carried on with distant nations, but now the mines were better worked and greater quantities exported. Oysters were sent to Rome from the shores of Britain, and were esteemed an article of luxury. Pearls too from the same coasts acquired celebrity; Cæsar is said to have hung up in the temple of a heathen goddess at Rome, a shield studded with British pearls. Agricola, who was father-in-law to Tacitus, the famous Roman historian, founded schools, to which the British youth were sent for instruction in the language and literature of Rome.

But the greatest benefit bestowed upon Britain by her conquerors was the introduction of Christianity. When the Romans first came, they were themselves pagans, for it was half a century before the birth of our Saviour. When they had broken down the altars of the Druids, they too built shrines, to a milder, perhaps, but still to a false religion. To Jupiter, Apollo, Venus, and Diana were temples erected, and in various parts of London, statues and images of the gods of his country, arrested the eye and claimed the worship of the Roman soldier. By degrees, as the religion of the Saviour spread, Romans became converted, and among the armies who entered Britain there were no doubt Christian soldiers. As early as the year of our Lord 209 a Christian writer says: "Even the places in Britain hitherto inaccessible to Roman arms, have been subdued by the gospel of Christ!"

When the heathen emperors persecuted Christianity throughout all the empire, British Christians suffered also, and the first martyr of the faith in this island was St. Alban, who

was put to death, A. D. 286, during the great persecution of the emperor Dioclesian. In the year 314, three British bishops were sent into Gaul to attend there a Christian council-by which we know that Christianity must have been pretty well established in Britain at that time.

The testimony of one of the early Christian Fathers, Clement of Rome, renders it extremely probable that St. Paul himself visited Britain. But, though we have no certain knowledge respecting the missionaries who first carried thither the blessed gospel of God, let our hearts ascend in thankfulness to Him who at this early date permitted its glorious light to dispel the darkness which for so many centuries had brooded over the country.

"He brought thy land a blessing when he came,
He found thee savage and he left thee tame."

QUESTIONS.-What is said of the Roman conquests in the first century before the Christian era?-When and by whom were the Roman arms first carried into Britain ?-Relate the efforts of the Britons to prevent this invasion.-Repeat briefly the account of Cæsar's campaigns in Britain.

When and under what general was the island again invaded by the Romans?-Describe the resistance of the Britons, and the conduct of Caractacus.-When, and by whom, was Anglesey attacked ?— By whom was the island defended?-With what result?-Relate the history of Boadicea.

What benefits were conferred on the Britons by Agricola ?-How far did he extend his invasion?—What discovery was made by his mariners ?-Mention the several walls and fortifications built across the northern part of Britain.-What tribes broke through the wall of Severus, and when?-Why could the Romans no longer defend Britain? When did they take their final departure ?

What had been the effect of the Roman occupation upon the island? -Mention the principal improvements effected by the Romans?— What British products were highly esteemed in Rome?-What religion was first brought into the island by the armies of Rome ?-What faith was subsequently introduced?—Name the first British Christian martyr. What proof have we of the early establishment of a Christian Church in Britain?

CHARACTER OF THE INVADERS-REPULSE OF THE PICTS AND SCOTS-FOUNDATION OF THE HEPTARCHY-CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY-ENGLAND UNDER ONE SOVEREIGN-THE DANES.

420 to 449.

WHEN the Roman legions took their departure Britain was indeed abandoned; for with the armies that left her shores sailed the flower of the British youth, and for many years the valor of Britain, instead of being employed at home, was enlisted elsewhere against the enemies of the Roman empire. Meanwhile the Picts and Scots, breaking over the wall of Severus, or passing round it in their little coracles, ravaged the land, and bid fair to destroy every trace of civilization which the Romans had left.

441.

The disheartened Britons refused to sow the fields which they knew an enemy would reap, and famine and pestilence spread over the land. In the depths of their distress an appeal, called "The Groans of the Britons," was made to the Romans. "The barbarians," say they, "chase us into the sea; the sea throws us back upon the barbarians; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the

sword or by the waves." terrible as to be called "the scourge of God," was thundering at the gates of the imperial city, and the prayer of a distant province was raised in vain.

But Attila the Hun, an enemy so

449.

In the year 449 the ships of two Saxon brothers were riding in the English Channel. Their standards bore the figure of a horse, and from two words, both of which are in the Saxon language names for that animal, these brothers were called Hengist and Horsa.

;

On board the Saxon ships there were perhaps three tribes the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons. They all sprang from the same race of Scandinavian pirates which age after age left the shores of the Baltic and North Seas, and were known in successive centuries as Saxons, Danes, and Northmen or Normans. The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons came principally from Denmark, and the country lying to the south and west of that peninsula.

They were a fierce race, claiming to be descended from Odin or Woden, a great warrior king whom they worshipped as a god. The religion of these Northmen was what we might expect of such a people. Their Heaven, or Valhalla, as they called it, was a realm of warriors whose days were passed in fighting, and whose nights were spent in carousals, in which they ate the flesh of a huge boar, and drank great draughts of mead from cups formed of the skulls of their enemies. Woden, their god of battles, was represented by an image, armed, crowned, and brandishing a drawn sword. Thor, the god of tempests, of thunder and lightning, held a mace, sometimes called "Thor's mighty hammer."

The Saxons and their descendants have now learned of a holier religion and a purer heaven, but their heathen divinities still give name to those days of the week, which in the old pagan times were especially consecrated to their worship. Thus, though so many centuries have gone by, Woden is still remembered in our Wednes or Woden's day, Thor in our Thor's or Thursday, and from Frea, the wife of Odin, is named our Friday.