Geographical Outline;-Settlement ;-Religion ;-Laws ;-Manners ;-Customs;Dress;-Arts, &c., of the Ancient Britons, with a brief notice of the State of the Island under the Romans.

FOR the better understanding of the events to be described in the present work, a sketch of the situation occupied by Great Britain on the map of the world is very necessary, so that the historical student may be better prepared to examine the gradual steps by which his country has grown to be of such immense importance in the polity of nations.

It is somewhat strange that a state so inconsiderable as the mother country should have extended its ramifications over so wide a portion of the earth; but we see also that Greece consisted of but a limited space of territory, when compared with her conquests, and that Rome, only a densely populated city, subjugated the whole of the then known world. Now, Greece and Rome recruited their armies from the inhabitants of those countries they conquered and colonized, keeping their foreign levies in order by the judicious intermixture of legions drawn from the empire city and her immediate dependencies; but England's greatest conquests have been effected by her own sons; the native will, the native courage, the native energy and perseverance of Englishmen, have overcome the most apparently insurmountable obstacles, and their reward is the erection of an empire unparalleled in history for its liberty, its power, its wealth, and its civilization.

GREAT BRITAIN is an island, situated west of the mainland of Europe, between the 50th and 58th parallels of latitude, and the 2nd of east, and 6th degrees of west longitude. Its greatest length is about seven hundred, and its average breadth three hundred, miles.

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It is bounded on the east by the German Sea, south by the English Channel, north by the Atlantic Ocean, and west by the Atlantic, St. George's Channel, and the Irish Sea.

Ireland is also an island, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, to the west of Great Britain, which, although at first, and for many centuries, an independent nation, fell, after the most heroic struggles for nationality, under the sway of the neighbouring country.

The southern portion of Great Britain is called ENGLAND; and it is the history and progress of that country, and its struggles with the neighbouring nations, now happily united under one sovereign, which it will be our province specially to consider.

England is divided into forty shires or counties; Wales, the western portion of Great Britain, consists of twelve counties; Scotland numbers thirty-three; and Ireland thirty-two.

Before its invasion by the Romans, Britain appears to have been divided into seventeen states, each of which, it is surmised, was independent of the other, as, at the period of Cæsar's landing, many of them were engaged in deadly war.

The Commentaries" of the great Roman conqueror inform us that the most civilized of the British nations were those who inhabited Kent, and the country south of the Thames, which is mainly a maritime district, and it is supposed that frequent communication with the Continent

had induced the connections of foreign merchants to settle in this part of England, which was in a more advanced state than the interior nations.

From the same authority, we learn that these southern states were at perpetual war with those north of the river, and that the latter, under the leadership of their King, Cassivelaunus, endeavoured to drive the Belge out of the island; but the approach of a common danger set all other rivalry aside, and that warlike King was solicited to take the command of the united British army.

BRITISH HOUSES.

The early history of a country emerging from barbarism must ever be clouded in obscurity to a certain extent, but the writings of Cæsar, Strabo, Suetonius, Tacitus, and other Roman men of letters, throw more light on the condition of the original inhabitants of our country than is the case with many other nations.

The most generally received belief respecting the peopling of Britain is, that it occurred under Gomer, the son of Japhet, who came hither at the dispersion of the children of Noah, after their impious attempt to build the Tower of Babel-and therefore we are warranted in believing the earliest form of government to have been patriarchal, or that in which the head of a family was also the chief of the state.

The transition from the position of Patriarch to the dignity of King is very easily to be understood. As mankind increased in numbers,

their chief grew in power, riches, and influence, and thus became a sole and arbitrary monarch; but his people, growing also in numbers and wealth, subordinate families originated new states; jealousies and quarrels ensued, and thus separate nations were called into existence.

This, then, was the state of British society at the time of the Roman invasion; the country was

composed of many petty states, governed by chief magistrates, independent of, and frequently at war with each other. The face of the land was, for the most part, covered with marshes and dense forests, so that it is almost impossible to calculate the population of the island; some have placed it as

high as 760,000, while others make it but 360,000.

There is evidence to show that succession to the chief place in the

several kingdoms was

by inheritance, for we find Cæsar supporting the claim of Mandubratius to succeed his father in the government of the Trinobantes, against the opposition of Cassivelaunus, who had usurped that state, and added

it to his own territory.

The King was expected to command his armies in time of war; but. he seems to have been much at the mercy of the Druids, of whom we must now speak; these priests had the

power of levying armies, and the monarch dared not engage in war unless they pronounced the auguries to be favourable to such a course. In times of peace the powers of the British King were still more limited; he was altogether subordinate to the Druids, who appear to have been the real governors of the country, and only placed a chief magistrate in a prominent position to make him the tool of their impostures.

The offices of justice were held by the Druids, who appointed the seasons of its execution, and the punishments to be awarded; they also administered the civil law.

All branches of learning were couched in verse; a method not at all peculiar to

the ancient Britons, for the laws of Greece were frequently a kind of verse; as also those of Spain and Germany.

The laws never being committed to writing, were entirely at the disposal of the educated class,-namely, the Druids, who led the people to believe that the gods legislated for them through their agency.

And now we must glance briefly at the state of religion.

It appears from the writings of historians, that the Britons were famous for their superior knowledge of the principles, and their great zeal for the rites of their religious faith. Cæsar says,-" Such of the Gauls as were desirous of being thoroughly initiated in the principles of their religion (which was the same as that of the Britons), usually took a journey into Britain for that purpose."

We must premise that the religion of the ancient Britons, which we shall term Druidism, consisted of two distinct sets of tenets,-the one, that mystic faith, the knowledge of which was preserved inviolate by the priests themselves, and the other form specially prepared and adapted for acceptance and practice by the people.

There is a remarkable agreement between the priestly creed of the Druids and that of all other very ancient people, who have never yet been met in a state so degraded as not to profess some sort of religion; and this similarity of doctrine is another proof, if any were wanted, that all mankind sprung originally from one source. The Druids, as well as the Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the Confucians of China, the Aborigines of America and Africa, all held those doctrines which inculcate a belief in a God supreme and all powerful, the prolonged life of the soul, and a future state of reward and punishment, according to the tenor of their acts in this world.

These purer principles were held sacred by the priests, and it is recorded (of the difficulties of novices desirous of entering into their select fraternity, as it is also of those seeking a knowledge of Brahminism,) that twenty years were spent in becoming proficient in the doctrines.

But, in order to increase their power, and to hold the people in subjection, the Druids taught a much more complicated system of religion to the multitude. Although not idolators, that is, they did not carve nor make images of wood or stone to worship,-yet their gods were numerous, and the faith of the ancient Britons may be termed polytheism, or a worship of many gods.

The importance of the sun, moon, and stars, with their gorgeous lights and mysterious movements in the heavens, appears to have drawn towards them the devotion of the people, who thus became worshippers of the heavenly bodies; then rivers, trees, and mountains were deified; and, after a time, those men who in their lifetime were respected for their virtue, or hated and feared on account of their crimes, were raised to the divine dignity.

The worship of the sun and moon seems to have been the origin of the temples, which stand as mysterious mementos of the earliest British ages, on wild plains and barren heaths, and the method of whose construction puzzles alike the architect and the builder, more than the great Pyramid.

One of these temples exists near Wilton, on Salisbury Plain, and is called Stonehenge. It consists of a circle of huge stones, enclosing a smaller circle of similar stones all raised on end and standing perpendicularly in the ground. Other blocks have been raised which rest on the summit of these. Ages have passed away, and still the mystericus rings endure to raise themes for discussion among the learned of future times. The circles on Salisbury Plain formed doubtless a very important temple, to which the rays of the sun, and the softened beams of the moon found access, for it was one of the tenets of Druidism never to roof in the temples, as it was held that it would insult the chief deities to exclude their light.

The Druids were divided into three classes, under the government of an Arch-Druid, elected from the most eminent of their number, by a majority of votes; the classes were named Bards, Vates, and Druids. The Bards were the heroic, historical, and genealogical poets. The Vates composed hymns in honour of the gods, and sung them to the music of their harps at religious ceremonies. They were also the prophets or soothsayers, a class of persons ever held in reverence by a barbarous people. The third, or highest class, were the priests of the sacred groves, who performed the sacrifices, and all the offices of religion, administered the laws, and, in fact, governed the country. They seem to have lived a sort of monastic life, as we find them exclusively inhabiting Mona-the Isle of Anglesea.

Some of them dwelt as hermits secluded from the world; and in many parts of the country are the remains of small circular stone tenements, capable of accommodating one person, which tradition has handed down to us under the name of Druids' Houses.

KIT'S COTY HOUSE.

That they sacrificed human victims to appease the wrath of their deities, there is little doubt, and they did not choose the outcast and the criminal, but selected the most beautiful and symmetrical in form and feature ; sometimes these victims were consumed by the sacred fire on an altar erected under the spreading branches of the oak-which tree the Druids held in special veneration-and at others they were divided into several parts by successive blows of a sword. When the anger of the gods was esteemed very great, in order to deprecate their wrath, these inhuman monsters collected vast numbers of victims, enclosed them in a wicker frame, built after the imaginary shape of the deity, and piling huge quantities of faggots round the devoted band, set fire to, and consumed them.

The Druids held the mistletoe of the oak in great veneration, and when it was discovered, after sundry mysterious preparations, the ArchDruid, in the midst of sacrifices, hymns, and prayers, ascended the tree and cut down the branch.