Classes and Breeds of British Horses, 183t 



northern tribes. However this be, it is certain that, about 

 the year 449, when the falling empire could no longer pro- 

 tect the distant provinces, the Saxons, a Gothic people from 

 the countries of the Elbe, landed in South Britain, and being 

 followed by successive swarms of Saxons, Jutes, and Angles, 

 their countrymen, continually disembarking on the country 

 from the Forth to the shores of Kent, established a domi- 

 nion, which, by creating a new nation, may be said to have 

 affected the whole condition of societies throughout the civi- 

 lized world. 



The supremacy of the Saxons in England lasted for more 

 than 600 years, when it was overthrown by the Normans, a 

 mixed class of military adventurers from the north of Eu- 

 rope, of Scandinavian lineage. Scotland, during this period, 

 had continued essentially Celtic, with the exception of the 

 kingdom of the Lothian s, extending from the Forth to the 

 Tweed, which had been early colonized by Saxons; and, 

 with the exception of a portion of the extreme north, colo- 

 nized by Scandinavians. The Celtic inhabitants of North 

 Britain were known to the Romans as Caledonii, and some- 

 times as Picti, although the latter term is by many antiqua- 

 ries supposed to indicate a distinct race of men. In the 

 tiiird century, in the reign of Dioclesian. we first hear of 

 another people, certainly Celtic, who were to give their 

 name to the whole of North Britain. These were the Sceite 

 or Scots, the Scoti and Scoticce gentes of the Roman writers, 

 who, landing from the north-east of Ireland on the nearest 

 coasts, gradually extended their power. In the beginning 

 of the sixth century, they had occupied the Peninsula of 

 Caentir or Cantire, and they gradually advanced northward 

 and eastward until about the year 843, when they had ac- 

 quired the ascendency over nearly all th^ native tribes, giv- 

 ing that name to the whole of North Britain, which it will 

 for ever retain. 



In the year of our Lord lOCG, that is, 605 years after the 

 first settlement of Saxons in England, the dominion of the 

 Anglo-Saxon princes was overthrown by an army of Normans. 

 But by this time a new race of men had been formed, of mixed 

 lineage, but now possessed of a common language, and mould- 



