a ee Te eee at ee, ee 
13 
not been colonized long enough to allow the growth of settlements 
with a civil population dwelling peacefully under the shelter of the 
Roman garrisons. It was a country therefore where we should be 
least likely to find a numerous Christian population such as that of 
which St. Patrick speaks. The district might fit in fairly well with 
the other incidents of the story, but the impossibility of reconciling 
its circumstances with this main fact is, to my mind, fatal to its 
claims to be considered the birthplace of our Saint. 
Very different was the condition of the country which lay to the 
south of Hadrian’s Wall,—that is, of the district now known as 
Cumberland. ‘There everything points to the presence of a large 
population, which there is nothing inconsistent in supposing was 
by this time largely impregnated with Christianity. But in order 
to realize fully the force of this part of my argument, it will be well 
to try to form some idea of what Cumberland was like during the 
period of the Roman occupation. 
Much has been changed in the aspect of the country during the 
course of so many ages, but much remains unchanged. The great 
physical features are of course unaltered. Skiddaw and the high 
mountain ranges filled then as now the horizon to the east. Criffel 
and its neighbours overhung the Solway from the opposite coast. 
The same rivers rolled along the same beds, perhaps somewhat 
deeper and fuller than now. The coast line, too, would be 
much the same, except that the tide may have insulated such 
promontories as those at Maryport and St. Bees. But we 
must dismiss altogether from our minds the notion that 
Cumberland was then the uninhabited, unimportant, desolate 
region which it did afterwards become. It was not, of course, 
cultivated and peopled as it is now; but it was very much more 
populous than it became during the wild times that followed the 
withdrawal of the Roman arms.. Much of the land was morass, or 
dense forest, or barren moor ; still it was traversed by many lines 
of broad highways maintained in constant use and good repair; 
and it contained Roman stations both numerous and important, 
the presence of which argues settlements of considerable size. The 
great Wall of Hadrian ran through the district from Bowness on 
