158 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



at least as far as the Garonne^ is on all bauds admitted. The limits 

 of its orig-inal distribution in that country form a legitimate sl^bject 

 for enquiry. In Britain, many circumstances point to an Iberian 

 source for at least part of the earliest population, especially in the 

 south-west of the island. Tacitus remarks the dark complexion and 

 curly hair, which, in his day, wei'e believed to indicate the Iberian 

 origin of the Silures,^ especially named, perhaps, as representative 

 of the south-western tribes. The description of the Cassiterides 

 preserved in Strabo, is, no doubt, likewise applicable to the Damnon- 

 ian peninsula, also the place of resort of the Phcenicians of Gades, 

 This evidently very ancient notice represents ihe inhabitants as no- 

 madic and pastoral, and as habited in long tunics covered by black 

 mantles — a garb apparently identical with that of the Ibei'ians, who 

 are likewise described as melanchlmii, or dark robed,'^ and which is 

 in striking contrast with the bright party-coloured dress of the 

 Gauls. Altogether, the doctrine of an Iberian, or Ibero-Phoenician 

 origin of a very early, perhaps the earliest, population of at least 

 part of Britain, though not as yet proved, derives much additional 

 weight from the comparison here instituted of the skulls of the 

 British dolichocephali of the stone period with those of the Basques.'''' 



safely infer that some colonies issued and established themselves to a consider- 

 extent in our island, although the fact of their advent has not been so much 

 noticed in history as that of the emigrants from the Belgic states ; this he 

 would explain by the circumstance of their arrival having occurred at a much 

 earlier period in history, of their being more barbarous than the Belgic settlers, 

 who by a later immigration probably introduced the improved civilisation of the 

 continent, with which from their maritime situation, they continued to preserve 

 a closer intimacy ; nevertheless, the immigrants from Celtic Gaul, occupying 

 the central parts of Britain, formed a people of great bravery and power, and 

 seem to have attained a supremacy over the other inhabitants, and to have been 

 the foremost in all the opposition which withstood so vigorously the arms of the 

 E.omans. 



' " Silurum colorati vultus, torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, 

 Iberos veteres trajecisse casque sedes occupasse, fidem faciunt." (Vit. Agric, 

 c.xi.) Dionysius, and his paraphraser Priscian, say expressly that the Cassiteri- 

 des were peopled by the Iberians: " populus tenuit quas fortis Iberi." (Dion. 

 Perie, v. 563. Priscan, Perieg, v., 578.) The question of an Iberian origin 

 for an intrusive or pre-Celtic population in Britain is discussed in its historical 

 bearings, in Cran. Brit., chap. v. § 2, pp. 52 — 58. 

 * Strabo lib. iii., c. 5, § 11 : comp. lib. iii., c. 3, § 7 : Diod. Sicul. lib. v., c. 33. 



