128 The Twenty-first General Meeting. 
what I have referred to last—the names of plants and trees, and 
these prove, what has been ascertained also by other evidence, that 
the tribes which in early times entered Europe and descended upon 
Britain, and the eastern races which eventually in their progress 
broke up the Roman Empire, were not a set of savages or mere 
pirates and warriors, as has been represented, but were colonists, 
who, rude as they may have been in dress and manners, were, in all 
essential points, already a civilized people; and by tne names of 
plants, as used by them, and which are in use at the present day, 
we discern that these tribes came from their homes with a knowledge 
of letters, and the useful metals, with nearly all the domestic 
animals; that they cultivated oats, barley, wheat, rye and beans, 
built houses of timber and thatched them, and, what is more im- 
portant, as shewing that their pasture and arable land was intermixed 
and acknowledged as private property, they hedged their fields and 
fenced their gardens, so that, although our ancestors may have been 
indebted to the provincials of the Roman Empire for their fruit trees 
and some other luxuries, for a knowledge of the fine arts and the 
Latin literature, and a debased Christianity; the more essential 
acquirements upon which their prosperity and progress as a nation 
depended, were already in their possession. Bush, hawthorn, oats, 
wheat, and a host of others, are unquestionably native names and 
not of Latin or Celtic origin. It is the study of these things which 
gives value to history. The vast majority of historians have filled 
their works with the most trifling details—of personal anecdotes of 
kings and courts, and long accounts of battles and seiges—whilst 
they have altogether neglected the important facts necessary to the 
study of the history of man, and which archeologists are now en- 
deavouring to supply by a determined and protracted industry ; they 
had both to be masons and architects, and not only trace the scheme 
of the edifice, but also the excavation of the quarry. Many of the 
old customs and reliques perpetuate history, and charitable gifts and 
foundations show the local wants of a people and district, from which 
you can not only build up theories but demonstrate facts. Archzol- 
ogists, like naturalists, are frequently able to decide on the principle 
of harmony, and from single stones in a building to determine the 

