27 
invasion, and to a slightly less extent at the end of their domina- 
tion, were covered by either forests or swamps. The first areas 
settled by our own forefathers, the Saxons, were the lowlands along 
the coast, and the clearing on the higher ground, notably upon the 
Chalk Downs. Wood and marsh alike formed a barrier to the 
invading tribes. Hengist and Horsa followed the chalk uplands of 
the Caint, t.e., what we now call Kent, shut in on the south and 
south-west by the great forest of Andredsweald, with its population 
‘of miners here and there in its recesses. This forest forbade 
advance westward, while south of the Roman fortress at Lympne 
lay Romney Marsh, as yet only partially drained. And sv we find 
the next invasion was on the other side of the Weald forest and the 
Marsh, by the South Saxons, to whose boats the creeks and inlets 
which break the clay flats to the westward of the Arun offered an 
easy entrance. 
Next came the Hast Saxons, who, keeping clear of the low 
marshes of South Essex, worked their way up the valleys of the 
Stour and the Colne. They were stopped by a great forest, reach- 
ing along the banks of the Roding, and so northward. We have a 
fragment of it in Epping Forest. 
The Angles, who gave their name to our country, came in by the 
chalky uplands of Norfolk, and also along the Ware and Orwell. 
They were probably helped by the Hast Saxons. The fertility of 
this tract, known up to the present time as Hast Anglia, seems to 
have always attracted a large population, It was the seat of the 
Iceni, one of the most powerful as it was one of the most unfortu- 
nate of the British tribes, and it was also an important portion of 
the Roman dominion in Britain. It has been shown in a former 
lecture how this fertility is dependent on the admixture of forma- 
tions and soils produced by glacial action. 
The large area of the Wash and the Fens, which then reached 
from Cambridge and Newmarket northwards as far as Lincoln, for- 
bade invasion in that direction, and the next was by way of the 
Humber, Lindsey in the north of Lincolnshire, and Holderness, in 
Yorkshire, being settled. Andso on northwards. Time will not 
allow us to follow it all out. I must refer you to Mr. Gieen’s own 
book. In the end, as you know, the Britons took refuge in the 
west, some worked their way northward through the present 
Lancashire, protected on their flank by the carboniferous range of 
the Pennine Hills. Others retreated among the Welsh mountains, 
where the physical geography of the district proved their protection 
and safety. Thus we find the most ancient people of Britain 
among the most ancient hills and rocks, in the district that had 
‘undergone the greatest amount of geological change. There they 
defied the English for many centuries, and were not conquered till 
the days of Edward I. Even now they are a separate people with 
