44 PAPERS, ETC. 



earlier part of the British period. Nothing can of course 

 be known with certainty of the inhabitants of this 

 island before the time of written history, nor is it a matter 

 of very great importance whether the first inhabitants 

 were of Celtic origin or not ; but it seem probable that the 

 south and west of the island was from very early days occu- 

 pied by a Celtic race called by the "Welsh bards Loegrys, 

 related to, if not identical with, the Primeval Cymri. The 

 first fact which seems of any historical interest with regard 

 to this part of England is thus mentioned in the collection 

 of Triads made by Carodoc, of Llangarvan, about the 

 middle of the 12th Century. Three tribes came under pro- 

 tection into the Island of ßritain ; the first was the tribe of 

 Caledonians, in the North ; the second was the Gweddellin 

 race, which is now in Alban or Scotland ; the third were 

 the men of Galeden, who came innaked ships or boats into 

 the Isle of Wight, when their country was drowned, and 

 had lands assigned them by the race of the Cymri. These 

 last are supposed to have been the Belga?, and the date of 

 their arrival is fixed with sorae approach to probability at 

 about three or four hundred years before the commence- 

 ment of the Christian era ; and it is stated by the learned 

 Davis that they had neither privilege or claim in the Island 

 of Britain, but that the land and protection were granted 

 under specified limits ; and it was decreed that they should 

 not enjoy the immunities of the native Cymri before the 

 ninth generation. But whatever might have been decreed 

 or agreed upon between these early Belgae and the abori- 

 ginal Britons, it seems that before the Roman invasion in 

 the year 50 before Christ they had obtained possession, by 

 force of arms, of a very considerable part of the South of 

 the Island, including Hampshire, Wiltshire, and part of 

 Dorsetshire, and were at the time of Csesar's invasion a 



