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sprung up ; villas — the beautiful remains of which, when 

 from time to time discovered, bear witness to the elegant 

 luxury introduced by their Italian owners — adorned the 

 view; and agriculture far different from that of the ancient 

 inhabitants, was exercised in the place of Druidical circles. 

 Noble temples were erected, and habitations more suited to 

 the wants of civillzed men, superseded the rüde circular 

 huts which had afforded shelter to the original inhabitants, 

 and the Britons became a Christian, civilized, and in many 

 cases a highly polished people. But the days of Roman 

 power were numbered, the great Northern luve poured out 

 its countless swarms, and about the year 400 the last 

 Roman legion was called away from this Island, to assist 

 in repelling the barbarous hordes which began to threaten 

 the very existence of the Roman Empire. Again we find 

 ourselves at fault ; the history of the interval between the 

 departure of the Romansand the establishment of the so- 

 called Saxon Heptarchy, is involved in obscurity, as great 

 as can be well imagined. But this much we know, the 

 Romans found the Britons a race of warlike and pagan 

 savages ; they left them, comparatively speaking, a polished 

 and intellectual nation, though degraded by the domina- 

 tion under which they had lain for 400 years. Still, 

 trained as some of them had been in Roman discipline, 

 furnished with Roman arms, and partaking of Roman 

 blood, had they not been weakened by internal dissensions, 

 they would probably have been perfectly able to defend 

 themselves from the barbarians who now harassed them on 

 every side ; but they appear to have degenerated rapidly 

 from the State of civilization to which they had attained 

 under the Romans. The inhabitants of the towns were, how- 

 ever, essentially Roman, their habits, their form of govern- 

 ment, and their military discipline, were all formed upon the 



