130 Essay Introductory to the Archaeology of the West of England. 



pioelia, vulnera, videremus : odia, praeterea, dissidia, discordias, ortus, in- 

 teritus, querelas, lamentationes; cura liumano genere concubitus, mortales- 

 que ex immortali procreatos." We shall thus be led to feel how gross and 

 how thick was " the covering cast over all people, the veil spread over all 

 nations," and be more sensible of our infinite obligation to the mercy of 

 him, " who has called us out of such a darkness to his marvellous light." 



ESSAY INTRODUCTORY 



TO THE 



ARCHiEOLOGY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND. 

 Part II.— HISTORY. 



In the preceding part of this introduction was considered the distribu- 

 tion, at the dawn of history, of the Iberian and a branch of the great Celtic 

 nation : the present part will be confined to the changes undergone by the 

 inhabitants of Britain, from the Celtic sera to the Norman conquest, about 

 1,100 years, comprehending the end of the British, the Roman, and the 

 Anglo-Saxon period, with the invasion of the Danes, and the commence- 

 ment of the Norman dominion. 



At what period, or under what circumstances, Britain and her isles were 

 first peopled, is a problem yet unsolved. The ancient Plioenicians and the 

 inhabitants of Marseilles, are known to have traded in tin with the Cassi- 

 terides, supposed with great probability to be Cornwall, but of the manner 

 in which the trade was carried on very little is known ; so that although 

 it is certain that Britain was peopled, and by Celts, from a very remote 

 period, many ages perhaps before the arrival of Caesar, b. c. 55, of its real 

 condition during that time but little knowledge has descended to us, and 

 that little has chiefly been acquired, and can only be increased, by the 

 labours of the painful and judicious antiquary. 



It appears that Britain, at the period of Caesar's invasion, was inhabited 

 by a number of savage tribes, of whom the Romans have preserved the 

 names of above forty, who lived in a state of independence and therefore 

 of barbarism, and who, though from the confined limits of the island they 

 were not nomade, like the inhabitants of the steppes and deserts of the 

 north and east, yet were perpetually at war concerning their boundaries, 

 and were ruled by chiefs. 



Although those tribes that passed over with the earliest wave of emigration, 

 and occupied consequently the northern, more remote, and less accessible 

 parts of the island, were the most barbarous, still the tribes of the south 

 were perfectly savage. After the manner of savage nations they painted 

 and tattoed their skins ; their offensive weapons were but axes and knives 

 of flint or shell, and stakes hardened in the fire j their acquaintance with 

 metal was circumscribed, and derived chiefly from foreigners j their 



