CELT AND SAXON IN BRITAIN 25 



much permanent alteration of the surface of the country 

 is to be attributed. 



In fine, there can be no doubt that the larger 

 features of the landscape of Britain have mainly 

 determined the distribution of the several tribes of 

 mankind out of which the present population of our 

 islands has grown. It is hardly less obvious that the 

 same features have continued during the times of 

 history to influence the development and progress of 

 these tribes. The Gael who long ages ago was pushed 

 by the Briton into the mountain fastnesses of the 

 north was left there to maintain, until only a few 

 generations ago, his primitive habits as hunter and 

 warrior, cattle-dealer and freebooter. While he re- 

 mained comparatively unprogressive, the Norsemen, 

 Danes and Saxons, who took possession of the low- 

 lands that lay between his glens and the sea, were 

 able to advance in agriculture upon richer soil and 

 in a less inhospitable climate, and to crowd the land 

 with their homesteads, farms, villages, towns and sea- 

 ports. So too the Welshman, pushed in turn into 

 his hills by successive Teutonic swarms from the 

 other side of the North Sea, has preserved his pris- 

 tine language, and with it much of that individuality 

 of character which has kept him from cordially 

 amalgamating with the invaders. And thus while 

 the original Celtic people, restricted to less ample 

 territories and less fertile land, have to a large extent 

 retained the holdings and habits of their ancestors, 

 building comparatively few towns, and engaging in few 

 crafts, save farming and stock-raising, the Teutonic 

 tribes, possessing themselves of the broad culti- 



