282 WOLF-HUNTING. 



From the condition of the roads, however, within many miles 

 of the Hermitage, it must be considered very doubtful if Julius 

 Caesar, after conquering the various tribes of Armorica, ever 

 penetrated the rugged region of Celtic Gaul which is known as 

 the backbone of Brittany.. Nor did the Romans occupy that 

 country permanently till the year A.D. 383, when a Roman officer 

 called Maximus, resident in Great Britain, revolting against the 

 Emperor Gratian, withdrew to Brittany, and, carrying with him 

 two Roman legions and a vast number of Celtic islanders, con- 

 ferred the government of Armorica on Meriadec, a warlike Celt 

 and a chief among his followers. This, the first great emigration 

 of Britons into that province, was soon succeeded by many others, 

 the immigrants finding peace and protection under the rule of the 

 Celtic chief. 



Shafto, who had preceded our party by an hour or more, 

 came out to meet and welcome us as we hove in sight of his 

 porte-cochere, and the loud greeting he gave us at a distance of 

 some hundred yards, reminded me of that given to Ben Jonson 

 when he was approaching the country mansion of his supposed 

 friend, Drummond of Hawthorn den. 



" Welcome, welcome, honest Ben ! " 



shouted the host, as he spied the poet wending his way on foot 

 up a stately avenue leading to the house. 



"Thank'ee, thank'ee, Hawthornden ! " 



responded the expected guest, with that readiness in rhyming for 

 which he was so remarkable. But the poet laureate would have 

 eaten his chop at the Mermaid Club with his friends Raleigh, 

 Shakspeare, Beaumont, and Fletcher with a thankful heart, could 

 he have foreseen the cruel terms in which Drummond described 

 his character, after a three-weeks' visit, from notes taken at the 

 time, and at a subsequent period published to the world. In 

 this respect, however, Shafto's welcome was a very different one; 



