UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 227 



besides their priestly duties, the practice of 

 medicine and the administration of justice were 

 in their hands ; and those who resisted their 

 decrees were placed under a dreadful ban, or 

 interdict, during which no one dared to speak 

 or look at the culprit. Thus possessing all the 

 real power of the state, and venerated as the im- 

 mediate interpreters of the gods, the children of 

 the highest families were eagerly made over to 

 them; and even princes were ambitious to belong 

 to their fraternity. This unbounded influence 

 and their great riches naturally exciting the jea- 

 lousy of the Romans, in the reigns of Clau- 

 dius and of Nero, they were nearly destroyed ; 

 and the oak woods of Anglesea, or, as it was 

 then called, Mona, the residence of the chief 

 Druid, were burned. There are still many re- 

 mains of their temples in this island, and it is 

 said that some of their caves have been traced, 



where underneath 



The soil we tread, a hundred secret paths, 

 Scooped through the living rock in winding maze, 

 Lead to as many caverns dark and deep. 



" You spoke of their riches, papa," said Mary ; 

 " but by what means could those inhabitants of 

 rocks and woods have acquired any?" 



" I think we may conclude that those who 

 possessed such an unlimited ascendancy over 

 the people must have known how to enrich them- 

 selves ; and you may also recollect, that as their 



