Before Chriit 54* 117' 



The former he places in the interior part of the country, (whereby we 

 muft underftand tlie part mofl diftant from his landing place) and he 

 defcribes them as ni a paftoral ftate, living on flelli and milk, clothed 

 with the (kins of their beads, and generally negledful of agriculture. 

 The later people, who occupied the maritime parts, (or rather thofe 

 neareft to Kent) were of the Belgic race, who, having firfl: invaded the 

 country for the lake of plunder, (which (hows, that the aboriginal Bri- 

 tons, in their fimpleft ftate, poflefled fomething to invite the depreda- 

 tions of foreigners) had, in procefs of time, made themfelves mafters of 

 part of it. They were in a more advanced ftate of fociety than the ori- 

 ginal inhabitants : they cultivated the ground, had great abundance of 

 corn, as well as cattle, and built houfes like thofe of their brethren on 

 the oppofite coaft of Gaul. Their money was paid by weight, and con- ■ 

 filled of brafs and iron, the former 0/ which was imported, and the lat- 

 er found in their own mines : and it argues no fmall degree of know- 

 lege in metallurgy, that they underftood the procefs of making iron, 

 which is at once the moll valuable, and the moll difficult of all metals 

 in preparing it for ufe. Caefar fays, that there was an infinite multitude 

 of the people : but this part of his information is very fufpicious, even 

 with refped: to the Belgic colonies ; and, if applied to the aborigines, 

 it is manifeftly contradicted by his defcription of their manner of living. 

 He adds, that the people of the maritime county of Kent, (thofe whom he 

 knew bell) very much refembled thofe of Gaul in their manners, and were 

 far more civilized than any of the other communities. Tin, the great 

 flaple of Britain, was, according to his account, produced in the inland 

 part of the country *: but moft of the fliips from Gaul arrived in Kent ; 

 which, perhaps, he erroneoully extends as far well as the ifland, which, 

 from the account of Timaeus, compared with that of Diodorus Siculus, 

 feems at this time to have been the flation of the tin trade. {CctJ. Bel. 

 Gal. L.. iii, cc 8, 9 ; L. iv, cc. 28, etfeqq. — Strabo, L. iv, p, 305. — Diod. 

 Sic. L. V — TviKEus ap. Plin. Hijl. nat. L. iv, c. 16. — '21?^:. Ann. L. xii, c. 

 34; Vit. Agric. c. 13 — Dion. Cajf. LI. xxxix, xl f.] 



It does not appear, that the Romans ever . got one penny of the tri- 

 bute, which, Caefar fays, he ordered the Britains to pay ; unlefs the 

 duties levied in Gaul upon their imports and exports, which any na- 

 tion may levy in their own ports upon the fubjeds of any other nation, 

 can be called a tribute : for after this time the Romans, or rather their 

 Gallic fubjeds, had fome commercial intercourfe with Britain, {Strabo, 

 L. iv, />. 306] which will be more fully narrated in the general view to 

 be taken of the flate of trade under the Roman empire. 



• 



This is another iiiftance of calh'ng the moft f To the fe may be added the poetical autho- 



diftant parts of the ifland the interior parts of it. rity of Propcrtius, Horace, Lucan, &c. and th^ 



Cornwall, the tin country, is even more maritime fomewhat-fiifpicious authority of Nennius. . 

 than Kent, 1 



