The Era before the Roman Occiipation. 5 



cult, like the Gauls, Strabo tells us, were not easy about their 

 harvest prospects uuless they could collect together a goodly 

 number of its priests, and we may conclude that the crops of 

 Britain were considered equally benefited by their presence. 



Though we read of the good qualities of the small wiry 

 British horses, and the advantages for venery and warfare of 

 British dogs,^ as well as of the abundance and fecundity of 

 British flocks and herds, history is silent on the subject of pigs. 

 "VVe may be certain they ran wild in the woods, but we find no 

 traces of any prototype of that swine-herd, Grurth, whom, even 

 when engaged in his uninteresting occupation, the glamour 

 of Scott's pen has rendered actually picturesque. When Csesar 

 left these woad-stained barbarians, whose ideal of commerce 

 did not extend beyond the exchange of tin, not exactly perhaps 

 for the glass and tinsel which attracts modern savages, but 

 for something not far remote from those trifles,- such as ivory 

 bracelets, brass mirrors, and amber cups, darkness once more 

 settles over their history, and for nearly one hundred years 

 we are left in ignorance of their progress. 



One may be permitted to pause here and give rein to fancy 

 and wonder as to the efiects on our modern land system and 

 agriculture, supposing some other than the Roman nation had 

 conquered and taken us in hand. When we come to compare 

 the Romans of those days with the peoples of other countries, 

 we find that, however greatly they may be esteemed for their 

 engineering or military genius, they cannot be considered in the 

 first rank as regards their husbandry. It is true that some 

 Minister or Committee of Agriculture had originated a senatorial 

 decree for the translation of the famous twenty-eight books 

 which the Carthaginian Mago had written on the subject, and 

 that Pliny was about to write a work of lasting importance on 

 the same science ; but, for all that, Italian husbandry was far 

 behind that of such countries as Japan, China, and Egypt.^ 

 The use of the drill was common amongst the Chinese ; the 

 Japanese were adepts in collecting and preserving manures ; 



' Sti-abo, Geogr., lib. iv. p. 278. - Id. Ibid. 



^ Eees, Cyclo., sub voc. Agriculture. 



