2 6 History of the English Landed Inte^'cst. 



ricli harvests which prompted the eloquent pen of Eiimenius 

 when he wrote his famous paneg3^ric to Constantine Augustus.^ 



The Roman, when at length he was able to lay aside the 

 sword, and turn his attention to the plough, discovered in the 

 ancient Briton a savage whose staple diet - was flesh and the 

 sour fruits of wild apple, pear, and sloe trees, which he washed 

 down with copious draughts of beer and honey ; a barbarian 

 whose clothes were skins sewn together by strips of raw hide 

 threaded through needles of bone ; whose cups were horn, 

 whose weapons of war and chase were stone-tipped spears and 

 sinew-strung bows, and whose boats were platted willow bark 

 covered with the raw hide, which served equally well to 

 harness his ox to its wagon or form the lash of his whip. 



The Southron,^ who spread his bread with olive oil, despised 

 the Northerner's butter and sneered at his ignorance of cheese- 

 making. He was puzzled at the inclemency of a climate, 

 which often would not permit winter cattle feeding, and of a 

 rainfall which rotted the young corn, though the floods from 

 his own mountain torrents but enriched its growth. Had he 

 found a country parched up like his otvti, he would have set 

 himself with energy to remedy this defect of nature by means 

 of some irrigation scheme in vogue at home. But the satu- 

 rated air and soil of this northern climate were a novel difficulty 



^ In forming an opinion on this subject, the student must compare the 

 antagonistic opinions found in ancient writings. Authors accustomed 

 to the climate of Germany would call ours more temperate than that of 

 the continent, an advantage we owe to our oceanic surroundings. Their 

 opinions may be divided into three classes : 1. Comparison with Germany, 

 vide Caesar, Bell. Gall., lib. v. ch. i.-xxiii. ; Tacitus, Agricola, ch. 12. 

 Class 2, Condemnatory, Diod. Sic, Bibl. Hint. ; Ed. Diudorf, Leipsic, lib. 

 v., ch. xxi.-xxii. ; Strabo, Geogr., ed. Falc : Oxon., 1807, lib. ii. p. 15B. 

 Class 3, Laudatory, Eumenius, panegyric to Const. Aug. 



- Joann. Xiph., Epit. ; Dion. Cass., lib. Ixii., pj). 1—1 : and Strab., 

 Geogr., lib. iv., torn. 1, p. 278. 



' It is wrong to conclude that tlie Roman was ignorant of butter- 

 making, which made itself whenever milk was carried in skins on waggon 

 or horseback for even a short distance. Because Pliny's description of 

 its manufacture is confused and unpractical, it does not prove that the 

 Romans were ignorant of its use, but only that they disliked it as a 

 flavouring. See Hehn's Wanderings of Plants and Animals, article on 

 " Beer." 



