WAREHAM : ITS INVASIONS AND BATTLES. 83 



shelves of the British Museum used to roam." But these 

 stupendous creatures became supplanted by a being of nobler 

 creation, that extraordinary creature, man, whom wise men have 

 endeavoured to describe and failed. A faithful picture of one of 

 our British ancestors, wild and savage, exhibited in all the glory of 

 his native war paint, would, in all probability, shock our sensitive 

 feelings in this age of enlightenment ; the luxuriant crop of tangled 

 golden hair, fierce moustache, deep blue eyes, the huge limbs 

 stained and partly covered with the skins of beasts, the gigantic 

 figure when armed presenting an uninviting, nay more, a repulsive 

 appearance, formidably antagonistic to the Roman invader. But 

 they exhibited some splendid acts of bravery. 



As man became enlightened he recorded many transactions. 

 Nature also retained silent, but stubborn, evidences of invasions, 

 massacres, sanguinary conflicts, of devastation and ruin. Abundant 

 evidences exist on every hand to show where the great war wave 

 has at intervals swept across the broad acres of our county, where 

 constantly, as Sir Walter Scott wrote : 



" Trumpet and bugle to arms did call." 



Dorset was in "ye ancient tyme" frequently invaded, and to 

 Wareham especially the words uttered by Macbeth were often 

 singularly appropriate : 



" Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 

 The cry is still They come." 



But the residents have proved themselves equal to an emergency ;. 

 the loyalty of the county became manifest as the alarm was raised, 

 and the great army of volunteers showed that " Barkis is willin' " 

 by their ready response to the call of duty. Both appropriate and 

 prophetic, aye more, events have proved the truth of the remark 

 made by Posthumus in Cymbeline, Act v., Scene 2 : 

 " Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men." 



Britain, it is asserted, was known to the Phoenicians, who are 

 said to have " monopolised the tin trade," but concealed the part 

 from whence they procured it so carefully that there is an account 



