xxii Introduction. 



that the Romans were encamped in Britain for 

 four centuries. Like the Ottomans in Europe, the 

 EngHsh in India, they were in the country, but 

 not of it. Yet in the period of their occupation, 

 they succeeded in moulding the physical features 

 of the country into conformity with the advanced 

 strides of their southern civilization. Their hiph 

 roads and limitary walls intersect the land in 

 every direction ; over chains of hills and across 

 valleys they go, in absolute disregard of anything 

 Hke natural obstacles or impediments, remaining 

 to the present day stupendous monuments of 

 engineering ingenuity. Their bridges which 

 spanned our rivers, like their aqueducts, were all 

 scientifically constructed, and their masonry almost 

 imperishable. Every year the spade and the 

 plough turn up fresh relics, in the shape of tegulcs, 

 pottery, coins, votary tablets, and altar pieces, etc., 

 vestiges, as a writer in the " Quarterly Review " 

 has well remarked, of a more uniform type of 

 civilization than is to be met with between the 

 same latitudes to-day. Similarly they have left 

 their impress indelibly upon our language and 

 literature. Is it therefore unreasonable that some 

 should profess to discover traces of their institu- 

 tions in our own of to-day 1 It is not difficult, for 

 instance, to recognise in the aula publica of the 

 Romans a close resemblance to our Guildhall, and 

 Fitzstephen, in his well known description of 

 London, traces a strong affinity between many 

 of our present civic institutions and their Latin 

 parallels. 



