CHAP. I. Till-: EMBANKMENT OF TIIK TIIAMKS. 5 



than is t< he found in many a New Zealand pah. But, 

 ignorant though the people then seem to have been of 

 the art of construction, it would appear that they must 

 have possessed some skill in mechanical appliances, to 

 have been enabled to transport those huge blocks of 

 stone to their places on Stonehenge, and to erect the 

 cyclopean bridges over the Teign and Dart in Devon- 

 shire, the remains of which are among the greatest 

 curiosities extant of ancient engineering. 1 



The art of embanking and draining was introduced 

 into England by quite another race the adventurous 

 tribes of Belgium and Friesland, who early landed 

 in great numbers along the south-eastern coasts, and 

 made good their footing by the power of numbers, as 

 well as their superior civilization. These men were 

 tillers of the soil, and wherever they went they settled 

 down to the arts of agriculture, clearing the ground 

 of its primitive forest, and more especially occupying 

 the rich arable lands along the valleys and by the 

 seaside. The early settlement of Britain by the races 

 which at present occupy it, is usually spoken of as an 

 invasion and a conquest ; but there is good reason to 

 believe that it was principally effected by a system of 

 immigration and colonization, such as is going forward 

 under our own eyes at this day in America, Australia, 

 and New Zealand ; and that the people who swarmed 

 into the country in early times from Friesland, Belgium, 

 and Jutland, secured their settlement by the spade far 

 more than by the sword. The Celts were a pastoral 

 raee, whilst the immigrants were tillers of the ground. 

 Wherever the new men came, they settled themselves 

 down on their several bits of land, which became their 

 holdings; and they bent their backs over the stubborn 

 soil, watering it with their sweat, and delved, and 

 drained, and cultivated it, until it became fruitful. 



siil isr | in-lit chapter, on OKI Bridges. 



