ROMNEY MARSH AND 



PART I. 



Thus these agricultural colonists spread themselves 

 over the richer arable lands of the country, and became 

 the dominant race, as is shown by the dominancy of 

 their language in the districts which they occupied, the 

 older population gradually receding before them to 

 the hunting and pastoral grounds of the north and 

 west. The process was slow, but it was continuous. 

 The settlers made the land their own by their labour ; 

 and what they recovered by toil from the waste, the 

 forest, and the moor, they held by the strength of their 

 right arms. But the whole proceeding was one of simple 

 persevering industry rather than of war. The men of 

 Teutonic race thus gradually occupied the whole of the 

 reclaimable land, until they were stopped by the hills of 

 Cumberland, of Wales, and of Cornwall. The same pro- 

 cess seems to have gone on in the arable districts of 

 Scotland, into which a swarm of colonists from Northum- 

 berland poured in the reign of David I., 1 and quietly 

 settled upon the soil, which they proceeded to cultivate. 

 It is a remarkable confirmation of this view of the early 

 settlement of the country by its present races that the 

 modern English language extends over the whole of the 

 arable land of England and Scotland, and the Celtic 

 tongue only begins where the plough ends. 2 



1 See Cosmo Innes's * Sketches of 

 Early Scottish History,' 1861. 



2 This was formerly the case in the 

 hill country of Cumberland and Corn- 

 wall, where the ancient language has 

 now entirely disappeared. But in 

 Wales, the Scotch Highlands, and the 

 western parts of Ireland, the English 

 traveller still finds himself amongst a 

 race of people who can neither read his 

 language nor understand him when he 

 speaks to them. If they reply, it is ob- 

 vious that they only partially under- 

 stand the language ; for they speak in 

 broken English, like foreigners. Are 

 they foreigners ? No ; these are the 

 descendants of the early inhabitants of 

 the soil, speaking the language which 



was spoken all over Britain long be- 

 fore the English language hud been 

 formed or English literature created. 

 Yet there is every reason to believe 

 that even those Celtic races were at 

 one time but foreigners in Britain, and 

 drove forth, if they did not extermi- 

 nate, some previous race the men 

 who lived in caves, pits, and holes in 

 the ground, such as are still to be 

 found under Blackheath Point, at 

 Crayford, Dartford Heath, ^ Tilbury, 

 and various other places in Kent, 

 Essex, and the southern counties of 

 England. Probably the remains of 

 the very oldest nice in the British 

 Islands are no-.v to be found in tin- 

 least accessible districts of Galway 



