158 Gleanings from the 



tion, until the hordes of Saxon invaders almoft 

 deftroyed the old civilization. Thule, according 

 to the fatirift, had engaged her rhetorician in the 

 firft century, and Britifh eloquence was not un- 

 known to the capital of the Weftern world before 

 the fifth century. Britifh Christianity more than 

 any other caufe contributed, after the Romans had 

 left Britain, to the influences of the imperial city 

 being ftill cherifhed. Britifh faints and Britifh 

 heretics alike fwelled the fame of their country, 

 and promoted direct intercourfe with Rome. The 

 waves of Teutonic deluge fwept over the land, 

 and well-nigh obliterated all traces of Roman 

 civilization, fave thofe which were too maflive to 

 be readily overthrown. With the coming of 

 Auguftine, Rome again, and more powerfully 

 than before, becaufe me now fubjugated the fouls 

 of the people, refumed her fway in humanirlng 

 Britain, and introducing frefh elements of civiliza- 

 tion. It becomes an interefting queftion, in con- 

 fidering the evidences which yet remain of the 

 material conveniences of life which Rome con- 

 tributed to our land, to determine what plants 

 and animals me brought to our ifland. 



The queftion is complicated by the fact of there 

 having been two other epochs, fmce Roman in- 

 fluences worked, to which the introduction of 

 many plants and animals, now fairly domefticated 

 among us, may be referred : the return of Weftern 

 chivalry from the Crufades and the influx of 

 monks which overfpread Britain during the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries. The latter of thefe 



