170 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 



mixed Englislimen of the present clay. Cultiva- 

 tors and herdsmen where their predecessors of tlie 

 older stone age had been mere liand-to-mouth 

 liunting savages, these oldest of existing P2nglish- 

 men were characterized i)hysically by their com- 

 paratively dark complexion, black liair, deep 

 brown eyes, and long or boat-shaped skulls and 

 foreheads. It was they who raised the most 

 ancient among the barrows or tumuli which still 

 cap the summits of our chalk downs : and from the 

 chambered stone tombs that the barrows enclose 

 we have recovered not only the polished stone 

 tomahawks, the amber necklets, the hand-made 

 pottery, and the simple ornaments of these pri- 

 meval Britons, but also the actual bones and 

 skeletons of the builders themselves. From the 

 physical indications thus unmistakably preserved 

 for us we know the constructors of the chambered 

 barrows to have been a short, squat, and thick-set 

 people, identical in type with the so-called black 

 Celts of Scotland and Ireland, and with the darker 

 inhabitants of Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and the 

 Eastern Counties. Throughout the whole of 

 Britain indeed careful investigation arid measure- 

 ment of skulls, bones, and height, as well as ob- 

 servations on the color of hair and eyes, have 

 united to prove that many great groups of people 

 exist here and there in isolated colonies belonging 

 mainly to tliis very early stone-age blood. Of 



