172 THE KNailSH PEOPLE. 



overrun England at a very early date, and to have 

 conquered and enslaved its i)riuntive dark non- 

 Aryan inhabitants. The mixture slowly pro- 

 duced by the amalgamation of the two formed the 

 Ancient Hritons of the days of Ctcsar and of tlie 

 Roman conquerors. At that period, if we may 

 trust the fragmentary Roman notices, the western 

 lialf of Britain was peopled — as it still is — by a 

 darker and more S})anish-looking type of men, 

 like the modern Cornish and the Welsh of 

 Glamorgan ; while in tlie southeast a some- 

 what fairer type prevailed, which seemed to the 

 swartliy Italians comparatively flaxen-haired and 

 blue-eyed, though doubtless it possessed these 

 characteristics in a less degree than the later 

 Anglo-Saxon invaders. 



The Romans, in spite of their political greatness, 

 can have left but little mark upon the blood of 

 England. Though the Roman occupation lasted 

 nearly four centuries, though Roman roads trav- 

 ersed the country from end to end, though Roman 

 villas studded in hundreds the fertile uplands, and 

 though Roman legions were stationed at all the 

 great strategic posts throughout the whole of 

 England, yet the Romans really held Britain 

 much as we ourselves hold India, by a purely 

 military and impeiial domination. If the English 

 were to w'ithdraw from Hindostan to-morrow, the 

 blood of that great heterogeneous country would 



