280 PROF. T. MCKENNV lirCHKS, IM;.S., ON 



8uiiie of these extended on the one hand over Greeee and 

 other parts of South-Eastern P^uropc, Avheve the dominant 

 race long remained distinct in the ruhng faraihes, as we see 

 in the noble famihes of Esthonia, Ihe representatives of the 

 Teutonic knij2,-hts who conquered the country in the twelfth 

 century, while their followers have been merged in the 

 native race. 



Some of these pressed on the people of the Baltic in the 

 Bronze or Iron Age, and formed a large proportion of the 

 seafaring folk who then began to settle on the coasts of 

 Britain. The eastern influence seen in early British art tells 

 us that there was then communication with the continent, 

 and all the results of archeeology and the records of history 

 teach us that immigration after immigration took place, each 

 people pushing the earlier comers further west or north or 

 absorbing or being absorbed by them, till we have not much 

 that is trustworthy save the internal evidence from the 

 most stable racial characters of each region to guide us in 

 .search for the origins of our nation. 



However we may explain such points, nothing can get 

 over the fact that the characters portrayed in Greek archaic 

 art belonged to a type not to be found in the Mediterranean, 

 but common in Nortii-Western Europe. 



BrltJ^h Isles. 



Xow let us return to our own country and apply these 

 observations and inferences to the living men and women 

 around us. AVe have no means of examining the physiog- 

 nomy and colour of the pahiiolithic race or laces so largely 

 represented in our islands by their imperishable stone instru- 

 ments. Nor can we apply the test of which we are speaking- 

 to-night to the Neolithic or Bronze W >lls-. But when we reach 

 Koman times our line of research is suggested by history. 

 Cicsar records as the result oi" Iiis own observations and 

 of the information he received that there were several 

 diU'erent tribes in Britain : that these differed in race and 

 appearance ; that some of them rt'Sembled certain con- 

 tinental nations with whom he Avas already familiar. 

 Here we have in brief the story of long ages of imnn'gra- 

 tion from different areas. We connnoidy hear that the 

 people of Wales or the Highlands an' the descendants of 

 the Ancient P)ritons pushed by each new i-onquering nation 

 into the mountahi fastnesses of the west and north. But 



