26 Bath during British Independence. 



bowed the neck to the Roman yoke, to do battle for them 

 against the untamed Kelts from beyond the northern wall. 

 The date assigned to the coming of Hengist and Horsa is a.d. 

 449. The place of their first camp and head-quarters was the 

 Isle of Thanet, a spot which, though it is not rich in natural 

 attractions, has for Englishmen an imperishable interest, as 

 the cradle of our settlement in this Island of Britain. Called 

 in as mercenaries, they began before long to carry on the war 

 on their own account. This fruitful country presented such 

 a contrast to the niggard yield of their native land that they 

 were loth to return, and preferred to invite new comrades 

 from over sea. They came at different times, in various 

 banded companies, and made settlements at many points of 

 the sea-board. Only some of the more important expedi- 

 tions are recorded in the Chronicles. In 477 Ella with his 

 three sons made good their footing against the Britons on 

 the south coast, where then was the Forest of Andred, and 

 where now is the Weald of Sussex. In 547 Ida founded 

 the kingdom of Northumbria. 



In what light, ethnologically, did these barbarians regard 

 the people who had invited them into their country ? On 

 this subject there is no uncertainty, for they have expressed 

 their classification of them very distinctly in the name they 

 assigned to them, and that name is still a living and familiar 

 designation. They called them Walas, or else Bret-Walas, 

 that is, the Walas of Britain. That word Walas is only the 

 older form of Wales. To the Saxons, the population of 

 Britain were Welsh, just as the people of Gaul were Welsh, 

 and just as in the language of Germany the people of Italy 

 are " Welsch," and the land of Italy is " Welschland." In 

 calling them Welsh (Wylisc), or Walas, they simply ex- 

 pressed the fact that they had been part of the Roman 



