202 , ENGLAND. 



infinite numbers, and with danger to Rome itself, the Roman legions 

 were withdrawn out of Britain, with the flower of the British youth, 

 for the defence of the capital and centre of the empire ; and that 

 they might leave the island with a good grace, they assisted the Bri- 

 tons in rebuilding with stone the wall of Severus between Newcastle 

 and Carlisle, which they lined with forts and watch-towers ; and, 

 having done this good office, took their last farewell of Briton about 

 the year 448, after having been masters of the most fertile parts of 

 It, if we reckon from the invasion of Julius Csesar, near 500 years. 



The Picts and Scots, finding the island finally deserted by the Ro- 

 man legions, now regarded the whole as their prize, and attacked the 

 wall of Severus with redoubled forces, ravaging all before them with 

 a fury peculiar to northern nations in those ages, and which a re- 

 membrance of former injuries could not fail to inspire. The poor 

 Britons, like a helpless family deprived of their parent and protector, 

 already subdued by their own fears, had again recourse to Rome, and 

 sent over their miserable epistle for relief (still upon record) which 

 was addressed in these words : To Aetius, thrice consul : The groans 

 of the Britons ; and after other lamentable complaints, said, That the 

 barbarians drove them to the sea, and the sea back to the barbarians ; 

 and they had only the hard choice left of perishing by the sword or by 

 the waves. But having no hopes given them by the Roman general 

 of any succours from that side, they began to consider what other na- 

 tion they might call over to their relief. Vortigern, chief of the 

 Danmonii, in behalf of the Britons 'made an engagement with two 

 Saxon chiefs, Hengist and Horsa, to protect them from the Scots and 

 Picts. The Saxons readily accepted the invitation of the Britons ; 

 whom they relieved, by checking the progress of the Scots and Picts, 

 and had the island of Thanet allowed them for their residence. But 

 their own country was so populous and barren, and the fertile lands 

 of Briton so agreeable and alluring, that in a very little time Hen- 

 gist and Horsa began to meditate a settlement for themselves ; and 

 fresh supplies of their countrymen arriving daily, the Saxons soon 

 became formidable to the Britons, whom, after a violent struggle of 

 near 150 years, they subdued, or drove into Wales, where their lan« 

 guage and their descendants still remain. 



Literature at this time in England was so rude, that we know but 

 little of its history. The Saxons were ignorant of letters ; and public 

 transactions among the Britons were recorded only by their bards and 

 poets, a species of men whom they held in great veneration. 



The Anglo-Saxons, during their heptarchy, were governed by priests 

 and monks, and their bounty to the see of Rome was therefore unlimit- 

 ed. Ethelwald, king of Mercia, imposed an annual tax of a penny 

 upon every house, which was afterwards known by the name of Peter's- 

 ptnee, because paid on the holiday St. Peter ad vincula, August first. 



London was then a place of very considerable trade ; and if we be- 

 lieve the Saxon chronicles quoted by Tyrrel, Withred, king of Kent;, 

 paid at one time to Ina, king of Wessex, a sum in silver equal to 

 90,000/. sterling, in the year 694 ; and we read, in 709, of a North- 

 umbrian prelate who was served in silver plate. It must however be 

 owned, that the Saxon coins, which are generally of copper, are many 

 of them illegible, and all of them mean. 



In this state was the Saxon heptarchy in England, when, about the 

 year 800, most of the Anglo-Saxons, tired out with the tyranny of their 

 petty kings, united, in calling to the government of the heptarchy? 



