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Temple of Diana ; and that it was at the same time the foundation 

 stone of London and its palladium ; and it came to be a popular sav- 

 ing " that so long as this stone of Brutus was safe, so long will Lon- 

 don nourish," and, furthermore, that all the old British kings, on 

 their accession to the throne, took their oaths on this stone, laying then- 

 hands on it, and until they had done so they were only kings pre- 

 sumptive. 



Now if this history of Britain was reliable our task would be ended 

 here, for we are shown why and by whom this monument was erected ; 

 but we are compelled to admit -that although it was esteemed for more 

 than one hundred years a true record of the events it narrated, it has to 

 be considered as a work of genius and imagination rather than a truthful 

 account of facts. For the first fact stated, that the Trojans ever came 

 to Britain, is extremely doubtful. Ca?sar, whose correctness as a his- 

 torian is undisputed, says that the inland parts of Britain were in- 

 habited only by the ancient natives, and that there were no foreigners 

 there ; and so impressed have more recent writers been with the fact 

 that Caesar and his legions were the first foreigners who made any 

 abiding stay on the island, that the date of his landing has been 

 made the subject of mathematical calculations from the slight premises 

 derived from his history; and it is proved as nearly as such things can 

 be, that he landed near Romney Marsh, about half-past five o'clock on 

 Sunday afternoon, the 27th day of August, fifty-five years before the 

 birth of Christ ; whereas if the Trojans were the first foreigners, the 

 landing of Brutus at Totness antedates Cesar's landing at Romney 

 more than 1,160 years; and it is strange, to say the least of it, that 

 no record of the fact should be preserved save in this history. Again 

 the fact of a Trojan descent is ooked upon with a great deal of sus- 

 picion, because to be considered to be of Trojan race was a common 

 vanity in these early times. And as one Francis, a son of King 

 Priam, was considered at one time to be the founder of the French 

 nation, and had given his name to the French people, in order that the 

 Britains should not be outdone in descent by a people they equaled 

 in valor, Geoffrey gratified them by inventing Brutus not only of 



Why the ancients should have had such a curious vanity it is difficult 

 to determine ; but it is supposed to be that as the Romans pretended 

 to a Trojan descent, the various nations that they subdued were in- 

 duced to set up the same claim through an ambition of emulating 

 their conquerors. It is an historical fact, however, that when Edward 

 I in 1301 desired to establish the supremacy of the English crown over 

 Scotland, he gravely uses as an argument before the Pope the fact of 



