472 
I am inclined to believe that at least a considerable portion 
of the population on the eastern and south-eastern coast 
of Britain, at the earliest period with which we are acquainted 
with it, was really of Teutonic origin. The account given 
by Tacitus at a somewhat later period, I think countenances 
this view of the subject, and he expressly points out physical 
characteristics in the Caledonians of the north which bespoke 
their German descent. All these are facts which I think are 
not shaken by speculative inductions. It seems evident, in- 
deed, that at the earliest period at which we can hope to gain 
any information on the ethnology of our island, it was inhabited 
by a number of different tribes, differing in manners and in 
civilization, and of different race — in fact, that Britain had 
afforded a home for colonies at different periods, from the 
whole line of coasts stretching from the Baltic to the Bay of 
Biscay ; and that it was not occupied by a uniform population 
which passed uniformly through different grades of civilization. 
In fact, uniformity of condition, among the population of 
an extensive district of varied country, can only exist either 
in a state of absolute barbarism, where there is no intellectual 
development at all, or in the very highest degree of civiliza- 
tion, where inter-communication is general and extremely 
rapid. Yet it is on the implied assumption of some such 
uniformity that the antiquaries of Denmark have built their 
system of periods. " We are now," says Mr. Worsaae, from 
whose manual of Danish Antiquities I take the expression of 
this theory, " we are now enabled to pronounce with 
certainty, that our antiquities belonging to the times of 
paganism may be referred to three chief classes, referable 
to three distinct periods. The first class includes all anti- 
quarian objects formed of stone, respecting which we must 
assume that they appertain to the stone-period, as it is 
called, that is, to a period when the use of metals was in a 
great measure unknown. The second class comprises the 
