ing from a favourable position of his troops, at one time entrenched himself on a steep and nearly inaccessible mountain, supposed to be Caer Carador in Shropshire, at the base of which a river deep and rapid in its progress flowed, and seemed to offer an insuperable barrier to the Romans in their approach to his camp. There he waited for the enemy; on whose appearance he arranged his army in order of battle; and, passing through the ranks, he painted to his men the horrors and shame of defeat and servitude, and the glory to be derived from a determined imitation of the bravery of their ancestors. Inspired by the valour of their General, the troops swore to conquer or perish-a resolution they maintained against the fierce assaults of the enemy till they stormed the very last lines on the summit of the mountain, when, farther resistance becoming impracticable, the brave Britons fled with great slaughter. The wife, sons, and daughter, of Caractacus were made prisoners: the Prince escaped for the moment, but was soon afterwards surrendered in chains to the conquerors by the detestable Cartismandua, Queen of the Brigantes, the mother of his wife. Nine years had elapsed in the most vigorous and spirited efforts made by Caractacus against his enemies : they therefore resolved to exhibit him in triumph at the Court of Rome, in the grand procession usual on such occasions. An opportunity has been afforded us by Tacitus, to illustrate the manners of this great Prince on a trial as severe as human nature is subject to. Of all the captives who accompanied their chief, he alone preserved his fortitude, and approached the throne of Claudius with a firm and manly air of unimpeached honour. Addressing the Emperor, he observed, that had his moderation been equal to his birth and prosperity, he had then entered Rome as a visitor, and not as a captive. He confessed his situation to be humiliating in proportion to the Emperor's success: said he lately possessed the resources of his subjects, and enquired why he should not attempt to preserve them? or what reason existed against the wish of a nation to resist his aim at universal monarchy? Had he submitted without opposition, his own lustre would have been diminished, and that of the Romans less conspicuous. He concluded by saying, if Claudius decreed his death, he should soon be consigned to oblivion ; but if, on the contrary, he granted him his life, that act would remain a durable monument of his clemency. Fascinated by the manner of the vanquished hero, Claudius commanded his chains to be removed, and pardoned him. The circumstances which immediately followed, all served to prove the importance the Romans attached to this victory, and its consequences; and those all contributed

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to exalt the character of this our admirable countryman; whose want of success was evidently caused by the custom of his people in fighting, and not by any deficiency of courage. The English began their combats with tremendous shouts and showers of darts; the Romans, knowing these to be their principal means of offence, advanced with their shields in the form of the testudo, and, having closed with their enemy, made dreadful havock with their javelins and swords on the defenceless bodies of the English, who wore no kind of armour.

A contrast to the exalted nature of Caractacus existed in the instance of the Queen already mentioned as his betrayer. This Cartismandua was a disgrace to our countrywomen; a wanton, and in every respect infamous. Unfortunately her rank and power has transmitted her name to posterity as one who did not scruple to marry Venusius, prince of the Huicci, and, subsequently, Vellocatus, her armour-bearer. The former, who possessed many of the excellent qualities of the unhappy Caractacus, was rejected for the favourite gallant: and she had the effrontery to declare Vellocatus King- -an act which exasperated the majority of her subjects into a determination of supporting Venusius in his rights, into whose hands she was very near falling when she invited and obtained the assistance of the Romans. Thus the licentious manners of the Queen involved the nation in a new war, which we have the satisfaction of knowing terminated in her expulsion from the throne, and the restoration of Venusius: a fact which establishes the existence of a general sense of the propriety of moral conduct in the people.

The year 61 presented the Romans with a new spectacle, which is illustrative of our early customs. Anglesey was then the residence of the Arch-druid of the Britons, where many enemies of the Roman government had fled as an asylum from their oppression. Suetonius Paulinus, who presided in England, though proper to attack this settlement; and, invading it, his troops beheld opposed to them, not only an army of soldiers, but a second, though far less numerous, of women, who with disordered hair rushed backwards and forwards with flaming torches ; while numbers of priests uttered vehement imprecations against the disturbers of their peace. Surprised, and more than half terrified by this strange exhibition, the Romans would have retired, had not their officers perceived that little exertion was necessary to disperse the zealots and armed men; which was soon verified by the advance of the Romans, whose victory was disgraced by the burning of the Druids with the wood of their own groves.

The impossibility of separating the manners and usages of London from the general history of the country, in this stage of my work, makes it necessary to say something on that head. The absence of Suetonius, for the purpose of subduing the refugees in Anglesey, induced the inhabitants of England to think a favourable opportunity now offered of recovering their liberty; and, meeting with partial success, Suetonius lost not a moment in regaining London, not then honoured with the title of a colony, but large and populous; the inhabitants of which, dreading the miseries of war, entreated the Roman commander to defend them, but in vain; as he was well aware he had a better prospect of success in the field. The celebrated Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, had by this period displayed so much courage and conduct, that she was implicitly followed by crowds of her countrymen; who, led by her, entered London, where an indiscriminate. massacre took place, equally cruel and unjustifiable, and only paralleled by those of Camalodunum and Verulamium. Constantly reinforced by multitudes, Boadicea soon found herself mistress of the fortunes of 230,000 men. With an army so enormous, she conceived it impossible the Romans, though brave and well disciplined, should even face her troops with only 10,000 men. Suetonius, convinced of the difficulties of his situation, took measures to secure a position calculated to render a small army effective against greatly superior numbers, which he completely succeeded in accomplishing, by forming his men in a deep valley, with inaccessible sides, and a wood in their rear. Boadicea, arrayed in full regal splendour, seated in a chariot with her two daughters at her feet, drove through the ranks of her followers, and, relating the cruelties she had experienced, and those suffered by her offspring, exhorted them to confide in their own strength and the weakness of the enemy; adding, that she was resolved to conquer or die free, whatever might be their determination. The signal for battle having been given, each army fought according to the custom of their respective nations; and with a similar effect to that experienced in the case of Caractacus. Unable to bear the reverse, the high-spirited Boadicea terminated her existence by poison.

As the only authorities we possess, relating to the disposition and propensities of the natives, are those of their conquerors and oppressors; such authorities should be rejected, had we it in our power to supply their places. The Roman writers agree in describing them as muscular and handsome; but proud, vindictive, boastful, and satirical; rashly courageous and vain, and extremely outrageous when intoxicated. Indeed, they assert, that in the blind pursuits of

their rage, they would not fly from a falling house, an inundation, or the most immediate prospect of death; and this latter part of their character is confirmed by their constant resistance of their enemies, under every disadvantage; and the charge of more deliberate cruelty, by the massacres of Boadicea. Admitting each of these bad qualities to have existed in the degree stated, it will appear, on reflection, that they were the natural consequences of the Roman invasion." Every hateful passion of the human soul was excited, and the extirpation of their enemies became the favourite wish of the whole community. When time had softened this propensity, the virtues began to resume their stations in the breasts of the Britons; and they were found to be frank and generous, docile and hospitable. Giraldus Cambrensis gives a very pleasing idea of the reception of strangers by our countrymen: nothing produced them greater pleasure, which they expressed by entertaining them with the musick of the times, and the best fare they possessed; at their departure presents were exchanged, to perpetuate the memory of the visit.

The same author mentions, that it was the custom of families to inhabit a large hut or house, which, having a fire in the midst, served to warm them in the day, and to sleep around in the night upon rushes. This peculiarity, it is supposed, induced Cæsar and others to imagine the females of it were not appropriated to individuals in marriage, but lived in common with the males: an idea that is refuted by the general indignation excited by the conduct of Cartismandua already mentioned. The faithful affection of the youth to their parents and near relatives, and the fidelity exhibited to their favourite chiefs, were most pleasing parts of their character, and palliated, in some degree, the propensity to idleness with which Tacitus charges them, and that of proneness to intoxication mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.

Many inferences relating to the manners of the people might be collected from authors who have written the early history of neighbouring states; but this is at best an uncertain method of judging of them: indeed, as much may be imagined by attentively considering the general situation of the nation, as will serve to prove they were not distinguished by any very brilliant conceptions resembling modern propriety. In the article of Marriage, the agreement of the parties and their friends, and the exchange of presents in the manner of a dowry, were all that seemed necessary. Whether their Druids interfered, by incantations or blessings; can only be conjectured. As arms and agriculture were for a long time the sole pursuits

pursuits of the male population, the portion of the female consisted, in all probability, of military weapons, horses, cattle, corn, and farming utensils, such as they then were: the presents, on the other hand, must have been principally the favourite ornaments of the day. It seems almost superfluous to add, that the domestic concerns fell to the share of the woman; who may besides have assisted at least in agricultural pursuits, while the males of her family were plundering their neighbours, or resisting their incursions. Judging from the customs of other uncivilized persons, we may safely conclude, that many expedients were adopted to render the children of each marriage vigorous and hardy; and indeed their very manner of living contributed to this end. Inured to every change of the season from their infancy, bathing and temporary exposure, the present methods adopted for that purpose, were superseded. Accident, no doubt, frequently produced the former, and unrestrained freedom the latter. At all times, and in all kinds of weather, when Nature had granted the youth the full use of his limbs, little was required on the part of the parent to induce him to use them in all the sports common to that stage of life. When they were strong enough to assist in the chace, numberless opportunities were afforded to turn their eagerness to military purposes, in ambush, and the best mode of annoyance, without the risk of personal injury. It has been already mentioned, that the Druids initiated them into the learning of the time.

The perfection of the human system must depend greatly upon the nature of the food which supports it. Every authority we possess demonstrates, by analogy, that animals were eaten by our ancestors; but that they were cannibals, or devourers of the flesh of their own species, cannot be admitted beyond the possibility of their indulging in similar savage triumphs over their vanquished enemies, related in one or two solitary instances by Captain Cook. There is something so disgusting in the idea of eating raw meat, that we must indulge in the hope, that the Britons dressed their meals from the earliest page of history: the Roman authors declare, that they boiled, roasted, and broiled, at the period of their invasion; nor were they ignorant of the means of making a horrid dirty salt, with which they preserved their food. Many vegetables are still eaten raw, and all were perhaps so eaten by the Britons.

Water was unquestionably the original beverage of man; milk probably the first mixture with it; then the juices of plants, or the saps of trees. Infusions or extracts of grain seem the result of thought and experience: some of the liquids

thus