THE ANCIENT BRITONS.
"Where the maned bison and the wolf did roam,
The ancient Briton reared his wattled home,
Paddled his coracle across the mere,
In the dim forest chased the antlered deer;
Pastured his herds within the open glade,
Played with his 'young barbarians' in the shade;
And when the new moon o'er the high hills broke,
Worshipped his heathen gods beneath the sacred oak."
THE OLD FOREST.
Although the origin of the early inhabitants of Great Britain is still
open to many doubts, we have good evidence that at a very remote period
the descendants of the ancient Cimmerii, or Cymry, dwelt within our
island, and that from the same great family sprang the Celtic tribe;
a portion of which at that early period inhabited the opposite coast
of France. At what time the Cymry and Celts first peopled England we
have not any written record, though there is no lack of proof that
they were known to the early Phoenician voyagers many centuries before
the Roman invasion, and that the ancient Greeks were acquainted with
the British Islands by the name of the Cassiterides, or the Islands of
Tin. Thus both the Greeks and Romans indirectly traded with the very
race, whose ancestors had shaken the imperial city with their arms, and
rolled the tide of battle to those classic shores where "bald, blind
Homer" sung. They were the undoubted offspring of the dark Cimmerii of
antiquity, those dreaded indwellers of caves and forests, those brave
barbarians whose formidable helmets were surmounted by the figures
of gaping and hideous monsters; who wore high nodding crests to make
them look taller and more terrible in battle, considering death on the
hard-fought field as the crowning triumph of all earthly glory. From
this race sprang those ancient British tribes who presented so bold a
front to Julius Cæsar, when his Roman galleys first ploughed the waves
that washed their storm-beaten shores. Beyond this contemporary history
carries us not; and the Welch traditions go no further back than to
state that when the son of Aedd first sailed over the hazy ocean, the
island was uninhabited, which we may suppose to mean that portion on
which he and his followers landed, and where they saw no man alive,
for we cannot think that it would long remain unpeopled, visible as it
is on a clear day from the opposite coast of Gaul, and beyond which
great nations had then for centuries flourished. What few records we
possess of the ancient Britons, reveal a wild and hardy race; yet not
so much dissimilar to the social position of England in the present
day, as may at a first glance appear. They had their chiefs and rulers
who wore armour, and ornaments of gold and silver; and these held in
subjection the poorer races who lived upon the produce of the chase,
the wild fruits and roots which the forest and the field produced, and
wore skins, and dwelt in caverns, which they hewed out of the old grey
rocks. They were priest-ridden by the ancient druids, who cursed and
excommunicated without the aid of either bell, book, or candle; burned
and slaughtered all unbelievers just as well as Mahomet himself, or the
bigoted fanatics, who in a later day did the same deeds under the mask
of the Romish religion. For centuries after, mankind had not undergone
so great a change as they at the first appear to have done; there was
the same love of power, the same shedding of blood, and those who had
not courage to take the field openly, and seize upon what they could
boldly, burnt, and slew, and sacrificed their fellow-men under the plea
that such offerings were acceptable to the gods.
By the aid of the few hints which are scattered over the works of the
Greek and Roman writers, the existence of a few remaining monuments,
and the discoveries which have many a time been made through numberless
excavations, we can just make out, in the hazy evening of the past,
enough of the dim forms of the ancient Britons to see their mode of
life, their habits in peace and war, as they move about in the twilight
shadows which have settled down over two thousand years. That they were
a tall, large-limbed, and muscular race, we have the authority of the
Roman writers to prove; who, however, add but little in praise of the
symmetry of their figures, though they were near half a foot higher
than their distant kindred the Gauls. They wore their hair long and
thrown back from the forehead, which must have given them a wild look
in the excitement of battle, when their long curling locks would heave
and fall with every blow they struck; the upper lip was unshaven, and
the long tufts drooped over the mouth, thus adding greatly to their
grim and warlike appearance. Added to this, they cast aside their upper
garments when they fought, as the brave Highlanders were wont to do a
century or two ago, and on their naked bodies were punctured all kinds
of monsters, such as no human eye had ever beheld. Claudian mentions
the "fading figures on the dying Pict;" the dim deathly blue that they
would fade into, as the life-blood of the rude warrior ebbed out, upon
the field of battle.
How different must have been the landscape which the fading rays of
the evening sunset gilded in that rude and primitive age. Instead
of the tall towers and walled cities, whose glittering windows now
flash back the golden light, the sinking rays gilded a barrier of
felled trees in the centre of the forest which surrounded the wattled
and thatched huts of those ancient herdsmen, throwing its crimson
rays upon the clear space behind, in which his herds and flocks were
pastured for the night; while all around heaved up the grand and gloomy
old forest, with its shadowy thickets, and dark dingles, and woody
vallies untrodden by the foot of man. There was then the dreaded wolf
to guard against, the unexpected rush of the wild boar, the growl of
the grizzly bear, and the bellowing of the maned bison to startle him
from his slumber. Nor less to be feared the midnight marauder from
some neighbouring tribe, whom neither the dreaded fires of the heathen
druids, nor the awful sentence which held accursed all who communicated
with him after the doom was uttered, could keep from plunder, whenever
an opportunity presented itself. The subterraneous chambers in which
their corn was stored might be emptied before morning; the wicker
basket which contained their salt (brought far over the distant sea by
the Phoenicians or some adventurous voyager) might be carried away;
and no trace of the robber could be found through the pathless forest,
and the reedy morass by which he would escape, while he startled the
badger with his tread, and drove the beaver into his ancient home; for
beside the druids there were those who sowed no grain, who drank up
the beverage their neighbours brewed from their own barley, and ate up
the curds which they had made from the milk of their own herds. These
were such as dug up the "pig-nuts," still eaten by the children in the
northern counties at the present day; who struck down the deer, the
boar, and the bison in the wild unenclosed forest--kindled a fire with
the dried leaves and dead branches, then threw themselves down at the
foot of the nearest oak, when their rude repast was over, and with
their war-hatchet, or hunting-spear, firmly grasped, even in sleep,
awaited the first beam of morning, unless awoke before by the howl of
the wolf, or the thundering of the boar through the thicket. They left
the fish in their vast rivers untouched, as if they preferred only that
food which could be won by danger; from the timid hare they turned
away, to give chase to the antlered monarch of the forest; they let
the wild goose float upon the lonely mere, and the plumed duck swim
about the broad lake undisturbed. There was a wild independence in
their forest life--they had but few wants, and where nature no longer
supplied these from her own uncultivated stores, they looked abroad and
harassed the more civilized and industrious tribes.
Although there is but little doubt that the British chiefs, and those
who dwelt on the sea-coast, and opened a trade with the Gaulish
merchants, lived in a state of comparative luxury, when contrasted
with the wilder tribes who inhabited the interior of the island, still
there is something simple and primitive in all that we can collect of
their domestic habits. Their seats consisted of three-legged stools,
no doubt sawn crossways from the stem of the tree, and three holes
made to hold the legs, like the seats which are called "crickets,"
that may be seen in the huts of the English peasantry in the present
day. Their beds consisted of dried grass, leaves, or rushes spread
upon the floor--their covering, the dark blue cloak or sagum which
they wore out of doors; or the dried skins of the cattle they slew,
either from their own herds or in the chase. They ate and drank from
off wooden trenchers, and out of bowls rudely hollowed: they were not
without a rough kind of red earthenware, badly baked, and roughly
formed. They kept their provisions in baskets of wicker-work, and
made their boats of the same material, over which they stretched
skins to keep out the water. They kindled fires on the floors of
their thatched huts, and appear to have been acquainted with the use
of coal as fuel, though there is little doubt that they only dug
up such as lay near the surface of the earth; but it was from the
great forests which half covered their island that they principally
procured their fuel. They had also boats, not unlike the canoes still
in use amongst the Indians, which were formed out of the hollow
trunk of a tree; and some of which have been found upwards of thirty
feet in length; and in these, no doubt, they ventured over to the
opposite coast of France, and even Ireland, when the weather was calm.
Diodorus says, that amongst the Celtic tribes there was a simplicity
of manners very different to that craft and wickedness which mankind
then exhibited--that they were satisfied with frugal sustenance, and
avoided the luxuries of wealth. The boundaries of their pastures
consisted of such primitive marks as upright stones, reminding us of
the patriarchal age and the scriptural anathema of "cursed is he who
removeth his neighbour's land-mark." Their costume was similar to that
worn by their kindred the Gauls, consisting of loose lower garments, a
kind of waistcoat with wide sleeves, and over this a cloak, or sagum,
made of cloth or skin; and when of the former, dyed blue or black, for
they were acquainted with the art of dyeing; and some of them wore a
cloth, chequered with various colours. The chiefs wore rings of gold,
silver, or bronze, on their forefingers; they had also ornaments, such
as bracelets and armlets of the same metal, and a decoration called the
torque, which was either a collar or a belt formed of gold, silver,
or bronze, and which fastened behind by a strong hook. Several of
these ornaments have been discovered, and amongst them, one of gold,
which weighed twenty-five ounces. It seems to have been something like
the mailed gorget of a later day, worn above the cuirass or coat of
mail, to protect the neck and throat in battle; their shoes appear
to have been only a sole of wood or leather, fastened to the foot by
thongs cut from off the raw hides of oxen they had slaughtered. The
war weapons of the wilder tribes in the earlier times, were hatchets
of stone, and arrows headed with flint, and long spears pointed with
sharpened bone; but long before the Roman invasion, the more civilized
were in possession of battle-axes, swords, spears, javelins, and other
formidable instruments of war, made of a mixture of copper and tin.
Many of these instruments have been discovered in the ancient barrows
where they buried their dead; and were, no doubt, at first procured
from the merchants with whom they traded--ignorant, perhaps, for a
long period, that they were produced from the very material they were
giving for them in exchange. In battle they also bore a circular
shield, coated with the same metal; this they held in the hand by the
centre bar that went across the hollow inner space from which the boss
projected.
But the war-chariots which they brought into battle were of all
things the most dreaded by the Romans. From the axles projected those
sharp-hooked formidable scythes, which appalled even the bravest
legions, and made such gaps in their well-trained ranks, as struck
their boldest generals aghast. These were drawn by such horses as, by
their fire and speed, won the admiration of the invaders; for fleet on
foot as deer, and with their dark manes streaming out like banners,
they rushed headlong, with thundering tramp, into the armed ranks of
the enemy; the sharp scythes cutting down every obstacle they came in
contact with. With fixed eyes the fearless warrior hurled his pointed
javelins in every direction as he rushed thundering on--sometimes
making a thrust with his spear or sword, as he swept by with
lightning-speed, or dragged with him for a few yards the affrighted
foeman he had grasped while passing, and whose limbs those formidable
weapons mangled at every turn until the dreaded Briton released his
hold. Now stepping upon the pole, he aimed a blow at the opponent who
attempted to check his speed--then he stopped his quick-footed coursers
in a moment, as if a bolt from heaven had alighted, and struck them
dead, while some warrior who was watching their onward course fell
dead beneath so unexpected a blow; and ere the sword of his companion
was uplifted to revenge his death, the Briton and his chariot were far
away, hewing a new path through the centre of veteran ranks, which the
stormy tide of battle had never before broken. The form of the tall
warrior, leaning over his chariot with glaring eye and clenched teeth,
would, by his valour and martial deportment, have done honour to the
plains of Troy, and won an immortal line from Homer himself, had he
but witnessed those deeds achieved by the British heroes in a later
day. What fear of death had they before their eyes who believed that
their souls passed at once into the body of some brave warrior, or that
they but quitted the battle-field to be admitted into the abodes of
the gods? They sprang from a race whose mothers and wives had many a
time hemmed in the back of battle, and with their own hands struck down
the first of their tribe who fled,--sparing neither father, husband,
brother, nor son, if he once turned his back upon the enemy: a race
whose huge war-drums had, centuries before, sounded in Greek and Roman
combats. And from this hardy stock, which drooped awhile beneath the
pruning arms of civilized Rome, was the Gothic grandeur of the Saxon
stem grafted, and when its antique roots had been manured by the bones
of thousands of misbelieving Danes, and its exuberant shoots lopped by
the swords of the Norman chivalry, there sprang up that mighty tree,
the shadows of whose branches stretch far away over the pathless ocean,
reaching to the uttermost ends of the earth.