You have seen a common; you have also seen a wood; and you may perhaps have seen a marsh. If you fancy commons and woods and marshes stretching one beyond the other far away in every direction, you will have some notion of what the face of our country was like two thousand years ago. Where rivers now run orderly between their banks the waters then spread out on each side, making swamps or lakes. Hardly any of the land was tilled, for houses there were only poor huts, and there were no towns or roads. Beavers built in the streams,

elks and wild cattle roamed over the open spaces, bears and wolves prowled through the woods.

The island was called, as it is now, 1Britain, but there was no England, Wales, or Scotland. We call the people Britons. The Welsh and the Scotch Highlanders are descended from them.

The Britons were tall and well built; their eyes were mostly blue; their hair was long and fair; they had big mustaches, but allowed no beard to grow on their chins. They were not civilized, though at the same time they were not quite savages.

Savages often dwell in caves or holes in the ground, wear no clothes, and live entirely by hunting and fishing. The Britons were less rude than that. They built houses of a kind, they were not naked, they kept herds of cattle, and they grew some corn. The people in the south were more civilized than the rest, because they had not been so long in the island, and because they had more dealings with civilized men.

The huts of the Britons were round, with steep roofs. In the south these huts were made of stone or wood, elsewhere of 3 wattle-work covered with mud. They were often built in little clusters, placed, as the villages of the South American Indians are to this day, in the midst of the forests, and surrounded by a fence of felled trees.

The people were dressed in tunics and cloaks of checkered cloth something like the tartans that the Highlanders of Scotland still wear.

They kept cattle for the sake of the flesh and

milk; they were also great hunters, and in the south they grew patches of barley.

They were brave warriors. They fought with long swords, with spears, and with darts of bronze. They did not make these themselves, but bought them from the 5 Gauls. They had shields made of wood covered with hide or metal. When they went into battle they threw aside their clothes, and painted their bodies to give themselves a more terrible look as savage nations do now. They had chariots with sharp blades sticking out from the wheels. They harnessed horses to these chariots and then drove head-long through the ranks of the enemy.

The Britons were instructed in religion by a class called Druids. These were the priests, the lawgivers, the judges, and the teachers of the people. They taught that men should worship the gods, should do no evil, and should fight bravely. They believed that the soul does not die, but that on leaving one body it passes into another. They lived apart in sacred groves, where young men came to them to learn about the deeds of famous chiefs, about the motions of the sun, moon, and stars, and about the uses of herbs. They offered up sacrifices, sometimes of beasts, sometimes of men. If any one would not obey them he was shut out from these sacrifices. This was a terrible punishment, for the person thus shut out was reckoned unholy and accursed, every one shunned him, and he became an outlaw.

At Stonehenge and elsewhere are to be seen great stones set in circles or rows. These are supposed by some to have been the temples of the Druids, but we cannot be at all sure that they were so.

1 Britain. The island is called Great Britain to distinguish it 'from Britanny, which is also peopled by Britons, and may be regarded as Little Britain. 2 rude, rough, savage, uncivilized. 3 wattle-work, work made of twigs plaited as in a basket. 4 checkered, having little squares of different colours. 5 Gauls, the people of Gaul. Gaul corresponded roughly to France and Belgium. 6 instruct, to teach. 7 Stonehenge, about seven miles north of Salisbury on the plain.

AT the time of which we have been speaking nearly the whole of Europe south of the Danube and Rhine belonged to Rome. Britain, however, was 1independent, and a good part of Gaul was only conquered a little later. It was conquered by a great Roman general named Julius Cæsar. In fighting against him the people of Gaul were helped by their kinsmen the Britons, so he made up his mind to 2 subdue them also.

He invaded Britain with a small army in