~Blackfriars~, at the eastern end of the Thames Embankment, derives its name from a monastery or house of Black Friars which stood there. ~Watling Street~, ~Ermyn Street~, ~Vicinal Way~: made by the Romans, who were famous makers of high roads, many of which are still in use. (See map on p. 15.) ~Newgate~ was a gate on the west of the walls which enclosed the City; ~Bishopsgate~, on the north-east. ~victualling~: providing food for. ~emergencies~: times of difficulty and danger. ~Isle of Thanet~: it must be remembered that the Stour, at the back of Thanet, was once much wider and deeper than it is now. In fact, it was the general route for vessels coming up the Thames. ~appointments~: furniture, fittings. ~mimics~: actors who played in farces, like our panto_mimes_. ~scribes~: among the Romans, clerks in public offices. 7. AFTER THE ROMANS. PART III. ~Alaric~, king of a German tribe called the Visigoths (West Goths) invaded Greece and Italy, and after several defeats finally took and sacked Rome in 410 A.D. It was this state of thing which compelled the Romans to withdraw their troops from Britain. ~The West where the Britons still held their own~: Wales and Cornwall were never occupied by the invading Saxons: Welsh and Cornishmen are Celts, with a language of their own in Wales, while the Cornish language has only disappeared during the last hundred years. ~Wessex~: the land of the West Saxons corresponds roughly to England south of the Thames. ~oblivion~: being forgotten. ~The river Lea~ rises in Bedfordshire, near Luton, passes Hertford and Ware, forms the boundary between Middlesex and Essex, and falls into the Thames at Blackwall, after a course of forty miles. ~quagmires~: marshy, boggy ground that _quakes_ under the feet (quake, mire). 8. THE FIRST SAXON SETTLEMENT. ~Ecclesiastic~: connected with the Church. For many centuries Rome was the centre of Christian influence, and is so still to all Roman Catholics. ~ritual~: the customs and ceremonies employed in performing service in a church. ~Gregory I.~ or ~the Great~ was Pope from 590-604 A.D. He it was who sent Augustine to attempt the conversion of the English in the year 597. ~kinglet~: a petty king. England was then divided among many kings, so that the realm of each was necessarily very small. ~crucifix~: a figure of Christ fixed to the cross. ~Bede~: a monk and Church historian who lived and died at Jarrow in county Durham in 735 A.D. ~Lindesfarne~, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. ~Northumbrians~: the men of Northumbria--that is, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland. ~Mercians~: the men of Mercia, or land of the Middle English. ~supremacy~: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, were separate kingdoms which were successively, in the order in which they are given, strong enough to overawe or exercise supremacy over the others. The king of Wessex eventually became king of England.