The Leading Facts of English HistoryMontgomery, D. H. (David Henry)
History
The Leading Facts of English History
Montgomery, D. H. (David Henry)
Great Britain -- History
The soil, also, is full of relics of the same kind. Twenty feet below
the surface of the London of to-day lie the remains of the London of
the Romans. In digging in the "City,"[1] the laborer's shovel every
now and then brings to light pieces of carved stone with Latin
inscriptions, bits of rusted armor, broken swords, fragments of
statuary, and gold and silver ornaments.
[1] The "City": This is the name given to that part of central London,
about a mile square, which was formerly enclosed by Roman walls. It
contains the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and other very
important business buildings. Its limit on the west is the site of
Temple Bar; on the east, the Tower of London.
So, likewise, several towns, long buried in the earth, and the
foundations of upwards of a hundred country houses have been
discovered; but these seem to be about all. If Rome left any traces
of her literature, law, and methods of government, they are
[TWO PAGES MISSING (21-22)]
FOURTH PERIOD[1]
"The happy ages of history are never the productive ones." -- Hegel
THE COMING OF THE SAXONS, OR ENGLISH
449(?) A.D.
THE BATTLES OF THE TRIBES--BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND
36. The Britons beg for Help; Coming of the Jutes, 449 (?).
The Britons were in perilous condition after the Romans had left the
island (S33). They had lost their old spirit (SS2, 18).[2] They were
no longer brave in war or faithful in peace. The Picts and Scots[3]
attacked them on the northwest, and the Saxon pirates (S29) assailed
them on the southeast. These terrible foes cut down the Britons, says
an old writer, as "reapers cut down grain ready for the harvest."
[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified
List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be
found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others
are in parentheses.
[2] Gildas, in Bohn's "Six Old English Chronicles"; but compare
Professor C. Oman's "England before the Norman Conquest," pp. 175-176.
[3] The Picts and Scots were ancient savage tribes of Scotland.
At length the chief men wrote to the Roman consul, begging him to help
them. They entitled their piteous and pusillanimous appeal, "The
Groans of the Britons." They said, "The savages drive us to the sea,
the sea casts us back upon the savages; between them we are either
slaughtered or drowned." But the consul was busy fighting enemies at
home, and he left the groaning Britons to shift for themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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