THE BRITONS, ACCORDING TO THE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS.
Strabo observes in his Geography, that “the woods are their towns; for having fenced round a wide circular space with trees hewn down, they there place their huts, and fix stalls for their cattle; but not of long duration. They have dwellings of a round form, constructed of poles and wattled work, with very high pointed coverings of beams united at a point.”
Diodorus Siculus asserts, that “they inhabit very wretched dwellings, composed for the most part of reeds (or straw) and wood.”
Cæsar thus describes, not Londinium, but the capital of Cassivellaunus: “The Britons call a place, a town, when they have fortified thick impassable woods, by means of a vallum and fosse, or a high bank and a ditch; in which sort of a place they are accustomed to assemble together, to avoid the invasion of enemies.”
Tacitus describing the strong holds, to which Caractacus resorted, observes: “They then fortified themselves on steep mountains; and, where-ever there was any possibility of access in any part, he constructed a great bank of stones, like a vallum.”
The curious reader is referred to the first volume of King’s Munimenta Antiqua, for prints and plans, both of the Welsh houses and fortresses, of which some are yet entire and others in ruins, in every part of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. No book, either in our tongue, or in any of the European languages, is so complete and satisfactory on this interesting and domestic subject: the prints are excellent.
Diodorus Siculus also notices that the Britons laid up their corn in subterranean repositories, whence they used to take a portion every day; and having bruised and dried the grain, made a kind of food from it of immediate use. Martin in his description of the Western Isles, (p. 204.) describes this sort of diet, and the quick mode of preparing it, as yet continued. King, in the 48th and following pages of his first volume, has detected, and delineated these rude monuments of our ancestors.
It is highly curious to trace the appearance of the persons of our forefathers and their manners. Cæsar remarks that they painted themselves with vitrum, or woad; and Herodian, that some of them on the sea-coast punctured or tattooed[[48]] their bodies with figures resembling various kinds of animals; in consequence of which they also went without garments, that they might not cover, nor conceal, these marks. The other natives were, in general, clad with skins. They had long lank hair, but were shorn in every part of the body, except the head and upper lip.
A wretched substitute for salt was obtained merely by pouring sea-water on the embers of burning wood.
The Irish drank the blood of animals and even of their enemies.
King, in the latter half of the first volume, (Munim. Ant.) gives prints of the altars, or Cromlechs, yet entire, in many situations in Ireland, the Highlands, and England, on which human victims were cruelly murdered.
The Druids were richly clad; some of them even wore golden chains, or collars, about their necks and arms; and had their garments dyed with various colours, and adorned with gold. Chains also both of iron and gold, were worn by some of the chieftains and nobler ranks. These facts will appear so incredible, that the reader must be informed, that in most of the tumuli, or old British graves, described by King, these ornaments are found in our days. It is a remarkable omission in Mr. King, that he did not quote the three verses from the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah so descriptive of the Babylonian regal tumuli, similar to the British: “All the kings of the nations lie down in glory, each in his own sepulchre: To meet thee, O Sennacherib, Hades rouseth his mighty dead: he maketh them rise up from their thrones. All of them shall accost thee, and shall say unto thee, Art thou become weak as we? Art thou made like unto us? Is then thy pride brought down to the grave? Is the vermin become thy couch, and the earth-worm thy covering?”
Strabo, at the end of his third book, says, that “the Cassiterides, or Islands of Tin, were inhabited by men dressed in black garments, in tunics descending to the feet, a girdle around their breast; walking erect with a staff in their hand; and permitting the beard to grow like that of a goat. They subsist on their cattle, in general spending an erratic pastoral life.”
Some of the common order of Britons wore, instead of the skins of beasts, very thick coarse wrappers made of wool; a sort of blanket or rug, fastened about the neck with a piece of sharp pointed stick. They used also a coarse, slit, short vest, with sleeves; it barely reached down to the knees.
As armour, the Britons had a long two-handed sword, hanging by a chain on the right hand side; a great long wooden shield as tall as a man; long spears; and a sort of missile wooden instrument, like a javelin, longer than an arrow, which they darted merely by the hand: modern writers call these two last mentioned, Celts, fixed on the end of staves and sticks. Some of them used slings for stones, others had breast plates, made of plates of iron, with hooks, or with wreathed chains: some had helmets of different forms. Many went to battle nearly naked, and some wound chains of iron around their necks and loins.
They generally lay and reposed themselves on the bare ground, yet most of them ate their food sitting on seats. A very beautiful print is given by Mr. King of their various dresses. The plaid seems to be derived from them. The coins of the old British, which are engraven in Speed, in Borlase’s Cornwall, in Gough’s edition of Camden’s Britannia, and in Plot’s History of Oxfordshire, will explain these descriptions of the classics. Even Julius Cæsar had noticed that the Britons used either brass money, or iron circular coins reduced to a standard weight. In the scale of civilization, therefore, the ancient Britons were as advanced in the era of Cæsar, as the Romans themselves at the expulsion of their kings; as the Grecians in the age of Homer; as the Mexicans at the Spanish conquest; and as the modern Tartars.[[49]]