[[See larger version]]

GLASTONBURY ABBEY. (See p. [31.])

[[See larger version]]

CHAPTER III.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS AND THEIR CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY.

The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons—Their Village Communities—Larger Combinations, Gradations of Rank—Morality and Religion—Hengist and Horsa found the Kingdom of Kent—The Kingdoms of Sussex, Wessex and Essex—The Anglian Kingdoms—Mercia—The Welsh—Gregory and St. Augustine—Augustine and Kent—Conversion of Northumbria—England becomes Christian—The Greatness of Mercia—King Offa.

After the departure of the Romans, the Britons were left to contend as best they could against the hordes of invaders who pressed upon them from the north, and on the eastern coast from overseas. The Saxons reappeared, and were accompanied by the kindred nations known as the Jutes and Angles. It is from this last nation that England takes her name, the land of the Angles, or English, and we shall soon cease to talk of Britain.