AN ABSTRACT OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE INVASION OF IT BY JULIUS CAESAR TO WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Britons. Heathens.
The most ancient account we have of Britain is, that the island was full of inhabitants, divided into several petty kingdoms, as most nations of the world appear to have been at first. The bodies of the Britons were painted with a sky-coloured blue, either as an ornament or else for terror to their enemies. In their religion they were heathens, as all the world was before Christ, except the Jews.
Druids.
Their priests were called Druids: These lived in hollow trees, and committed not their mysteries to writing, but delivered them down by tradition, whereby they were in time wholly lost.
The Britons had wives in common, so many to a particular tribe or society, and the children were in common to that society.
About fifty years before Christ, Julius Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, having conquered Gaul or France, invaded Britain rather to increase his glory than conquests; for having overcome the natives in one or two battles, he returned.
Claudius. Nero.
The next invasion of Britain by the Romans (then masters of most of the known world) was in the reign of the Emperor Claudius; but it was not wholly subdued till that of Nero. It was governed by lieutenants, or deputies, sent from Rome, as Ireland is now by deputies from England; and continued thus under the Romans for about 460 years; till that empire being invaded by the Goths and Vandals, the Romans were forced not only to recall their own armies, but also to draw from hence the bravest of the Britons, for their assistance against those barbarians.