Hawridge Common, only a few miles from this spot, and there are but few districts where Roman antiquities have not been found. Excellent roads were made from one end of the country to the other, traces of which still remain. One, called Watling Street, reached from Dover to London, Watling and proceeded to the North of England, passing through through St. Albans, which was then called Verula- St. Albans. mium; and it is from this name that the Earl of Verulam takes his title. I mention this great road especially, because you will take an interest in it, from its connection with St. Albans.

Street goes

anity in

A very important event occurred during the stay Christiof the Romans, viz. the conversion of the Britons to troduced, Christianity. It is uncertain by whom Christianity A.D. 300. was introduced, and even the precise time is unknown, but it is certain that, about the year 300 A.D., Christianity was firmly established in Britain. About that time British bishops attended a council in France; and a few years previously, St. Alban, from whom St. Albans derives its name, suffered martyrdom as a Christian. During the sway of the Saxons, of which I shall soon have to speak, Christianity was nearly extinguished in the land, but the inhabitants of Britain were reconverted by St. Augustine, about the year A.D. 600, as I shall presently relate to you more fully.

I cannot enumerate to you all the advantages we derived from the Romans; but I must tell you that we derived also some disadvantages from their stay in England; for with greater civilisation came greater luxury, and the Britons were less brave and less able to resist their enemies when the Romans left them, than when they came.

The Saxons come over

A D. 429.

Arrival of the Saxons.

Another famous race now appeared, and began to to England. ravage the coasts,-a race which is the foundationstone of our greatness-a race whose descendants have thriven, while the children of other races have decayed. I allude to the Saxons. They came as pirates, and they ravaged the land as robbers; but they were bold freemen, they are our ancestors, and it is to them that we owe the energy, the perseverance, and the unconquerable determination that distinguish the English people. Where are now the Spaniards, who once ruled a large part of the Old World, and who discovered and ruled over a large part of the New? Sunk and degenerate, and all their greatness gone. What is the state of that gallant nation the French? They, too, are sunk. Notwithstanding, or perhaps I should say, as a necessary consequence of the horrible scenes of wild revolution through which they have passed, they have, for the present at least, lost all the liberty they once possessed. What has been their success in peopling the earth? When the French have planted their foot on foreign soils, whether in America, in India, or in "Afric's torrid zone," never have they been able to found one flourishing colony. These are the descendants of the Celts. But what is the history of the Anglo-Saxons? They have colonies in every clime; they have descendants in every quarter of the globe; and, thank God! they have preserved their freedom as vigorous as in the days of their old Saxon forefathers.

The true old Saxon spirit is so well expressed in a poem by Mr. Kingsley, called an "Ode to the NorthEast Wind," that I must read it to you:

ODE TO THE NORTH-EAST WIND.

These lines seem to me to breathe the very soul of the old Saxon energy. Whether it is in exploring the Arctic Regions of eternal ice, or toiling under the burning sun of Africa,-whether it is in braving the

The Saxons

came from

heat of India, or in climbing the snowy Alps,-the Saxon seems to take delight in danger and in difficulty. Whatever calls forth his energy, that seems to the Saxon a source of happiness; and the energy called forth by our varying climate, and by our cold north-easters, seems to me to be well described in the noble lines I have quoted.

Where did the Saxons come from?

It was from the north-western parts of Germany and the frontiers of Denmark, and more especially Denmark. from Sleswick, Holstein, and the north-western half of Hanover that these invaders came. They called themselves Angles, but by the Britons and Romans they were called Saxons. From the Angles, England derives its name of Angla-land, or England.

South
Seaxe,
or Sussex.

Some of the Saxons established themselves in Surrey and Sussex, and formed the kingdom of South Seaxe, or the South Saxons; others in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, and formed the kingor Wessex. dom of West Seaxe, or the West Saxons; and others, in Middlesex and Essex, formed the kingdom of East Seaxe, or the East Saxons.

West Seaxe,

East
Seaxe, or
Essex.

The Northfolk, or Norfolk.

folk, or

Suffolk.

Others established themselves in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge, and formed the kingdom of East Anglia, which was divided into the North-folk, or The South- people living in the North of Anglia, from whence the name Norfolk comes, and the South-folk, or people of the South, from whom the name of Suffolk The settlers in the midland counties, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, &c., formed the kingdom of Mercia; and to the north of the Humber they formed the kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, afterwards called Northumberland.

comes.

The invaders of Kent were called Jutes, between whom and the Angles there was probably a considerable difference, though both belonged to the same

race.

The Jutes came from the northern parts of Denmark, now called Jutland.

These Saxons at first helped the Britons against the Picts and Scots, but they soon became their masters, and settled themselves in the land. The races which have sprung from the mixture of these Angles, or Saxons, with the original inhabitants of these islands, are called Anglo-Saxons.

Ethelbert, King of Kent.

The history of the Anglo-Saxons is evidently so Ethelbert, much mixed up with fable, that, until the reign of A.D. 560.