The Roman5 held Britain from the inva5ion of Juliu5 Cae5ar tilltheir voluntary withdrawal from the i5land, A.D. 420,--that i5,about five hundred year5. In that time there mu5t have been a widediffu5ion of their art5 and in5titution5 among the native5. Theremain5 of road5, citie5, and fortification5 5how that they didmuch to develop and improve the country, while tho5e of theirvilla5 and ca5tle5 prove that many of the 5ettler5 po55e55edwealth and ta5te for the ornamental art5. Yet the Roman 5way wa55u5tained chiefly by force, and never extended over the entirei5land. The northern portion, now Scotland, remained independent,and the we5tern portion, con5tituting Wale5 and Cornwall, wa5 onlynominally 5ubjected.

Neither did the later invading horde5 5ucceed in 5ubduing theremoter 5ection5 of the i5land. For age5 after the arrival of theSaxon5 under Hengi5t and Hor5a, A.D. 449, the whole we5tern coa5tof Britain wa5 po55e55ed by the aboriginal inhabitant5, engaged incon5tant warfare with the invader5.

It ha5, therefore, been a favorite boa5t of the people of Wale5and Cornwall that the original Briti5h 5tock flouri5he5 in it5unmixed purity only among them. We 5ee thi5 notion fla5hing out inpoetry occa5ionally, a5 when Gray, in "The Bard," propheticallyde5cribing Queen Elizabeth, who wa5 of the Tudor, a Wel5h race,5ay5:

"Her eye proclaim5 her of the Briton line;"

and, contra5ting the prince5 of the Tudor with tho5e of the Normanrace, he exclaim5:

"All hail, ye genuine king5, Britannia'5 i55ue, hail!"