3. Of Britain after its abandonment by the Romans, until the Saxon Conquest.-The final departure of the Romans was no sooner known to the Scots and Picts, than they poured in upon the provincial Britons from all quarters, according to Gildas, like hungry wolves into a sheepfold. When the Scots approached the new built wall, they found it guarded by great numbers of armed men. But so little had the Britons profited by the military instructions of the Romans, that instead of placing proper guards, and relieving one another by turns, their whole number had staid several days and nights upon the ramparts, without intermission. Being therefore quite benumbed and wearied out, they were able to make but little resistance. Many were pulled down with hooks from the battlements, and dashed in pieces. The rest were driven from their stations with showers of darts and arrows. They betook themselves to flight; but the Scots and Picts pursued them close, made a dreadful havoc among the fugitives, and took possession of the frontier towns, which were deserted by the inhabitants. As they now met with no more opposition, they over-ran the whole country. Their ravages soon occasioned a famine; and this was followed by a kind of civil war. The whole country at last became so incapable of supporting those who were left in it, that many fled into the woods, in order to subsist by hunting. In this extremity of distress, they had once more recourse to the Romans; and wrote in the most mournful style that can be imagined to Aetius then consul. Their letter was addressed The groans of the Britons, to the consul Aetius.' The contents of this letter were answerable to the direction. 'The barbarians (say they) drive us to the sea; and the sea drives us back to the barbarians; between which we have only the choice of two deaths, either to be swallowed up by the waves, or to be cruelly massacred by the enemy.' To this letter the Roman general gave no satisfactory answer, and the provincials were thereupon reduced to despair. Great numbers fled over to Armorica, where they settled along with others who had formerly gone over with an usurper called Maximus; while others submitted to the Scots and Picts. Some, however, more resolute than the rest, had once more recourse to arms. They sallied out in parties, and, falling unexpectedly on the enemy, cut great numbers of them in pieces, and obliged the rest to retire. Having thus obtained some respite, they began again to cultivate their lands, which now produced all kinds of grain in the greatest plenty; a plenty which, according to Gildas, occasioned the utmost corruption of manners among all ranks. The clergy, says he, who should have reclaimed the laity by their example, proved the ringleaders in every vice; being addicted to drunkenness, contention, envy, &c. Nor is it probable that this description was exaggerated by Gildas, who was himself a monk. However this was, the Britons had not long enjoyed peace, when they were alarmed by a report that the Scots and Picts were about to return in far greater force. This threw them into the greatest consternation; and. to add to their misfortunes, they were now visited by a dreadful plague which raged with such violence, that the living

sense

were scarce sufficient to bury the dead. The contagion no sooner ceased than they were invaded by the Scots and Picts, who destroyed everything with fire and sword. Such is Gildas' narrative: Mr. Turner, however, here introduces a brilliant period of the history of Independent Britain. But he acknowledges it to have been very short. At this time Vortigern, Gurthrgern, or Gwrtheyrn, is mentioned by various writers as thechief, if not the only king of the southern division of Britain. He is said to have been a cruel debauched tyrant, regardless of the public welfare, and totally incapable of promoting it. Being now roused from his insensibility, however, by a of his own danger, he summoned a council of the chief men of the nation, to consult about the proper means for delivering the country from its calamities. In this council the most pernicious measure was adopted that could possibly have been resolved on; namely, to invite to their assistance the Saxons, a people famous for their piracies and cruelties, and justly dreaded by the Britons themselves. See SAXONS. The fatal expedient being agreed upon, ambassadors are said by some writers, to have been despatched into Germany; who, according to Witichind, a Saxon historian of the ninth century, made a dolorous speech before an assembly of that nation, and were very favorably received by the Saxons. The latter embraced their proposal with joy; their soothsayers foretold that they should plunder their British allies for 150 years, and reign over them for twice that time. Three ships were therefore fitted out, this account proceeds to say, under the conduct of Hengist and Horsa, two brothers much celebrated for their valor. They were sons of Witigisil, said to be great grandson to the Saxon god Woden; a circumstance which added much to their authority. Having embarked about 1600 men on board their three vessels, the two brothers arrived in the isle of Thanet, in 449, or 450. They were received by the inhabitants with the greatest demonstrations of joy; the isle in which they had landed was immediately appointed for their habitation; and a league was concluded, in virtue of which the Saxons were to defend the provincial Britons against all foreign enemies; and the provincials were to allow the Saxors pay and maintenance, besides the place allotted them for their abode. Soon after their arrival, king Vortigern led them against the northern nations, who had lately broke into the kingdom, and advanced as far as Stamford, in Lincolnshire. Here a battle was fought, in which the Scots and Picts were utterly defeated. Vortigern was so highly pleased with his new allies, that he bestowed large possessions upon Hengist and Horsa. It is said, that, even at this time, Hengist was delighted with the wealth and fertility of the country; and that, observing the inhabitants to be quite enervated with luxury, he began to entertain hopes of conquering part of it. He, therefore, with Vortigern's consent, invited over more of his countrymen, informing them of the fruitfulness of the country, the effeminacy of the inhabitants, and how easily a conquest might be effected. The Saxons readily complied, and in 452, as

many more arrived in seventeen vessels, as, with those already in Britain, made up 5000 men. A.ong with these came over Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. Vortigern fell in love with this lady; and to obtain her in marriage, divorced his queen. Hengist pretended to be averse to the match; but Vortigern obtained his consent by investing him with the sovereignty of Kent. Vortigern had as yet continued in friendship with the Saxons, and even put more confidence in them than in his own subjects. For, not long after the arrival of this reinforcement, Hengist obtained leave to send for a second, in order, as was pretended, to defend the king from the attempts of his rebellious subjects. These embarked in forty ships, under the command of Octa and Ebusa, the son, or brother, or nephew of Hengist. They landed at the Orkney islands; and having ravaged them, and all the northern coasts of Scotland, they conquered several places beyond the Frith, and at last obtained leave to settle in Northumberland. The pretence for this settlement was, that the Saxons under Octa and Ebusa might defend the northern frontiers of the kingdom, as those under Hengist and Horsa did the southern parts. Many more Saxons were, under various pretences, invited over: till at last, their numbers being greatly increased, they began to quarrel with the natives. They demanded larger allowances of corn and other provisions; threatening to lay waste the whole country if their demands were not complied with. The Britons, instead of complying, desired them to return home, since their numbers exceeded what they were able to maintain. Upon this the Saxons concluded a peace with the Scots and Picts; and, turning their arms against the unhappy Britons, over-ran the whole country, committing everywhere the greatest cruelties. All buildings, whether public or private, they levelled with the ground. The cities were pillaged and burnt; and the people massacred in such numbers, without distinction of sex or age, that the living scarce sufficed to bury the dead. Those who escaped took refuge among inaccessible rocks and mountains, where they either perished with hunger, or were forced to surrender as slaves to their enemies. Some crossed the sea and settled in Holland, and in Armorica in Gaul. Vortigern was so far from being reclaimed by these calamities, that he added incest to his other crimes, and married his own daughter. At last, his own subjects, provoked at his enormous wickedness, and the partiality he had shown to the Saxons, deposed him, and raised his son Vortimer to the throne. He was a young man of great valor, and willingly undertook the defence of his distressed country. He first fell upon the Saxons, and drove them into the isle of Thanet, where he besieged them, till, being reinforced by fresh supplies, they opened a way through the British troops. Vortimer, however, engaged them, on the banks of the Darent, in Kent, where he obtained a complete victory. Another battle was fought at Ailesford, in which Horsa the brother of Hengist was killed. A third battle was fought, in which the victory was uncertain, as is also the place where it happened. The fourth battle, however, according to Nennius, proved decisive in favor

of the Britons. Vortimer engaged his enemies, according to some, at Folkstone; according to others, at Stonar, in the isle of Thanet. The Saxons were defeated with great slaughter, and driven back to their ships. So complete is the victory said to have been, that the Saxons quitted the island, without making any attempt on it for five years afterwards. These battles, however, rest entirely upon the credit of Nennius, and the historians who have followed him. They are taken notice of neither by Gildas nor Bede. The former, indeed, acquaints us that the Saxons retired. This, by most historians, is understood of their returning home; though he might mean no more, than that they retired into Kent and Northumberland. Vortimer died after a reign of six years, and Hengist no sooner heard of his death, than he invaded Britain anew with a numerous body of Saxons. He was opposed by Vortigern, who had been restored on the death of his son. Several battles were fought, but at last the Britons being overthrown at a place called Crecanford, with the loss of 4000 men, were obliged to abandon Kent, and retire to London. This happened about A. D. 458 or 459.

From this time most historians date the erection of the first Saxon kingdom in Britain, viz. that of Kent. Hengist assumed the title of king, and chose Esk his son for his colleague. The Britons under Vortigern still continued the war. Hengist finding himself unable to gain a decisive advantage over them in the field, had recourse to treachery. He pretended to be desirous of concluding a peace with the British monarch, and of renewing his ancient friendship with him; and therefore required an interview. To this Vortigern readily consented, and accepted an entertainment prepared for him by Hengist. The king was attended by 300 nobility, all unarmed, but the Saxons had concealed daggers below their garments. The British nobility were all treacherously massacred in the height of their mirth; Vortigern himself was taken and put in fetters; nor could his liberty be procured, but by ceding to the Saxons those provinces now called Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex. The Saxons thus obtained such a footing in Britain that they could never afterwards be expelled. Vortigern, after being set at liberty, is said to have retired to a vast wilderness near the fall of the Wye in Radnorshire, where he was some time after consumed by lightning, together with a city called Kaer Vourtigern, which he had built at that place. On the retreat of Vortigern, the command of the British forces devolved upon Aurelius Ambrosius, who gained several victories over the Saxons. See AMBROsrus. Notwithstanding this, they still continued to gain ground; and, in 491, the foundation of a second Saxon kingdom was laid in Britain. This at first comprehended only the county of Sussex, but soon after extended over most of the counties lying south of the Humber. It was called the kingdom of the South Saxons. The German nations being informed of the ruccess of the Saxons, in Britain, new adventurers daily flocked over. They were chiefly of three nations, Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. All these passed under the

co nmon appellation sometimes of Saxons, sometimes of Angles. They spoke the same language, and agreed very much in their customs, so that all of them naturally combined against the natives. The most active of these adventurers was Cerdic a Saxon, said to be the tenth in descent from Woden. He landed with his son Cenric, and as many men as he could convey in five ships, at Yarmouth in Norfolk. The Britons immediately attacked him with great vigor; but, after a short engagement, they were totally defeated. Many other battles were fought, the event of which was always favorable to the Saxons, so that the Britons were forced to abandon their coasts to them. In 497 Porta, another Saxon, with his two sons Bleda and Magla, and a fresh body of Saxons, arrived at Portsmouth, so named, it is said, from this chieftain. The Britons attempted to oppose their landing, but were defeated with great slaughter; after which Porta made himself master of all the neighbouring country. The progress of Cerdic, however, alarmed the Britons more than that of all the other Saxon princes. About the year 508, therefore, Nazaleod, styled by Henry of Huntingdon, the greatest of all the British kings, assembled almost the whole strength of the South Britons to drive him out of the island. Cerdic, on the other hand took care to strengthen himself by procuring assistance from all the Saxons already in the island. He then advanced against the Britons, commanding the right wing himself, and his son Cenric the left. As the two armies drew near each other, Nazaleod perceived the enemy's right wing to be much stronger than the left. He therefore attacked it with the flower of his army; and after an obstinate resistance, obliged Cerdic to save himself by flight. But, being too eager in the pursuit, Cenric fell upon his rear; and the British army was at last entirely defeated; and 5000 men, among whom was Nazaleod himself, were left dead on the spot. Who succeeded Nazaleod is not known. The Welsh annals have an interregnum of about six years; after which they place the beginning of the reign of Arthur, the most renowned of our ancient princes. His history is so much obscured by absurd, romantic, and ridiculous fables, that some have supposed, no such person ever existed. But a decisive proof of his existence is, that his tomb was discovered at Glastonbury in Somersetshire, and his coffin dug up, in the reign of Henry II. See ARTHUR. This renowned prince is said to have defeated the Saxons under Cerdic in twelve pitched battles. The last of them was fought on Badon hill (supposed to be Lansdown near Bath), in which the Saxons received such a terrible overthrow, that for many years they gave the Britons no further molestation. As new supplies of them, however, were continually flocking over, a third and fourth kingdom of them were soon formed. The third kingdom comprehended the counties of Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire; to which was afterwards added Cornwall. This was called the kingdom of the West Saxons. The other kingdom, which was called the kingdom of the East Saxons, comprehended Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. In 542

king Arthur was mortally wounded, fighting with his treacherous nephew, Mordred, whom he killed on the spot. Five years afterwards the Saxon kingdom of Northumberland was erected. It extended much farther than the present bounds of that county; for it comprehended all Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland, with part of Scotland, as far as the frith of Forth. Between these Saxon kings frequent contentions now arose, by which means the Britons enjoyed an uninterrupted tranquillity for at least forty-four years. The sixth Saxon kingdom, called that of the East Angles, was founded in 575, and comprehended the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and the Isle of Ely. The Saxons once more attacked the Britons, and overthrew them in many battles. The war was continued for ten years; after which the seventh Saxon kingdom, called Mercia, was set up. It comprehended seventeen counties, viz. Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester, Rutland, Northampton, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford, Stafford, Nottingham, Derby, Shropshire, Cheshire, and part of Hertfordshire. The Britons were now confined within very narrow bounds. However, before they entirely gave up the best part of their country to their enemies, they once more resolved to try the event of a battle. At this time they were assisted by the Angles, who were jealous of the overgrown power of the West Saxons. The battle was fought in Wiltshire, at Woden's Bearth, a place near the ditch called Wansdike or Wodensdike: which runs through the middle of the county. The battle was very obstinate and bloody; but at last the Saxons were entirely defeated, and almost their whole army cut off. The victory, however, proved of little service to the Britons: for being greatly inferior in number to the Saxons, and harassed by them on the one side, and by the Scots and Picts on the other, they were daily more and more confined; and at last obliged to take refuge among the craggy and mountainous places in the west of the island, where their enemies could not pursue them. At first they possessed all the country beyond the rivers Dee and Severn, which anciently divided Cambria or Wales from England; the towns which stand on the eastern banks of these rivers having mostly been built to restrain the incursions of the Welsh. But the Anglo-Saxons, having passed the Severn, by degrees seized on the country lying between that river and the Wye. Nay, some parts even of Flintshire and Denbighshire were subject to the kings of Mercia: for Uffa, the most powerful king of that country, caused a deep ditch to be drawn, and a high wall built as a barrier between his dominions and the territories of the Welsh, from the mouth of the river Dee, a little above Flint Castle, to the mouth of the Wye. This ditch is still to be seen in several places; and is called by the Welsh Claudh Uffa, or the ditch of Uffa. The inhabitants of the towns on the east side of this ditch are called by the same people Guyr y Mers: that is, the men of Mercia. Thus, after a violent contest of near 150 years, the Saxons entirely subdued the Britons whom they had come to

BRITANNIA, in ancient geography, Great Britain and all the islands belonging to it. BRITANNIA MINOR, the ci-devant province of Brittany, or Bretagne, in France.

BRITANNIC PLAGUE, a name given by some writers to the Anglicanus sudor, or sweating disease.

BRITANNICA, in the botany and materia medica of the ancients, the name of a plant described as having leaves of a dark color, very large, and in shape resembling those of the common wild-dock, but somewhat hairy and of an astringent taste; the root small and slender, and the stalk not large. This is the description of Dioscorides, who attributes to its inspissated juice great virtues as an astringent, and a remedy for ulcers of the mouth and tonsils; and Pliny acquaints us of its prodigious efficacy in a distemper attending the army of Germanicus, who, when they had crossed the Rhine, encamped in a place where there was only one spring of water, the drinking of which affected them in a terrible manner in their mouths, and made their teeth drop out; and that the physicians, who called the disease stomacace and scelotyrbe, were at length directed to the herb Britannica, as a remedy, by the Frisians who were in their camp. The virtues attributed to this plant are observed, by later physicians, to agree with those of the hydrolopathum majus, or great water-dock, a plant produced very abundantly with us, but at present neglected in the practice of physic; and Muntingius, who has written professedly of the Britannica of the ancients, is persuaded that this is the genuine plant; which appears extremely probable.

BRITANNICUS, son of the emperor Claudius by Messalina, was excluded from the epire after his father had married Agrippina; who put her son Nero on the throne, and caused Britannicus to be poisoned, A. D. 55. To BRITE, v. n. TO BRIGHT.

Barley, wheat, or hops, are said to brite, when they

grow over-ripe. BRITOMARTIS, in mythology, a daughter of Jupiter, who threw herself into the sea, to avoid the puruit of Minos.

BRITTANY, or BRETAGNE, a ci-devant province of France, 150 miles in length and 112 in breadth; anciently called Armorica. It is a peninsula, surrounded on all sides by the ocean except on the east, where it joined Anjou, Maine, Normandy, and Poitou. It was divided into the upper and lower. The natives carry on great trade, by the many harbours on its coast. It was united to the crown of France in 1532, and abounds in large forests. Some authors suppose that Great Britain was first peopled from Brittany. It is now divided into five departments. See BRETAGNE.

BRITTLE, Goth. brita, Islan. briota, BRITTLENESS. Swed. bryta, Sax. brytan. To break; to divide; frangible; easily broken.

On brotel ground they bilde; and brotelnesse, They finden, whan they wenen sikernesse.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Neither precious stones, nor durefull brasse, Nor shining gold, nor mouldring clay it was;

BRITTLENESS. Brittle bodies are extremely hard; a very small percussion exerts a force on them equivalent to the greatest pressure. This effect is particularly remarkable in glass suddenly cooled, the brittleness of which is thereby much increased. Tin, though in itself tough, gives a brittleness to all the other metals when mixed therewith. The brittleness of glass has been said to arise from the heterogenity of the parts whereof it is composed, as salt and sand can never bind sufficiently together: but this cannot be the case; for the pure calces of metals, or any other simple substances when vitrified, become brittle also. In timbers, brittleness seems to be connected with durability; the more brittle any sort of wood is, the more durable it is found. and birch, being tough, presently rot, and are of Thus oak is of very long duration; while beech little service in building.

BRITTON (Thomas), the famous musical small coal-man, was born at Higham Ferrers in

Northamptonshire. He served his time in London, where he set up in a stable, next door to the little gate of St. John of Jerusalem, on Clerkenwell-green, which he converted into a house. Here becoming acquainted with Dr. Garenciers, his neighbour, he became an excellent chemist, and constructed a movable laboratory which was much admired by all who saw it. His skill in music was noways inferior to that in chemistry, either in the theory or practice; he had for many years a well frequented musical club, meeting at his own little cell; and was well respected and known by persons of the first quamoral character. In Ward's account of clubs, lity; being, above all, a valuable man in his we are told, that 'Britton's was first begun, or at least confirmed, by Sir Roger L'Estrange, a very musical gentleman.' This meeting was the first of the kind, and gave rise to some of the most celebrated concerts in London. Ward says, a concert was performed in his own house, which is thus described. On the ground floor