A Childs History of England | Page 5

Britons certainly did
not use in making their own uncomfortable houses. I should not wonder if the Druids,
and their pupils who stayed with them twenty years, knowing more than the rest of the
Britons, kept the people out of sight while they made these buildings, and then pretended
that they built them by magic. Perhaps they had a hand in the fortresses too; at all events,
as they were very powerful, and very much believed in, and as they made and executed
the laws, and paid no taxes, I don't wonder that they liked their trade. And, as they
persuaded the people the more Druids there were, the better off the people would be, I
don't wonder that there were a good many of them. But it is pleasant to think that there
are no Druids, NOW, who go on in that way, and pretend to carry Enchanters' Wands and
Serpents' Eggs - and of course there is nothing of the kind, anywhere.
Such was the improved condition of the ancient Britons, fifty-five years before the birth
of Our Saviour, when the Romans, under their great General, Julius Caesar, were masters
of all the rest of the known world. Julius Caesar had then just conquered Gaul; and
hearing, in Gaul, a good deal about the opposite Island with the white cliffs, and about
the bravery of the Britons who inhabited it - some of whom had been fetched over to help
the Gauls in the war against him - he resolved, as he was so near, to come and conquer
Britain next.
So, Julius Caesar came sailing over to this Island of ours, with eighty vessels and twelve
thousand men. And he came from the French coast between Calais and Boulogne,
'because thence was the shortest passage into Britain;' just for the same reason as our
steam-boats now take the same track, every day. He expected to conquer Britain easily:
but it was not such easy work as he supposed - for the bold Britons fought most bravely;
and, what with not having his horse-soldiers with him (for they had been driven back by a
storm), and what with having some of his vessels dashed to pieces by a high tide after
they were drawn ashore, he ran great risk of being totally defeated. However, for once
that the bold Britons beat him, he beat them twice; though not so soundly but that he was
very glad to accept their proposals of peace, and go away.
But, in the spring of the next year, he came back; this time, with eight hundred vessels
and thirty thousand men. The British tribes chose, as their general-in-chief, a Briton,
whom the Romans in their Latin language called CASSIVELLAUNUS, but whose
British name is supposed to have been CASWALLON. A brave general he was, and well
he and his soldiers fought the Roman army! So well, that whenever in that war the
Roman soldiers saw a great cloud of dust, and heard the rattle of the rapid British chariots,
they trembled in their hearts. Besides a number of smaller battles, there was a battle
fought near Canterbury, in Kent; there was a battle fought near Chertsey, in Surrey; there
was a battle fought near a marshy little town in a wood, the capital of that part of Britain
which belonged to CASSIVELLAUNUS, and which was probably near what is now
Saint Albans, in Hertfordshire. However, brave CASSIVELLAUNUS had the worst of it,
on the whole; though he and his men always fought like lions. As the other British chiefs

were jealous of him, and were always quarrelling with him, and with one another, he
gave up, and proposed peace. Julius Caesar was very glad to grant peace easily, and to go
away again with all his remaining ships and men. He had expected to find pearls in
Britain, and he may have found a few for anything I know; but, at all events, he found
delicious oysters, and I am sure he found tough Britons - of whom, I dare say, he made
the same complaint as Napoleon Bonaparte the great French General did, eighteen
hundred years afterwards, when he said they were such unreasonable fellows that they
never knew when they were beaten. They never DID know, I believe, and never will.
Nearly a hundred years passed on, and all that time, there was peace in Britain. The
Britons improved their towns and mode of life: became more civilised, travelled, and
learnt a great deal from the Gauls and Romans. At last, the Roman Emperor, Claudius,
sent AULUS PLAUTIUS, a skilful general, with a mighty force, to subdue the Island,
and shortly afterwards arrived himself. They did little; and OSTORIUS SCAPULA,
another general, came. Some of the British Chiefs of Tribes submitted. Others