EARLY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN.

(_To the Editor._)


Your interesting columns have afforded me much gratification by the
sketches of the manners of various nations. I am a thorough Englishman
in principle, with a sprinkling, however, of German in my veins, and
as the early history of this country is a point of great interest, if
_The Mirror_ can allow, I will offer a few _reflections_.

Caesar, speaking of our ancestors, calls them, in blunt and plain
Latin "_Barbari_." Now Caesar was a disappointed man; he knew but
little of this land, he invaded it wantonly, and left it gladly. The
Briton was by no means so luxurious as the Roman, but it is wrong to
call him a barbarian.

As priests generally (in such periods as those to which we allude,)
take good care of themselves, and as the Druids were the chiefs, let
us take a few cursory observations upon their manners and customs.

The Druids were _priests and magistrates_. They were divided into
three classes:[7] the bard proper, whose province was philosophy and
poetry; the Druid, or minister of religion; and the ovate, or mechanic
and artist. These classes were all obedient to one superior--the
Archdruid.

[7] Vide Introduction to Owen's Translations of the Elegies of
Llywarch Hen.