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Luck, Logic, and White Lies
 Luck, Logic, and White Lies
The Mathematics of Games, Second
Edition

Jörg Bewersdorff
Translated by David Kramer
Second edition published 2021
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

and by CRC Press

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

First edition published by CRC Press 2005

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but
the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all
materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have
attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this
publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form
has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged
please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be
reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bewersdorff, Jörg, author.
Title: Luck, logic, and white lies: the mathematics of games / Jörg Bewersdorff;
translated by David Kramer.
Other titles: Glück, Logik und Bluff. English
Description: Second edition. | Boca Raton: AK Peters/CRC Press, 2021. |
First published in German under the title “Glück, Logik und Bluff :
Mathematik im Spiel – Methoden, Ergebnisse und Grenzen” by Jörg Bewersdorff,
7th edition, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020050764 (print) | LCCN 2020050765 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367552961 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367548414 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003092872 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Game theory.
Classification: LCC QA269 .B39413 2021 (print) | LCC QA269 (ebook) |
DDC 519.3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050764
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050765

ISBN: 978-0-367-55296-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-54841-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09287-2 (ebk)

First published in German under the title Glück, Logik und Bluff; Mathematik im
Spiel – Methoden, Ergebnisse und Grenzen by Jörg Bewersdorff, edition: 7
Copyright © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature,
2018 * This edition has been translated and published under licence from Springer
Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature. Springer Fachmedien
Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature takes no responsibility and shall not be
made liable for the accuracy of the translation.
Contents

Foreword

Preface

Part I Games of Chance

1 Dice and Probability

2 Waiting for a Double 6

3 Tips on Playing the Lottery: More Equal than Equal?

4 A Fair Division: But How?

5 The Red and the Black: The Law of Large Numbers

6 Asymmetric Dice: Are They Worth Anything?

7 Probability and Geometry

8 Chance and Mathematical Certainty: Are They

Reconcilable?

9 In Quest of the Equiprobable

10 Winning the Game: Probability and Value

11 Which Die Is Best?

12 A Die Is Tested

13 The Normal Distribution: A Race to the Finish!

14 And Not Only at Roulette: The Poisson Distribution

15 When Formulas Become Too Complex: The Monte Carlo

Method

16 Markov Chains and the Game Monopoly

17 Blackjack: A Las Vegas Fairy Tale

Part II Combinatorial Games

18 Which Move Is Best?

19 Chances of Winning and Symmetry

20 A Game for Three

21 Nim: The Easy Winner!

22 Lasker Nim: Winning along a Secret Path

23 Black-and-White Nim: To Each His (or Her) Own

24 A Game with Dominoes: Have We Run Out of Space Yet?

25 Go: A Classical Game with a Modern Theory

26 Misère Games: Loser Wins!

27 The Computer as Game Partner

28 Can Winning Prospects Always Be Determined?

29 Games and Complexity: When Calculations Take Too

Long

30 A Good Memory and Luck: And Nothing Else?

31 Backgammon: To Double or Not to Double?

32 Mastermind: Playing It Safe

Part III Strategic Games

33 Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Enemy’s Unknown Plan

34 Minimax versus Psychology: Even in Poker?

35 Bluffing in Poker: Can It Be Done without Psychology?

36 Symmetric Games: Disadvantages Are Avoidable, but

How?

37 Minimax and Linear Optimization: As Simple as Can Be

38 Play It Again, Sam: Does Experience Make Us Wiser?

39 Le Her: Should I Exchange?

40 Deciding at Random: But How?

41 Optimal Play: Planning Efficiently

42 Baccarat: Draw from a Five?

43 Three-Person Poker: Is It a Matter of Trust?

44 QUAAK! Child’s Play?

45 Mastermind: Color Codes and Minimax

46 A Car, Two Goats—and a Quizmaster

Part IV Epilogue: Chance, Skill, and Symmetry

47 A Player’s Influence and Its Limits

48 Games of Chance and Games of Skill

49 In Quest of a Measure

50 Measuring the Proportion of Skill

51 Poker: The Hotly Debated Issue

Index
Foreword

Can a popular science book be both popular and scholarly? This is

indeed a popular as well as scholarly book, now in its seventh
German printing, translated here as its second English edition. It is
about an attractive topic, mathematics and games. People love
games, with their competition and thrill, and if they cannot play
themselves, they watch good players and admire their skill.
Mathematicians readily admit to their play-instinct, but fewer admit
that some parts of their discipline, such as probability theory, started
with the analysis of gambling problems.
Probability is treated in Part I of this book, introduced playfully
along historical lines about mathematicians such as Pierre-Simon
Laplace who analyzed the chances in dice games. There are
substantial concepts in probability to learn here, from Pascal’s
triangle to the law of large numbers and Markov chains, which tell
the best streets to buy in Monopoly. Each chapter of the book is of
an easily digestible length and teaches a substantial point, and the
main parts can be read independently.
Part II is about logic and games of pure skill of mind. Chess is the
foremost such game. Emanuel Lasker was not only a world chess
champion for a record 27 years (1894–1921), but a mathematician
interested in many other games, mostly combinatorial games “of no
chance” such as go and the simpler but important game nim. It is
worth reading this book just to learn about Lasker alone. In 1912,
Ernst Zermelo showed that chess has a known outcome when played
perfectly, namely, that with optimal play, either White can force a
win, or Black can force a win, or both can force a draw, except that
humans have not found these optimal strategies yet and therefore
still enjoy and compete in playing chess. Zermelo was a logician, and
the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms of set theory are the commonly used
foundations of modern mathematics. Abraham Fraenkel’s nephew
Aviezri Fraenkel is still alive and an authority on combinatorial
games; like his uncle, he emigrated in time with his father from
Munich to what is now Israel. Another logician from the early 20th
century was John von Neumann, who went on to found modern
game theory.
Part III is about game theory in its general setting, where, unlike
in chess, players don’t know the others’ “cards,” as exemplified in a
poker game. A central insight is that players should keep their
opponents guessing, such as occasionally “bluffing” in poker. The
main purpose of a bluff is not to win with a weak hand, but to lure
the other players into risking a high bet when you do have a strong
hand. The famous minimax theorem by von Neumann states that
every zero-sum game has “bluffing probabilities” that are optimal
even when the other player knows them, as long as you use them to
randomize your actions to be unpredictable. John Nash then
extended such strategies to less confrontational games that have
win-win options with the more general concept of “equilibrium.” One
section in Nash’s doctoral thesis analyzes a simplified three-person
poker game (described in Chapter 43 of this book). The thesis is
only 27 pages long and won Nash, 44 years later, the Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
An epilogue in Part IV treats, among other things, the issue of
whether a game requires skill or mere luck. Most games have both
elements, but this question leads into a legal minefield in the context
of gambling laws in many jurisdictions. If you plan to design an
Internet game for promoting your company, read these chapters
first! The author knows his mettle as former chief executive of a
manufacturer of gambling machines. I hasten to add that he has a
PhD in mathematics from Bonn, Germany’s strongest mathematics
faculty. As for his passion for mathematics, I envy his choice that
instead of pushing some arcane corner of the research frontier, he
cherry-picks the nicest topics from mathematics and writes popular
books about them.
What makes this book special is not just its entertaining topic but
its historical wealth of information and its informal style of teaching
serious mathematics from which you really learn. It is also a
scholarly work where the author studied the original sources and
discovered many gems, and writes with authority about them. Non-
specialists and mathematicians alike will continue to enjoy and learn
from this book.

Bernhard von Stengel

Professor, Department of Mathematics, London School of Economics.
Co-editor of “International Journal of Game Theory”,
London
Preface

A feeling of adventure is an element of games. We compete against the

uncertainty of fate, and experience how we grab hold of it through our
own efforts.

—Alex Randolph, game author

The Uncertainty of Games

Why do we play games? What causes people to play games for
hours on end? Why are we not bored playing the same game over
and over again? And is it really the same game? When we play a
game again and again, only the rules remain the same. The course
of the game and its outcome change each time we play. The future
remains in darkness, just as in real life, or in a novel, a movie, or a
sporting event. That is what keeps things entertaining and generates
excitement.
The excitement is heightened by the possibility of winning. Every
player wants to win, whether to make a profit, experience a brief
moment of joy, or have a feeling of accomplishment. Whatever the
reason, every player can hope for victory. Even a loser can rekindle
hope that the next round will bring success. In this, the hope of
winning can often blind a player to what is in reality a small
probability of success. The popularity of casino games and lotteries
proves this point again and again.
 Amusement and hope of winning have the same basis: the variety
that exists in a game. It keeps the players guessing for a long time
as to how the game will develop and what the final outcome will be.
What causes this uncertainty? What are the mechanisms at work? In
comparing games like roulette, chess, and poker, we see that there
are three main types of mechanism:

1. chance;

2. the large number of combinations of different moves;

3. different states of information among the individual players.

Random influences occur in games involving dice and the mixing of

cards. The course of a game, in accordance with its rules, is
determined not only by decisions made by the players, but also by
the results of random processes. If the influence of chance
dominates the decisions of the players, then one speaks of games of
chance. In games of pure chance, the decision of a player to take
part and the size of a player’s bet are perhaps his1 most important
decisions. Games of chance that are played for money are generally
governed by legal statute.
During the course of most games, there are certain situations in
which the players have the opportunity to make decisions. The
available choices are limited by the rules of the game. A segment of
a game that encompasses just one such decision of a single player is
called a move. After only a small number of moves, the number of
possibilities can already represent an enormous number of
combinations, a number so large that it is difficult to recognize the
consequences of an individual move. Games whose uncertainty rests
on the multiplicity of possible moves are called combinatorial games.
Well-known representatives of this class are chess, go, nine men’s
morris, checkers, halma, and reversi. Games that include both
combinatorial and random elements are backgammon and pachisi,
where the combinatorial character of backgammon is stronger than
that of pachisi.
 A third source of uncertainty for the players of a game arises
when the players do not all have the same information about the
current state of the game, so that one player may not possess all
the information that is available to the totality of players. Thus, for
example, a poker player must make decisions without knowing his
opponents’ cards. One could also argue that in backgammon a
player has to move without knowing the future rolls of the dice. Yet
there is a great difference between poker and backgammon: no
player knows what the future rolls of the dice will be, while a portion
of the cards dealt to the players are known by each player. Games in
which the players’ uncertainty arises primarily from such imperfect
information are called strategic games. These games seldom exist in
a form that one might call purely strategic. Imperfect information is
an important component of most card games, such as poker, skat,
and bridge. In the board games Ghosts and Stratego, the imperfect
information is based on the fact that one knows the location, but not
the type, of the opponent’s pieces.2 In Diplomacy3 and rock–paper–
scissors,4 the players move simultaneously, so that each player is
lacking the information about his opponent’s current move. How this
imperfect information plays out in a game can be shown by
considering what happens to the game if the rules are changed so
that the game becomes one of perfect information. In card games,
the players would have to show their hands. Poker would become a
farce, while skat would remain a combinatorially interesting game
similar to the half-open two-person variant. In addition to the game
rock–paper–scissors, which is a purely strategic game, poker is
recognized as a primarily strategic game. The degrees of influence of
the three causes of uncertainty on various games are shown in
Figure P.1.

1 Translator’s note: the German word for player, Spieler, is masculine, and so the
author of this book could easily write the equivalent of “a player…his move”
without too many qualms. Faced with this problem in English, I have decided to
stick primarily with the unmarked masculine pronoun, with an occasional “his or
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
clear, from Cæsar’s narrative, that there must have been no
inconsiderable extent of land under cultivation, and therefore
cleared, at least partially, of forests, probably for the most part
among the Cantii, or men of Kent, whom he calls the “most
polished;”[416] moreover, if Cassivelaunus had only one-tenth of the
“four thousand war chariots” mentioned by Cæsar,[417] he must
have required roads, and well-made roads, too, along which to
manœuvre them; not forgetting also the fact, that the construction
of such chariots implies considerable mechanical skill. Cæsar adds,
that the Britons made use of iron which they obtained from their
maritime districts, a statement confirmed by the existence, till within
a recent period, of numerous furnaces in the Weald of Sussex, for
the extraction of iron from the iron sand of that district.[418] The
extremely barbarous Britons, to whom the popular stories refer, were
no doubt those of the more northern and central districts—Celts,
who had been driven back by the advancing tide of the Belgæ of
Northern France.
The invasion by Cæsar was the result of various
Cæsar’s reasons and mixed circumstances, among which we may
for invading well believe one inducement to have been the
Britain.
desire on his part of making his rule in Gaul pre-
eminently famous by the subjugation, under Roman rule, of an
island about which so many stories were current among his
countrymen. Britain, described in Virgil[419] as “beyond the limits of
the known world,” was supposed to be rich in gold and silver, with
an ocean fertile in pearls;[420] indeed, Suetonius speaks of it as a
popular belief, that it was in quest of pearls that Cæsar crossed the
Channel. But a more probable reason for his proposed attempt is
that alleged by Napoleon III., viz., his having found the natives of
Britain invariably aiding his enemies in his Gallic wars, and especially
in his conflict with the Veneti, during the summer of the year of his
first invasion, b.c. 55.[421] Moreover, intestine divisions[422] had
about that time broken out in England, and hence there was then a
better chance of Roman success than there would have been had
the islanders stood firmly together to resist the invader.
Having resolved then to make the attempt, Cæsar looked about him
to procure information about the unknown island: but here he was
completely foiled; for the Gauls stood too well by their friends and
relations in Britain to volunteer the information they might easily
have given the Roman commander. The Veneti, as might have been
expected, did what they could to thwart him, while the Morini,
dwelling around and to the east of Boulogne, are specially
mentioned as friendly to the Britons.[423] Moreover, Cæsar himself
remarks that no one but merchants ever visited Britain,[424] unless,
indeed, they fled thither for their lives; Britain having been then, as
now, the refuge for continental exiles of all classes. In spite,
however, of these adverse circumstances, increased in some degree
by the lateness of the season, Cæsar judged it best to make the
attempt, hoping, probably, to strike an effective blow before the
petty states in Britain had had time to weld themselves into a
compact body, although, too, he had an almost certain prospect of
an uprising in his rear of the only half-subdued Gauls as soon as his
legions were fully employed in Britain. He therefore, as a last chance
of procuring news about the island, despatched one of his
lieutenants, C. Volusenus, in a “long ship” (i.e., light war-galley),[425]
giving him orders, as soon as he had made the necessary inquiries,
to return to him with all possible speed; a step which showed clearly
what his intentions were, and led to an embassy from the Britons,
offering terms of submission he, perhaps, disbelieved, at all events
declined accepting.
Cæsar soon after collected about eighty vessels of
First invasion, burden, placed in them two legions, and, having
b.c. 55. made his final arrangements, started for England
from Boulogne at midnight on August 26, b.c. 55,
having on board a force of about eight thousand men. Eighteen
other transports conveyed about eight hundred horses for the
cavalry.[426] Beyond the number of the vessels, Cæsar has left us no
information in regard to them, and no indication of their capacity
beyond the incidental statement that two of the galleys, which on
his return got adrift, carried altogether three hundred men.
The number of men constituting a legion varied very much during
the different periods of Roman history, and, in Cæsar’s time,
amounted to about five thousand two hundred and eighty men, all
told; but as Cæsar obviously took with him as few troops as
possible, intending his first descent upon England to be rather a visit
of observation than a conquest, it is likely that the whole number of
his force did not exceed what we have stated, making for each of
the eighty galleys a complement of somewhere about one hundred
men.
At present about three hundred passengers can be
Size of his accommodated in a sailing vessel of one thousand
transports. tons register on a distant voyage; but, in coasting
vessels, the number is very much greater.[427] It
may therefore be assumed that the average size of the vessels in
which Cæsar embarked his legions on this occasion was not more
than one hundred tons register. The horse transports[428] may have
been somewhat larger, as more than thirty-three horses, with their
provender, water, and attendants, could not well be conveyed in a
vessel of less register than one hundred tons, even on so short a
voyage as from Boulogne to Romney[429] or Lymne, performed, as
this voyage was, with a fair wind, in fifteen hours, or at the rate of
about two miles an hour. The ships of burden or transports were all
flat-bottomed, that they might float in shallow water, and be more
expeditiously freighted.
Although the facts preserved with regard to the ships which Cæsar
employed on his first invasion are of the most meagre description,
they are sufficient to show that they drew comparatively little water,
or the men could not have “jumped” out of them, and made good
their footing on the beach with their standard and arms against the
whole British force: most likely, they were rather good stout-decked
or half-decked barges than the ordinary sea-going coasting vessel,
which, if one hundred tons burden, would draw, when laden, from
seven to eight feet of water. There is no record of the ports where
these vessels were constructed; but some of them, Cæsar tells us,
had been employed by him, earlier in the same year, in his war with
the Veneti.
The vessels employed in Cæsar’s second invasion
Second were somewhat similar in form to those in the
invasion, b.c. first; but his army on this occasion consisted of
54.
five legions, with two thousand cavalry, for the
transport of which he had about six hundred boats; there were also
twenty-eight war-galleys.[430] If we appropriate one hundred vessels
for the transport of the two thousand horses, and from seventy to
one hundred for the transport of stores and munitions of war, and, if
the number conveyed was about twenty-seven thousand men, the
rate would be forty-five men to each vessel, so that the vessels on
the second and more important expedition were, on an average,
only about one-half the size of those which had been engaged on
the first, and, like those, consisted, probably, in great measure of
undecked and flat-bottomed boats or barges.
One of the reasons Cæsar assigns for the
Cæsar’s preference he gave in his second expedition to
preference for small vessels was, that he had learned by his
small vessels.
experience of the frequent changes of the tide in
the Channel that the waves were not so violent as he had expected,
and, therefore,[431] that smaller boats were sufficient for his
purpose; but this does not seem to be a very satisfactory view. It is
true that when wind and tide are together the violence of the waves
is modified materially; but when they are opposed, their violence is
greatly increased. We should rather suppose that, in preferring open
row boats to sailing vessels for his second expedition, Cæsar had
more especially in his mind the facility with which they could be
beached. One effect of Cæsar’s selection of this large flotilla
became, however, at once manifest in the terror it caused to the
Britons, who, instead of resisting his landing, fled precipitately in all
directions at the sight of so numerous a squadron, and retired into
the interior. The debarkation of the troops on the second invasion
was therefore effected without obstruction; and the vessels, after
having discharged their freights, were anchored in Dungeness Bay.
Finding that the British forces had retreated in the direction of
Canterbury, then, as now, the capital of Kent, Cæsar determined on
a rapid advance, most probably crossing the river Stour at Wye,
about twelve miles from Lymne, near to which, as before, he had
disembarked. Challock Wood, a considerable military post in the
wars between the kings of Kent and Sussex, is, with reasonable
probability, believed to have been the scene of the first encounter
between the British and Roman forces. In this battle, though on the
whole successful, it is clear that Cæsar had not much to plume
himself upon; moreover, it was followed by a great disaster, in a gale
which wrecked forty, and more or less disabled the whole of the
vessels in which he had crossed the Channel. But the Roman general
was not dismayed; having collected those least injured, he hauled
them up on the shore, threw a rampart around them to preserve
them from the attacks of the Britons, and leaving Labienus to collect
fresh ships in Gaul, at once placed himself at the head of his legions.
[432]

The British force having, however, gathered

Violent storm strength in the interval, now assumed a more
and great loss threatening aspect; as Cassivelaunus, king of
of ships.
Hertfordshire and Middlesex, having triumphed in
the wars in which he had been engaged at the time of Cæsar’s first
invasion, now claimed dominion over the whole of the south-east of
England, and was, therefore, able to oppose the new assault on
Britain with a vast army, aided, it is said, with no less than four
thousand chariots.[433]
But though some of the encounters were at first of
Final action on doubtful success, the steady discipline of the
the banks of the Romans forced back the hosts of Cassivelaunus,
Thames.
and Cæsar apparently followed his retreating
forces, first, in a north-westerly, and then in a direction due north,
till they arrived at the banks of the Thames, a little to the west of
Walton bridge. Here Cassivelaunus resolved to resist the further
progress of Cæsar,[434] but was defeated in a well contested action,
which rendered any further struggle against the Romans in that part,
at least, of England, hopeless.
The legions of Cæsar had suffered so severely in
Cæsar makes this campaign, that he was equally glad with the
terms with the native princes to enter into negotiations for peace;
Britons, and re-
embarks his
and, on the conclusion of these, he withdrew his
legions. army to Gaul, in little more than two months after
his disembarkation at Lymne. As his homeward
journey across the Channel lasted but eight hours, he must have had
the wind in his favour.
When the magnitude of the preparations which
Advantages Cæsar made for his second expedition are
derived by the considered, it can hardly be doubted that his
Britons from
intentions were to subjugate the whole of Britain.
their intercourse
with the Tacitus, however, in his life of Agricola, confesses
Romans. that Cæsar, in his two campaigns, only made the
discovery of Britain; that, though victorious, he
was unable to maintain his position;[435][436] that, on leaving the
island, not a single Roman was left behind him; and that, for nearly
a hundred years afterwards, the Britons were as free as ever, and
paid no tribute to the imperial city.[437] Yet the Romans and ancient
Britons were alike gainers by their mutual intercourse; for, from this
period, their commercial intercourse rapidly increased. The corn and
cattle of the Britons rose to a value hitherto unknown, while iron,
and pearls of an inferior description, were eagerly sought after by
the Romans. A new and vast field was opened up for their tin, lead,
wool, and skins. Their slaves,[438] and dogs, of a remarkable breed,
were in great demand; and were readily exchanged for the cut ivory,
bridles, gold chains, cups of amber, drinking glasses, and trinkets of
various kinds which the Romans exported. A considerable trade also
arose between the two countries in lime, marl, and chalk, and in the
manufacture of baskets, graceful in design, and curious in
workmanship, for which the Britons were famous.
Beyond these facts, however, nothing is known of
Conquest of what passed in Britain between the time when
Britain, a.d. 43. Julius Cæsar left it, and the period when it first
became a Roman province under Claudius. When,
Its state of however, the armies of Claudius landed upon its
civilization. soil, the Britons had advanced far beyond the
painted savages who first exchanged their tin for
the trinkets of Phœnicia; and although, in the remote portions of the
island, there were still to be found many barbarous tribes, the
inhabitants of the coast and of the commercial cities were then
scarcely less civilized than they were a thousand years afterwards at
the period of the Norman Conquest. London, or Londinium, is
described by Tacitus as a place then of considerable trade, though
not dignified with the name of a colony, and as the chief residence
of the merchants. Clausentum[439] (old Southampton), and Rutupi
(Richborough) were commercial ports of some importance, and were
occupied by traders who dealt largely with those of Gaul, and
extended their business even to Rome itself.
Traders from the neighbouring coasts, but more especially from that
section of the Germans known by the name of Belgæ,[440] who
centuries before had settled on the opposite coast between the
Rhine and the Seine, were, in many cases, the intermediate dealers
between the Britons and the continental tribes. The whole country
was then, as had no doubt been the case for some time previous to
the invasion, divided into several small states presided over by
chiefs, who are dignified by historians with the title of king. Ptolemy,
in his geography,[441] mentions various towns in different parts of
Britain of sufficient importance in his time to be recorded, all tending
to show that a state of civilization then prevailed throughout the
island, and that barbarism and savage life were the exception rather
than the rule.
Amongst the towns noticed by Ptolemy may be mentioned Isca
Damnoniorum (Exeter); Durnium (Dorchester); Venta Belgarum
(Winchester), which was a place of great fame in his time; Aquæ-
solis (Bath), so called from its hot waters; Ischalis, now Ilchester,
and Guildford in Surrey (Noviomagus). Numerous towns and
seaports are also noticed by him, as, for instance, in Kent, Rochester,
Dover, and Lymne; and in the west and north-west of England, Gleva
(Gloucester); Deva (Chester); and near it Uriconium (Wroxeter), the
curious remains of which have been quite recently explored;[442]
Carlisle and Mona (Anglesey), the great seat of the Druidical
worship. In the interior of the country we may record, as among the
most famous of the Roman stations or colonies, Eboracum (York);
Lindum (Lincoln); Camalodunum (Colchester); Corinium,
(Cirencester); and Dorovernia (Canterbury); at or near all of which
places extensive Roman remains may still be seen.
The principality of Wales, formerly comprehending the whole country
beyond the Severn, was supposed by Tacitus[443] to have been
originally peopled by emigrants from Spain, and here too may be still
traced the vestiges of several Roman camps, as at Usk and Caerleon.
At Stonehenge and Abury, in Wiltshire, are still more ancient
remains, monuments of great interest, both for the size and the
elegant disposition of the stones of which they are formed; and
which, at the same time, denote considerable progress in the
mechanical arts at a period antecedent, perhaps, by centuries to the
invasion of Cæsar.[444] Wherever we go, we find that the Britons at
the commencement of the Christian era occupied a position, which,
if far short of the high state of civilization the Romans had reached,
was greatly superior to that of most of the northern nations of
Europe, or to that of the Goths and Vandals, when, three centuries
afterwards, they overran the empire and became masters of the
imperial city.[445]
Indeed, the famous speech of Caractacus, when
Speech of taken captive to Rome, shows a nobility of
Caractacus. character, nay, we may add, an amount of
civilization that would not have been anticipated. “If I had made,”
said the noble Briton, “that prudent use of prosperity which my rank
and fortune enabled me to do, I might have come hither as your
friend rather than as your prisoner; nor would you have disdained
the alliance of a king descended from illustrious ancestors, and
ruling over many nations. My present condition, degrading as it is to
me, reflects glory on you. I once had horses, men, arms, and
money; what wonder is it if I was reluctant to part with them! Your
object is to obtain universal empire, and we must all be slaves! If I
had submitted to you without a blow, neither my own fortune nor
your glory would have been conspicuous, and all remembrances of
me would have vanished when I had received my punishment; but
spare me my life, and I shall be a lasting monument of your
clemency.”
When the course of events is considered, it is not
The course of surprising that the ancient Britons should have
commerce with made less opposition to Claudius than they had
Rome.
done ninety-seven years before to Julius Cæsar.
They had learned in the interval the advantages to be derived by
intercourse with a much more wealthy and more polished people
than themselves. They saw that not only the enlightenment of the
mind accompanies civilization in its progress, but that, as civilization
increases, it creates wants which require to be supplied, and luxuries
which crave to be satisfied.
The routes taken by merchants and travellers continued for many
centuries much as they had been in the earliest times. Claudius,
however, when he left Rome for the seat of war in Britain, set sail
from the port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, went by sea to
Massalia (Marseilles), and afterwards journeying, partly by land and
partly by the rivers till he reached the coast of Gaul on the English
Channel,[446] crossed over to Britain, and there joined “the forces
which awaited him near the Thames.” “There were then four ports,”
remarks Strabo,[447] “at which voyagers generally crossed from the
mainland to the island, at the mouths respectively of the river
Rhône, the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne; but the travellers who
crossed from the country about the Rhine did not set sail from the
mouth of that river, preferring to pass through the Morini and to
embark at its port of Boulogne.”
The ordinary traffic of those times was conveyed
Inland water either on the backs of mules or horses, across
traffic. Gaul, as was the case with tin, or by the rivers of
that country: indeed, for a long period the
merchant vessels of Britain were not of a construction to brave the
heavy gales and stormy seas of the rude Atlantic, while Gaul was a
country peculiarly favoured in the conveniences it afforded for such
an inland water transit. Everywhere intersected by navigable rivers
running in very opposite directions, goods could be carried between
the Mediterranean and the English Channel, or the shores of the
Atlantic, with little assistance of land carriage. From Narbo, an
ancient commercial port of first-class importance already noticed,
goods were carried a few miles overland and re-shipped on the
Garonne, which carried them to Burdigala (Bordeaux). In the same
way the Loire, the Seine, and the Rhine afforded navigable facilities
into the very heart of the country, while all of them were easily
connected with the Rhône or its great navigable branches, thus
completing the inland water-carriage between the Mediterranean
and the western and northern shores of Gaul.
British goods destined for Rome, or for any port of
Transit duties. the Mediterranean, were chiefly conveyed by either
of these inland routes, or across country by the
few highways or beaten tracks then in use.[448] In the centre of this
inland conveyance, at the junction of the Rhône with the Saône
(Arar), and within an easy distance of the other navigable rivers
flowing in the opposite direction, stood the great inland emporium of
Lyons (Lugdunum), a city then of much commercial importance and
second only to Narbo. This inland navigation, while of material
advantage to the inhabitants of the districts traversed, was, even
before the Roman conquest, a source of considerable emolument to
the proprietors of the lands adjacent to the rivers, as they were thus
able to levy a toll or transit duty on the boats passing through their
territories. These duties, we may presume from Strabo, were
transferred to the Roman coffers soon after Gaul became a Roman
province, as he distinctly asserts that (in his day at least) the duties
on the imports and exports of Britain constituted the only species of
revenue derived from Gaul by the Romans.[449] It is, moreover, not
likely that the government of Rome would permit its subjects to levy
dues for their own individual benefit.
“The commercial and friendly intercourse,” remarks
Articles of Macpherson in his Annals of Commerce,[450]
commerce, and
knowledge of
“between the Britons and Gauls, which had
manufactures subsisted before the invasion of Julius Cæsar, still
and of the arts. continued, and was probably increased in
consequence of the greater assortment of goods
now in the hands of the Romanized Gallic merchants.” Tin, which
was still the chief article of British commerce, after being cast into
cubic masses, remained, and long continued, the general staple of
the British trade. “But besides it,” continues the same author, “there
was then exported to Gaul, either for sale in that country, or for
further transit, lead, corn, cattle, hides, under the description of
which, perhaps, wool is included; gold, silver, iron, ornaments for
bridles, and various toys made of a substance which the Romans
called ivory, but more probably the bone of some large fish;
ornamental chains, vessels made of amber and of glass, with some
other trifling articles; also precious stones and pearls; slaves, who
were captives taken in the wars carried on by the tribes against each
other; dogs of various species, all excellent in their kinds, which
were highly valued by the Roman connoisseurs in hunting, and by
the Gauls, who used them not only against wild animals in the
chase, but also against their enemies in the field of battle; and bears
for the sanguinary sport of the Roman circus, though probably not
so early as the age of Augustus.”
Brass, brazen vessels, salt, and earthenware, were then, with the
lighter articles and trinkets previously named, the chief articles of
import from Gaul into Britain. Though chiefly occupied in pastoral
and agricultural pursuits, the ancient Britons, from the character of
their exports, evidently understood, not merely the arts of extracting
tin and lead and even gold silver and iron from their mines, but were
skilled in the manufacture of objects in glass and amber, and also in
some works purely ornamental, as well as in the conversion of iron
to many useful purposes. Skins were no doubt still used as articles of
dress by many of the less civilized inhabitants who resided in the
remote parts of the island; but those Britons who occupied the
frequented parts of the coast, or the chief towns, were, from the
observations of Cæsar, clothed in better and more comfortable
garments, very likely in woollen cloths. As manufactures in wool
were among the earliest arts which first brought England into notice
as a great commercial nation many centuries afterwards, it is
reasonable to suppose that woollen fabrics may, even in early times,
have been part of the staple of the country.
Colchester, the principal city of eastern Britain, was
Colchester, and made by Claudius,[451] at the commencement of
its mint.
the Christian era, as appears from his coins, a
Roman colony. Here Cunobeline, king of the countries lying between
the Thames and the Nen, established a mint, of which as many as
sixty varieties have been engraved by Mr. Evans.[452] No descriptive
account of this ancient town has been preserved, but it is reasonable
to suppose that, as the capital in which the king resided, it was
better built than the “fenced collection of huts” Cæsar describes.
Some doubts have been expressed as to the very
London. early antiquity of London; and, on the whole, it is
most likely that it was not till Claudius had
a.d. 61. appointed Plautius to the supreme command of
the island, that the Romans directed their attention
to London,[453] and established it as the chief commercial centre for
the arts and manufactures of Kent and of the valley of the Thames,
over which river, if the testimony of Dio can be relied on, the Britons
had already constructed a bridge somewhere near the site of the
lowest of the existing structures. Ten years afterwards, in the reign
of Nero, we hear of the now famous city, the greatest and wealthiest
the world has ever seen, having become the residence of a great
number of such dealers as the Romans dignified with the title of
merchants, and between whom and the small traders of Rome,
Cicero drew, as we have already noticed, so marked and so
supercilious a distinction.
It is not the province of this work to follow in detail
Agricola, a.d. the course of Roman conquest. It is sufficient to
78-85. state that the Romans only gained their footing in
Britain by slow degrees, and that the legions which
had conquered other countries almost as soon as they marched into
them, had to encounter many a sturdy foe, and to achieve many a
hard-earned victory, ere they obtained full control over a people,
who, though fully alive to the advantages of a commercial
intercourse with Rome, cherished a love of independence
unsurpassed by any other nation of antiquity. Indeed, it was not
until the governorship of Agricola that Britain could in any sense be
called a Roman province; and that Agricola succeeded where other
generals, such as Plautius and Ostorius Scapula, had failed, is mainly
attributable to the care and gentleness of his administration, and to
his obvious desire to make the chains he had forged for the British
as agreeable as possible to them. Agricola was the first Roman
general who had penetrated into Scotland; he was also the first to
sail round the whole country, an undertaking then of no ordinary
danger, especially at the advanced season of the year when it was
performed. It is a striking remark of Tacitus that the harbours of
Ireland, which one or two centuries before had been visited by the
Gauls, and perhaps at a still earlier period by the Carthaginians,
were then better known to continental merchants by means of their
commerce than to those of Britain.
Altogether the rule of Agricola proved as remarkable as it was
certainly at variance with the usual habits and practices of Roman
 proconsuls. When once he had laid down the
His fleet sails sword, he encouraged a taste among the Britons
round Britain. for the pleasures of civilized life; first exhorting,
then assisting them to build temples and places of
The influence of public resort, and commending and rewarding
the rule of those who were assiduous and forward in such
Agricola on the pursuits: in this way he hoped to subdue their
Britons.
restless spirit, and to give scope to their
excitement in other pursuits than those of war. He also took care to
have the sons of their chiefs instructed in the liberal sciences,
inducing many of them to study the Roman language, which they
had previously despised, to copy the manners and customs of Rome,
and even to adopt the costume of its citizens. Nor were his efforts
confined to the improvement and amelioration of their social
position. He had learned, from the conduct of those who had
preceded him in the government of Britain, how little arms avail to
settle a province, if victory is followed by grievances and
oppressions; he therefore displayed his superior wisdom by
removing every just cause for complaint. Beginning with himself, and
with those around him, he regulated his own household, so that in
its conduct it might be an example for others to follow; his
domestics, according to Tacitus,[454] were not allowed to transact
any business concerning the public; and, in promoting or rewarding
the soldiers, he was induced to do so by no personal interest or
partiality, nor by the recommendations of centurions, but by his own
opinion and knowledge of them. By such means as these Agricola,
by degrees, reconciled the Britons to the government of Rome; and,
though their love of independence was never actually subdued, they
were content to live, if unopposed, in peace, and in friendly
intercourse with the invaders of their soil. Caledonia alone kept up
an angry hostility to the yoke of Rome, and seized, on the departure
of Agricola, the castles and forts he had raised in various parts of
Scotland.
During the thirty-five years which elapsed after the recall of Agricola,
until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, the Roman historians, from
 whom alone we derive our information, hardly
Hadrian, a.d. deign to notice the island; while, as is well known,
120. no native records, or even what might perhaps
have been a copy of a native record, have come
State of down to us: indeed, it may be seriously doubted
commerce in whether letters were at all generally known beyond
and after his the schools of the Druids. There is, however, every
reign.
reason to suppose that the Britons pursued with
persevering industry those commercial occupations we have already
named; that the advice and example of Agricola had not been given
in vain, or neglected on his departure; and, that, long ere that time,
trade and commerce must have taken deep root in the island, as the
city of London had even then given tokens of its aptitude to become
the mercantile capital of the world.[455] The pearl fisheries,
abandoned afterwards from the inherent defects of British pearls,
were developed to an extent hitherto unknown; and a trade was
opened out in oysters, which were actually conveyed, probably by
one of the overland routes, to Rome, to satisfy the cravings of the
epicures of the imperial city. Indeed, they were in such demand as
to form a subject for the poet’s satire.

“Could at one bite the oyster’s taste decide,

And say if at Circæan rocks, or in
The Lucrine lake, or on the coasts of Richborough,
In Britain, they were bred.”[456]

Another extensive trade, the manufacture of baskets, is casually

mentioned, in the same strain of wit, by another Roman poet in the
following lines:—

“Work of barbaric art, a basket, I

From painted Britain came, but the Roman city
Now call the painted Britons’ art their own.”[457]
 We also learn, incidentally,[458] that the people of
The Caledonian the northern part of Scotland, although the shores
incursions.
swarmed with fish, did not eat them, but subsisted
entirely by hunting and on the fruits of the earth.
Not satisfied with the possession of the forts Agricola had erected for
the protection of the Britons against the Caledonians, the Emperor
Hadrian, who visited the island in person, finding that they had
extended their warlike and predatory excursions to the south of the
Tyne, was compelled to drive them back to their mountain
fastnesses by the superior force of fresh legions. Alarmed, however,
by their daring and intrepidity, or not considering it worth while to
follow them north of that river, he caused the wall to be built which
still bears his name, from the Eden in Cumberland to the Tyne in
Northumberland, to restrain them from again making incursions into
the Roman province. Hadrian’s rampart, however, was soon
breached, for seventy miles of wall required more soldiers to protect
it than the Romans could spare, and though subsequent walls were
built at different times, all of these proved equally ineffective in
repressing the advances of the Picts: till, at length, Severus was
compelled to purchase a peace by money which his arms had failed
to secure.[459]
But Rome had innumerable difficulties to contend
Piratical against in the government of Britain beyond the
invasions of the inroads of the Caledonians, who had ever spurned
Germans.
and resisted her rule. The Franks and other
German nations had for some time invaded the
Carausius seizes coasts adjacent to them with piratical incursions,
the fleet of and had reaped a rich harvest from the plunder of
Maximian, and
declares himself
the sea-coast towns and of the vessels of the
Emperor of traders employed between Britain and Gaul. In
Britain. order to repress these sea-robbers, the Emperor
Maximian built a fleet of ships, the command of
which he gave to Carausius, an officer of great experience in naval
and military affairs, to whose history we have already alluded.
Though a traitor to the government he professed to serve, and
possessing himself no claims to the allegiance of the Britons, there is
no doubt that the island prospered under his brief rule, and for the
first time was able to claim the proud title of mistress of the
northern seas, a title, however, she soon lost, and only regained
after tremendous struggles, twelve centuries afterwards. Britain,
during the seven years’ reign of Carausius, seems to have possessed
more wealth and prosperity than during any similar period of Roman
rule, while the flourishing state of the arts at that period of her
history is shown by the number and elegance of his coins, three
hundred varieties of which, in gold, silver, or copper, are now
preserved in different numismatic collections.
But though Britain may have flourished in material prosperity under
Carausius, no Roman emperor could have allowed his rebellious acts
to remain unchastised, and hence, after a long preparation,
Constantius was sent to England with a powerful force, and in a
short space of time restored the imperial sway; not the less easily,
perhaps, that Carausius had in the meanwhile been murdered by his
lieutenant Allectus. No mention is made of the number of ships or
troops constituting the expedition of Constantius, but it must have
been on an extensive scale, as it captured in its first attempt the
port of Boulogne, with part of the British fleet.[460]
Nor do historians afford much information with
Welsh and regard to the affairs of Britain from the death of
Scots, a.d. 360. Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, until
more than fifty years afterwards, when its Roman
Saxons, a.d. subjects were seriously harassed by the Welsh on
364. the west, and the Caledonians on the north, who
ravaged the frontiers and spread terror throughout
Their ships. the now civilized provinces of Britannia Romana.
Nor was this all: while harassed by the
descendants of the Celts, the Germanic Saxons invaded England on
the east and south, startling the Romans and their subjects by the
daring intrepidity with which they skimmed over the roughest seas in
“boats of leather,” and, without respect of persons or property,
plundered and carried off everything worthy of removal. Besides
these frail craft the Saxons, however, possessed more than one
description of vessel altogether superior to their leather-covered
boats, called by the old historians in Latin, Kiulæ; in Saxon, Ceol, or
Ciol; and in English, Keels.[461] Some writers also maintain that they
had strong open boats adapted to warfare at sea.
That these German rovers possessed larger vessels than even their
war-galleys is ascertained by the fact that, within seventy or eighty
years after they first gained a secure footing in Britain, they received
a reinforcement of “five thousand men, in seventeen ships,”[462] or
at the rate of about three hundred men to a ship, besides provisions,
stores, and munitions of war. But of their form, size, or equipment
no accounts have been preserved, and it can, therefore, tend to no
useful purpose to attempt, as Mr. Strutt has done, the reproduction
of the supposed types of the vessels of Canute, as all such drawings
are only the creations of fancy.
It may be reasonable, however, to infer that the better class of
Saxon vessels were copies of the Roman or British galleys, used by
Carausius or Constantius, possibly with some addition, such as
higher bulwarks, fitting them the better to resist the stormy and
pitching sea of the German Ocean. However slow the progress of
improvement may have been among a body of merchants and
shipowners, whose property was perpetually exposed to depredation
and destruction, there can be no doubt that the princes of those
days in Britain and throughout northern Europe availed themselves
of all the resources of the time to display their maritime
consequence and power to the best advantage. It can, indeed, be
hardly questioned that the long and comparatively peaceful
intercourse between the seamen of the north and the south must
have familiarized the Vikings with such improvements in the
construction of shipping as had been worked out by the nations
bordering on the Mediterranean; and though, for short and hasty
expeditions, the Northmen or the Saxons may have been willing to
trust themselves to small or ill-constructed open boats, there is no
reason to suppose this would be the case, either when they had
heavy and bulky merchandise, or their best and bravest warriors, to
convey in safety on long and perilous voyages.
On the invasion of the Celts and of the Teutonic tribes, the
inhabitants of Britain were unable to make an adequate defence.
Unlike their hardy forefathers, who had needed no aid but their own
good right hands, they had become accustomed to look for
protection to their Roman masters, and to delegate to others what
they ought to have achieved themselves. Nor were the northern
tribes their only foes. Besides their new invaders, they had to
contend with gangs of Roman soldiers, who, cheated of their pay by
their officers, infested the highways as robbers, and extorted
provisions from the natives.[463]
It might have been supposed that the Britons,
State of the improved in learning, in agriculture, in
Britons when manufactures, and in the arts and sciences by four
abandoned by
centuries of Roman instruction, would have
the Romans.
become a great and flourishing people. They had,
indeed, natural advantages superior to all their rivals, in the
possession of some of the finest harbours in the world, of minerals,
and of a soil as fruitful, if not more so than that of any of the
countries around them. But while Rome had raised the Britons in the
social scale, and imparted to them knowledge of the highest value
for the development of their vast natural resources, she had,
especially towards the close of her career, greatly weakened them,
by the heavy drafts of their best sons for employment in local wars,
or to be posted far away as garrisons in distant provinces. It is,
therefore, probable that Rome left our forefathers comparatively
poorer and, assuredly, in a weaker condition than they were when
she usurped the government of their island.
Of the origin of the Saxons, whose aid the Britons are said to have
sought after the departure of the Romans, nothing is distinctly
known, except that they had, for some time previously, made
themselves masters of the territory lying between the Elbe and the
Rhine, pushing forwards their conquests or occupation of the
country as far as the coasts of Zealand, part of the present kingdom
of Holland. Their occupation of England was probably exceedingly
gradual, the south and east having been early peopled with these
strangers, so that the so-called Saxon conquest was really, therefore,
rather the slow result of their increasing numbers than of such a
development of military or naval genius as is seen in the later
inroads of the Danes or of William the Norman.

FOOTNOTES:
[406] Lucan, Phars. iv. cf. Fest. Avienus, “Ora Maritima,” v. 80-130, and Plin. iv. c.
16.
[407] Cæsar describes the ships of the Veneti, B. G. iii. 13.
[408] Sueton. Claud. c. 18. Cod. Theodos. v. 13, 5.
[409] Cæs. Bell. Gall. v. 12, 14.
[410] Ibid. ii. 4.
[411] Ibid. v. 22.
[412] Ibid. v. 12.
[413] Tacit. Agric. c. ii.
[414] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 19.
[415] Cæs. Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 14.
[416] Ibid. v. 10.
[417] Ibid. v. 15.
[418] Sussex was the chief seat of the iron manufacture of England till coal
became abundant. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth seventy-three furnaces are said
to have been at work, and the last, at Ashburnham, was only blown out in 1827.
The railings round St. Paul’s Cathedral (temp. Queen Anne) are made of Sussex
iron.
[419] Virgil, Eclog. i. 67.
[420] Tacit. Agric. Sueton. Cæs. c. 46, 47.
[421] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 18.
[422] Ibid. v. 16.
[423] Dio. xxxix. 51.
[424] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 18.
[425] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. c. 21.
[426] It would be out of place here to discuss the vexed question of the places,
respectively, whence Cæsar started from France, and where he landed in England.
We can only say that, having read the several memoirs on this subject, by Halley,
d’Anville, Dr. Guest, Master of Caius Coll., Cambr., the Astronomer Royal, and Mr.
Lewin, we are inclined to think that the essay by the last-named writer (London,
1859) is the most consistent with the language of Cæsar himself. In the following
pages, therefore, his views have been generally adopted.
[427] By the Passengers Act, which applies to all British possessions, except India
and Hong Kong, the space allowed in passenger ships to each statute adult is not
to be less than 15 clear superficial feet in the poop or in the upper passenger-
deck, nor less than 18 clear superficial feet on the lower passenger-deck; and the
height between decks is not to be less than 6 feet for the upper passenger-deck,
nor less than 7 feet for the lower passenger-deck. Each person of twelve years
and upwards, and two children between one and twelve years, count as an adult.
By the 16 and 17 Vict. cap. 84, however, the governors of colonies may, by
proclamation, reduce this space to 12 superficial feet in the case of passengers,
being natives of Asia and Africa, sailing from their governments.
[428] Cæs. B. G. iv. 32, 33.
[429] It seems a reasonable conjecture that in the name of Romney (i.e., Roman
marsh or island) we have a relic of Cæsar’s invasion.
[430] Cæs. B. G. v. 2.
[431] Cæs. B. G. v. 1.
[432] The “Invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar,” by Thomas Lewin, Esq., M.A.,
1859.
[433] Cæs. B. G. v. 19; and Roach Smith’s “Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver,
and Lymne. Lond. 1850.”
[434] It is generally supposed that Cassivelaunus, in execution of a well concerted
plan, retired, followed by Cæsar, from the banks of the Stour along the southern
side of the chalk hills running from Wye to Dorking, and then down the right bank
of the Mole to the nearest point of the Thames at “Coway stakes,” situated
between Walton and Shepperton. In the year 1855, the author of this work
purchased the principal property in the latter parish, and a few years afterwards
that of Halliford, so named from the ford at Coway, where the Romans are
supposed to have crossed the Thames. Since then he has resided almost
constantly in the Manor-house of Shepperton, which, on the authority of Stukeley
and of other antiquaries, occupies the site where Cæsar pitched his camp after
the final defeat of the ancient Britons. The paddock, about fourteen acres in
extent, attached to his house, is said to have derived its name from the fact that
there the battle between the Romans and Britons raged in its greatest fury, and
that there it ended, with great carnage, in the overthrow of Cassivelaunus. In the
recent Ordnance maps, as well as in some maps of an ancient date, this paddock
is described as “War-close field, from which there has been dug spears, swords,
and great quantities of human bones.”
Cæsar in his Commentaries remarks (book v. c. xvii): ‘Cæsar, perceiving their
design, marched the army to the river Thames, towards the territory of
Cassivelaunus; that river was fordable only at one place, and there with difficulty.
When he arrived, he saw that the enemy was drawn up in great force at the
opposite bank of the river; but the bank was fortified with stakes fixed in front;
stakes also of the same kind were driven into the bed of the river, concealed from
view by the stream. Cæsar, learning this from the prisoners and deserters, having
sent the cavalry before, ordered the legions to follow closely. This the soldiers did
with such celerity and vigour, their heads only seen above water, that the enemy
could not sustain the shock of the legions and cavalry, but abandoned the banks
and betook themselves to flight.
Besides the traces of a great Roman camp, still distinctly visible on the brow of St.
George’s hill, about two miles from Coway stakes, the footprints of the legions are
to be seen in many places round Shepperton, and have been noted by Bede, Roy,
Camden, Salmon, Gale, Stukeley, and other antiquarian writers. To these the
author may add his own testimony, having found, in different parts of the property
(especially when cleaning out a ditch which runs through War-close), various
Roman coins and spikes, resembling spear-heads. Other relics of the Romans,
such as urns, have frequently been dug from the gravel-pits opened during his
time in different fields in the parish.
[435] Tacit. Agric. c. 13; and Strabo confirms this view (iv. c. 4.).
[436] Ibid. c. 15.
[437] Tacit. Ann. xii. 34.
[438] Strabo speaks, from personal observation, of the large stature of the Britons
whom he saw at Rome.
[439] Generally considered to be represented by the village of Bittern, about one
and a half miles up the Itchen, above the present Southampton.
[440] Cæs. B. G. vi. 13 and 14. Ibid. v. 14.
[441] Ptol. Geogr. ii. c. 3.
[442] “Uriconium, or Wroxeter,” by T. Wright, F.S.A. Lond. 1872.
[443] Tacit. Ann. xii. c. 31.
[444] “Abury Illustrated,” by W. Long, M.A. Devizes, 1858.
[445] Nor can we omit noticing here a matter which has in former times been
much disputed, whether or no there are any coins, clearly British, antecedent to
the invasion of Cæsar. On the evidence of all the best MSS. of Cæsar’s
Commentaries, especially of a very fine one of the tenth century in the British
Museum, we find Cæsar distinctly stating that the Britons “use either brass money
or gold money, or instead of money, iron rings, adjusted to a certain weight.”
(Cæs. Bell. Gall. v. 10. E. Hawkins’ “Silver Coins of England” (1841), pp. 9-14.
Evans’ “Coins of the Ancient Britons,” pp. 18 and 285. Lond. 1864.) It was only
about the seventeenth century that the editors of Cæsar, Scaliger leading the way,
corrupted this passage and made him assert that only substitutes for money were
used by the natives. All the facts are in favour of the MSS., for coins of gold,
sometimes of silver, but very rarely of copper, are found in different parts of
England, and as is evident to any eye, are in form, fabric, and type, constructed
on a model differing essentially from any thing of Roman origin. Indeed, as is well
known to numismatists, the original British coins were constructed on Greek
models, and, however rude, may be traced back, step by step, to the gold money
(staters) of Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. Plenty of coins exist of the
time of Cæsar’s second invasion and of Cunobeline, who was alive in the reign of
Claudius; the first, in a purely British (i.e., Greek) type, the second, with an
obvious imitation of those of the Romans—and perhaps executed, as some have
thought, by Roman artists.—Tacit. Annals, xii. 31-36.
[446] Dion. Cass. lx. c. 21.
[447] Strabo, iv. 2.
[448] Strabo, iii. p. 119; ii. p. 190; iv. pp. 279, 318. Diod. Sic. v. s. 22.
[449] Ibid. ii. p. 176; and iv. p. 306.
[450] Ibid. i. p. 132.
[451] Dion. lx. 21.
[452] J. Evans, “Coins of the Ancient Britons,” p. 284, &c. Lond. 1864.
[453] Details of early London in Ptol. i. 15; vi. 8. Tacit. Ann. xiv. 33. It is first
mentioned by Tacitus.
[454] Tacit. Vit. Agric. c. 19.
[455] Tacit. Ann. xiv. 33.
[456] Juvenal, Sat. iv. 140.
[457] Martial, xiv. 99.
[458] Dion. lxvi. 12.
[459] For further details, see Rev. J. C. Bruce, “The Roman Wall from Tyne to
Solway.” 4to., 1867.
[460] An attempt has been made by one or two writers to connect the name of
Carausius with the “War of Caros” in the so-called “Poems of Ossian.” For this
there will be some pretence, whenever it shall be shown that Ossian exists, except
in the brain of Macpherson.
[461] Camden describes Kiulæ as a general name for all Saxon vessels. Other
writers say that Kiula meant “long ships,” i.e., men of war, or galleys, whatever
might be their precise shape. Keel now represents a description of barge which
has long been in use in the north of England, and especially on the Tyne, built to
hold twenty-one tons four hundredweight, or a keel of coals.
[462] Macpherson’s “Annals of Commerce,” i. p. 217.
[463] Bede places the final withdrawal of the Roman forces from England, and the
consequent misfortunes which befell the native Britons, at just before the siege of
Rome by Attila, a.d. 409. Eccles. Hist. i. c. 2. See also “Uriconium,” by T. Wright.
8vo., 1872.
 CHAPTER XI.
The early Scandinavian Vikings settle on the coast of Scotland and
elsewhere—Great skill as seamen—Discovery of ancient ship, and of
other early relics—Incursions of the Saxons and Angles into Britain;
and its state soon afterwards—London—Accession of Offa, a.d. 755—
Restrictions on trade and commerce—Salutary regulations—
Charlemagne’s first treaty of commerce with England, a.d. 796—
Extension of French commerce, a.d. 813—Commerce of England
harassed by the Danes—Their ships, and the habits of their owners—
Increase of the Northern marauders—Language of the Northmen still
spoken by mariners in the North—Accession of Alfred the Great, a.d.
871: his efforts to improve navigation, and to extend the knowledge
of geography—Foundation of a royal and commercial navy—His
voyages of discovery and missions to the East—Reign of Edward the
Elder, a.d. 901-25, and of his son Athelstan, a.d. 925-41—Edgar’s
fleet, and his arrangements for suppressing piracy—The wisdom of
his policy—Ethelred II., a.d. 979-1016—Sufferings of the people—
Charges on vessels trading to London—Olaf, king of Norway, his
ships, and those of Swein—Love of display—Mode of navigating—
Canute, a.d. 1016—Reduction of the English fleet—Prosperity of
commerce—Norman invasion, a.d. 1066—Number of vessels
engaged, and their form—State of trade and commerce—Exports—
Manufactures—Wealth—Imports—Taxation—London specially
favoured—Chester specially burdened—State of the people at the
time of the Conquest.

Among the numerous tribes which overran Europe

The early during the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, it
Scandinavian would not be easy to give to any one a position of
Vikings settle on
superiority over the others in the theory and
the coast of
Scotland, and practice of maritime commerce. Requiring wider
elsewhere. fields for their energy, and a soil more suited for a
superabundant population than could be found
amidst the barren mountains of Scandinavia or in the northern
portions of Germany, the first object of most of them, as was the
case with the Goths and Vandals, was, doubtless, to obtain greater
means of subsistence. But desolate hills, and a string of small islands
along a deeply indented coast, with deep and narrow water between
them and the mainland, afforded a natural home for the Vikings’
tribe; while the mainland itself became available as a great sea-
fortress for countless fleets.
By the physical structure of the country, there run out from a solid
centre of mountain-land a multitude of rocks, like great prongs, with
deep gulfs between them filled from the sea. These are the
celebrated Fiords, which send branches or inlets through the
mountains on either side, some of them longer than the longest sea
lochs of the West Highlands of Scotland. Except in the few places
where large rivers make deltas of silt, the rocks run sheer down into
deep water, so that vessels can lie close to the land in the smallest
crevices or bays. The entrances to wide stretches of fiord are
sometimes so narrow, and consequently so easily defended, that the
people speak of the stones rolling from the tops of the high rocky
banks, and bounding across the water, so as to strike the opposite
shore. It was of little consequence to the Vikings that the soil around
them was hard and barren, for the value to them of that soil was in
protection, not in produce. The only articles they required for home
industry were the timber, iron, and pitch, for the building of their
vessels, and the fish which abounded in their narrow seas. All their
other wants were provided by plunder from the industrious and
affluent communities of other lands.
In the Hebrides and the sea-lochs of the Highlands they found
harbours of retreat the same in character, though not in greatness,
as those they left behind them; and we may fairly suppose that it
was for these, not necessarily for any temptation in the prospect of
plunder, that those districts were frequented by them. Hence it was
that the Orkney and other Northern Isles, and even a great part of
the north of Scotland, came in hand more naturally to the monarch
ruling in Norway than to the king of the Scots.
When we find these sea-rovers in the north-west of Scotland and in
Ireland, it becomes obvious, and is confirmed by facts, that they
took the north-east coast of Scotland and the northern islands in
their way. As the Shetland Islands are not more than two hundred
miles distant from the mouths of two of their greatest fiords—the
Hardanger and the Sogne, it may be inferred that these islands, or
Caithness, was their first landfall, where they could swarm off to the
Faroes or Iceland, on the one side, or to Scotland, England, and
Ireland, on the other.
As the Vikings must have been thorough seamen,
Great skill as with a great capacity in the handling of their
seamen. vessels, it is to be regretted, for the sake of arts
and inventions, that we have not a fuller
knowledge of the details of their craft, and of their method of
working them. With, perhaps, the exception of the Phœnicians and
Carthaginians, their achievements in navigation were on a scale
unknown in the world of ancient history. Whether or not they were
the first discoverers of Vinland (or North America), they quickly
found their way to the Mediterranean, and were known on every
European coast from Iceland to Constantinople. Their rapid
movements directly across wide, stormy oceans show a start in
seamanship passing at once beyond the capacity of the earlier
navigators who crept along the shore. Their ordinary galleys were
adapted to the Mediterranean, where they were used down to the
seventeenth century. They had small square sails merely to get help
from a stern wind, their chief mode of propulsion being oars; but it
may be reasonably supposed that the Vikings, when they performed,
as they so often did, the feat of sailing from their place of retreat
straight across a stormy ocean, and of pouncing unexpectedly on the
opposite shore, had made considerable advance in the rigging and
handling of sailing vessels.
From incidental allusions in the Sagas, it is believed that a fleet fitted
out for fighting and plunder was accompanied by lumber ships to
carry slaves for the drudgery work, provisions, munitions, and
perhaps the heavier portion of the plunder. As to the size of their
light narrow war ships, it has been calculated by an ardent and
skilful student of the habits of the Norsemen, that one favourite
vessel, “the Long Serpent,” must have been above a hundred feet in
length.[464] The monk of the Irish house of St. Gall, who tells the
story of Charlemagne weeping when he saw a pirate fleet in the
Mediterranean, also tells how the emperor’s acute eye at once
detected, from the build and swiftness of the vessels, that their
purpose was not trade but mischief.[465]
Some remarkable discoveries in Denmark have
Discovery of revealed recently the remains of a plank-built boat
ancient ship and sufficiently complete to admit of the entire
of other early
reconstruction of the vessel as it floated. If we
relics.
compare this vessel (see page 336) with the
accounts of the hide-covered coracles which carried the Scots from
Ireland, or with the lumbering canoe cut out of the solid wood, such
as may still be seen on the lakes of Bavaria, we obtain at a glance
the measure of the high capacity of those who built the vessels for
the Vikings. The Northern antiquaries have fixed her date as “the
early iron age,” probably about the fifth century. Close examination
has led to the conclusion that she was entirely a row-boat, with no
arrangement for help from canvas; “yet it is seventy-seven feet long,
measured from stem to stern, and proportionally rather broad in the
middle.”[466]
It immediately recalls the light handy boats of smaller size still used
on the Norwegian coast, and in the Shetlands; and its structure is so
thoroughly adapted to a union of lightness, speed, and strength,
that it has been compared with the class of vessels now called
clippers.
 ANCIENT DANISH VESSEL.
There are peculiarities in its structure, testifying to the abundance
both of material and skilled labour. The timber or heavy planks, for
instance, instead of being sawn into boards of equal thickness—or
thinness—throughout, are cut thin where thinness was desirable, but
thick at points of juncture, that they may be mortised into the cross-
beams and gunwale, instead of being merely nailed. The vessel has
two bows, or rather is alike at bow and stern, with thirty rowlocks,
and it is noticed that these, along with the helm, are reversible, so
as to permit the vessel to be rowed with either end forward.[467]
The gunwale rises with the keel, at each extremity, into a high beak
or prow, a notable feature of the Norwegian boats of the present
day. The build is of the kind technically called “clinker,” each plank
overlapping that immediately below, from the gunwale to the keel: in
the peat-moss containing these remains many other testimonies to
wealth and industrial civilization, especially to boat-building, were
found.
It is alike interesting and instructive to trace the progress of these
northern tribes, and the mechanical means at their disposal which
enabled them to construct vessels which could in safety navigate
distant seas, for there can be no doubt that these wild adventurers,
barbarous as they undoubtedly were, became, in the hands of
Providence, useful instruments for saving from extinction a large
portion of the human race, who, under the Roman rule in the later
days of its folly, had become unable to maintain their position either
as independent nations, or as provinces of the imperial city. Surely it
was good for mankind that the Goths and Vandals became masters
of Rome, when Rome in her last decay could no longer govern
herself.
Nor was the change of people to the disadvantage
Incursions of of Britain. Though not to the same extent, the
the Saxons and Romanized Britons had imbibed the vices of their
Angles into
rulers, and were too effeminate to defend the
Britain;
lands the Romans had, in their extremity,
abandoned. The coming of a new race, the Saxons and Angles of
Schleswig, was needed to revive the energies of a population who
had not been able to drive back the far more barbarous Picts,
though, for a long time, under the Anglo-Saxon rule, also,
commercial enterprise in Britain remained at a low ebb. For a while,
indeed, even the faint light of learning, which remained when the
Romans left, appears to have been almost extinguished by the long-
continued and bloody wars which, during this gloomy period,
depopulated the country and desolated the cities of Britain.
Almost everything that is known of the state of
and its state Britain, and of its commerce and manufactures,
soon from the time of its evacuation by Rome till the
afterwards.
commencement of the eighth century, is derived
from the ancient biographies of the Saints, then the chief, if not the
sole, histories of the Western world; and faint indeed is the
glimmering of light which these writers throw upon the state of
navigation during those periods.[468] From these writers we get the
story of the first Saxon expedition, together with the traditional tales
of Hengist and Horsa, and of the fifteen hundred men, and the three
long vessels or “ships” they came in. No reliance can, however, be
placed, as Mr. Kemble has shown, on this statement; nor is it likely
that the vessels of the northern pirates were superior to those Saxon