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Article ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY ILLUSTRATED BY TOPOG... ← Page 4 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anglo-Saxon History Illustrated By Topog...
rive it an influence beypiid its numbers , and constitute it a respectable party , able in many districts te hold the superiority , or even to divide the government with the Welsh ; aiid so long as it was occasionally supported by a spare legion from Ron ^ much of the country the Welsh party must have gained the
supremacy . The disorganization of the country and the division of the population , would , from the moment of the downfall of the last pretender exercising a centralizing power as an emperor , lead to the dismemberment of the country into a number of petty states , between
which again wars would certainly spring up , and in each of which there would be civil wars for the supremacy . Such is the exact condition which the scanty records of the period depict , and we may , if we are careful , trace * with some degree of confidence , the causes which contributed to these results , and the modes in which they operated .
Twenty , thirty , or forty years of such a state of society , with a large monastic body living on the rest , would operate only to diminish and weaken the population still further , and to confirm the preponderance of the Welsh element . It was in this period the material dissolution of the Roman fabric took place . Roman culture survived in the minsters alone , the Welsh children did not frequent Latin schools , Welsh warriors were not obedient to Roman magistrates and Roman
law forms , and thus the moral influence of Rome was doomed to fall . But the destruction of four hundred years of Roman civilization was complete in every form . The barbarians prevented the tillage of the fields throughout the borders , and the diminished population in other districts was no less a discouragement . In the neighbourhood of the
large fortified cities some cultivation could he carried on , but the main dependence in such a state of circumstances is enlarge herds of cattle . Slowly the outlying villas would be fortified , as a protection against marauders , and then abandoned because they required garrisons , which could not be afforded . Scattered farms and cottages would be no
longer tenable , and garden cultivation would cease . Such villages as could not be walled , would be abandoned , and the epochs would be passed through of a land of castles and fortified towns , as in the middle ages , and of a land of walled towns , as in Spain ancl in the East . From the simple concentration of the people , all outlying places would fall into decay , and would in a few years cease to be habitable •—were an extension of habitations contemplated . Step by step , under
such a state of affairs , do degradation and destruction proceed . Byroads are neglected , the main roads are scarcely kept up , a bridge that falls is not replaced , and a whole line of communication is diverted ; while the growth of vegetation speedily destroys fields and gardens , covers paved yards with herbage , and buries the unroofed floors of the
abandoned houses . In the cities , the Roman citizen class , subjected to tlie like influences as the upper classes , and required for recruiting the armies of the pretenders aud factions , ceased to exist ; the knowledge of arts was lost ; bricks were not made , because old buildings near at hand supplied quarries ; tools wore abundant as workmen
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anglo-Saxon History Illustrated By Topog...
rive it an influence beypiid its numbers , and constitute it a respectable party , able in many districts te hold the superiority , or even to divide the government with the Welsh ; aiid so long as it was occasionally supported by a spare legion from Ron ^ much of the country the Welsh party must have gained the
supremacy . The disorganization of the country and the division of the population , would , from the moment of the downfall of the last pretender exercising a centralizing power as an emperor , lead to the dismemberment of the country into a number of petty states , between
which again wars would certainly spring up , and in each of which there would be civil wars for the supremacy . Such is the exact condition which the scanty records of the period depict , and we may , if we are careful , trace * with some degree of confidence , the causes which contributed to these results , and the modes in which they operated .
Twenty , thirty , or forty years of such a state of society , with a large monastic body living on the rest , would operate only to diminish and weaken the population still further , and to confirm the preponderance of the Welsh element . It was in this period the material dissolution of the Roman fabric took place . Roman culture survived in the minsters alone , the Welsh children did not frequent Latin schools , Welsh warriors were not obedient to Roman magistrates and Roman
law forms , and thus the moral influence of Rome was doomed to fall . But the destruction of four hundred years of Roman civilization was complete in every form . The barbarians prevented the tillage of the fields throughout the borders , and the diminished population in other districts was no less a discouragement . In the neighbourhood of the
large fortified cities some cultivation could he carried on , but the main dependence in such a state of circumstances is enlarge herds of cattle . Slowly the outlying villas would be fortified , as a protection against marauders , and then abandoned because they required garrisons , which could not be afforded . Scattered farms and cottages would be no
longer tenable , and garden cultivation would cease . Such villages as could not be walled , would be abandoned , and the epochs would be passed through of a land of castles and fortified towns , as in the middle ages , and of a land of walled towns , as in Spain ancl in the East . From the simple concentration of the people , all outlying places would fall into decay , and would in a few years cease to be habitable •—were an extension of habitations contemplated . Step by step , under
such a state of affairs , do degradation and destruction proceed . Byroads are neglected , the main roads are scarcely kept up , a bridge that falls is not replaced , and a whole line of communication is diverted ; while the growth of vegetation speedily destroys fields and gardens , covers paved yards with herbage , and buries the unroofed floors of the
abandoned houses . In the cities , the Roman citizen class , subjected to tlie like influences as the upper classes , and required for recruiting the armies of the pretenders aud factions , ceased to exist ; the knowledge of arts was lost ; bricks were not made , because old buildings near at hand supplied quarries ; tools wore abundant as workmen