At length, the connexion between Britain and Rome was entirely severed. The Saxons joined the Picts and the Scots in their great invasion, and continuing their predatory warfare reduced the country to the greatest misery. Any degree of union amongst the Britons might have enabled them to repel their enemies; the walls of the principal cities, fortified by the Romans, were yet strong and firm. The tactics of the legions were not forgotten. Bright armour was piled in the storehouses, and the serried line of spears might have been presented to the half-naked Scots and Picts, who could never have prevailed against their opponents. But the Britons had no inclination to use the sword, except against each other.
[9] _On some of the Relations of Archæology to Physical Geography in the North of England._ 1853.
[11] It may, however, be new to some of our readers to be informed that Owen Glendower's Oak, whence that Welsh chieftain is said to have witnessed the discomfiture of his English allies at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, still stands at Shelton, in a garden on the right of the road from Shrewsbury to Oswestry, where the Welsh army lay.
[12] See the _Guide to the Ruins of Uriconium_ (Third Edition, 1860), by Thomas Wright, Esq. M. A., F.S.A., the accomplished archæologist, who, by his unwearied exertions, has so efficiently contributed to the exploration of these remains.
[13] Palgrave's _Hist. of England_, Anglo-Saxon Period. 1834.
[14] Senior's _Lectures on Political Economy_.
The infant state of our Saxon ancestors when the Romans first observed them, exhibited nothing from which human sagacity could have predicted greatness. A territory on the neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, and three small islands, contained those whose descendants occupy the circle of Westphalia, the Electorate of Saxony, the British Islands, the United States of North America, and the British Colonies in the two Indies. Such is the course of Providence, that empires, the most extended and the most formidable, are found to vanish as the morning mist; while tribes, scarcely visible, or contemptuously overlooked, like the springs of a mighty river, often glide on gradually to greatness and veneration.