a writing lesson.)]

I have heard this conclusion doubted on the ground that a bricklayer or
domestic servant in a province of the Roman Empire would not have known
how to read and write. This doubt really rests on a misconception of the
Empire. It is, indeed, akin to the surprise which tourists often exhibit
when confronted with Roman remains in an excavation or a museum--a
surprise that 'the Romans' had boots, or beds, or waterpipes, or
fireplaces, or roofs over their heads. There are, in truth, abundant
evidences that the labouring man in Roman days knew how to read and
write at need, and there is much truth in the remark that in the lands
ruled by Rome education was better under the Empire than at any time
since its fall till the nineteenth century.

It has, indeed, been suggested by doubters, that these _graffiti_ were
written by immigrant Italians, working as labourers or servants in
Calleva. The suggestion does not seem probable. Italians certainly
emigrated to the provinces in considerable numbers, just as Italians
emigrate to-day. But we have seen above that the ancient emigrants were
not labourers, as they are to-day. They were traders, or dealers in
land, or money-lenders or other 'well-to-do' persons. The labourers and
servants of Calleva must be sought among the native population, and the
_graffiti_ testify that this population wrote Latin. It is a further
question whether, besides writing Latin, the Callevan servants and
workmen may not also have spoken Celtic. Here direct evidence fails. In
the nature of things, we cannot hope for proof of the negative
proposition that Celtic was not spoken in Silchester. But all
probabilities suggest that it was, at any rate, spoken very little. In
the twenty years' excavation of the site, no Celtic inscription has
emerged. Instead, we have proof that the lower classes wrote Latin for
all sorts of purposes. Had they known Celtic well, it is hardly credible
that they should not have sometimes written in that language, as the
Gauls did across the Channel. A Gaulish potter of Roman date could
scrawl his name and record, _Sacrillos avot_, 'Sacrillus potter', on the
outside of a mould.[1] No such scrawl has ever been found in Britain.
The Gauls, again, could invent a special letter Eth to denote a special
Celtic sound and keep it in Roman times. No such letter was used in
Roman Britain, though it occurs on earlier British coins. This total
absence of written Celtic cannot be