n an English gentleman, and
esteemed you as a faithful subject to your prince, and an able
negotiator; neither shall any reverse of fortune have power to lessen
you either in my friendship or esteem: and I must take leave to assure
you further, that my affection towards persons hath not been at all
diminished by the frown of power upon them. Those whom you and I once
thought great and good men, continue still so in my eyes and my heart;
only with a * * * * * *

_Caetera desiderantur_.

[Footnote 3: The author was then in his fifty-second year. [D.S.]]

AN ABSTRACT OF THE HISTORY
OF ENGLAND,
FROM THE INVASION OF IT BY JULIUS CAESAR
TO WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Britons.
Heathens.

The most ancient account we have of Britain is, that the island was full
of inhabitants, divided into several petty kingdoms, as most nations of
the world appear to have been at first. The bodies of the Britons were
painted with a sky-coloured blue, either as an ornament or else for
terror to their enemies. In their religion they were heathens, as all
the world was before Christ, except the Jews.

Druids.

Their priests were called Druids: These lived in hollow trees, and
committed not their mysteries to writing, but delivered them down by
tradition, whereby they were in time wholly lost.

The Britons had wives in common, so many to a particular tribe or
society, and the children were in common to that society.

About fifty years before Christ, Julius Caesar, the first Roman Emperor,
having conquered Gaul or France, invaded Britain rather to increase his
glory than conquests; for having overcome the natives in one or two
battles, he returned.

Claudius.
Nero.

The next invasion of Britain by the Romans (then masters of most of the
known world) was in the reign of the Emperor Claudius; but it was not
wholly subdued till that of Nero. It was governed by lieutenants, or
deputies, sent from Rome, as Ireland is now by deputies from England;
and continued thus under the Romans for about 460 years; till that
empire being invaded by the Goths and Vandals, the Romans were forced
not only to recall their own armies, but also to draw from hence the
bravest of the Britons, for their assistance against those barbarians.

Picts.
Picts' Wall.

The Roman conquests in this island reached no further northward than to
that part of Scotland where Stirling and Glasgow are seated: The region
beyond was held not worth the