tailieunhanh - A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLANDCHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AND THE ROMANS.If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola (81 A.D.) crossed the Border, we should recognise little but the familiar hills an

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND CHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AND THE ROMANS. If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola (81 .) crossed the Border, we should recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains. The rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present banks; dense forests of oak and pine, haunted by great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were groups of huts. | A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND CHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AND THE ROMANS. If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola 81 . crossed the Border we should recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains. The rivers in the plains overflowed their present banks dense forests of oak and pine haunted by great red deer elks and boars covered land that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were groups of huts made of clay and wattle and dominated perhaps by the large stockaded house of the tribal prince. In the lochs natural islands or artificial islets made of piles crannogs afforded standing-ground and protection to villages if indeed these lakedwellings are earlier in Scotland than the age of war that followed the withdrawal of the Romans. The natives were far beyond the savage stage of culture. They lived in an age of iron tools and weapons and of wheeled vehicles and were in what is called the Late Celtic condition of art and culture familiar to us from beautiful objects in bronze work more commonly found in Ireland than in Scotland and from the oldest Irish romances and poems. In these epics the manners much resemble those described by Homer. Like his heroes the men in the Cuchullain sagas fight from light chariots drawn by two ponies and we know that so fought the tribes in Scotland encountered by Agricola the Roman General 81-85 . It is even said in the Irish epics that Cuchullain learned his chariotry in Alba that is in our Scotland. 2 The warriors had mighty limbs and flaming hair says Tacitus. Their weapons were heavy iron swords in bronze sheaths beautifully decorated and iron-headed spears they had large round bronze-studded shields and battle-axes. The dress consisted of two upper garments first the smock of linen or other fabric in battle often of tanned hides of animals and the mantle or plaid with