The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright ; with numerous engravings on wood.

  • Wright, Thomas, 1810-1877.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright ; with numerous engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are really the work of man. Of course, according to the opin- ions of geologists on the age of the drift, this discovery would carry back the existence of man on earth to an immense dis- tance beyond the biblical date, and it leaves us for speculation and theory a period of far greater extent than the whole historical period. The question of the Antiquity of Man became thus an attract- ive, and even an exciting, study. It happened that the north- ern—the Scandinavian—antiquaries, whose peculiar fault, if any, is a spirit of too hasty generalising, had already started an ingenious theory in relation to these pre-historic times, accord- ing to which these were divided into three periods or ages, distinguished by the names of stone age, bronze age, and iron age. During the first of these periods, it is supposed that metal was unknown to man, and that stone was the best material he had for the manufacture of weapons or of other implements for cutting or hammering; the second was charac- terised by the use of bronze as the only metal; in the third, bronze had been superseded for these purposes by iron. This system of periods was eagerly embraced by the new school of pre-historic antiquaries, who have even refined upon it and divided at least the first two periods into subdivisions. It is this dark and mysterious pre-historic period which has furnished the subject treated in a handsome volume pub- lished by Sir John Lubbock,* which treats successively bn the system of periods or ages just mentioned, on the tumuli of the pre-historic times, on the lake-habitations, shell-mounds, and caves, on the more general subject of the Antiquity of Man himself, and on the manners of modern savages, which the author employs very judiciously to illustrate those of the savages of pre-historic ages, for absolute savages at all times bear a certain resemblance to one another. I will only add, as to the book itself, that it is a well-written and well-arranged work, characterised equally by purity of language and by its singular clearness and perspicuity, while it presents a view of the whole subject which surprises us by its comprehensiveness, without wearying us with what too often constitutes comprehensiveness, a close dry mass of enumerations of facts. I take Sir John Lubbock’s work only from one point of view—so far as its talented author treats of the system of periods—a system which * ‘ Prehistoric Times, as illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Man- ners and Customs of Modem Savages. ’ By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., T.R.S. 8vo. Williams and Norgato. I860.