n Latham, M.A. Revised and Edited by E. Toulmin
Nicolle. Published by W. H. Allen and Co., 13, Waterloo Place, London.

All evidences that can be gathered would tend to prove that before the
time of the Romans the Channel Islands were but thinly populated. There
are no traces of decayed large towns nor records of pirate strongholds,
and the conclusion is that the inhabitants were fishermen, and some
living by hunting and crude tillage. The frequent Druidical remains show
the religion which obtained. Any coins in use in those days would be
Gaulish, of the types then circulated amongst the mainland tribes above
named.

The writer of the foregoing notes considers that the earliest history of
the Channel Islands is as follows (page 284):--

"1. At first the occupants were Bretons--few in number--pagan, and
probably poor fishermen.

"2. Under the Romans a slight infusion of either Roman or Legionary
blood may have taken place--more in Alderney than in Jersey--more in
Jersey than in Sark.

"3. When the Litus Saxonicum was established, there may have been
thereon lighthouses for the honest sailor, or small piratical holdings
for the corsair, as the case might be. There were, however, no emporia
or places either rich through the arts of peace, or formidable for the
mechanism of war.

"4. When the Irish Church, under the school of St. Columbanus, was in
its full missionary vigour, Irish missionaries preached the Gospel to
the islanders, and amongst the missionaries and the islanders there may
have been a few Saxons of the Litus.

"5. In the sixth century some portion of that mixture of Saxons, Danes,
Chattuarii, Leti, Goths, Bretons, and Romanized Gauls, whom the Frank
kings drove to the coasts, may have betaken themselves to the islands
opposite.

"To summarise--the elements of the population nearest the Channel
Islands were:--(1) original Keltic; (2) Roman; (3) Legionary; (4) Saxon;
(5) Gothic; (6) Letic; (7) Frank; (8) Vandal--all earlier than the time
of Rollo, and most of them German; to which we may add, as a possible
element, the Alans of Brittany.

"That the soldiers of the Roman garrison were not necessarily Roman is
suggested by the word "Legionary." Some of them are particularly stated
to have been foreign. There is indeed special mention of the troop of
cavalry from Dalmatia--"Equites Dalmatae."

The inference from the above, as regards coins current in the Channel
Islands prior to the Norman conquest of