The language of the Celts was much nearer the Latin tongue than the
Germanic idioms; it comprised several dialects, and amongst them the
Gaulish, long spoken in Gaul, the Gaelic, the Welsh, and the Irish,
still used in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The most important of the
Celtic tribes, settled in the main island beyond the Channel, gave
itself the name of Britons. Hence the name of Britain borne by the
country, and indirectly that also of Great Britain, now the official
appellation of England. The Britons appear to have emigrated from Gaul
and established themselves among the other Celtic tribes already settled
in the island, about the third century before Christ.

During several hundred years, from the time of Pytheas to that of the
Roman conquerors, the Mediterranean world remained ignorant of what took
place among insular Britons, and we are scarcely better informed than
they were. The centre of human civilisation had been moved from country
to country round the great inland sea, having now reached Rome, without
anything being known save that north of Gaul existed a vast country,
surrounded by water, rich in tin mines, covered by forests, prairies,
and morasses, from which dense mists arose.

Three centuries elapse; the Romans are settled in Gaul. Caesar, at the
head of his legions, has avenged the city for the insults of the Celtic
invaders, but the strife still continues; Vercingetorix has not yet
appeared. Actuated by that sense of kinship so deeply rooted in the
Celts, the effects of which are still to be seen from one shore of the
Atlantic to the other, the Britons had joined forces with their
compatriots of the Continent against the Roman. Caesar resolved to lead
his troops to the other side of the Channel, but he knew nothing of the
country, and wished first to obtain information. He questioned the
traders; they told him little, being, as they said, acquainted only with
the coasts, and that slightly. Caesar embarked in the night of August
24th-25th, the year 55 before our era; it took him somewhat more time to
cross the strait than is now needed to go from Paris to London. His
expedition was a real voyage of discovery; and he was careful, during
his two sojourns in the island, to examine as many people as possible,
and note all he could observe concerning the customs of the natives. The
picture he draws of the former inhabitants of England strikes us to-day
as very strange. "The greater part of the people