hout almost all England and the Scotch Lowlands
before the end of the eleventh century; it drove out the Cornish in the
eighteenth century; and it is now driving out the Welsh, the Erse, and
the Gaelic, under our very eyes. In language at least the British empire
(save of course India) is now almost entirely English, or in other
words, Anglo-Saxon.

In _civilisation_, on the other hand, we owe comparatively little to the
direct Teutonic influence. The native Anglo-Saxon culture was low, and
even before its transplantation to Britain it had undergone some
modification by mediate mercantile transactions with Rome and the
Mediterranean states. The alphabet, coins, and even a few southern
words, (such as "alms") had already filtered through to the shores of
the Baltic. After the colonisation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons learnt
something of the higher agriculture from their Romanised serfs, and
adopted, as early as the heathen period, some small portion of the Roman
system, so far as regarded roads, fortifications, and, perhaps
buildings. The Roman towns still stood in their midst, and a fragment,
at least, of the Romanised population still carried on commerce with the
half-Roman Frankish kingdom across the Channel. The re-introduction of
Christianity was at the same time the re-introduction of Roman culture
in its later form. The Latin language and the Mediterranean arts once
more took their place in Britain. The Romanising prelates,--Wilfrith,
Theodore, Dunstan,--were also the leaders of civilisation in their own
times. The Norman Conquest brought England into yet closer connection
with the Continent; and Roman law and Roman arts still more deeply
affected our native culture. Norman artificers supplanted the rude
English handicraftsmen in many cases, and became a dominant class in
towns. The old English literature, and especially the old English
poetry, died utterly out with Piers Plowman; while a new literature,
based upon Romance models, took its origin with Chaucer and the other
Court poets. Celtic-Latin rhyme ousted the genuine Teutonic
alliteration. With the Renaissance, the triumph of the southern culture
was complete. Greek philosophy and Greek science formed the
starting-point for our modern developments. The ecclesiastical revolt
from papal Rome was accompanied by a literary and artistic return to the
models of pagan Rome. The Renaissance was, in fact, the throwing off of
all that was Teutonic and mediaeval, the r