Population at the Time of the Roman Conquest.
The inhabitants were numerous, collected together into villages and towns, and governed by chiefs frequently at war with each other, who consequently fell an easy prey to the Romans. They subsisted principally on their swine, small short-horned cattle, and horned sheep, and to a lesser degree on their crops of wheat and barley. They brewed beer from both of these, and used honey for making mead. The tribes of northern Britain in the time of Agricola, A.D. 80, were pastoral and ignorant of agriculture. Under the Roman power the land rapidly passed under the plough in southern and eastern Britain, and in the days of Julian[1] sufficient corn was grown to freight eight hundred ships, by which it was carried to the mouth of the Rhine. The corn was cut off close to the ear, or, according to Pytheas, collected in sheaves, which were thrashed in large buildings,[2] roofed over for protection against the ungenial climate. It was stored in subterranean granaries.
The personal appearance of the Britons of the southern counties is described by the Roman writers as follows:—The hair was worn long, and sometimes the beard and whiskers were shaved. The dress consisted of Gaulish trousers, and a tunic with a belt, almost like a Norfolk jacket, over which was worn a plaid, fastened with a brooch. It varied in thickness according to the season, and was of different colours, and sometimes
