Man dreams and plans,
And more and more,
As ages slip away, Earth shows
How need by satisfaction grows,
And more and more its patient face
Mirrors the driving human race.

_Edward Sandford Martin._


THE NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE
Succeeded the Old Stone Age and overlapped the Bronze Age.

THE BRONZE AGE
Succeeded the New Stone Age and overlapped the Early Iron
Age.

THE EARLY IRON AGE
Succeeded the Bronze Age and continued in Britain until the
Roman Invasion in B.C. 54.

_(All these periods overlapped.)_


The Palæolithic men had reached England when it was part of the continent
of Europe, but after the lesser Glacial Period had driven the hairy
savages southwards a slow earth movement produced what is now the English
Channel and Britain was isolated. Gradually the cold relaxed and
vegetation once more became luxuriant, great forests appeared and England
was again joined to the continent. Possibly the more genial climate which