articles of any sort were in use. The English degraded their Celtic
serfs to their own barbaric level; and the very memory of Roman
civilization almost died out of the land for a hundred and fifty years.




CHAPTER VI.

THE CONQUEST OF THE INTERIOR.


From the little strip of eastern and southern coast on which they first
settled, the English advanced slowly into the interior by the valleys of
the great rivers, and finally swarmed across the central dividing ridge
into the basins of the Severn and the Irish Sea. Up the open river
mouths they could make their way in their shallow-bottomed boats, as the
Scandinavian pirates did three centuries later; and when they reached
the head of navigation in each stream for the small draught of their
light vessels, they probably took to the land and settled down at once,
leaving further inland expeditions to their sons and successors. For
this second step in the Teutonic colonisation of Britain we have some
few traditional accounts, which seem somewhat more trustworthy than
those of the first settlement. Unfortunately, however, they apply for
the most part only to the kingdom of Wessex, and not to the North and
the Midlands, where such details would be of far greater value.

The valley of the Humber gives access to the great central basin of the
Trent. Up this fruitful basin, at a somewhat later date, apparently,
than the settlement of Deira and Lincolnshire, scattered bodies of