THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ESSEX

THE History of Essex in those early ages when the pen was little used, and the press was altogether unknown, presents few features to distinguish it from the general' history of the country. Yet from the occasional glimpses we catch of it in the fragmentary records of that olden period, it appears to have been of some importance even from the time when the foot of the first settler penetrated into its dark forests. Its soil and situation, and still more its proximity to the coast and the spots where adventurers from the continent in search of plunder or a new home were likely to land, brought it under the notice of the successive invaders, thus making it the scene of their struggles, and, as they consolidated their conquests, of their settlements. And here we cannot, standing on the threshold of its history, contemplate the present aspect of the county - its high cultivation, displaying in all directions the skill and labour of the agriculturist, who has cleared the wilderness, and has stocked the once impassable marsh with cattle or clothed it with waving crops even up to the verge of the Thames - its busy towns and thriving villages, with their sacred spires peeping out of clumps of trees upon the hill-tops or resting quietly in the valleys below - the mansions which stud the landscape, either bearing about them some venerable traces of the past, or displaying the taste and genius of the modern architect - the free access afforded.to all its parishes either by road or rail, - we cannot look upon these without remembering that when the ambition and craving rapacity of the Roman first brought him to our .shores, he found the whole one vast wild, beautiful, no doubt, though not so rich as we now see it, in the early spring and brightness of summer, but rough as nature left it. If he had taken his stand on Laindon or Danbury ...