The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

THE WANDERINGS OF THE WIROS 167
much later in the north and west. To them we must also attribute the introduction of
pedestal vases and other types of pottery which come, undoubtedly, from the Belgic
area on the continent. Such Belgic movements continued until the first century, and had
only ceased shortly before the arrival of Julius Caesar in northern Gaul.
Thus the Kimri, or as we may now call them the Cymry, did not enter England
until about 300 B.C., and for a time seem to have hmited their settlements to the chalk
lands. By degrees they spread to the oohte ridge, but it is doubtful whether they had
progressed farther when Caesar landed here. The dense Midland forest kept them back,
and they seem to have made no attempt to reach Ireland, or, until after Caesar's time,
to dispossess the Gaels of the Parret marshes. But early in the Christian era civU wars
occurred between the tribes on either side of the Thames, which led eventually to Roman
interference, and it was during the campaign of Aulus Plautius and his successors that
dispossessed Cymric leaders, like Caractacus, fled with their followers to the west, and
introduced into Wales a Cjnnric or Brythonic speech, the first Wiro dialect to be spoken
regularly in the principahty, except along trade routes and in the small Gaelic settlements
above Cardiff.