OR, STUDIES IN ANCIENT BRITISH HISTORY, CONTAINING VARIOUS DISQUISITIONS ON THE NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS ANTIQUITIES, OF Great Britain. BY JOHN HUGHES. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED BY J. AND T. CLARKE, ST. JOHN'S Square, FOR THE AUTHOR; AND SOLD BY T. BLANSHARD, W. BAYNES, OGLE AND PREFACE. THE investigation of Ancient History is not only a pleasing amusement, but, if properly directed, becomes an important and dignified study. Man desires to know what has been transacted in the world in past ages, while he looks forward with trembling hope to futurity. It is interesting to look back to the infant state of great nations, and particularly to inquire what connection subsisted between our own ancestors and the names that are recorded in ancient story. But how little do we know of the primary periods of history? "Whence is the stream of years? Whither do they roll along? Where have they hid in mist their many coloured sides? I look into the times of old," said the Bard of Selma; " but they seem dim to Ossian's eyes, like reflected moonbeams on a distant lake." He that endeavours to collect the scattered fragments of the early annals of our forefathers, must not expect to meet with any general plaudits; it is too great a stretch of intellect for the generality |