ENGLAND 15 ENGLAND shape, with a thin, chalky soil only suit- able for pasture. In the S. W. the only vales deserving of notice are those of Taunton in Somerset and Exeter in Devon. A large portion of the S. E. may be regarded as a continuous plain, con- sisting of the Wealds of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent, between the North and South Downs, and containing an area of about 1,000 square miles. The S. E. angle of this district is occupied by the Romney marsh, an extensive level tract composed for the most part of a rich marine de- posit. Extensive tracts of a similar nature are situated on the E. coast, in Yorkshire and Lincoln, where they are washed by the Humber; and in the counties which either border the Wash, or, like Northampton, Bedford, Hunting- don, and Cambridge, send their drainage into it by the Nen and the Ouse. Many of these lands are nj^turally the richest in the kingdom; but have only been utilized by means of drainage. England is well supplied with rivers, many of them of great importance to in- dustry and commerce. Most of them carry their waters to the North Sea. If we consider the drainage as a whole, four principal river basins may be distin- guished, those of the Thames, Wash, and Humber belonging to the German Ocean ; and the Severn belonging to the Atlantic. The basin of the Thames has its greatest length from E. to W., 130 miles, and its average breadth about 50 miles, area 6,160 square miles. The river itself, which is the chief of English rivers, has a length of 215 miles. The basin of the Wash consists of the subordinate basins of the Great Ouse, Nen, Welland, and Witham, which all empty themselves into that estuary, and has an area computed at 5,850 square miles. The basin of the Severn consists of two distinct portions, that on the right bank, of an irregularly Dval shape, and having for its principal tributaries the Teme and the Wye; and that on the left, of which the Upper Avon is the principal tributary stream. The area of the whole basin is 8,580 square miles. The next basin, that of the Humber, the largest of all, consists of the three basins of the Humber proper, the Ouse, and the Trent, and its area is 9,550 square miles, being about one- sixth of the whole area of England and Wales. Other rivers unconnected with these systems are the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, in the N. E.; the Eden, Ribble, Mersey, and Dee, in the N. W. The S. coast streams are very unimportant ex- cept for their estuaries. CivilHistory. — The history of England proper begins when it ceased to be a Ro- man possession. On the withdrawal of the Roman forces, about the beginning of the 5th century a. d., the South Britons, or inhabitants of what is now called Eng- land, were no longer able to withstand the attacks of their ferocious N. neigh- bors, the Scots and Picts. They applied for assistance to Aetius, but the Roman general was too much occupied to attend to their petition. In their distress they appear to have sought the aid of the Sax- ons; and according to the Anglo-Saxon narratives three ships, containing 1,600 men, were dispatched to their help under the command of the brothers Hengest and Horsa. Marching against the N. foe, they obtained a complete victory. The date assigned to these events is A. d. 449, the narratives asserting further that the Saxons, finding the land desirable, turned their arms against the Britons, and re- inforced by new bands, conquered first Kent and ultimately the larger part of the island. It is certain that in the middle of the 5th century the occasional Teutonic incursions gave place to per- sistent invasion with a view to settlement. These Teutonic invaders were Low Ger- man tribes from the country about the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, the three most prominent being the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. Of these the Jutes were the first to form a settlement, taking possession of part of Kent, the Isle of Wight, etc., but the larger con- quests of the Saxons in the S. and the Angles in the N. gave to these tribes the leading place in the kingdom. The struggle continued 150 years, and at the end of that period the whole S. part of Great Britain, with the exception of Strathclyde, Wales, and West Wales (Cornwall) , was in the hands of the Teu- tonic tribes. This conquered territory was divided among a number of small states, seven of the most conspicuous of which are often spoken of as the Heptarchy. These wei'e: (1) The kingdom of Kent; founded by Hengest in 455; ended in 823. (2) Kingdom of South Saxons, con- taining Sussex and Surrey; founded by Ella in 477; ended in 689. (3) Kingdom of East Angles containing Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Ely (Isle of) ; founded by Uffa in 571 or 575 ; ended in 792. (4) Kingdom of West Saxons, containing Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Hants, Berks, and part of Corn- wall; founded by Cerdic 519; swallowed up the rest in 827. (5) Kingdom of Northumbria, containing York, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumber- land, and the E. coast of Scotland to the Firth of Forth; founded by Ida 547; ( absorbed by Wessex in 827. (6) King- dom of East Saxons, containing Essex, Middlesex, Hertford (part) ; founded by Erchew in 527; ended in 823. (7) King- dom of Mercia, containing Gloucester,
