on the higher ranges of the hills and in winter in the villages, as is the case in the Highlands of Scotland and in Switzerland. The same homestead arrangement prevails in Scandinavia.
The settlement of the south-western counties was accompanied by a migration of some British people, and perhaps by a reflux of descendants of the same race. As Wales was the refuge of those who were driven from the old homes in the midland counties, and Cumberland their refuge in the north, so there is both historical and archæological evidence that Brittany received Celtic refugees from probably the south-western parts of Britain. We are told that ‘Britons who dwelt as early as the sixth century beyond the sea were passing over into Lesser Britain’—i.e., Brittany.[1] At that time Armorica, although diminished from its ancient extent, still existed as a separate State, extending as far south as Nantes.[2] There is evidence in relation to South Wales, as will be stated in the next chapter, to show that some very early Teutonic settlements were established in Pembrokeshire, and equally early colonies may have been formed on the south-west coast of England. Ermold, a French monk who wrote in the early part of the ninth century, records the arrival in Brittany of Britons fleeing from their Teutonic enemies,[3] and he lived sufficiently near to the time in which this migration is said to have occurred for the traditions concerning it to have been local history when he visited Armorica in 824. In connection with this migration, we must consider also the interesting contemporary statement of Asser, that in King Alfred’s time Armoricans were among those people of foreign birth who voluntarily placed themselves under his rule. In Alfred’s time some of the descendants of the former British refugees may well have returned, and if so, the south-western counties probably received them.
