then and there. ‘There is no reason to think,’ observes Professor Rhŷs, ‘that the conquest of the Veneti [the people of Vannes or Guened] and the Armoric League by Cæsar caused the art of shipbuilding, such as they had learned it from the Carthaginians of Spain, to be lost on the shores of Gaul and Britain; indeed, his breaking down their monopoly may have had quite the contrary effect, and it is not impossible that the ships of the Veneti became the pattern for all vessels used afterwards by the Romans in British waters, so that our marine of the present day may be regarded as, in a manner, deriving its descent through the shipping of the Veneti from that of the Carthaginians and the proud merchants of Tyre and Sidon.’ More recently, in November 1905, the question of the Roman Channel Fleet formed the subject of a paper by Mr. Emmanuel Green, read before the British Archæological Association, from which it appeared that this important fleet guarded the Fretum Britannicum (now known as the English Channel) during the long period of four hundred years. It was designated the Classis Britannica, or British Fleet. Professor Rhŷs’s surmise, that the ships of this fleet were built after the Celtic pattern, seems extremely reasonable. The Romans were nothing if not practical, and although they won the battle of Morbihan they knew well that the victory was due to their men and not to their ships. It is almost a matter of certainty that thereafter they adopted the Celtic method of shipbuilding. The fact that Devonshire and Brittany were the chief seats of the maritime power of Britain and of Gaul two thousand years ago, and that they are so to-day, seems more than a mere coincidence. Continuity of custom, and probably of race, is clearly denoted. And yet, when one turns to the accounts of modern writers on the British Navy, one finds that its origin is generally ascribed to Alfred, King of the West Saxons in the ninth century! No doubt King Alfred did much in the way of extending the number, size, and character of his ships. But it must have been after Celtic models; since the vessels of the Saxons are described as ‘clumsy
