ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a readable history of Britain which tells how the ordinary man and woman lived at different times. It is unlikely that there will be many names in it before the time of Caesar's invasion, which occurred just 2,000 years ago, the names of a few British 'kings' before his time were known. One reason why civilization spread from the Mediterranean to central Europe up the Danube rather than across the Alps was that four or five thousand years ago the Alpine glaciers and snowfields came down a good deal lower than they do now, so that it was almost impossible to get from Italy to Austria. Another reason was that along the Danube valley there are many patches of the fine soil called loess, which does not readily grow forests, but is easily cultivated, and forms for example the wheat-fields of Ukraine and Hungary.
