Ancient_and_modern_York_a_guide

8 ANCIENT AND
this city. He was soon, however, obliged to fly to
Norway.
We now draw to the conclusion of the first and most
remarkable era in the history of this city. In the year
450, the Romans evacuated Britain ; when the victorious
Sixth Legion bade a final farewell to Eboracum!—The
loss of public spirit and virtue in the people of once great
and free Rome, having produced their inevitable results,
the decay and demoralization of the empire.
No sooner had the Romans withdrawn from Britain,
than the Scots and Picts burst through the northern wall,
devastated all the country north of the Humber, and
entered York, some of whose proudest edifices were
reduced to ruin by the rapacious and vindictive barba
rians ; the fate of Altera Roma thus presaging the destiny
of mighty Rome herself. The Britons craved the aid of
the Saxons. The Saxons came ; and under Hengist soon
wrested York from the invaders. During the struggles
between the Britons and the Saxons, who, from allies,
became masters, York was frequently taken and retaken,
and suffered severely in various sieges. Indeed, Hume,
in describing this age of violence and revolution says,
that the fierce conquerors threw every thing back into
ancient barbarism ; although, of course, these expres
sions must be understood in a limited sense. In the
records of the events which occurred in this city at that
time, we find the first direct evidence of the existence of
structures dedicated to Christian worship in York. Ambrosius,
the British king, who held a council of the
British princes and nobles in York, ordered, we are told',
the churches destroyed or injured by the pagans, to be
rebuilt. King Arthur, by whom the first Christmas ever
kept in this country, was celebrated in York, a.d. 524,
gave similar directions. But it is probable that the
Chrisitan religion had existed here long anterior to this
date. It is difficult to suppose, that Christian zeal neg
lected a country which ranked so high in the times of the