INTRODUCTION
That portion of the Dominions of the British Empire which retains, in modern language, the name of Wales, preserved a separate political existence for over a thousand years, until in the reign of Henry the Eighth it became a part of the Realm of England, and the statutory incorporation which then took place has not altogether destroyed its separate character even until this day.
The three names "England," "Wales," and "Scotland" may be classed as geographical expressions. They are political names of parts of Britain, which have had varying meanings at different times, as the parts of the island to which they were applied have changed in area. The name "England," first used about the end of the tenth century, was applied to those parts which on the consolidation of the Heptarchy came and remained under the direct rule of the King of the English. The distinction between the English and the Welsh was not only to be found then, as now, in their language, race, and ancestry, but also in the political independence maintained by the smaller country long after the Anglo-Saxon states became consolidated in the Kingdom of England.
The time had been when a natural boundary between the two countries and peoples was approximately marked by the courses of the rivers Severn and Dee, but, owing to the superiority in military skill of the Anglo-Saxon races, the Welsh people were gradually driven back. The earthwork known as Offa's Dyke, constructed in order to keep the
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