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 Sea. Great roads crossed the island from east to west and from north to south. Great cities, full of all the luxuries of the South, grew up. Temples were built to the Roman gods; and country-houses of rich Roman gentlemen, of which you may still see the remains here and there. These gentlemen at first talked about exile, shivered and cursed the ‘beastly British climate’, heated their houses with hot air, and longed to get home to Italy. But many stayed; their duty or their business obliged them to stay: and into them too the spirit of the dear motherland entered, and became a passion. Their children, perhaps, never saw Rome; but Rome and Britain had an equal share of their love and devotion, and they, perhaps, thought something like this:—

 

