Previous to the Roman occupation of Britain Hertfordshire was inhabited by two British tribes,—the Cattyeuchlani, whose capital appears to have been Verulam or St Albans, and the Trinobantes. To what extent these original British inhabitants of the county survived the Roman and Saxon invasions is unknown; but it may be taken as certain that at an early date Anglo-Saxon was the language spoken in this part of the country. Forty years ago Anglo-Saxon idioms and words still lingered among the labouring rural population in the Harpenden district (and probably elsewhere), which have apparently now disappeared completely. Instead of houses, the Anglo-Saxon plural housen was, for instance, always used by the old people; while when a log of timber was cut the wrong way of the grain they would say that it would be sure to spalt (equivalent to the German spalten), instead of to split.

Of the Anglo-Saxon language there were originally two chief dialects, a northern and a southern; but after the Norman conquest the number of such dialects was increased to half-a-dozen. According to Dr A. J. Ellis’s English Dialects, southern Hertfordshire comes within the domain of the south-eastern dialect, which also prevailed in Middlesex, south-eastern Buckinghamshire, and south-western Essex. Throughout this area there is, however, an underlying basis of the middle eastern dialect, which is still to be detected in northern Hertfordshire, as well as in Essex, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire. It accordingly appears that if the East Anglian counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk be eliminated, the whole of the country lying to the eastward of the Chiltern Hills, as well as the high grounds of Northamptonshire, had one dialect in common, which was the speech of the early Teuton settlers of this part of England. This dialect, during the course of fourteen centuries, has been gradually modified and altered by the speech of London till it has resulted in the modern English of this part of south-eastern England.

According to Mr R. A. Smith, writing in the Victoria History of the Counties of England, “The grouping of dialects in this part of the country would thus unite Hertfordshire with Essex, and lead us to expect from archÆology some indications of Saxon rather than of Anglian influence in the county. The few results already obtained in Hertfordshire certainly show a marked absence of Anglian characteristics, but many discoveries must be made before the peculiarities of East Saxon remains can be demonstrated. To the west of the Chilterns enough has been recovered from graves to show that the settlers in the upper Thames valley, presumably the Saxons of the West, were homogeneous [uniform in characteristics] and distinguishable from their neighbours; but at present nothing has been found to link them with the people of Essex, who probably reached the eastern slopes of the Chilterns at one time, but were mainly confined to the north of Essex and the neighbourhood of London. In fact, the few discoveries in this district point rather to a connection with Kent [the country of the British tribe of Cantii] than with Wessex.”

Whatever may be the precise state of the case with regard to these details, it may be taken as certain that the present population of Hertfordshire is mainly descended from the Saxons who came to Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. There must have been, however, a certain mixture of ancient British blood; while later, and more especially among the higher classes, this was followed by the infusion of a Norman strain. Otherwise the population of the county does not appear to have been much influenced by foreign immigration, although there was a settlement of Huguenots in St Albans, who have left their mark in the name of one of the streets—French Row—near the market-place.