At some point in the period between 1681 and 1699 the courtier and diplomat Sir William Temple drafted a history of England, in which he hailed the Druids as teachers of ‘justice and fortitude’, living simply in the woods: ‘their food of acorns, berries or other mast; their drink water: which made them respected and admired, not only for knowing more than other men, but for despising what all others valued and pursued, and by their great virtue and temperance, they were suffered patiently to reprove and correct the vices and crimes, from which themselves were free’.
