Welsh Journals

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^rdtTOlfljjia Camhrrak FIFTH SERIES.—VOL. II, NO. V. JANUARY 1885. THE CELTIC ELEMENT IN THE DIALECTIC WORDS OF THE COUNTIES OF NORTH¬ AMPTON AND LEICESTER. In a late communication to the Arcliceologia Cambrensis I have pointed out that the author of the Conquest of England has abandoned in this work his former posi¬ tion with regard to the race that inhabited England at the time of the Saxon invasion. His first statement was that this race had been wholly dispossessed and destroyed by their Teutonic invaders. The slaughter had been so complete that the race had disappeared ; or if some still lingered as slaves round the home¬ steads of their conquerors, their number must have been very small. Even the existence of this scanty remnant was doubtful. Practically the population of England was exclusively of Low German or Scandina¬ vian origin ; it had no Celtic element large enough to have any appreciable influence in the formation of the English people. This dogmatic assertion was afterwards modified. It was admitted that in a part of England said to be occupied by the Wealhcyn, or Welsh race, there was a blending of British and Saxon blood ; but then, from the eastern coast to an indistinct line drawn from the Yorkshire moorlands to the Cotswolds and Selwood, there lay a people of " wholly English blood". In this vehement assertion a challenge is implied to prove the 5th ser., vol. ii. j