Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note:

Archaic, dialect and variant spellings (including quoted proper
nouns) remain as printed, except where noted. Minor typographical
errors have been corrected without note; significant amendments have
been listed at the end of the text.

Greek text has been transliterated and appears between {braces}.

The oe ligature has been transcribed as [oe], _e.g._, Ph[oe]nician.

THE
ETHNOLOGY
OF
THE BRITISH ISLANDS.

THE
ETHNOLOGY
OF
THE BRITISH ISLANDS.

BY
R. G. LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S.,
CORRESPONDING MEMBER TO THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK, ETC.

[Device]

LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLII.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY T. E. METCALF, 63, SNOW HILL.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PAGE Preliminary Remarks.--Present Populations of the British Isles.-- Romans, &c.--Pre-historic Period.--The Irish Elk.--How far Contemporaneous with Man.--Stone Period.--Modes of Sepulture.-- The Physical Condition of the Soil.--Its Fauna.--Skulls of the Stone Period.--The Bronze Period.--Gold Ornaments.--Alloys and Castings.--How far Native or Foreign.--Effect of the Introduction of Metals.--Dwellings. 1

CHAPTER II.

Authorities for the Earliest Historical Period.--Herodotus.-- Aristotle.--Polybius.--Onomacritus.--Diodorus Siculus.--Strabo.-- Festus Avienus.--Ultimate sources.--Damnonii.--Ph[oe]nician Trade.--The Orgies.--South-Eastern Britons of Cæsar.--The Details of his Attacks.--The Caledonians of Galgacus. 38

CHAPTER III.

Origin of the Britons.--Kelts of Gaul.--The Belgæ.--Whether Keltic or German.--Evidence of Cæsar.--Attrebates, Belgæ, Remi, Durotriges and Morini, Chauci and Menapii. 58

CHAPTER IV.

The Picts.--List of Kings.--Penn Fahel.--Aber and Inver.--The Picts probably, but not certainly, Britons. 76

CHAPTER V.

Origin of the Gaels.--Difficulties of its Investigation.--Not Elucidated by any Records, nor yet by Traditions.--Arguments from the Difference between the British and Gaelic Languages.--The British Language spoken in Gaul.--The Gaelic not known to be spoken in any part of the Continent.--Lhuyd's Doctrine.--The Hibernian Hypothesis.--The Caledonian Hypothesis.--Postulates. 83

CHAPTER VI.

Roman Influences.--Agricola.--The Walls and Ramparts of Adrian, Antoninus, and Severus.--Bonosus.--Carausius.--The Constantian Family.--Franks and Alemanni in Britain.--Foreign Elements in the Roman Legions. 90

CHAPTER VII.

Value of the Early British Records.--True and Genuine Traditions Rare.--Gildas.--Beda.--Nennius.--Annales Cambrenses.--Difference between Chronicles and Registers.--Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.--Irish Annals.--Value of the Accounts of the Fifth and Sixth Centuries.--Questions to which they apply. 104

CHAPTER VIII.

The Angles of Germany: their comparative obscurity.--Notice of Tacitus.--Extract from Ptolemy.--Conditions of the Angle Area.-- The Varini.--The Reudigni and other Populations of Tacitus.--The Sabalingii, &c., of Ptolemy.--The Suevi Angili.--Engle and Ongle.--Original Angle Area. 142

CHAPTER IX.

The Saxons--of Upper Saxony--of Lower, or Old Saxony.-- Nordalbingians.--Saxons of Ptolemy.--Present and Ancient Populations of Sleswick-Holstein.--North-Frisians.--Probable Origin of the name Saxon.--The Littus Saxonicum.--Saxones Bajocassini. 165

CHAPTER X.

The Angles of Germany--Imperfect Reconstruction of their History--Their Heroic Age.--Beowulf.--Conquest of Anglen.-- Anecdote from Procopius.--Their Reduction under the Carlovingian Dynasty.--The Angles of Thuringia. 200

CHAPTER XI.

Recapitulations and Illustrations.--Propositions respecting the Keltic Character of the Original Occupants of Britain, &c.--The Relations between the Ancient Britons and the Ancient Gauls, &c.--The Scotch Gaels.--The Picts.--The Date of the Germanic Invasions.--The names Angle and Saxon. 219

CHAPTER XII.

Analysis of the Germanic Populations of England.--The Jute Element Questionable.--Frisian Elements Probable.--Other German Elements, how far Probable.--Forms in -ing. 232

CHAPTER XIII.

The Scandinavians.--Forms in -by: their Import and Distribution.--Danes of Lincolnshire, &c.; of East Anglia; of Scotland; of the Isle of Man; of Lancashire and Cheshire; of Pembrokeshire.--Norwegians of Northumberland, Scotland, and Ireland, and Isle of Man.--Frisian forms in Yorkshire.--Bogy.-- Old Scratch.--The Picts possibly Scandinavian.--The Normans. 244

ETHNOLOGY
OF
THE BRITISH ISLANDS.