is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and sixty-two;
in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire,
three hundred and two. These facts imply that
the English population clustered thickest in the old
settled east, but grew thinner and thinner towards
the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the
historical evidence regarding the western slopes of
England bears out Professor Huxley’s dictum
as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their population.
On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that Mr.
Freeman and Canon Stubbs have proved their point as
to the thorough Teutonisation of Southern Britain
by the English invaders. Though it may be true
that much Welsh blood survived in England, especially
amongst the servile class, yet it is none the less
true that the nation which rose upon the ruins of
Roman Britain was, in form and organisation, almost
purely English. The language spoken by the whole
country was the same which had been spoken in Sleswick.
Only a few words of Welsh origin relating to agriculture,
household service, and smithcraft, were introduced
by the serfs into the tongue of their masters.
The dialects of the Yorkshire moors, of the Lake District,
and of Dorset or Devon, spoken only by wild herdsmen
in the least cultivated tracts, retained a few more
evident traces of the Welsh vocabulary: but in
York, in London, in Winchester, and in all the large
towns, the pure Anglo-Saxon of the old England by
the shores of the Baltic was alone spoken. The
Celtic serfs and their descendants quickly assumed
English names, talked English to one another, and
soon forgot, in a few generations, that they had not
always been Englishmen in blood and tongue. The
whole organisation of the state, the whole social
life of the people, was entirely Teutonic. “The
historical civilisation,” as Canon Stubbs admirably
puts it, “is English and not Celtic.”
Though there may have been much Welsh blood left, it
ran in the veins of serfs and rent-paying churls, who
were of no political or social importance. These
two aspects of the case should be kept carefully distinct.
Had they always been separated, much of the discussion
which has arisen on the subject would doubtless have
been avoided; for the strongest advocates of the Teutonic
theory are generally ready to allow that Celtic women,
children, and slaves may have been largely spared:
while the Celtic enthusiasts have thought incumbent
upon them to derive English words from Welsh roots,
and to trace the origin of English social institutions
to Celtic models. The facts seem to indicate
that while the modern English nation is largely Welsh
in blood, it is wholly Teutonic in form and language.
Each of us probably traces back his descent to mixed
Celtic and Germanic ancestry: but while the Celts
have contributed the material alone, the Teutons have
contributed both the material and the form.
