him that they would be most efficient. Then some time in the same year,
there came six ships to Wight, and there did much harm, as well as in
Devon, and elsewhere along the sea coast. Then the king commanded nine of
the new ships to go thither, and they obstructed their passage from the
port towards the outer sea. Then went they with three of their ships out
against them; and three lay in the upper part of the port in the dry; the
men were gone from them ashore. Then took they two of the three ships at
the outer part of the port, and killed the men, and the other ship escaped;
in that also the men were killed except five; they got away because the
other ships were aground. They also were aground very disadvantageously,
three lay aground on that side of the deep on which the Danish ships were
aground, and all the rest upon the other side, so that no one of them could
get to the others. But when, the water had ebbed many furlongs from the
ships, then the Danish men went from their three ships to the other three
which were left by the tide on their side, and then they there fought
against them. There was slain Lucumon the king's reeve, and Wulfheard the
_Frisian_, and Aebbe the _Frisian_, and Aethelhere the _Frisian_, and
Aethelferth the king's 'geneat,' and of all the men, _Frisians_ and
English, seventy-two; and of the Danish men one hundred and twenty."

s. 56. I believe then, that, so far from the current accounts being
absolutely correct, in respect to the Germanic elements of the English
population, the _Jutes_, as mentioned by Beda, formed _no_ part of it,
whilst the _Frisians_, _not_ so mentioned, _were a real constituent
therein_; besides which, there may, very easily, have been other Germanic
tribes, though in smaller proportions.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VI.

THE CELTIC STOCK OF LANGUAGES, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE ENGLISH.

s. 57. The languages of Great Britain at the invasion of Julius Caesar were
of the Celtic stock.

Of the Celtic stock there are two branches.

1. The British or Cambrian branch, represented by the present Welsh, and
containing, besides, the Cornish of Cornwall (lately extinct), and the
Armorican of the French province of Brittany. It is almost certain that the
old British, the ancient language of Gaul, and the Pictish were of this
branch.

2. The Gaelic or Erse branch, represented by the present Irish Gaelic, and
containing, besides, the Gaelic of the Hig