clusion of any Britons whatever. It makes a considerable
part of the continent Gaelic as well. In consequence of this, the
Britons are a later and intrusive population, a population which
effected a great and complete displacement of the earlier Gaels over the
whole of South Britain, and the southern part of Scotland. Except that
they were a branch of the same stock as the Gaels, their relation to the
aborigines was that of the Anglo-Saxons to themselves at a later period.
The Gaels first; then the Britons; lastly the Angles. Such is the
sequence. The general distribution of these two branches of the Keltic
stock leads to Lhuyd's hypothesis; in other words, the presumptions are
in its favour. But this is not all. There are certainly some words--the
names, of course, of geographical objects--to be found in both England
and Gaul, which are better explained by the Gaelic than the British
language. The most notable of these is the names of such rivers as the
_Exe_, _Axe_, and (perhaps) _Ouse_, which is better illustrated by the
Irish term _uisge_ (_whiskey_, _water_), than by any Welsh or Armorican
one.

2. The second doctrine may be called the _Hibernian_ hypothesis. It
allows to the Britons of England, and South Scotland any amount of
antiquity, making them aboriginal to Great Britain. The Gaels of the
Scottish Highlands it derives from Ireland; a view supported by a
passage in Beda.[9] Ireland is thus the earliest insular occupancy of
the Gael. But whence came they to Ireland? From some part south and west
of the oldest known south-western limits of the Keltic area, from Spain,
perhaps; in which case a subsequent displacement of the original Kelts
of the continent by the Iberians--the oldest known stock of the
Peninsula--must be assumed. But as there must be some assumptions
somewhere, the only question is as to its legitimacy.

3. The third hypothesis--the _Caledonian_--reverses the second, and
deduces the Irish Gaels from Scotland, and the Scotch Gaels from some
part _north_ of the oldest known Keltic boundary and in the direction of
Scandinavia. Like both the others, this involves a subsequent
displacement of the mother-stock.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] _See_ Chapter viii.

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.