2nd S. No 55., Jan. 17. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



it 



they occupied. But I have done this solely be- 

 cause these had become unintelligible ; because 

 towards the end of the eleventh century that pe- 

 culiar civilisation received a shock, which gave it 

 a totally different direction, and so modified the 

 whole being of the people, as to cause a system of 

 entirely new combinations. From that time there 

 have been assuredly no (or very few) Anglo- 

 Saxons left in England, and I presume still fewer 

 in the United States of America. There have 

 been Englishmen, deriving their blood from Celts, 

 Saxons, Norsemen, Frenchmen, Flemings, with a 

 little admixture perhaps of the Old Roman. And 

 these Englishmen, I believe, went to America, 

 where they probably varied the stock a little more, 

 by some admixture of Dutch, and even Spanish 

 blood, and by a very plentiful admixture of 

 Welsh, Irish, Scotch, and German — both North 

 and South. How all this can be Anglo-Saxon 

 entirely passes my comprehension. 



Still less, I presume, can it be meant to imply that 

 the social and political institutions of the United 

 States and Great Britain are Anglo-Saxon. This 

 they most assuredly are not. The Anglo-Saxons 

 certainly had serfs, and the Americans have the "do- 

 mestic institution," but the English have not ; so 

 that even here the parallel escapes me. American 

 writers have already enriched our language with 

 a number of expressions, which I regret not to be 

 able to look upon as improvements. These have 

 been excused on the ground that they are conve- 

 nient representatives of novel ideas ; but I believe 

 that there was not the least necessity for their in- 

 troduction among us. But it seems to me that 

 this word Anglo-Saxon, if it means anything, 

 means what is historically false, and should there- 

 fore be scouted by all true men. I believe, in 

 fact, that it arises entirely from Mr. Thierry's 

 dualistic theory, which arose entirely (by his own 

 admission) from Sir W. Scott's novel of Ivanhoe. 

 I believe it is intended to imply that the people in 

 England are Anglo-Saxon, but the nobles are not 

 Anglo-Saxon, which is historically false : the no- 

 bility in England are just what the people are. 

 And if it is further intended to imply that the 

 people in America, being like the people in Eng- 

 land, Anglo-Saxon, have an interest apart from 

 the interest of the nobility in England — not being 

 Anglo-Saxon — then I say that it is politically, as 

 well as historically, false, and should be doubly 

 resisted by all true men. If the Americans re- 

 cognise the fact that the English people, mixed as 

 it is, and of which they are themselves a great and 

 gallant offshoot, possesses noble qualities of self- 

 government, indomitable energy, high principle, 

 and that apxiKov cpva-ei which makes them the lords 

 of the human race, I shall gladly agree with them. 

 But still I must object to calling the English or 

 Anglo-American people, Anglo-Saxon. If the 

 Americans read Beowulf, or Ccedmon, or the Laws 



and Institutes, or the Codex Diplomaticus, or the 

 Saxons in England, they would learn that the 

 Englishman of to-day has as little to do with Al- 

 fred's language, as he has to do with his legislation : 

 that the tongue we speak, and the institutions we 

 live under, are not more like those of the Anglo- 

 Saxons, than the personal appearance of the 

 Anglo-American is like that of the full, fat, light- 

 haired, blue-eyed Mercian, or the rattling " go-a- 

 head " spirit of the States like the somewhat heavy 

 conservatism of the Anglian kingdoms. I am very 

 ready to admit all the greatness which the Anglo- 

 Americans may be disposed to find in the English 

 character ; but I wish to remind them, as well as 

 my own countrymen, that the Englishman only 

 became great by ceasing to be an Anglo-Saxon. 

 Pray do set your face against the further intro- 

 duction of this glaring cockneyism. J. M. K. 



Newspaper Literature. — Reference is desired 

 to the Magazine or Review containing an article 

 " On the Means by which the Editors of English 

 Newspapers have obtained the Secrets of Foreign 

 and English Governments." J. F. S. 



Muchruss, Co. Kerry. — 



" An autocrat might form a second Versailles, but he 

 could not, even with the revenues of an empire, lay out a 

 second Muckruss." 



To whom is Muckruss, in the county of Kerry, 

 indebted for the foregoing ? Abhba. 



A Deer Leap. — A Patent Roll of the 8th of 

 King John grants a licence to John (Comyn) 

 Archbishop of Dublin, to have a park at Kilcop- 

 santan, and, a " deer leap " therein. What was 

 the deer leap ? E. D. B. 



Mistletoe, how produced ? — As this is the season 

 when young persons are kissing and being kissed 

 " under the mistletoe," I may take the liberty, as a 

 looker on, to put a question — not as to the origin 

 of the seasonal custom alluded to — though that 

 might not be quite out of place in the pages of 

 " N. & Q.," but of the origin of the " mystic 

 bough " itself. It is generally said, as most 

 readers will be aware, to be produced from a seed 

 of the viscurn album, dropped in the muting of 

 some bird upon the tree from which it grows as a 

 parasitic shrub. Is this theory of its generation 

 undeniably correct ? Is there any common in- 

 stance known of seeds germinating after having 

 passed through the digestive organs of a gramini- 

 vorous bird ? By the way, it may be here re- 

 marked, that the "March of Intellect " has failed 

 to tread out the immemorial Christmas use of the 

 mistletoe; and only within the last few days I 



