482 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. V. 128., Junk 12. '58. 



men and followers. When will our classical zea- 

 lots profit by the first chapter of a certain aposto- 

 lical epistle ? 



Long before the first Roman invasion — long, 

 indeed, before the Komau eagle was fledged — 

 this country was regularly traded to by the Greeks 

 (following in the wake of the Phoenicians), whose 

 incidental notices of its inhabitants suggest a 

 better state of things than that invented by the 

 admirers of him, who, as the poet Lucan tells us, 

 and truly, — 



" Territa quacsitis ostendit terga Britannia,", 

 never to return ! 



The Father of History (b.c. 450) alludes to the 

 established commerce of Britain (Herod. Hist. iii. 

 115.) The preceptor of Alexander, Aristotle 

 (b. c. 340) speaks of the Britannic Isles as fami- 

 liarly known to his countrymen (de Mundo, § 3.). 

 The Cappadocian geographer, Strabo, also bears 

 witness to the commercial enterprise of the Bri- 

 tons, and describes them (not as painted savages, 

 but) as " walking with staves, and wearing beards, 

 and garments girded at the waist and flowing 

 down to their heels." (B. iii. c. v. § 11.) It is 

 well known, too, that Polybius (b. c. 200) medi- 

 tated composing a history of the British manufac- 

 ture and trade in lead and tin — metals which, for 

 many ages, were exclusively produced in this 

 country ; and exchanged, according to Pliny, for 

 the most precious gems (" India neque aes neque 

 plumbum habet, gemmisque suis ac margarit\g hsec 

 permutat "). 



It requires no great stretch of the imagination 

 to conceive that a people who were thus occupied 

 and capable of bartering with foreigners their 

 native manufactures " of lead and tin together 

 with skins," for " earthenware, salt, and works in 

 brass," as Strabo relates, were worthy the notice 

 of an accomplished Greek historian. The only 

 difficulty is, how to reconcile the avowed inten- 

 tion of Polybius, and the opinions of his equally 

 intelligent countrymen, with the Roman " authori- 

 ties," and the modern notion that such a people 

 " were little superior to the natives of the Sand- 

 wich Islands." 



But independently of sundry impartial notices 

 by Greek writers, we fortunately possess no small 

 portion of the religious and civil laws of these 

 supposititious savages. The Triads of the Isle of 

 Britain, as they are designated by their own 

 framers, relate of persons and events from the 

 earliest period to the commencement of the seventh 

 century of the Christian era, as well as contain 

 the institutional and theological principles upon 

 which the political and religious system of the 

 ancient Britons was based. These interesting 

 memorials of ancient wisdom and piety have 

 shared, of course, no better fate than their au- 

 thors. They have been referred to a mediceval 

 source ; so that the Augustiniaa monks, like the 



Egyptian priesthood, must have preserved one 

 creed amongst themselves, whilst they taught their 

 disciples another ! The absence of all allusion to 

 miracles, which constituted the religious capital 

 of the Middle Ages, is alone sufficient to disprove 

 a monkish origin of the Triads. Moreover, the 

 laws of Howel the Good, who flourished in the 

 tenth century, are avowedly borrowed from the 

 code which was in force in this island centuries 

 before the advent of Caesar, or in the age of Moel- 

 mud, B.C. 400. The first-mentioned laws have been 

 wisely reprinted by H. M. Record Commissioners, 

 who, I understand, will shortly give to the public 

 translations also of the more ancient ones. I doubt 

 not, therefore, the time will arrive when our 

 classical votaries will shake off some of their edu- 

 cational prejudices, and cease to refer all effects 

 of civilisation — that is to say, literature, arts, 

 and sciences — exclusively to a Greek or Roman 

 origin ; and perhaps agree with old Hesiod, Aratus, 

 Ovid, and others, that the Golden Age really did 

 precede that of Iron. /3. 



CCBTAIN LECTURE. 



(2°'» S. iv. 24. 77. ; v. 306. 477.) 



I find, from an article by Da. Rimbault, that 

 I was mistaken in my conjecture as to the pro- 

 bable name of the author of the scarce work. Art 

 Asleepe, Husband ? a Boulster Lecture, 1640. He 

 gives the name of the author from an authority 

 which he refers to ; thus adding the name of the 

 writer of another anonymous work to those al- 

 ready mentioned in " N. & Q." 



I had stated the grounds of my conjecture in 

 quotations from the frontispiece and title-page of 

 " my copy," adding the date of the edition, 1640. 

 These Db. Rimbault has quoted, and has thought 

 proper to say, " P. H. F. is not acquainted with 

 the contents of the book he quotes, or he would 

 have observed the following curious passage in 

 the postscript, bearing upon the subject before 

 Us ; " and then he gives the passage from the 

 postscript in extenso. 



Now, Dr. Rimbault's remark applies (as it can 

 apply only) to my copy, namely, the identical 

 " book from which" I quoted. It is a fine copy, 

 in excellent condition, apparently perfect, and is 

 in its original binding. Having a ruled line for 

 notes and references in the margin of the upright 

 side of each page, it has nearly the shape of a 

 small 4to. Its pagination is 318., the last page 

 ending with "Finis;" followed by eight pages 

 (not numbered) which contain only " Menippus 

 His Coy-duck, Clarabel," and " Loves Festival at 

 Lusts Funeral," ending with " Finis," and a few 

 errata on the back of the last unnumbered page. 

 But it has not, anywhere, the postscript mentioned 

 by Dr. Rimbault. 



