237 
nearly swept away by the dispersing floods of centuries, that 
the best epitome of our knowledge of them will probably be 
formed from collections made in our own times, of such 
imperfect and mutilated relics as those which I have presented 
to your notice this day. 
By such labours it can be demonstrated that, despite the 
teachings of Christianity, the spread of intelligence, and the 
cultivation of the intellectual powers amongst all classes, the 
dread of the malign influence of discarded deities and demons 
of the old world, whose names alone were probably never heard 
by their present votaries, is still exhibited in adherence to im- 
memorial customs by professed, and doubtless sincere Christians, 
to whom it has been handed down from periods beyond the 
reach of history, not by the loud voice, but by the low and secret 
whisper of tradition; it can be shown that despite the great 
changes and refinement which our language has undergone 
during the time required for the amalgamation of the various 
tribes of which the population of England is composed, in some 
of its quiet vales, may still be heard from the lips of sturdy 
husbandmen, the accents of the mighty sea-roving vikings, 
for echoes of which, the dales of their own Scandinavian 
homes have listened in vain for ages; we can even show, on 
consideration of our peculiar provincial modes of speech, that 
_ in the clumsy attempts at a refinement of language generally 
_made by our yeomen and country folk while addressing 
_ superiors, instantly abandoned for a different and well marked 
_ dialect of uncouth phrases, and other grammatical forms, 
amongst themselves and their dependants, we have a striking 
instance of the enduring sympathy inherent in race, and an 
infallible mark, wherever it may occur, of a people once 
_ numerically predominant, but eventually subjugated and incor- 
porated with another. I think the facts by which we arrive at 
these conclusions are as interesting, and as remarkable, in 
connection with the history of human kind, and human mind, 
as any which are ordinarily cared for by students of nature, 
and therefore do not hesitate to lay them before the “ Cottes- 
wold Natural History Club.” 
