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ou him a dark impression which, as he said, was never effaced, and 

 this, together with the gloomy beauty of the old place, may have 

 contributed something to the poetry and melajicholy of his 

 character. He was sent to school at Cheam, and thence to Trinity 

 College, Oxford, where he took his degree of M.A., in 1797, 

 Although he had been entered at Lincoln's Inn, the living of 

 Camerton was purchased for him, and he was inducted in the year 

 1800, when 30 years old. 



Habits of industrious historical research began with him early, 

 and lasted his life. What he may have done in this domain of 

 study, is, I suppose, known hardly to anyone, nor will the secret of 

 his labours be revealed until fifty years shall have passed over his 

 gi-ave, and the authorities of the British Museum, released by lapse 

 of time from the obligations of Mr. Sldnner's will, consent to an 

 examination of his manuscripts. He sketched admirably and with 

 much industry ; his constant aim was the preservation of remains or 

 written matter which seemed in danger of destruction, and after a 

 visit to Britanny he brought home a very excellent set of drawings 

 and memoirs about the Druidical monuments at Carnac. In 

 addition to his published works and the volume we have here, out 

 of which Mr. Scarth, in the sixteenth volume of the Institute 

 Journal, has edited the account of the Mendip Barrows, he had 

 above a hundred bound quarto volumes, containing diaries and 

 drawings made on tours in England, France, and Scotland, with 

 many original and valuable observations. All these and many 

 others of his writings are now sleeping at the British Museum, and 

 few of us will ever see them. 



I am content, however, to leave this great part of the subject, 

 and in this paper to endeavour little more than to give a short 

 outline of Mr. Skinner's peculiar views on our own local topography, 

 and to convey some idea of his personal character. Of com-se, like 

 the rest of the world, he had his etymologic theory, and this had 

 for its basis the principle that in a Celtic language every sound or 

 particle, and as he would sometimes say, every letter, should in all 

 words have a separate significance ; that our topographical nomen- 

 clature is to be refen-ed to the vei-y infancy of society ; that such 

 particles as ic, or ab, or am, were employed by a primitive popu- 



