94 



Though foundln isolated instances in many parts of England, 

 the most complete and extensive known sets of them have been 

 obtained from Lakeland. There is an absolute certainty that one 

 set given herein (No. 5), and obtained by Mr. Browne of Tallentire 

 Hall from Borrowdale, was in use very long before A.D. 1818, for Mr. 

 Browne says: — "It is just sixty years (i.e. now sixty-six years) 

 since this list of numerals was obtained from the shepherds of 

 Borrowdale as being then used by them. Considering the retired 

 character of the vale at that time, and the slowness of the people 

 to take up anything new, and their small intercourse with others 

 from whom they could learn them, I think it is an absolute 

 certainty that they must have been in use very long before 

 A.D. 1818." 



Another Cumberland and Westmorland set (No. 6) could.be 

 .traced back for one hundred and thirty years, while the set 

 (No. 3) I obtained at Coniston had been known and used there 

 from time immemorial, and is firmly believed by those who are 

 best acquainted with the dialect of the inhabitants, to have been 

 part of the language of the first inhabitants of the place. They 

 are doubtless the Welsh or Cymric numerals. My own impression 

 is that they are too well known, and have been too deeply rooted 

 in the language of the Lake country, to be the result of mere 

 isolated importations. Have they then come down from the 

 Welsh or Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde, which at one time 

 occupied these regions, and the language of which must have 

 gradually receded before the more vigourous growth of the Anglo 

 Saxon, just as the Welsh language is at present in Wales itself 

 gradually receding before it ; but which nevertheless in those parts 

 of Cumbria maintained its ground as a language to the time of 

 Bede — to the time of the Norman Conquest ; according to Skene, 

 in his recent work on Celtic Scotland, to the time of Stephen, and 

 even according to some of our best local authorities, until after the 

 time of the Reformation, and which, as the Celtic of Cornwall, 

 has died out almost within living memory — also doubtless came to a 

 gradual and almost imperceptible end. Do we then in those 

 Celtic numerals possess a solitary relic of our Celtic forerunners ? 





