^lormcms in porsef. 



By the Rev. C. W. H. DICKER. 



(Read March 2nd, 1910.) 



BRANCH of that wonderful race of North-men, 

 to whom the world owes the making of 

 England in the seventh and eighth cen- 

 turies, and its re-making in the eleventh 

 and twelfth, wrested about the year 918 

 from the Frankish king the province 

 which still bears their name, Normandy. 

 Amongst the qualities which distinguished 

 that common stock whence English and 

 Normans descended, were a remarkable capacity for acquiring 

 and assimilating new forms of civilisation, and also the 

 power of impressing their national characteristics upon races 

 with which they came into contact. 



These qualities are strikingly illustrated by the divergent 

 lines of development which followed their conquests respec- 

 tively in Britain and France. The English quickly adopted 

 the Christian religion ; but were not tempted to adopt the 

 degenerate forms of town-life of the Welsh, and established 



