76 



as being that of another very learned and brilliant writer ; and 

 he seems at one time to have been inclined to maintain it entire. 

 It is not fairly a matter of wonder that a writer whose habit 

 must be a constant review of the raw material of history, over 

 so many of its fields, from fresh points of sight, should some- 

 times start a newly-detected principle with an overstatement of 

 it ; or a broad announcement, unqualified by its exceptions. As 

 the greyhound and the hare, so the eager pursuer of an 

 unobserved principle in history must sometimes double back upon 

 the truth which he has overrun. At any rate, upon this doctrine 

 of the extermination of the Britons, the eminent writer is found to 

 have either reserved, or later to have adopted, a very material quali- 

 fication of it ; at least in favour of Devon and a part of Somerset, f 

 But the misfortune of having disciples is that they are unable 

 to afford a retreat ; and their zeal is apt to make a firm stand 

 upon the first -made assertion, and stoutly maintain its literal uni- 

 versality, and insist upon every detail. So with this about the 

 extermination of the Britons. One writer says that "in Britain 

 the priesthood and the people had been exterminated together." * 

 The same writer also calls it " a world which our fathers' sword 

 swept utterly away." J And the same assertion has been made 

 the starting point of their new school of school histories. But 

 compared with this startling assertion, the fabled catastrophe 

 which a conflict, in the famous city of St. Canice, entailed upon its 

 partisans would itself become almost credible ; but that, unfortu- 

 nately for the legend, both parties survive. Indeed, the city of 

 Kilkenny presents at this day the very state of things which King 

 Athelstan brought to an end at Exeter ; for there, may be seen two 

 nationalities, not only sharply divided, and commonly called "Irish- 

 town " and " English-town," but so marked by lettering at the 

 street corners ; and a walk through the town can hardly fail to 

 strike a stranger with other indications of the distinction. A 



f Freeman's Hist, of Norman Conquest, 2nd Edn., i. 34, and in various 

 places farther on in his -vrork. Also in his paper read at Sherborne, 1874, 

 en " King Ine," Somerset A. & N. H., Soc., vol. xx. 



* Rev. J. R. Green, Short Hist., p. 29 

 J Hist. Engl. People, i., p. 32. 



