77 



similar state of tilings nuy also be sean at Gralway, and other 

 great town s in Ireland. 



It is believed, indeed, that this theory ; of the extermination o 

 the Celtic peoples by the Teutonic invaders, or their almost entire 

 replacement by expulsion, is, even in its more qualified form, 

 very much beyond the truth : especially in the western half of 

 the English speaking portion of the island : that at least the 

 broad substratum of the rural population, and that of the non- 

 commercial cities and towns, retain in blood, though not in 

 speech, a very large Celtic constituent. Besides this, it is 

 thought that it may be shown that there are scattered 

 among them small, and perhaps frequent, insulations of undi s 

 turbed, and almost unmixed outliers of the older peoples. Spite 

 of all the, attempts to suppress it, the fact is obvious that much 

 of our present advanced condition in the world and our persona 

 character, of which even our physiognomy is one of the witnesses, 

 have been derived from this people. Nearly all our cities, 

 especially all the greatest of them, have come down from them 

 to us in their uninterrupted vitality, and have even brought 

 down to us the British names by which many times daily we 

 still call them. These are, at least, rather more tangible than 

 the townships or villages, said to be the channel through which 

 the much lauded Forest Institutions have been transmitted to us 

 from North Germany. A " hatred of cities " is among the 

 almost boasted attributes of the invaders. But are the founders 

 and godfathers, if you will of London, York, and Exeter, and 

 the others, to be pushed out of the history of which these are the 

 most illustrious subjects ; by the parasite or episodical history of 

 those whom for politeness-sake we will call, unwelcome guests ? 

 But the surviving cities are few, compared with the much 

 greater number of equally great cities, only known to us by 

 their stupendous earthwork ramparts ; which, even to us, in this 

 engineering age, are no more than objects of wonder and 

 conjecture. Of most of these the very names have been totally 

 lost ; and the fact that their vast areas must have ever been 

 occupied by great communities of men, has passed out of 



