OUR ANCESTORS. 213 



to inquire more fully into their meaning, it turns out 

 that they are speaking only of the native inhabitants 

 of England proper and the Scotch Lowlands, without 

 taking into consideration at all the people of Wales, 

 Ireland, and the Highlands, or the numerous de- 

 scendants of immigrants from those districts into 

 the south-eastern half of Great Britain. Even in the 

 restricted England itself, these same doughty Teutonic 

 advocates admit that there is a nearly pure Celtic (or 

 pre-Celtic) population in Cornwall, in Cumberland, and 

 in Westmoreland ; while the western half of the Low- 

 lands, from Glasgow to the border, is also allowed to 

 be inhabited by a mainly Welsh race. Furthermore, 

 it is pretty generally granted by our stoutest Teutonic 

 champions themselves, that the people of Dorset, 

 Somerset, and Devon, of Lancashire, Cheshire, Shrop- 

 shire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, are all 

 largely mingled with Celtic blood. Thus, in the end, it 

 appears that only the native inhabitants of the Lothian s 

 and the Eastern and Southern coast of England are 

 claimed as pure Teutons, even by those who most 

 loudly assert the essentially Teutonic origin of the 

 English people. We may possibly find that this little 

 Teutonic belt or border itself is not without a fair 

 sprinkling of earlier blood. 



Perhaps the best way to clear up this question will 

 be to glance briefly at the various races which have 

 inhabited these islands, one after another, and then to 

 inquire how far their descendants still exist in our 

 midst, how large a proportion of our blood they have 



