284 I'EOF. T. MCKENNV HLGHKS, F.II.S., ON' 



Would bo tlillicult to find clear evidence now. The (air, fat, 

 Ktolid, nnag-j^ressive, but unyielding people who settled in 

 the soutli-west corner of Wales are there still, but have left 

 very little mark on the features and character of their neip,'h- 

 bours, Avliile they have themselves been only slightly modified 

 by contact Avitli a different race. 



The tAvo districts are separated by a river, on one side of 

 which the physical characters and language of the people are 

 English, on the other Welsh. 



There were still earlier the Norse and Baltic rovers landing 

 here and there all round the coast and jierhaps holding some 

 <^)f the eartliAvorks still conspicuous on the promontories 

 round the coast of Wales as elsewhere ; small entrenched 

 positions Avhich a few men could easily defend. 



There Avere the pre-Norman English usually spoken of as 

 Saxons along their eastern Irontier, and iK'iore them the 

 Ttomaus advancing from Deva on the north, and from Isca 

 Sihu'um on the south, and sometimes penetrating far along 

 the principal valleys and trade routes. All this pressure 

 must have caused a great shifting of the relations between 

 the tribes who occupied that little mountain land and have 

 resulted in great mixture of blood along the borders. 



The Norsemen and Baltic race have certainly left traces 

 round the coast in the strong square-shouldered, sandy- 

 haired, grey-eyed men who are so connnon in our seaports, 

 and have perhaps had much to do with the formation of the 

 hardy sailors whose courage and seamanship are kept alive 

 and quickened by the rough seas and rocky coast on which 

 they pass their lives from their youth up. They belong to 

 the race that was developed in the Baltic and ahnig the 

 adjoining coasts, and which forms the backbone of our navy 

 and mercantile marine. 



I do not know whether we shall ever ]»e able to recognise, 

 among the men who live along the borders or anywhere 

 in Wales, traces of the Romans or of the various foreign 

 nationalities the Romans sent as soldiers into Britain. It is 

 dilhcidt to know Avhat to look for in most cases : Italians, 

 Asturians, or Huns, or what not. Sometimes, but rarely, 

 inscriptions and history help with a note on this point. 



But 1 think we do see in the racial peculiarities of some 

 of the geographically defined districts of Wales sufliciently 

 marked characters to suo'ji'est a connnunitv of oriii'in and 

 fiome long-continued isolation from the people of other 

 more or less discomiectcd areas. 



