ee EE <= 
SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 425 
AFTERNOON. 
Mr. C. S. Orwin.— The origin of lynchets (2.0). 
The name ‘ lynchet’ is applied to the banks and terraces which occur 
plentifully in some parts of England, and occasionally in most parts of the 
country. 
It has been accepted for a long time that they are the results of early 
ploughing—in fact, that they represent ordinary ridge-and-furrow work 
controlled by the exigencies of operating on gradients. 
There is no question that some of the banks which are called ‘ lynchets ’ 
have resulted from the way in which land has been laid out for ploughing 
across a slope. The suggestion in this paper, however, is that this explana- 
tion is not applicable to the terrace lynchets, the formation of which has 
been attributed by archeologists for the past hundred years to the use of 
the plough to turn furrows across the hillsides on which they occur in the 
downward direction only, thus cutting out the soil on the higher side of the 
ploughing and piling it up on the lower side, to produce the well-known 
terraces. 
The author of this paper seeks to upset this explanation by reference to 
farming practice and to the limitations which the sites, the soil and the per- 
formance of primitive implements would exert. He suggests that although 
some terrace lynchets have obviously been ploughed in modern times, and 
that here and there a few may be under cultivation to-day, they were made 
in the first place neither by ploughing nor for ploughing. 
Mr. R. U. Sayce.—Principles of folk-lore (2.45). 
Mr. K. Jackson.—What was the language of Roman Britain ? (3.30). 
It was believed at one time that one consequence of Romanisation in 
Roman Britain was that the native British speech was entirely abandoned 
and Latin adopted in its place. The theory has recently been revived. 
It was modified by Haverfield, who concluded on the evidence of the graffiti 
that British survived only among the lower classes in the country districts. 
But this evidence can be interpreted differently ; and it can be shown from 
the Latin words borrowed into British, from place-names, and from other 
sources, that though Latin was certainly the speech of the administrative 
and upper classes in Roman Britain, the mass of the people spoke British. 
The Anglo-Saxon invaders camc into contact with a population whose 
language was British, not Latin, in the ‘ Lowland Area’ of Britain as well 
as in the ‘ Highland Area.’ 
Rey. Canon J. A. MacCuLtocu.—The household brownie as an ancestral 
spirit (4.15). 
Belief in the brownie, kobold, or household fairy or spirit, was widespread 
in Europe and has analogies elsewhere. It can be traced back to early 
medieval times, but is‘probably much older. The brownie attached himself 
to a household, giving willing service in his own way, and bringing prosperity 
when treated with respect. He was touchy, however, and departed if 
insulted or for other reasons. Some of the folk-lore of the brownie is 
shared with other beings. 
The brownie is more closely allied to spirits of the dead than fairies in 
general. Especially is he connected with the hearth, as were many ancestral 
guardian spirits. This ancestral connection is most clearly seen in Russian 
