582 Welsh and Gaelic. 



may be, it is certain that before the landing of Julius 

 Caesar, more than 1,900 years ago, both sides of the 

 English Channel were inhabited by people speaking a 

 Celtic tongue, mingled, in the south-east of England, 

 with fair-haired and blue-eyed Belgse, who in time 

 had been absorbed among the Celtic population, and 

 spoke their language. The modern descendants of these 

 people are the Welsh (Cymry) and Cornish men ; but 

 I consider that at that period distinct tribes of Celts, 

 the Gael, inhabited the greater part of what is now 

 termed Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, and at 

 least all the western, and part of the southern, coasts of 

 Wales. 



Analyses of modern Welsh and Gaelic prove that 

 these Celtic branches, now so distinct, yet sprung from 

 the same original stock. Nevertheless, I believe that 

 the Gael, as a people, are more ancient in our islands 

 than the Cymry ; and I think there is strong presump- 

 tive evidence that the ancestors of the Pictish Gael (who, 

 however, afterwards became so largely intermixed with 

 Scandinavian blood ) once spread, not only much further 

 south than the borders of the Highlands, but that before 

 the .Roman invasion they occupied the Lowlands of 

 Great Britain generally, excepting what are now the 

 more southern countries, where the Cymry had obtained 

 a firm footing, and were steadily pressing northward 

 and westward. 



From intimate personal knowledge of Wales, its 

 topography and people, I for long held the opinion that 

 the Gwyddel (Irish Gael) were the earliest Celtic in- 

 habitants of Wales. This is not the popular view, and 

 it was with much satisfaction that I lately found, that 

 twelve years before the first edition of this book was 

 published, the subject had been ably discussed by the 



