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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Wales was incorporated with England _ and 

 its people have since enjoyed all English rights 

 and privileges. 



The Welsh inherit all the higher character- 

 istics of their indomitable ancient ancestry. 

 They are democratic, rugged, serious, sturdy 

 to obstinacy, insistent on education, religious 

 in the highest sense, and uncompromising in 

 defense of their rights. They have given the 

 world Thomas Jefferson in the United States 

 and David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of 

 the United Kingdom. 



TH£ SCOTCH 



A peculiar charm attaches to the word Scot- 

 land. No land is more the synonym of poetry 

 and romance. Its every river and lake has 

 swelled with the lifetide of freedom and its 

 austere mountains are monuments of deeds as 

 imperishable as themselves. 



Beyond conjecture, no information exists re- 

 garding the origin of the Picts, its first known 

 inhabitants, the formidable antagonists of the 

 Romans. When the Scots, a Celtic Irish peo- 

 ple, arrived, they found the Picts in possession. 

 From the Scots the country, originally known 

 as Hibernia, was called Scotland, while the 

 name Hibernia was transferred to Scotia, 

 which Ireland was called from the third to the 

 tenth century. Thus, curiously, the two coun- 

 tries exchanged names. 



The Scots and Picts combined in raids upon 

 the Britons, who implored the dangerous as- 

 sistance of the Northmen. Bands of other 

 Northmen rushed in all along the coast. 

 Gradually two Englands emerged; one gen- 

 erally corresponding to modern England as far 

 as the Humber and one situated north of the 

 Humber and extending far beyond the Tweed. 

 Similar bands of invaders, speaking a like 

 English in the making, formed both and were 

 mutually unfriendly and suspicious. The north- 

 ern kingdom was persistently loyal to the Pict- 

 ish kings, who themselves paid nominal homage 

 to the King of England. 



The northern kingdom, planted athwart the 

 middle of the island and occupying its most 

 fertile and prosperous part, was inhabited by a 

 resolute people who were never conquered, not 

 even by the Normans. Its position determined 

 the subsequent events of English and Scottish 

 history. The fierce border raids, the aggres- 

 sions of the English crown, and the frequent 

 wars, Sir William Wallace, Robert Bruce, Ban- 

 nockburn, and Flodden, were natural results. 



The inhabitants were early Christianized, as 

 were the Picts, by Irish missionary monks who 

 acknowledged no dependence on Rome. Thus 

 early was imparted that bent toward religious 

 independence and with it that tendency toward 

 personal examination which have illustrated 

 Scottish character. Though in time they were 

 to enter the Roman communion, there never 

 was any change, either as Catholics or later as 

 Protestants, in the attitude of the free-thinking 

 Scottish mind. 



The Highland Scots absorbed the Picts, but 



were harassed and weakened by repeated in- 

 cursions of the Northmen, who forced them 

 farther inland and themselves occupied all the 

 coasts. They peopled also the Shetlands, 

 Orkneys, and Hebrides. To the northern 

 county of Scotland, as south of Norway, they 

 gave the name of Sutherland, which it still re- 

 tains. Except in the mountain fastnesses, 

 Norse crowded out the Gaelic and, though no 

 longer spoken, left many place-names and me- 

 morials of its one-time supremacy. 



The sharp division of the Highlands and 

 Lowlands has profoundly affected the life of 

 the country. Of different race and language, 

 the inhabitants of each section long regarded 

 the other with condescension approaching dis- 

 dain. Both are equally Scotch in pride of an- 

 cestry and national feeling. Both in marked 

 degree are of composite racial stock, though in 

 the Highlander the Celtic element and in the 

 Lowlander the English element predominates. 



The steady progress of the English language 

 contributes to assimilation. Today less than 

 one-twentieth of the Scotch can speak Gaelic 

 and only one-tenth of that twentieth speak 

 Gaelic only. In all the Shetland and Orkney 

 islands, only 120 persons speak Gaelic at all. 

 Gaelic is, however, predominant in the fast de- 

 populating Hebrides. 



The Scotch in general are thrifty, cautious, 

 and frugal. But no people are more just, more 

 generous, more quick to imperil life or prop- 

 erty or position at the call of duty. Nowhere 

 are there more incisive minds. Nowhere is the 

 reasoning faculty more developed. A Scotch 

 name is significant of sterling qualities of heart 

 and character. 



There is no high place of philanthropy, 

 statesmanship, or world achievement that 

 Scotchmen have not filled — Walter Scott, Car- 

 lyle, Hume, John Knox, Robert Louis Steven- 

 son, Alexander Graham Bell, Watt, Robert 

 Burns, Gladstone, Balfour, Bryce, Haig, and 

 Beatty. 



TH^ ENGLISH 



It is said that the Arabic words in English 

 (such as algebra, alchemy, coffee, alcohol, etc.) 

 have exercised more influence on the language 

 than all the Celtic words in the vocabulary. 

 However, the words, Britain and British, come 

 from the name the Celts themselves gave the 

 island. Names of hills and rivers in England 

 and those ending in ford (crossing), ton or 

 don (farm) and ham (home) are almost all 

 Celtic. Thus the Severn, Dee, Ouse, Thames, 

 London, Epsom (Ebba's home), Horsham 

 (Horsa's home), Oxford (ford of the Ouse) 

 are daily unheeded reminders of the Celt. 

 Otherwise Celtic hardly exists in the English 

 language and still less in English blood. 



The utter disappearance from England of the 

 race that withstood the Romans and produced 

 Boadicea and Caractacus is surprising. Prob- 

 ably the sea-kings were by nature no more 

 cruel than the barbarians of the continent. But 

 the Celts, or Britons, were obstinate, numer- 



