The Presidential Address. 
27 
quantities of wheat and barley were exported by the Romans 
from Kent, and the Celts grew oats and rye also, besides flax 
and a considerable quantity of stock. Besides then’ celebrated 
willow baskets 49 they manufactured cloth, dyeing it black 
with the bark of the Alder, and flesh-coloured with that of 
the Willow. 50 Though this may refer to the Grauls of the 
Continent, they are also said to have sought to add to the 
terrific aspect of their bodies, tattooed with woad, by dyeing 
their hair and moustaches of a red colour, with a mixture of 
goats’ fat and the ashes of Beech-wood. 51 Should this refer 
to Britain it has an unnoticed importance as bearing on the 
indigenous character of the Beech. The smelting of iron 
and silver belong apparently to late Celtic, but pre-Roman 
times. This would undoubtedly cause the more rapid clear¬ 
ing of forest, though perhaps the natural reproduction of 
timber would counterbalance not only the consumption for 
ordinary fuel, but also that for wrought iron in the early days 
of the manufacture. 52 This, however, concerns Sussex, and 
not our county. 
49 The word “basket” (Latin, “bascauda”) is undoubtedly of Celtic 
origin, and “willow” possibly so. “Other plant-names may be added 
which are probably British, as xcillow. This may well be traced to the 
Welsh helig as its nearer relative, without interfering with the more 
distant claims of saugh, sallow', salix. Whin, also, and furze have 
perhaps a right here. And eglantine, which has become the standard 
poetic name for the dog-rose, and which has such a French air, due to 
its having been adopted from the poetry of the Fabliaus, is very pro¬ 
bably a British word. W 7 ith strong probability also may we add to this 
botanical list the terms husk, haw ; and more particularly cod. ... In 
Anglo-Saxon times it meant a bag, a purse or wallet. . . Thence it 
was applied to the seed-bags of plants, as pease-cod. This seems to be 
the Welsh cicd. The puff-ball is in Welsh cwd-y-mwg, a bag of smoke.”— 
Earle, ‘Philology of the English Tongue,’ p. 21. 
50 James Logan, ‘The Scottish Gael,’ vol. i., chap. vi. 
51 “Prodest et sapo, Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis : fit ex 
sebo et cinere. Optimus fagino et caprino.”—Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxviii., 
51. (The reference in Mr. Elton’s work is incorrect). 
52 “ The drain upon the woodland would necessarily be less in the 
earlier times, when iron was got direct from the ore in the malleable 
state, than when blast furnaces were introduced, and cast non was first 
got, to be afterwards converted into malleable iron. The exact 
