Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/109

 ii s. XL JAN. so, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

99

The Aberdonians, and Other Lowland Scots. By G. M. Fraser. (Aberdeen, William Smith & Sons.)

As Scotland is named from a remote Celtic people, one ready inference that an uninformed observer is prone to draw is that its inhabitants are all of Celtic origin. Further, the geographical terminology in the country comes mainly from the same source as the name of the country itself, and this naturally seems to confirm the con- clusion regarding the national descent. A diffi- culty arises when we turn to consider the language of the Lowlanders from the Tweed to the Moray Firth. It has long been customary to say that English influence is pervasive as far north as the Firth of Forth, but historians and other specialists are disposed to leave the matter there, and to ignore the obviously kindred features that may be discovered further north. There must, they assume, have been Celts from Fife northwards along the coast, and the problem arises, How is it that their descendants do not speak Gaelic ? One of the latest attempts at a solution is by the Professor of Scottish History at Glasgow, who submits a somewhat sweeping assumption as an adequate explanation. " The disappearance of the Gaelic tongue," he confidently avers, " was due, not to any racial dispossession of the Celt, but to the gradual adoption of English speech and English civilization." This view suggests a large field for investigation, and it may ultimately leave its propounder and his adherents wandering vaguely in regions of hypothesis and surmise.

Meanwhile in his little book Mr. Fraser comes forward with carefully collected and luminous evidence, designed to show that the Celts in these eastern counties simply disappeared before the irresistible advance of the Northumbrian or Northern English. These, he holds, did not stop at the shores of the Forth, but went steadily forward to the present Aberdeen and beyond it, making in their course the settlements that have been held by their successors to the present time. This is the view taken by Sir James Murray in his standard work, ' The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland,' and corroborated by the late Prof. Skeat in one of his last publications, ' English Dialects from the Eighth Century to the Present Day.' Supported by these eminent authorities, Mr. Fraser makes his own independent and valuable contribution to the subject. Besting his argument on the burgh and other records of Aberdeen, he shows that, from mediaeval times onwards, there is not a single trace of Celtic pre- dominance or even influence in the documents ; and he intimates that what is characteristic of Aberdeen likewise distinguishes other centres from the Moray Firth to Galloway. He illus- trates his contention, in the first place, by ample lists of personal names, from the highest to the lowest in society, one and all of which are of English origin. He shows, secondly, that the language of these northern parts in the early Stuart period was substantially the same as that spoken and written at Edinburgh, and that both are clearly akin to the Yorkshire vernacular. Finally, he devotes a most interesting chapter to a discussion of usages, from the appointment

of the Alderman, who preceded the Scottish Provost, to such obviously English designations of streets as Castlegate, Gallowgate, Trongate, and the rest. Altogether, as far as he goes and he admits that folk-lore and customs are excluded from his purview he gives a finished and at- tractive setting to his argument. Every page of his work substantially illustrates the historic importance of authentic records.

Edmond Hawes of Yarmouth, Massachusetts. By

James William Hawes. (New York, Lyons

Genealogical Co., $5 net.)

MB. HAWES in 1882 published, in the light of the information he then possessed, a genealogy of his ancestor Edmond Hawes of Yarmouth, Massa- chusetts, and his Chatham descendants to the sixth generation. Subsequent investigations in England disclosed the birthplace and the ancestors of Edmond, and in 1911 Mr. Hawes published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register a short account of the English family.

In the present work a fuller history is given ^ including the results of the latest investigations. It contains genealogies of the Brome, Colles, Porter,, and other families with which the ancestors of the author in England were allied by marriage ; some of them were Mayflower passengers.

The first portion of the work tells of the Haweses in England. Edmond was born in the parish of Solihull, AVarwickshire, where his ancestors had! been prominent for at least three centuries. The name is a local one, derived from haw, a hedge or an enclosure. The residence of the Haweses was Hillfield Hall. When the author visited it in 1911, he found the following inscription over the front door, the initials being those of William Hawes and his wife Ursula :

IE

w. v.

1576

Hie hospites in Coelo cives.

Edmond, the emigrant, was born in 1612, and on the 14th of February, 1626/7, was apprenticed to a cutler in London. At the end of his apprenticeship he sold his estates, and about April 5th, 1635, left Southampton for America. He settled at Yarmouth, where he held the position of Town Clerk. He lived to the age of 81, surviving nearly the whole of the first settlers. He did much by his influence to keep up the standard of education in the town. A tribute to him appeared in The Birmingham Weekly Post as recently as 9 March, 1912, in 'Ballads of Old Birmingham,' by E. M. Rudland.

The record of the farr.ily is continued to the eighth generation, the last date being 1897. The illustrations include a map of Solihull and the vicinity, Solihull Church, Hillfield Hall, and Baddesley Clinton Hall. The work shows much labour and research.

The Edinburgh Review for this month has an article on the position, politically, of the Low Countries, considered mainly in reference to England, by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott Mr. Alison Phillips's ' Europe and the Problem of Nation- ality,' and Mr. Algar Thorold's ' Italia Irredenta.' are perhaps the most important discussions of aspects of the present situation. We also found Lord Sydenham's 'War and Illusion ' and Mr. Fred T. Jane's 'Submarines and Aircraft' very good reading. A paper which is sure to arrest