Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/25

 9*s. vi. JULY 7, loco.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 10 old persons of superior education and social position, as if spelt " Prooshan." W. I. R. V. "VIRIDICAL" (9th S. v. 416, 504). — I am much obliged to your correspondents for their suggestions with regard to this word. It had occurred to me that in some other context it might have been a misprint for " juridical." But it would be nonsense to say of the late Duke of Argyll, or of any one else, that he " stood upon his own feet, enunciated original and juridical views, and defended them with vigorous logic." Nor is the ugly " veridical " much more appropriate. A nuke — or a cook for the matter of that— you might call veridical if you wished to make yourself unintelligible to nine people put of ten, and to be quoted in the ' Oxford Dictionary.' But how could the views of either of them be said to be veridical 1 It is strange even in these days to find such a blunder in a Times leading article. D. C. T. NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. The Welsh People. By John Rhys and David Brynmor Jones. (Fisher Unwin.) EVERY one who desires to learn a great deal about Wales from a great Welsh scholar and a Welsh lawyer of eminence will do well in purchasing this book. From a literary point of view the book suffers from the patchwork nature of its constitu- tion. It consists of chapters on ethnology and "origins"; bits of medueval history (these very good and informing) ; a statement of ancient laws and customs, with a contribution by Mr. Seebohm on land tenure: another piece of historical nar- rative, 1066-1282; and, finally, a view of modern Wales, based on the lucubrations of Welsh witnesses before the Land Commission. The linguistic evidence, coupled with the comparison of the contents of memorial barrows, leads the authors to the conclusion that the Welsh people are as mixed as any other British race. There was a non- Aryan population, conquered at an early period by the Gaelic Celts or Goidels, whose mingled offspring occupied, and still occupy, Gwynedd and Deheubarth, or North and South Wales. Between these, through the centre of what was later called Powys, the Brythons drove a Cymric wedge, conquering by degrees their neigh- bours to the north and south. If, as seems likely, the legendary leader Cunedda came from North Britain soon after the Roman evacuation of the country, he was probably expelled from Manaw Gododm, the debatable land which fringes the south of the Forth, by the arms of the Picts. We submit this to Prof. Rhys for what it is worth, as he partly bases his favourite theory of the non- Aryan character of the Picts on tneir supposes inability to extend their territory at the expense pi Aryans. This Pictish question is laboured again in this work, and many an Ogam writing is discussed, the transcriptions of which have been wid to be " not only non-Aryan, but non-human.' What does seem proved is that the syntax of Gaelic ias no Scoteh jnaimbeil, am moor). But there is no proof yet >hat the Picts either in Scotland or Ireland spoke anything but Gaelic, and much probability the other way. The question of the linguistic affinities of the neo-Celtic races in Britain is very lucidly liscussed in the appendix by Prof. Moms Jones; >ut we do not seem to have got very far beyond Vallancey and the 'Poenulus1 of Plautus. With King Cadwaladr. him of the Red Dragon c. 664), came to an end the pretensions of Cunedda and Maelgwyn of old to represent the sovereignty of Britain, and thenceforth it was hard to maintain ,he independence of Wales. It is pointed out that md the English conquest not occurred, it is pro- vable that the Welsh language, through Roman nfluence, would long ago have given way to a Latin diom resembling French. Great princes held their own and made their mark : Rhodri Mawr; Howel Dda, the lawgiver, whose " commendation" to Edward the Elder seems more substantial than most of such ties; (Jruffydd ab Llewelyn, the antagonist of Harold. The Norman conquest was for the moment a relief and satisfaction to the Welsh; but the conquest of the Lords Marchers and disintegration of the provinces led gradually to the dynastic conques of Wales by Edward I., which matters are well handled in this book. Yet it was not until 27 Hen. VIIL, cap. 26, and 34 and 35 Hen. VIII., supplemented as lately as 1830 by the abolition of the Welsh provincial courts, that the complete union of the Principality with the kingdom was effected. The chapters on Welsh laws and land tenure are informing, though they might have been improved by some recourse to the comparative method. The ancient laws, like other Aryan systems, show traces of tribal possession of land, i.e., right of main tenance by members of the ruling clan out the lands vested in the patriarchal chief, a right which in course of time tended more and more to separate occupancy and prescriptive possession. As the cenedfoedd, or tribes, became more and more fixed to the soil, the king^ officer of the cantref, or district, extended his authority more and more at the expense of the PencenuU, or chief of the tribe, and generally the tribal system began to wear an aspect of feudalism. It is probable that the allttui, or stranger in blood, to say nothing of the laeoyion and caethion, villeins and slaves, gained a good deal by the introduction of the feudal tenures of England. Of the Land Commission there is little to be said. On the whole, the evidence shows a good deal of backwardness in the rural districts (not much more than in many an English county in the beginning of the century), but little or nothing that can bo called oppression. A favourite complaint is that the landlords do not provide village halls or insti- tutes. At the same time we are assured that any control of such places except by the people would be regarded as an outrage on independence. One would rather not be a Welsh landlord. Essay* of John Dryden. Edited by W. P. Ker, M.A. 2 vols. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) THE study of Dryden's prose, in itself a desirable thing, is likely to be promoted by the appearance