^ \^\ »* » 5. '* » .3I^ ^'^ : v^#>^ $.^' \ •% 23^6- /i£r ¦:z^nM ¦yj&^K'tyny^ yzvn. l(Z^ OEKJINES OELTICAE GUEST VOL, I. OXFORD : BY E. PICKAKD HALL, M.A., AND J. H. STACY, PRIXTEBS TO THE UNIVERSITY. ORIGINES OELTICAE (A FRAGMENT) AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS HISTOHY OE BRITAIN EDWIN GUEST, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. LATE MASTEE OE (SONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEOB, CAMBEIDGE IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I ^oitiron MACMILLAN AND CO. 1883 l_All rights reserved ] CONTENTS. Prefatory Notice vii I. ORIGINES OELTICAE, Chapter I. The Kimmerioi and the Cimbri II. The Iberes and Aquitani III. The Ligures IV. Early Ethnology : the Hebrews V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. the Canaanites the Chaldees the Egyptians _ the Thraeians, Trojans, Cad means, Tyrrhenians the Greeks X. Early Biblical Chronology XT. Early language : letter-changes XII. TheBelgae .... I 51 79 103 147 157 170217258 313334376 List of Illustrations. Portrait of Dr. Guest Fragment of Egyptian Monument To face the title-page . 170 PREFATORY NOTICE. Dr. Guest, who was born in iSoo, was the only surviving son of Benjamin Guest, who was descended from the family of that name which was long settled at Row Heath, in the parish of King's Norton in "Worcestershire, where Dr. Guest inherited a small property. The arms of the family were entered in the Herald's visitation of the time of Charles the First. Edmund Geste, who died Bishop of Salisbury in 1578, was a member of the same family. The name in former times was variously spelt Geast, Geste, Ghest, Gheast, &c., and finally took the form of Guest. In order to retrieve the failing fortunes of the family, which had become somewhat impoverished. Dr. Guest's father entered into business as a merchant, and, having by his energy and enterprise realized a considerable fortune, he retired at the close of the great war. Dr. Guest's mother was a member of the Scotch family of Rio; she died when her son was quite a child, and his affectionate and sensitive nature made him greatly feel the want of a mother's gentle and loving care. He was educated at the Grammar School at Birmingham, of which Dr. Cook was at that time the Head Master. There he remained till he was at the head of the school, but instead of being removed elsewhere to complete his preparation for the University, he was unfortunately allowed to remain for two years longer, the lad, though fully conscious thaf he was wasting his time, being restrained by the habitual deference he paid to his father from venturing to place the matter before him in its true light. He however read diligently what, according to his own judgment, would be useful to him at the University, and, though there can be no doubt that had his reading during those valuable years been viii PREFATORY NOTICE. more specially directed, he would have taken a higher degree than he did, yet on the other hand, the varied knowledge then accumu lated may perhaps have been of service to him in after life. His drawing master was the afterwards noted painter David Cox ; and, although he never subsequently cultivated the art, yet his early instruction gave him facility in drawing the rough sketches of the maps which so beautifully illustrate his historical papers. He matriculated in 1819 at Gonville and Caius College, Cam bridge, took his degree as eleventh wrangler, and became a Fellow of the College in 1824. Soon after this he went abroad, and travelled for some time, principally in Germany, where he made the acquaintance of some of the noted men of the period. It was during this time that the scejjtical tendencies of thought which have become of late years so prevalent in England were first forced upon his notice. He studied Hebrew with the view of satisfying his mind more fully upon certain points, and, after a lengthened period of most honest doubt and patient thought and investigation, his doubts were finally cleared away, and his faith in God's revealed Word from that time remained unshaken. In after life, during his long residence of twenty-eight years as Master of his College, ' his sound judgment and deep Christian feeling,' writes Professor Cowell, 'were invaluable ; he could always be relied on ; he never wavered in his convictions.' While in Germany, he stayed for a year at Weimar, and was kindly received at the Grand Ducal Court, where he formed the acquaintance of Goethe, who did not at first think it necessary to vouchsafe the young Englishman any special mark of atten tion. He happened, however, one day to remark to Akermann, Goethe's • secretary, that Shelley had published a translation of Faust. The remark was brought to the ears of Goethe, who ex pressed a strong desire to see the work. Upon this Mr. Guest at once wrote to his bookseller in Lqndon to send the book, which 'in due course arrived, and was presented to Goethe. ' Ah ! ' said the great man, highly pleased, ' this is just like those practical Englishmen ; one of our good Germans would have meditated upon it for bo long, and would then have taken so long to write his letter, but here (holding it up) this Englishman has got the book ! ' From that time forth Goethe shewed him a good deal of kindness and attention. PREFATORY NOTICE. ix Mr. Guest was at Weimar when the Grand Duke's jubilee took place, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his reign, in Sep tember 1825. As Goethe had been the Grand Duke's Minister of Education for a similar period, so Goethe, whose jubilee of service was kept with equal pomp in the following November, shared the honours of the day. At the appointed time the Grand Duke repaired to the theatre to hear an ode written in his honour by Goethe, and recited by the principal actress of the day. As soon as this was over, all repaired to Goethe's reception. Dr. Guest used to tell how the great Meister, an exceedingly handsome man of stately presence, received his guests in a little cabinet furnished with a single rush-bottomed chair, and opening on each side into a larger reception room, he himself in perfectly plain dress with a single decoration standing to receive with an air of unstudied simplicity the brilliant throng of noble and distinguished visitors as they passed through to offer their congratulations. With Schlegel also Mr. Guest had a considerable amount of intercourse during his residence at Bonn. They generally dined in company at the tahle d'hdte at the Golden Star, and Dr. Guest used to give an amusing account of the stately dignity with which, on entering the room, Schlegel would take off, one by one, the numerous orders and decorations with which his breast was covered, and carefully deposit them on the adjoining chimney-piece, amid the undisguised amusement of the assembled students and visitors. On his return to England, Mr. Guest became a pupil . of Mr. (afterwards Lord) Campbell, was called in due course to the bar, and entered at Lincoln's Inn, having his chambers in the Temple in King's Bench Walk. He joined the Oxford Circuit, and continued for some time to work at his profession, but becoming gradually more and more absorbed in his own special pursuits, he finally took his name off the books. The first result of his studies which he gave to the world was his work on English Rhythms published in 1838, in preparing the materials for which he was obliged — pioneer as he was in this branch of study — to undertake the labour, no light one, of examin ing for himself the manuscripts of Early English poetry, few, if any, of which had at that time been edited. It was about this time that the idea was entertained of forming PREFATORY NOTICE. a society for the study of Philology. Mr. Wedgwood, an original member and the first Treasurer of the Society, thus writes : — ' I had several communications with Mr. Guest at the time, but the only fact I can recollect is that the formation of the Society was entirely his doing.' But though the active part of the work of founding the Society was due to him, yet Professor Key and Professor Maiden were both greatly instrumental in its accomplishment. Dr. Guest received also valuable assistance from the late Dr. Arnold, who, though prevented by his duties at Rugby from taking a more active part, was always ready to help with his influ ence and advice. Mr. Stanley, then a Fellow of University College, since Dean of Westminster, also gave assistance by interesting the members of the sister University. The inaugural meeting of the Society took place in 1842, Dr. Guest undertaking the duties of Secretary, and the Bishop of St. David's being the first President. From time to time Dr. Guest read many valuable papers before the Society, and took an active part in its discussions." One who was himself a member of the Society from its early days remembers how ' when any man failed to produce his paper, there was Guest always ready to supply his place.' The same authority also gra phically describes Dr. Guest's vigorous treatment of himself, when he had on one occasion put forth what Dr. Guest considered erroneous views : ' he took me up, as a terrier does a rat, shook me well, and laid me down dead.' But though thus vigorous in discussion, it should be added that, when the heat of debate was over, it was only in accordance with his disposition to show a generous forbearance in pushing home his advantage. During several successive years Dr. Guest's attention had been more and more directed towards the special subject of early English history, and he used to undertake long walking expeditions to examine the face of the country, and trace out the remains of ancient occupation. On these expeditions he occasionally walked as much as forty miles a day. Often he went right ahead over hedges and ditches and through tangled copsewood, to follow the course of some faint vestiges of dyke or boundary, taking for guide sometimes a Ijabourer from an adjoining village, some- " A complete list of Dr. Guest's philological papers is given in the Appendix to English Rhythms. PREFATORY NOTICE. times one whom he shrewdly suspected to be a poacher, who knew every turn and corner of the surrounding country. ' Un commonly clever fellows ' he sometimes found these guides, enter ing with intelligent interest into the object of his search, and beguiling the way by their graphic sketches and racy remarks on men and passing events. Very dirty and dusty he was return ing one day from an expedition of this kind, when turning into the village he met two clergymen. They recognized him, for Dr. Guest caught the look and tone of astonishment with which one exclaimed in an undertone ' That's the master of Caius ' — the quick glance round and the further remark ' Yes, that's ^.' ' No wonder they were astonished,' he said, ' seeing me in such a dirty condition, and in company, I have little doubt, of one of the black sheep of their flock.' These investigations thus pursued con tributed an important element to his literary workmanship. For it was a special feature of Dr. Guest's system of studying the events of our ancient history that he in all cases, as a preliminary step, made a most careful and patient survey, not only of the precise locality concerned, but also of all the geographical circum stances and the natural features of the surrounding district which could in any way affect the course of historical events. And this was no doubt one of the causes which made the ultimate decision at which in any such case he might arrive, one invariably received with the utmost respect. As an illustration of his method in thus going to work it may be mentioned that before writing his paper on the ' Landing of Julius Caesar in Britain,' which was read before the Archaeological Insti tute in 1864, he, ha,ving already made a most careful survey on the English side, spent many days in investigating the opposite coast of France, and in scientifically calculating the possible changes caused by time and tide, which, more especially on the English side, owing to the great changes which have taken place in tbe coast, proved so considerable as to form a most important element in the solution of the problem. The following appreciative review of Dr. Guest's literary career is from a letter written to the ' Spectator' by Mr. E. A. Freeman, shortly after Dr. Guest's death : — ' Mr. Finlay was the man who first taught Englishmen the im portance of tie Eastern Empire in the history of the world. Dr. Xii PREFATORY NOTICE. Guest did for them the almost greater service of revealing the first stages of their own history in the Isle of Britain. 'That the general public should know little of Dr. Guest is neither wonderful nor blameworthy. No one so carefully hid his light under a bushel. His love of certainty and accuracy was almost morbid. Had he been content to risk a few mistakes, he would have done more good. A book, even though its first edition contained some things which needed to be corrected in the second, might have established his fame, — which he, perhaps, would not have cared for; it would certainly, what he surely would have cared for, have conveyed clear views of our early history to many whom clear views have not yet reached. ' I believe Dr. Guest had actually begun, or at least contemplated, a book. Scholars would be delighted to know that there are some available materials left behind him. But what we actually have, later than the " English Rhythms," is that wonderful series of dis courses — more than one, happily, but still too few — made before successive meetings of the Archaelogical Institute, in which the progress of English conquest in the southern part of Britain was first really set forth. No lecturer, no writer, was ever more clear and convincing than Dr. Guest. He was the exact parallel in his own subject to Professor Willis in his subject. They both united, as few men have united, the qualifications of the in-door scholar and of the out-door antiquary. Each of them had in his own department both read everything and seen everything, and each knew how to compare what he read with what he saw. Both belonged, to that class of revealers of truth who bring order out of chaos and light out of darkness, who do their work at the first blow, so that it needs not to be done again. When any of us who have come after them have ventured on the ground which they have trodden, it has been only to gather up the gleanings from their vintage. ' Yet the name of this illustrious scholar is hardly known. It is not likely to be known. Dr. Guest's few scattered papers are worth a library. But who is likely to know of a few scattered papers ? Dr. Guest ranks with Palgrave and Kemble. Whenever they nieet on the same ground, he ranks above Palgrave and Kemble. Neither Palgrave nor Kemble is, I fancy, known as he ought to be; but Guest is far less known than either. Bat my own PREFATORY NOTICE. xii; hoiftage I must pay. There are other scholars from whom I may have learned more in quantity, because their writings cover a greater field; but there is none from whom I have learned more in quality, none from whom I have, within his own range, taken in so many thoughts which were absolutely new, but which, when they were once taken in, I never thought of disputing. I believe that I have always acknowledged — I have at least always tried to acknowledge — the > depth of my own obligations to so honoured a master. Yet it has often happened to me — it must have happened to others who have worked at the same times — to find shallow and hasty critics sometimes admiring, sometimes jeer ing at, the thoughts of the teacher, as if they have been the thoughts of the learner. 'It must now be not far short of thirty years — twenty-eight, I think, is the exact measure — since Dr. Guest was chosen Master of his College. There was some dispute at the time, uninteresting and almost unintelligible outside the College, but which, like other things, made its way into the newspapers. Both the " English Rhythms " and some of his papers had already appeared, yet some foolish man wrote of Mr. Guest as one " known only from the ' Cambridge Kalendar.' " I remember writing a little letter to say what injustice was thus done to one from whom I had even then learned much. I certainly hoped then that in all those years some great work would have been forthcoming from his hand. Unhap pily it has not been so. It is little indeed in amount that Dr. Guest has left behind him. But that little is all of the purest gold.' Dr. Guest was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839; in 1852 he was made an honorary Member of the Society of Anti quaries, and in 1853 he was admitted D.C.L. ad ewndem at Oxford. A few years after the death of his father, which took place in 1843, he bought an estate at Sandford, in Oxfordshire, but he had scarcely settled down in his new home, when, the Mastership of Caius College having become vacant by the death of Dr. Chapman, he was elected to the vacant post, though he was not a candidate, and was even unaware of the kind intention of his friends to nominate him until they were just about to enter the college chapel for the purpose of voting. This was in 1852. Dr. Guest retained the Mastership until a few weeks before his death. This is not the place to dwell on the stormy history of the University during these xiv PREFATORY NOTICE. eight and twenty years ; of Dr. Guest's share and interest in Cambridge life, one of his friends " writes as follows : — ' Although Dr. Guest was well known among us for his great literary attain ments, he was but occasionally resident in the University until he became Master of his College in 18.52. It was about that time that the commissioners appointed under Lord John Russell's auspices for enquiring into the condition of the University and Colleges, issued their report, and it was in 1855, when Dr. Guest was Vice-Chancellor of the University, that a bill was brought in for giving effect to that report. Accordingly Dr. Guest had many opportunities of forming and expressing his opinion on the numerous changes whioh were projected by the commissioners affecting the constitution of the University and Colleges. On every public occasion that the changes in question were subject to his considera tion Dr. Guest proved himself to be an unvacillating conservative. In his private capacity as Master of the College Dr. Guest secured a lasting reputation for kindheartedness and general urbanity among a large circle of members of the University, whilst to his more intimate friends, he was endeared by his unaffected personal piety, and by the general benevolence of his disposition which manifested itself in his liberal support of those many religious and charitable institutions and societies which have for their object the promulgation of Scriptural truth and the moral improvement of mankind.' His time was afterwards spent in term-time at Cam bridge, and during the vacation principally at Sandford. While at home his recreation from literary pursuits was in building and restoring the farmhouses and cottages. He was his own architect, and had the work carried on imder his own inspection, and thoroughly well done. He had a strong feeling that great responsi bility attaches to landlords to have good and sufficient accommo dation of every kind for their poorer tenants. Country life too was the more congenial to him from the great interest which he took in natural history and the habits and instincts of living creatures. He was pricked to serve the office of tegh Sheriff of his county in 1855. He felt however that his duties as Master of his College, more especially at a time when great changes were impending and his presence was necessary at constantly recurring meetings, as well also • Dr. Corrie, Master of Jesus College. PREFATORY NOTICE. xv as the Vice-Chancellorship of the University, which he was elected to fill at that time, were quite incompatible with those of High Sheriff, and he appealed to the Privy Council for exemption. The case, which excited some passing interest at the time, was argued before Baron Parke and Baron Alderson, and the appeal was successful. Dr. Guest's character was marked by great firmness and resolu tion, and unflinching honesty to his convictions. His naturally cautious temperament made him slow in forming his judgment, but when his mind was made up, and he saw where duty lay, nothing could shake him. He had a great fund of general information, and as he had seen a good deal of life, and had met many men of note, both at home and abroad, he was a very interesting companion. At the same time he threw himself into the interests and pursuits of those around him. One of his country friends writes : — ' I have ever appreciated the genial heartiness with which Dr. Guest always received me, and the kindly interest which he took in my pursuits, so very different from his own ; and I can judge from this how the same kindly spirit must have endeared him to those with whom he lived.' — This was truly so. In 1859 he married Anne, daughter of Mr. Joseph Ferguson, of Carlisle (which city Mr. Ferguson for some time represented in Parliament), and widow of Major Banner, 93rd Highlanders. In 1873 he had a slight attack of paralysis which occasioned a numbness of one hand and arm, and which never quite passed ' away. His health from that time became gradually more enfeebled, and in July, 1879, he was attacked with severe illness. As soon as he had somewhat recovered he resigned the Mastership of Caius College in October 1880. Shortly afterwards his illness returned with renewed force, and on November the 23rd he died. During this long and very trying illness the faith, which had been his guiding principle through life, cheered and sustained him, and his last words were words of humble confidence and trust in Christ. A. G. Sandeoed Pakk, A'prO, 14, 18S2. xvi PREFATORY NOTICE. Any sketch, however slight, of Dr. Guest's literary and archaeo logical labours would be conspicuously incomplete which failed to give a prominent place to those undertaken by him in connexion with the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. It was at the annual meetings of the Institute that he delivered these epoch-making discourses on the early history of our country which have justly obtained for him the character, given by a great living authority as ' the discoverer of Early English history,' and it was in the publications issued by that body, at first in the ' Proceedings ' of their annual meetings, and, when the publication of those volumes was discontinued, in the Archaeological Jowrnal, that these brilliant disquisitions, delivered orally, with only the help of a few notes, were given to the world. As one of the, alas, few remaining members of the Archaeological Institute, who had the privilege of being eye and ear witnesses of many of these marvellously creative discourses, to whom the deep sounds of his sonorous voice are still audible, and who still re member how their interest was enhanced by the kindling eye, the firm-set lip, the expressive gestures, while, as warming with his theme, he paced before his huge map, leading his hearers on step by step to the conclusion he had arrived at, and enabling them to realize it with the perfect conviction of a certain truth ; as one, I say, whose memory of these golden hours, only too few and too far between, is most vivid, and who also for many years enjoyed the privilege of intimate acquaintance with this illustrious scholar, the task has been assigned me of drawing up some account of his connexion with the Archaeological Institute, and of the circumstances of tbe delivery of the discourses on which his reputation as an historian mainly rests. I could have wished that the duty had been en trusted to some one better qualified to do justice to the theme; but the quarter from which the request that I would undertake it has come, and the terms in which it has been couched, have left me no choice, and I have had a sad but very real pleasure in recalling those far-off days of happy association for the pursuit of archaeo logical science and the discovery of hidden truth, with that gifted band who illustrated the early years of the Archaeological Institute, the majority belonging to the University of which the late Master of Caius was one of the most distinguished members. The discourses to which I have referred, as delivered before, the PREFATORY NOTICE. xvii Archaeological Institute at their annual meetings, and afterwards published by that body, may be not untruly said to have first made Dr. Guest known to the literary world as an historian. His cele brity as a philologist was already of long standing. - As secretary of the Philological Society, of which I believe he was one of the founders, and a frequent contributor to its Journal, he had done much towards the establishment of sound principles of philological science and accurate criticism, as well as for the elucidation of many obscure points in the history of the English and cognate tongues. His 'History of English Rhythms' — 'unhappily,' to quote Mr. Freeman, ' the only book strictly so called which that great scholar put forth "' — had proclaimed his consummate knowledge of the structure of our Early English language and its literature. But as an historian he was still unknown, except to a limited circle, and the still greater reputation which has gathered round his name in this department had yet to be acquired. The readers of his ' English Rhythms,' necessarily a select few, could not fail to recognize the masterly grasp he had taken of the events, no less than of the speech, of the early ages of England, of which his intimate and intelligent acquaintance with these far-off and obscure times was no secret to his friends and associates. Some could also bear witness by personal companionship in such investigations, to the untiring zeal and determination with which, careless of weather, or hunger, or any physical inconveniences, he would walk mUe after mile with a keen ness of perception almost amounting to an instinct, tracing the lines of ditch and bank which marked the boundaries of the settlements of the early tribes, and measuring and mapping the earthworks which formed their places of shelrar and defence ; and how under his potent touch these mysterious remains became vocal with the history of the past. But it was only to a select and privileged circle these things were known. Had not the Archaeological Institute, adopting the recently conceived plan of the British Association, by its annual meetings in different archaeological centres, afforded Dr. Guest the opportunity of bringing to bear upon successive districts his unrivalled historical acumen and keen sense of the effict pro duced by the local configurations of a county on the fortunes of its occupants, the world at large, to its great loss, might probably have continued in ignorance of Dr. Guest's powers in this department of 1 Freeman, Hist, of Norman C'ongneat, vol. v. p. lo6, H5te, VOL. I. h xviii PREFATORY NOTICE. research. The results of his researches, instead of enriching all future ages, might have remained locked up in his own note books. Among the many grounds the Archaeological Institute has established on the gratitude of those who desire to know the true history of the past, how men spoke, built, and wrought in former ages, who they were, whence they came, where they dwelt, and what they did, not the least is that it gave the occasion for the produc tion of those dissertations which have once for all settled up so many controverted points, cleared up so many obscurities, and by changing vagueness into deflniteness, substituting historical certain ties for plausible theories, have laid down a solid foundation which all who have since then attempted to write intelligently the early history of our country, have built on with thankful confidence. After a single year of combined existence under the title of the ' Archaeological Association,' the Archaeological Institute began its career as a separate and independent society at the meeting held at Winchester in 1845, under the presidency of the Marquis of North ampton. The name of ' Edwin Guest, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary to the Philological Society,' is found on the Committee of the Historical Section, of which Mr. Hallam the historian was president, together with that of his fellow-worker in the field of Early English history, the lamented John Mitchell Kemble. Mr. Kemble contributed a very interesting paper on ' the Names, Surnames, and Nicnames of the Anglo-Saxons,' printed in the volume of Transactions for that year; but the name of Mr. Guest does not appear either as the reader of a paper or as taking any part in the discussions at the various sectional or general meetings. Indeed I am not absolutely certain that he attended the meeting. I cannot remember seeing him. The second meeting was held at York in 1846. In this Mr. Guest held his former position on the Committee of the Section of History, the late Mr. Thomas Stapleton being president, but as at Winchester he was a silent member. The only occasion on which his name appears in the records of the meeting is as seconding a vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Plumptre, the former Master of University College, Oxford. At the meetings at Norwich in 1847, and at Lincoln in 1848, Mr. Guest's name again appears on the Historical Committee. At the former meeting he for the first time became one of the govern ing body of the Institute as a member of the Central Council. PREFATORY NOTICE. xix Neither of the meetings, however, was enriched by any communi cation from him, nbr as far as I can trace did he join in any of the discussions. Nor is there anything surprising in this. Those who knew him well remember how unwilling Dr. Guest was at all times to enter on controverted topics in the heat of extemporaneous debate, or to express an opinion on any point of history or philology unless he had made himself perfectly sure of his ground by previous preparation. The attempt to extort an opinion from him was, as I have often witnessed, repeatedly made, but as repeatedly bafiled. With perfect courtesy, but with immoveable decision, he would put aside the questions of his interrogators, and abso lutely decline to give any answer to their enquiries unless he could return one which he knew to be absolutely correct. If the result of this caution was frequent disappointment to those who had looked forward to learning much on disputed points from a few hours spent in his company, the cause of exact science was promoted thereby, since no hasty, unweighed statements went out uuder the sanction of his great name, and his slightest words were felt to be the fruit of long and careful consideration, and of accurately weighed evidence. Few scholars have had occasion to retract so little, be cause few have ever spoken or written with so much caution and judgment. It was at the fifth of the annual meetings of the Institute, that held at Salisbury in 1849, that Dr. Guest commenced that mar vellous series of historical discourses which have caused his name to be known and honoured among all students of our early histoiy, and which he continued at intervals until advancing years rendered him incapable of the intellectual and physical effort necessary for their composition and delivery. The subject of this discourse was 'The Early English Settlements in South Britain.' .It was de livered in the Council Chamber, the one man in England possessed of knowledge and genius comparable to his own, the late John Mitchell Kemble, occupying the presidential chair. It is impoEsible to describe the effect this discourse produced. The lecturer, hot 'readiflg from a manuscript in measured tones, but pouring forth his concentrated stores of knowledge orally, with the enthusiasm of one fully possessed with his subject, and the accuracy of perfect acquaintance with every detail, literally held his hearers entranced. To not a few — certainly to myself — the lecture was simply a revela- bz XX - PREFATORY NOTICE. tion. The ' battles of kites and crows,' as Milton contemptuously termed the conflicts of the early occupants of our island, commonly compressed into the half-dozen opening pages of our EngHsh histories, had failed to awaken any vivid interest. A few names of persons and places, uncertain and semi-mythical, haunted our memories; but of any definite history of that hazy period, if indeed any such could be said to exist, the majority were entirely ignorant. Never can I forget the rapt attention with which the lecturer was listened to as he evolved the history contained in local names, made • us actually see first the vast unbroken woodland — the An3red or uninhabited district — which covering the hills of Kent and Sussex and stretching into Hampshire completely isolated the southern dis tricts of these counties — shewed us the true signification of the Saxon shore, i. e. not the coast occupied by the Saxon pirates, but that infested by them — brushed away with masterly hand the objections to the authenticity of Gildas, and established the historical per sonality of Hengest and Horsa — shewed how the conquest of Kent was the result of a single victory ; how Regnum was taken through a panic, and as the modern Chichester (Cissa-oeaster) has pre served the name of the son and successor of the founder of the South Saxon kingdom, consolidated by the destruction 9f Anderida and the extermination of the British inhabitants ; and then, moving westwards, traced the slow growth of the mighty kingdom of Wespex, destined eventually to absorb all its best kingdoms, telling the long story of the gradual encroachments of the conquerors on the native tribes retiring step by step, only yielding up their territory after bloody defeats, the battles of Charford, and Badbury, and Barbury and Old Sarum, within a mile or two of the place of our meeting, until the decisive battle of Deorham sealed the fate of South Britain, and the Weals, severed from one another by the broad expanse of the Severn Sea, were finally cooped up among the mountain ridges of Wales, or in the peninsula of Cornwall. Brilliant as was the lecture that succeeded on the 'History and times of Becket and the Constitutions of Clarendon,' from Mr. Kemble, its power and eloquence were inadequate to lessen the impression Mr. Guest had produced by his discourse which to many of his hearers formed an epoch in their lives. I was cognisant of the impression made by Mr. Guest's discourse on Mr. Kemble himself, for I was staying in the same hotel with him, and I can well remember the PREFATORY NOTICE. xx;i admiration which, while strongly dissenting from some of his con clusions, especially that about the ' Saxon shore,' he expressed for the breadth and accuracy of knowledge it displayed, and the envy he felt for his brother historian's intimate acquaintance with Welsh language and literature, 'In other things I am not the least afraid of him ; but there he beats me.' The next year, 1850, the Institute met at Oxford, and Mr, Guest again delivered a discourse, following the same line of in vestigation he had opened at Salisbury, but adapting it to a still earlier period, that anterior to the occupation of our island by the Romans. The title of his paper ' On the Belgic Ditches and the probable date of Stonehenge ' indicates its subject. I was not for tunate enough to hear it, having to make my choice between the Historical and Architectural section, which were sitting at the same time. It strikes me, on perusal, as scarcely so brilliant as its pre decessor, but it was hardly a less valuable contribution to early history, and its conclusions, as to the limits of the Belgic settle ments and Old Sarum having been their capital, have, I believe, been accepted by all subsequent writers of authority. The date of Stonehenge, conjecturally assigned by him to the southern Belgae not long before Divitiacus became supreme ruler, must still be, and will, I suppose, ever remain a point of controversy. The subject of the Saxon Conquest of Western Britain, which he had made so completely his own, was continued by Mr. Guest in a memoir communicated to the Historical Section of the Institute at the Bristol meeting in the following year, 1851. Dr. Guest's name does not ap]Dear in the reports of the meetings at Newcastle in 1852, or at Chichester in 1853, and, as far as I can remember or gather from others, he seems not to have been pre sent at either. In the former year Mr. Guest had succeeded Dr. Chapman as Master of Caius, and probably found the duties of the new and important position to which he had been so unexpectedly called, sufficient to engage his whole time. One happy result of his appointment as Head of a House was that when the Institute met in 1854 at Cambridge, Dr. Guest was on the spot to aid his brother archaeologists with his counsel and co-operation, as pre sident of the Historical Section, and to make an important contribution to the proceedings of the Congress. The most dis tinguished assemblage probably ever gathered at an Institute xxii PREFATORY NOTICE. meeting was that held in the Senate House on the 5th of July, at which the Prince Consort, in his capacity of Chancellor of the University, was present, having travelled from London with his suite for the express purpose of showing his interest in and value for the objects of the Institute. On this remarkable occasion one of the two discourses delivered — the other being one from Professor Willis on 'the architectural history of the Collegiate Buildings ' — was by Dr. Guest, on ' the four great Boundary Dykes of Cambridgeshire, and the probable date of their construction.' Much of the information contained in this discourse was subsequently embodied in the memoirs on the Ancient Roads, popularly but in correctly known as the ' Four Roman Ways,' the Watling-street, the Fosse-way, the Icknield-street, and the Erming-street, which Was delivered by Dr. Guest at the meeting in Edinburgh in 1856, and printed in the Journal for June, 1857. The meeting at Bath in 1858 was signalized by the production of another of Dr. Guest's most important contributions to the history of the English Conquest of the Western Counties : the Memoir on Boundary Lines which separated the Welsh and English races in that vicinity between the capture of Bath following on the decisive battle of Deorham, a. d. 577, 'one of those events which change the fortunes of a people,' and the victory 'at the Pens,' A. D. 658, a place probably to be identified with Pen-Selwood near Wincanton, which finally drove the Welsh beyond the Parret, and liiade the greater part of Somersetshire English. One characteristic of this remarkable memoir is the manner in which local nomen clature was made subsidiary to history, in determining the boundaries of the contending races: such names asEnglishcombe, and English- batch, and Inglebourne, and the like, marking the settlements of the conquerors, while Wallscombe and Wallsmeade indicate those of the conquered, and Mere and Merkbury, the burgh or fortress of the March (like Devizes, ad Divisas, far away to the north-east), shew where the boundary line ran. I well remember the delight expressed by my friend Mr. E. A. Freeman when Dr. Guest having laid down that the boundary between the Welsh and English south of Bath must have run along the little river Axe, which' was the boundary of hi? own property to the north, he discovered that he was actually living on what in the sixth century had been Welsh ground, and saw the reason for his estate of Somerleaze being PREFATORY NOTICE. xxm included in the parish of St. Cuthbert's Wells, rather than in that of Wookey, the church of which was within a gunshot of his house but on. the other side of the streamlet. The subject of the Bath discourse was pursued with still more important results in the discourse on the 'English Conquest of the Severn Valley' delivered by him at the Gloucester meeting in i860, and published in the Journal of September 1862. The printed memoir conveys but little idea, of the brilliancy of the discourse as orally delivered, and fails altogether to reproduce the alriiost breathless interest with which Dr. Guest carried his audi ence with him in his investigation of the site of Ceawlin's battle, at ' Pethan-leag,' a. d. 584, rejecting one assumed locality after another, as he led them up the Severn valley, until he at last fixed it by convincing arguments, at the village of Faddiley, at the entrance of the Vale Royal of Cheshire. Llywarch Hen's elegy on Kyndylan, and his lamentation over the wreck of Bassa's church (now Baschurch in Shropshire) and the conflagration of Uri- conium (Wroxeter) 'the white town in the valley' reads tamely on the printed page. We sorely miss the deep sonorous voice and the flashing eye which made it so real and vivid. In the last two discourses with which Dr. Guest enriched the proceedings of the Institute, he selected an earlier period for his historical and topographical investigations than in any of his former papers. Both of these — that delivered at Rochester in July, 1863, and that delivered at the London meeting in July, 1866 — had re ference to the Roman invasion of Britain; the former to the ' Places of embarkation and landing of Julius Caesar,' the latter to the ' Campaign of Aulus Plautius under the Emperor Claudius.' In both of these discourses, as in the former ones relating to the English Conquest, Dr. Guest rewrote in legible characters, some obscure and half effaced pages of our early history, and by his ma,rvellous topographical insight established with all the certainty attainable, the most important events and localities of these cam paigns. The cause which at this time led Dr. Guest to desert his special field of investigation was the interest which was then being so strangely excited by the announcement of the intention of the late Emperor of the French to publish a biography of Julius Caesar, on the preparation of which he had been for a considerable period engaged. It is a striking evidence of the widespread reputation xxiv PREFATORY NOTICE. of Dr. Guest as the chief English authority on all questions of historical topography, that the late Emperor on being informed, during his absence from Paris in the provinces, that it was Dr. Guest's intention to discuss the vexed question of the place of Julius Caesar's first landing in Britain, at the Rochester meeting, deputed his private librarian, M. Alfred Maury, Member of the Institute of France, to attend the meeting, and transmit to him an accurate report of Dr. Guest's views on the subject. By some mishap or defective information, M. Maury did not arrive till two days after the delivery of the discourse. Dr. Guest, however, devoted a consider able time to the private exposition of his views, and the explanation of his conclusions to M. Maury. ' It won't suit the Emperor,' was the Secretary's laconic remark when the explanation came to a close; Referring the reader to the paper itself, it is enough here to say that Dr. Guest has convincingly proved that the port of Wissant was that from which Caesar set sail, and that he landed on some point of the marshy coast in the vicinity of Deal. The subject of the second paper, that on the ' Campaign of Aulus Plautius,' though so important in its results, is one which has received but little atten tion from historians. It was one, therefore, which afforded Dr. Guest the opportunity of exhibiting his marvellous genius, as ' the discoverer,' almost ' the creator ' of the early history of Britain ; and thus it appropriately, though prematurely, for the work which still remained to be done in the province he had made so pecu liarly his own, closes the series. E. V. The Pjjecentobt, Lincoln. The work which fills the first and half the second of the two volumes before us, is unhappily only a fragment, — a fragment of a section of a great design. Under the title ' Origines Celticae ' we have attempted to arrange and prepare for publication the chapters on early ethnology which Dr. Guest intended for the introductio^i to a work which, coming from his hands, would have been invaluable. His purpose would seem to have been to write the history of Britain and its inhabitants until the completion of the conquest by the Angles and Saxons. The historical papers which have been de scribed above are sketches or studies of what would have been the' PREFATORY NOTICE. x;xv later portions of his book. In the ' Origines Celticae ' we have an attempt made to trace the earliest known inhabitants of our island, through the prehistoric times, in their progress from the original home of our race to their settlement in Britain. This was to be done by a careful and discriminating examination of geographical names, mythological traditions, and ethnological associations, coupled with bold and ingenious speculations in philology and the inter pretation of ancient monuments. By a combination of laborious study with brilliant conjecture, the writer thought it possible to identify, under the varied nomenclature of the ancient geographers, not only the nation to whose history he was devoting himself, but the several steps of its movements westward. It was a task full of difficulty, and one that involved great temptation to digression. The examination of the traces of Cimmerii, Iberes and Ligues, in the first three chapters, led to a discursive exploration of the diffi culties of scriptural ethnology, and thence to those points of still remoter archaeology which carry us to Egypt, Phoenicia, and Assyria, biblical chronology, and the interpretation of hieroglyphics. A chapter on the populations of Thrace, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, again brings us westward, btit only to fall back on questions of the same kind, all centering in the primitive ethnography of the Scriptures. The transition from these speculations to the subject of letter-changes and linguistic affinities enables us to return to, the original current of thought exhibited in the chapter on the Belgae, which ends the first volume. The portion of the work contained in the second volume com prises a fragmentary examination, beginning from the other ex treme end of the string, of the historical, legendary, and fabulous traditions which are found within Britain itself. This was to have been followed by a careful investigation of archaeological remains, walls, and other buildings, hut circles, religious and other monuments, arms, furniture, manners and customs, which would have given flesh and blood, life and movement, to the otherwise shadowy personalities which the writer would have presented to us. Unfortunately the materials left for this portion of the design con sist only of notes from books, references and extracts, which could ' not with any advantage be arranged, even conjecturally, for a con tinuation of the plan. The second section of the ' Origines Celticae' is therefore, still more than the first, a fragment of a fragment. xxvi PREFATORY NOTICE. We may infer from this very brief outline that the author's intention was to bring together two or more converging lines or chains of argu ments : in the first place gathering and formulating, from external archaeology, a number of links of reasoning to form a theory which in the second place was to be completed, strengthened, and supple mented by a corresponding chain of arguments from domestic and internal evidence. The Cimmerii and the Ligures of the outside world were to be identified with, or distinguished from, the Cam brians and Lloegrians of Celtic legend, and the lines drawn that connect or separate the Britons and the Basques. Here however, unfortunately, we lose the guidance of the master's hand. We have the links of his chain of argument, but the penetrating genius that would connect them and make them conclusive is withdrawn. The several stones of the fabric that was to have been, are hewn and squared, but the plan that was to . have given them unity is wanting. This disheartening imperfection belongs more or less to all unfinished work posthumously given to the world ; but it is very conspicuous in the present case. For part of Dr. Guest's method was to present his result almost by way of surprise. He did not intend that his conclusion should thrust itself on the eye from the beginning of the investigation, but that the several points of his theory having been elucidated and illustrated definitely by them selves, the perfection of the argument should reveal itself only at the moment of completion. This is apparent in the historical papers which follow the ' Origines Celticae,' although, as they were prepared for an audience which was to follow them to their full development, each possesses a completeness of its ovm. But in any such plan it is obvious that the temptations to digression multiply as the investigation proceeds, and that the investigator himself, having full faith in his own system, sees in them only new methods of illustrating the point at which he is certain of arriving. Again we have to lament the withdrawal of the hand which would have guided us through the digressions, as well as have given point and clearness to the conclusion. Notwithstanding, however, this drawback, the speculations on early ethnology have so much freshness, learning, command 'of illustration and genius for conjecture, that they inspire the reader with an independent interest of their own, and he is quite content to follow the Cimmerii, the Ligues, the Iberes, and the Belgae PREFATORY NOTICE. xxvii through their migrations and transmigrations, irrespective of the feeling that he may be hunting up the relics of his own ancestry. Although the work is thus in one aspect most imperfect, as wanting the unity of design which completion alone could give it, it tnust be added that no portion of it was by itself written hurriedly or witli- out a view to its bearing on the whole. Nearly every page here given to the public was written, revised, copied out, and often re vised again and copied again ; we have every reason to believe that it contained the mature judgment and final opinion of the writer. The extreme care with which Dr. Guest elaborated the several steps of his work leads us to regret more signally the imperfect state in which he left a large portion of the first volume. His original fourth chapter, which was to have contained an examination of the history of the military races of the early world, had been written out, revised, and re-copied, when he determined to break it up into smaller sections and re-write them. Whilst he was engaged in this reconstruction, his powers of work failed ; part of the design was attempted, and the plan of the remainder was drawn in outline. But as he proceeded he destroyed the earlier sheets, and this in some places where they must have contained matter additional to that which he expanded in re-writing. This has caused some difficulty of arrangement ; and it has been thought safer to retain repetitions of even verbal argument in several places, to some of which they belonged in the earlier, and to some in the later draft. It has also, it is much to be feared, caused here and there a hiatus in the text, and the loss of a subordinate link in the argument. Wherever this is clearly the case attention has been called to the fact in the notes, but the character of Dr. Guest's method, which is indicated above, greatly increases the probability that some such imperfect and disconnected places may have been overlooked. Any how, as the first draft had been destroyed, and the second was never completed, it was impossible to reproduce a perfect arrangement. All that is to be found is given entire. The task of editing these sheets has not been an easy one, for it involved the verification of a very large number of references to books of which many editions had been used, and some of which were not easy of access. It is hoped that as no labour has been spared in this behalf, the result may be satisfactory to scholars who will use the book, and who know the difficulty of perfect exactness xxviii PREFATORY NOTICE. in such verifications. No attempt has been made, and it would obviously have been most imprudent to attempt it, to manipulate the argument, or to interfere in the slightest degree with the lan guage of the work. It appears exactly as it left Dr. Guest's hands, except in the matter of references and a few indications, in the notes, of the places where the argument is resumed, repeated, or referred to. It was perhaps rash to undertake the publication of a work written by a friend with whom we were not in continuous in tercourse, which was only half completed, and which, from the peculiarity of its construction, did not help us much in the work of redaction. But if the editors must plead guilty to a charge of temerity, they may confidently assert the integrity of the text for which they are responsible. The work itself was one which could be completed, could be adequately presented only by the author, to whose clear head and steady eye the idea that he had conceived was constantly and distinctly present. Whilst it desiderates the want of completion, the world may still find pleasure in examining the points which deep learning and thorough enthusiasm, acute insight, unsparing labour, and a lavish genius of evarcxia have done so miich to illustrate. To Dr. Guest's many friends it will be a source of mingled pleasure and regret; and whatever judgment they may form upon the countless subjects touched on in the course of argu ment, they will be glad to renew acquaintance with him through a work which bears so characteristic an impress of his genius, his faith, and his devout labour. W. STUBBS. C. DEEDES. Kettbl Hall, April 17, 1882. CHAPTER I. Westebn Eitbope, its earliest occupants, Basques, Pins, or Celts ? — Gomer and his sons ; their history as gathered from the Bible. — The Kimmerioi of the Odyssey; their connexion with 'the Nekuia' of Homer; the difficulties thence arising considered; reasons for belie-ring that Celtic races were settled in the districts with which the name of Kimmerioi is connected. — The Sikeloi the most ancient people of southern and central Italy ; their expulsion as related -by Dionysius ; the Kimmerioi, whom Ephorus locates at the Avernus, were Sikeloi left behind in the Peninsula, and must have been Celts from the topography of the country; Sikeloi found on both sides of the Adriatic ; the people of Bnchaetium in Epims, living near the Kheimerion promontory, referred to in legend as Sikeloi ; traces of Celtic topography in other parts