Britons-Their Oriental Origin-Cæsar's Invasion, в.c. 60-Traces of the Celtic Speech in English-Analysis of English-Saxon Tongue--Disuse of Saxon Inflections--The English Th-The English W-Pronunciation--Latin Element --Origin of English Language-Norman Conquest-William--MonasteriesTwelfth Century-Saxon Chronicle--Norman French-Layamon--Thirteenth Century--Robert of Gloucester--Neologism--Fourteenth Century-Mannyng -Wickliffe and Chaucer--Gower-Hermit of Hampole-Pleadings in English -Trevisa, Translation of Higden-Mandeville-Fifteenth Century-Lydgate -Statutes in English-Sixteenth Century-Reformation-Cheke-SkeltonSurrey and Wyatt-Berners--Ascham--Spenser, Chaucerism--Euphuism— Seventeenth Century -- Protectorate-Gallicism Restoration-Eighteenth Century--Proportion of Saxon in English.
THE most ancient inhabitants of the British islands were the Celts, Cymry, or Britons, as they are variously styled. That these rude and savage tribes were offshoots from the mighty race whose roots have struck so deep into the soil of most countries of Western and Southern Europe, there can be no doubt. Antiquaries may be undecided as to the origin of this venerable family of mankind, or as to the period at which it first migrated into Europe; but it is impossible not to believe that it formed one of the primary divisions of the human race; and there is very strong probability, from many noteworthy circumstances, that it originally came from the eastern regions of the globe.
In their mysterious and venerable system of theistic philosophy there are to be found so many points of resemblance with various recondite doctrines which we know to have been current from the remotest ages in the interior of India, that it is very difficult to believe such resemblance to be entirely accidental; particularly