แ

given even to the Jews ?" In fact, the priesthood of Christianity, he maintains, is the same as the ancient priesthood of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain; and this was the reason why our ancestors adopted Christianity so readily and so early; soon after, if not, indeed, in the apostolical age."

Elsewhere" Morien" has called attention to the fact (which is not a fact at all) that the whole Welsh nation was Druidical one day and Christian the next, and explains this by his notion that Druidism and Christianity were practically identical. He goes on to say that "the whole ceremonial system of the Church of Rome was founded on the old lines of Druidism."

We have given, we believe, a fair summary of the statements made by the author of Pabell Dofydd, and these statements are supported by arguments which it will be doing him no injustice to leave out of account. Welsh mythology has a real claim upon the attention of antiquaries, but statements and arguments such as we have been considering only tend to bring it into ridicule; and on the whole it must be said that it is as well for "Morien's" reputation that he decided to write in Welsh rather than in English.

ALFRED NEOBARD PALMER.

"GERALD THE WELSHMAN." By HENRY OWEN, B.C.L. London: Whiting and Co. 1889. Demy 8vo. Pp. 186. Price 68.

It is only right that the story of so eminent a Pembrokeshire man as Giraldus Cambrensis should be told by a native of his own county. A knowledge of the places and people amongst which much of Gerald's life was spent enables Mr. Owen to give the necessary amount of local colour to his narrative. Besides this, he is in complete sympathy with the character of the man he is describing, though he hesitates not to expose his weaknesses when the occasion demands it, chiefly by the aid of what the late Artemus Ward used to call "perlite sarcasm".

It is said that life is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. Mr. Owen's method in dealing with the writings of Giraldus is to look upon their humorous side, and to extract as much amusement as instruction from their perusal. Take the following instance from the first chapter of the book: "He (Giraldus) quotes with prodigality from Holy Writ, from the Fathers of the Church, from the whole range of Latin literature, and not the least, from his favourite author, Giraldus Cambrensis. ...... He tells us, with his accustomed modesty, that when his tutors at Paris wished to point out a really model scholar, they mentioned Gerald the Welshman."

Mr. Owen's book has been elaborated from a Lecture delivered by him before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, the object of which was to give a general idea of the works of Giraldus to

those who have either no time or no inclination to go through the seven ponderous volumes of medieval Latin of the Rolls Edition. The first four chapters are devoted to an account of the life of Giraldus, who is brilliantly sketched in a few bold strokes, and they form a short but sufficient introduction to the more important discussion of his writings in the remaining fourteen chapters.

The professed intention of the work being to set forth, in a popular manner, the principal events of Giraldus' career and his literary achievements, we are precluded from estimating it according to that high standard of criticism we should have considered ourselves bound to adopt had Mr. Owen essayed an exhaustive analysis of Giraldus' writings, and his true place in the ranks of his contemporaries. Nothing of the sort has been attempted, though there is abundant proof of Mr. Owen's competence for the task. Why should he not undertake it? Giraldus was a man terribly in earnest, and to treat of him and his work in the light and airy manner of Mr. Owen appears to us to present but one side, and that not the strongest, of his complex character. Not, indeed, that Mr. Owen has failed to grasp the significance of Giraldus' struggle for the supremacy of St. David's, or of his earnest efforts for the increase of godly living and learning amongst the Welsh clergy; but the whole book is written in so sparkling a style that it is difficult to imagine its author has taken his subject seriously.

Of the writings of Giraldus, the two works that are of the greatest interest for Welshmen are the Itinerary through Wales, and the Description of Wales. Mr. Owen sketches most pleasantly the circuit of Archbishop Baldwin in 1291, though he tells us nothing fresh of the celebrated cylch. What would we not give for Giraldus' map of Wales, which may have been one of the results of this journey? We may safely conclude it would be found of considerably more value than the map Mr. Owen has furnished to illustrate the Itine rary, and which is the weakest feature of his book. Wherever we are able to check the statements of Giraldus by evidence from other sources, we invariably find him accurate. Take, for instance, his remark upon Robert de Belesme's stud-farm in Powys. It is probably the same breed of horses that is referred to in a charter of Gwenwynwyn of Powys to the monks of Ystrad Marchell, where the reddendum is two colts "of their superior breed", or 40s., the value thereof.

Notwithstanding Giraldus' impartiality he was a severe critic of the Welsh. He had no sympathy with their unsettled mode of existence. Many of the habits and manners of tribal life, though fast losing their hold, were still tenaciously adhered to, and Giraldus had no patience with customs the nature of which he did not comprehend. Even his struggle for St. David's was more the result of personal ambition than of a desire to restore the dignity of the British Church. He was as much a Romanist as Archbishop Baldwin or Hubert, and the argument of the pallium was adduced to prove the pre-eminence of the see rather than its independence. It

is an interesting though somewhat inexplicable circumstance that in the extraordinary claim for the restoration of the dignity and independence of St. David's, made by the last of the Welsh chieftains, Owain Glyndwr, in a letter addressed to the King of France (which has been recently discovered in the Record Office), there is no mention of Giraldus or of his great fight for the same cause. His list of the Bishops of the see was furbished up; but the reasons with which he had fondly hoped to conciliate the pliant Innocent were left unused, and the name of their author was omitted as though it were a thing of evil omen.

There was far more of the Norman than of the Welshman about the great Archdeacon; but granting its truth, it is probably equally true that Giraldus was the man he was because of the union of the characteristic qualities of both nationalities in his person. For this reason we should have preferred the title of "Gerald of Wales"; but we are patriotic enough, and inconsistent enough, to be proud of Giraldus, and thankful to Mr. Owen for the admirable manner in which he has set forth the great Normano-Welshman's claims to the admiration of his countrymen.

THE LAKE-DWELLINGS OF EUROPE. By ROBERT MUNRO, M.D. London: Cassell and Co., 1890. Pp. 600 and 199. Illustrations. 8vo.

Since the establishment of the Rhind Lectureship in Archæology, in connection with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, no more interesting series has been delivered than the Lectures for 1888, now published under the above title. Dr. Munro's investigations of the lake-dwellings of Scotland are well known; but he tells us, with characteristic modesty, in his preface, that at the time he accepted the Lectureship he had no special knowledge of lake-dwellings beyond Scotland. If this be the case, it is one of the clearest proofs that the best way to master any subject is to write a book about it; for no one can now deny to Dr. Munro the claim to be the most eminent specialist, not only on the lake-dwellings of his native country, but on those of the Continent generally. Being fortunately possessed of the necessary means and leisure (two very important factors by the bye) he was able to devote the two years previous to the delivery of the Lectures exclusively to visiting all the principal public and private museums in Europe, and studying the literature of the subject. What good use he made of his time will be apparent to every one who considers the vast number of objects that have been examined in the various collections, or who will take the trouble to look through the long bibliography at the end of the volume.

With the exception of Dr. Ferdinand Keller's work on the Swiss lake-dwellings, translated into English by Mr. Lee in 1866, almost the entire literature of the subject lies buried in the Transactions of

learned societies. Dr. Munro has now brought all this hidden information to the light of day, and enables us for the first time to take a general survey of the lake-dwellings of Europe, and to compare them with those of our own country.

The greater part of the materials for the Lectures was collected by the author, note-book in hand, either on the sites of the lakedwellings or in the museums to which the antiquities found in them had been removed, and much of the information thus brought together is absolutely new to English archeologists.

The illustrations leave little to be desired, each plate containing a group of several objects from the same locality, drawn to scale from the originals, and reproduced by one of the new photographic processes. The softness of effect obtained in this way is decidedly preferable to that of wood-engraving. The drawings were made by Mrs. Munro, who must be congratulated on the excellence of her work.

The sciences of geology and archæology would be impossible were it not for certain fortunate circumstances, no doubt pre-ordained to take place by the Creator in order that man should not remain in complete ignorance of the history of the world and its inhabitants in past ages. These circumstances are, however, of a more varied nature in the case of the geologist than in that of the archeologist. The former derives most of his information from fossil remains of extinct creatures he finds embedded in stratified rocks deposited by the agency of water; but the latter seeks his materials both in natural deposits like the drift-gravels, and in artificial accumulations of earth, stone, or rubbish, due to the agency of man. If the antiquities usually found in museums were to be classified according to the circumstances to which they owe their preservation, it would be seen how varied these causes are. Particular religious beliefs have led to the burial of grave-goods with the dead, thus furnishing a rich harvest for the collector. Hoards of valuable objects have been purposely hidden in the earth in times of insecurity. Many things have been lost accidentally by the owner, and got trodden into the ground, or embedded in the mud of a river; others have been thrown away as useless into the refuse-heap of the dwelling-house, the mine, the smelting-place, or the manufactory; and a very large proportion have been covered over by the debris of structures that have fallen into decay, or that have been destroyed in warfare. In times past the rediscovery of objects thus thrown aside, lost, or buried, has generally been due to agricultural or building operations, and less frequently to the labours of the

treasure-seeker."

Since archæology has become a science, the exploration of ancient sites has been carried out systematically; not so much in order to acquire valuable antiquities as to gain a knowledge of the past history of mankind. No ancient sites have been so thoroughly examined, or have yielded such important results, as the lake-dwellings of Europe.

In his first Lecture Dr. Munro points out that although remains of lake-dwellings were noticed in Switzerland as early as the beginning of the present century, the discovery attracted no special attention because the time was not then ripe for a due appreciation of its meaning, for the science of archæology did not exist. Since then many causes led to an entire revolution in the views held by most people as to the antiquity of man on this earth, amongst which may be mentioned the influence of Sir Charles Lyell's theories on geology; the fact established by the Scandinavian Savants, that the ancient inhabitants of Denmark had passed successively through ages of stone, bronze, and iron; the discovery of paleolithic implements in the river-drift, and bone caves associated with the remains of extinct mammalia; and lastly, the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species.

Archæology had so far advanced by the year 1854, that when next a lake-settlement of any extent was laid bare, owing to the lowness of the level of the water in the winter of that year,1 Dr. Keller was able to explain the real significance of the whole thing. The lacustrine settlement referred to was situated near the village of Ober-Meilen, on the east shore of the Lake Zürich. Its discovery was reported to the Antiquarian Association of Zürich by M. Appli, and was thus brought under the notice of Dr. Keller, who rightly deduced from the facts placed before him that the piles found in the bed of the lake "had formerly supported a wooden platform, that on this platform hats had been erected, and that after these had been inhabited for a long period, the whole structure had been destroyed by fire." Dr. Munro goes on to say that "a knowledge of these discoveries at Ober-Meilen, and of Dr. Keller's opinion in regard to them, soon spread among the surrounding inhabitants, the immediate result of which was a sudden crop of lacustrine explorers who carried on a vigorous search for similar remains in this and the adjacent lakes."

Dr. Munro's first Lecture is taken up with detailed accounts of all the lake-dwellings of Western Switzerland and France; the second with those of Eastern Switzerland, the Danubian Valley, and Carniola; the third with those of Italy; the fourth with those of the Lower Rhine district and North Germany; and the fifth with those of Great Britain and Ireland. In the sixth and concluding Lecture the whole subject is reviewed under the title of "The LakeDwellers of Europe: their Culture and Civilisation." The arrangement of the subject is thus chiefly on a geographical basis, although the author has found it necessary to make exceptions here and there.

In criticising the plan adopted, it must be borne in mind that it was necessary to group the materials under six divisions, corresponding to the number of Lectures; and it must be conceded that

The water in the lakes is lowest in winter, when the supply from the mountains is frozen in the form of ice and snow.