The name is absent

examine the list of names contained in the Appen-
dix, we see at once how very few of these are identi-
fied with the names recorded in Beowulf and other
poems : all that are so recorded, had probably be-
longed to portions of the epic cycle ; but there is
nothing in the names themselves to distinguish them
from the rest ; nothing at least but the happy acci-
dent of those poems, which were dedicated to their
praise, having survived. In the lapse of years, how
many similar records may have perished ! And may
we not justly conclude that a far greater number
of races might have been identified, had the Ages
spared the songs in which they were sung 1

“ Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi ; sed omnes inlachrymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique Ionga
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro ! ”

Whatever periods we assume for the division of
the land into Marks, or to what cause soever we
attribute the names adopted by the several commu-
nities, the method and manner of their dispersion
remains a question of some interest. The Appen-
dix shows a most surprising distribution of some
particular names over several counties¹ : but this
seems conceivable only in two ways ; first, that the
inhabitants of a Mark, finding themselves pressed

¹ Æscings in Essex, Somerset and Sussex : Alings in Kent, Dorset,
Devonshire and Lincoln : Ardings in Sussex, Berks and Northampton-
shire : Arlings in Devonshire, Gloucestershire and Sussex : Banings in
Hertfordshire, Kent, Lincolnshire and Salop : Beadings in Norfolk,
Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex and the Isle of Wight : Berings in Kent, De-
vonshire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Salop and Somerset : Billings in
Bedfordshire, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire_jNorfolk, North-
amptonshire, Northumberland_jSalop, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, etc.

for room at home, migrated to other seats, and
established a new community under the old desig-
nation; or, secondly, that in the division of the
newly conquered soil, men who had belonged to one
community upon the continent, found themselves
thrown into a state of separation here, either by the
caprice of the lots, supposing their immigration
simultaneous, or by the natural course of events,
supposing one body to have preceded the other.
Perhaps too we must admit the possibility of a
dispersion arising from the dissolution of ancient
confederacies, produced by internal war. On the
whole I am disposed to look upon the second hy-
pothesis as applicable to the majority of cases ;
without presuming altogether to exclude the action
of the first and third causes. It is no doubt diffi-
cult to imagine that a small troop of wandering
strangers should be allowed to traverse a settled
country in search of new habitations. Yet, at first,
there must have been abundance of land, which
conduct and courage might wring from its Keltic
owners. Again, how natural on the other hand is
it, that in the confusion of conquest, or the dila-
tory course of gradual occupation, men once united
should find their lot cast apart, and themselves
divided into distant communities! Nor in this can
we recognize anything resembling the solemn plant-
ing of a Grecian, far Içss of a Roman, colony ; or
suppose that any notion of a common origin sur-
vived to nourish feelings of friendship between bo-
dies of men, so established in different lands. Even
had such traditions originally prevailed, they must

VOL. I.                                    F

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