k-guarded bay, of shaded combe and suave, fair villages, in an
unbroken tradition of name and habitation with the men of that silent
and vanished race.

Up and down the length of England, from the Land's End to the
Northumbrian dales, lie the traces of these far-off peoples whose very
names are faint guesses preserved only in the traditions of local
speech. Strangely and suddenly we come upon the evidence of their life
and death: here a circle of stones on a barren moor or bleak hilltop,
there a handful of potsherds or a flint arrowhead; sometimes, indeed,
though rarely, the bones of their very bodies, laid aside in
earth-barrows or stone coffins for this unknown length of years. And
there the most unreflective among us feels a sudden awe and wonder at
the momentary vision of the profound antiquity of this land in which we
live, and for a few moments all desires and aims seem futile in face of
this immemorial past.

Only for a few moments, though, and then we step from the "Druid
Circle," or turn away from the barrow, and the current of our everyday
life takes us up once more.

Myself, I agree with Westcote. Westcote is a charming old gentleman of
King James the First's time, who wrote a book called "A View of
Devonshire in 1630." In Chapter I he discusses the ancient name of
Devonshire much as I have done, but because in the seventeenth century
you must have a Latin or a Greek at your elbow to give you
respectability as a writer, he brings forward a formidable array of
authorities--Ptolemaeus, Solinus Pylyhistor, and Diodorus Siculus.
But, having had them make their bow before the reader, he remarks that
all these gentlemen lived "far remoted" from Devonshire, and were
therefore liable to error in the transmission of names; "for, in my
opinion," says he, "those that declare the first names of strange
countries far remoted are as the poor which wear their garments all
bepatched and pieced, whereof the pieces that are added are much more
in quantity of cloth than the garment before, when it was first made."

As an example of this error he instances the name of Peru. "When the
Spaniards had conquered Mexico, and were purposing to proceed farther,
their commander, in his manner, demanded of one of the natives he met
withal what the country was named, who answered, 'Peru,' by which name
it is known unto this day, which in his language was, 'I know not what
you say.'"

Even more fantastic is the etymological origi