Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/247

i8o Devon Notes and Queries. hatred towards each other even after the Saxons had become Christians? Another fact, that the West Welsh were '< driven to the sea** in 682 by Kentwine of Wessex, is altogether ignored by Mr. Davidson, but, although the Cornish claimed to have regained their territory the following year (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils^ i, 673,) it seems probable that the Saxons established themselves in North Devon at that date. Mr. Davidson's argument is based on the assumption that the whole county was conquered ^' at one and the same time," and he gives as reasons for this assumption — (i) a certain uniformity in the nomenclature of the county ; (2) a sameness in dialect, and (3) a resemblance in race and features. He admits that no scientific observations have been recorded as to the varieties in the races and dialects, but I contend that all three reasons are extremely doubtful. The question of nomenclature can be tested by marking on a map, as I have done, all places having the distinctively Saxon endings of cot and worthy. The dialects have been examined by that great authority, Prince Louis Lucian Bonaparte, who separates them into sub-dialects, the northern dialect extending into West Somerset and North Cornwall and the southern extending into South Cornwall, while the dialect in the south-east of Devon is an outlier of the South Somerset dialect {English Dialect Society, No. 17.) With regard to the races, more evidence is necessary, but, from the few measurements I have taken, I am inclined to think that the people of the south are comparatively round-headed and fair, and are allied to one of the two Cornish types, whereas those of the north have a smaller cephalic index and are darker, the dark complexion being almost invariably accompanied by light grey eyes, a clear indication of a mixed race. It is to be hoped that the Devonshire Association will make arrangements for taking anthropometrical measure- ments at their annual meetings, because nothing would give such an accurate indication of the early history of the county as a careful map of the distribution of the races. For the authenticity of the Crediton charter, I am content to accept the authority of the learned editors. I cannot find that they admit that the "language" of the charter itself belongs to the nth century. On the contrary, they distinctly say that <'on the whole, there seems to be nothing in the