Keltic Researches. By E. W. B. Nicholson. (Henry Frowde. 21s.)—Mr.
Nicholson has expanded what was originally meant as a paper into the dimensions of a small book. The very brief, and one might call congested, explanations and derivative steps in- dicate that the use of the book must be confined to scholars. Yet readers with philological leanings will be attracted by Mr. Nicholson's analyses of the Amelie-les-Bains tablets, the Culbins- garth inscription, and the Burghead inscription, and that very interesting " Rom " tablet in the Poitiers district, which proves that Pictavian had more affinity to Indo-European languages than Gaulish. The study of names, and especially the analysis of Ptolemy's place-names, have more than a mere erudite interest ; as also has the geographical limitation of the Menapian race. The map illustrating this, and the assertion that parts of Sussex are as Kehl° as Perthshire, while Hertfordshire and Bucking- hamshire are even more Keltic, and on a level with South Wales and Ulster, in respect of names, may surprise some. Mr. Nichol- son has the same candour he admires in another Keltic scholar, and admits, for instance, his failure to prove " p's " to be degraded " b's " in an earlier work, and his slight knowledge of Old Irish phonetics.
Previous page
