and so on. Probably also change-ringing is governed by the same mode of calculation.
J. D. Allcroft.
Celtic Language.—As fraus latet in generalibus in linguistics as in law, I beg to suggest that, instead of using the word Celtic, the words Gaelic, Cymbric, Breton, Armorican, Welsh, Irish, &c. might be properly appropriated. The mother Celtic is lost,—her remains are to be found only in the names of mountains, rivers, and countries; and our knowledge of this tongue is derived from an acquaintance with her two principal daughters, the Gaelic and Cymbric (=Kymric). The Gaelic tongue has been driven by Germanic invasion into Ireland (Erse), and into the Highlands of Scotland (Gaelic). The Cymbric tongue first took refuge in Belgium, known afterwards as Breton, and still lives as Welsh and Bas-Breton, which (and not the Gaelic) is nearest of kin in some words to the Latin and Italian.
To understand this subject, the profound induction of Eichhoff must be studied carefully.
T. J. Buckton.
Lichfield.
Illustration of Longfellow—"God's Acre."—Longfellow's very beautiful little poem, commencing:
"I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
The burial-ground God's acre."
is doubtless familiar to all your readers. It may interest some of them to know, that the "ancient Saxon phrase" has not yet become obsolete. I read the words "GOTTES ACKER," when at Basle last autumn, inscribed over the entrance to a modern cemetery, just outside the St. Paul's Gate of that city.