C. DE D.
Quistourne (Vol. iv., p. 116.).
—Here is a word so very like the Devonshire one which has puzzled a correspondent, that it may be the same one in sense as well in sound. In one of the Low-Norman insular dialects, it denotes a slap with the back of the hand; in French-British,[3] KIS DOÛRN, revers de main.
[3] I was asked by a great and true scholar, now no more, What do you mean by British? My answer was, "The nation that you have nicknamed Welsh or Strangers, which they are not. With me the English are still English, the Scotch Scots, the Britons in France the British there."
G. M.
Seneca's Medea (Vol. i., p. 107.; Vol. iii., p. 464.).
—I cannot feel much doubt that the prophecy ascribed to Medea was a mere allusion to events actually past. It was a compliment to Claudius upon the recent reduction of Britannia under the Roman arms, with nothing future, unless it were an encouragement to bring Caledonia, Ireland, and the small islands, into similar subjection. The Oceanus was supposed to extend indefinitely westward, beyond the world, into the regions of Night and Chaos, and was not only dreaded for its stormy navigation, but from feelings of religious awe. The expedition to Britain was peculiar from being ultra-mundane, and an invasion of the ocean, so that
"Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet et ingens
Pateat tellus."