Gillingham (Vol. iii., pp. 448. 505.).
—As a means of furnishing your correspondent QUIDAM with some historical and local data that may tend to identify the place where that memorable council was convened, by which the succession to the English crown was transferred from the Danish to the Saxon line, I would refer him to Lambard's Perambulation of Kent, published in 1596, pp. 351, 352, 353., as adducing strong evidence in favour of the council alluded to having been held at Gillingham next Chatham.
FRANCISCUS.
Nao, a Ship (Vol. iii., pp. 477. 509.).
—I perfectly agree with GOMER that the early Britons must have possessed vessels more capacious than osier baskets or cyry-glau before they were able to transport warlike assistance to their brethren the Armoricans of Gaul; but I can inform GOMER and A. N. in addition, that a much older term for a ship was made use of by the first inhabitants of Britain, namely Naf, from whence no doubt the Latin Navis sprang; and from the same root the Welsh word Nawf, a swim (now used), was derived. This term Naf is handed down to us in one of the oldest British triads, but which has been always, in my opinion, improperly interpreted. In speaking of the three master works of the island of Britain, is the ship of Nefydd Naf Neifion (or Noah); the translation is simply this—
| Nefydd | naf | neifion. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| i. e. The ship constructor | of the ship | of ships. |
Here you have the hero personified by his avocation, and the noun from which the proper name is derived, both in the singular and plural number; in the latter sense it is made use of by D. ab Gwilym in the following couplet:
"Y nofiad a wnaeth Neifion
O Droia fawr draw i Fôn."
"The swimming, that the ships performed