Viewing this matter from a Cambrian standpoint, I feel myself warranted in hazarding the following remarks. In the lines of Aneurin, the thing selected for special notice is the excess of stripe; and therefore, whether it was the invention of Dinogad, or whether he borrowed the idea from the Scots or Picts when he was at Dumbarton in 577, it is quite clear, from the repetition of the word vreith, that his kilt had the attribute of stripyness to a greater extent than was usually the case; while it is also equally clear, that amongst the Britons of that period, kilts of a stripy character were so common as to excite no surprise. We may therefore affirm,
1. That in the beginning of the seventh century the British chiefs were in the habit of wearing skin kilts.
2. That striped kilts were common.
3. That a chief named Dinogad was distinguished by an excess of this kind of ornament. And
4. That as the Kymry of North Britain were on intimate terms with their neighbours, it is highly probable that the Scottish kilt is much older than 1597.
T. STEPHENS.
Merthyr Tydfil.
NOTES ON JULIN, NO. 1.
(Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282. 379. 443.)
In approaching a subject set at rest so long since, I feel some apology due to you; and that apology I will make by giving you the results of my recent investigation of the question of Vineta v. Julin alias Wollin, made in Pomerania, and noted from personal testimony and Pomeranian chronicles.
But, first, to correct an erreur de plume of DR. BELL'S. He says, in stating the position of Vineta (Vol. ii., p. 283.), "opposite the small town of Demmin, in Pomerania." DR. BELL has mis-written the name: there is no such place on the Baltic. The real name is Damerow, on the Isle of Usedom. A little lower he remarks, speaking of Wollin, "No rudera, no vestiges of ancient grandeur, now mark the spot; not even a tradition of former greatness." In this I think DR. BELL will find (and, I am sure, will readily allow, in the same spirit of good faith in which I make my observations) that he is in error, from the following narrative.