Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

LECTURE I. 13
and their successors founded what were called
the Saxon kingdoms of England ; and yet,
strange to say, they did not give to England its
name, else why is it not Saxony or Saxonland ?
Another race would seem to have crossed the
German Ocean, and to have given its name
to the land. These were the Angles. They
are said, with what truth it is hard to say, to
have come from a small island on the north-
east coast of Jutland, the inhabitants of which
retain the name of Angles to the present day.
But of all this there is no certainty. All that
can be said of the origin of the Anglo-Saxon
race is that they w^ere drawn from the shores of
the opposite continent, and that the Anglo-
Saxon of England is first cousin to the Dane or
the Dutchman.
If the Celt is to claim kindred with his
brethren on the European continent, he must
find his way farther south, where a brother
Celt is found to occupy the sunny plains of
France. The Celtic origin of the French is
maintained by the French themselves. Their
alliance of old with the Scots is said to have
been founded on afiinity of blood. Not that
the French can be said to be unmixed Celts ;
but the Frenchman is as mucli a Celt as the
Eno-lishman is a Saxon. If the blood of the