189
XIV.
Notes on the Evidence bearing upon British Ethnology.1
By T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., M.A.I., &c.
[Read January 30th, 1886.]
The evidence hearing upon the character, affinities, and
survival in our present population of the various groups of
people that have from time to time settled in the British
Isles still leaves much to be desired, though additions to it
continue to he made by the practical explorer of prehistoric
monuments, the comparative philologist, and the student of
laws, manners, customs, and folk-lore. But the inconclusive-
ness of much of the available evidence, and its extremely
varied nature, tend to cause an unusual amount of diversity
of opinion among the ablest writers on this subject, For, as
we all know, ability and learning do not necessarily exempt
men from a tendency to overrate the importance of their
own special branch of study and to underrate those of others ;
while ethnological prejudices are usually proof against any
evidence not of the most overwhelmingly conclusive character.
In setting before you this attempt at a review of the evidence
at present available, it seems best to consider in the first
place what is known or conjectured as to the characteristics
and race-affinities of the various settlers in the British Isles,
and in the second the extent of their probable survival at the
present day.
British Palaeolithic man need not detain us long. Though
his implements have been found in bone-caves and old river-
drift, no bones of Palaeolithic man have yet been discovered
in Britain, and Professor Boyd Dawkins remarks that the
fragmentary condition of those found in Western Europe
1 [This paper formed the Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting
on January 30th, 1886. The introductory observations will be printed in
the 'Proceedings' under the above date.—Ed.]