settlements in Britain were not limited to the Danish invasions of the ninth century. Did the fleets of the Northmen fully equipped start into existence in the middle or end of the ninth century? If not, how were they engaged during the centuries that immediately preceded? Professor Freeman affirms that they were employed “somewhere else.” If they were not used in the subjugation of Britain, perhaps Professor Freeman will state circumstantially what portions of Europe are comprehended under the vague generality of “Somewhere else.” We want something more convincing than his _ipse dixit_. Danish writers, we are told, have often greatly exaggerated the amount of Scandinavian influence in England, a remark that applies with equal force to the advocates of the Saxon and Celtic theories. Things, it is said, have been set down as signs of direct Scandinavian influence, which “are part of the common heritage of the Teutonic race.” Admitting this “common heritage,” and having regard to the fact, that the language of the Scandinavian, and that of the so-called Anglo-Saxon are almost identical, who shall decide between their conflicting claims? The _Quarterly_, citing from the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ of Vigfússon and Powell in reference to the poetry of the Norsemen, says, “The men from whom these poems sprung took no small share in the making of England; their blood is in our veins, and their speech in our mouths.”[3] The preponderance of the direct Scandinavian element in the English language has been shown by Archbishop Trench, who states “That of a hundred English words, sixty come from the Scandinavian, thirty from the Latin, five from the Greek, and five from other sources.” “Dane and Angle, Dane and Saxon,” according to Professor Freeman’s own shewing “were near enough each other to learn from one another, and to profit by one another.” Their dialectic difference was never such as to prevent them from understanding each other. “There is,” the _Quarterly_ affirms, “very high authority for saying that there was as little difference in those early times between a Dane and an Englishman, as there was between two Englishmen in different parts of the country.” The Saxons were in fact only an earlier swarm of northern adventurers of the same race who were afterwards known in history as Danes and Northmen. Still Professor Freeman thinks the Scandinavian element was but an _infusion_ into the already existing English mass. Hardly I should think if the existing English mass, and the invading Northmen had a common origin! The name of England’s principal city, it may be remarked, the great metropolis of the Empire is Scandinavian. Neither are there wanting persons who believe that such also is the name England itself. In a communication to _Notes and Queries_ by Mr. Henry Rowan in 1868, he suggests a derivation of this name from the Danish _Eng_. “While travelling in Denmark,” he says, “I met with a word which seems to me