Note 172 — Chapter III · BRITAIN AFTER THE ROMANS.

Mr. Nash, in his introduction to ‘Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur’ (Early English Text Society, 1865), makes a statement which appears to me well founded: ‘Certain it is,’ he says, ‘that there are two Celtic—we may perhaps say two Cymric—localities, in which the legends of Arthur and Merlin have been deeply implanted, and to this day remain living traditions cherished by the peasantry of these two countries, and that neither of them is Wales or Britain west of the Severn. It is in Brittany and in the old Cumbrian kingdom south of the Firth of Forth that the legends of Arthur and Merlin have taken root and flourished.’ To Cumbria, however, may be added Cornwall, where the Arthurian romance places the scene of many of its adventures; and it is rather remarkable that we should find in the second century a tribe termed Damnonii, possessing Cornwall, and a tribe of the same name occupying the ground which forms the scene of his exploits in the north.