Note 232 — Chapter IV · ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN.

Pinkerton first urged the argument for the Picts being a Teutonic people, and, with the knowledge then possessed, with much force. Chalmers is equally clear that they spoke Welsh; but the philological arguments of both have little value, as the science of comparative philology was not then known or understood. Mr. Burton has discussed this question in the first volume of his History of Scotland, p. 183, but in a very unsatisfactory way. He has dealt with it as if the whole materials for deciding the question were contained in the discussion between Pinkerton and Chalmers, and writers of that period, and as if nothing remained for him to do but to estimate the value of their respective arguments. He contributes nothing additional to the solution of the question.