Note (return) — Manners and Customs.

In your Correspondent Selim's laudable endeavour to vindicate the ancient inhabitants of this island from the character of barbarians given them by Cæsar, he has made some errors, which, with your permission, I will attempt to rectify. First, I beg leave to dissent from the derivation of the word Druid, "Druidh," a wise man, as such a word is not to be found in the Welsh language. In one of your early volumes5 there is a letter from a Correspondent, deriving the word (in the above language it is written Derwydd) from Dar and Gwydd, signifying chief in the presence, as the religious ceremonies of the Druids were considered to be performed in the presence of the Deity. This may seem far fetched; but, according to the genius of the language, any word commencing with g, and having another word prefixed, the sound of the g is always dropped: therefore, those words would be written Dar-wydd, only a difference of one letter from the proper word.