* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Materials for a History of Druidism.--_
"It would be a commendable, useful, and easy task to collect what the
ancients have left us on the subject of Druidism. Such a collection
would form a very small but interesting volume. It would supersede, in
every library, the idle and tedious dreams and conjectures of the
Stukeleys, the Borlases, the Rowlands, the Vallanceys, the Davies's,
the Jones's, and the Whitakers. Toland's work on the Druids, though far
from unexceptionable, has more solid intelligence than any other modern
composition of its kind. It is a pity that he or some other person has
not given as faithful translations of the Irish Christian MSS. which he
mentions, as these have, no doubt, preserved much respecting Druidical
manners and superstitions, of which many vestiges are still existing,
though not of the kind usually referred to."
"The Roman history of Britain can only be collected from the Roman
writers; and what they have left is very short indeed. It might be
disposed of in the way recommended for the History of the
Druids."--Douce's notes on Whitaker's _History of Manchester_, vol. i.
p. 136. of Corrections in Book i., ibid. p. 148.