[Illustration: THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D., LL. D.
Member of The Filson Club]
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATION No. 22
THE QUEST FOR A
LOST RACE
Presenting the Theory of
PAUL B. DU CHAILLU
An Eminent Ethnologist and Explorer, that the English-speaking
People of To-day are Descended from the Scandinavians rather
than the Teutons--from the Normans rather than the Germans
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M.D., LL.D.
MEMBER OF THE FILSON CLUB
READ BEFORE THE CLUB OCTOBER 1, 1906
Illustrated
[Illustration: Acorn]
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY
PRINTERS TO THE FILSON CLUB
1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY
THE FILSON CLUB
All Rights Reserved
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS
NUMBER TWENTY-TWO
The Quest for a
Lost Race
[Illustration: Tree Branch]
_Alphabetical Series of Norse, Norman, and
Anglo-Norman, or Non-Saxon,
Surnames_
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D., LL. D.
MEMBER OF THE FILSON CLUB
PREFACE
The native Kentuckian has a deep and abiding affection for the "Old
Commonwealth" which gave him birth. It is as passionate a sentiment,
too--and some might add, as irrational--as the love of a Frenchman for
his native France. But it is an innocent idolatry in both, and both
are entitled to the indulgent consideration of alien critics whose
racial instincts are less susceptible and whose emotional nature is
under better control. Here and there, a captious martinet who has
been wrestling, mayhap, with a refractory recruit from Kentucky, will
tell you that the average Kentuckian is scarcely more "educable" than
his own horse; that he is stubborn, irascible, and balky; far from
"bridle-wise," and visibly impatient under disciplinary restraint. In
their best military form Kentuckians have been said to lack "conduct"
and "steadiness"--even the men that touched shoulders in the charge at
King's Mountain and those, too, that broke the solid Saxon line at the
Battle of the Thames.
Whether this be true or not--in whole or in part--we do not now
stop to enquire. Suffice it to say that the Kentuckian has been a
participant in many wars, and has given a good account of himself in
all. In ordinary circumstances, too, he is invincibly loyal to his
native State; and when it happened that, in the spring of 1906, there
came to Kentuckians in exile, an order or command from the hospitable
Governor of Kentucky to return at once to the State, they responded
with the alacrity of distant retainers to a signal from the hereditary
Chieftain of the Clan. "Now," said they, "the lid will be put on and
the latch-string left out."
When the reflux current set in it was simply prodigious--quite as
formidable to the unaccustomed eye as the fieldward rushing of
a host; and it was in the immediate presence of that portentous
ethnic phenomenon that the paper upon the "Lost Race" was first
published;--appearing in a local journal of ability and repute, and
serving in some measure as a contribution to the entertainment of the
guests that were now crowding every avenue of approach.
It is not strange that the generous Kentuckians, then only upon
hospitable thoughts intent, should imagine for one happy _quart
d'heure_ that the "Lost Race" of the morning paper was already knocking
at their doors. But they little imagined--these good Kentuckians--that
their hospitable suspicion had really a basis of historic truth.
The handsome book now launched from the Louisville press is merely
that ephemeral contribution to a morning paper,[1] presented in a
revised and expanded form, with such illustrations as could come only
from the liberal disposition and cultivated taste of Colonel R. T.
Durrett, the President of The Filson Club. The title which the writer
has given the book is recommended, in part, by the example of a great
writer of romance, who held that the _name_ of the book should give
no indication of the _nature of the tale_. If the indulgent reader
should be unconvinced by the "argument" that is implied in almost every
paragraph, it is hoped that he will at least derive some entertainment
from the copious flow of reminiscential and discursive talk. The book
is addressed chiefly to those persons who may have the patience to read
it and the intelligence to perceive that nothing it contains is written
with a too serious intent.
[1] The _Morning Ledger_ (Maysville, Kentucky), June 20, 1906.
The writer makes grateful acknowledgments to the many friends who have
encouraged him with approval and advice in the preparation of the work.
For the correction of his errors and the continuance of his labors he
looks with confident expectation to the SCHOLARS OF THE STATE.
INTRODUCTION
While the Home-Coming Kentuckians were enjoying their meeting, in
Louisville, in the month of June, 1906, Doctor Thomas E. Pickett
published a newspaper article which he had written for the Home-Coming
Week, the object of which was to present the theory of Paul B. Du
Chaillu as to the descent of the English-speaking people from the
Scandinavians instead of the Teutons; and to show that the descendants
of these Scandinavians were still existing in different countries, and
especially in Kentucky. The author sent me a copy of his article, and
after reading it I deemed it an ethnological paper worthy of a more
certain and enduring preservation than a daily newspaper could promise,
and concluded that it would be suitable for one of the publications of
The Filson Club. I wrote to the author about it, and suggested that if
he could enlarge it enough to make one of the annual publications of
the Club, of the usual number of pages, and have it ready in time, it
might be issued for the Club publication of 1907. The author did as I
suggested, and the book to which this is intended as an introduction is
number twentytwo of The Filson Club publications, entitled "The Quest
for a Lost Race," by Thomas E. Pickett, M. D., LL. D., member of The
Filson Club.
Many persons of the English-speaking race of to-day believe that the
English originated in England. The race doubtless was formed there,
but it came of different peoples, principally foreign, who only
consolidated upon English soil. Half a dozen or more alien races
combined with one native to make the English as we now know them,
and many years of contention and change were required to weld the
discordant elements into a homogeneous whole.
The original inhabitants of England, found there by Julius Cæsar
fifty-five years before the Christian era and then first made known
to history, were Celts, who were a part of the great Aryan branch of
the Caucasian race. Their numbers have been estimated at 760,000, and
they were divided into thirty-eight different tribes with a chief or
sovereign for each tribe. They were neither barbarians nor savages in
the strict sense of these terms. They were civilized enough to make
clothes of the skins of the wild animals they killed for food; to
work in metals, to make money of copper and weapons of iron, to have
a form of government, to build cabins in which to live, to cultivate
the soil for food, and to construct war chariots with long scythes
at the sides to mow down the enemy as trained horses whirled the
chariots through their ranks. They had military organizations, with
large armies commanded by such generals as Cassivelaunus, Cunobelin,
Galgacus, Vortigern, and Caractacus, and once one of their queens named
Boadicea led 230,000 soldiers against the Romans. The bravery with
which Caractacus commanded his troops, and the eloquence with which he
defended himself and his country before the Emperor Claudius when taken
before him in irons to grace a Roman triumph, compelled that prejudiced
sovereign to order the prisoner's chains thrown off and him and his
family to be set at liberty. There were enough brave men and true like
Caractacus among these Celts, whose country was being invaded and
desolated, to have secured to the race a better fate than befell them.
After being slaughtered and driven into exile into Brittany and the
mountains of Wales by Roman, Saxon, and Dane for eight hundred years,
the few of them that were left alive were not well enough remembered
even to have their name attached to their own country.
The Celt was entirely ignored and a name combined of those of two
of the conquerors given to their country. Who will now say that
Anglo-Saxon is a more appropriate name for historic England than the
original Albion, or Britannia, or Norman-French, or Celt? Anglo-Saxon,
compounded of Anglen and Saxon, the names of two tribes of Low Dutch
Teutons, can but suggest the piracy, the robbery, the murder and
the treachery with which these tribes dealt with the Celts; while
Norman-French reminds us of the courage, the endurance, and the
refinement which were infused into the English by the Norman Conquest.
Celt is a name which ought to have been respected for its antiquity of
many centuries since it left its ancient Bactria and found its way to
England without a known stain upon its national escutcheon. These Celts
were once a mighty people occupying France, Spain, and other countries
besides England, but their descendants are now scattered among other
nations, without a country or a name of their own.
There may be doubts whether the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, and
the Danes--all of whom shared in partial conquests of England and in
the establishment of the English race--were Scandinavians or Teutons,
Normans or Germans. They all belonged to the great Aryan branch of the
Caucasian race, and whatever differences or similarities originally
existed between them must have changed in the thousands of years since
they emigrated from their first home. There can be no doubt, however,
about the nationality of William the Conqueror. He was Scandinavian
by descent from a long line of noble Scandinavian ancestors. The home
of his ancestors was in Norway, far to the north of the home of the
Teutons in Germany. In this bleak land of Arctic cold and sterility, on
the western coast of Norway, where innumerable islands form a kind of
sea-wall along the shore, his ancestor, Rognvald, who was a great earl
holding close relations with King Harold of Norway, had his home and
his landlocked harbor, in which ships were built for the vikings who
sailed from that port to the shores of all countries which they could
conquer or plunder. Here, his son Gongu Hrolf, better known as Rollo
or Rolf, was born and received his training as a viking. On his return
from one of his viking raids to the East he committed some depredations
at home, for which King Harold banished him. He then fitted out a ship
and manned it with a crew of his own choice and sailed for the British
Channel islands. When he reached the river Seine he went up it as far
as Paris, and, according to the fashion of the times, laid waste the
country as he went. King Charles of France offered to buy him off by
conveying to him the country since known as Normandy and giving him his
daughter in marriage, on condition that he would become a Christian and
commit no more depredations in the King's domain. Rollo accepted the
King's offer and at once ceased to be a viking, and began to build
up, enlarge and strengthen the domain which had been given him with
the title of Duke. In the course of time his dukedom of Normandy, with
the start Rollo had given it and its continuance under his successors,
became one of the most powerful and enlightened countries of the period.
At the death of Rollo his dukedom was inherited by his son, William,
and after passing through four generations of his descendants who
were dukes of Normandy it descended to a second William, known as
the Conqueror. Duke William, therefore, could trace his Scandinavian
descent through his paternal ancestors back to Rognvald, the great earl
of Norway, and even further back through the earls Eystein Glumra,
Ivar Uppland, and possibly other noblemen of hard names to write or
pronounce or remember. It is possible that some of his ancestors were
with Lief the Scandinavian when he made his discovery of America,
nearly five hundred years before the discovery of Columbus.
In 1066, Duke William took advantage of a promise, solemnized by an
oath, which Harold had made before he was King of England, to assist
him to the throne of England, but which he had not kept. Hence William
invaded England with a great army, and at the battle of Hastings slew
King Harold and gained a complete victory over his forces. Duke William
was soon after crowned King of England, and at once began that wise
policy which in a few years enabled him to lay firmly the foundation of
the great English nation. His conquest, though not complete at first,
was more so than had been that of the Romans, or the Angles and Jutes,
or the Saxons or the Danes. At the time of the Conquest of William
there were hostile Celts, Romans, Angles, Jutes, and Danes in every
part of his kingdom. It was not his policy to destroy any more of them
than he deemed necessary, but to make as many of them citizens loyal to
him as possible; hence his numerous army and the still more numerous
hosts that were constantly coming from Normandy to England in time
became reconciled to the people and the people to them, until all were
consolidated into one homogeneous nation. English history may be said
to have begun with the Conquest of William, for all previous history
in the island was but little more than the record of kings and nobles
and pretenders contending against kings, nobles, and pretenders, and
sections and factions and individuals seeking their own aggrandizement.
The Conquest of William began with the idea of all England under one
sovereign, and he and his successors clung to this view until it was
accomplished. England never went backward from William's Conquest as
it did from others, but kept right on in the course of empire until it
became one of the greatest countries in the world, and this conquest
was made by Scandinavians, who, if they did not make Scandinavians of
the conquered, so Scandinavianized them that it would be difficult to
distinguish them from Scandinavians.
The evolution of the English race from so many discordant national
elements reminds one of the act of the witches of Macbeth, casting
into the boiling cauldron so many strange things to draw from the
dark future a fact so important as the fate of a king. Who would have
thought that from the mingling of the Celts and the Romans and the
Angles and the Jutes and the Saxons and the Danes and the Normans and
the French in the great national cauldron that such a race as the
English would be evolved? But it is not certain that such a race would
have been produced if William the Scandinavian and his French had been
left out. He came at a time when a revolution was needed in manners and
language as well as in politics, and imparted that refinement which
the French had gotten from the Romans and other nations. The French
language so imparted soon began to infuse its softening influence
into the jargon of the conglomeration of tongues in vogue, and the
French manners to refine the clownish habits which had come down from
original Celt, Saxon, and Dane. The Saxons and Danes had inhabited
England for the four hundred years which followed the same period
occupied by the Romans, without materially changing the manners or the
language of the English, but it was not as long as either of these
periods after the Conquest before the Englishman acted and spoke like
a gentleman and belonged to a country which commanded the respect as
well as fear of all other nations. The Scandinavian's fondness for war
soon infused itself into the English and made them invincible upon both
land and sea, and now with a land which so envelopes the earth that
they boast the sun always shines on some part of it, they may look
back some hundreds of years to the origin of their greatness and find
no one thing which contributed more to the glory of England than the
Norman-French Conquest.
But the reader had better learn the views of Paul B. Du Chaillu, an
accomplished ethnologist and explorer, about the descent of the English
from the Scandinavians instead of the Teutons as set forth in Doctor
Pickett's book than from me in an introduction to it. Doctor Pickett
explains the Du Chaillu theory, and gives examples of similar tastes
and habits between English and Scandinavians which are striking. He
also gives a long list of names borne by Scandinavians in England
and Normandy eight hundred years ago which are the same as names
borne by Kentuckians to-day. In this introduction, I have rather
confined myself to such historic matters as are involved, without
alluding to the ethnological facts so well presented in the text by
the author. The work is beautifully and copiously illustrated with
halftone likenesses of the author and Du Chaillu and by a number of
distinguished Kentuckians of Scandinavian descent. There was both good
taste and skill in placing among the illustrations the likenesses of
Theodore O'Hara, John T. Pickett, Thomas T. Hawkins, and William L.
Crittenden, who joined the filibustering expeditions of Lopez to Cuba.
These distinguished citizens, like the Scandinavian vikings whom they
imitated, lost nothing of their character by raiding upon a neighbor's
lands, and are among the best examples of the theory of the descent of
the English-speaking people from Scandinavians rather than Teutons. To
be an admirer of this work it is not necessary to be a believer in the
theory of Du Chaillu, that the English are descended from Scandinavians
instead of Teutons. The truth is, all the northern nations connected
with England were kinsmen descended from the same stock--Celts, Romans,
Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Danes all being of the Aryan branch of the
great Caucasian race. They are so much alike in some particulars that
fixed opinions about differences or likenesses between them are more or
less untenable. There is one thing, however, in the book about which
there can be no two opinions, and that is the value and importance
of the list of names copied from records eight hundred years old, in
England and Normandy. As many of them are the same as names now borne
by living families in Kentucky, they can hardly fail to be of help to
those in search of family genealogy. Doctor Pickett has presented in
this work the theory of Du Chaillu in charming words and with excellent
taste, as the theory of Du Chaillu and not as his own, and such has
been my effort with regard to myself in this introduction. It is simply
the resumption of a "Quest."
R. T. DURRETT,
_President of The Filson Club_.
ILLUSTRATIONS
OPPOSITE PAGE
Thomas E. Pickett, M. D., LL. D. _Frontispiece_
Paul B. Du Chaillu 4
King William the Conqueror 8
"The Map that Tells the Story" 12
George Rogers Clark 16
Daniel Boone 24
Isaac Shelby 32
Joseph Hamilton Daveiss 36
Henry Clay 40
Joseph Desha 48
Abraham Lincoln (bas relief) 56
"Our Beautiful Scandinavian" 64
Jefferson Davis 72
John C. Breckinridge 80
William Preston 88
Basil W. Duke 96
The Marshall Home at "Buck Pond" 104
Richard M. Johnson 112
J. Stoddard Johnston 120
Northumbria 128
Theodore O'Hara 136
John T. Pickett 144
Thomas T. Hawkins 152
William L. Crittenden 160
William Nelson 168
Humphrey Marshall 176
John J. Crittenden 184
Henry Watterson 192
Bennett H. Young 200
Reuben T. Durrett 208
CONTENTS
I
PAGE
THE "SCANDINAVIAN EXPLORER," DU CHAILLU, VISITS KENTUCKY--A
CORDIAL RECEPTION 1
II
BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT NEWCASTLE, 1889--A
SENSATIONAL PAPER--INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY OF MODERN
NORTHUMBRIA--A NOTABLE GROUP OF SAVANTS 10
III
REVELATIONS OF ANCIENT RECORDS BEARING UPON THE ORIGIN
OF THE ENGLISH RACE 20
IV
CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS OF THE EARLY NORMANS--TRANSMISSION
OF RACIAL QUALITIES--MID-CENTURY KENTUCKIANS 27
V
DOCTOR CRAIK'S VIEWS--ENGLISH MORE SCANDINAVIAN
THAN GERMAN--GEORGE P. MARSH--EDITORIAL COMMENT
ON THE "SENSATIONAL PAPER" 34
VI
SCANDINAVIANS AND KENTUCKIANS--CHARACTERISTIC
TRAITS IN COMMON--THEIR PASSION FOR THE "HORSE"--DONCASTER
RACES--"CABULLUS" IN NORMANDY--CRUSADING
"CAVALIERS"--THE "MAN-ON-HORSEBACK"--HIS
"EFFIGIES" ON ENGLISH SEALS--THE PRODUCTION
OF CAVALIERS--THE GRASSES 42
VII
A FRENCH SAVANT ON ENGLISH TYPES--WEISMANN'S
"THEORY"--"SNORRO STURLESON" QUOTED BY LORD
LYTTON--THE "HOMICIDAL HUMOR" NOT INVENTED BY
KENTUCKIANS, BUT POSSIBLY INHERITED--ANDREW D.
WHITE QUOTED 51
VIII
JOHN FISKE--ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION--THE HINDOO AND
THE KENTUCKIAN--ARYAN BROTHERS--A BROAD HISTORIC
"HIGHWAY" FROM THE BALTIC SEA TO THE BLUEGRASS--STREAMS
OF SCANDINAVIAN MIGRATION--"THE
VIRGINIAN STATES"--ANGLO-NORMAN "LAWLESSNESS"--DEGENERATE
CASTES OR BREEDS--"POLITICAL
ASSASSINATION" AS PRACTICED BY NORMAN AND SAXON--"THE
HOMICIDAL HUMOR NOT AN INVENTION OF KENTUCKY"
(SHALER); NOT INVENTED, BUT DERIVED--ANDREW
D. WHITE ON THE AMERICAN MURDER RECORD 58
IX
PECULIAR NORMAN TRAITS--CRAFT--PROFANITY--A "SWEARING"
RACE--HISTORIC OATHS--KENTUCKIANS FULL OF
STRANGE OATHS 63
X
WILLIAM, THE NORMAN; NAPOLEON, THE CORSICAN; GREAT
ADMINISTRATORS--THE CONDITIONS OF ENGLISH
CIVILIZATION--AMERICAN STATESMEN 76
XI
EARLY VIRGINIAN HISTORY--RESEARCHES OF DOCTOR ALEXANDER
BROWN--KENTUCKY A DIRECT PRODUCT OF
ELIZABETHAN CIVILIZATION--THE "VIKINGS OF THE
WEST"--PROFESSOR BARRETT WENDELL'S VIEWS 83
XII
THE NORMAN AS A COLONIZER--AS A DEVASTATOR--REVIVAL
OF NORTHUMBRIA BY MODERN INDUSTRIALISM--THE
POWER OF SCANDINAVIAN ENERGY IN PUSHING THE
VICTORIES OF PEACE--ENGLISH UNITY ESTABLISHED
ON SALISBURY PLAIN--THE SCANDINAVIAN IN LITERATURE--SHAKESPEARE
AND HIS HISTORICAL PLAYS--PSYCHOLOGICAL
CONTRASTS OF MODERN SCANDINAVIAN
RACES--SHAKESPEARE'S FAVORITE AUTHOR--EVOLUTION
OF THE "MELANCHOLY DANE"--ADVICE FROM A THOUGHTFUL
FRENCHMAN: "LET US NOT DISOWN THE FORTUNE
AND CONDITION OF OUR ANCESTORS" 90
XIII
A BODY OF ANGLO-NORMAN NAMES IN KENTUCKY--CONCURRENT
TESTIMONY OF MANY COINCIDING FACTS--THE
RACE "LOST," BUT NOT THE NAMES--ETHNICAL TRANSMUTATIONS--THE
NORMANS EVERYWHERE AT HOME--DISRAELI
ON DESCENT--HIS THEORY OF TRANSMUTED
TRAITS--HÆCKEL--THE JUNGLE OF BOHUN--BERWICK
AND GASTON PHOEBUS--"ISAAC LE BON"--BISMARCK--NAPOLEON--MID-CENTURY
"CLAIMS OF RACE"--KENTUCKY
A SOVEREIGN COMMONWEALTH--SHELBY AND
PERRY 101
XIV
THE GOTHIC MIGRATION--SCANDINAVIAN PIRATES--THEIR
FOOT-PRINTS ON ENGLISH SOIL--NORMANS HOTLY
RECEIVED BY THEIR KINDRED, THE DANES--OLD GOTHIC
WARS--"THE YENGHEES AND THE DIXEES"--WESTWARD
MARCH OF THE TEUTON AND THE GOTH--GENESIS
OF THE SCANDINAVIAN--CRADLE OF THE RACE--ROLF
GANGER A POTENTIAL FORCE--RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
MODERN WORLD--WILLIAM OF NORMANDY 108
XV
STRAGGLERS IN THE GOTHIC MIGRATION--JUTES, ANGLES,
SAXONS--THE TWO GREAT RACES; TEUTONS AND SCANDINAVIANS--"MIXED
RACES" PLANTED ON THE SOUTHERN
SHORES OF THE NORTH SEA 114
XVI
AUTHENTIC LISTS OF OLD NORMAN NAMES--DESCENDANTS
OF ILLUSTRIOUS FAMILIES--THE NORMAN CAPACITY FOR
LEADERSHIP NOT "LOST"--ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF
NAMES (FROM "THE NORMAN PEOPLE"); ENGLISH
NAMES ORIGINALLY NORMAN--FAMILIAR AS HOUSEHOLD
WORDS IN KENTUCKY--A LEGAL MAXIM--ELEMENTS OF
THE ENGLISH RACE--PREPONDERANCE OF SCANDINAVIAN
BLOOD--STEVENSON AND DISRAELI--LORD LYTTON--MALTEBRUN--SCANDINAVIAN
CHARACTERISTICS--PHYSIQUE--SOCIAL
TRAITS--PASSION FOR "STRONG
LIQUOR"--HOSPITALITY 117
XVII
CAPTAIN SHALER QUOTED--MEASUREMENTS OF AMERICAN
SOLDIERS BY THE MATHEMATICIAN GOULD--SUPERIOR
PHYSICAL VIGOR OF THE "REBEL EXILES"--GENERAL
HUMPHREY MARSHALL--HIS AIDE CAPTAIN GUERRANT--GENERAL
WILLIAM NELSON--"THE ORPHAN BRIGADE"--HEREDITARY
SURNAMES AS MEMORIALS OF RACE--EVERY
STEP OF NORMAN MIGRATION NOTED BY THE
HISTORIC EYE--MONTALEMBERT--"MONKS OF THE WEST"--THE
RUDE SAXON TRANSFIGURED BY THE ELOQUENCE
OF THE GIFTED WRITER--A FIELD FOR THE PHILOLOGIST 123
XVIII
THE ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF NAMES--ANGLO-NORMAN
SURNAMES--NAMES OF OBVIOUS SCANDINAVIAN DERIVATION--THE
ORIGINAL DISCUSSION OF THE GENERAL
QUESTION--AN EXCERPT FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT--THE
"ELIZABETHAN" A PRODUCT OF A BALANCED RACE--THE
MARCH OF THE GOTH RESUMED--THE VIRGINIAN
HUNTER--THE YANKEE SKIPPER--A MAN OF OAK AND
BRONZE 126
XIX
NORMAN CRAFT--MR. FREEMAN QUOTED--POPULAR ATTRIBUTION
OF THE QUALITY--ITS VALUE IN MEDIÆVAL
DAYS--ITS PREVALENCE TO-DAY 131
XX
NAMES AND NOTES--KENTUCKIAN AND NORMAN--CHARACTERISTICS
IN COMMON--NORMAN TRAITS AND SAXON
NAMES--ESTIMATE OF THE KENTUCKIAN FROM AN
ENGLISH SOURCE 133
XXI
SHADOWS IN "ARCADY"--BRIEF PREFACE TO THE ALPHABETICAL
LIST 136
APPENDIX
ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF NORSE, NORMAN, AND ANGLO-NORMAN,
OR NON-SAXON, SURNAMES 141
THE QUEST FOR A LOST RACE
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D.
I
Upon the northern border of Mr. James Lane Allen's "Arcady" there
rises with picturesque distinctness against a range of green hills the
pleasant old Kentucky town of Maysville, which, unlike the typical
town of the South, is neither "sleepy" nor "quaint," but in a notable
degree animated, bustling, ambitious, advancing, and up-to-date. It
must be confessed, however, that here and there, in certain secluded
localities, it is architecturally antique. Constructed almost wholly
of brick, and planted solidly upon the lower slopes of the wooded
hills, the site is indescribably charming, and, looked at from a
distant elevation in front or from the elevated plateau of the
environing hills, presents a pleasing completeness and finish in the
_coup d'oeil_. At one glance the eye takes in the compact little
city, set gem-like in the crescentic sweep of the river that flows
placidly past the willow-fringed shore and the walled and graded front.
The scene is likewise suggestive, since it marks the northern limit
of the "phosphatic limestone" formation which assures the permanent
productiveness of the overlying soil--a natural fertilizer which
by gradual disintegration perpetually renews the soil exhausted by
prolonged or injudicious cultivation.
The town is of Virginian origin. At one time, indeed, it was a
Virginian town. The rich country to the south of it was peopled chiefly
by tobacco planters from "Piedmont" Virginia, slaveholding Virginians
of a superior class.
In the infancy of this early Virginian settlement it was vigilantly
guarded by the famous Occidental hunters, Kenton and Boone; the former
a commissioner of roads for the primitive Virginian county, then
ill-cultivated and forest clad: the latter, a leading "trustee" of the
embryonic Eighteenth Century town. As we pass through the streets near
the center of the place to-day we note the handsome proportions of a
public edifice which has come down to us from the early mid-century
days--an imposing "colonial" structure with a lofty, well-proportioned
cupola and a nobly columned front. It is that significant symbol of
Southern civilization--the Courthouse. To the artistic and antiquarian
eye the building is the glory of the old "Virginian" town, since it
appeals at once to civic pride and superior critical taste.
It was here--in the capacious auditorium of the Courthouse, and in the
closing quarter of the last century--that a large and enthusiastic
gathering of really typical Kentuckians, familiar from childhood with
tales of wild adventure, greeted with rapturous applause the renowned
hunter and explorer, Paul Du Chaillu, a native of Paris, France. A
common taste for woodcraft had brought the alien elements in touch.
The Frenchman was a swell hunter of big game, and had come hither to
repeat his graphic recital of experiences in the equatorial haunts of
that formidable anthropoid--the Gorilla. Du Chaillu's discovery of the
gorilla and the Obonga dwarfs was so astounding to modern civilization
that strenuous efforts were made to discredit it, notably by Gray and
Barth. But later explorations amply vindicated the Frenchman's claims.
He had a like experience later. The adventurous explorer had come to
Kentucky in prompt response to an invitation from a local club, a
social and literary organization which owed its popularity and success
chiefly to the circumstance that the genial members, though sometimes
intemperately "social," were never obtrusively "literary." The social
feature was particularly pleasing to the accomplished Frenchman, who
was a man of the world in every sense, and who dropped easily into
congenial relations with gentlemen who had an hereditary and highly
cultivated taste for _le sport_ in all its phases. Take them when or
where you might, the spirit of _camaraderie_ was in them strong. They
told a good story in racy English and with excellent taste. They had
studied with discrimination the composition of a Bourbon "cocktail."
They had a distinctly connoisseurish appreciation of the flavor,
fragrance, and tints of an Havana cigar. They had a traditional
preference for Bourbon in their domestic and social drinking, but they
always kept ample supplies of imported wines for their guests.
The genial Frenchman was very indulgent to the generous tipple of his
hosts. He drank their Bourbon without apparent distaste; he praised
their imported Mumm and Clicquot. He did better still; he drank the
imported champagne with appreciation--a high compliment from such a
source.
[Illustration: PAUL B. DUCHAILLU.]
Clearly enough the harmony between the guest and his environment was
complete. These courteous and loquacious Kentuckians were not only
brilliant and audacious _raconteurs_, but with their varied experiences
as sportsmen had a variety of marvelous stories to tell. When their
stock of pioneer exploits fell short, they would listen with polite
interest to their guest's weird stories of the African jungle, and
cleverly cap them with reminiscences of a miraculous outing on Reelfoot
Lake or Kinniconick. They were themselves experts with the rifle and
the long bow, and were loaded to the muzzle with authentic traditions
of the rod and gun.
The jungle stories were all right, but the African hunter was never
allowed to forget that he was in the land of the hunter Boone. The
very ground upon which they commemoratively wassailed had been
consecrated by the footsteps of the great explorer of the West. The
beastly "anthropoids" that confronted _him_ were armed with tomahawks
and guns. A salient point of difference indeed. The clever and daring
Frenchman listened with smiling interest to their characteristic spurts
of "brag," and was silently remarking, no doubt, its curious affinity
to the gasconade of France. He seemed to feel perfectly at home. And
who of us that were present can ever forget the impression of that
dark, resolute face, the illumining smile, the gleaming teeth, and the
kindly, humorous glance of the piercing eye? His experiences at the
clubroom only partially prepared him for the peculiar impressiveness of
the audience that greeted him at the stately old Courthouse. There were
the same men, to be sure, handsome, graceful, courteous, smiling, and
soft of speech; but the women!--with their lovely faces, their handsome
dresses, their enchanting manners, their distinction, ease and charm!
The Frenchman was never more of a philosopher than when he gazed upon
this scene.
He told his tale of the jungle simply, but with a vividness that was
realistic and startling to a degree. The fascination of the audience
was complete. He not only described that strange encounter in the
African forest, but he re-enacted the part, a representation which gave
a curiously thrilling quality to the tale not appreciable when told in
print, admirably as it is told in the author's famous book.
When the voice of the speaker ceased, as it did all too soon, the
silent, fascinated audience, aroused from its strange African dream,
broke into round after round of hearty, appreciative applause. For
several moments the lecturer stood in a grave, thoughtful attitude,
gazing intently upon the moving throng, not as though idly observing
the dispersion of a village gathering, but as some philosophic tourist
from another sphere, studying the aspect, the attitude, characteristic
manner and physiognomical traits of an alien race. He asked but one
question. Turning eagerly to the gentleman who accompanied him, he
inquired with an expression of intense interest, as his glance fell
upon a graceful Kentuckienne near the center of the throng--a lovely
blonde with exquisite complexion, hair and eyes--"Who is our beautiful
Scandinavian?"[2] The answer seemed to please him, and he walked
thoughtfully toward the door, an object of respectful attention from
the slow-moving throng, lingering as if it longed to stay. Though of
small stature, he would have attracted attention anywhere. His figure
was compact, lithe, elastic, and perfectly erect, his cranial outline
(typically French) denoted intellectual strength and physical vigor,
his facial contour was bold, regular, and pleasing--a singularly virile
countenance softened and dignified by the discipline of thought.
The crowd of which he is now the central figure is composed largely
of men wholly different from Du Chaillu in air, stature, carriage,
countenance, complexion, and racial type. Yet Nature seldom evolves
from any source a solider bit of man than this gallant Frenchman from
the heart of France.
[2] OUR BEAUTIFUL SCANDINAVIAN.--It may interest the general public
to know that "The Beautiful Scandinavian" of the French traveler was
Mrs. Elizabeth Wall, wife of that popular gentleman, Judge Garrett
S. Wall. Her maiden name was BUCKNER--Elizabeth Buckner--a native
of Kentucky and daughter of a famous Southern house. That she was
a very beautiful woman, her portrait (taken years after marriage)
amply attests; and until her ill-health came, her beauty retained,
in almost ideal perfection, its characteristic grace and charm. The
Beautiful Scandinavian, from whose portrait in oil a halftone likeness
is presented in this book, now takes her place in history and moves
down its interminable lines with an escort that recalls the "bands of
gallant gentlemen" attendant upon FAIR INEZ when she "went into the
West."
The distinguished guest took his departure on the following day, not
with a cold adieu, but with an airy _au revoir_--as of one who, charmed
with his welcome, was meditating an early return. But was he pleased?
Apparently he _was_, and if not, he had the Frenchman's happy art of
_seeming to be_. If here simply for observation, he certainly found
no degeneracy, but rather, we should say, certain pleasing lines of
variation in the Occidental evolution of the race. It seems impossible
that he should not have had a pleasant impression of his hosts--these
genial sons of "Arcady," forever piping their minty elixirs with
oaten straws, whose drinks even when "straightest" were not stronger
than their steady heads--so hospitable to strangers, so chivalrous to
women, so courteous to men, so gracious in manner, so happy in speech,
so loyal to kin, so proud of their Commonwealth, their ancestral
traditions, and their indomitable race. They drank naught from the
skulls of their enemies, but they were adepts in filling their own.
Their potations were pottle deep, and the intervals between were not
needlessly prolonged. And yet they rose refreshed from their heady
cups, ordered their stud a drench, and sighed for work.
[Illustration: KING WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.]
The adventurous Frenchman was no glutton in debauch, but in a modest
symposium could always hold his own, and doubtless imagined in this
festal reunion of Bourbon and Champagne that he had re-discovered the
_Nouvelle France_ of the royal days when Louis le Grand was King.[3]
[3] M. Paul Du Chaillu's visit to Maysville (which is here described)
took place in February, 1876. His arrival was handsomely noticed in the
local papers--in the _Eagle_, edited by Mr. Thomas Marshall Green, the
author of "The Spanish Conspiracy"; the _Ledger_, edited by Mr. Thomas
A. Davis, who still presides over its columns with all the old-time
ability; and the _Bulletin_, edited by Mr. Clarence L. Stanton, a son
of Judge R. H. Stanton, and a gallant officer in the Confederate Navy
during the Civil War. All these gentlemen were present at the lecture,
and the distinguished traveler was introduced to the audience by
Colonel Thomas M. Green. The lecture was followed by an entertainment
at the Limestone Club, which was pleasantly noticed by Captain Stanton
in his paper of the following day. The Committee of Reception and
Entertainment was composed of Major Thomas H. Mannen, Judge Garrett
S. Wall, Colonel Francis P. Owens, and Doctor Thomas E. Pickett (the
President of the Club).
II
In the early autumn of 1889, the writer of this paper had the good
fortune to be present at the Newcastle meeting of the British
Association. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, standing at the very gateway of
Scotland and looking out from the Tyne upon the great North Sea, is a
famous old city in English history, that lay directly in the path of
conquest and migration and was literally cradled in war, alternately
rocked by Scandinavian or Dane, Saxon or Norman, Englishman or Scot.
To-day it is big, prosperous, and progressive; even in the midst of
peace perpetually sounding the note of preparation for war. True to its
oldest and best traditions it is staunchly loyal to the Crown, proudly
proclaiming its fealty on every coast, from the mouths of mighty guns
cast in its own Cyclopean shops. From the days of the Scandinavian
sea-rover through centuries of ruthless conflict she has stood out
stoutly against the enemies of England, just as to-day her long
sea-front of solid wall resists the encroachments of the Northern sea.
Here the shipbuilder is ceaselessly busy, constructing in his immense
yards the great modern ship with its heart of fire and frame of
steel. In any large yards the whole scheme of construction in all
its branches may be seen at a glance, from the laying of the keel to
the launching of the ship. The best work in modern engineering can be
seen on the Tyne; and this is not surprising when we remember that
upon the banks of this river the Locomotive was born, giving to this
aggressive contemporary people a command of the earth as complete as
their immemorial mastery of the sea. So enormous is the demand for fuel
in the shipyards of the North-east Coast that it will take but a few
centuries of work in these busy shops to exhaust the supply. The old
proverb has lost its point. The most careless or unobservant tourist
may see the steam-drawn trains "carrying their coals" to Newcastle,
_now_, at all hours.
Nor does the Northern farmer sit with idle hands. All industries
rest upon him. The farms are small, but the joint product is large.
Thousands of farm laborers in Northumberland have each their "three
acres and a cow." The Northern cattle-market in Newcastle would have
filled the Highland caterans with delight. The weekly supply of cattle
exceeds two thousand; the number of sheep is not less than twenty
thousand. This was nearly twenty years ago. What must it be now? But
even thus, how it speaks for the varied gifts and exhaustless vigor
and vitality of this old Northumbrian race! Their rage for "river
improvement" carries a lesson for men of their blood elsewhere. Between
1860 and 1889 the material dredged from the bed of the river Tyne
amounted to more than _eighty millions_ of tons. "Now,"--it was said
at the Newcastle meeting--"there are more vessels entering and leaving
this port _than any other in the world_." Among the outgoing vessels
at that time was a gallant Norwegian barque which bore the name of
"Longfellow." A few years before--a score, perhaps--the writer had seen
upon a famous track in Kentucky a racer of great note who bore the
same illustrious name--almost a contemporaneous compliment from widely
separate branches of the same race. But what more enduring than the
singer's own verse?--
"Once as I told in glee
Tales of the stormy sea."
A fit place of meeting--this old gateway of the North--for a select
body of England's brilliant, busy, clear-headed and practical savants,
and especially for that marvelously fruitful mid-century "section"
which here first received supreme scientific recognition, having been
organized at the Newcastle meeting by the British Association in 1863.
[Illustration: "THE MAP THAT TELLS THE STORY."]
Though the youngest of the sections, its proceedings are singularly
fascinating and the attendance always large. The meeting was held in
the reading-room of the Free Library. Upon a long, low platform
to the left of the entrance there sat facing the audience, a group,
not of "scientists," but of really scientific men, their names as
familiar to the English reading world as household words. The central
figure of the group, Sir William Turner of Edinburgh, was the chairman
of the section--a man of striking personality, who read a paper on
Weismann and his theories which was listened to with closest attention,
the novelty of the doctrines eliciting many expressions of doubt or
dissent, though presented by the author of the paper with singular
lucidity, fairness, and force. Sir William graced his position
well, not merely by reason of intellectual gifts, but by virtue of
a personal dignity which admirably comported with his commanding
presence. He was a large, handsome man, with a robust frame, an
erect carriage, and a notably aggressive air. Seated near him, and
firmly supporting his somewhat heavy presence, were a number of men
with world-renowned names--Francis Galton, famous for his studies in
heredity and the publication of an epochal work; Sir Henry Acland,
a learned anthropologist and medical scholar--a thinker of deep and
varied scientific resource; Boyd Dawkins, the pioneer "Cave Hunter"
and writer upon prehistoric archæology; John Evans, an able, learned,
and industrious writer upon archæological themes; Doctor Bruce, the
eminent historian of the Roman Wall; General Pitt Rivers, equally
famous as soldier and savant, a quiet, dark-faced gentleman of easy,
pleasant manners, dressed in the plainest fashion and judiciously
expending an income of £30,000 a year. His large benefactions for
scientific purposes made him truly a Prince of Science, gracious,
munificent, and wise. The most striking and conspicuous figure in
this solid English line was George Romanes, then in his prime and
in apparently perfect health, tall, erect, dark-haired, with pale,
handsome features and scholarly, high-bred air--a most impressive
personification of intellectual pride and strength. As he sat in
the midst of that animated group, cold, proud, silent but keenly
observant, he vividly recalled the figure of the famous Kentuckian
who once presided over the United States Senate, calmly noting the
portents of impending war. In both, one easily discerned the same high
qualities of intellect, resolution, and reserved force. By the side of
the stately Romanes there sat the learned and vivacious Canon Isaac
Taylor, slender, gray-haired, keen-eyed, alert, humorous, and full
of tact--one of those clerical scholars and gentlemen who have done
so much for English literature and have been a characteristic charm
of English social life--men most admirably depicted by the novelist
Bulwer in his better moods. Canon Taylor was the most animated
figure in this noble English group. Near him sat two foreigners,
each in curiously striking contrast with the other; one of these, a
tall, ruddy, broad-shouldered blonde, with a strong, lithe, well-knit
frame, an eager, alert expression, and a somewhat restless air,
was the celebrated Scandinavian explorer Fridjof Nansen, then just
twenty-six years of age, but already made world-famous by his recent
explorations in the polar seas. At the left of the young Scandinavian,
and presenting a remarkable contrast to that impressive figure, there
sat a somewhat older man of small stature, of compact, vigorous frame,
of clear, dark complexion, keen, clear, thoughtful eyes, and features
typically French. The reader recognizes the description at once. It
is our old friend, Du Chaillu, who has come to the northern coast of
England, and standing in the very pathway of old Scandinavian invasions
and confronting some of England's best thinkers upon their own ground,
has calmly looked out upon the "grim--troubled" sea of England's Saxon
King and boldly proclaimed his theory of the direct Scandinavian origin
of the English race.
It was the sensational paper of the day, and even the most phlegmatic
English scholar was stirred by this defiant bugle-blast from a
philosophic French explorer who was not only disturbing the settled
convictions of English thinkers, but still worse was running counter
to cherished prejudices of the English race. That historic hyphenation
of racial appellatives--"Anglo-Saxon"--was a sacred immemorial
conjunction of names representing a fusion of racial elements not
to be shaken asunder by a blast upon the ram's horn of a wandering
Gaul. The assault was not altogether "Pickwickian"; but the Frenchman
was a stout antagonist, and found an incidental confirmation of his
theory in the occasional flash of Berserker rage which followed his
masterly game of parry and thrust. Nor was he ill-equipped for his
controversial work. From certain antiquities which he had found
during his recent explorations in the North he inferred the existence
of commercial relations between the Northmen of that period and the
peoples of the Mediterranean Sea, Rome and Greece being at that time
in direct communication with these seafaring peoples of the North. The
tribes of Germania, on the contrary, were "a shipless people," and
according to the Roman writers were still in an uncivilized state.
He said there were settlements in Britain by the Northmen during the
Roman occupation; that England was always called by the Northmen
one of their Northern lands; that the language of the North and of
England were similar in the early times; that the early Northern Kings
claimed part of England as their own; that the Northmen were bold
and enterprising navigators, pushing their explorations wherever a
ship could survive the perils of the sea. On the contrary, neither the
Saxons nor the Franks were a seafaring people, either at the time of
Charlemagne or at any earlier period.
[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.]
It was this Scandinavian element which had infused a spirit of
enterprise into the _English race that they had never lost_, and which
had made it in all its branches, wherever they had sailed their fleets
or pushed their invading columns, the invincible masters of earth
and sea. Its resistless movement across the American continent, he
declared, was the most dramatic spectacle in history.
This, in brief, was the Frenchman's startling theory; first broached
in England on the borders of that rude North Sea which the Vikings had
swept in early days, and upon the banks of the peaceful Tyne, where
many a Scandinavian rover had moored his little barque. The discussion
of M. Du Chaillu's paper took a wide range, all the distinguished
ethnologists present--Dawkins, Taylor, Turner, Evans, Galton, and
others--participating in this rattling ethnological debate. Du Chaillu,
who had very much the attitude of a French _suspect_ in a German camp,
maintained throughout his Gallic _aplomb_, listening with admirable
composure and with apparent interest, though his dark skin visibly
reddened at times under the critical lash, however courteously applied.
Canon Taylor, who evidently was in full sympathy with Du Chaillu's
startling views, gave a happy turn to the little imbroglio by a
cleverly parodied quotation from Tennyson's Welcome to the Sea-King's
Daughter from over the Sea--
"For Saxon or Dane or Norman,
Teuton or Celt--or whatever we--
Saxon or Norse--it is nothing to me,
We are all of us _one in our welcome of thee_,"