Part 9

Be this as it may, it is desirable to have it understood that so long as the Saxon holds his _own_ (and no more) in the constitution of our common race, there can arise no possible "unpleasantness" between the parts of which it is composed. In that duplex anthropoidal abnormity to which its creator has given a significant binominal appellation--_Jekyll_ and _Hyde_--some _regulative_ element seems to be lacking. Is it an element of race? The author does not say as much in express terms, but apparently he suggests it in his selection of names. Have we not a _Norman_ in Mr. Jekyll? And a _Saxon_ in Mr. Hyde? That we have not a normal Englishman is quite clear. Is the dominant Scandinavian element _short_? or has some demoniac "Berserker" blood slipped into the cross?

Subtle and descriminative writers (such as Stevenson and Disraeli) do not express themselves after a careless fashion, as a rule. They mean something, even in the selection of a name.

There is something, too, no doubt, that appeals to the popular imagination merely in a _Norman_ name, and Lord Lytton has cleverly exploited this predilection in many fascinating volumes of historical romance; tales of love and chivalry that in our soft mid-century days had rivaled, and for a time eclipsed, the magical creations of Scott. The later school of Scandinavian writers has not won the Kentuckian from his early love of English and Scottish romance. His conception of the actual Scandinavian--the Scandinavian in the flesh--the Scandinavian of to-day, is still undefined and vague. Until Du Chaillu came he had given the matter but little thought. And, yet, fifty years before--in the busy, brooding twenties--another Frenchman, wandering among the Scandinavians of Gothia, describes their predominant characteristics thus: "Fair hair, blue eyes, a middle stature, light and slim; a physiognomy indicating frankness, gentleness, and a certain sentimental elevation of mind, especially among the fair sex. The people in the other provinces partake of these different physical and moral qualities."

How completely this description by a Frenchman in Scandinavia verifies the casual observation of another Frenchman in Kentucky! Their hospitality, M. Du Chaillu informed us in his charming lecture, was almost without bounds, and at times to a Kentuckian would have been embarrassing in the extreme, as when those snowy-handed hostesses bathed the traveler's feet and tucked him away in bed. But Monsieur seems to have suffered no embarrassment on this account.

Among the population of the Northern provinces of Scandinavia there are men of almost gigantic stature, with dark hair, deep-set eyes, a look somewhat fierce, but full of expression and vivacity. Their muscles are large, firm, and distinct, the bones prominent, the features regular and clear cut. A cheerful temper and "an enterprising disposition" are qualities common to the whole population. A stranger is welcome in all circles. Even in the polar circles the hospitality loses none of its warmth. Probably it is in dispensing their hospitality that their passion for "strong liquor" is most marked. This liquor they drink out of horns; and that is why, said Du Chaillu, convincingly, that we say in Kentucky, "Will you take a horn?" But the Kentuckian seems to derive this peculiarity from every side. "Fill the largest horns," said the Saxon, Cedric, when his slaves were arranging the banquet for his Norman guests.

XVII

The impression we derive from the foregoing description of the Scandinavian physique among the more northern tribes recalls Professor Shaler's conclusions from a careful study of the measurement of fifty thousand troops from Kentucky, made by the astronomer Gould (a distinguished mathematician), who after the war took service in the Argentine Republic. "The results," he says, "are surprising. Their average height was nearly an inch greater than that of the New England troops; they exceed them equally in girth of chest, and the circumference of head is also very much larger. In size they come up to the level of the _picked regiments of the Northern armies_ of Europe."[10] Yet these results were obtained from what was a levy _en masse_. It did not include "the rebel exiles" who were the "first running from the press," or, as is often said, "the flower of the State," and being in the main of a more exuberant habit of body would doubtless have given still better results. It is questionable if all Scandinavia could furnish two such _heads_ as William Nelson's and Humphrey Marshall's. _Ceteris paribus_, said Leidy, "size is a measure of power"--referring to _size of head_. When General Marshall was warned that his great size would attract the attention of _sharpshooters_, he answered, "I have provided for that. I have a _fat staff_. There be _six_ Richmonds in the field!" His aide and secretary was a Norman of wholly different type; of a slight figure, but of an activity, courage, vivacity, and endurance wholly unsurpassed. Captain Shaler (himself a capable soldier, with a strong dash of New England blood) singles out for special commendation the soldiers and officers of Morgan's command. He especially notes their high social quality, their physical vigor and activity, their endurance under severe tests, and their peculiar aptitude and penchant for the business of war. He waxes vigorously poetic in describing the martial qualities of the "Orphan Brigade."

[10] KENTUCKY. By N. S. Shaler (Harvard College), 1885.

* * * * *

Hereditary surnames are said to be memorials of race that can never be obliterated. If thousands of men, swept along in some great historic migratory movement which is followed and described by critical observers through country after country, through century after century, never "breaking ranks" except to plant and build, leaving the same names upon the official records of every dukedom, or kingdom, or commonwealth through which they pass; when their names, their features, their instincts, their mental habits, their daily speech, their terms of law, the language and routine of their courts, are impressed with the same ethnic stamp; when the same mental, physical, and moral characteristics are manifest generation after generation; when myriads of minute resemblances confirm the conclusions of the larger view, why lose one's self in the haunting mystery of apparent discrepancies in detail? Let us give full credit to each member of the triune ethnical Trust--which is charged with all the responsibilities of this magnificent modern world. If you wish to know how much can be said to thrill with delight that old SAXON element of your blood, read what the Count de Montalembert (another Frenchman) has said in his "Monks of the West." The enormous difficulties encountered by the Church in that old chaotic day approximately measure the shortcomings of the race. That the crude, repulsive Saxon should have been fashioned into the noble figure which Montalembert describes, speaks well for the essential worth of the _Saxon_; but what a tribute to the miraculous power of the _Monk_!

In the original prolusion and in the present preface the writer has simply tried to prepare the way for investigators of greater gifts. Here the PHILOLOGIST is in his proper field. In pursuing this work, he becomes the genealogist of a race. Names of localities, names of men, are subject--like all other words--to every variety of phonetic change, and, it may be said, are in a perpetual state of flux. But there is a soul that survives all changes. It is for the scholar to catch it on the wing and fix a fleeting syllable for all time.

XVIII

The student who is interested in this subject may find some help in the following series of NAMES (to which frequent reference has been made), compiled by an anonymous English scholar whose learning and ability have been recognized in the critical reviews. It was to one of these reviews that the present writer was indebted for suggestions that at once quickened his interest in M. Du Chaillu and his researches, and induced him in the republication of the English writer's list (taken from a London Directory) to add to the selections a few names of obvious Scandinavian derivation--Danish, Swedish, and Old Norse. Any fixed rule of selection, in a discussion like this, it is difficult to apply. Readers who comprehend how easily errors creep into an ordinary record of "family" pedigrees will make due allowance for errors that may be found in this modestly illustrative Anglo-Norman list, in which there is but little attempt to trace lineal family descent. With a body of names so pregnant with significance as this, the credentials of any branch of the Anglo-Norman race in any part of the earth will be recognized as good. The difficulties of the problem are apparent to all. Its interest and importance it is impossible to exaggerate or deny. If more simply stated, probably it were more easily understood, but, failing in simplicity of statement, very frequent _repetitions_ may be excused.

The origin of the general discussion ought to encourage every scholar. According to the pleasing conception of the great Scottish romancer, the originator of this controversy was a Saxon slave who understood the art of deducing philosophic conclusions from unconsidered trifles. While herding his master's swine in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he spoke to a fellow thrall who stalked about in the full enjoyment of Saxon freedom with a brazen collar about his neck:

"And _swine_ is good English," said the jester. "But how call you the sow when she is flayed, drawn and quartered, and hung up by the heels like a traitor?"

"Pork," said Gurth.

"And _pork_, I think, is good Norman French. When alive and in charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by a _Saxon_ name. She is a _Norman_ when dressed for the table in the castle hall. What dost thou think of _that_, friend Gurth?"

"It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, _however it got into thy fool's pate_."

This is elementary, but it was an inspiration to one of the greatest writers of France. The nimble wits of the Scottish wizard are not at the service of all the Wambas of the Saxon race.

* * * * *

"The Norman has vanished from the world," says Mr. Freeman, "but he has indeed left a name behind him"; and not only the "name," but wherever found he still exhibits "the indomitable vigor of the Scandinavian with the buoyant vivacity of the Gaul." It must be remembered, in discussing so large and complicated a subject as this, that philosophic scholarship is seldom narrow, absolute, final, or exclusive in its views. It would be folly to affirm, says the anonymous English writer who anticipated in certain aspects the theories of Du Chaillu, that the possession of Norman and Danish blood "always implies energy and intellect; and Saxon descent, the reverse." We have too much evidence to the contrary. It is not individual instances that are now under consideration; it is the comparative qualities of _race_. We can only safely affirm, in a rational and considerate discussion of the question, that our people are not Saxons nor Scandinavians, nor Normans, but broadly speaking, are a great branch of the English race which happily mingles the highest qualities of the THREE; the stolid conservatism of the first, the daring enterprise of the second, the "buoyant vivacity," the "spontaneity, enthusiasm, and versatility" of the third. When these racial elements were fairly balanced, as in the time of Elizabeth, the evolution of the Englishman was complete. It was then that, surcharged with complex currents of racial vitality, the adventurous "Elizabethan" sought our shore. The Virginian hunter followed or formed a trail in every wilderness, and the Yankee skipper trafficked on every coast. The march begun in Central Asia was resumed upon the American Continent, and "the most dramatic spectacle in history" was gradually unfolded before the eyes of men.

We should find many Anglo-Norman or Scandinavian names upon the company rolls of that vast host. Many of these names we have already heard, and, beside the bold Norman, others walk unseen--men of blended races cast in the same heroic mold. It is the mark of a "true Kentuckian" that, like the amiable and sagacious Isaac le Bon, he appreciates a good "cross," and to the end of time he will carry the cross which was originally stamped upon his English ancestor in the ancient nursery of the race. He has no quarrel, therefore, with his Anglo-Saxon blood. "Nature," as Mr. Disraeli says: "natural selection," as others say, seems to delight in working with a purpose and upon a plan; and, when impelled to frame a creature that could do the work which apparently the Anglo-Norman was called to do, she seems to have found her model in the man of ancient ROME: she made him _strong_--a man of oak and bronze.

_Illi tobur et æs_ TRIPLEX. Some of the elements may be crude, but _all_ must be strong. A Roman trireme might safely carry a Vergilian body and an Horatian soul; but only a vessel framed with the toughest constituents at Nature's command could carry for century after century, in every land, upon every sea, in the "teeth of clenched antagonisms," and upon fixed predestinated lines, the fortunes of the English or "Anglo-Norman" race.

In point of fact, DESTINY itself seems to have directed the process of evolution when the germ-plasm of those picked races--the Norman, the Saxon, and the Dane--was united to create the English or Anglo-Norman race, the Norman element by virtue of peculiar traits being dominant in the "cross." The Kentuckian is no degenerate product of this magnificent ancestral "blend," and one of the objects of the "Names" and the accompanying "Notes" is to show that in every characteristic respect he has bred true to the ancient blood. If the storm of Norman conquest scarcely touched the solid elements of that old manorial life, so the continuous intermingling, through many centuries, of the blood of three remotely kindred races has served to fix and transmit the characteristic traits which are stamped upon the Kentuckian of to-day.

XIX

Perhaps no critic has thrown more light upon mediæval history than Mr. Freeman, who in his discriminating analysis of the Norman character declares the supreme, the directive, the dominant quality to be _craft_: a special power of intellect which seems to have been created or evolved by the necessities of those times--intellect fused with instinct and directed by a conscienceless common sense. Mr. Freeman detected its manifestations in all the Norman's great affairs. In legal proceedings, in court intrigues, in ecclesiastical relations; in diplomatic affairs, in local or in provincial administration, and, most notable of all, in the _conduct of war_. It was in _war-craft_ that the Saxon fell short. If success in battle had come with a sturdy frame, a stout heart, and a short sword, the Saxon would seldom have failed in war. But he was not strong (Mr. Freeman says) in "the wiles of war." From the very outset the Scandinavian has won battles by sheer weight of brain, and nature certainly "turned loose a thinker" when she projected a Scandinavian freebooter upon the soil of France.

This attribution of craft, and all that it implies, to the Norman, does not rest solely upon the deductions of a studious historian. The conception did not originate in the closet of a scholar; it seems to have come first from the "great common people"; from the field, from the market, the fireside, and the street. It is proverbial in the speech of France.

"C'est un Normand, c'est un fin Normand, c'est un Normand, adroit.

"Réponse normande, réponse ambiguë. Que cela peut être vrai est peut être faux; la réponse est un peu normande."

These popular conceptions of the Norman character did not necessarily imply disparagement or reprobation. On the contrary, in that wild mediæval struggle for existence, astuteness and duplicity were the winning cards. In the councils of the forest the popular favorite, Renard, was at the front. Even the imperious Isangrim was handicapped by lack of wit: a deprivation not unlike that of the clawless cat in Hades.

This sinister and sagacious quality of the Norman intellect seems to have had full play through all the varied experiences of the race; but its most enduring effects were visible in the great triune nationality evolved upon English soil. It quickened the sluggish wits of the Saxon; it tempered the rudeness and ferocity of the Dane, and became a shaping factor in the civilization of the world.

XX

The "Names" which follow, and the occasional "Notes" that accompany them, are intended to illustrate the theory of descent which has been advocated in this discussion. To find a large body of people in Kentucky derived from English sources and bearing Norman surnames is in itself a circumstance of peculiar interest and of almost conclusive weight. But to find noted in connection with an hereditary surname certain characteristics that are common to two races and apparently derived along certain historic lines from the same ethnical source, materially strengthens the argument in favor of the assumed origin of the later or remoter race; and if, therefore, we conclude that the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are derived from that old Norman strain, we ought to be able to indicate without difficulty characteristic and conspicuous points of resemblance between the original and the derivative stock. Taking in hand the exact and vivid characterization of the old Norman by the contemporary chronicler, Malaterra, we ask ourselves, "Are the Kentuckians also marked by the characteristics here described?" Are they persuasive orators, able lawyers, brilliant fighters, ready and practical thinkers; astute and successful negotiators? Have they scholarly tastes? Social gifts and accomplishments? A passion for travel, exploration, adventure, field sports, and fine horses? "I like him very much," said the English swell St. Aldegonde, speaking of Colonel Campian, the Southern colonel. "He knows all about horses and tobacco."[11]

[11] DON'T FORGET TO REST YOUR HORSES. The observant traveler in Norway notes at the foot of every steep hill a sign-post with the inscription--"Don't forget to rest your horses." Possibly this Scandinavian consideration for the horse runs with the blood. The Kentuckian, however, has learned to "rest his horses" before he has learned to read.

A little information of this kind ought to be found in our "Notes" by way of giving confirmation to the inference suggested by the "Names." There is something in the name, but not everything. We have a notable--a brilliant--example in the current history of a Kentuckian who is a Norman in almost everything except the name, and he belongs to a family that is characteristically Norman in many respects; and yet it has borne with great distinction for generations a fine old Saxon name. Not a few of our leading families are in the same category. The impartial agencies of evolution have given them their due proportion of Norman or Scandinavian blood, the name being a secondary consideration with the evolutionary Fates.

For Saxon or Norman, or--"whatever we"-- Celtæ, Saxones, or Norseman or Gaul, There's no better stuff for a family tree, Wherever the seed of the races may fall.

Note the broad and generous philosophy in these lines; and, some might add, the imaginative touch which almost gives the quatrain a poetic value. The Kentuckian, at least, has but little reason to criticise the stuff of which he is made, particularly since he stands easily _first among the modern races of men_. This is an estimate from an impartial source--a writer for the English press.[12] Is it not a fit conclusion to our ethnological tale?

[12] Mr. Bart Kennedy, London _Mail_.

XXI

There came at last a shadow over our memory of the bright Arcadian days. "The beautiful Scandinavian" was fatally stricken in her prime by an insidious malady which gradually sapped her strength but scarcely touched the saint-like beauty which was the glory and charm of her youth. The Great Traveler, who construed at a glance the ethnical significance of those embodied charms, has long ago passed to his eternal rest. In her children she seems to live again. Her sons--handsome young Scandinavians of the higher type--are winning success and distinction in the great industrial movements of the times; and her beautiful daughter, vividly reproducing the attractions of the mother, is a passionate lover of travel, and but recently has demonstrated the Scandinavian quality of her blood in the midst of a terrific nine days' storm that swept the seas near the coast of Japan.

With this parting glance at the impressive figures which appeared in the early pages of this paper, the "explanatory preface" comes to a close; and the reader--the patient reader--is at last introduced to a rare lexicon of Names--names which carry on their light wings the histories of States and men. Here the humblest scholar may read without effort, in almost continuous narrative, the marvelous story of three kindred stocks transmuted by the fires of internecine conflict into one invincible race, which after centuries of almost unbroken struggle in peace and in war may almost be said to have made the earth its own. What part it has played in the genesis of our own Commonwealth, each student of this "lexicon" must judge for himself, remembering that the decision of this question must rest upon a clear judicial faculty at last. Many "names" might be added, but here mere numbers do not count. "To the quick eye of genius"--says Max Müller--"one case is like a thousand"; and it may be that the scholarly enquirer will find in the brilliant Du Chaillu an illustration of this maxim of the great German scholar.

APPENDIX

ALPHABETICAL SERIES

OF

NORSE, NORMAN, AND ANGLO-NORMAN, OR NON-SAXON, SURNAMES.

Derived from

English Official Records

and from other Authentic Sources.

[The learned Canon of Carlisle assures us that not only has Normandy supplied us with many of our family names, but it enjoys the distinction of having been the first to establish an hereditary surname. Few stop to consider that a surname thus conceived is not merely an heraldic vanity or device to give social dignity and distinction to those who bear it, but is in reality a scientific advance in the working nomenclature of a race. If to "name" is but to classify, the addition or introduction of the surname simply adds completeness and precision to the racial classification. Here, then, we have in the following list a large body of surnames coming almost directly from the land in which surnames are said to have originated. If a name, therefore, be merely that by which a thing is known, it would seem that a people who have borne these names continuously (as is historically attested) for _eight hundred years_ have in all likelihood inherited the characteristic traits, as well as the distinctive surnames, of the antique Norman race. In Kentucky, the original tone and vigor of the Norman people are unimpaired. Changes there have been; changes there will be; but, whatever changes may occur, there remains this one unalterable characteristic of the Norman race, that "the more you change it, the more it is the same."]

_Abbett_, a form of Abbott.

_Abbey_, for l'Abbe.

_Abbott_, or Abbot, Abbas (1180, Normandy), Abbot, Abbet, Thirteenth Century.

_Abel_, Aubeale, Normandy, Twelfth Century; Sir John Abel of Kent, 1313.

_Aberdeen_, Aberdern, Abadam, from Abadon. Normandy, 1180.

_Achard_, 1238, Berks.

_Ackin_, from Dakin.

_Acland_, or de Vantort, from Vantort in Mayenne; the baronets Acland.