The Colas c12.96

c12.96

² Much recent writing on this subject makes one reflect on the justice of the remark made in another context by Wingfield-Stratford: ‘This is a field that has hitherto been largely left to free lances, and it is perhaps a pity that a closer liaison has not been maintained between orthodox historians, and imaginative pioneers, the boldness of whose conclusion is apt to take one's breath away, and demands from the reader exercise of the critical faculty not always apparent in the author. The argument from words, of which the free lance is so glibly prolific, is one that ought to be used with the utmost caution, considering how easy it is, with a little ingenuity, to make out a philological case for the wildest absurdity.’ (*The History of British Civilisation*, i. p. 14).