CHAPTER I Introduction I THE DATE AND ORIGIN OF THE CELTIC THE REVIVAL HE Celtic Revival with which we are concerned began about the year 1750. Like other great literary movements, it sprang from various remote sources which show a tendency in common; but as a movement in which any considerable number of people were interested it took shape in the middle of the eighteenth century. Prior to that time a few distinguished scholars had shown considerable interest in the life of the ancient Celts in their history, language, literature, customs, and in the ceremonies of their priests, the Druids. Individual historians, archæologists, and antiquaries had at odd times published weighty treatises on almost every conceivable feature of Celtic culture. Some of these, like John David Rhys's Grammar (1592), were still regarded as authorita 1 Cambrobrytannicae Cymraecaeve Linguae institutiones et rudimenta accuratè, & (quantum fieri potuit) succinctè & compendiosè conscripta |