15 FEBRUARY 1902, Page 16

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:] the Spectator of February

1st is a very interesting

paper on Pembrokeshire, and special attention is drawn to a part of that county, supposed to have been colonised by

Flemings, where English only is spoken. your contributor aware that in fifteen out of the sixteen parishes in Gower, a district west of Swansea, English only is spoken, and that the same language is used in one half of the one remaining parish, while in the other half, called by the Gower folk "the Welsheiy," the Welsh language is in vogue ? Many years ago, when the British Association met at Swansea, Dr. Latham, a great ethnologist of that day, was anxious to procure a list of the colloquialisms used in Gower. Several of these were accordingly collected by a clergyman living in the district, and they bore evident traces of Flemish origin,—e.g., a little boy and girl playing together were said to be " cocketting " (coquetting). I am also inclined to doubt whether Pembrokeshire contains any prehistoric relics more interesting than the caves, full of antediluvian remains, which Dean Buckland discovered in Gower.—I am, Sir, &c.,