Snl,—Your correspondent "W." in last week's Spectator asks the meaning
of the statement that "Cumberland shepherds still count their sheep in Welsh." It is, I believe, a fairly well-known fact that the shepherds of not only parts of Cumberland, but also of Westmorland and North-Western Yorkshire (Swaledale, &c.), use numerals for scoring or counting their sheep which are undoubtedly Celtic. These numerals are the last remnants of the Celtic speech once spoken in these districts, and perhaps spoken there as lately as the period of the Reformation. They are a reminder of the old Celtic kingdom of Cumbria and Strathclyde. They have often been discussed in print. Perhaps the most accessible collection of their various forms—for they vary in different dales—is to be found in the "Transactions" of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society, Vol. III.
(1876-77), pp. 380-97.-1 am, Sir, &c., H.
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