There is nothing to offend the Celts in this. They simply tried to do
what never can be done: that is, they tried to hold a sea-girt country
with nothing but an army, while their enemy had an army and a fleet.
They fought well enough in the past on many a stricken field to save
any race's honour; and none who know the glorious deeds of the really
Celtic Highland, Welsh, or Irish regiments can fail to admire them now.
But this book is about seamen and the sea, and how they have changed
the fate of landsmen and the land. So we must tell the plain truth
about the Anglo-Norman seamen without whom there could be no British
Empire and no United States. The English-speaking peoples owe a great
deal to the Celts; and there is Celtic blood in a good many who are of
mostly Nordic stock. But the British Empire and the American Republic
were founded and are led more by Anglo-Normans than even Anglo-Normans
know. For the Anglo-Normans include not only the English and their
descendants overseas but many who are called Scotch and Irish, because,
though of Anglo-Norman blood, they or their forefathers were born in
Scotland or Ireland.
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