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 THE GAELIC TOPOGRAPHY 
 OF DAMNONIA. : ' 
 
 BY 
 
 NEIL MacNISH, B.L).. LL.D. 
 
 u 
 
(Read before the Canadian Institute, December 6th, ISSH.) 
 
 THE 
 
 (f 
 
 GA.KLIO TOPOGRAPHY OF DAMNONIA. 
 
 BY NEIL MacNISH, B.D., LL.D. 
 
 I propose in this })aper to examine the Topography of that portion 
 of Enghmd which was at one time known as Dumnonia or Dam- 
 nonia. For the sake of convenience it may be maintained that 
 Damnonia embraced Devonshire, Cornwall, and the Scilly Isles. A 
 writer in the Encyclopoedia Britannica remarks that " Dumnonia or 
 Damnonia. the Latinized name of a kingdom which long remained 
 independent after the arrival and early conquests of the West 
 Saxons, seems to be identica,! with the Cymric Dyfnaint, which 
 survives in the present Devon. The Saxon settlers, as they ad- 
 vanced into the country, called themselves JDefenas, i. e., men of 
 Devon or Dyfnaint, thus adopting the British name." Into Dyfnaint, 
 Devon, the Welsh word dwfn, Gaelic domhain, seems to enter as a 
 component part. Professor Rhys states, that the remains of the lan- 
 guage of the Dumnonii in Devon and Cornwall leave no kind of 
 doubt that they were of the earlier Celts or Goidels, and not Bry- 
 thr-^s I am of opinion that satisfactory evidence can still be ex- 
 tracted from the names of rivers and bays and headlands in the 
 ancient kingdom of Damnonia, to show that Celts, whose language 
 was Gaelic, gave in the distant past inany of those topographical 
 appellations which, with various degrees of correctness, have come 
 down to our own time. It may be safely affirmed that the names 
 which were given in an early age to the streams and lochs and hills 
 and headlands of a country were intended to express some physical 
 peculiarity. In his introduction to the " Vindication of Irish His- 
 tory " (p. 6), Vallancey thus writes : " It is unreasonable to suppose 
 that the proper names of men, places, rivers, &c., were oiiginally 
 imposed in an arbitrary manner, without regard to properties, cir- 
 cumstances, or particular occurrences. We should rather think that 
 in the earliest period, and especially when the use of letters was 
 unknown, a name usually conveyed a brief history of the thing 
 
2 
 
 signified ; and thus recorded as it wore by a method of artificial 
 menioiy." Dr. Bannister, the author of a Glossary of Cornish 
 names, says " that Cornwall is a peculiar 'country. From its goo- 
 graphical position it may be called the first and last in England ; 
 and one and all good Cornishmen will maintain that it is also the 
 best. Time was when Devonshire was part of Cornwall, with 
 Exeter, it is thought, for its capital ; which city was till the tenth 
 century inhabited conjointly by Cornish and Saxons. The Cornish 
 were driven across the Tamar by Athelstane ; and it was declared 
 death for one to be found east of its banks." It was about 930 
 that Athelstane thus violently compelled the Cornish to retire to 
 the west of the Tamar. Devonshire, therefore, was much more 
 strongly subjected to Saxon influences than Cornwall ; and henco. 
 it may be expected, that the traces of Gaelic will be less distinctly 
 and commonly marked in the Topography of the former than of the 
 latter county. 
 
 The names of the rivers of Devonshire readily disclose their Gaelic 
 origin, e. g. : 
 
 Teign, teth, hot, and an, amhainn, river. The Tijne of Haddington 
 and Northumberland. 
 
 Dart, doirt, to rush, or pour out. 
 
 Plym, plum, to plunge. 
 
 The Mew and Gad unite to form the Plym. 
 
 Mew or Meavy. m^h, a plain; or meadhon, middle. 
 
 Cad, cath, battle ; or cas, rapid. 
 
 Tavy, Taw, tamh, quiet, a river. The Thames, Tay in Scotland, 
 and Taff, Tave, Taw in Wales, come from the same root. Tahh in 
 Irish and Scottish Gaelic signifies water or ocean. 
 
 Torridge, Tor, Tory : Into those names torr, a heap or round hill, 
 clearly enters. Torr is a purely Gaelic word. It forms one of the 
 expressive monosyllables which frequently occur in the poems of 
 Ossian. It is present in such words as Tormore, Torness, Torry^ 
 burn, Torryline, Tory Island. 
 
 Avon, amhainn, a river. 
 
 Erme, ear, east ; amhainn, a river. 
 
 Yealm, ealamh, qxnck. 
 
 Exe, uisge, water. 
 
 Gulm^,, cul, back ; magh, a plain. Cid occurs often in the Topo- 
 graphy of Scotland, e. g., Cullen, Culross, Culloden, 
 
8 
 
 Creedy, criadh, clay. 
 
 Otter, oitir, a ridge near the sea, Dunottcu: 
 
 Axe. uisge, water. ■? ; 
 
 East Lyn, West Lyn, linne, a pool. Linne is present in sucli 
 words as Dublin, Roslin, &c. • 
 
 Barle, barr, atop; liath, grey. 
 
 Oare, oc^/iar dark-grey, sallow. 
 
 Afole, inoyle, maol, bare. 
 
 Oke, oiche, uisge, water. 
 
 Yeo, Welsh aw, flowing, Gaelic, a water, resembles very strongly 
 Awe in Argyllshire. 
 
 Bray, Braighe : height or upper part. 
 
 The names which have now been adduced are Gaelic, and occur 
 frequently in the Topography of Ireland and Scotland, thereby en- 
 abling us to conclude that the same people who employed such words 
 as Teiyn, Avon, Tay, Awe, <fec., in connection with the streams and 
 rivers of Ireland and Scotland, made use of the same words in con- 
 nection with the streams and rivers of Devonshire. 
 
 Gum, valley or dingle ; Cornish, cum ; Welsh, coom, Coome, 
 Coomhe ; Irish, cumar or Comar, a confluence of waters, occurs 
 repeatedly in the Topography of Devonshire, e. g.: 
 
 Lannacombe, Ian, full. 
 
 Golcombe : caol, narrow. 
 
 Branscombe, bran, a mountain stream. 
 
 Dunscombe, dun, hxWock. 
 
 Wiscombe, wis, uak, ouse, water. 
 
 Salcombe, sal, the sea or salt water. 
 
 Orcombe, oir, border. 
 
 Purely Gaelic words are thus found in combination w"th cum, a 
 term which is found with little variety in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, 
 and Welsh and Cornish. 
 
 So unmistakable is the Gaelic complexion of Torr, and so com- 
 monly Ls it to be found in the Topography of Ireland and Scotland, 
 that were other evidences altogether wanting, the constant occurrence 
 of it in the names of places in and around Dartmoor and elsewhere 
 in Devonshire, might furnish a strong argument in favour of the con- 
 tention, that Celts who spoke Gaelic must have occupied that part of 
 England for some time at least during the early settlement of 
 Britain. Were it to be maintained that Dao't in Dartmoor is the 
 

 * 
 
 Gaelic word tart, thirst or drought, a striking correspondence would 
 be found between the very name and the sterile character of that 
 region. Moor, the latter syllable of Dartmoor, bears a close resem- 
 blance to 7ndr, the Gaelic adjective for great or extensive. Thus 
 interpreted, Dartmoor would signify the extensive drought. Nor can 
 there bo any difficulty in seeing how Dart, the principal river which 
 issues from Dartmoor, and to which I have already assigned the 
 derivation doirt, would bear the name of the region in which it 
 rises, in spite of the incongruity that may attach to applying to any 
 river of considerable magnitude a name that is indicative of droujiht 
 or scantiness of water. 
 
 Grockern Torr is the name of a hill in the centre of Dartmoor, 
 where the legislative business of the tin mines of Devonshire used 
 to be transacted. Grockern Torr, cnoc air an Torr, the hill on the 
 heap. The name is purely Gaelic, and the well-known woi-d cnoc 
 occurs in it. 
 
 In Torquay, Torcross, the word torr is present. Other names of 
 places in Devonshire are of Gaelic origin, e.g. : 
 
 Garnmere, cam, a h(?ap oi- pile of stones, Kenton, ceann, head ; 
 dun, a hillock. Hamoaze, camus, chainics, a iiarboui- ; Gulbonc, cut, 
 back; 6emw, a hill, ..,..■■ 
 
 Beer, hior, water. 
 
 Ness, an eas, cascade, ,1 
 
 Exhourne : uisge, water : burn, water. In siich words as Gvxl- 
 leigh, Leigh, Ghumleigh — , Hath, grey or hoary ai)pears. 
 
 The Topogi-aphy of Devon, in spite of all the political changes that 
 liave passed over that county, and in spite of the different races 
 that have inhabited it, preserves unmistakable reminiscences of 
 Gaelic-speaking Celts, who must have been its earliest inhabitants of 
 any permanence. 
 
 Isaac Taylor, in his « Words and Places," affirms that the word 
 Gornwall or Gornwales signifies the country of the Welsh, or strangers 
 of the horn. Gornwall may be regarded as a compound of corn, a 
 Cornish word signifying horn, and waller a stranger. The origin 
 of the term corn or horn may be discovered in the peculiar form of 
 Cornwall, running as it does like a horn into the sea. Gernoio is the 
 Cornish word for Cornwall, and Gernewec and KernrJ^ for Cornish, 
 e. (/., Metten da dha why : elo why clapier Kernm/c : good morning 
 to you, can you apeak Cornish'/ Max Miiller, who ha^ evidently 
 
 ^5' 
 
^r^ 
 
 bestowed great attention on the languagj and antiquities of Corn- 
 wall, thus writes in his '• Chips from a German Workshop " (Vol. 3, 
 pp. 242, 247) : " Tlie Cornish language is no doubt extinct, if by 
 extinct we mean that it is no longer spoken by the people. But in 
 the names of towns, castles, rivers, mountains, fields, manors and 
 families, Cornish lives on and probably will live on for many years to 
 come. More than four hundred years of Homan occupation, more 
 than six hundred years of Saxon and Danish sway, a Norman con- 
 quest, a Saxon reformation, and civil wars, have all passed over 
 the land, but like a tree that may bend before a storm but is not to 
 be rooted up ; the language of the Celts of Cornwall has lived on in 
 an unbroken continuity for at least two thousand years." Norris, 
 the editor of the ancient Cornish Drama, is of opinion that the 
 Cymric was sejjarated from the Gaelic before the division into Cor- 
 nish and Welsh was effected, and that Cornish is the representative 
 of a language once cui'rent all over South Britain at least. The 
 author of the article on " Celtic Literature " in the Encyclopcedia 
 Britwrniica writes that " among the British dialects, the most archaic, 
 i. e., the one which best represents the British branch, is Cornish, 
 which is the descendant of the speech of the unromanized Britons 
 of England." • ' '> ■ ■ 
 
 So very numerous are the Celtic words in the Topography of Corn- 
 wall, that, in his Glossary of Cornish names. Dr. Bannister asserts 
 that there are 20,000 Celtic and other names. Owing to the diflBi- 
 culty as well as the uncertainty which must of necessity obtain 
 in arriving at the true derivation of so many words, Bannister has 
 with commendable modesty adopted as his motto the expressive 
 language of Horace : — 
 
 " Si quid rectius istis 
 Candidus imperii : si uon his utere inecum. " 
 
 The names of the streams and rivers of Cornwall are to a largo 
 extent Gaelic, e. g. : — 
 
 Tamar, tahh, water; mor, large. 
 
 Camel, cam, crooked ; heyl, tuil, flood. 
 
 Alan, geal, white ; an, river, Gealan. There is a river of the same 
 name, Allan, in three counties in Scotland. 
 
 Lynher, linne, pool ; Mr sior, long. 
 
 Looe, ioch, or luath, swift. 
 
 ...i*'" 
 
e 
 
 /Vi/, /br7, gentle ; yh/, a circle. 
 Bvde, buulhe (?), yellow. 
 Inny, innis, an island ; or inne, a bowel. 
 Cober, cobhar, froth. 
 Ktnscy, cennnsa, mild, gentle. 
 Hayle, sdl, shail, salt water. 
 Ilone, amhainn, rivers. 
 
 It is quite evident that into the names which have been now 
 adduced purely Gaelic roots enter — roots which appear very often in 
 tlie Topography of Ireland and Scotland. The .slii^hi examination 
 that I have made of the names of the rivers of Damnonia will 
 tend to exemplify the correctness of the remarks which Lhuyd 
 makes in the Welsh preface to his Archceologia Britannica : " Thei-e 
 is no name anciently more common on rivers than Uysk, which the 
 Romans wrote Ism and Osca, and yet, as I have elsewhere observed, 
 retained in English in the several names of Ask, Esk, Usk, and Ex, 
 Axe, Ox, «fec. Now, although there be a considerable river of that 
 name in Wales and another in Devon, yet the signification of the 
 word is not understood either in our language or in Cornish ; neither 
 is it less vain to look for it in the British of Wales, Comwail, or 
 Armoric Britain than it would be to search for Avon, which is a 
 name of some of the rivers of England, in English. The significa- 
 tion of the word in Guydeleg {i. e., Gaelic) is water. * * * So 
 do the words uisge, Loch, Ban, Brum, &,c., make it manifest that the 
 Guydhelod (i. e., the Gaels) formerly fixed their abode in those 
 places." 
 
 Oaru, which is eminently a Gaelic word, occurs often in the 
 Topography of Cornwall. Oarn is one of the most expressive mono- 
 syllables that are to be found in the pooins of Ossiaii. As Cairn it 
 is commonly used in the English language. Co mu-h ciureail/i dach 'n 
 II '•luirn. is ii *!;n'lic pruNf^rli of very ;i.ni'i(}jit date. 
 Ill 1 ^^nl^^ .ill sni:li wor'<ls exist as : 
 Co I'll hfi'd , hriiiJItn . I>(>;intitiil. 
 ' '(ii'ii lifiil,\ I'fiiif. siiihH. 
 i 'ant.-c/iKj, '•/.(.■//. r/i)ir/n\ !i sloiie. 
 Cunt J^ndoii-i/r. pen rcau.n licjul. dobhor. waU'x. 
 Carn voel, mhaol, maol, bare. 
 Cam leskez, leua, loisgidh, burning. 
 Carnglos, glas, grej. 
 
 V 
 
..?( 
 
 w 
 
 Corn meal, mil, vieala, honey. 
 
 Gam Tork, tore, a boar. 
 
 Gam Enys, Innis, an island. 
 
 Gnoc is found in such words as : 
 
 Grocadon, cnoc, dun, a hillock. 
 
 Grockard, cnoc ard, high. 
 
 Garraig. which, along with cam and cnoc and dun, may fairly 
 claim to be regarded as a representative Gaelic word, and which con- 
 stantly occurs in the Toi)ography of Scotland and Ireland, is present 
 in such names as these : 
 
 Garrick gloose, carraig glas, grey. 
 
 Oarradon, dun, a hillock. 
 
 Garegroyne, ron, a seal. 
 
 Gardew, dubh, black. 
 
 Gareg Tol, toll, a hole. 
 
 Gardrew, ddre, a thicket ; Druidh, a Druid. 
 
 Bun, a hillock or fortress ; Cornish, Din, occur in such words as : 
 
 Dunbar, barr, a top. 
 
 Dunsley, s^iaft/t, a mountain. 
 
 Dunster, tir, land. - 
 
 Dunmear, rnear, joyful ; mor, large. 
 
 Tintagel, Tin, dun, castle ; diogel (Cornish}, secure. The first 
 syllable is very similar to dun or din. 
 
 Tiadhan is a Gaelic woi-d that signifies a little hill ; dioghailt in 
 
 Gaelic signifies revenge. Gaelic 
 
 roots 
 
 are thus discernible in 
 
 Tintagel, which is supposed to have been the birth-place and principal 
 residence of tha famous Arthur. Borlase says regarding it '' that it . 
 was a product of the rudest times before the Cornish Bx'itons had 
 learned from the Romans anything of the art of war." So doleful 
 are tlie changes which time has effected in the palace of Arthur, that 
 M) K)i)'jff',f liko thf rt'sid<Mioe of € 
 
 1,S Ih 
 
 "that Arthur wh.- , 
 Sliot tliroiijih t,ht' lists at (.'ainlet. iunl t',!i;vr}{c<l 
 
 Ho.t'oie tlic eyes ut' !a<li<'s atul nl Kiiij^s. 
 The oUl order chHiigeth, yieldiuj^ |thi<;e to new." 
 
 It appears that there is an old couplet in Carew'.s Survey 
 
 " By Tre, Pol and Pen, 
 
 You shall know the Cornish men." 
 
.^<v 
 
 8 
 
 The well-known Cornish rhyme is merely an expansion of that 
 
 couplet: 
 
 " And shall Trelawney die ? 
 Here's twenty thousand Cornish boyp 
 
 Will know the reason why Y 
 And shall they scorn y^'f, Poi and Pen, 
 
 And shall I'relawney die ? 
 Here's twenty thousand Cornish men 
 
 Will know the reason why." 
 
 Camden has the couplet : 
 
 " 6y Tre, Bos, Pol, Lan, Caer, and Pen, 
 You may know the most Comishmen.'' 
 
 ;ccording to him those A^ords mean respectively a tovm, a heath, a 
 'ol, a churchy a castle, or city, and a. foreland or promontory. 
 Tre, trev, a home or dwelling place; Irish treahh, Gaelic treubh, 
 a tribe or family. The word in question does not enter to any 
 extent at least into the Topography of Scotland and Ireland ; though 
 it enters very largely *nto the Topography cf Cornwall, e. g. : 
 
 Trebean, heagan, a small number. 
 
 Trcdhu, dubh, black. 
 
 Tredryne, droigheann, thorn. 
 
 Treglome, lorn, bare. 
 
 Trekavwr, gohhar, a goat. 
 
 Tre^ase, glas, grey. 
 
 Tremeal, mil, meala, honey. 
 
 Eos (Cornish, a heath, mountain, Gaelic, a promontory), occurs in 
 Scotland in such names as Rosdu, Roseneath, Roslin, Ross Kinross ; 
 and in Ireland in such names as Ross, Rosscor, Rossmore. It enters 
 into such Cornish words as 
 
 Roscarnon, ram, a heap or mound. . > i 
 
 Roshi^ar, ciar, dusky. 
 
 Roskearn, feama, fhearna, an alder tree. 
 
 Roster, tir, land. 
 
 Rosevean, bhan, ban, white ; beagan, a little. 
 
 Pol, a pool, mud, occurs in Foolvash in the Isle of Man , and such 
 Irish names as Poolboy, Ballinfoyle, Pollrany ; and in such Scottish 
 names as Polmont, PoUdhu, Poltarff. 
 
 The presencs of Pol can readily be observed in such Cornish 
 words as these : 
 
 Polbrock, broc, a badger. 
 
 S'v^'"" 
 
$ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Polcairn, earn, a, hesLT^. 
 
 Foldew, dubh, h]acV. • a'^o . : 
 
 Poldower, dobhair, water. 
 
 Poldrissick, dreasach, thorny. - 
 
 Poihern, iarunn, iron. 
 
 Polkillick, coilleach, a. rooster. 
 
 PoUick, leac, a flat-stone. 
 
 Pollyne, linne, a pool. 
 
 Polmellin, muileann, a miH. 
 
 Lan. In his Cornish Dictionary, Williams remarks regarding 
 Lan *' that its primary meaning was a [)iece of ground enclosed for 
 any purpose — an area to deposit anything in — a house, a yard, a 
 churchyard." In dealing with the Topography of Wales in a pre- 
 vious paper, I endeavoured to prove on the authority of Dr. J oyce, 
 that lan or lann is a Gaelic word, and that it does not belong exclu- 
 sively to the Cymry. Lan is often met in the topographical names 
 of Cornwall, e. ^. : . 
 
 Lanarth, ard, high. 
 
 Lanaton, dun, a hillock. 
 
 Lancarf, garbh, rough. 
 
 Landare, darach, oak; or doire, a thicket. 
 
 Landenner, dun, a hillock ; Mr sior, long. 
 
 Landew^ dubh, black. 
 
 Gaer, Gaelic Cathair, a city or fortified place, which is of fre- 
 quent occurrence in the Topography of Ireland and Scotland, and to 
 which a very remoLo origin must be assigned, aj)pears in such Cor- 
 nish niimes as : — 
 
 Caer Laddon, leathan, broad. 
 
 Carbean, ban, white ; or beaijan, a little. 
 
 Carcarick, carraig, a rock. 
 
 Cardew, dubh, black. 
 
 Carhallack, s/ialach, salach, filthy. 
 
 Garhart, ard, high. 
 
 Pen, ceann, a head, than which no root is more largely present in 
 the Topograj)hy of Ireland and Scotland, enters into very many Cor- 
 nish names, e. g. : — 
 
 Pelynt, linne, a pool. 
 
 Penavcrra, bharr, barr, top 3 or muir, mara, the sea. 
 
 Pencair, caer, cathair, a cicy. 
 
m 
 
 Pencarra, carraig, a rock. : 
 
 Pendennis, dinas (C), dun. 
 
 Pendew, dubh, black. 
 
 Pendour, dobhar, water. 
 
 Pendrathen, traigh, a shore. 
 
 Pendrean, droighionn, thorn. 
 
 Pendalow, da, two, loch. . 
 
 PenePick, seileach, willow. 
 
 Peninrds, innis, an island. 
 
 Pemiard, ard, high. 
 
 Penrose, ros, a headland. 
 
 Penryn, rhyn, roinn, a point. 
 
 Pentire, tir, land ; the Kintyre of Argyllshire. 
 
 Pentell, toll, a hole. 
 
 It is evident that those distinctive roots or words by which, accord- 
 ing to Camden, Cornishmen are to be recognized, are, with the 
 exception of Tre, of frequent occurrence in the Topography of Ireland 
 and Scotland, and cannot on that account be restricted to the Cymry, 
 but must be regarded as Gaelic in themselves, and therefore as enter- 
 ing into the Topography of these countries and islands where the 
 Gaels had permanent homes. The citations which have been made 
 from the Topography of Cornwall, in connection with the words or 
 roots in question, show that purely Gaelic nouns and adjectives com- 
 bine with those roots to form Cornish names. 
 
 The Gaelic word tigh, a house, enters in the form chy into the 
 Topography of Coi*nwalI, e.g. : — 
 
 Chytane, tigh an teine, the house of fire. 
 
 Chelean, tigh an leana, the house of the meadow. 
 
 Chenton, tigh an duin, the house of the hillock. 
 
 Chycarne, tigh a' chuirn, the house of the cairn. 
 
 i'lirjiin"'. I'lgJi 'III rot!', tlie house of Uio fon^Uuul. 
 
 ('oHIp. tin- «i;ieli«' U'TUi for mood, wliich enters iu(o siiolt Seottisli 
 (i;uiies as KUI'>ecra.id-V'. KilUeiiii>v>'.. is dLscorniblo iu smih ( 'oini.sh 
 words as :-- 
 
 KMiard, ntilh ard. high. 
 
 KiJJignovli'. <'i>illf cmtr, a liill. 
 
 Killigre'W, coille gai hh, rough. 
 
 Killivor, coille, mho^, mor, large. 
 
 ^(f 
 
u 
 
 Lios, a garden or entrcnchmeut, which forms the first syllable of 
 Lismore in Scotland and Lisdoo, Lismoyle, LismuUin, in Ireland, ap- 
 pear in the Cornish names : 
 
 Liskeard, lios gu h-ard. 
 
 Lizard, the Cornish Chorscnesus, lios, ard, high. 
 
 Toll, a hole, belongs to the category of expressive Gaelic mono- 
 syllables, and is found in such Cornish words as : 
 
 Tolcairn, toll cairn. 
 
 Toldower, dohhar, yf&ter. 
 
 Tolver, mor*, large. 
 
 7'oloerne, bhuim, Irarn. y/iiiav. • 
 
 Forth, port, a harbour, is a Gaelic word of indisptitabl»i antiquity, 
 and is present in numerous C*ornish names, e. <j. : 
 
 Forth ennis, innis, an island. 
 
 Forth glas, glas, grey. 
 
 Forth lea, Hath, hoary. 
 
 Forth loe, loch, a loch. 
 
 Fortugal, port nan Gaidheal, the harbour of the Gaels, continues 
 to declare that the Gaels could not have been strangers in the far-off 
 ages in the south-west of Europe. 
 
 Fort na curaich, in the island of lona, enables the traveller to 
 determine the exact locality where St. Columba first landed from the 
 coracle or wicker-boat covered with hides, that conveyed him from 
 Ireland. 
 
 The citations which have been adduced from the Topography of 
 Cornwp.ll furnish satisfactory evidence, that the substratum of that 
 Topography is Gaelic ; and that the conclusion may in all fairnes"" 
 be drawn that Celts, whose language was Gaelic, had their home in 
 that portion of IGngland before the CyLU'y had a distinctive exist- 
 ence in Britain, and long before tiie days of Arthur and the Knights 
 uf till' Tioiiud Tiible. 
 
 hi lii.s I .coturcs on Tin- SrleiK't: ml' Li' i)ii>"i''.f'- (1st Sfiit's. I;eoture 
 II.). .Max Miillcr rciuaiks •• that, it- is not in rlic pitwrr itt" man 
 «'.itlicr to |himIu('(' n» |ii(nfiit a coulinudu.s cliaii^f in luuguajie. * 
 " Language cunxii'i. be i-batigcd or iiuaildiMl by iIk- tasie, c1k> 
 fatuty or the geuius ot' man, ' * Languagi" exists in uian, 
 
 and it lives ii^ being spoken. "' * * A language as long as it 
 is spoken by anybody lives and has its substantive existence." Cor- 
 nish is no longer spoken. In 1860 Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, 
 
in company with the Vicar of tii ; Parish of St. Paul, Cornwall, 
 erected a monument to the memory of Dorothy Pentreath, who died 
 in 1778, and who is said to have been the last person thit could 
 converse in Cornish. In the preface to his Glossary of Cornish 
 names, Dr. Bannister remarks, on the authority of Polwheie. that 
 Williard Bodeuner, who died about the year 1794 at a very advanced 
 age, could " converse with old Dolly," and " talked with her for 
 hours together in Cornish." Whether Dolly Pentreath was the last 
 person who spoke Cornish or not, it is admitted that about the close 
 of the last cantuiy, Cornish ceasei to be a spoken language. 
 
 It is beside the purpose of this paper to examine the question, as 
 to what place or places may have been included under the designa- 
 tion, Caasiterides. The author of an article on Cornwall in the 
 Encydop<wlia Btitannica affirms " that there can be no doubt that 
 Cornwall and Devonshire are referred to under the general name of 
 the Gasslterides or the Tin Islands." In adverting to the SciUy Isles 
 in his Celtic Britain (p. 44-47), Rhys states that "they liave been 
 sometimes erroneously identified with the Cassiterides of ancient 
 authors. * * * There is not a scrap of evidence, linguistic or 
 other, of the presence of Phoenicians in Britain at any time." 
 Warner, in his Tour Through Cornwall, which was published in 
 1809, contends (p. 199) "that it is a fact irrefragably established 
 that the Phoenician colonists of Gades trafficked to the south-western 
 coast of Cornwall from high antiquity." Betham, in his Gael and 
 Cymhri (p. 64), asserts "that the Phoenicians were called so, because 
 they were a nation of sailors or mariners, as the word Pheni':e inti- 
 mates — -felne, a ploughman, and oice, water — a plougher of the sea." 
 A wide divergence of opinion thus pievails as to the relation of the 
 Phoenicians to the south-wtst of England in the far oflf centui'ies- 
 Betham contends that the word Scillies or Scelegs is derived from 
 seal, noisy, and uag, rocks ; and that, accordingly, the signification is 
 sacred sea cliffs. He further states that " Scijlla or Scylleum, the 
 names of promontories in Greece and Italy, and the British and 
 Irish seas ; the ScillUs off Cape Belerium in Cornwall, and the 
 Sceliijii off Cape Bolus in Kerry, stand in the same track of Phoeni- 
 cian navigation with Cape Belerium near Corunna in Spain," 
 Scylla is deiived by Greek writers from axuXku), to skin, to mangle. 
 Scilly in Cornish means to cut off. Hence it hau been J -eld that the 
 Scilly Isles received that appellation because they ** ar ccut off from 
 
 ' 
 
13 
 
 •I I 
 
 the insular Continent." Joyce, in his Irish Names of Places (vol. 1, 
 p. 420), states that Sceilig (skellig), according to O'Reilly, means a 
 rock. The form Scillic occurs in Cormac's Glossary in the sense of 
 s])!inter of stone, and O'Donovan, in the Four Masters, translates 
 Sceillic se<a-rock." I am disposed to believe that the Gaelic word 
 ftgaoil, to spread or scatter, enters into Scilly, and that the Scilly 
 Isles were so designated in consequence of their scattered aiipearance. 
 It is true that Scilly is likewise regarded as equivalent to Sulley, 
 and that thus construed the term means flat rocks of the sun (lehau 
 sul). 
 
 Gaelic I'oots appear in the Topography of the Scilly Isles, e. g. : — 
 
 Bri/her, bre braigh, brae ; hir shior, long. 
 
 Tean, (iadhan, a little hill. 
 
 Pool, poll, a hole, mud. 
 
 (Jam Morval, cakn, a heap ; mar, large ; baile, town. 
 
 Peninnis Head, ceann, head ; innis, island. 
 
 Carraigstarne, carraig, a rock ; stairn, noise. 
 
 Cariilea, car7i,\\et\.^ ; liath, hoary. 
 
 Tolmen Point, toll, a hole. : ^^! 
 
 Porth Minick, port, a harbour ; mannch, monk. 
 
 Port Hellick (the bay in which the body of Sir Gloudesley Shovel 
 was washed ashore) is derived from port, a harbour, and sheilich, 
 seileach, a willow tree. ;' ^ 
 
 Dmmrock, druim, B. ridge. ■:'% 
 
 Sufficient evidence has, I trust, been adduced to prove, that the 
 Topograi)hy of Damnonia is fundamentally Gaelic; and that before 
 the arrival or the distinctive existence of the Cymry, Celts who 
 spoke Gaelic inhabited the south-west of England in such numbers 
 and for such a length of time, as to give to the streams and hills and 
 headlands those names which liave come down to our own day, and 
 whicli still reveal their own Gaelic lineage. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to explain the Etymology of the 
 word Britain. Betham is of the opinion that the Phoenicians gave 
 the name Briteen [brith, painted, and daoine, men) to the people 
 whonj they found in Britain ; and that the word Britain is com- 
 pounded of brit, painted, and tana, country, the meaning thus being 
 the country of the painted people. It has also been maintained that 
 Britain derives its name from Prydain, the first legendary King of 
 Britain, after whom the island was called Ynys. Prydain, The Island^ 
 
u 
 
 of Prydain. Before tLe Christian era Albin, or Albion, was an 
 appellation by whicii the countries now known as EnglancJ and Scot- 
 land were designated. Albin, or Albion, is now restricted to Scot- 
 land, and is the term which the Scottish Gaels apply to that country. 
 Albin is in all likelihood compounded of alb, alp, a mountain, and 
 of fhonn, fonn, a country, the import of the word thus being the 
 country of hills or mountains. The conjecture has been advanced 
 that the name Britain is composed of braigh, a top, and tonn, a 
 wave, braitoin ; and that that appellation was given to Britain in 
 consequence of its lofty coast line as seen from the opposite shores of 
 Gaul. Breac, variegated, and innis, an island, Breacinnis, is another 
 derivation which has been assigned for the word in question. It is 
 almost needless to remai'k, that although such interpretations may be 
 ingenious, very much that is fanciful enters into them. An inter- 
 pretation of a more plausible and accurate kind has recently been 
 given by Prof Rhys, vvho maintains that " the Greeks of Marseilles 
 obtriiued the word Britanni from the natives of the south-west of 
 England, who brought their tin to market, and in whose country the 
 only Celtic speech in use was as yet Goidelic." He discovers in the 
 word Britain, Bretnais, brat, brattan, the Gaelic term for a covering 
 or a cloak, — an argument in support of the theory, that the Celts 
 assumed the name which the Romans afterward wrote Britanni, to 
 distinguish themselves as a clothed or cloth-clad people (breid, a piece 
 of cloth) from the naked races who preceded them in the occupation 
 of the British Isles. Though, amid so many explanations of the 
 origin and Etymology of the word Britain, it appears to be impos- 
 sible to arrive at a solution that can be regarded as in all respects 
 satisfactory, it may at least be conceded that the term in question is 
 rather Cymric than Gaelic. Breathnach is the name which is applied 
 in Irish Gaelic to a Welshman. Dumbarton, which was once the 
 capital of a Kingdom of Britons in the valley of the Clyde, is com- 
 pounded of Dun, a fort or hillock, and Breatunn, i.e., the fort of 
 Britain, and, as we may fairly argue, of the Britons—if those to 
 whose capital the Scottish Gaels gave the name Dun-Breatuinn — , the 
 name by which Dumbarton is known to the Scottish Gaels of our 
 own day. Such words as Frangach, a Frenchman ; Sasunnach, an 
 Englishman, a Saxon ; and Breatunnach, a Briton, are merely adap- 
 tations to the Gaelic language of France, Saxon, Briton. The Scot 
 tish Gael is wont to characterize the inhabitants of Scotland as 
 
 
 
 V, 
 
 
 :!V - . •' 
 
 
 
 "t 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 ■' ■ 1 
 
 
, 
 
 : 15 
 
 Albannaich. Is Albcmnach mise, I am a Scotchman. The word in 
 Scottish Gaelic for a British subject or for the British is Breatunnach, 
 na Breatunnaich. The name Galbraith is in Gaelic Mac a' Bhrea- 
 tunnaich, the son cf the Briton, and, as we may infer, the son of one 
 who belonged to a different people from the Gaels among whom he 
 may have resided, and whose name is perpetuated in the common 
 surname Galbraith. 
 
 Whether the exact Etymology of Britain can ever be ascertained 
 or not, or whether it may have more than one derivation, the usages 
 of the Gaelic language go to show that it is Cymric and 'not Gaelic j 
 and that, although it passes as current coin in the words Breatunn 
 and Breatunnach, such words found their way into Gaelic trom 
 another source ; and even when they are commonly employed, they 
 carry with them reminiscences of an origin that is not purely Gaelic, 
 but is to be construed as indicating that the Gaels of a far-off time 
 adopted such words to describe the membera of a race with whom 
 they came frequently in contact, and who, as at Dumbarton, had 
 their home for a time in the immediate neighbourhood, if not in the 
 midst, of the Scottish Gaels.