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1—

THE GAELIC TOPOGRAPHY
OF DAMNONIA. : '

NEIL MacNISH, B.L).. LL.D.

(Read before the Canadian Institute, December 6th, ISSH.)

THE

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

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,

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*'"

/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.

..?(

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

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.

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

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

•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^

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 - . •'

■' ■ 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.