49 



It often happens that when the language of a people is 

 completely lost, or when no trace of it can be found in the 

 speech or writing of any particular district, the geographical 

 terms afford an independent and satisfactory evidence of cer- 

 tain historical facts. Thus, though the Sanskrit is a dead 

 language, many names in India and the neighbouring coun- 

 tries are expressed in it ; the existence of the Jews may be 

 seen in the Hebrew words and their modifications found in 

 and near Palestine ; and in like manner we see proofs of the 

 former existence of Greeks in Egypt, Moors in Spain, and 

 Latins in all the countries of the Roman empire. It is a fact 

 scarcely questioned by philologists, that the Celts, who are now 

 an inconsiderable people in the west of Europe, can be traced 

 in their migrations from their original settlements in Asia, by 

 the names of the places through which they passed.* But 

 even in the British islands, the commercial relations with the 

 Spaniard may be inferred from such names as Valertxyia in 

 the south west of Ireland ; the numerous Erench words in 

 Kent, Sussex, and Hants, tell not only of proximity, but of a 

 former frequent intercourse ; the Danish names in the Isle of 

 Man, Orkney, the Hebrides, and the north Highlands, refer 

 us to the time when the kings of the isles, the maormars, and 

 the Pictish reguli exercised a jurisdiction separate from that 

 of the Scots ;t the ancient British names in England proper 

 were current before the days of Hengist and Horsa; and 

 the numerous Celtic words in the north of Ireland, among a 

 people thoroughly Saxon, point to a date long anterior to the 

 " plantation of Ulster.'' 



Hence it appears that we have upon the surface of a well- 

 constructed map the elements of the history of the country ; 

 and that we only require a person sufficiently skilful, to read 

 the lesson which it is calculated to teach. Some facts of 



* The Gael and the Cvmri. 

 + Skene's Highlanders; Ritnon's Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots; 

 Pinlierton's Hintory "f Scotland. 



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