Happily our brethren in the States entertained uo such pre- 

 judices, when called upon to supply thousands of new names, 

 to their new territory. Some of them are strange enough but 

 very expressive ; peculiar but not unsuitable. For example, 

 Big-Flats f Blue-Orass, Bloodi/'Bun^ Bone-Lick, New-Lebanon- 

 Shaker- Establishment, Social-Circle, Ten-Mile- Stand, Potatoe- 

 River, Knock-me-do7vn, Sleepy -Hollow, &c. The following 

 modest name is generally abridged by our neighbours of the 

 Principality. It is a curious example of a descriptive term ; 

 and represents a parish in Anglesea, near the extremity of the 

 Britannia bridge. It deserves and requires a separate line. 



Llan-vair-pwll-gwyn-gyll-goger-bwll-dysilio-gogo, 

 (the church of St. Mary, at the pool of the white hazel tree, 

 near the gulf of St. Dysilio, the son of Gogo). 



III. Pre-existing Names. — The changes of situation 

 which became necessary as people multiplied, led to a new use 

 of old terms. Men altered the place of their abode, but they 

 retained their associations and their partialities; and they 

 gladly cherished a pleasing recollection by imparting a familiar 

 name to their new residence. They did not think of the con- 

 fusion that they would thereby create, or of the inconvenience 

 that they would occasion to subsequent geographers. When 

 the adventurers of the tribe of Dan, for example, set forward 

 to seek for new habitations, and succeeded in dispossessing a 

 people near the streams of the Jordan, they were not satisfied 

 with the original name Laish, but changed it to Ban, " the 

 name of their father."* Again, when the people of Messene 

 in the Pelo})onnesus, under Aristomenes, were driven out by 

 the Spartans, some of them migrated to Sicily, and gave name 

 to the modern town and straits of Messina.f In like manner, 

 there was a modem as well as an ancient IVoy ; a new Car- 

 thage in Spain, as well as the old one in Africa; a Qrmda 

 and a Magna Grrcecia ; &c. 



* Judges xviii. 29. + This at least is. the jKipiilar Htroiint. 



