186 



such as Ab,* Avon, Don, Isis, Ts-ter, Ystwith, Esk, Ouse, and others, are 

 of such frequent occurrence, because they all signify "water ;" — that the 

 word /itlaud is connected with one of these terms {is), and means water- 

 land ; — that the same element is found in the Celtic terms Inch, applied 

 to the islands off the coast of Scotland,! and Innis applied to those 

 adjacent to Ireland ; — that this same " is," pronounced as we pronounce 

 it, is found in the termination of the names Jers-ey, Guems-ey, Alder-ney, 

 Orkn-ey, Shepp-ey, Rams-ey, Bards-ey, and others ; — that the Celtic 

 " aber," so often found in the names of places situated where two rivers 

 meet together, as Aber-ystwith, Aber-gavenny, &c., is also found in the 

 Celtic term for York, Ebor-ac, and in Scotland under the form " Inver," 

 as in Inver-ness, Inver-ary, (on the river Aray,) and perhaps also in the 

 word " Humber." I And a vast amount of history may be interwoven 

 not merely with the names of countries, counties, and towns , but also 

 with the nomenclature of the more prominent features of the land. 

 The constant occurrence of the Norwegian terms " haugh," (for hill,) 

 "forth," "tarn," "fell," and "force," in the mountainous districts of 

 our own country, at once points to the fact that the Northmen settled 

 in those parts of our island, which most nearly corresponded in physical 

 features to their own native land. And thus too, those spots which are 

 called after some Danish conqueror, as Sweynside. (from Sweyn,) 

 Ormskirkand Ormsby, (from Gorm or Guthrum,) Grimsby and Grimston, 



* This "ab" is found in Puuj-a6, "the country of the five rivers," (pung being another 

 form of the Grk. Trifnre, Lat. quinque, Span, cinco. Germ, /un/, and Welsh pump,) Do-ab, 

 the country of the two rivers ; Daii-u6e, //yp-an-is, and ^fe-us, the old name of the Humber. 

 This "ab" appears to be identical with the Celtic Jpan,.(4won, or^if won, and the Gaelic Ap. Don 

 we find in J)an-uhe, Z>n-Ieper, Z>n-iester, Don-&n, Eridan-us, 'Rho-dan-as, and others. In 

 many of these terms both, and in some all three syllables are allied to terms meaning water, 

 as Dan-ube, [g-is, It-ter, Hypan-ig, Dn-ieg-ter, Rho^^an-us, Eri-dan-us, Wans-beck -water, &c. 



+ Inch, in this sense, is found in the names Inch Keith, Inch Kenneth, &c. ; and Innis 

 in /nr/ix-more, great island ; /nnfs-beg, little island ; £nnis.killen, church island; Fnig-wen, 

 white island, the old name of Britain ; and Z'inrf/s-farne. Both are doubtless'connected 

 with the Latin insula, though I observe that in the Terminational Dictionary (by Mr. 

 Daw.sou and Mr. Rushtoii.) already referred to, insula is derived from in and sul (another 

 form of "sed," sit, found in the Latin "sella," and our "sill,") as consul, from con and sul, 

 making it (" iu-sul-a") equivalent to a "settlement." But surely the "ula" is merely 

 a termination, and the root of the word is the same " is " that we find in i«leand j«land. The 

 insertion of the n iu insula, Inch, and Jim\s, has many analogies, such as the relation of 

 unda and uda, scala and sca/ido, palam and pando, mala and mando. The suppression of 

 the < in the pronunciation of island shows that the "is" is akin to "ey" and " ei," in 

 Guerns-ey and the German £»-land. We have this same "is" in the common term "whisky," 

 a corruption of the Erse " usky," an abbreviation of usque-baugh, in its turn a corruption of 

 uisge-beatha. i.e. aqua vitee, or eau de vie. Uisge is the Celtic term. Perhaps it is also 

 incorporated in Wig-he&ch, Weg-er, and Vig-tula. 



* The neighbourhood of a river or sea constantly gives its name to a place, as Lam-7/<er< 

 muir, Po-m^r-auia, (comp. Po-land,) Ar-mor-ica, Beau-mar-is, Rio Janeiro, &c. 



