44 Transactions. 



so also in the prevailing patronymics : such cognomens as Beattie, 

 Bell, Carruthers, Carlyle, Graham, Halliday, Irving, Johnstone, 

 Jardine, Kellock, Scott, Telford, are common on tlie Western 

 Border ; while in Galloway M'Culloch, M'Oreadie, M'Dowall, 

 M'llwain, M'Meekan, M'Lelland, M'Quisten, are more frequently 

 to be found. It is interesting, in daily intercourse with those 

 around us, to study in persons beaiing Anglo-Saxon or Celtic 

 names the characteristics of race. 



When we come to consider the language of the district, a most 

 attractive field of study is revealed. Were a collection made of 

 words and phrases peculiar to, but fairly recognised as belonging 

 to the popular speech of Dumfriesshire, and compared with a 

 similar list from Galloway, it would be seen that a considerable 

 and marked difference obtains. In M'Taggart's Gallovidian 

 Encyclopedia many words and phrases will be found which an 

 Annandale man woiild think strange ; and Wigtownshire men, 

 attending Lockerbie Lamb Fair to purchase stock, remark upon 

 the uncommon expressions of the shepherds who there have charge 

 of the hirsels. The history of the various localities indeed may be 

 traced in the words used to denominate their features or the 

 pi'ominent natural objects in the landscapes. These have in many 

 cases remained unchanged since the earliest times. Tlie word 

 LTrr, for instance, the name of the dividing stream between two 

 of the nations of Glasgow University, is said to be a fragment of 

 the language of the most ancient inhabitants of Galloway. It 

 lies, indeed, in our modern language like a lioulder on the surface 

 of the ground, with its antiquity recognised, but its history con- 

 cealed in the past. Urr means " water." So does Esk, Ji, and 

 /)ee— the names of other local rivers — but why is there such a 

 distinction % Combined with other words, and in use in names of 

 places, we find such Celtic root-words as Gleann, " a glen," in 

 Glenzier in Canonbie, Glense in Tinwald, Glenskelly in Tynron, 

 Glenlee in Kells, Glenkitten in New Luce, and Glengyre in 

 Kirkcolm : the prefix, you will observe, ranges from the eastern 

 confines of Dumfries to the western side of Wigtownshire. Ard, 

 meaning "high," and used to indicate "a height," is, fotuid in the 

 Ard wells of Galloway. Bun or don, "a hill-fort," is common; 

 jjol, " a pool or burn," is found in that form in Poltanton, 

 Wio'townshire, and used generally in Dumfriesshire in the softened 

 form " pow ; " Corse, " a bog or marsh ; " Car or caer, " a fort ; " 

 Knock, " a hUl ; " Bal and Bar, " a dwelling-place " C?), &c. It 



