Notes on C'itmmertrees. 83 



the physical peculiarities of the locality. Cum-ber-tre is a g'enuine 

 Cymric word, meaning " the dwelling in the short hollow " (Notes 

 and Queries, Oct., 1873). This view would seem to derive sup- 

 port from the physical peculiarities of the site of the ancient 

 village of Cummertrees, which stood a little further to the 

 south than the present village, on a "piece of level ground 

 at the end of a short valley, formed into an angle by two 

 streams " — the Hitchell burn and the Pow burn — " meeting 

 in front" (New Statistical Account). It is doubtful, however, 

 whether it can be accepted as correct. It appears at least 

 as probable that Cumbertre signifies the hamlet at the meet- 

 ing of the streams. Taking it for granted that tre is the root 

 of trees in Cummertrees, it is certain that tre or trefia. Cymric 

 means a dwelling-. The question is as to the signification of 

 Cumber or Cummer. Chalmers, followed by Picton, makes two 

 words of it, Cum-ber, both interpreting Cum as a short valley or 

 hollow. While the former gives to ber presumably the sense " at 

 the end of," the latter also presumably gives to it the sense of 

 " in," neither of them furnishing any special interpretation of it. 

 Taylor, an excellent authority, maintains that Cum does not mean 

 a valley, short or otherwise, but a trough or depression in the 

 hills, and that it is the root of such words as co!)ib, a measure of 

 com, and comb in honey-comb. The likelihood is that Cumber is 

 one word, and comes from the Cymric Cymmar, which signifies a 

 confluence of streams. This same Cymric word occurs in the 

 Cumber in Cumbernauld, which, according to the writer of the 

 New Statistical Account of that parish, is in Celtic Cumar-an-alt, 

 which it is said means the meeting of streams, the name, it is 

 added, being descriptive enough of the situation of the place, as 

 several streams unite their waters a little below the village of 

 Cumbernauld. Another form of Cymmar, namely, Hymyr, is 

 found in Humber, the river of which name is formed by the conflu- 

 ence of the Trent, the Ouse, and the Don. 



No mention of the parish occurs, so far as I know, before 

 about the middle of the 12th century. It is well known that 

 Robert de Brus, son of the first of the name who came to England 

 with William the Conqueror, held a very large part of Dumfries- 

 shire. Having formed an intimate acquaintanceship with David I., 

 while Earl of Cumberland, he received at or shortly after David's 

 accession to the throne a charter from that monarch conferring 



