6 Place Names. 



who ravaged our shores between the eighth and tenth centuries. 

 Firth and AVick are the common examples of Scandinavian ter- 

 minations, as also gill, beck, rig, garth, and wald. 



Lastly, we have the middle English or broad Scotch, a modifi- 

 cation of the Anglo Saxon predominating about the thirteenth 

 century, and it entered largely into the literature of early Scottish 

 history as veil as place names. Can it be said to have yet died 

 out] Examples we get are town, hows (O.E. holg), hain or hame, 

 knowe from knoc, pow from poll a stream, law (O.E. liloew), 

 monts from monadh, a mountain or moor, kirk for church, gate 

 for way or road, yett for gate, water was weter in O.E. ; and in 

 tracing broad Scots names we get to confusion of C4aelic and 

 Celtic names, e.gr., bannock, gore, glass, almond for awmon, and 

 so forth. 



We know how the cockney changes names in our own day, 

 and the Ordnance Survey has much to answer for in this respect. 

 We may accept it that by this time hills, rivers, cliffs, and all 

 distinctive features of the landscape had received Goedilic names ; 

 while habitations, towns, settlements, and fields were of a mixed 

 nature, or purely given by the new-comers. I am told that large 

 islands, especially those inhabited, have Scandinavian names, 

 while mere rocks and the smaller islands have retained the Celtic. 



Place names are of two kinds, simple and compound, and com- 

 pound are either qualitative or substantive. Examples of simple 

 names in the study before us are drum, lag, butt, rigg; compound 

 as Craigenputtock, Barbuie, Dunesslin, Auchencheyne, Brockle- 

 ston. Substantive place names are Kirkcudbright (St. Cuthbert), 

 Auchencheyne (St. Kenneth), Maxwelton (imported from the 

 name Maxwell), Maccus Villi. Out of 310 place names before 

 me I find 108 have Saxon terminations, like head, 39 of these 

 Ix'ing ton or tun ; 90 are distinctly Goedilic Celtic origin ; others 

 are broad Scots ; a few are imported proper names, and three are 

 Danish or Welsh. Some are distinctly Norman. 



It is noticeable that the further inland you proceed the names 

 are more and more Gaelic, while nearer the estuary the names 

 are mixed, fewer being Celtic ; that fact explains itself from 

 history. I have noticed that on the right bank of the Cairn the 

 names are nearly Anglo Saxon, with some excejitions ; while the 

 left bank, or watershed, is more markedly Celtic, at times Welsh 

 or broad Scots. The fact may have pointed to the disposition of 

 the peoples. I find the commonest prefixes arc Bar, Ben, Craig, 



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