Etymology of the Wokd Ruthwell. 105 



is a corruption of wald. The four foregoing derivations of the 

 name, I think, must be pronounced fallacious and futile. I believe 

 the real origin of the word will be found in one of the succeeding 

 conjectures, my preference being given to the last, which I 

 believe to be my own, founded on the labours of others. V. The 

 name Rnthvell first appears in a charter of date 1605. In the 

 17th and 18th centuries the name varied between Ruthwald, 

 Ruthwall, Ruthwell. I was informed by my friend, Mr A. L. 

 Davidson, last year that a native has, even at the present time, 

 his cart labelled Rxxthwald. It is pronounced locally, as Dr Ross 

 pointed out, Rivvell. Indeed, in the early charters of the Murray 

 family, to whom the Parish belonged, I believe, the name of the 

 Parish appears as Ryval, Rivel, or Revel, evidently the local pro- 

 nunciation of the name. As I am ignorant of Gaelic, I applied to 

 my friend, Dr H. C. Gillies of Hampstead, the author of a Gaelic 

 grammar, and one of the leading members of the Gaelic Society 

 of London, to see if he could throw any light upon the subject. 

 He wrote : — " I find that there is a spa some little distance from 

 the village, and this would prejudice in favour of a loell. Why 

 RathvfeW ? There is room for a Gaelic suspicion, if it is a chaly- 

 beate or iron well. This would make it the red, ruddi/ from i-uadh 

 (Gaelic) rhitdd (Welsh), pronounced ri/th or ritk. The Welsh form 

 would explain Ryval, its old name. But this old name throws 

 doubt upon the ivell idea, and rather tends towards the vald or 

 tvald form, which appears in Mouswald and Torthorwald in the 

 same dale. In fact the form Kwihivald appears to have been up 

 till lately in use. There is distinct proof of the Norsemen in 

 Annandale, and the older forms have a suspiciously Norse look 

 about them. In fact the Tinwald, Torthorwald, Mouswald almost 

 push us on to a Ruthwald. In that case the origin must be sought 

 in Norse." The fifth derivation then is Ruth-vieW, the RedweW. 

 I believe, however, that Chalmers and Dr Gillies are right, and 

 that the second syllable loell is only a corruption of loakl. VI. 

 I beg to submit to the judgment of the Society my own con- 

 clusion, which is that the words means the Redwold. The corrup- 

 tion of wald to well through trail (see Archibald's " Account " and 

 consider the form Ryval) is a very natural and easy one. The 

 other corruption of well into wald is unnatural and difficult, and 

 would be rejected by all philologists. The word may be derived 

 from the Norse, as Messrs Cairns and Gillies suggest, or from the 



