EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE BRITISH ISLES BY CELTS. 33331) 
The topographical argument in favour of the peopling of the 
British Isles by the Gaels may be thus briefly expressed: Calais 
and Dover are Gaelic names which must have been given by Gaels 
who were in the habit of crossing at those points from the continent 
of Europe to the British Isles. Along the eastern coast of England 
there are indelible traces in the names of streams, and rivers, and 
hillocks of the presence of the Gaels. Owing to the powerful wave 
of invasion that successively rolled over England until it was sub- 
dued by William the Conqueror, Gaelic names, which doubtless 
were given to what is now the site of English towns and cities, were 
superseded by names of Roman origin, or by names which the later 
invaders chose to give. That such an opinion is correct may readily 
be seen by looking carefully at the map of England. That portion 
of Scotland which lies south of the Friths of Forth and Clyde was 
subjected from the time of the Roman invasions to inroads from 
other nations, and, as a natural consequence, the topographical 
names are not so commonly Gaelic as in the Highlands. A close 
similarity obtains between the topographical names of England, of 
the south of Scotland, and of the Highlands of the latter country ; 
whence the inference may be drawn that the Scottish Gaels are now 
the representatives of those Celts who were the first to enter Britain, 
and to travel northwards from the south of England to the north of 
Scotland. From an examination of the Topography of Ireland, the 
inference may fairly be drawn that the same Gaelic race must have 
peopled that country, and that the Scottish Highlanbers of to-day 
can extract satisfactory evidence from the topographical names of 
Treland to convince them, that their own remote ancestors and the 
Celts, who were the first to people Ireland, were one and the same 
people, and spoke the same language. 
The topographical argument which has been now examined, leads 
to the conclusion, that the first powerful stream of immigration into 
the British Isles was Gaelic ; that it entered the south of England 
and extended northwards and westwards ; that from Scotland, where 
its branches were widely scattered, it passed into Ireland, and left 
there numerous and indelible proofs that the same Celts who gave 
names to Calais and Dover, gave also names to Innistrahull and 
Durrow, to Ballachulish and Aberdonr; and that the same Celts 
who gave names to Fintry and Bannockburn in Scotland, gave 
names also to Bantry and Kinsale in Ireland. 
