io LANDSCAPE IN HISTORY 



an extension of the kind of defence that nature had 

 already provided for him. The ground on his left, 

 now so dry and so richly cultivated, was then covered 

 with impassable bogs and sheets of water ; and the huge 

 army of Edward was consequently compelled to crowd 

 its attack into the narrow space between these bogs and 

 the higher grounds on Bruce's right. 



(2) Another wide field of inquiry for information 

 touching changes in the aspect of the country is 

 supplied by the etymology of place-names. These 

 names, at least those of them that date from old times, 

 possess a peculiar value and interest as abiding records 

 of the people who gave them, and also, in many cases, 

 of the circumstances in which they were given. We 

 are at present concerned only with those that embody 

 some physical fact in the topography. Many of these 

 are as appropriate now as they were at first ; for the 

 features to which they were applied have remained 

 unaltered. Ben Dearg shows the same red slopes that 

 struck the earliest Celtic tribes who looked up to it 

 from the bays and glens of Skye. The big stones 

 on the summit of Penmaenmawr still stand as memorials 

 of the British people who erected them and gave their 

 name to the hill. 



But in innumerable instances the appositeness of the 

 designation has been lost. The name has, in fact, been 

 more permanent than the feature to which it is applied. 

 The one has survived in daily speech from generation 

 to generation : the other has wholly passed away. By 

 comparing the descriptive epithet in the name with 

 the present aspect of the locality, some indication, or 

 even, perhaps, some measure of the nature and amount 



