74 NAMES OF PLACES 



itself, and Parliament, let it alter the government of 

 London as it will, is now powerless to change its name. 



Having got thus far, it may occur to some reader to 

 ask what possible use there can be in worrying over the 

 meanings of names. If they serve their purpose, why 

 waste time over analysing them? That is a question 

 nearly as disconcerting as the inquiry of the Little Dog 

 in ' Reineke Fuchs.' ' Of what are you thinking so hard ? ' 

 quoth he to the Owl. 



' I am speculating,' answered the Owl, ' whether the first 

 owl came out of an egg, or the first egg came out of an 

 owl.' 



' But that,' urged the Little Dog, ' can surely never be 

 known now.' 



'You fool!' retorted the Owl, 'that is precisely what 

 makes it such an interesting subject of meditation.' 



Some attempt must be made to supply a better answer 

 than the Owl's; perhaps no more satisfactory plea can 

 be put forward than the fascination which attaches to 

 glimpses into the dim past. In a densely trodden, steam- 

 racked, smoke-laden land like ours, it is refreshing to 

 pick up intelligence that here, where the slag -heaps 

 smoulder, the royal hart once couched; there, where 

 the stream, whence all life has been expelled by pollution, 

 winds its dreary, greasy course, the beaver once piled its 

 cunning dome ; or again, on yonder hillside, where comes 

 nothing fiercer now than a skulking fox, the bold wolf- 

 brood was reared of yore. One cannot help, at times, 

 speculating on the kind of life our forerunners led, the 

 landscape they viewed, the prizes they strove for. It stirs 

 some of us with more than idle curiosity to stand on the 

 roaring Brooinielaw of Glasgow the brae where the 



