12 LANDSCAPE IN HISTORY 



Swiftness and sluggishness of flow have furnished 

 discriminating epithets for streams. Moors, forests, 

 woodlands, copses, groups of trees, solitary bushes, 

 lakes, mosses, cliffs, gullies, even single boulders, have 

 received names which record features in the landscape 

 that struck the imagination of the old Celt, and which 

 are still in use, even when the features that suggested 

 them have long vanished out of sight. From this 

 source glimpses may be had of the character of the 

 vegetation and of the wild animals in prehistoric times. 

 Thus we learn that the desolate, treeless tract of Ross- 

 shire known as the Dirriemore (great wood) must once 

 have been clothed with forest. How numerous wild 

 boars were in the country is shown by the frequent 

 occurrence of the name of the animal (Tore, turk) in 

 local topography. The former haunts of the wolf 

 are indicated by its Gaelic appellation (madah, maddie) 

 in Highland place-names. Many descriptive names 

 which have never found a place on any map are well 

 known to the Welsh and Gaelic-speaking inhabitants, 

 who in the more mountainous and trackless regions 

 have often a wonderful acquaintance with the details 

 of the topography. 



Here, then, in our Celtic place-names lies a wide 

 and as yet, for large districts, but little worked field 

 for exploration. Civilisation has advanced less rapidly 

 and ruthlessly in the Celtic-speaking parts of the 

 country, where, too, there are fewer historical records 

 of progress and change. But the topographical names 

 when carefully worked out supply a good deal of 

 information regarding former conditions of surface 

 whereof every other memorial has perished. 



