NOMENCLATURE, 107 



ferred to Celtic roots, and have a reasonable explanation given to 

 them from the Celtic language ; and so with many towns, villages, 

 hamlets, &c., though the names of many of these are so disguised, 

 by the changes that have been made by persons ignorant of the 

 language whence they were derived, from a wish to adapt them 

 and make them significant in a living tongue, that it is often next 

 to, if not altogether, impossible to get at the original word, and so 

 determine the original meaning ; and further, they may be referred 

 to so many possible roots, and have had so many meanings affixed 

 to them by different etymologists, that topical nomenclature has 

 become a byeword. It was only the other day that a dignitary 

 of the Church in this neighbourhood said to me : " You can make 

 a name mean anything you choose." Much of this objection is 

 groundless with regard to names of places in this county — the 

 first, the last, and, in the opinion of all good Cornishmen, the best, 

 in England. But even here, some names have been so changed that 

 it is impossible to fix their meaning positively. "Truro" is an ex- 

 ample in point : it may be " The Town on the River," as Polwhele 

 makes it ; " Three Streets," as Carew and Camden have it ; " The 

 Town on the Roads," as Borlase gives; or "The Town on the 

 Slope," as Norris prefers, and I am inclined to agree with him.''^ 

 But it is otherwise with regard to hundreds — I may say, thousands, 

 — of Cornish names, which are genuine Celtic words, admitting of 



* Possibly it may be "The hir/h town on tbe slope," though the present 

 town lies low. The manor is called Truro and Treyew ; and there is a farm 

 called Treyew, not far from the village of " Higher Town." " Treyew " is 

 "High-town," the same as "Hiigh-town" in Scilly, (though this latter also 

 lies low, but takes its name from being situated near a high promontory) ; 

 and Truru may be a corruption of Tre-u( =uch)-a-ru. We must not, however, 

 make too much of the u. It is true the first Charter to the town reads 

 Tri'ueru; but the u between two vowels might be pronounced v, and then the 

 first element of the name would be Triv=Trev, a dwelling, instead of Tre-u 

 ^Tre-uch, (the guttural ch being dropped). High town. Another conjecture 

 occurs to me, and I think it offers the simplest and best derivation. The 

 name was doubtless given before the town was built. " Eru" is " afield, an 

 acre.'" There might have been a house above a particular field, and so the 

 name would come from Tre (the dwelling) u (above) eru (the field). Polwhele 

 wovild have us supi^ose it possible that the name is very ancient. In Tacitus 

 we have " Trut/ulensemportum," which is unknown; some woiild correct this, 

 and read "■ Rutupensem," and so identify it with Kichborough; but, says Pol- 

 whele, a less violent emendation, merely changing t into r, which letters are 

 very much alike in old manuscripts, would give us Trurulensem, and so the 

 reference would be to Falmouth or the " Tru7-o-lake-harbour," as the words 

 may be rendered. 



