44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



and headlands of a country were intended to express some physical 

 peculiarity. In his inti'oduction to the " Vindication of Irish His- 

 tory " (p. 6), Vallancey thus writes : " It is unreasonable to suppose- 

 that the proper names of men, places, rivers, <fec., were originally 

 imposed in an arbitrary manner, without regard to properties, cir- 

 cumstances, or particular occurrences. We should rather think that 

 in the earliest period, and especially when the use of letters was 

 unknown, a name usually conveyed a brief history of the thing 

 signified ; and thus recorded as it were by a method of artificial 

 memory." Dr. Bannister, the author of a Glossary of Cornish 

 names, says " that Cornwall is a peculiar country. From its geo- 

 graphical position it may be called the first and last in England ;: 

 and one and all good Cornishmen will maintain that it is also the 

 best. Time was when Devonshire was part of Cornwall, with 

 Exeter, it is thought, for its capital ; which city was till the tenth 

 century inhabited conjointly by Cornish and Saxons. The Cornish 

 were driven across the Tamar by Athelstane ; and it was declared 

 death for one to be found east of its banks." It was about 930 

 that Athelstane thus violently compelled the Cornish to retire tO' 

 the west of the Tamar. Devonshire, therefore, was much more 

 strongly subjected to Saxon influences than Cornwall ; and hence 

 it may be expected, that the traces of Gaelic will be less distinctly 

 and commonly marked in the Topography of the former than of the 

 latter county. 



The names of the rivers of Devonshire readily disclose their Gaelic 

 origin, e. g. : 



Teign, teth, hot, and an, amhainn, river. The Tyyie of Haddington 

 and Northumberland. 



Dart, doirt, to rush, or pour out. 



Plym, phcin, to plunge. 



The Mew and Cad unite to form the Plym. 



Mew or Meavy : magh, a plain ; or meadhon, middle. 



Cad, cath, battle ; or cas, rapid. 



Tavy, Taw, tamh, quiet, a river. The Thames, Tay in Scotland^ 

 and Tafi", Tave, Taw in Wales, come from the same root. Tabh in 

 Irish and Scottish Gaelic signifies water or ocean. 



Torridge, Tor, Tory : Into those names torr, a heap or round hill, 

 clearly enters. Torr is a purely Gaelic word. It forms one of the 

 expressive monosyllables which frequently occur in the poems of 



