318 A TOPOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE 



In his Historical Proofs of the Highlanders, Robertson thus 

 writes : "The great number of genuine Gaelic names of places that 

 exist in parts which we know were inhabited in the south-west 

 of Scotland by Britons, undoubtedly prove that the Gael had there 

 preceded them, and even lead to the conclusion that the British or 

 Welsh occupation had only begun therein with the invasion of the 

 Romans and under their protection." In his valuable and ingenious 

 work on the Gaelic Topography of Scotland, the same author, after 

 an exhaustive examination of the theory in question, in the discus- 

 sion of which his Celtic temperament sometimes assumes unnecessary 

 warmth, concludes (p. 99): "that instead of aber being, as Dr. 

 MacLauchlan contends, in Scottish topography always joined to 

 pure Welsh words, the truth is that in all Scotland there is not a 

 single aber which has Welsh words joined to it. As to Dr. Mac- 

 Lauchlan's second statement that aber is never associated with a 

 a Gaelic word, the truth is that in the whole of Scotland every 

 instance where words are joined to aber they are Gaelic. The abers 

 are as invariably joined to Gaelic words as are the (rivers ; and both 

 aber and inver were used to signify a confluence by the Gaelic- 

 speaking race who originally gave all the Gaelic designations in 

 Scotland, namely, the Caledonian Gael." Skene (Celtic Scotland, 

 vol. I., p. 221), effectually disposes of Taylor's theory so far as the 

 dividing line which the latter draws between the region of invers 

 and abers is concerned. Skene thus writes : " This would be a 

 plausible view, if true, but unfortunately there is no such line of 

 demarcation between the two words. South of Mr. Taylor's line 

 there are in Aberdeenshire 13 abers and 26 invers ; in Forfarshire, 

 8 abers and 8 invers ; in Perthshire, 9 abers and 8 invers ; and in 

 Fifeshire, 4 abers and 19 invers. ... If these words afford a 

 test between British and Gaedhelic, we might naturally expect to 

 find as many abers in what was the Strathclyde kingdom as in 

 Wales, but there are no abers in the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, 

 Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Stirling and Dumbarton, 4 abers in Dum- 

 friesshire, 6 in Lothian, and none in Galloway ; and when we proceed 

 further south, we find nothing but abers in Wales, and no appear- 

 ance of them in Cornwall." There can be no doubt that the 

 Topography of what was known as Strathclyde is Gaelic and not 

 Cymric, and that Robertson and Skene have successfully refuted the 

 theory of Dr. MacLauchlan and Mr. Taylor. And, even were it 



