EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE BRITISH ISLES BY CELTS. 323 



Strathaird, aird, high : the high strath. 



Strathglass, glass, grey : the grey strath. 



Strathearn, iar an : the strath of the western river. 



Tigh, a house, is present in such words as Tyndrum, tiyh an 

 druim : the house of the ridge. 



Tom, knoll, forms the first syllable in such words as Tomban, 

 the white knoll ; Tombreck, the spotted knoll. 



Torr, a Jimp, appears in such words as Toraven, torr amhainn, the 

 heap of the river ; Torantuirc, torr an tuirc, the heap of the boar ; 

 Torness, torr an eis, the heap of the casade. 



Tulach, a hill or knoll, forms the first syllable of such words as 

 Tullochgorum, the blue hillock ; Tilly coultry, tulach cul tir, the 

 hillock of the back of the land. 



It' is instructive to observe how in the names of the hills and 

 valleys, of the lochs and rivers, of the prominent headlands and 

 picturesque cascades of Scotland, the Gaelic of our time is undoub- 

 tedly to be recognized ; and how the strongest link is thus established 

 between the Scottish Gael of the nineteenth century and the Gael 

 of it may be several centuries before the Christian era. 



The eary Irish annalists gave unbridled reins to a vigorous imagi- 

 nation for the purpose of tracing the first settlers of Ireland from a 

 very remote antiquity. Dr. Sullivan, in an article on Celtic Litera- 

 ture in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, thus remarks : " In any case, 

 the time has scarcely come for dissecting and analysing the curious 

 tissues of legends . . . which constitute the mythical parts of 

 Irish history. As in the case of other nations of middle and north 

 Europe, the true chronological history began in Ireland either by 

 contact with the Romans, or with the introduction of Christianity ; 

 and like the medieval chronicles the genealogists tacked on the pedi- 

 gree of Irish kins and chieftains to those of Genesis." 



The Topography of Ireland furnishes the most satisfactory evidence 

 of purely Gaelic origin, and indicates that those who gave its names to 

 the Topography of Ireland spoke the identical language which is now 

 spoken in the Highlands of Scotland and in many parts of Ireland 

 itself. The Scots, who gave the name to Scotland which it now has, 

 came originally from Ii'eland. It is maintained that the word Scot 

 is the Gaelic Scuit, a wanderer, and that from Scuit the Romans 

 took the designation Scoti. Robertson remarks that Ammianus 

 Marcellinus is the first writer that mentions the Scots, and that he 

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