804 THE TYIfE, THE LOUT BTJEN, THE SE:EENE. 



It is more probable that the Eomans would get the name of 

 the river from those who occupied the country south of the river 

 rather than from those located to the north of it. 



The Tyne then was the enclosing river of the Brigantes, the 

 separating line of water between neighbouring tribes, the Brig- 

 antes on the south being Celts, and the Ottatini and Maeatse on 

 the north being Picts and Scots, though according to some also 

 Celts. 



The Eomans too must have regarded the Eiver Tyne as such 

 a boundary or dividing line, as we see that it separates Durham 

 and JS^orthumberland in the lower part. 



Some hold that the Tyne owes its name to its bifurcation above 

 Hexham into North and South Tyne. Certainly the points of a 

 deer's horn are called tines, as, for instance, 'a stag of ten tines.' 

 The teeth of a harrow are called tines, and the prongs of a fork 

 are called tines; a three-tined fork, is a dung fork so called. 

 " To tine a door, to shut out." Tour to the Caves, 1781, Engl. 

 Dialect. Soc. In each of these three cases there is also implied 

 a separation of parts, and a three or four-pronged dinner fork is 

 sometimes in Newcastle parlance called "a splet spyun," also 

 implying the same. 



The previous explanation, however, being applicable to the 

 lower course of the river from the sea to Wylam Station, and to 

 one or other of its branches beyond, as a boundary or separating 

 line, seems preferable. 



A railway passenger between Newcastle and Carlisle one day 

 in a very dry summer, observing the small size of the Tyne 

 stream, beyond the influence of the tide, gave it as his opinion 

 that the name of the river must have been given to it because it 

 was so tiny ! 



II. The Loet Burn. 



The Lort or Lorlc Burn is a small stream, except in rainy 

 seasons, when it is considerable, which arises from the west side 

 of the town moor, and ran in old times in the light of day, but 

 now runs darkly underground, down Gallowgate, Darn Crook, 



