16 TEESDALE PLACE-NAMES. 



" In the Runic, or old Islandic alphabet, in which all the let- 

 ters have significant names, the second is denominated Biarkarm, 

 i.e., the birch leaf. It is a singular coincidence not only that in 

 the ancient Irish alphabet the name of some tree is assigned to 

 each letter, but that the name of the second, i.e., b is beit, which 

 in the form of bnth, at least, denotes a birch." Jamieson's Diet. 

 Suppl. 



This beit or beith comes very near to the Latin betula, and even 

 approximates somewhat to Scandinavian birlc. 



In Durham and Yorkshire a birch rod is called a berk rod, as 

 is well known to many boys whose education was got in those 

 counties in the last generation. 



Examples : — 



Birkdale, Birch Hall, Birk Hall, Birk House, East Birk and 

 West Birk, Low Birk Hat (See Hat), High Birk Hat, West Birk 

 Hat. 



Bog. 



Authorities differ as to the derivation of this word. Skeat 

 informs us that, in Celtic, a bog is " a piece of soft ground, a 

 quagmire, 'a great bog or marish.' From Ir. logach, a morass, 

 lit. softish, ach being the adjectival termination, so that bogach 

 is formed of from bog, soft, tender, penetrable ; cf . Ir. bogaighim 

 (stem bog), I soften, make mellow; also Ir. bogaim (stem bog), 

 I move, agitate, wag, shake, toss, stir. ^ Gael, bogan, a quag- 

 mire ; cf. Gael, bog, soft, moist, tender, damp ; bog, v. to steep, 

 soften; also to bob, move, agitate." 



There is, however, in Ir. bogha, a bow, and in Wei. bwa, a 



bow, and these Celts could not have failed to see that a bog or 



morass when trodden on took more or less the form of a bend or 



bow. 



It is, however, to the Ir. and Gael., and not to other Celtic 



dialects, that we owe the origin and meaning of bog as marshy, 



bending land. 



Ihre, in his Glossarium Suio-gothicum, has no word like bog 



signifying morass. His bog, from boja, ant. beigia, he states, 



