444 On Rottenrow and Rattanraiv, by John Hilson. 



MeNaughton of Strath-Tay, an accomplished Gaelic scholar and 

 a translator of Ossian, has been familiar with the use of the 

 name of Rattanraw from his childhood. He says that when a 

 boy, engaged along with companions in bringing home peats 

 from the moss, one would have been heard crying if the cart 

 should go by the hill road or by the Rattanraw ? that is, by the 

 rude mountain path, or by the made road, which, as the work of 

 Government, was regarded as the Rathid an Righ, or King's 

 Eoad. So much have the ideas of authority clung to the word 

 that Mr MeNaughton says many of the Strath-Tay people 

 designate General Wade's Eoad as Rattanraw. "Well then, is it 

 not obvious where the word has had its origin, and how its ex- 

 planation is to be given ? It is to those, as I have said, who 

 speak what is the nearest to the old language of the island that 

 we must go for its meaning, and I think I have shewn what that 

 is. What can we think of correspondents to "Notes and 

 Queries " who suggested that probably the name originated in 

 the road having been laid down with rotten chips, or of another 

 who traced the name to Rotten, an old German word for a soldier ; 

 or of a Northumberland etymologist, who supplied to Tate's 

 " History of Alnwick" a learned paragraph, making it out to be 

 from Rotte, a military muster, or Rotena, a road for holiday pro- 

 cessions, from Rot cheerful, apparently on no other grounds but 

 that certain letters in the one word resembled several in the 

 other ! London Guide Books, too, have given a version of ex- 

 planation by trying to shew that the Westminster Rottenrow is 

 derived from Route Be Rot. Here they are not so far off with 

 the signification, but why should we beg a classicised name from 

 France, which fails in its component parts, when we have, as 

 described above, the name original to our own country ? Route 

 Be Rot wants the significant letter n, which gives the key to the 

 quarter whence the name has been derived. Just as we have 

 instances in Scotland of a similar combination as a name of 

 localities to be found in Edinburgh, Jedburgh, and Kelso, such 

 as Croft 'n Eigh, the King's Croft ; Port an Eigh, the King's 

 Port or Ferry, in Skye ; Tigh an righ, the King's House, in 

 Tullymett, and in Argyleshire at the mouth of Glencoe. London, 

 itself, is often called in Gaelic speech Baile Mor an Eigh, the 

 King's big town ; and Sraid an righ is applied to the King's 

 street somewhere in a Scottish northern town. 



