172 Anniversary Address. 



where he was slain, the comb or vale of Llewellyn. 



It must here be noted that the c in Welsh though properly 

 having the force of k, yet before e is apt to slide into its softer 

 sound of ch English ; moreover that / has the power of our 

 English V, unless when doubled. Chefn therefore readily 

 becomes Cheven. The plural formation is Chefnau, pro- 

 nounced nearly Cevndi, ridges. 



I do not at all apprehend that this etymology of the first 

 syllable of Cheviot will be rejected by any Celtic scholar, 

 although I have not the slightest pretension to such a title. 

 My fear is only, that in one or other of the many antiquarian 

 or topographical works and treatises that are unknown to me, 

 the same etymon may have been much better demonstrated, 

 so that I may be wasting the hearer's or reader's time. What 

 concerns us next, is to give, if we can, any satisfactory account 

 of the concluding syllable, ot. 



It is hardly necessary to mention that in Celtic composite 

 words or names, it is the latter member which modifies or 

 describes the former. Thus, in Welsh, Dinas is castle and 

 Bran is crow or daw, and Dinas Bran, (castle-crow,) cor- 

 responds to crow-castle in English. Moel is mountain, Jiebog 

 hawk; and Moel Hebog is the appellation of one of the 

 highest hills in the country. Crib, a crest -like summit ; Crib 

 goch, Redcliff. Such being the well-known character of 

 British descriptive names, examples of which might be mul- 

 tiplied to a great extent, we have to consider whether there 

 is any noun or adjective in the copious Cambro-British 

 vocabulary which might naturally suggest itself as descriptive 

 of our Northumbrian heights, when brought into composition 

 with Cefn. That which I am about to mention is only from 

 conjecture, and may be set aside in case of a better claim being 

 presented for another, but meanwhile I think there is some 

 likelihood that od, snow, may have been the element in ques- 

 tion. As this is a point which Celtic scholars may hereafter 

 reduce almost to certainty on evidence not now forthcoming, 

 it is right to mention that another element had presented it- 

 self to my mind previously, which on account of the various 

 Saxon English names of localities among the Cheviots, derived 



