Notes on the Gatrail. By Miss Russell. 103 



and a smaller one at the pass of Laidlawstiel, by wHcli th.e 

 main road went up the Tweed, before the rocks at Thornilee 

 were cut through. North of Stow (where there are two forts) 

 the forts begin again on the west side of the Gala, with a. square 

 Roman camp on a steep hill-side, which there is no reason to 

 doubt is the Oastel Guinion of Arthur's battle. There are traces 

 of the two old churches — that of the Holy Rood as " fSt Ruth." 

 Where Mr Tennyson got his detail of Arthur's emerald Madonna 

 I do know, but I find it is likely to be the old form of the tradi- 

 tion about this battle, for the Byzantine school of gem-engravers 

 used green stones for sacred subjects. Mr Skene places Urien's 

 battle of Gwenystrad, some sixty years later, at Stow also ; 

 Guinion being "white" and Gwenystrad "white valley." 

 Perhaps Stow is the most likely locality ; the Galystem — Galas- 

 stun — of the poem would be its early Saxon name. It is inter- 

 esting to observe that geala (gaila) is white in Scotch Gaelic ; 

 this confirms the identification, and is just such a translation as 

 one might expect on a frontier. The name evidently refers to 

 the peculiar short light grass of the valley, as unlike the com- 

 moner heather, bog, or wood. The district called Goden must 

 be the valley of the Tweed, I think. The poem called the Battle 

 of Goden is addressed to Arthur in person — whether or not it 

 refers to the "Cat Coed Celidon." There is, or was, a round 

 fort high on the hiU at Watherston ; and then an imperfect one 

 at Plenploth; which is of great interest, for the name can be 

 nothing but Plan-ap-Loth, the place of the son of Loth-Llew of 

 Lothian himself. Loth sounds like a mispronunciation of Llew, 

 but I do not think it is ; in the same poem in which the Cath 

 Palug figures, there is a personage called Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr, 

 who, especially as he is represented parleying defiantly with 

 Arthur, can hardly be any one but Llew Lloyd, or Leo the Grey, 

 of the Gavel Mawr, or large territory. His name may appear 

 in Badlew, Llew's House, near the source of the Tweed ; Kaer- 

 liudcoit, above mentioned, would mean the town of Lloyds' 

 Wood. Of his two sons, Medrawd and Gwalchmai, the latter 

 has come down as Gofannon (Gawaine) which is probably from 

 a resembling Welsh word which might mean "scarred," "Le 

 Balafre " in fact ; it might also mean " the Smith." Llew must 

 have been many years older than Urien. I do not know of any 

 fort at Fountainhall, where several small streams break up the 

 hillside ; but there is one on a planted knoll close to the road, 



