Scotch Place-Names. By Miss Russell. 187 



Wales. The explanation certainly is that the Welsh name of 

 Shrewsbury is Pengwern, not improbably meaning the Hill 

 of Alders, as the English name is from Scrohsbyrig, the Town 

 of Scrub ; while Pengwern (Hall), the Head of the Marsh, 

 is still the name of the house at the head of Rhuddlan Marsh, 

 immediately below St. Asaphs or Llanelwy, the endowment of 

 which, by Maelgwn, is an important landmark in British 

 history. 



It is Coleridge the poet, I think, who is responsible for 

 the assertion that there are nearly a hundred names for the 

 Alder in the different dialects of Germany. 



There are some very outstanding Gaelic names in East 

 Lothian, whatever period they may belong to. 



A very interesting one is Drem, which looks as if it must 

 be druim, a ridge, and, in fact, is sometimes called Drum ; 

 but there is nothing in the position to account for the name, 

 which applies to a cluster of houses known for a railway 

 juuction, and nearly, if not actually, the smallest rainfall in 

 Britain ; and standing on the edge of what is, for Scotland, 

 rather a large plain. 



But to the south the ground gradually rises to a green 

 bank [called Drem Hill] with very perfect earthen ramparts, 

 which looks from below as if it was part of the Kilduff Hill 

 behind it. But on approaching it, it is seen to be a com- 

 paratively long and narrow ridge, divided from the hill by 

 a narrow valley, in which, though there is no stream, some 

 water may collect. The ridge is so steep on this side that 

 there are hardly any earthworks. 



This seems a very clear case of the old fort having been 

 the old villago. The name has been completely transplanted 

 to the lower ground ; the house near the fort is called 

 Oampton. The distance from Drem to the fort may be 

 something under half-a-mile. 



Ballencrieff, in the plain, I should suppose, meant the 

 cruive or enclosure, rather than the place of trees, which 

 would be the obvious Gaelic meaning. 



The peculiar flat red rocks, of the east bay at North 

 Berwick, retain their Gaelic name of Leeks or paving stones 



