168 Gaelic Language of the South of Scotland. 



remains of the Viking name for the Firth of Forth ; for it 

 seems to have been called Myrche Inch in the 17th century. 

 The name of Myrcke Fiord rather suggests that in the 9th 

 century the shores of the Firth of Forth were already so 

 lined with towns and villages, that it was conspicuously more 

 smoky and foggy than other easterly firths. 



The lecturer's own knowledge of Galloway, where Gaelic 

 lingered so long that it is said there is a statement in, I 

 think, the Church Records of the parish of Barr, that 

 preaching was not attempted in some parts of the parish, 

 because it was not understood, gave him a great advantage 

 in dealing with the Celtic names of the rest of the country; 

 while he did great justice to the wild jumble of nationalities 

 indicated by the names in the counties bordering on England ; 

 which, after all, only bear out the statements of the inquest 

 of David. But as to distinguishing between Norwegian and 

 Danish (without going very deep into local dialects) I have 

 no doubt Klettr is a Danish word for a crag, but it is not 

 in the dictionary ; while the word given is that used in 

 Norway, Elint. This is not uncommon on the Borders ; there 

 is a Clintwood Castle in Liddesdale, a Clint's Hill on Gala 

 Water, and a Clinthill (which latter name is used by Sir 

 Walter Scott) near Dryburgh. The Klint here is merely a very 

 steep hillside. The only case I know of Sater or Saeter, farm, 

 retaining its original form, is in the rather Celtic locality of 

 Traquair, where the ground which can be flooded to form a 

 curling pond, is called the Satter Sykes, or Farm Ditches. 



What the lectures did not, I think, do justice to was the 

 interesting Basque element : it seems unlikely that all the 

 streams and lakes called Ur and Or should have derived 

 their names from the Yew tree, though its name in Gaelic 

 is something like ur, which means water in Basque. One of 

 the Ors occurs at Lochorward or Borthwick, and a Lour 

 near the Tweed in Peeblesshire ; and I am inclined to think 

 the hill-name of Mendick, south of the Pentlands, may be 

 the Basque mendi, hill. The English Mendips should be the 

 same word, though it is too like Pen and Ben to be of much 

 importance. I do not know any case of Etchi in the south 

 of Scotland, but it is the Basque word for house, and whether 

 the vitrified fort on the island has anything to do with it or 

 not, Loch Etchi is the Gaelic name of Loch Etive. I observe 



