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56 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



dennes*=deep-wooded valley, in France. Auvergne and Arverne 

 are the high country in central France. 



The word czvin, in Brittany Covibc, is very frequently used to 

 denote a cup-shaped depression in the hills: Compton, Cumberland, 

 Bellecombe. Llwch, loch, lough=\ake, morass, or hollow, constitute 

 the first syllable of Lugdunum (Lyons), Leyden, Laach, Lutece, the 

 ancient name of Paris. A prefix tre, a place or dwelling, clearly 

 Cymric, occurs in more than thirty names outside of little Brittany, 

 where it is reckoned by the hundred and thousand: Treguiers, 

 Troyes ; and as often in Cornwall and Wales, in Italy Trevi, Treviso, 

 and Trieste, etc. Ty or Ky and Ker, a cottage, a village, is the com- 

 mon prefix of Brezonec parishes: Quiberon, Kergallo; Ty Done 

 Baris: House of the God of Paris, etc., so that, reversing the old 

 rhyme, we might say : 



By Tre, Ker, and Pen, 



You may know the Breton men. 



Llan, Lan, an enclosure, and hence, in later times, the sacred 

 inclosure of the Druids, is also a useful Cymric test-word. It occurs 

 one hundred and thirty times at least in Wales and Cornwall, and 

 in the Cymric part of Scotland. In Brittany it is one of the most 

 common prefixes. The original meaning of " llan " was probably 

 not an inclosure but a level plain, such as the Landes, the vast sandy 

 flats near Bayonne, or the Llanos, the sea-like plains of South Amer- 

 ica=English lawn and land. In a mountainous country, such level 

 spots would be the first to be inclosed, and it is easy to perceive the 

 process by which the transition of meaning might be effected. The 

 root, in its primary meaning, appears in the name of Milan, which 

 stands in the midst of the finest plain in Europe : Lanmeur, the settle- 

 ment by the marsh ; Llangattock, the church of St. Cadoc. The Celtic 

 word wan, a district, is probably to be sought in Maine, Mans, Mantes, 

 Le Mans, Mayenne, La Manche. Nant, a valley, is a common root 

 in the Cymric districts: Nantua (Burgundy), Nancy (Lorraine), 

 Nantes in Brittany, Nangy, and a great many parishes, villages, and 

 passes in Savoy. Gwent, Vent, Van, an open tilled country, gave 

 the names of La Vendee, Vannes, and Venetia (Venise), the vast 

 plain at the mouth of the Po. 



The roots hitherto considered are distinctively Cymric rather 

 than Gaelic or Erse, but one is decisively Erse, namely: Maqh, a 

 plain or field — Welsh maes, English math, and to mow ; Latin, meto, 



*A biography of Mr. R. L. Borden claims a Norman descent for the 

 Leader of the Canadian Opposition ; his name, however, is purely Celtic. 



