APEIL 75 



yellow broom waved not so very long ago — and note 

 the mighty change that has swept over that estuary 

 since Kentigern built his lonely cell in the green wood- 

 land glade beside the teeming salmon-river. That glade 

 is now clangorous with unceasing industry; its verdure 

 exchanged for whisky-shops, music-halls, and other less 

 obtrusive concomitants of progress; but still its name 

 Strathbungo^ recalls the mission work of the holy 

 Kentigern — which work, had it come to naught, into 

 what different channels might not the history of Glasgow 

 have run ? In short, forasmuch as it is admitted that all 

 place-names have meanings, and seeing that people will 

 continue to guess and speculate about their meanings, 

 it is natural, and in some degree useful, to proceed on 

 sound rules, so as to arrive at their right interpretation. 

 The intrinsic worth of your fox may not repay all the 

 trouble you take to catch him, but at all events you are 

 likely to ensure better sport by hunting him on scientific 

 principles. 



To return to the Komans. Unconsciously that people, 

 though leaving behind them few names in their own 

 language, contributed much to the stability of British 

 names by introducing the art of writing. Unwritten 

 speech changes far more swiftly than we are inclined to 

 remember: directly names or words are written down 

 they become, as it were, crystallised and more or less 

 permanent. Little attention is paid at first to spelling : 

 letters were invented merely as symbols of sound — use- 

 ful drudges which modern refinement has elevated into 

 tyrants. In ancient documents you shall find the same 



' Strath-Mungo, Mungo's meadow, the endearing appellative of St. 

 Kentigern. 



