212 MR W. F. SKENE ON THE CELTIC TOPOGRAPHY OF SCOTLAND, 



and a large portion of the third class are significant in pure Irish, as well as in the 

 Scoto-Irish or Gaelic. No attempt is made to show, by the geographical distribu- 

 tion of these words, in what parts of the country the respective elements prevail. 



In a recent work, however, of some pretension, by an eminent Gaelic scholar, 

 this attempt is made ; and I refer to it to show how very loosely popular ideas 

 on this subject are taken up. He says, " The Blackadder and Whiteadder con- 

 tain distinctly the British Dwfr or Dwr, water." The two names are Teutonic, 

 and have obviously no Celtic form. " In East Lothian, Yester is the old British 

 word Ystrad, a valley." This is correct, but it is on British ground. " Tranent 

 and Traquair have the British Tre, a town." The old form is Travernent and 

 Traverquair, and Traver is unknown in Welsh topography. " On crossing the 

 Forth, British names still appear nowhere more clearly than in the name of the 

 Ochil Hills, where the British Uchel (high), cannot be mistaken." This is phonetic 

 etymology, and, as we shall see, it has been mistaken. " In Fife we find several 

 Abers, Pits, and Pittens, indicating the existence of a British population ; and 

 again the Pits and Pittens of Forfarshire are numerous." Of the Abers we shall talk 

 presently ; but if the Pits and Pittens indicate a British population, how comes it 

 that they are unknown in Wales, and are not to be found in Welsh topography. 

 " We have," says he, " Pens and Abers and Pits in abundance on through Kin- 

 cardine and Aberdeenshire." Abers and Pits certainly, but no Pens except one 

 solitary instance, which is doubtful. I need not proceed. The statement goes on 

 in the same strain, at equal variance with topographical and philological facts. 



The most popular view of the subject, and that which has recently been most 

 insisted in, is the line of demarcation between a Kymric and a Gaelic population, 

 supposed to be indicated by the occurrence of the words Aber and Inver. 



This view has been urged with great force by Kemble, in his Anglo-Saxons ; 

 but I may quote the recent work by Mr Isaac Taylor, on words and places, as 

 containing a fair statement of the popular view of the subject : — 



" To establish the point that the Picts or the nation, whatever was its name, 

 that held central Scotland, was Cymric, not Gaelic, we may refer to the distinc- 

 tion already mentioned between Ben and Pen. Ben is confined to the west and 

 north ; Pen to the east and south. Inver and Aber are also useful test w T ords in 

 discriminating between the two branches of the Celts. The difference between 

 the two words is dialectic only ; the etymology and the meaning is the same — a 

 confluence of waters, either of two rivers or of a river with the sea. Aber occurs 

 repeatedly in Brittany, and is found in about fifty Welsh names, as Aberdare, 

 Abergavenny, Abergele, Aberystwith, and Barmouth, a corruption of Abermaw. 

 In England we find Aberford in Yorkshire, and Berwick in Northumberland and 

 Sussex ; and it has been thought that the name of the Humber is a corruption of 

 the same root. Inver, the Erse and Gaelic forms, is common in Ireland, where 

 Aber is unknown. Thus, we find places called Inver in Antrim, Donegal, Mayo, 

 and Invermore in Gal way and in Mayo. In Scotland the Invers and Abers 



