Derivation of Derry Downe?....Toads in Stones. 
way into the cottage and the barn. They 
are now common throughout Scotland. 
You will, perhaps, Sir, not think this 
fubject in the hiltory of manners too tri- 
vial for ditcuffion and illuttration in your 
entertaining mifcellany. I fhould be glad 
to find my conjectures rectified or cone 
firmed by fome more valuable communi- 
cation from one or another of your 
numerous corref{pondents. 
Tungland, near Kirkcudbright, 
Aprils, 1798. A.R. 
Cee 
Io the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
heey would appear, from an examination 
of the economy of the Ancient Britons, 
that a confiderable part of their wealth 
confifted in the numerous herds of {wine 
which were fed upon acorns in the woods: 
there is fearcely an old tale but what in- 
troduces the chara@er of the fwinifh 
herd ; and the proverb is common— 
Lawn meiziad wrb nzenaid gwynt— 
The fwineherd is glad at the fighing of the 
wind *, 
There. are, alfo, fome old pieces. of 
mulic in Wales, the names of which are 
derived from this branch of Britifh huf- 
bandry, fuch as hob y deri, the hog of 
the oaks; and hob y deri dando, the hog 
of the oaks under cover ; and the like. 
I have thrown out the above hints, 
Mr. Editor, that you might coincide 
with my opinion, that the well-known 
‘tune, or the name at leaft, of DERRY 
Down, comes from the fame, origin. 
For, thefe two words, confidered as Eng- 
lith, have no meaning at all; but they 
are at once identified, and feem to convey 
an idea in unifon with the fubject before 
mentioned, in the following Welth 
phrates ; 
Y deri dawn + 5 
To the oaks we will come: 
Down ir deri; and Down y.deri 5 
We will come to the oaks: 
Down, downy ir deri down. 
We will come, we will come, to the oaks 
we. will come : 
Down yderi, down; 
We will. come to the oaks, we will come, 
I have fuggefted the above derivation 
of Derry Down, rather in a crude form, . 
‘but Lufficiently explicit, perhaps, to in- 
duce your readers either to adopt’ or rejeg& 
it. Iremain, yours, &c. 
~ May 7. MEIRION. 

* Becaufe the acorns are blown down. 
_ > Pronounced as—Hey Derry Dowa, 
333 
To the Editor of the Mouthly Magazine. 
STR, ONY 
"WHERE are few ‘branches of fcience 
in which modern inquiries have de- 
teéted more errors than in natural hiftory; 
and, independent of the immediate objeé& 
of fuch inveftigations, which, if not 
before afcertained, is always valuable; 
even what may appear a trivial fubject, 
fometimes leads to important confidera- 
tions. Caution, therefore, is neceflary 
in admitting the truth of accounts which 
appear to deviate confiderably from the 
uiual laws of nature, however they may 
be fanétioned by ref{peétable authorities, 
and long admitted; but we fhould en- 
deavour to difcriminate between fuch as 
are abfolutely fabulous, and thofe in 
which the love. of relating wonders has 
engrafted abfurdities on curious faéts, 
left we reject the Jatter merely in confe- 
quence of their having been mifrepre- 
fented. ‘The account of the barnacle 
goofe iffuing from the coucha anatifera, 
was an inftance of the former defcription, 
as the fafcinating power afcribed to fer- 
pents is probably of the latter; and 
when I addreffed a few lines to you. 
(vol. iv. p.89), refpecting the accounts 
of toads living for ages completely en- 
clofed in ftone, it was from/a fulpicion, 
that as thefe animals ufually get into 
holes or crevices to pafs the winter, the 
removal or breaking of a ftone may fome- 
times have difturbed them in their retreat, 
and given rife to.a haity conclufion that 
they came out of the ftone. It was not 
' my intention to have troubled. you any 
farther upon this fubje&, till T was able 
to {peak decidedly with refpeé& to the 
poflibility of thefe animals exifting any 
confiderable time entirely deprived of 
frefh air; though perhaps this is not the 
greateft objeétion to fuch accounts: but, 
in confequence of Mr. SmivTH’s letter in 
your laft number, it may not be impro- 
per to obferve, that I had tried the fame 
experiment, and found the reiult very dif- 
ferent from what he relates; and with 
regard to the inference of the poflibility 
of the toad living a confiderable time in 
watuo, it is only neceflary to remark, 
that agreeable to the well-known fa&, 
that réf{piration confumes only one’of the 
component parts of atmofpheric air, the 
air in which the animal was confined 
is, at the time’ of its death, “but ‘little - 
diminished from the original quantity. 
12th April, 1798. joj'G. 
Te 
