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Etymological Links between Welsfi and Oaelic 343
handed down, in some measure, in the talk of the natives, many
long centuries after their parish first got its name. I may mention,
in passing, that there is a portion of the fine parish churcli in that
place, which in the opinion of the late Sir- Gilbert Scott (no mean
authority in archreological matters) is at least 1000 years old.
It would l)e interesting to know whether in the names of such
places as Ccvent-i-y, Davent-ry, Oswest-ry (the last of these being
close on the Welsh border), the " ry " is equivalent to " righ;" and
if so, what is the derivation of the other part of each of these
names 1 No doubt if light could be thrown on the obscurities of
modern spoiling, we might find much that was deeply interesting
in the unearthing of old Celtic names. I was told lately (and my
informant was a Gaelic speaking priest of our church in Lochaber)
that the famous " Rotten Row " in London is simply a corruption
of " ]\atliad-an-Righ ;" whether this is so or not, is of course mat-
ter of opinion, but it is at least an interesting, if a novel, interpre-
tation. A much more direct derivation seems to show itself in
the case of " Clun," a parish in the county of Shropshire, bordering
on Montgomeryshire ; we can trace in it the word " cluain " (pas-
ture-land), which exactly describes the character of that locality.
Passing a little further south, into Hereford slure, we come upon
another little parish (or rather hamlet)—Dinmore, which is situated
on the top of a high hill; here again its name gives its description—
" Dim-mor," little as the Sassenachs who now inhabit
the place may be aware that it is a description ! It is not a very
" far cry " from the borders of ^yales into Lancashire, and on the
line between Liverpool and Manchester is a station called
" Eccles ;" we have no diificulty here in recognising, in its English
form, our old friend "Eaglais" or " Eglwys." It may, perhaps, be
objected that these are not, strictly speaking, instances of " etymological
links between Gaelic and Welsh ;" but, rather, isolated
instances of Gaelic words in England. But, at any rate, they are
genericalhj Celtic ; and as for the most part, they occur either close
to the Welsh border, or at no great distance from it, one cannot
help thinking that they are survivals of a period in the remote
past, when the ancient Welsh, or British tongue resembled our
Scottish Gaelic miich more closely than it appears to do now ; and
that when, at the Saxon invasion of Britain, the Celts were driven
into different corners of the country, some into Wales and
others into Cornwall, and so cut off from each other, and from
their Celtic fellow-countrymen in the north, the variety between
the diflercnt dialects of their langiiage became gradually more
and more divergent—though even yet, as I have already tried to