The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. IV] OF SCOTLAND 49
The second objection which has been made to the conclusion
is a more serious one, for it has been asserted by one writer with
great confidence, that the topography of Scotland has changed,
and that the Gaelic names- so universal over the country were
introduced by the Scottish conquest in the ninth century. Of
such a change of nomenclature he has, after much research,
produced one solitary example. To this it might be a sufficient
answer to remark, that history shews us that a change of population
rarely if ever produces any change in the topography of
the country, and that in particular no change is perceptible in
Scotland during the last eight centuries, although the Low-
landers, a Teutonic race, have been in possession of the country
which was previously inhabited by a Celtic race. But a still
stronger answer will be found in the fact that a considerable
number of the names of places in the Pictish territories previous
to the Scottish conquest, have come down to us in the ancient
chronicles, and that these names are invariably retained in the
present day, and are of pure Gaelic origin. A remarkable
instance of this occurs in the Pictish Chronicle. That ancient
chronicle, in mentioning the foundation of the Church of Abernethy,
describes the boundaries of the territory ceded to the
Culdees by the Pictish king as having been " a lapide in
Apurfeirt usque ad lapidem juxta Cairfuil, id est Lethfoss, et
inde in altum usque ad A than." It is plain from the style of
this passage that these names were used at that very time,
and it is a remarkable fact that the same places are still known
by these names, although slightly corrupted into those of
Apurfarg, Carpow, and Ayton, and that the words are
unquestionably Gaelic. It "
Cairfuil id est
may also be remarked that the
"
Lethfoss is exactly parallel to the instance so
language these primitives are found, word ath, signifying a ford, and conseit
is from that dialect that the word quently, according to the rules of
must he held to have sprung. Now philology, we must consider aber to be
the Gaelic word inver is well known a Gaelic word a fact ; which is asserted
to be composed of the preposition ann in the latest and best Gaelic diction-
andtheprimitive word fiibr, signifying aries. With regard to all these
water; but it is quite plain that that disputed words, reference is made to
word bior also enters into the com- the excellent Gaelic Dictionary pubposition
of the word aber, which is lished by the Highland Society of
formed by the addition of the Gaelic Scotland.
D