word wolf here reminds of the ancient family legend of the Somervilles, who once owned the district and had their castle at Carnwath, wolf castle. The word Car begins many place-names in Clydesdale, as elsewhere-Carluke, Carstairs, Carmichael, Carmunnock, Crawford, corrupted from Carford. The Danish word Gaard was an old Gothic word of very extensive use in Germany and Scandinavia to denote a castle or place of defence. It came to mean also the proprietor's mansion house, and latterly it has come into more general use to signify farm buildings if enclosed by a wall. Its pronunciation is indifferently Kar, Kart, Kard, Gar, Gart, Gort, &c., according to provincial practice. More examples of its application will occur to every person who knows the neighbourhood of this city; those given here will be seen to signify Luke's Castle, Stair's Castle (or perhaps great castle), Michael's Castle, Mungo's Castle (or more probably castle on the moorish ground), Castle Ford. These names remind us that sirnames were not used prior to the twelfth century even by the greatest noblemen, and that in the time of the crusades the use of family names was gradually introduced by gentlemen adding to their baptismal and honorary names that of their district or territory or castle, when they subscribed deeds or transacted public business. Thus we find among our parishes, as in Scandinavia and some parts of Germany, the word town, or ton, or ten, to denote the estate of a principal chief, or the village of his retainers, as Wiston, Roberton, Lamington, Symington, Thankerton, Walston, Liberton, Covington, Dolphinton, Hamilton. In the county there are no parish names ending in By or beginning with Bal except Blantyre, but there are a few place-names of the former kind, and many of the latter in it, or near Glasgow. The verb Bol, to build, is found in all the early languages of Europe, and these two are its application to any kind of buildings for dwelling in.

The remaining parish names may now be noticed. Avondale, aa vand dal, river stream valley; Dalserf, Dal saarig or saaret, valley of the wounded; Dalzell, Dal yell or geld, barren valley; Wandell, Vand dal, stream valley; Blantyre, Bal vand Thor, Building on the wooded bank of the river; Bothwell might in Gothic or Saxon be Boden wald, meaning wood or forest on the plain as distinguished from hill wood, but in Danish, although there are various words the same in sound, the application of them is unsatisfactory; Cambuslang, Camus lang, long curve; Cambusnethan, Camus neden or ned vand,

The Anglo-Saxons used the word Bótel, an object built, to express an abode or mansion.

curve below, or at, river, but the meaning not obvious; Kilbride, perhaps Gaard bret, large castle; Stonehouse, Steen huus, stone built house; Shotts, Skotsk, ground for rearing poor cattle; Monklands, modern name given by the clergy in the thirteenth century; Lesmahagow, Lös mor hei gae, free moor highway; Glasford and Glasgow are uncertain in Danish, but may be resolved simply enough if the Gothic, or the Anglo-Saxon, or the modern German be applied in respect of the first syllable, by using the old verb lassen in its participle, which may give Gelassen, contracted to Gelass, or left off in use; Glasford thus becomes an uninhabited fort, and Glasgow an old road or forsaken district; Govan, Ku vand, cow streams; Rutherglen, Ruderick land, Roderick's land; Renfrew, Riende Færge, public ferry; Greenock, Grün vik, green bay; Dumbarton, Dun baar tun, the bare (rock) hill town; Leven, Läv vand, the low river, or the river at the lower end of Loch Lövni. This last word is so written in the Danish account of the Battle of Largs, which took place in 1262.*

The sub-kingdom of Strathclyde or Lanrik probably included more than the district now defined as Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, which together are counted as Clydesdale. The latter county was always part of the former until about 1406. The word strath, like many other common words, has been generally assumed by our philologists to be exclusively Gaelic, in which language it is written srath. But this word may be seen in old writings of various other languages, applied to denote a river valley occasionally, although signifying most frequently a street or highway. The Roman form was stratum, the Italian, strada, the German, strasse or strasze, the Dutch, straat, the Danish, stræde. The Anglo-Saxon chroniclers wrote Strætclyd.

As a strange popular error has arisen about a circumstance mentioned in that account, it may be worth while to notice it, especially as our best modern Scottish historian has been misled by previous writers who had not examined the Danish chronicle, or had misunderstood it. Tytler says-Haco sent a fleet of sixty ships up the Clyde into Lochlong; the sailors then dragged their boats across the land between Arrochar and Tarbet, and launched them into Lochlomond. Another writer says that Lochlong in Gaelic signifies the loch of ships, and that the Icelandic word for it in the chronicle is an exact translation of Lochlong. Even Worsaac himself, a most learned Dane, has adopted the incident, supposing, no doubt, that from abundant local tradition Lochlong was known to have been anciently called the Skipa Fiord. The whole affair is an obvious mistake. The chronicle described the fleet as lying some time in Arran Sound, and then passing to the Cumbraes. While lying off these islands the king sent forty ships into the Firth. The words are-"Tha sendi Hako Konongr fioratigi Skipa inn i Skipa Fiord," meaning, doubtless, only the Clyde by the Ships' Firth. "Ok er their komo i Fiordin, took their Bata sina, ok drogo upp till Vatnz eins mikils, er heiter Loko Lofni;" that is, when they came into the firth, the men took their boats and dragged them up-no doubt up the Leven-to a meikle water called Lochlomond. The following sentence says, upon that water, outward, lay an earldom called the Lennox (Löfnach), and then follows the raid of the district by the Norsemen, who-"tog morg hundrot Nauta, drap margen Man, ok gerdimikit Hervirki"-took more than a hundred nolt, slew many men, and garred meikle harrying. This done they went back to their ships, and, in sailing down to rejoin the fleet off the Cumbraes,ten of their vessels were wrecked by a storm in the firth, "i Skipa Firde."

The commonly received opinions about a kingdom of Strathclyde, occupied by Welshmen after the Romans had left the district, and about the Welsh or Gaelic origin of its old names, may have foundations better than those names supply. The similarity of many words and meanings in different languages, the variety of dialects, the gradual changes in ideas and the manner of expressing them, and in the intonation, inflection, adoption, substitution, and spelling of words and parts of words, make it difficult to discriminate so well as to warrant conclusions differing widely from the popular ones. But a cautious and intelligent comparison of evidence is the more desirable, and, in an archæological view, the subject merits it.

: [Read at a Meeting of the Glasgow Archæological Society, on 5th December, 1859.]

THE ruins of this magnificent military barrier constitute perhaps the most impressive monument of the Roman occupation of Britain now extant, whether contemplated as an interesting memorial of ages little known in our insular history, or as a material testimony to that grandeur of design and Herculean labour for which the ancient masters of the world were so remarkable. Lying chiefly in the wilds of Northumberland, and, until a comparatively recent period, difficult, if not dangerous of access, these lonely remains of remote antiquity have been seldom visited in proportion to the interest which they are calculated to excite.

Having at different times examined large sections stretching over many miles, and having on one occasion in particular had the advantage of doing so accompanied by two eminent English antiquaries, one of whose extensive estates is traversed by the best preserved specimens of the Wall itself, including several of the Roman castles; and the other, author of an admirable volume on this ancient barrier, I propose to notice shortly, some of the more striking objects which came under my observation. But, before doing so, it may be useful to review some points in the Wall's history.

In the second century of the Christian era, the conquests of the Romans in Britain embraced nearly the whole of modern England, and a considerable portion of the Scottish Lowlands. But this subjugation had not been accomplished without an obstinate resistance. It required all the bravery and discipline of the legions, led by the most renowned generals of Rome, to advance the imperial eagles into the heart of the then unknown country, and to vanquish the various island-kings who ruled over a fierce and undaunted people. So strong indeed was the national spirit against the invaders, that even

the gentler sex sallied from the woods, and, to the astonishment of the Roman troops, who mistook them for the Furies of classic mythology, joined the British ranks, and nobly fought, side by side, with their painted husbands, brothers, and sons, the numerous, though then unavailing, battles of freedom. It was long before the country was completely subdued. Frequent and bloody revolts took place, one of the most memorable of which was headed by a warrior-queen, who, stimulated by her own and her country's wrongs, collected and led in person a numerous army, and it was only after one of the most sanguinary conflicts which perhaps ever took place in this island, between her and the skilful imperial general Suetonius Paulinus, that Rome triumphed.

In these early wars the Romans encountered a novel species of assailant in the British dogs. These were large and very ferocious mastiffs, of a breed peculiar to the island, trained to attack the bear, the wolf, the celebrated wild bulls, and other savage beasts which infested the forests and wildernesses of ancient Britain; and now when a new foe from afar appeared on the scene, these canine furies rushed with their tatooed masters, amidst loud cries and their own deep hoarse yells, against the Roman light infantry, to their no small annoyance, as these agile soldiers skirmished in front of the impenetrable legions advancing in battle-array. This breed of dogs became famous in the amphitheatre at Rome, where they not only fought with lions, panthers, and other fierce animals, but not unfrequently worried to death groups of the early Christians sewed in the skins of wild beasts, and thrown to them for that dread purpose. So much prized were these mastiffs in Rome, that a Roman officer was appointed to preserve the breed in Britain, under the title of Procurator Cynegii.

Roman-England, thus conquered, was held by means of fortresses, planted in the most advantageous and commanding positions throughout the country. These were connected by roads, bottomed for the first time with stone, along which the cohorts marched, and warlike stores were transported. But within the period now under review no grand line of fortification had been attempted, to mark impressively the determination of Rome not to hold the island by a mere temporary rein, but thoroughly and permanently on massive foundations. Thus the Roman province, though studded with castles, was comparatively open to the wild north, from which, desperate and bloody forays were frequently made, either by the Caledonians them