hill. His people would meet here to state to him their grievances, or to answer to charges civil and criminal, and plead and receive sentence, according to practice in this country and in the north-west of Europe generally. For district meetings, and the administration of justice on the larger scale, there were greater law hills; and the people met for elections, or other affairs concerning the kingdom, upon still more important eminences.

On concluding the examination, Dr. Scoular gave a few remarks on the aim of the investigations in which the Society had been engaged. He stated that a more important part of the duties of the archæologist and philologist was to explore the unwritten history of man. The only means of arriving at legitimate conclusions was by studying the relics of his words and works. It is the business of the antiquary, in the first instance, to classify the remains from the evidence which they themselves afford; secondly, from the structure of the works, or the remains of works of art and the mode of sepulture, and the anatomical characters of the crania which they contain. A correct classification is our first object, but when this has been done the most difficult task remains, of connecting our classes with their chronological equivalents. If we admit the ages of stone, bronze, and iron, we have to enquire if the practice of incremation existed in all these periods, or had an epoch to which it was restricted. A still more important question arose-was each age characterized by a peculiar form of the crania? and were the people of the stone period of a different cranial type from those of the bronze? If such be the case, we are carried to the domain of philology, and have to enquire whether the Celts of the Aryan family were the earliest settlers in Europe, or had been preceded by the Finnic race, whose descendants still exist in several parts of Europe and India.

The Members then proceeded to Crookston Castle. By tradition Crookston Castle is intimately connected with the history of Mary Queen of Scots. Here it has been stated that she first met the Lord Darnley. In this, however, tradition errs, for it was at Wemyss Castle, in Fifeshire, that this took place, and they were married at Holyrood House. The tradition probably arose from Crookston Castle having been a possession and frequent residence of the Dukes of Lennox.

The earliest description of this interesting and noble "uin is given in "Crawford's History of Renfrewshire." He says:—

"In the same Paroch of Paisley, and near to the River of Cart

(Levern?), stands some considerable remains of that noble and stately edifice, the Castle of Crockstoun, the principal messuage of the Regality of Crockstoun, which Regality comprehends the lordship of Darnly and Inchenan, in this Shire, and the lordship of Tarboltoun in the Shire of Ayr, where was one of the principal seats of the noble family of Lennox. This ancient building did consist of a large quarter, with two very lofty and high towers, with battlements on the wings thereof, in which there has been many spacious and large rooms. It had a very agreeable prospect through a great part of the Country, and had adjoining to it some square and level pieces of ground, where, no doubt, there were orchards, and surrounded with pleasant woods. Hard by the Castle is to be seen that noble monument the Ew-tree, called the tree of Crockstoun, of so large a trunk and well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several miles distant from the ground where it stands. The impress is on the reverse of the large pieces of an ounce weight coined by Queen Mary after her return from France that she had taken Henry Lord Darnley for her husband."

The ruin, which by the anxious care of Sir John Maxwell, the present proprietor, has now been arrested in its farther decay, consists of the quarter referred to by Crawford, with the north-east tower and part of the basement of the tower on the south-east corner. Though Crawford speaks of the castle as consisting of a quarter and two towers only, there are clear evidences of there having been originally four towers, one at each corner of the building.

The castle appears to have been built with very great care, and must have been of great strength. The walls, externally, are faced with hewn stone, and are of great thickness, being as much as 8, 10, and 12 feet in breadth. The plan of the castle is a parallelogram 60 by 40 feet, with towers at each angle. These differ in size, one being 26 by 20 feet, another 26 by 18 feet, another 22 by 16 feet, Their walls vary in thickness from and the fourth is 20 feet square. 5 to 10 fect, and the area covered, measuring over the towers, is about 77 by 54 feet.

The best preserved portion of the building is the north-east tower, which is entire to the height of the parapet. The angle turrets have been machiolated, which was very seldom the case in the castles of the district. The great hall, which occupies the whole area of the middle floor of the principal building, has been a noble room, 44 by 17 feet, with large and deep bays in both sides and at the west end.

Its ceiling had been a high-pointed arch, traces of which still remain. Immediately under the hall is an apartment of the same style, its arched ceiling formed of strong stone ribs, the spaces between which are linteled over with hewn flags, and most probably the arching over the great hall was in the same manner.

Of architectural details there are few left. Externally, everything has been plain, if we except the corbelling which supports the parapet, but from fragments of the bases and capitals of chimney jambs it is evident that great skill and taste have been displayed in the interior decorations. One capital still preserved is certainly very fine, and judging from its character we may assume that the castle was erected in the latter part of the thirteenth century.

There are a great number of masons' marks on the faces of the hewn stones, and it is worthy of notice that among them is one which is also found on the walls of Glasgow Cathedral.

The moat of the castle is still 10 feet deep, and 30 feet broad throughout its whole length. It is, however, much overgrown with brushwood. A drawbridge crossed near its west centre, where there are still some remains of the gateway towers.

The members afterwards inspected a monolith at Hippingstone, on the east side of the road leading to the Kennishead Railway Station. It measures 6 feet in height above the ground surface, and at least as many feet below, and in breadth is about 2 feet 6 inches in each direction at its centre. It bears, however, no inscription, and no tradition or record is known to indicate its age or object.

NO. XX.

ON SURNAMES, AND SEVERAL MATTERS RELATING THERETO.

BY

DAVID MACKINLAY, Esq.

[Read at a Meeting of the Society held at Glasgow on 2nd February, 1863.]

ROWLAND HILL on one occasion commenced a discourse by stating that he would first speak to the text, then round about the text, and lastly, away from the text. In this paper I mean to avail myself of the liberty of the preacher, as my subject requires a little freedom of

treatment.

Before entering on the subject, however, it may be well to say a few words about personal or Christian names. These have been used in all ages of the world, and, in early times, were usually chosen from their fancied appropriateness to the condition or prospects of the family, or in order to express some peculiarity in the personal appearance or disposition of the child. Many beautiful illustrations of this are to be found in the Bible.

An interesting inquiry here presents itself-Were personal names. in early times liable to be changed during the life of the bearer? I think we must answer this in the affirmative; at least so far as to say that changes were occasionally effected: for when a man by his conduct belied the name he bore, it is reasonable to think that his neighbours would call him by another name more in keeping with his true character. A consideration of the names mentioned in the Landnámabók-the Domesday book of Iceland-is strongly confirmatory of this view. How otherwise can we explain the existence of such personal names as Bothmódr, weary of the fight; Drafli, drawler; Gamli, the old; Gaukr, proud fool; and others of like kind, which could not have been imposed in infancy? The son of one of the first settlers in Iceland was called Smithr-most likely in consequence of his clever-handedness. He is the only one

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of that name mentioned in the Landnámabók.

The rich variety of the ancient personal names is very striking;

and, taking population into account, probably equalled that of our modern surnames. Thus, the Landnámabók exhibits a list of more than 800 male personal names among the first settlers of Iceland and their immediate descendants; and the number of these names increased with the increase of the population. Indeed, personal names had a tendency to increase indefinitely till the custom was introduced of bestowing upon children the names of other people. The poetry of name-giving then disappeared, and personal names not only ceased to increase, but became at once exposed to decay through the occasional disuse of particular names. In the western parts of Europe this decay was greatly accelerated by the introduction of Christianity, which cast discredit on the mythological and warlike names—a very numerous class-and substituted for them a few well-known scriptural names. Among the latter none took so high a place as the name of the beloved disciple of our Lord. In Iceland at the present day, nearly 6000 persons, out of a population of 32,000 males, bear the name of John, although there are 518 male personal names in use throughout the island. The census returns of Great Britain— if examined with this view-would probably shew that the name John is not less common here. In Iceland, where surnames are still very rare, personal names are more numerous than with us. The extreme poverty of these names among the people of Western Europe is mainly owing to the use of surnames.

So long as population was sparse, and the choice of a child's name was unrestricted by custom, a second name was not needed; but the increasing density of population, combined with the decay of personal names, at length rendered this desirable. If a dozen Johns lived in the same village it is plain that in speaking of them individually some descriptive epithet or appellation would be necessary in order to distinguish the one from the other. Surnames were scarcely known in this country before the Norman conquest, and it was several centuries after that event before their use became general. At first they were confined to the great families of the country, but in process of time they were adopted by, or imposed upon all classes of the community.

In all ages princes and other men of mark have occasionally been distinguished by some epithet added to their name. Thus we read of William the Lion, Henry Beauclerk, Hrolf the Ganger, and Charles Martel. But these to-names were not peculiar to the great: on the contrary, they were in frequent use among all classes of