Note 67 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN PROVINCE IN SCOTLAND.

In some of the editions this name is Vanduara, and is considered by Chalmers to have been Paisley, and he has been followed by all subsequent writers. His reasons are very inconclusive, viz. that there are said to have been Roman remains at Paisley, and that Vanduara is probably derived from the Welsh Gwendwr or White water, and the river at Paisley is called the White Cart. But rivers do not change their names. If it had ever been called Gwendwr, it would have borne the name still; and to rest the identity of Vanduara with Paisley upon a mere conjectural etymology is the reverse of satisfactory. The best editions give Vandogara as the form of the name, which obviously connects it with Vindogara or the bay of Ayr; and Ptolemy’s position corresponds very closely with Loudon Hill on the river Irvine, where there is a Roman camp. What confirms this identity is, that the towns in the territory of the Damnonii appear afterwards to have been all connected with Roman roads, and there are the remains of a Roman road leading from this camp to Carstairs.