Note 278 — Chapter IV · ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. (continued 2)

Taylor, Words and Places, p. 232. With what success he attempts to make this out his list of Pens will show. Leaving out those in Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, and Haddington, where there was originally a Welsh-speaking people, ‘we find,’ he says, ‘the Cymric form of the word in the Grampians,’ which is utter nonsense, ‘the Pentland Hills,’ which is a corruption of Petland Hills, as the Pentland Firth is of the Petland Firth, ‘the Pennguaul Hills,’ which have no existence, and ‘Pendrich in Perth,’ which is a corruption of Pittindriech. The whole of this part of Mr. Taylor’s work is tainted with phonetic etymology; e.g., he says, ‘From llevn, smooth, or from linn, a deep still pool, we obtain the names of Loch Leven, and three rivers called Leven in Scotland.’ The old form of this name Leven is ‘Leamhan,’ which means in Irish an elm-tree. The Welsh equivalent is Llwyfan.