Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/482

 ADVERTISEMENTS. THE PLACE NAMES OF ELGINSHIRE. By D. MathesoQ, F.E.I.S., late Headmaster, Anderson's Institu- tion, Elgin. Eight Illustrations. 208 pages. 1905. 6s. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. This book contains the names and etymologies of about a thousand places in Elginshire. The etymologies given for the names may, in the majority of cases, be accepted as correct, and some of them show research and ingenuity in detecting the original form of Celtic names.—" Banffshire Journal." Mr Matheson considers the old records of Elginshire the most important of all sources of information on this most interesting subject, as embodying very approximately, if not the original form, at least the original sound. This seems a sensible view — Mr Matheson is evidently a philologist. — " Daily Journal." Mr D. Matheson, lately the head of an educational institution, and now editor of the "Northern Times," is the latest recruit to the slowly increasing authors on place-names. His work on the " Place Names of Elginshire" is a handsome volume of over 200 pages. . . . Every one interested in place names should have it. As a working list of names with some historic facts, the book will do. — " Northern Chronicle." This book is of great interest, going over the place names systemati- cally parish by parish. The parishes are taken in their alphabetical order, and the place names in each are dealt with in detail, a full index being given at the end. The book is a notable contribution to the rapidly- growing literature of place names, and relating, as it does, to a compara- tively small county, it may be regarded as exhaustive. The work is scholarly, and commendably free from fanciful interpretations. The gen- eral student of place names will find in it much valuable aid to the reading of topographical nomenclature. — " Aberdeen Free Press." Mr Matheson's views of both race and language are not in full 'accord with those of the extreme classics, whose delight is to revel in the glory of mere academic excellence, but his work will be none the less popular on that account. We heartily recommend the book as one that will interest and instruct. ... If Mr Matheson touches some sensitive- spots by his views on them, and on the place names of Elginshire, he will be in the best of company; and if hostile critics " swear at large" at him. all the more will his work be read, and the more it will be read the more will it serve its purpose to instruct and interest his countrymen on the subject, and to awaken still further the growing interest in the topog- raphy and all the other interests that follow in its wake.—" Oban Weekly News." THE BATTLE OF SHERIFFMUIR Related from Original Sources. Illustrated by 20 Original Pen and Ink Drawings. 64 Pages. 1898. By an F.S.A. (Scot.). F scap 4 to., 3s 6d. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. We have seldom seen a more dainty production than this quarto.-- •' Northern Chronicle." The anonymous author has told the story of the fight from suen original authorities as the despatches of Mar and Argyle and Freebairn's