Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/94

 INTRODUCTION. 73 nations long denationalized or extirpated ; " and, says Canon Fariar, the names they gave to the grandest features of many a landscape will still stand upon the map." Many of our ancient names are most happily descriptive of the natural peculiarities of the scenes as they still exist : others lead us back in fancy to the pre-historic condition of the spots, so changed^ but still keeping their old designations. Lostwithiel, a town on the banks of the River Fowey, long connected with the earls and dukes of Cornwall, by its name alone takes us far into the past, when it was the place or residence of woodmen, the simple and sylvan habitation of a people leading a wild and venatic life. The Cymro- Keltic tongue, to which, the Cornish being dead, we are fain to appeal, tells us that the word is derived from Lios^ Llya, or Les, a place, and Owddely of the woods. In the near neighbourhood we have a large parish called WitMel, and Cuddle and other variations or corruptions are to be traced to the same root. Maen, a stone, is nearly as common a prefix as the Tre, Pol, and Pen, " by which you shall know the Comishmen.'* Mennear, maen-hir, is still a common patronymic, the first bearers of it being dwellers by the long stone. As names of places we have our Menadu, Menacuddle, MenabUly, Menhenniot, and a host of others. In our topographical nomencla- ture here and there occur designations which mark the steps of the intruder, as Tresawsen, the residence of the Saxon. The only traces of the Eoman domination remaining to us are on a few sepulchral stones by moor or wayside, where the old name is disguised by a Latin termination. A typical instance is found on the road to Fowey, near the ancient camp at Castle-dore, and not far from PoUcerris, where a monolith bears an inscription which is read thus : CIRV8IVS HIG JAOIT CVNOMORI PILIV8. The similarity between Cirusius and Kerns is fairly evident. Later on, our Teutonic invaders made deeper changes in our language, driving the Keltic into the extreme west, and leaving the speech of East Cornwall essentially English, with just a sparse sprinkling of IN'orman words. This neo-Latin influence is chiefly noticeable on the scutcheons of our ancient gentry, armigers. The
 * though the glossaries of Gael and Cymry should utterly pass away,