Page:The dialect of the southern counties of Scotland - Murray - 1873.djvu/31

Rh, Fernieherst, Kutherford, Middleham or Midlem, Langton, Eckford, Hassendean (Halestanedene), Hawick, Denholm, Langlee, Whitmoor, Whitriggs, Whitchesters, Wilton, Ashkirk, Essenside, Harwood, Wolfelee, Wolfcleuchhead, Swinnie, Swinhope, Todlaw, Todsnaw, Todrig, Catcleuch, Oxenham, Buocleuch, Newstead, Stow, Drygrange, Darnwick, Selkirk, Oakwood, Hartwood-myres, Hindhope, Drykope, Midgehope, Hellmoor, Thirlstane, Oorsecleugh, in Boxburgh and Selkirkshires; Langholm, Broomholm, Muckledale, Westerkirk, Morton, Thornhill, Euthwell, Lookerby, Canonby, Mousewald, Torthorwald, Tinwald, Applegarth, Elderbeck (the latter of which are Norse), in Dumfriesshire, are only specimens of the common names of towns, hamlets, parishes, and farms. The instant we leave the dales of the Esk and Annan, in Dumfriesshire, and cross into that of the Nith, we find ourselves in the midst of a foreign nomenclature, that of the Ersch of Galloway. Drumfries, Sanquhar, Auchencairn, Auchendarroch, Glencairn, Oairnkinna, Linncluden, Dalscairth, Darngarroch, Drumlanrig, Drummore, and hundreds of other examples of Dal, Drum, Auchen, Craigen, Bal, Glen, and Cairn, testify to the ethnological change. To return to the Angle area, it was from the banks of the Leader, a northern tributary of the Tweed, that the shepherd boy, Cuthberht, was called to be the apostle of Northumbria; it was over the area of Tweeddale, Teviotdale, and Ettrick Forest, as well as in Tynedale and Lindisfarne, that his labours of faith and love were performed, and that commemorative chapels rose to his memory. One of the most famous of these, to the history of which six chapters are devoted by Reginald of Durham, stood by the Slitrith, a tributary of the Teviot, and among the worshippers we have recorded the genuine Anglo-Saxon names of Seigiva (Sæiᵹifu) and Rosfritha (Rosfrið), "duae mulieres de villâ quâdam Hawich dictâ, ipsius provintiæ de Tevietedale." Dumfriesshire has, moreover, preserved to us, in the "Dream of the Holy Rood," inscribed in Anglo-Saxon Runes upon the Ruthwell Cross—perhaps the most venerable specimen of the language of the Northumbrian Angles, which ranks with the Runic inscription upon the Bewcastle Cross, commemorative of Alchfrid, son of Oswiu (ab. 664)—the genuine fragment of Cædmon, and the deathbed verses of Beda, as our chief, almost our only, data for the state of that dialect in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Ruthwell Cross is of course of Christian origin, but a relic of North Anglian heathendom seems to be preserved in a phrase which forms the local slogan of the town of Hawick, and which, as the name of a peculiar local air, and the refrain, or "owerword" of associated ballads, has been connected with the history of the town "back to fable-shaded eras." Different words have been sung to the tune from Rh