Welsh Journals

my knight errant seized me by the elbow and led me into the street. Look out for the traffic Then, as we strode along, he pointed out to me the principal buildings That's the Bank of England, where all your good money comes from Adopting the look of one who sees the Bank of England for the first time, I gaped appreciatively, but there was better still to come. Fine hunting morning, this! was his next remark. Confound the fellow Were there straws in my hair? Or was I bandy-legged as well as stiff? Yet, always unwilling to miss my cue in any con- versation, I replied, Very, indeed! Where do you hunt? Whaddon Chase is my country-and some- times with the Pytchley and Quorn." (I thought of Hendre cross roads). WHAT'S IN A NAME WELSH MUSINGS by T. P. Ellis. SOME time ago there was a spasmodic move- ment in Wales-alas that it should be that most movements in Wales are spasmodic and fizzle out with a helpless sort of gasp-to alter the names of certain towns which had ac- quired an English nomenclature and to revert to a more ancient and more distinctively Welsh form. There were some errors of suggestion in this movement, for instance, the insistence on the spelling Dolgellau,' which is both philologically and historically without anything to recommend it but, on the whole, there was much to be said for the proposed return to an ancient form of names. It showed at least a sense of historic. fitness. The most noteworthy instance was the case of Holyhead, whose real name, Caergybi, is both euphonious and capable of conjuring up thoughts and visions of the past. Caergybi links us up with the days of the Romans and with one of the most charming and typically Welsh of the old saints, for Cybi was both irascible and mild in disposition, like all good Welshmen are and in linking us up with Rome and Cybi, we become linked up with two of the great factors which, in olden days, helped to mould the Welsh people. Holyhead has nothing to recommend it as a name, firstly, because there is no head Mynydd Twr is, in no sense, a cape-and secondly, even if it were, because at no time was Mynydd Twr 'holy.' Though it might have been possible at one time to regard the island itself as There's been a lot of frost this season, hasn't there? I remarked, warming to my task. Beastly rotten lot! I've not had more than twenty days since Christmas." Well, that's more than I've had," I said cheerfully. Perhaps you haven't so many horses as I have," he threw off. I've got sixteen." No," I answered with truth. I haven't so many as that." Now, here's your 'bus. Conductor, will you see that this young lady gets off in Fleet Street? Are you all right now? I assured him that I was, and thanked him warmly. As I left him standing with lifted hat, the sun shining on his ruddy countenance, I won- dered what he would have thought of Polly and the elastic-sided boots. holy '-I believe it still has some aspirations in that direction-the terrible looseness of phrase- ology employed to-day has secured the appella- tion of Holyhead Island being applied to it, an appellation which is thoroughly bad and thor- oughly meaningless English. In whatsoever cir- cumstances the name of Holyhead became applied to the place, its continuation was insisted upon by Welsh people because of some fancied com- mercial advantage accruing from doing so. Whoever committed the sin originally, we are ourselves voluntarily perpetuating it. There are many cases in Wales where ancient names are being replaced by English words or a Welsh word is being turned into a fearsome hybrid. The historic site of Bangor-is-y-coed, for instance, is now spoken of as Bangor-on-Dee, and two of the most recent perversions, Rhos-on- Sea for Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, and Dyffryn-on-Sea for Dyffryn Ardudwy, are inflictions imposed on us by railway companies. Dyffryn-on-Sea is a wicked monstrosity, but it is a mild offence com- pared with Rhos-on-Sea. Dyffryn Ardudwy might, by a stretch of the imagination and an abuse of terms, be rendered into Dyffryn-on-Sea; only of course the G.W.R., with a painful lack of felicity, has applied the latter name not to Dyffryn Ardudwy but to the charming old parishes of Llanenddwyn and Llanddwywe, which have another name still, Ystumgwern. Geographical and historical memories have been sacrificed to a linguistic barbarism but even more than that has been done with Rhos-on-Sea,