The Cat-Stane, Edinburghshire : is it not the tombstone of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa? / by J. Y. Simpson.
- James Young Simpson
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Cat-Stane, Edinburghshire : is it not the tombstone of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa? / by J. Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![specimens of tliis kind of verbal alloy, is alluded to above a thousand years ago by Bede,1 in reference to a locality not above fourteen or fifteen miles west from the Cat-stane. For, in his famous sentence regarding the termination of the walls of Antoninus on the Forth, he states that the Piets called this eastern “ head of the wall” Pean-fahel, but the Angles called it Pennel-fim. To a contracted variety of this Pictish word sig- nifying head of the wall, or to its Welsh form Pengual, they added the Saxon word “ town,” probably to designate the “ villa,” which, accord- ing to an early addition to Nennius, was placed there. “ Pengaaul, quae villa Scottice Cenail [Kinneil], Anglice verb Peneltun dicitur.” 2 The pakeographic peculiarities of the inscription sufficiently bear out the idea of the monument being of tbe date or era which I have veu- Cserlowrie, was designated by a name, having apparently the Celtic “ battle ” noun as a prefix in its composition—viz., Cat-elbock. This fine old Celtic name has latterly been changed for the degenerate and unmeaning term Almond-hill. 1 Historia Ecclesiast., lib. i. c. xii. “ Sermone Pictorum Peanfahel, lingua autem Anglorum Penneltun appellantur.” 2 Historia Britonuin, c. xix. At one time I fancied it possible that the mutilated and enigmatical remains of ancient Welsh poetry furnished us with a name for the Cat-stane older still than that appellation itself. Among the fragments of old Welsh historical poems ascribed to Taliesin, one of the best known is that on the battle of Gwen-Ystrad. In this composition the poet describes, from professedly personal observation, the feats at the above battle of the army of his friend and great patron, Urien, King of Rheged, who was subsequently killed at the siege of Med- caut, or Lindisfarne, about a.d. 572. Villemarque places the battle of Gwen-Ystrad between a.d. 547 and a.d. 560. The British kingdom of Iiheged, over which Urien ruled, is by some authorities considered as the old British or Welsh kingdom of Cumbria, or Cumberland; but, according to others, it must have been situated further northwards. In the poem of the battle of Gwen-Ystrad (see the Myvyrian Archaiology, vol. i. p. 53), Urien defeats the enemy—apparently the Saxons or Angles—under Ida, King of Bernicia. In one line near the end of the poem, Taliesin describes Urien as attacking his foes “ by the white stone of Galysten — “ Pan amwyth ai alon yn Llccli wen Galysten. The word “ Galysten,” when separated into such probable original components as “Gal’’and “ lysten,” is remarkable, from the latter part of the appellation, “ lysten,” corresponding with the name, “ Liston,” of the old barony or parish in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28270976_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
