10 s. XIL JULY 3, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
17
EDINBURGH : DERIVATION OF ITS NAME I Upwards of a century ago, a writer informs
(10 S. x. 410, 473). It will hardly be ac- us that ' Annales Ullonienses,' MS. in the
cepted as proof that, because David I. men- British Museum, No. 4795 of Mr. Ayscough's
H^^A T^^r^oi.* ir, +Vm f/Min/ia+^n I catalogue, has " Bellum Gline Muresan et
tioned Edwinsburg* in the foundation
charter of Holyrood, it is the earliest form
obsessio Edin."* With respect to " The
of the place-name ; nor do I suppose the Maidens' Castle," i.e. Castellum Puellarum,
fact of Simeon of Durham writing the | Ayloffe, in his ' Calendars of Ancient
has
same settles the matter. Many, no doubt,
will consider that to trace the original form
we must go much further back. Here may
I repeat the generally accepted dictum,
place-names did not (often) take
origin from personal ones ?
Dr. Daniel Wilson, in his ' Archaeology and Primitive Annals,' states that there is suffi- cient evidence that a Roman colonia existed on the site of Edinburgh.
There seems an inclination to treat this
in
Charters ' (p. 288), has " Manipulus par- vorum rotulorum tangentium homagium regum Scotiao " and " victualium pro Cas- tello Purcell " (anno 6 Edward I.). The their | last word is supposed to be a typographical error so far as the c is concerned. To revert to Camden, he states : " As in an old book of the division of Scotland, in the Library of the Honourable my Lord Burleigh, late High Treasurer of England, in the reign of Indulph, Eden Town was quitted (vacuatum)
place-name apart from the castle, which and abandoned to the Scots to this present
in the circumstances appears to be a
mistake. That the eastle had an existence
before the town will, I imagine, be conceded.
The district in which the eastle was placed
was for many years exposed to the ravages
of the English and Danes : naturally, the
neighbouring inhabitants, for protection at
least, erected their homes under its wing
The probability is the name of the castle
became applied to the town, in some form
or another.
Camden wrote, " The castle was, by the Irish Scots, called Dun Eden," and Wynton wrote : " Maydn, Dunedin." For centuries Edinburgh was known by the latter name, and as late as 1776 was so called throughout the Highlands. " Henry the Third ordered the King of Scotland to summon the prelates
day." In ' Parvvm Theatrvm Vrbivm sive
Vrbivm Praecipvarvm Totivs Orbis Brevis et
Methodica Descriptio,' now before me (1595),
I find " Edenburgum, alias Alata Castra," and
again " Arx vocatur Castellum puellarum,"
and once more " Vrbis appellationem nobile
munimentum nonnulli interpretantur, ut sit
Edenburgum quasi Edleburgum."
Major states that the Romans and Britons levelled, among other cities, Agned, which, when it was " rebuilt by Heth, the King of the Picts, came to be Hethburg, and to-day is known as Edinburgh." The earliest known description of Edinburgh is by Alesius Edinburgi, or Alesse, who was a native, born 1500. He wrote : " The name of the Town is always given as Edinburges, and never as Lisleburgh or Lithleburg, as it
and magnates of his kingdom at Maiden's was J Ued b F the French, in the writer's
Castle " ; further, " Robert de Poppelai
renders his account, Saiher de Quenci owes
20Z. of Aron's debts, for Robert his father,
but as yet he ought not to be summoned,
for the canons of the Holy Rood of Eden-
burgh (Castellum Puellarum)." Buchanan
wrote that it was Dun Eden, the face of a
hill, and he thought the name should be
Edenum (see 5 S. xii. 128, 214).
The State Register, recording the death of
time."t
Edwin only fortified the castle. J Can any sound reasoning be produced, proving that the castle was unnamed at that time ?
What explanation is there for " Edwins- burgh " lapsing into "Edin," that, too, in the face of " Eden " water in Fife, &c.? ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.
DEW-PONDS (10IS. xi. 428, 474). The Transactions of the* South-Eastern Union of
King Edgar, has the following : " Mortuus Scientific Societies, 1908, contain (pp. 66-85)
C-^ T^i-i-^k Tn^i-ri f\c*4- c*kwi-ilr-f tic* TT- T^nYi-frvir'i'Vili-ri rr ** I *+ -. ^!^1..,1 ^ <J , . , , / ^-. ,- -C ,-1 ,-,- -T ^ -
in Dun-Edin, est sepulctus in Dunfermling."
This was about eighteen years before
David I. was crowned.
a paper entitled * Some Considerations
concerning Dew- Ponds,' by Mr. Edward A.
Martin. The paper has been reprinted in
Prof. Kuno Meyer asserted that ** Edwines- separate form. FREDK. A. EDWARDS.
burn would, however, have given E'dins-
burgh ; for the genitive s is never lost in
such derivations."
- My authority has the form Edenesburg, which,
it niay be added, is found in a charter of David I. printed in the ' Registrum de Dunfermelyn.'
- See 'Geographical Illustrations of Scottish His-
tory' (London, 1796), by David Macpherson.
t See also Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xi. (1901).
See 6 S. ix. 394, and ' Traditions of Edinburgh,' 1848.
