Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

36 LECTURE 11.
existence of a Celtic population at any period
to the north of the Rhine. Let a Celtic scholar
take up a map, and cast his eye over the topo-
graphy of the north of Europe, and he will not
fall in with a single name of w^hich he can say,
with any degree of confidence, that it is derived
from the Celtic. In this he will observe a
striking contrast to the topography of southern
Europe. There almost every name of any anti-
quity is more or less Celtic in its conforma-
tion, and affords irrefragable evidence of the
early existence of a Celtic race. This is true
more especially of natural objects, which long-
est retain their original names. There is not
a fragment of the Celtic tongues to be traced in
such words as the " Vistula," the " Elbe," the
" Weser," the " Ems." How different from the
rivers of France and Italy we shall afterwards
see. If there ever was a Celtic race in northern
Europe, they have assuredly left no traces of
their existence, a circumstance hardly com-
patible with their existence at all. It has been
said, indeed, that the Cimbric Chersonesus —
the modern Jutland — gave origin to the Welsh
Cymri. The topography of Jutland affords no
evidence of this ; and, so far as its evidence
goes, would indicate that the Cimbric Cher-
sonesus of the Eomans was not the modern Jut-