2. In many cases the Roman Names cannot be supposed to involve complete transcripts of the Celtic Names; frequently they were doubtless convenient abbreviations of the original names—names consisting of descriptive terms to them unintelligible. According to Mr. Reynolds, the Saxons generally adopted the first syllable only of the Roman or British names they found in this island. According to Bullet, “Vic,” a word of Roman origin for a Village or Town, has, from similar causes, become common as a Proper name in Dauphiné; in modern times we have numerous Villages called “Thorpe,” the name for a Village in Anglo-Saxon and [pg 062] German. In instances of this kind, there can be no doubt that originally the names were descriptive, such as “Long-town,” “Old-town,” &c. Tre or Trev is the common Welsh word for a Town, Village, or residence; it had the same meaning in Cornwall:
“By Tre, Tres, and Tren,
You shall know the Cornish men.”
A consequence of the names of the gentry of the county having been derived from those of their residences, into which this word commonly entered!
In Wales we have numerous examples of “Tre,” as in “Tre-llwng,” “The Town” of the “Pool,” (i.e. Welshpool,) from an adjoining “Llyn,” or Pool, near Powis Castle; “Tre-lydan,” the Broad Village, or Residence near Welshpool; “Trev-alyn,” near Chester, the Residence on the Stream; the “Alyn,” &c. &c.
Now according to the Roman mode, such a term as Trev-alyn would have been changed into Trev-iri, the designation actually given to the Celts of “Treves,” &c.
The following are analogous examples:
There is a tribe of Brig-antes in Yorkshire, another in Ireland, and a third in the North-east of Spain. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to show that these distant Celtic tribes must have been scions of the same tribe. A much simpler explanation may be given.
By referring to the Roman maps the reader will find a word, “Briga,” in such general use as part of the names of towns as to leave no reasonable doubt that it must have been, like Tre, a Celtic name for a town—now obsolete. Thus in Spain we have, Laco-briga, Meido-briga, Ara-briga, Tala-brica, Augusto-briga, &c. Now the analogous instances already noticed suffice to point out that the occurrence of [pg 063] Brig-antes as a Roman name of Tribes in three Celtic countries, is a natural result of the frequent occurrence of Briga as the first part of the names of Celtic places.
The “Allo-bryg-es.” The name of this warlike tribe, the Celtic inhabitants of Savoy, has also been the source of perplexity, which may be removed in the same manner. This tribe had a town, called by the Romans “Brig-icum,” which was said to be “the only one they had.”[55] Now Allo-Bryga may reasonably be identified with Alpo-Briga, the Town of the Alps (Briga being clearly the common base of “Allo-bryg-es,” and “Brig-icum.”)