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Notwithstanding Mr Black’s
elaborate investigation into the origin of the word “Brechin" an
investigation creditable alike to his research and his learning,—we think he
has entirely failed in tracing the etymology of the term.
The question, like others of
a similar nature, must be determined by a reference to the original
inhabitants of the country, and the language they spoke. Who, then, were the
aborigines of Brechin, and what was their language ? At a very early period
of the history of the human race, a migratory horde of Asiatics, issuing
from the base of the Himmalaya Mountains in India, called in their own
language "Caoilltich;” by the Greeks, "Kel-toi;” by the Romans, “Keltae” or
“Celtae;” and in these islands, “Kelts” or “Celts" from the Celtic words
caoill, a wood, and tamh, to dwell, (literally, dwellers in woods,) migrated
into Asia Minor, and took possession of the coasts of Syria and adjacent
territory. They worshipped Bel and Astarte, known to the Hebrews as Baal and
Ash taro th, and built temples in the midst of groves usually situated on
rising eminences, at which a body of priests, denominated "Druids,”
officiated In whatever country they located themselves they introduced
chariots, attached to the axle-trees of which were scythes for the purpose
of mowing down their opponents in battle,—and which in ages antecedent to
the organisation of standing armies proved extremely formidable to barbarian
infantry. In process of time, when population began to press on the means of
subsistence—a crisis which occurs at an earlier stage among a pastoral than
an agricultural community— detachments from this horde would in all
probability have crossed the Hellespont into Europe, and settled in Greece,
within sight of Italy. The word “Italy*' is a compound of two Celtic words,
“Edal,” pasture, and “ I/' an island; and though Italy is a peninsula, and
not an island, yet its appearance from the coasts of Greece would naturally
lead the inhabitants to suppose it was the latter. From the fertility of the
Italian soil and its luxuriant vegetation, we may infer that the earlier
settlers in Greece, during the summer months, when vegetation there was
scorched by a powerful sun, would be attracted with their flocks and herds
to the rich pasturage of Italy. Accordingly we find that when AEneas—son-in-law
of Priam, king of Troy—fleeing from the wrath of the “ perfidious Greeks,”
landed in Italy, he was opposed by numerous and warlike tribes.
The next outlet for a
redundant population, pressed moreover by Greek colonists seizing on the
Italian coasts, would be Gaul and Spain, which would have been entered by
the Alps and Pyrenees, and from these countries Great Britain and Ireland
came to be peopled. We are distinctly informed by Julius Caesar that he
found Britain thickly inhabited by a race similar in language, manners, and
customs, to the Gauls.
We have now traced the
aborigines of this country to the great Celtic family, who in ages involved
in a hoary antiquity occupied the greater portion of Europe. A portion of
this family it was, probably intermixed with a sprinkling of Shemitic blood,
from whom the Abrahamidae claimed the land of Canaan as an inheritance set
apart by divine promise to them and their posterity. We know that the
religious customs of the inhabitants of Canaan were very different from
those of Egypt, and from the mythology which subsequently arose in Greece
and Rome; and we are informed by Moses as well as by Josephus, that the
Hebrews had to contend with their armed chariots, though they themselves
were prohibited from using them. It is probable that the invention of the
Macedonian phalanx by Philip of Macedon may have taught the Orientals the
uselessness of this instrument of war as a means of charging and breaking
opposing ranks, and thus led gradually to their being abandoned. Be this as
it may, we learn from Caesar’s Commentaries, that chariots were used in this
country, and we are informed that Boadicea the British queen, attended by
her daughters, with dishevelled hair, rode round her army, exhorting them to
fight the Roman invaders. And in the battle fought between the Romans and
Caledonians, (Caoill-duin, men of the woods,) in the neighbourhood of
Brechin, Tacitus records that by the steadiness of the imperial legions in
withstanding the first charge of the Caledonians, and the weight of their
assault in return, these machines were driven with great impetuosity into
the ranks of their own infantry, and decided the fate of the battle in
favour of the Roman general.
We think that the use of
chariots in war could not have been an invention of the aborigines of this
country, but must have been introduced by them from their original
settlements in the East, for however suitable they might have been in the
plains and tablelands of Asia, even previously to the construction of
military roads, they could never have been efficient as a means of offence
or defence, in a rugged and mountainous country like Scotland.
That the religious belief of
the aborigines of this country was similar to that which obtained at a very
early period among powerful tribes in India, and subsequently in Asia Minor,
and Continental Europe, no one in the least acquainted with ancient history,
—with the description of Tumuli and temples recently discovered in those
countries, and with similar remains, still existing in this neighbourhood—will
venture to deny; and we may also, in corroboration of this point, allude to
many superstitious notions which the progress of Christianity and education
have not yet wholly eradicated.
Having now shown, as we
think, that the first inhabitants of this country were Celts and their
language Celtic, we must necessarily refer to this language for the origin
of the word “ Brechin;” but, ere doing so, it may assist us in arriving at a
satisfactory solution of the question that we glance at the topography of
this district.
The valley extending from
Montrose to Brechin bears evident traces of its having been at one period
covered with the ocean. The alluvial soil, slightly mingled with boulders
rounded by the action of water, demonstrate that this carse must have been
produced by a process of depositation or silting, as it is usually termed,—a
process still in operation, and which has contracted the Montrose basin
within the memory of men still living. Nor let it be urged that the period
of time intervening between the first arrival of humau beings ou our shores,
and the origin of written history was too limited to produce so great a
change; a much greater change has taken place during the last thirty
centuries at the embouchure of the Nile, and other rivers. Besides, we infer
from the immense forests which once abounded in this country, which cannot
now be produced, and the great quantity of moss, that the internal heat of
this part of the globe must then have been greater than now; that owing to
these forests a larger quantity of rain must have fallen, and thus given
greater strength, volume, and velocity to the South Esk, and the rills which
disembogue into it, whereby the deposit must have accumulated in a greater
ratio than it has done since the cessation of these causes. We have thus no
data whereby to approximate the length of time the ocean has occupied in
receding to Old Montrose-The termination of the ocean we infer from the
natural barrier there subsisting, to have been about Brechin Castle, the
site of which would have been probably selected by the first settlers as a
stronghold against the attacks of wild beasts, and in the vicinity of which,
numerous habitations of men would ultimately arise.
The Celtic word "Braigh”
signifies end, and “Cuan” the ocean, and the adjection and substantive being
conjoined are pronounced Braighchuain, or the end of the ocean. This we feel
confident is the true origin of the word Brechin. The corruption of the word
must have taken place when the Scandinavians, a branch of the blue-eyed and
fair-haired Teutonic race arriving from the north of Europe gradually drove
the Celts beyond the Grampians, and seized on the coast-lands. It is the
descendants of these Scandinavians, with a slight admixture of Celts and
Saxons, who now inhabit the lowlands of Forfarshire, and who, unable to
imitate or pronounce the harsh guttural tones of the Celtic, pronounce the
word Brechin as they now do. |
