Descriptive Names
When names arc given to places and things in Wales they are fond of adding adjectives so that when one has them translated one finds many a white stream, white rock, red rock, black lake or blue field and many a place that sits on the brow of a hill, at its foot or on the summit. I havC fished in the yellow lake, the lake of the grey cheek and the well of the moon. I have looked into the well of the frog, followed the dark stream past the house in the trees and sheltered in the black wood. Descriptive names arc in- variably found in the Celtic tongues. I was brought up in the house that faced the day while less fortunate people lived in the place away from the sun, but 1 envied those who lived on the strand above the water. So many places today seem to have been afflicted with names put upon them by people who had no real imagination but were concerned with things without poetry. How much better it is to live in the house among the trees on the side of the hill than in a suburban ' Chez Nous,' providing, of course, the post- man and one's friends can get their tongues round the name !
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