09-15-2018, 10:10 PM
From this link: http://www.archive.org/stream/archaeolog...t_djvu.txt
St. Feich's Em-tur may signify the castle of Dumbarton,
in which there was anciently a chapel dedicated to St.
Patrick, (61) and thus it would agree with the Aberdeen
Breviary ; or it may mean the Dun, if it had a tower, or any
of the forts along the wall of Antoninus ; but most probably
it refers to Chapel-hill. I say most probably Chapel-hill by
reason of the interpretation given by St. Feich's scholiast
and others to the name, viz., Holy Tower. Secondly,
because tradition and the name assure us that on the site of
the Roman station there stood a chapel. (This church also
might have had a tower). Thirdly, because a church on
Chapel-hill, so near to that in the village of Kilpatrick, was
not, as far as we can learn, at any time required to accommo-
date the population of the village, and must therefore have
been built, most likely, according to the Catholic practice,
out of reverence for, and in commemoration of the super-
natural manifestations mentioned in the office of the Church
on occasion of St. Patrick's conception in the fortress.
Fourthly, because it is not certain that there was a tower on
the Dun. Fifthly, because according to the most ancient
biographies of St. Patrick, he was born before the erection,
in 369, of Dumbarton Castle, and Theodosia, subsequently
called Alcluith, Alcluyd, Dunclud, Dunbritton, Dunbreatann,
Dunbertan, Dunbarton, Dumbarton. (62) All this, however,
bears but indirectly on the subject of my investigation, as it
relates only to the place of St. Patrick's conception, not of
his nativity. Reverting then from this digression, to the
sole object of my enquiry, I ask where is Nempthor, near
which Jocelin, SS. Evin, Eleran, Benignus, and Patrick
Junior, St. Feich's commentator, and the Breviaries of Paris
and Armagh say St. Patrick was born. For the reasons
already assigned it must be at or near Kilpatrick. The
Annals of Ulster, which change Alcluith into Alocluathe,
mention a rock called Mimro, .which may possibly be an
Irish name for Nempthor. This Mimro seems to have
been the Rock of Dumbarton, since the Annals tell us
that a battle was fought at a rock called Mimro by the
Dalriads, or Irish of Argyle, and the Britons of Strath-
clyde, A.D. 716. The word, however, is so much changed
that nothing definite can be inferred from it. Dr. Lanigan
denied the existence of Nempthor in Britain, because he had
not found it mentioned in Nennius's list of British towns, nor
in any of the old Itineraries, nor in Ricardus Corenensis, nor
in Camden, Horsley, &c. Their silence would, at the most,
establish only a presumption, not a proof, of its non-existence.
The breviaries of Armagh and Paris tell us expressly that
Emptor or Empthoria was in Britain, and we have seen that
St. Fiech's commentator places it in North Britain at Alcluith.
If the Doctor had examined Horsley's Britannia Romana mi-
nutely, he might have recognised it in Nemeton among the
towns he assigns to Scotland, from those mentioned by the
anonymous geographer of Ravenna. (63) The geographer
marks the situation of Nemeton by stating that it is where
Britain is narrowest from sea to sea, and that it, and the
other towns mentioned, are connected with one another.
From this description the towns named were evidently along
the wall of Antoninus, between the Clyde and Forth ; and
this, together with Jocelin's statement that Nempthor^ was in
North Britain (" oppidum"), a fortified or walled town, close
to the Irish sea, in a lower situation than the other fort on a
promontory (Dumbarton), of which the ruins were visible
in his time, enables us to say definitely that it was the Roman
station on Chapel-hill. The geographer of Ravenna having
written in most barbarous Latin, the difference in the spelling
of the word is easily conceived. He has corrupted, in the
same way, the names of several other well-known towns,
some of them into a kind of Italian thus he has changed
the Uxellum of Ptolomy into Uxelia, Lucopidia into Luco-
tion, Corda into Coria, and Trimontium into Trimuntium.
Even more accurate authors do not all write this word in the
same way. Jocelin has it Nempthor or Nemthor ; Dr. Lanigan
makes it Emtor; the lives ascribed to SS. Evin, Patrick
Junior, Benigrms, and Eleran Nempthur; the Breviary of
Armagh Emptor ; and that of Paris Empthoria. In all these
forms it is not Celtic, because there is no word in Gaelic be-
ginning with either Nemp or Emp : it is barbarous Latin a
proper name made of a common noun. It has evidently
acquired the letter N, like St. Feich's Nemtur, from the pre-
position in, (64) and Emptor and Empthoria are easily detected
as barbarous phonetic corruptions of the Latin word Empo-
rium, a market-town. To comprehend how the word became
thus corrupted requires but little thought. When the Ro-
mans and their market had disappeared from the scene, the
proper form and the import of the word Emporium, which
the uncivilized Scotch and Irish had undoubtedly heard, was
lost; but, as the towers remained, and they knew of the
miraculous conception of St Patrick in a tower, and that a
chapel had been built in his honour on the site of the fort,
the tor of Emptor seems to have been taken for a word sig-
nifying a tower, instead of a mere Latin termination, and
was converted by the Irish, according to the idiom of their
language, into tur and thur. That such was the case appears
from the Irish explanation of the term, viz., heavenly tower,
and the retention of the p in Nempthur, as well as in Emptor
and Empthoria. The p, preserved in all the. oldest forms of
the word, is a conclusive proof not merely against its fancied
Celtic, but likewise a clear indication of its real Latin origin
Emporium, which comes itself from Emptor, a buyer.
We have now ten words which express the birth-place of
St. Patrick, which may be reduced to four intelligible names :
1. Bonaven Taberniae ; or Probus's version of it Bannave Ty-
burnise. 2. The six corruptions of Emporium. 3. Arimuric.
4. Kilpatrick. All these names are successively applicable
to Kilpatrick, but to no other place.
note: [63] Iterum suntcivitates in ipsa Britannia nbi plus augustissima
de oceano in oceano esse dignascitur. Id e^t Velunia, Volitanio,
Pexa, Begese, Calanica, Medio, Nemeton, Subdobiadon, Litaiui,
Cibra, Credigone. Another version is * In ipsa Britannia in
recto tramite una alterius connejfae ubi et ipsa Britannia plus
augustissima, 307, 1. 1. Medionemeton, &c. Geographi Gr. min.
torn. iii. Varise Lectiones, Anon. Ravennatis, ex codice Vaticano
St. Feich's Em-tur may signify the castle of Dumbarton,
in which there was anciently a chapel dedicated to St.
Patrick, (61) and thus it would agree with the Aberdeen
Breviary ; or it may mean the Dun, if it had a tower, or any
of the forts along the wall of Antoninus ; but most probably
it refers to Chapel-hill. I say most probably Chapel-hill by
reason of the interpretation given by St. Feich's scholiast
and others to the name, viz., Holy Tower. Secondly,
because tradition and the name assure us that on the site of
the Roman station there stood a chapel. (This church also
might have had a tower). Thirdly, because a church on
Chapel-hill, so near to that in the village of Kilpatrick, was
not, as far as we can learn, at any time required to accommo-
date the population of the village, and must therefore have
been built, most likely, according to the Catholic practice,
out of reverence for, and in commemoration of the super-
natural manifestations mentioned in the office of the Church
on occasion of St. Patrick's conception in the fortress.
Fourthly, because it is not certain that there was a tower on
the Dun. Fifthly, because according to the most ancient
biographies of St. Patrick, he was born before the erection,
in 369, of Dumbarton Castle, and Theodosia, subsequently
called Alcluith, Alcluyd, Dunclud, Dunbritton, Dunbreatann,
Dunbertan, Dunbarton, Dumbarton. (62) All this, however,
bears but indirectly on the subject of my investigation, as it
relates only to the place of St. Patrick's conception, not of
his nativity. Reverting then from this digression, to the
sole object of my enquiry, I ask where is Nempthor, near
which Jocelin, SS. Evin, Eleran, Benignus, and Patrick
Junior, St. Feich's commentator, and the Breviaries of Paris
and Armagh say St. Patrick was born. For the reasons
already assigned it must be at or near Kilpatrick. The
Annals of Ulster, which change Alcluith into Alocluathe,
mention a rock called Mimro, .which may possibly be an
Irish name for Nempthor. This Mimro seems to have
been the Rock of Dumbarton, since the Annals tell us
that a battle was fought at a rock called Mimro by the
Dalriads, or Irish of Argyle, and the Britons of Strath-
clyde, A.D. 716. The word, however, is so much changed
that nothing definite can be inferred from it. Dr. Lanigan
denied the existence of Nempthor in Britain, because he had
not found it mentioned in Nennius's list of British towns, nor
in any of the old Itineraries, nor in Ricardus Corenensis, nor
in Camden, Horsley, &c. Their silence would, at the most,
establish only a presumption, not a proof, of its non-existence.
The breviaries of Armagh and Paris tell us expressly that
Emptor or Empthoria was in Britain, and we have seen that
St. Fiech's commentator places it in North Britain at Alcluith.
If the Doctor had examined Horsley's Britannia Romana mi-
nutely, he might have recognised it in Nemeton among the
towns he assigns to Scotland, from those mentioned by the
anonymous geographer of Ravenna. (63) The geographer
marks the situation of Nemeton by stating that it is where
Britain is narrowest from sea to sea, and that it, and the
other towns mentioned, are connected with one another.
From this description the towns named were evidently along
the wall of Antoninus, between the Clyde and Forth ; and
this, together with Jocelin's statement that Nempthor^ was in
North Britain (" oppidum"), a fortified or walled town, close
to the Irish sea, in a lower situation than the other fort on a
promontory (Dumbarton), of which the ruins were visible
in his time, enables us to say definitely that it was the Roman
station on Chapel-hill. The geographer of Ravenna having
written in most barbarous Latin, the difference in the spelling
of the word is easily conceived. He has corrupted, in the
same way, the names of several other well-known towns,
some of them into a kind of Italian thus he has changed
the Uxellum of Ptolomy into Uxelia, Lucopidia into Luco-
tion, Corda into Coria, and Trimontium into Trimuntium.
Even more accurate authors do not all write this word in the
same way. Jocelin has it Nempthor or Nemthor ; Dr. Lanigan
makes it Emtor; the lives ascribed to SS. Evin, Patrick
Junior, Benigrms, and Eleran Nempthur; the Breviary of
Armagh Emptor ; and that of Paris Empthoria. In all these
forms it is not Celtic, because there is no word in Gaelic be-
ginning with either Nemp or Emp : it is barbarous Latin a
proper name made of a common noun. It has evidently
acquired the letter N, like St. Feich's Nemtur, from the pre-
position in, (64) and Emptor and Empthoria are easily detected
as barbarous phonetic corruptions of the Latin word Empo-
rium, a market-town. To comprehend how the word became
thus corrupted requires but little thought. When the Ro-
mans and their market had disappeared from the scene, the
proper form and the import of the word Emporium, which
the uncivilized Scotch and Irish had undoubtedly heard, was
lost; but, as the towers remained, and they knew of the
miraculous conception of St Patrick in a tower, and that a
chapel had been built in his honour on the site of the fort,
the tor of Emptor seems to have been taken for a word sig-
nifying a tower, instead of a mere Latin termination, and
was converted by the Irish, according to the idiom of their
language, into tur and thur. That such was the case appears
from the Irish explanation of the term, viz., heavenly tower,
and the retention of the p in Nempthur, as well as in Emptor
and Empthoria. The p, preserved in all the. oldest forms of
the word, is a conclusive proof not merely against its fancied
Celtic, but likewise a clear indication of its real Latin origin
Emporium, which comes itself from Emptor, a buyer.
We have now ten words which express the birth-place of
St. Patrick, which may be reduced to four intelligible names :
1. Bonaven Taberniae ; or Probus's version of it Bannave Ty-
burnise. 2. The six corruptions of Emporium. 3. Arimuric.
4. Kilpatrick. All these names are successively applicable
to Kilpatrick, but to no other place.
note: [63] Iterum suntcivitates in ipsa Britannia nbi plus augustissima
de oceano in oceano esse dignascitur. Id e^t Velunia, Volitanio,
Pexa, Begese, Calanica, Medio, Nemeton, Subdobiadon, Litaiui,
Cibra, Credigone. Another version is * In ipsa Britannia in
recto tramite una alterius connejfae ubi et ipsa Britannia plus
augustissima, 307, 1. 1. Medionemeton, &c. Geographi Gr. min.
torn. iii. Varise Lectiones, Anon. Ravennatis, ex codice Vaticano
Oh the grand oh Duke Suetonius, he had a Roman legion, he galloped rushed down to (a minor settlement called) Londinium then he galloped rushed back again. Londinium Bridge is falling down, falling down ... HOLD IT ... change of plans, we're leaving the bridge for Boudica and galloping rushing north.
