THE WORD BURGH OR BOROUGH.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1525, 2 April 1886, Page 3

THE WORD BURGH OR BOROUGH.

Fn its most primitive and fundamental acceptation, a borough is simply a tort or earthwork. The word is one of a large family of words, all of wliich have for their common ancestor a verb meaning to dig or delve. The verb itself takes various forms, as "to bury" and "to burrowbut its prime sense is that of throwing up earth, whether for the purpose of making a hole like a rabbit, or for that of raising a mound or earthwork like a civilised human being. The earth t'ms thrown up may be intended to cover the remains of a dead man, in which case the man is said to be buried, and the mound under which he rests is called a burrow. Or it may surround a stockaded village or primitive hillfort, in which case the word is comrnonlv known by the present title of burgh or borough. It is from hill-forts of such an ancient and primitive kind that all our modern buries, burghs, and boroughs, however spelt, are lineally descended. Iu the old English torque (I am afraid of calling it Anglo S - son, because I know if I were once to men 1 ion that awe-inspiring word you would at once leave off the perusal of this present article) a hill-fort, or a town fortified with earthworks, was called a " burh," which fearsome combination of letters was pronounced exactly as Scotchmen si ill pronounce their native sound " burgh," and as Sir George Campbell will never persuade any modern English lips to pronounce it, even if he gets an Act of Parliament for that special purpose. All the other spellings and pronunciations are simply attempts on the part of modern tongues to get as near as possible bv violent efforts to this harsh and barbaric early monstrosity. In Germany the word has generally hardened down simply into burg, as in Marburg, Tloinburg, Hamburg, and Magdeburg ; in Scotland it has retained its original roughness of burgh, as in Edinburgh, Jedburgh, and Roxburgh ; in northern E igland it usually Boftens into borough, as in Gainsborough, Middlesborough, and Loughborough; and in ihe south and west it finally weakens into the very mitigated form of bury, Shaftesbury, and Bury St Edmunds, —Cornhill Magazine,