_"Cob" and "Conners"_ (Vol. vii., pp. 234. 321.).--These names are not
synonymous, nor are they Irish words. It is the pier at Lyme Regis, and not
the harbour, which bears the name of the _Cob_. In the "Y Gododin" of
Aneurin, a British poem supposed to have been written in the sixth century,
the now obsolete word _chynnwr_ occurs in the seventy-sixth stanza. In a
recent translation of this poem, by the Rev. John Williams Ab Ithel, M.A.,
this word is rendered, apparently for the sake of the metre, "shore of the
sea." The explanation given in a foot-note is, "Harbour _cynwr_ from _cyn
dwfr_." On the shore of the estuary of the Dee, between Chester and Flint,
on the Welsh side of the river, there is a place called "Connah's Quay." It
is probable that the ancient orthography of the name was _Conner_.
_Cob_, I think, is also a British word,--_cop_, a mound. All the ancient
earth-works which bear this name, of which I have knowledge, are of a
circular form, except a lone embankment called _The Cop_, which has been
raised on the race-course at Chester, to protect it from the land-floods
and spring-tides of the river Dee.