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of names, like those of Wallsend' and 'Thirlwall,' are derived from the Roman wall from Newcastle to Carlisle. Chester' and 'bury' mark the position of camps or fortresses; but the form 'caster' prevails through the Anglian and Danish districts, and the boundary between the Saxons and the Danes is probably marked by the river Nene, where it flows between Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire. There Chesterton on the one bank and Castor on the other represent two different modifications of the Roman Castra' established at Durobrivæ. The traces of the Roman legions exist in the names Lexdon (Legionis Dunum) and Caerleon (Isca Legionis or Caerwisc). Leicester and Liége

in Belgium are derived from the same source.

Another race now appears on the scene, who treated the Celts wherever they found them as foreigners and barbarians. The German people have always called the tribes of a different blood on their borders by the name of 'Wälsche' or 'Welsh.' The canton of the Vallais, or Wallis, is to the German Swiss the land of those who speak French. Wälschland is Italy; Churwälsch is the Romance language of the Grisons; Wallachia is to Eastern Germany what Wales is to England. The Walloons' are those who speak a tongue derived from the Latin on the borders of the Low German district of Flanders; Wales' is the foreign land of the Saxons, and Cornwall' is the Wales of the Horn.'

We do not, however, go along with our author in all his illustrations of this antithesis between Deutsch' and 'Wälsch.' We admit that a wall-nut' is wälsche-nuss,' the Icelandic call:not,' or the foreign nut,' and that wälsche Hahn,' on the same principle, signifies a turkey' in German; but we protest against his derivation of the first syllable of' wallfisch' (a whale) and 'walrus' from the same root, so that they should mean the strange fish' and 'the strange horse.' Adelung remarks very truly that the existence of the Norse word 'hvalr,' and of the Anglo-Saxon 'hwael,' without any suffix, seems decisive against this theory. In the metaphoric language of the Scalds, the serpent was called 'heiðar hvalr,' or the whale of the heath,' just as it was sometimes termed 'the salmon of the heath.' The word 'fisch' seems to have been added in German to 'hval' or 'wall' as an explanation. The Danish 'hvalros' was probably 'whalehorse, though it has been supposed to be derived from the Low German wall,' signifying the coast or sea-shore. Possibly the root in hvalr' is the same as that in the first syllable of the LatinBalana' and the Greek Páλawa' or Þáλλaiva;' but it is not the same word as the Icelandic Valir or 'Valskr,' which was the term applied by the Northmen to the French

French in Normandy and to the Welsh in England,* equivalent to the Saxon wall and wealh, meaning strangers.

But we return to the Anglo-Saxon occupation of England. Our author says:—

'If we compare the local names in England with those on the Continent, we shall find that for more than a thousand years England has been distinctively and pre-eminently the land of enclosures. The suffixes which occur most frequently in Anglo-Saxon names denote an enclosure of some kind-something hedged, walled in, or protected. An examination of these names shows us that the love of privacy and the seclusiveness of character which is so often laid to the charge of Englishmen prevailed in full force among the races which imposed names upon our English villages. Those universally recurring terminations ton, ham, worth, fold, garth, park, burgh, bury, brough, borrow, all convey the notion of enclosure or protection.'pp. 124, 125.

It is said that in Yorkshire the names of towns and villages are generally Saxon: the rivers and woods into which the natives retired retain the British names, though mostly compounded with a Saxon word or name, as 'Coit Berton.' In Cumberland and Westmoreland some of the mountains have double names, one of Celtic, the other of English origin.†

The commonest termination of English local names is ton. The Anglo-Saxon verb tynan signifies to hedge in or enclose. It is rare in Germany, but occurs in Sweden. In many counties the word 'town' still signifies the farm-yard. We remember coming to a farm in Cornwall and asking our way to Lostwithiel ('the town' in the ordinary sense), when we were told to go through the town' (i. e. the farm-yard) and then turn to the right. It is the same in Scotland. The Norse 'gaard' answers to the English yard,' and differs little in meaning from the original sense of 'town.' 'Stakkgardr' in Icelandic is precisely our stackyard.' The Anglo-Saxon weorthig,' whence the suffix 'worth,' in most of our names such as 'Bosworth,' meant in like manner a farm or enclosed land; but there is another Saxon word nearly similar to this, which we suspect to be sometimes mistaken for it, and that is warod, wearod, or weard, which means the sea-shore, and which appears in the German werd or werder, an island in a river, whence the name Donauwerth is derived, and probably our name of Isleworth. Fold,' stoke,' and 'park, all have to do with enclosure; 'ham' is the English form of 'heim,' which meets us in so many German names.

6

* See Egilsson's 'Lexicon Poet.,' in vv.

6

+ Palgrave's English Commonwealth,' v. i. p. 450, n.

See Adelung, 'Wörterbuch,' in v.

c 2

Hurst,

Hurst, holt, wold, weald, and chart, were all applied to spots which were thickly wooded. Chislehurst, in Kent, is the wooded place on pebbles,' and the name suggests considerations of interest sufficient to detain us for a moment. The first portion of this word is the Saxon Ceosel' and the High German Kiesel.' 'Chelsea' is probably 'Chesel-ca' or the shingle island' in the Thames. The shingle bank which unites Portland to the mainland is called 'the Chesil Bank,' and Chislehurst was so denominated because it stands on another great ridge of rounded chalk flints, which constitute the peculiar gravel-beds of Woolwich and Blackheath. The name thus leads us to the geological formation of these extraordinary strata; it seems to tell us that, as the Chesil Bank now lies amid the breakers of the Channel, so this mass of flints was rolled to and fro for countless ages just at the level of the waves, amid the surf of a primæval occan. Our Saxon ancestors, when they came, found the summit clothed with wood, and gave it this appropriate name, which describes at once the surface and the soil, and points by analogy to the process of its geological construction.

It is said that there are upwards of 2000 English names which contain the syllable 'ing,' the Anglo-Saxon patronymic. Sometimes it is the termination of the local name; but it is oftener placed before the element which signifies 'dwelling,' as in 'Kensington' and 'Islington.' The name Harlington,' for instance, means the town' or settlement of the tribe of the Harlings ; and the Billings,' one of the Royal races, have probably left their name attached to 'Billingsgate,' as well as to many other places in England.*

One of Mr. Taylor's merits is his having examined with great industry and set out on a map the curious distribution of AngloSaxon names over the small district in the north of France which lies between Calais, Boulogne, and St. Omer. All Englishmen who have been in that part of the country must have thought that 'Wimille' sounded very like 'windmill,' and that it was singular a place called 'Sangatte' should exist exactly opposite to our Kentish Sandgate.' Twenty-two of these names have the suffix 'ton,' which is hardly found elsewhere on the Continent, and more than one hundred end in 'ham,' 'hem,' or 'hen,' as, for instance, Bazingham, Eringhem, Berlinghen, in France, corre

Mr. Kemble (Proceedings of Phil. Society, v. iv. pp. 1-10) enumerates 316 names of this kind which he has traced in the original charters. He considers ing as equivalent to the genitive' es,' and peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon dialect. Wulferdinglea, for instance, is Wolverley in Worcestershire, and Wulfherd is distinctly recorded as the owner, who paid various sums to the King for local privileges. On the other hand, Mr. Watts (ibid. p. 85) inclines to treat the syllable 'ing as adjectival rather than as marking a genitive.

sponding

sponding to Brassingham, Erringham, and Birlingham, in England. It would seem as if this particular portion of the French coast had received a Saxon colony from England, or these names may preserve the traces of the old Littus Saxonicum. A mass

of Teutonic local names occurs again near Caen, in a district which extends as far as the islands at the mouth of the Loire.

Another curious fact stated in this book we will give in our author's own words:

'There is a most unlikely corner of the continent, a well defined district, rather larger than Devonshire, where the names, though slightly disguised in form, are as characteristically Saxon as those found in the Boulogne colony. This district is confined chiefly to the valley of the Neckar, but just crosses the watershed between the Neckar and the Danube.

6

The ancient charters of this district, extending from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, have been admirably edited and published by the Government of Würtemberg. The local names in these charters are to a surprising extent identical with those in the Anglo-Saxon charters published by the English Historical Society. Twenty-four very remarkable coincidences are given by Professor Leo, and it would be easy largely to increase the list; but confining ourselves to the names which have survived to modern times, I find in the maps of the admirable Government Survey of Würtemberg no less than 344 patronymics, of which 266 or 80 per cent. occur also in England; and the number of identifications might doubtless be largely increased by a more careful comparison. The evidence is overwhelming. It proves that the villages in Würtemberg and the villages in England were originally settled by men bearing the same family names.'-pp. 156-8. Mr. Taylor seems disposed to think that the old Saxons' were seated somewhere between the mouths of the Elbe and the Rhine, and that the Suevi and Angles of Würtemberg may possibly have formed one of the transported colonies of Charlemagne; if, indeed,' he adds, 'the Swabian colony was not a settlement brought about at the same time and by the same causes that produced the descents upon the English coast' (p. 161).

We have seen how the local names of English rivers and mountains record the Celtic origin of the original occupants, and how the traces of Roman roads and camps run in lines across the land. We have also seen how the Saxons and their kindred tribes established their homes on the soil, and bequeathed to us the names of our villages and farms. We now turn for a moment to that wonderful race of Scandinavians, whose ships made their way into every creek and inlet in Northern France and in our islands, and who first landed as pirates, and then as conquerors seized the sway of Naples, Sicily, Normandy, and England.

They

They were familiar with the East by another route also, and it is most curious to find on the gigantic lion at the gate of the Arsenal at Venice-the spoils of the Piraeus-the Runes which record the name of Harold the Varangian, afterwards Harold Hardrádr and King of Norway, who was destined to fall at Stamford Bridge in England. The proud inscription on the sword of Roger Guiscard of Sicily, who conquered Malta and Tripoli, is highly significant of the exploits and the power of the Northmen in the Mediterranean:

'Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer.'

With regard to the East of England, where the Danes were fully established, Sir Francis Palgravet tells us the old Anglo-Saxon names of places gave way to Danish appellations. "Northweorthig" became "Deoraby" or "Derby." "Streoneshalch" is the present "Whitby." The vessels of Grimsby, if they enter a Danish port, can even now claim the exemptions derived from the Danish founder or restorer; and the topography as well as the language of the North and East of England will afford the most convincing proof of the preponderance of the Danish settlers.'

The Icelandic Byr' or 'Bor' is the equivalent of the Danish 'By'-a dwelling, and thence a village. The Scotch Byre,' for a cow-house, is derived from this word, and the Norman termination, corresponding to it, is Bue' or 'Beuf,' as in Quillebeuf.' Nor is this change of vowel surprising, for the 'y' in the Danish 'By' is a modification of the 'u,' resembling the French 'u,' or the German 'ü,' rather than our 'y. In the Danish district of England this suffix constantly takes the place of the Saxon 'ham or 'ton,' as in Grimsby, Whitby, Rugby. Mr. Taylor tells us that to the north of Watling Street there are some six hundred instances of its occurrence, and to the south of it hardly one. In the same manner it is abundant in Slesvig and Jutland, but very scarce in Germany. Another termination of the same kind and nearly the same meaning is thorp,' 'throp,' or 'trop." In East Jutland it occurs in the form of torp,' and means a single farm-house.§ The Icelandic Thorp' meant also‘

a hill'

*See Raumer's 'Hohenstaufen,' B. i., s. 473. The making the sword speak in the first person approximates to conferring on it the sort of personal existence assigned to certain weapons in the Sagas. The same effect is produced by the motto on the sword of Fernan Gonzalez and Garci Perez de Vargas, still preserved at Seville, which begins De Fernan Gonzalez fué, de quien recibí cl valor,' &c. See above the note, p. 4.

English Commonwealth,' v. 1, p. 50.

Compare Grimm, Deutsche Gramm.,' B. 1, ss. 291, 560, who designates it as 'Umlaut des U.'

§ See Molbech, 'Dansk Dialect Lexicon,' in v.

or