in the inver district, while it is extremely rare among the abers. The evidence of these four test-words leads us to the conclusion that the Celts of the Scottish lowlands belonged to the Cymric branch of the Celtic stock.

The ethnology of the Isle of Man may be very completely illustrated by means of local names. The map of the island contains about 400 names, of which about 20 per cent. are English, 21 per cent. are Norwegian, and 59 per cent. are Celtic. These Celtic names are all of the most characteristic Erse type. It would appear that not a single colonist from Wales ever reached the island, which, from the mountains of Carnarvon, is seen like a faint blue cloud upon the water. There are ninety-six names beginning with Balla, and the names of more than a dozen of the highest mountains have the prefix Slieu, answering to the Irish Slievh or Sliabh. The Isle of Man has the Curraghs, the Loughs, and the Allens of Ireland faithfully reproduced. It is curious to observe that the names which denote places of Christian worship are all Norwegian; they are an indication of the late date at which Heathenism must have prevailed, and help to explain the fact that so many heathen superstitions and legends still linger in the island.2

1 In the Channel Islands the names of all the towns and villages are derived from the names of saints, indicating that before the introduction of Christianity these islands were inhabited only by a sparse population of fishermen and shepherds.

2 On Celtic names consult Zeuss, Grammatica Celtica; Glück, Die bei Caius Julius Cäsar vorkommenden Keltischen Namen gestellt und erläutert; Leo, Vorlesungen; and Feriengeschriften; Diefenbach, Celtica; Chalmers, Caledonia; Prichard, Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations; Baxter, Glossarium; Salverte, Essai sur les Noms; Ferguson, River Names of Europe; Williams, Essays; Davies, Celtic Researches; Skene, Celtic Topography of Scotland; Dunker, Origines Germanica; Radlof, Neue Untersuchungen des Keltenthumes; Robertson, Gaelic Topography of Scotland; Betham, The Gael and the Cymbri; Mone, Celtische Forschungen; De Belloguet, Ethnogénie Gaulois; Brandes, Ethnographische Verhältniss der Kelten und Germanen; Contzen, Die Wanderungen der Kelten; Pott, Etymologische Forschungen; Poste, Britannic Researches; Keferstein, Ansichten über die Keltischen Alterthumer

CHAPTER X.

THE HISTORIC VALUE OF LOCAL NAMES.

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Contrast between Roman and Saxon civilization, as shewn by Local NamesRoman roads" Gates"-Bridges and fords-Celtic bridges-Deficiency of inns-Cold Harbour-Saxon dykes-Roman walls-Saxon forts-"Bury -Ancient camps-Chester, caster, and caer-Stations of the Roman Legions -Frontier districts-Castile-The Mark-Pfyn-Devises-Ethnic shirenames of England-Intrusive colonization.

THERE is a striking contrast between the characteristics of Saxon and Roman names. The Saxon civilization was domestic, the genius of Rome was imperial; the Saxons colonized, the Romans conquered. Hence, the traces of Roman rule which remain upon the map are surprisingly few in number. Throughout the whole island, we scarcely find a single place of human habitation denoted by a name which is purely Roman.1 The names of our English villages, with few exceptions, are Scandinavian or Teutonic; while the appellations of the chief centres of population and of the great natural landmarks—the rivers and the mountains-are the legacy of a still earlier race.

The character of Roman names is very different. Rome, with her eagle eye, could cast a comprehensive glance over a province or an empire, and could plan and execute the vast physical enterprises necessary for its subjugation, for its material progress, or for its defence. The Romans were essentially a constructive race. We still gaze with wonder on the massive fragments of their aqueducts, their bridges, their amphitheatres, their fortresses, and their walls; we still find their

1 Exceptions are SPEEN, anciently Spinæ, PONTEFRACT, PONTELAND, CAERLEON, PORCHESTER, and CHESTER.

altars, their inscriptions, and their coins. The whole island is intersected by a network of Roman roads, admirably planned, and executed with a constructive skill which is able to excite the admiration even of modern engineers. These are the true monuments of Roman greatness.

Vast works undertaken

The Saxons were not road-makers. with a comprehensive imperial purpose were beyond the range of Saxon civilization. The Saxons even borrowed their name for a road from the Latin language. The Roman strata, or paved roads, became the Saxon streets. This word street often enables us to recognise the lines of Roman road which, straight as an arrow-course, connect the chief strategic positions in the island.

Thus, from the fortified port of Lymne an almost disused road runs across the Kentish Hills to Canterbury, bearing the name of STONE STREET. From the fortified port of Richborough the road which the Saxons afterwards called WATLING STREET, the "pilgrims' road," went to Canterbury and London, and thence by STONY STRATFORD, the "paved Street-ford," to Chester, the "castra " of the northern army. RYKNIELD STREET led from Tynemouth, through York, Derby, and Birmingham, to St. David's. ICKNIELD STREET led from Norwich to Dorchester and Exeter. London and Lincoln were joined by the ERMIN STREET, or paupers' road." The Roman road by which sick men journeyed from London to bathe in the hot springs at Bath, went, in Saxon times, by the appropriate name of AKEMAN STREET, an appellation which survives in the name of a hollow called JACUMAN'S BOTTOM. The Westmoreland mountain called HIGH STREET derives its name from the Roman road which crosses it at a height of 2,700 feet.

Even where the Roman roads have become obliterated by the plough, we may often trace their direction by means of the names of towns, which proclaim the position they occupied on the great lines of communication. Such are the names of ARDWICK LE STREET in Yorkshire, CHESTER LE STREET in Durham, STRETTON, STRATTON, STREATHAM, STREATLEY, and several places called STRETFORD OF STRATFORD, all of which inform us that they were situated on some line of Roman road. Roman roads which do not bear the name of street are often called

Portways. There are nine Portways in different parts of the kingdom. The FOSSWAY also was a Roman road, running from Cornwall to Lincoln.

In the Scandinavian districts of the island the word gate1 is commonly used to express a road or street, as in the case of HARROGATE. In York, Leeds, Lincoln, and other northern towns, the older streets usually bear this suffix. In Leeds we find BRIGGATE or Bridge Street, and KIRKGATE or Church Street. In York this suffix was borne by no less than twenty of the streets, as in the case of MICKLEGATE, WALMGATE, JUBBERGATE, FEASEGATE, GODRAMGATE, CASTLEGATE, SKELMERGATE, PETERS

GATE, MARYGATE, FISHERGATE, and STONEGATE. We find MILLGATE STREET and ST. MARYSGATE in Manchester, and COWGATE and CANONGATE in Edinburgh.

In the South the word gate usually takes the sense of the passage through a town wall, as in the case of NEWGATE, BISHOPSGATE, and the other gates of London. In the name of HIGHGATE, however, we have the sense of a road.

The passes through lines of hill or cliff are frequently denoted by this root. Thus REIGATE is a contraction of Ridgegate, the passage through the ridge of the North Downs. GATTON, in the same neighbourhood, is the "town at the passage.' SARRAT was anciently Sceargeat, the passage between the shires of Hertford and Buckingham. RAMSGATE, MARGATE, WESTGATE, KINGSGATE, and SANDGATE, are the passages to the shore through the line of Kentish cliffs. In Romney Marsh gut takes the place of gate, as in the case of JERVIS GUT, CLOBESDEN gut, and

DENGE MARSH GUT.

The difficulties of travelling must formerly have interposed

1 The Danish word gata means a street or road. The Anglo-Saxon geat means a gate. The distinction is analogous to that which exists in the case of the word ford. (See p. 106, supra.) The one is a passage along, the other a passage through. The root is seen in the German verb gehen, and the English go. Compare the Sanskrit gati, and the Zend gåtu, which both mean a road. From the same primary meaning of a passage we obtain gut, the intestinal passage, and the nautical term gat, a passage through a narrow channel, as the CATTEGAT. A gate is the passage into a field. man's gait is the way he goes; his gaiters are his goers. Othergates is the Sussex provincialism for otherways. The ghats, or ghauts, of India are the passages to the river-sides and the passes through the hill-ranges.

A

great obstacles in the way of commercial intercourse. Local names afford various intimations that the art of bridge-building, in which the Romans had excelled,1 was not retained by the Anglo-Saxons. Thus the station on the Tyne, which in Roman times had been called Pons Ælii,2 received from the Anglians the name GATESHEAD, or, as we may translate it, "road's end;" an indication, it would seem, of the destruction of the bridge. At the spot where the Roman road crosses the Aire, the name of PONTEFRACT (Ad Pontem Fractum) reminds us that the broken Roman bridge must have remained unre. paired during a period long enough for the naturalization of the new name; and the name of STRATFORD LE BOW Contains internal evidence that the dangerous narrow Saxon ford over the Lea was not replaced by a "bow," or "arched bridge," till after the time of the Norman Conquest.3

But nothing shews more conclusively the unbridged state of the streams than the fact that where the great lines of Roman road are intersected by rivers, we so frequently find important towns bearing the Saxon suffix -ford. At OXFORD, HEREFORD, HERTFORD, BEDFORD, STRATFORD ON AVON, STAFFORD, WALLINGFORD, GUILFORD, and CHELMSFORD, considerable streams had to be forded. In the kingdom of Essex, within twenty miles of London, we find the names OLD FORD, STRATFORD, ILFORD, ROMFORD, WOODFORD, STAPLEFORD, PASSINGFORD, STANFORD, CHINGFORD, and STORTFORD. We find the same state of things in Kent. The Medway had to be forded at AYLESFORD, the Darent at DARTFORD and at OTFORD, and the Stour at ASH

FORD.

1 The importance attached by the Romans to the art of bridge-building is indicated by the fact that the chief ecclesiastical functionary bore the name of the bridge-builder-Pontifex.

2 The piles on which the Roman bridge rested were discovered in 1771. There seems to have been another bridge built by Elius on the continua. tion of the Roman road northward. Six miles from Newcastle we find the village-name of PONTELAND, apparently a corruption of Ad Pontem Ælianum. There was also a Roman bridge at PAUNTON, Ad Pontem.

3 The bridge was built by Matilda, queen of Henry I. The town of IRONBRIDGE in Shropshire dates from the year 1779, when an iron bridge, the first of its kind, was thrown across the Severn, and a town rapidly sprang up at its foot.