Parishmouse Free Resources For Family Historians

The ensuing observations are an attempt to ascertain how far it be possible to illustrate Topography by the aid of Etymology; viewing the subject at the same time with relation to the similarity of position which places occupy that have synonymous names. From the present result furnished by this species of enquiry, I am disposed to believe that if the subject were to be more skilfully pursued, it would tend to throw a considerable degree of light upon the darkest and most obscure passages of early British History. When the names of places are carefully examined with reference to their analogical bearing of locality, and when their derivation is investigated, a clue will often present itself that may direct further researches, and a glimpse even of truth will occasionally disclose itself through the subtle mazes of etymological conjecture. But in proportion as the etymologist finds his reveries and deductions agreeable, so much the more cautious ought he to be of making use of them. For there is such a captivating, such a misleading plausibility in all theories which are built upon the roots of words, that it is extremely difficult to decide how far the science itself ought to be admitted as an interpreter and guide. The exuberant ingenuity of the suggestive Vallancey has caused several to look upon it with distrust, whilst our Salopian author, Baxter, by referring every thing Roman to Cambro British etymology, has rendered his learned work rather suspicious. Still there appears good reason for thinking, if fancy be restrained, that an application of the Celtic, Welsh and Northern languages to Topography and Archaeology, may of themselves elucidate some of those portions upon which we need information.

It may be noted for example, that the names of our rivers, mountains, woods and valleys, are perpetually found issuing from the two former languages. The tide of Roman Thoroughfare may be traced in the names of Stratford, Stratton, Streatley, Streatham, Stretford, Stretton, Caldicot, Cold Harbour, Ford, &c., &c., which exist by the side of Roman roads, for although in many cases the roads themselves have become obliterated by vegetation, or broken up by the plough, yet these names still continue, and by their aid their direction may be safely followed.

And marks of A. Saxon colonisation may be discerned in the various terminations of by, ham, ley, wick, worth, &c., which prevail throughout the island, more particularly the second of these, on the Eastern side, where the Saxons first landed. In proportion as prefixes and terminations from these sources exist, a fair idea may be formed of the comparative antiquity of the towns or villages where they respectively occur. No one, for instance, would affirm that the finals of chester, and cester, betokened mere manufacturing townlets of twenty years’ growth, neither would they restrict their origin to the Saxon Period. Nor on the other hand, would they class the hagiological nomenclature of several towns and parishes in the island, such as St Alban’s, St Constantine, St David’s, St Ives, St Osyth, Stoke St Milborough, &c., with the Belle Vues, Paradise Rows, Waterloo Crescents, and fashionable places of resort which have spring into existence within the memory of the present generation.

In the appellations of various Rivers, the Nen, Wye, Cam, Conway, Dee, &c.; in those of Mountains, the Wrekin, Corndon, Penmaen Mawr, &c., &c.; and in those of Forests, such as Morf, Arden, Dean, &c.; there is seen sufficient proof that their names have thus long outlived the corruption of tongues and the consumption of time.

Descending with successive conquerors of the country we observe this alteration. The aborigines we may suppose were habituated to speak of these places generically: the succeeding tribes identified them, or rather distinguished them from each other, so that what was purely Celtic for water in the first instance, became the name of the stream itself at a later date. In the same way the Latins communicated their terms to the people whom they subdued. They formed roads or streets, which being a method of proceeding barbarous nations were previously unacquainted with, it would in a proportionate degree excite their surprise. Hence the names of places upon these lines of communication are so frequently found to be allusive to their situation. Below this period there are but few names discoverable which mark the possession of the kingdom by its successive invaders, the Danes and the Normans. Our maps are disfigured rather by the unmeaning designations that caprice has bestowed upon newly cultivated lands, then called after the custom of the earlier possessors of the soil, by names indicative of position.

Source: Salopia Antiqua or An Enquiry from Personal Survey into the Druidical, Military and other Early Remains in Shropshire and the North Welsh Borders: with observations upon the names of places, and a glossary of words used in the county of Salop. By the Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne, M.A., F.S.A. Printed at the University Press, Cambridge. London: John W. Parker, West Strand. 1841.