a Oe 
_ VOL. XIV. (3) THE COTTESWOLD HILLS 241 
become “long,” and fram, “from.” We know that there 
is frequent confusion of @ and o in our Gloucestershire 
folk-speech, cord for “card,” and card for “ cord,” which 
gives rise to curious mistakes. John Bellows’ instance of 
this is quoted in Robertson’s ‘Gloucestershire Glossary,’ 
p. I. So ‘Catteswald’ would become ‘ Cotteswold.’ Then 
the middle syllable would drop, as it has done in ‘ Glou- 
cester’ (Glauster), ‘Frocester’ (Froster), ‘ Worcester’ 
(Wooster). Lastly, there would be the stage when the 
second ‘t’ was thought to be a mistake, on the idea that the 
word had to do with ‘cot,’ or with (sheep) ‘cote.’ 
So I come to the conclusion that our Club spelling is 
the correct Anglicised form of the Teutonic word ; that 
the Club did right to adopt the form which was sanctioned 
by Camden, and was used by scientific writers when the 
Club was formed—such men as Coneybeare & Phillips, 
Murchison, Strickland, Lycett, and others; and that to 
spell the word with the omission of the middle Ze is as 
incorrect as to write Gloster for Gloucester. 
Particularly should it be borne in mind that the various 
spellings of the word give evidence that it was originally a 
trisyllable. These spellings are as follows :—Coteswold, 
Cotsall, Cotsale, Cotsold, Cotyswold, Cotteswold, Cots- 
wold, Cotswould, Coteswould, and renderings of native 
pronunciation, Cots’ells, Cotsull. Among these, the form 
Cotyswold is the strongest evidence for the former pro- 
nunciation of the middle syllable; it is supported by the 
spellings Coteswold, Cotteswold, Coteswould. All these 
forms give evidence of a middle syllable once, more or 
less definitely pronounced ; but such middle syllable 
would be the Anglo-Saxon genitive. If that genitive be 
established, then the double t is correct in accordance 
with the following rule, “nouns ending in a single con- 
sonnant, after a short vowel, double the last consonant in 
declining.” (Bosworth, ‘ Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.’) 
