I 



and their Historic Teachings. 67 



partially coiTupted. Then you have Cat-comb — Cad-en-ham — Cad- 

 LEY — Chad-ing-ton — all at no great distance, each in their first 

 portion containing the same Celtic word for "wood." One form of 

 this word, especially in the Cornish dialect, was cuit ; hence we see how 

 to it we can also trace such names as Whit-ley — Whit-lands,— 

 Wheat-acre, and the like. 



And then there are a number of local names, which we feel 

 almost instinctively to be from a Celtic source, though we can only 

 by a rough guess assign to them their original forms or meanings* 

 Such are Kemble (in old charters spelt " Chemele,") — Surrendel, 

 — Syrencote, — Binknoll, — Seagry, (formerly Segrete,) — Minety, — 

 Lidiard, — and possibly Oaksey (the Domesday " Wochesic") — all 

 within an easy distance of Malmesbury. So that we may fairly 

 contend, I think, that, in this neighbourhood at least, the Celtic races 

 not only had a firm hold, but retained it for some time after the 

 advancing conquerors had more or less subjected them to their rule. 

 One other point must be alluded to in illustration of the Celtic 

 element in place-names near Malmesbury . All along what seems 

 to have been a border-line separating the two races at one time, and 

 which stretched from the mouth of the Axe to Wells, and thence 

 northward by Bath right into Malmesbury, you have names still 

 remaining which would seem almost to shew that, for a time, the 

 Britons and the English dwelt side by side, each in their own 

 settlement. The English, as we know, superciliously called the 

 Britons, Wealas (=foreigners) — using the term in much the same 

 way as our villagers speak of strangers as " voreigners." For example 

 a " fTelsh-vj omdca. " is equivalent in their tongue to a stranger, as 

 we should say an " outsider," one not belonging to their village or 

 neighbourhood. The Britons, as do also Welsh to this day, called 

 themselves " Ci/mry." 



Now close to Wells we have a place called Wall-comb, i.e , the 

 " combe of the Wealas." Travelling northwards, we have, close by 

 Camerton, Walls-mead, and hard by is English-batch. Then a 

 little more north we have, in like manner, on one side English- 

 combe and on the other Wall-cot. Remembering that these names 

 were all given by the English themselves, surely they are evidence 



