196 Edington or Yatton the Ethandun of Alfred’s Victory ? 
now called Athelney in Somersetshire, through Selwood to his 
trysting place at a stone called by the different chroniclers, Ecg- 
byrht’s, Aigbryhta’s, Egbriht’s, and Ecgbrich’s. The incidental 
notice of Selwood being called in British Coitmaur, is interesting 
in reference to the etymology of Aipandun, as showing that that 
language was still spoken in Somersetshire 300 years after its 
submission to the Saxons. Who this Ecgbricht or Sword-bright 
was, is unknown. The spot is generally considered to be that now 
called Brixton Deverill. The latter name, Deverill, it has taken 
from its Norman owner after the Conquest. Brixton, there can 
be little doubt, is formed of the last two syllables of Ecg-brihts-stan, 
the h having in Anglo-Saxon the guttural sound of the Dutch gh. 
This station we may consider a point ascertained. Here he was 
met by levies from the neighbouring counties, and the question is, 
which way he marched with them. Perhaps the terms ‘yrad,’ 
‘equitavit,’ imply that Alfred came with only his immediate re- 
tinue as far as Brixton. From this place he marched, ‘for,’ the 
next day to a place called variously Iglea, Aicglea, Ecglea, and 
AXiglea, which all mean is/and-meadow or flat. The first syllable of 
this word, ‘ig’ has in composition the sense of insular. ‘Aig’ means 
the same. The letter ¢ between the @ and g in Asser’s account, is 
unusual, but I see no reason to doubt its being the common word 
‘eg.’ It will explain the numerous variations in the spelling of 
this syllable to remark that in all the Germanic languages, the eye, 
an egg, and an island are synonymous: the eye having been used 
metaphorically for an island, as the nose, ness, for a promontory, 
the head for the top of a mountain, and the mouth for the em-bouch- 
ure of a river. Our own word is/and is in fact eye-land, and ought 
to be spelt so. The s has been taken from the French word is/e in 
the same way as the silly we at the end of tongue from the French 
langue. It has in fact nothing to do with is/e, which is a corruption 
of the Italian isola, itself corrupted from the Latin insula. In 
Anglo-Saxon an eye is called wg, egh, eag, eah, eage, and ege, 
and the syllable, that in combination with land, lea, and such 
words, means insular, follows nearly the same variations, being 
properly speaking, like so many other expressions in ordinary lan- 
